An interesting new paper: would people be willing to trade off democracy against things such as affluence and security? journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

File under: "well who could have seen that coming". The Billions to Trillions agenda of using aid to crowd in private finance for development hasn't worked: devpolicy.org/beyond-aid-p...

New Zealand businesses are lobbying the government to tie more of its aid to the Pacific. In this post I explain why this would be a terrible idea: open.substack.com/pub/terencew...?

Dr @terencewoodnz.bsky.social “said that New Zealand's aid approach, amid an ever-increasing scarcity, is becoming more transactional rather than being based on a larger vision for long-term outcomes”. 😬 www.rnz.co.nz/internationa...

Welcome to the new world of aid influencing. This from @timhirschelburns.bsky.social makes me think I need to get out more often, or actually stay in more often and watch YouTube: timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/mrbeast-is...

Note to self THEA (used to be CLEA) has election data on a lot of Pacific countries: electiondataarchive.org/wp-content/u...

More interesting research on NBER: homeless shelters help www.nber.org/papers/w34376

Interesting research: cellphone bans are not unproblematic, but they do seem to lead to better education outcomes: www.nber.org/papers/w34388

Prediction: this is all going to end in tears - www.cgdev.org/blog/other-o...

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Last month, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka opened Fiji’s new embassy in Jerusalem. My Inside Story report looks at recent Pacific diplomatic support for Israel - a sharp contrast to international condemnation of Israeli policy in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. insidestory.org.au/palestine-an...

Australians are becoming more supportive of aid spending over time. My latest blog post from our public opinion survey data. Very surprised by trends among conservative voters: devpolicy.org/australians-... @amitam.bsky.social

Very useful discussion of some key development economics myths: voxdev.org/topic/mythbu...

Of windmills and windbags, @pkrugman.bsky.social debunks nonsense from the usual suspects on the rise of renewable energy and the decline of coal: open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Thanks to the New Cold War the 2024 Solomon Islands elections ended up on the international stage. How did things work out? A lot better than the pundits predicted. My new open access journal article on what happened: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

NZ and Australia on this list. Overreach. responsiblestatecraft.org/drug-war-aumf/

Globally, an increasing share of people say they feel safer walking at home at night, though it varies from country to country obviously, and is gendered too. www.gallup.com/analytics/35...

The latest on US aid. Likely lessons to emerge from this: vertical funds are ok actually if they get medicines to people in need; in poorly governed states NGOs are a good alternative; well given aid doesn't cause poor governance, domestic political economy does. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...

A blast from the past. What Australia thought about the Pacific during the Old Cold War (1987): nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3381...

This is very helpful. From PNG's NRI a bibliography of all chapters, papers, studies etc. on elections in Papua New Guinea: pngnri.org/images/Publi...

File under trivial curiosities: in the 2002 general election in Papua New Guinea a party called National Front stood 30 candidates. My guess is that their ideology was somewhat different from their northern hemisphere namesakes.

Interesting on attitudes to Israel in the Pacific. In North Malaita there are actually people who believe they are lost tribe of Israelites. Other support is to do with evangelical Christianity and the internet. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

What might the Trump administration's proposed pocket rescission mean for aid flows? Good explainer on @cgdev.org: www.cgdev.org/blog/pocket-...

Is Australian climate adaptation aid really on the rise? Alyssa Leng and I dug into the data. Much of the rise is due to recoding of projects. To make matters worse projects are now more likely to have an adaptation focus in countries less vulnerable to climate change: devpolicy.org/assessing-au...

New Zealand's development NGOs need to take action on Gaza: terencew.substack.com/p/new-zealan...

Papua New Guinea's state-owned electricity company is trading while insolvent, with insiders describing the situation as "hopeless" and "untenable".

🚨Border Patrol arrested two firefighters who were actively fighting a wildfire at the time. When the other members of the crew asked for a chance to say goodbye, a Border Patrol agent told the crew member “you need to get the f*ck out of here. I’m going to make you leave.”

NEW: 50% of Americans think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, including 77% of Democrats and 51% of Independents. 60% of Americans oppose sending Israel more military aid for use in the Gaza war, including 75% of Democrats and 66% of Independents. Quinnipiac poll: poll.qu.edu/poll-release...

Good post on @cgdev.org from @ianmitchell1.bsky.social & Sam Hughes. How and where should the UK focus its aid amidst cuts. www.cgdev.org/blog/uks-aid...

Does news of US aid cuts change Australians' attitudes to aid? Today's blog answers this question drawing on our latest survey experiment. It also details broader trends in Australian attitudes to aid. devpolicy.org/have-trumps-... @amitam.bsky.social @leecrawfurd.bsky.social

Moraes has given Bolsonaro 48 hours to explain apparent violations of his house arrest. If the explanations are deemed insufficient, he'll go to prison. The deadline will be Friday evening, so put some beer in the fridge just in case you need to celebrate.

Such an important article by @jakescottmd.bsky.social looking at the “evidence” used by RFKjr to support the decision to revoke mrna vaccine research: omit s large studies, misrepresents data, uses irrelevant studies and done without science ie immunology expertise 🧪

The latest on the complexities of US aid cuts from @charlesjkenny.bsky.social : www.cgdev.org/blog/fixing-...

Good new paper by @leecrawfurd.bsky.social. Investing in basic education delivers. www.cgdev.org/blog/childre...

I thought the paper was convincing. This take a good additional point. I'm curious though as to why there was no impact on economic performance. Poorly designed programme, too small a programme to have a visible impact, too soon to for the impact to be clear?

Devpolicy's new Australian Aid Transparency Audit is out. Not much good news in the world of aid at present, but Australian aid has become a lot more transparent, which is great: devpolicy.org/2025-develop... @amitam.bsky.social

Note to self the @qoginstitute.bsky.social data tool is amazingly comprehensive and easy to use: datafinder.qog.gu.se/dataset/fe Where has it been all my life...

60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children. These are their names. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

The suppression of free speech in the UK at present beggars belief.

Good today on @nonzeronews.bsky.social by @connorechols.bsky.social -- the things that could get you designated a terrorist, even if you're clearly not: www.nonzero.org/p/are-you-a-...

Powerful analysis from @adamtooze.bsky.social on famine globally and famine in Gaza: adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

Could China actually, successfully invade Taiwan? Fascinating interview from @connorechols.bsky.social on @nonzeronews.bsky.social: www.nonzero.org/p/why-china-...

There have been a number of recent articles on statistical power in quantitative political science. This is something that I think deserves more attention and discussion. A short thread of the articles I have read. 🧵

The latest on PEPFAR's fate. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

Why are council rates too high in New Zealand? Not because local governments waste a lot of money. They've spent too little in the past, and now it's catching up with us: thespinoff.co.nz/politics/10-...

Bookmark for self -- the rapid erosion of free speech in the UK: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Interesting Gallup poll on American's -- rapidly -- changing attitudes to immigration: news.gallup.com/poll/692522/...

On @cgdev.org interesting on what the WHO should prioritise as its budget falls rapidly: www.cgdev.org/publication/...

Good advice from @ianmitchell1.bsky.social & Sam Hughes on @cgdev.org on how the UK should focus aid in a period of cuts. Australia's government isn't cutting aid, but it hasn't offset past cuts either. It ought to consider this advice too: www.cgdev.org/blog/how-uk-...

Can the state ever really connect to the citizens of Papua New Guinea except through the mechanisms of clientelism? Fascinating blog post on intriguing aid/civil society effort by @duncangreenlse.bsky.social on Devpolicy today: devpolicy.org/building-com...