A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

"...it'll be quite the board..." Utterly incoherent. *crickets*

Well, let’s see if this 400-character comment on behaviour at the Ryder Cup gets by the BBC’s content moderator:

If you read nothing else today, I pray that you will read every word of this necessary, powerful, and much-needed piece by @nhannahjones.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...

Hongkongers did this in 2020 before the history museum’s permanent exhibition “Hong Kong Story” closed for an extensive revamp. Slated to take 2 years but still ongoing, many fear it will rewrite the city’s past through a “patriotic” lens — fears only deepened by the new “National Security Gallery.”

it sure looks like they just went for him because he happened to be nearby and brown

Dedicating this to all those sino peeps & podcasters who rejected the obvious that Beijing would play favourites during the election, instead suggesting that 'the west' (yes, those guys again) were "projecting".🤦‍♂️

I'll say this once more: @kairyssdal.bsky.social, of public radio (APM vs NPR), giving daily lessons on putting things clearly and honestly. Enough of this "falsely" and "without evidence" and "departure from norms" wiggle talk. The man lies. Is deluded. Steals. And constantly breaks the law

To this day, US golfers represent—more than any other mainstream sport—the embodiment of US white male privilege. On Ryder Cup day 1, the worst embodiment of that bigoted privilege to ever hold office, flew in to embrace his favourite son: DeChambeau. Cringe at the hubris. Revel in the humbling.

I just spent a week in Portland. The city was busy with tourists and locals enjoying late summer. A prosperous downtown. Factually, there is no observable evidence of a city needing military intervention. A reminder that this is not normal. Please pay attention.

If you voted for him, you've done this.

And if you don't weep as you watch this, you're not human by any definition I subscribe to. There has to be real, immediate, unprecedented levels of pushback against this.

It is time to Abolish ICE. It is an ongoing violation and shame to the US and its values.

Agree. The current SCOTUS—openly corrupt (Thomas, Alito), nakedly unrepresentative (last Dem to appoint a Chief Justice=Harry Truman; GOP-appointed majority for 55+ years), cowering to Trump (John "Roger Taney" Roberts)—has failed to stand up for rule of law. Needs to be central issue.

John "Roger Taney" Roberts never disappoints.

UCLA in the ranks of institutions that stand up—and prevail. And another [non-Scotus, of course] federal judge in the ranks of those who stand up for rule of law. Courage and principle are contagious. Stand up, and support others who do.

People of DC: The ABC station in the nation's capital, Sinclair-owned WJLA, was afraid to run this segment tonight. Let them know what you think about this. With minimal online skills can find their contact info.

Hear, hear! Cohen was such an important part of my early reading and listening on China. A thoroughly decent and honest man who did not speak about human rights self-righteously, but from the heart. I had no idea he was 95, I must say. He was always so lucid. RIP, Jerome Cohen

Never let it be said that Beijing doesn’t respect the traditions and beliefs of indigenous peoples. Look, Tibetans have been keeping their mountains pristine for millennia, so it’s only right that they should clean this shit up now. Capiche? substack.com/@chinesecons...

Good for the NYT. (Bad for America and the world. But well and clearly presented by NYT.)

John Roberts liked to think he would be ranked among the great chief justices. And probably that is what everyone he ever encounters tells him. The rest of us think: Step aside, Roger Taney. It's now Roberts on his own.

Nothing says “land of the free” like armed agents of the state saying “show me your papers if you want your daughter back” bsky.app/profile/nbcb...

They abandoned the whole free speech thing as soon as people started saying things that genuinely offended them. It wasn’t that they were so tolerant that they accepted nazi talk as a necessary evil to protect speech writ large, they just liked saying and hearing slurs bsky.app/profile/jame...

So, the BBC has a global disinformation watchdog unit. Hooray! Now. where TF were they when @zurch.bsky.social and the rest of his pro-Trump US political team were busy normalising their candidate by failing to call out said disinformation a year ago? I'll wait.

Look at photos of US troops in Fallujah. (eg here: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol... ) They're armed like these ICE agents in Chicago. But none of them are wearing the cowardly face masks of today's ICE thugs. Like the one throwing a young, female Congressional candidate to the ground.

If you're a US citizen and still not cognisant of what is happening to your country, then you're part of the problem.

Good moment to remember that US foreign policy is also being reoriented to enable foreign censors and authoritarian propaganda around the world www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Call me radical, but I think we *don't* need to have polite chats with racists who are spewing conspiracy theories that keep motivating white supremacists to massacre our fellow citizens, and we *don't* need to have bipartisan deals with fascists trying to destroy our democracy and our government.

Good question. Been pondering it myself, and I gotta say it all seems very quiet these days. And not just actors—celebrities of all stripes (from Swift to James) should be making lots more noise.

Worth remembering: both WSJ, after Trump sued for $10bn over (true) Epstein stories, and NYT, after Trump sued for $15bn over (true) corruption reports, have stood up strong. Facts and law on their side. Beyond that, they're not "obeying in advance." Sure, gripes. But their example matters.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

In this essay, Ida Huang explores how LGBTQ+ student groups in China carve out 'queer heterotopias', fragile yet powerful spaces of care, imagination, and play within authoritarian structures. By centring these practices, she invites us to rethink what activism under constraint can look like.

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

i have said this before but when “getting rid of race in admissions” for the administration means “you can’t even try to reach out to underrepresented communities and encourage them to apply and if you do it is illegal discrimination against white people” then the actual goal here is segregation

“Health insurance costs in the United States are on track for their biggest jump in at least five years… “For the 24 million enrollees of Affordable Care Act insurance plans, costs are expected to rise by more than 75 percent next year…” www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Significant, on many levels.

@zurch.bsky.social and BBC website colleagues doing their best to pretend there's only one thing of import happening in the world right now. What they haven't said is that Tyler Robinson was a white male right wing extremist. Go Figure.

Hey @zurch.bsky.social + all your pro-Trump pals at the BBC: remember how concerned you were about an aging president in decline last year? substack.com/@adamparkhom...

"Oliver and his writers have built a worldview around the core belief that our government should make sure peoples’ basic needs are met, their rights protected, and their innate value as human beings reaffirmed." I wrote a short piece about an inspiring show. www.vulture.com/article/john...

Don't get distracted from this:

As of this moment, it appears: -Chicago has stopped Trump. -Harvard has stopped Trump. Bullies stop only when they meet resistance. And they keep moving until they do. Who knows what tomorrow brings. But for today....

Who could possibly have foreseen this? Shortly after Trump tells South Korean leader on camera, to his face, that ROK has to get over the WWII 'comfort women' issue.

At least seven historically Black colleges and universities across the South received threats Thursday that caused lockdowns and closures. via @wwno.org

Shout out to everyone only now learning that "Albert Einstein was reclusive at the end of his career, shunning public engagements." Really meant, "For the last *20 years* of his career, Einstein opposed US racism by only speaking publicly at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Now this I like (though I had thought Manele was pretty much in Beijing's pocket).

In which the lamentable @zurch.bsky.social eulogises a fellow Trumpy, then engages in some performative hand-wringing about the state of US polity—a polity his ilk have played a huge role in normalising. He wasn't so concerned about Minnesota earlier this year, of course. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I agree with this, about John Roberts and the way he has burned down the legitimacy of the court, and with it much of the mechanism of democracy.

"This is...like the Dallas Cowboys working as ball boys in Single A minor league baseball. It is as if our government has decided that there is no crime in the country worth pursuing other than immigration enforcement."

At least 19 Russian drones crossed into Polish air space last night. This was not an accidental breach or a mistake.