Thousands call on UK ministers to cut ties with US tech giant Palantir More than 200,000 have signed petitions urging the government to break contracts, amid concerns about the company’s ‘supervillain’ manifesto Over 200,000 people have called on ministers to break contracts with Palantir in an apparent groundswell of public concern about the US tech company’s role in the NHS, police, military and councils. Two petitions have attracted 229,000 signatures, one calling for the government to end all public contracts with the firm, whose software is used by Donald Trump’s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, and another urging the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to cancel its £330 patient data contract with the NHS. Continue reading...

Thousands call on UK ministers to cut ties with US tech giant Palantir

Might interest you @petergeoghegan.bsky.social @goodlawproject.org

I wonder if some of these (ex) employees would speak to you?

Happy #ShakespeareDay, everyone! Today we celebrate the life and work of William Shakespeare – a writer whose plays and poetry continue to explore what it means to be human: love, power, ambition, grief, and everything in between. Also, we just adore this clip of Andrew Scott in Hamlet.

Endangered Mexican axolotl discovered by girl, 10, under a bridge in Wales Evie and her mother were enjoying a day trip to south Wales when they came across the amphibian.

Deeply Dippy once sang Right Said Fred but this endangered Mexican Axoloti has oloti to thank young environmentalist Evie Hill for. She rescued this ‘Dippy’ from the shallows under the “Dipping Bridge" on the River Ogmore in Merthyr Mawr village. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

BREAKING: We're joining over 120 organizations issuing a travel advisory to warn anyone visiting the U.S. for the 2026 FIFA World Cup of possible civil and human rights violations.

FIFA must pressure the Trump administration to protect the people traveling to and working at the games.

Statement by President von der Leyen with President Costa and President Zelenskyy Today is a good day – for Ukraine and for Europe. You might recall, Volodymyr, that when I visited Kyiv in February this year, I said we will deliver on the EUR 90 billion loan one way or the other. T

BBC's Jonathan Josephs: 'EU leaders have signed off €90bn for #Ukraine

Just in time for #Kyiv which was weeks away from running out of money

2/3 goes on defence. The other 1/3 on other govt spending

As the economy falter it won't cover all the shortfall' ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Happy #WorldBookNight!
We hope you'll be joining us for the #ReadingHour from 7-8pm tonight - whether you’re reading, listening, or sharing a book, it all counts.

Let us know how you'll be celebrating in the comments 👇️

#NationalYearOfReading2026 #GoAllIn2026

💥💥 Tonight! 💥💥

Please join me, @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social & Sarah Perry online at 7pm discussing April's @hayfestival.bsky.social book club choice, Paul Kalanithi's wonderful "When Breath Becomes Air".

Sign up is free 💙📚🩺

Borders Book Festival – 11-14 June 2026 Join us for four fabulous days of talks, comedy, live music, food & drink, and much, much more…

The Borders Book Festival has launched its official 2026 programme!

We will announce the winner of the WalterScott Prize at the Book Festival and also have our two Young Walter Scott Prize winners set to receive their awards there 📚

bordersbookfestival.org

#BookSky #BookClub #BookFestival

Don't know if this was deliberate by Labour but an unusually brilliant move if so: the row will bring the PPB (and the remarks) to a much bigger audience than it would otherwise hit. And they can still run the "uncensored" ad online.

Govt is rolling out Neighbourhood Health Centres under the premise of bringing care closer to home

The question is what care? Hospital care maybe but not community care.

6300 GP practices are with walking distance of 85% of the population, with 50% consulting every month

Happy St George’s Day!

Illuminated - Harrier Angels - BBC Sounds Robert Macfarlane on C16th carvings of angels based on the wings of hen and marsh harriers

118 angels soar aloft in the hammerbeam roof of a Fenland church—their carved feathers echoing the wings of the Marsh Harriers who once lived in this region in abundance.

I made a Radio 4 programme about the entanglements of ornithology & theology, raptors & raptures.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Inside the remarkable, lifesaving world of East Anglia’s Air Ambulance East Anglia’s air ambulance flies eight times a day – but it’s your donations keeping them airborne

East Anglia benefits from the East Anglian Air Ambulance service.

The Iranian conflict is costing the charity an extra £14k per month to fuel the helicopters.

Maybe you can help keep them airborne....

Use of toxic Pfas in consumer goods must be urgently restricted, MPs say Commons committee heard from residents of Yorkshire town with the highest levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in UK

Use of toxic Pfas in consumer goods must be urgently restricted, MPs say

Tweet from Margo Martin, White House comms team with a photo: Text reads "Congratulations, Georgia Women's Tennis!" In the photo, six men are front and center, including Trump in the center on a stand to be taller (all wearing Trump red ties), hiding the women barely visible in the back.

Trump and disappearing women.
There's been some attention to this awful White House photo congratulating the Georgia Women's Tennis team but centering men.
Minimizing women is core Trump/MAGA. On Tues, Trump referred to US military deaths from his Iran War "We lost 13 men." Three of them were women.

Journalists who attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner to party with Trump, Hegseth, Carr etc. are telling the regime that it's perfectly OK if they sic the FBI on them for doing their jobs.

Virginia court blocks voter-approved redistricting, appeal coming The appeal is expected to move swiftly — and could ultimately land before the Supreme Court of Virginia, which will have the final say on whether the voter-approved map can take effect.

NEW: A republican judge has blocked the redistricting effort in Virginia, invalidating yesterday's vote. But it's a pause, not a defeat. Read more here: www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Reporter: What do you make of Republicans saying that Virginia—

AOC: Wah wah wah.

We have asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering. And for 10 years, Republicans have said no.

What they’re just mad at is that they have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over.

Earth Day reminder that Trump’s EPA rolled back regulations governing clean air, water, wildlife, and toxic chemicals.

He’s pushed to open public lands to drilling and mining.

And he’s gutted clean energy programs while promoting dirty fossil fuels.

He’s a danger to our planet and our health.

Headline of the Day.

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

In Minnesota, we’re tackling climate change by putting our state on a path to 100% clean energy by 2040 - all while supporting sustainable agriculture and the green energy jobs of the future right here at home.

A title image for The RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist 2026.

A composite image of the 16 book covers that make up this year's Ondaatje Prize longlist.

The spirit of place has always been my great fascination as a writer so it's an especial honour to see LIFELINES longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, which celebrates place in all its countless, extraordinary and vital forms. Immense congratulations to all - honoured to be in such incredible company!

Congratulations!

Federal judge blocks Trump administration restrictions on wind and solar projects The injunction pauses policy giving senior Trump official direct sign-off on federal clean energy projects

Federal judge blocks Trump administration restrictions on wind and solar projects

GOP folks crying about Democrat redistricting in response to their redistricting = Brexiters crying about it being more difficult to visit the EU as a consequence to leaving the EU and ending free movement of people

I am convinced the Virginia freakout by the right is animated by two things: (1) the GOP has been officially hoist by their own petard (2) they still feel entitled to politically dominate Virginia like they do Georgia.

In addition to the racism, the usual lie that almost no other country has birthright citizenship

The 2026 #WomensPrize for Fiction shortlist.

Which will you be reading next?

#WomensPrizeforFiction