Jill Lepore writes about her post-college years spent in a communal house that lingered with the presence of a past roommate: the singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/28D0fg

Not your usual leak! @vchadw.bsky.social has obtained the frank internal assessment made in Brussels on how to proceed after the US slashed its foreign aid budget to shreds. Top line: thorny chance to regain lost momentum in Afghanistan www.euractiv.com/news/inside-...

🤩 Meet our new Journalist Fellows joining us this term: 🇦🇺 Vince Chadwick 🇺🇸 Dante Dallago 🇧🇬 Boryana Dzhambazova 🇳🇬 Patrick Egwu 🇫🇮 Salla-Rosa Gröhn 🇮🇳 Banjot Kaur 🇬🇧 William Kremer 🇲🇽 Adriana Navarro Ramírez 🇭🇷 Barbara Strbac 🇵🇸 Shatha Yaish reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/10-jour...

Great to see the European Parliament using my reporting to call for “full transparency and accountability” over suspected fraud at the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. tinyurl.com/yc58fz88

The United Nations' chief sexual and reproductive rights agency launches transition amid budget uncertainty over its fate.

Devex Invested: Europe takes note but no action amid USAID collapse www.devex.com/news/devex-i...

🤯🇪🇺 The Heritage Foundation, the Trump admin’s agenda-setting think tank, is receiving proposals from illiberal forces in Poland & Hungary on reshaping the EU. Obtained by @vsquare.bsky.social, these include dismantling the EU Commission, the ECJ & renaming the bloc the European Community of Nations.

😑After a pandemic, the proportion of Europeans that think new technologies in vaccines and combatting infectious diseases will have a positive impact in the next 20 years has *declined* in every EU Member State, except for Denmark where it has remained unchanged. tinyurl.com/y96pb7s8

www.devex.com/news/scoop-s... Under the heading, “Suspected fraud,” the document states: “We noted 30,082.73 Euros were claimed to be used for fraudulent activities on one of the card (5476-85**-****-0980) in 2023 which mainly related to purchase of apple itunes.”

European aid budget changes: 🔽🇧🇪 Belgium just cut its foreign aid by 25% www.devex.com/news/belgium... - @vchadw.bsky.social 🔼🇬🇧Contrary to many fears, the UK increased its aid budget, as the amount is tied to gross national income levels www.devex.com/news/shock-r... - @robmerrick.bsky.social

Australian voters prize aid effectiveness above all, yet research shows that the most effective and sustainable assistance is locally led (something Australians also say they don’t want). www.devex.com/news/how-aus...

On #USAidFreeze, DT Global CEO tells staff: "We anticipate the impact in the Washington, D.C., area to be 2,000 to 3,000 development professionals … losing their jobs this weekend and next week." www.devex.com/news/exclusi...

Only in Brussels. 1. Hugely cut funding to fragile states. 2. Call for new strategy to address terrible fact that fragile states are so underfunded.

Clear as mud. Yet billions of euros and millions of lives potentially impacted by this...

A '90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy...' www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

European Commission foreign aid dept. offering €3m over three years for consultants to develop a network of European experts to analyse China's "policies, progress and strategic investments on digital technologies" and advise EU how to respond. ec.europa.eu/info/funding...

And a rare, fruitful Access to Information request, showing how hard the EU's humanitarian aid department tried to resist their development colleagues' approach to implementing last year's cuts to the EU development budget. www.devex.com/news/reveale...

More details on the plan to get EU development staff into 18 regional hubs -- and potentially out of some countries entirely. www.devex.com/news/scoop-e...

[email protected] thanks for recent paper on MFF, however the €300 billion under Global Gateway was promised by 2027 (so that's NDICI 1.0's job isn't it?) ecdpm.org/application/...

Did I get this right? Muslim player Usman Khawaja didn't feature in Aust cricket team photo after series win as other players drank beer from sponsor Tinnies, on day dedicated to cancer charity (2 days after US Surgeon General said alcohol is major cancer risk & argued for stricter guidelines).

Trying to make sense of the last five years. And signs of things to come … www.devex.com/news/exit-ur...