1. On the face of it, developed countries were much more generous with Official Development Assistance (ODA) aid in 1960 than they are today, with 0.54% of GDP spent on aid compared to 0.33% in 2020 https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/official-development-assistance.htm

2. A fair bit of the current issue of Language and Education is currently open access https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rlae20/36/2

including English as an additional language: a close-to-practice view of teacher professional knowledge and professionalism by Constant Leung https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500782.2021.1980003 (PDF below)

and Tony Liddicoat’s afterword on Teacher education for diversity https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2021.1981929 (PDF also below)

3. Clearly prompted by the current conflict in Ukraine but of wider relevance, Is Ukrainian a language or a dialect? That depends on whom you ask and how the war ends https://theconversation.com/is-ukrainian-a-language-or-a-dialect-that-depends-on-whom-you-ask-and-how-the-war-ends-180849

4. Suggested by this evening’s riverside walk, cygnophobia is this week’s phobia!

5. And, finally, something a bit different: a short video of Sonia Boyce’s UK pavilion that opened today at the Art Biennale in Venice, music included https://youtu.be/Aw_-36NXOV8