Prof. Bob Howarth

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

'I don't care about Direct File': IRS chief says agency plans to end free filing program Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Bill Long said the agency will end its Direct File program.

The IRS's free Direct File tool is now "gone," according to Trump's IRS chief.

This comes after tax prep companies like Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, lobbied the for years to block it.

Intuit donated $1M to Trump’s inauguration.

See how this works?

Analysis: The US government has declared war on the very idea of climate change | CNN Politics Americans are used to whiplash in their climate policy. The US has been in and out and in and out again of the key Paris climate agreement over the past four presidencies.

“In his second administration, President Donald Trump is not just approaching climate science with skepticism. Instead, his administration is moving to destroy the methods by which his or any future administration can respond to climate change.“

Sea Level Mis-information from DOE Here in the USA, the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a report titled “A Critical Review of the Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate.” It is a product of the &#8…

That's just one of many instances of distortion and misinformation in the US Department of Energy "Critical Review on the Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions".
Which in fact is a fossil fuel propaganda scam.
Let's hope Americans are not that easily fooled.
tamino.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/s...

Elektrifizierung der Industrie: Der Schlüssel zur Zukunft ohne Wasserstoff Ein Großteil der Industrie könnte elektrifiziert werden und weiter Energie sparen, sagt der Oxforder Energieexperte Jan Rosenow. Seine Kritik an der Energiewende: Deutschlands Fokus auf eine Wassersto...

Had a great chat with @faznet.bsky.social about the future of industry and why electrification—not hydrogen—is the real game changer for decarbonisation.

We need to focus on what works and scale it up fast. Full interview (in German) here: www.faz.net/aktuell/wiss...

Donald Trump Invites Sex Offender to Kids’ Fitness-Test Announcement Probably not the best move right now.

The New York Times again helping fascists.

Compare headlines:

NY Mag: "Donald Trump Invites Sex Offender to Kids' Fitness-Test Announcement"

NY Times: "President Trump, flanked by sports stars, signs order to bring back fitness test"

nymag.com/intelligence...
www.nytimes.com/athletic/652...

To reiterate, as a trained observer of human behavior I’d hazard the opinion that it’s bad for there to be no negative consequences for repeated, barefaced, public lies; and also speculate that it’s bad to subordinate the institutional production of knowledge to the personal vanities of leaders.

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

“The threat is from leaders who are “walking versions of the dark triad” – narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism – in a world menaced by the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and killer robots.”

An interesting read about how we stave off societal collapse.

No AP News alerts, no Union-Tribune alerts or articles, no emails from UC either. I work at a UC and I would not know that UCLA lost all grant funding last night if I wasn't on Bluesky or in union group chats.

Self-preserving silence and general complacency are becoming more common.

Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official

For months, people have been asking me whether I still trusted gov’t data. My answer was always the same: The stats agencies faced longstanding challenges, some of which Trump was making worse. But there was no sign of political meddling.
I can’t say that anymore.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

Of the last 51 million jobs created, 50 million were created by Democratic Presidents

Opinion | Netanyahu Is Choosing to Starve Gaza To end starvation — and stave off social collapse — in Gaza, Israel must allow humanitarian-aid professionals to do their jobs.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

If Benjamin Netanyahu “decided tonight that every Palestinian child in Gaza should have breakfast tomorrow, it could undoubtedly be done,” Alex de Waal writes. “Seasoned humanitarian-aid professionals can still bring Gaza back from the brink.”

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

As @timviles.bsky.social has pointed out, firing the person responsible for reporting job numbers just makes the jobs numbers one worse.

YouTube video by AP Archive Trump's AI plan calls for massive data centers. Here's how it may affect energy in the U.S.

Trump's "AI Action Plan" calls for building data centers fast by weakening environmental safeguards and ramping up fossil fuels. 💻

@amandadsmith.bsky.social explains that if left unchecked, consumers could be left footing the bill and bearing the environmental consequences. @apnews.com
#aienergy

Groundbreaking report documents methane emissions from LNG infrastructure in Japan | Friends of the Earth Japan New analysis is the first to document methane emissions from Japanese LNG import terminal...

This report, Methane Tracking in Tokyo Bay: Emissions from LNG Infrastructure in Japan, was also released in English.

