so many levels to condemn this out-of-control abuse of power: - the antisemitism of the anti-Soros agenda - its roots in authoritarian repression of democracy support, esp by Putin and Orban - trump's targeting of perceived political enemies by a weaponized DoJ. and that's just a start.

Alaa has been pardoned! Wonderful, wonderful news. Yet, it also brings to mind the tens of thousands of political prisoners who remain behind bars in Egypt under terrible conditions. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/w...

I'll have more to say on Reform's proposals to scrap ILR at some point but for now I'll just note this - anyone telling you this is a popular idea doesn't know the polling. Overwhelming majority of public back giving people who work and pay taxes most or all rights after 5 years or less

Some very obvious cases that Farage and Yusuf need to be hammered on: 1. 78 year old pensioner on ILR for last 30 years who obviously cannot get work visa 2. 35 year old born in UK to non-nationals, never got UK citizenship because of cost, loses job and has to move to country they've never lived in

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

🤔 Do surveys exaggerate democratic support due to social desirability bias (SDB)? ➡️ Using survey-mode variation & list experiments in 24 countries, @pcmagalhaes.bsky.social & @aarslew.bsky.social find no evidence that SDB inflates democratic attitudes www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama. His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful. Now he is tweeting in support of me. This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*. Or used to work.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

The media landscape shaping up leading into the midterms is disturbing. Two key platforms (TikTok and X) controlled by regime-friendly oligarchs — not even counting Meta. Many of the most powerful figures voicing opposition will be off the air, by regime demand. CBS, WaPo, LA Times, you name it…

Respectfully disagree: 1) in fact it is unusual for a democracy w/ this level of GDP to turn authoritarian & so quickly; 2) the weakness of both institutions (congress & courts) and individuals (Schumer etc) is shocking. Would take less than 10 people in congress or 2 SC justices to stop all this.

The details of the Jimmy Kimmel situation reveal that Trump has adopted one of Viktor Orbán's most effective weapons against the free press www.vox.com/politics/461...

Moreover, Trump needs polarization to keep pushing his far-right, corrupt and incompetent project. There is a long stream of research in political science showing that the more polarized a society, the more leeway the leader has to do unpopular things because it is harder for people to switch sides.

🚨 New working paper alert 🚨 Missing summer — and the Tour de France? Don’t worry, we got you covered. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️ In this paper, we show that being on the route of Tour de France reduces far-right voting. osf.io/preprints/so...

So right-wing oligarchs now control X, Facebook, TikTok, WaPo, Fox News, CBS...and others not controlled by them are capitulating. Do I have that right?

Oh a forced sale to regime allies? Shocker.

LSE's Department of Methodogy is searching for an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science. Applicants from across the social sciences are very welcome! Please reach out if you would like any more details.

🚨 US citizens: There's a bill that's going to be marked up by the House Foreign Affairs Committee giving the Secretary of State the right to refuse to issue or renew a passport to a US citizen implicated in terrorism offenses. Not worried? Here's why you should be. (1)

Over the next 15 months, we can expect a coordinated campaign — backed by the full power of the executive branch — to undermine confidence in our election system. Here’s what to expect, and how key actors can be ready to respond: bit.ly/4fRIqtA

The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire   The military patrolling in the streets, an assassination, and a movement longing for escalation. America is teetering on the brink. Some thoughts from my new piece:

A threat to authoritarianism anywhere is a threat to authoritarianism everywhere

For those in Vancouver, the Democracy and Autocracy Section will be holding our business meeting tomorrow (9/11) from 6:30-7:30pm at the Convention Center (West) Room 115. Our reception will be right after from 7:30-9:30pm at Steamworks Brewpub (375 Water Street). Come join us!

Assassination with no limits - me on Israel’s shocking bombing of Qatar. I’m old enough to remember Israel trying to assassinate Khaled Mishal in Amman a few years after signing a peace treaty with Jordan so I’m not THAT shocked. But this is big, and bad. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/assassinatio...

