One day late as I got carried away with Hansjörg Schneider’s ‘The Basel Killings’ yesterday …

1. Something a little different to start with today: two articles from The Conversation by Gavin Harper of Birmingham University on rare metals and batteries, certain to have an impact on all our lives in the medium term

China’s gallium and germanium controls: what they mean and what could happen next  https://theconversation.com/chinas-gallium-and-germanium-controls-what-they-mean-and-what-could-happen-next-209156

Huge phosphate discovery in Norway could fully charge the electric vehicle industry https://theconversation.com/huge-phosphate-discovery-in-norway-could-fully-charge-the-electric-vehicle-industry-209189

I can’t be the only one who’d never heard of gallium and germanium, can I?

2. Teachers Talk Radio have just completed an interesting three-episode series on Languages beyond the classroom: The relevance of language learning in partnership with Pearson. Here’s the links – not especially easy to find! – to all three episodes:

#1 https://teacherstalkradio.podbean.com/e/the-relevance-of-language-learning-a-ttr-special-hosted-by-darren-lester-with-pearson-schools/

#2 https://teacherstalkradio.podbean.com/e/addressing-the-cultural-capital-chasm-in-language-learning-the-late-show-with-darren-lester-and-pearson-schools/

#3 https://teacherstalkradio.podbean.com/e/languages-beyond-the-classroom-the-relevance-of-language-learning-with-darren-lester-and-pearson-schools/

Depending on my mood, I find podcasts with less than completely professional production values either annoying or endearing!

3. A reminder from Al Jazeera of an almost entirely forgotten conflict – here in Europe, at least Fighting recedes, but peace in Yemen remains distant https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/7/7/analysis-peace-yemen-remains-distant

4. And, finally, a truly remarkable story, Jason Arday: he learned to talk at 11 and read at 18 – then became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/11/jason-arday-cambridge-university-youngest-black-professor I can’t help thinking that the Black Lives label somehow diminishes Jason’s extraordinary story, though.