R.I.P. Washington Post

It's almost like Trump and "friends" had a roadmap to follow. After 10mlong years of beating a steady derum eat of authorizationism and fascism, and what we already know about him, if you can't recognize what they want, you either don't want to see it or agree with it.

Analysis | The Fact Checker rose in an era of false claims. Falsehoods are now winning. Longtime Fact Checker Glenn Kessler takes stock as he departs The Washington Post.

My final #FactChecker --> The Fact Checker rose in an era of false claims. Falsehoods are now winning. wapo.st/41kFq2G

someday renters will able to buy balcony solar, a few 1-2 kWh batteries, and window heat pumps - each for a few hundred bucks or less - plug them into each other or normal wall outlets, use them for cheap comfy carbon-free resilient heating and cooling, and take it all with them when they move

We have a very serious problem in California.

This also happened in Berkeley, where consultants hired to create evacuation plans for the Berkeley Hills were *ordered to not study walking or biking* to escape a fire.

The result? The evacuation model said people would not be able to escape a fire.

(above an image of Trump) BROWN JUST BECAME THE LATEST UNIVERSITY TO CAVE TO TRUMP.

(next to an image of Trump) TO GET THEIR RESEARCH FUNDING BACK, BROWN AGREED TO: #1 Enforce locker rooms "strictly separated by sex" - using Trump's anti-trans executive orders, erasing trans and nonbinary students. #2 Ban trans athletes by redefining "male" and "female" under Trump's terms. #3 Hand over admissions and discrimination complaint data - giving the federal government surveillance access to internal records. #4 Run a government-approved "antisemitism" survey - a tactic used to target pro-Palestinian student speech. #5 Pay $50 million - the price tag for political obedience, dressed up as "workfoce development."

(alongside images of Trump and Brown’s campus) THIS ISN'T ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS. IT'S ABOUT CONTROL. And Brown isn't alone. Columbia and Penn already cut backroom deals. Harvard has started gutting DEl and LGBTQ+ offices and programs behind closed doors. THE MESSAGE FROM TRUMP IS CLEAR: COMPLY WITH OUR AGENDA, OR LOSE YOUR FUNDING.

CAPITULATION TO AUTHORITARIANISM IS UNACCEPTABLE. YOU CAVE, WE CALL YOU OUT. YOU RESIST, WE STAND WITH YOU. If you're a student, alumni, parent, or faculty member - tell your school: NO DEALS. NO SURVEILLANCE. NO HATE.

Brown is the latest elite university to cave to Trump. This is a line-in-the-sand moment for higher education. Every university in the nation is watching. Every student, faculty member and alumni network should be watching too. We can’t let this become the new normal: indivisible.org/resource/eli...

There’s so much wild gambling going on right now that I fear we’re soon in for another financial crisis. Some thoughts...

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-financial-bubble-will-soon-burst

The Warped Idealism of Trump’s Trade Policy The president once promised he’d prioritize Americans’ bottom line above all else. He’s abandoned that pledge.

But it’s not just trust with foreign countries that the president has betrayed. It’s the pact he made with voters. Trump promised voters an “America First” approach. Instead, they’re getting a “Bolsonaro and Netanyahu First” government. @dgraham.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Judge Skewers Hochul Administration Over New York's Climate Law Delays The judge suggested he'll rule that the state is violating its climate law.

Kinda funny that a judge can speak the truth about New York state climate policy -- it isn't enough, it isn't complying with the law, no, you don't get a gold star for trying, no, you don't get to make excuses -- in a way that virtually no journalist or other public figure will.

“The president cut your health care so he could build himself a golden ballroom” is a pretty easy message to sell

What the DOJ Is Doing Behind the Scenes Read more here.

Please pay attention.👇

We cannot afford to leave our democracy in the hands of a process that requires this DOJ to act in good faith. We must act now to harden our election systems. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/what...

The Long Islander running the EPA just declared global warming a hoax.

Very generous of you, my friend, @drrobertbullard.bsky.social

On August 5th, Dr. Robert Bullard will return to his hometown of Elba, AL to donate $50,000 to the Shiloh Community Center. The funds come from Dr. Bullard’s 2024 Urban Land Institute (ULI) $100,000 Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. ⁠

FULL RELEASE: www.bullardcenter.org/press-releas...