With the new term a new season of @apsgworkshop.bsky.social is also about to start! See the excellent line up below and sign up to the mailing list to recieve meeting invites! 👇

Northern Ireland man from Lisburn kidnapped by Trump’s Ice raids because he “looked like a Mexican”. He had the correct visa, all his documents. He’s never been in trouble with police. Held in terrible conditions. A fellow captive couldn’t get his medication and dropped dead of a heart attack

POMEPS is thrilled to announce a call for proposals for POMEPS Travel – Research – Engagement (TRE) grants for 2026. Awards of up to $3,000 will be offered to support research travel to the broader Middle East. Deadline to apply: Oct. 15th. More info: pomeps.org/call-for-pro...

This is a great paper on the politics of blame in autocracies. Well done!

Highest level of support since Gallup started asking this question a quarter century ago

A very simple thing for the opposition party to say is that they will open investigations into every company trying to seek favour with current corrupt administration. To keep beating the “this is corruption” drum. But very hard to do this if you are trying to woo these guys to fund your party.

not to point out the obvious, but all this shit is racialized. Democratic voters are seen as inherently less *valid* than Republican ones, and because Republicans have a more or less permanent majority among white Americans, they're unconsciously (or not so unconsciously, nowadays) the 'norm'

These two things might seem unrelated, but together they help distill the workings of competitive authoritarianism. When the opposition loses, it gets blamed on their having terrible leaders, but part of why they have terrible leaders is bc any rising leader is hounded by the ruling party.

Harvard University scored a legal victory Wednesday in its battle with Trump after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. illegally froze more than $2 billion in research funding: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A must read, especially for anyone who thinks that making little concessions and keeping your head down will work:

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

one thing i've taken away from surveys asking the public to evaluate trump's most authoritarian moves is that the ordinary americans have a much clearer sense of what's happening than most professional political observers

"The top story of the moment is the one story that our most influential newsrooms won’t touch: That the United State has become an authoritarian state." — Dan Froomkin @froomkin.bsky.social presswatchers.org/2025/08/we-h...

Good for her.

As you watch the extraordinary spectacle of Trump's government attempting to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, let's not lose sight of just how lawless and indefensible Trump's misconduct has been all throughout. Here's a thread recapping all of it. 1/

First Brazil, now South Korea. Trump will use American power to punish those that defend their democracy against election deniers and would-be autocrats, at home and abroad.

Five journalists, including Maryam Abu Daqqa, a freelance correspondent and photojournalist who submitted invaluable reporting to AP, were killed by Israel in a double airstrike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Maryam was 33 years old and leaves behind a 13-year-old son.

They are disappearing him and everyone involved should face justice. If you're a Democrat and you want votes, you must be willing to do what it takes to defend basic rights.

If you need to compliment the head of state to have a free and fair election, you don’t have free and fair elections.

Just a reminder: if you're on the job market or just interested in research presentations, join my upcoming workshop. (I promise, no money was exchanged for @caileighglenn.bsky.social endorsement)

Are regimes with higher nr's of core supporters more durable? Are regimes with more diverse coalitions of supporters more durable? In this (published today) @cpsjournal.bsky.social article, @sirianned.bsky.social , @magnusrasmussen.bsky.social , and @torewig.bsky.social I answer "Yes" to both Qs.

2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll..... 13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/

Days after Edward Martin, a Trump-aligned activist, was tapped by the Justice Department to investigate the New York attorney general, Letitia James, he wrote a letter to her lawyer saying he would take it as an act of “good faith” if she were to resign. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/u...

POMEPS is pleased to call for proposals for the POMEPS Junior Scholar Book Development Workshops to be held in a virtual format throughout the academic year 2025-2026. The deadline to apply is Sept. 15. More info: pomeps.org/pomeps-junio...

I'm delighted to advertise an exciting job as centre manager, helping me build Oxford's new Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM). We start this academic year and aim to attract as new faculty some of the world's top people in computational, experimental and qualitative methods.

the thing everyone is going to have to accept is that the post-trump period, whenever it comes, will not and cannot be a project of national unity, it must be a project of partisan project of renewal, in the same way that reconstruction and the new deal were partisan projects of renewal.

Happy 45th birthday to the Tyne and Wear Metro! First paying passengers travelled on this day in 1980. In honour of my local transport system, a bit of a 🧵 about it 1/

🚨 Don't sleep on this rare opportunity to be able to spend 6 months housed at @timep.bsky.social's DC office, getting to know the ins and outs of policymaking, while producing high-impact programming and analysis on a topic of importance to the MENA region. Applications due August 28!!