I've done a NEW page on my website 🖥️ And I'm starting NEWSLETTER ✉️ If you are interested in the use of AI and other tech in how govts the world over administer the welfare state you should sign up! Monthly-ish insights, analysis, gossip, thrills and more ⤵️

. Climate-responsive social protection: A primer for philanthropy We need to take urgent #ClimateAction right now to avoid the worst of Climate Change! More: odi.org/en/publications/pri... #ClimateAction

Scalable Targeting of Social Protection: When Do Algorithms Out-Perform Surveys and Community Knowledge?: Emily Aiken; Anik Ashraf; Joshua Blumenstock; Raymond Guiteras; Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Developing countries are pushing back on Big Tech’s control of user data. The countries want tech giants to store their citizens’ data locally instead of overseas, to reclaim digital sovereignty and have more control, reports @tarykuh.bsky.social for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/big-tec...

This proposal is a bomb under the right to asylum in Europe. People who flee war and prosecution deserve our protection. With this proposal, asylum seekers can potentially be deported through unsafe third countries, without any form of connection being needed. 1/2 bsky.app/profile/eura...

A ray of hope: FEWSNET is back. drive.google.com/file/d/1bp3g...

Global average temperatures are spiking, rising faster than climate models seem able to explain, and in a sane world, every country would be united in a full-scale effort to figure this out & respond. Instead the US is dismantling its scientific infrastructure.

46% of 16 to 21 year olds say they would rather a world without internet, and 70% say they feel worse about themselves after using social media. It’s long past time governments stepped in to address the consequences of leaving the internet to the private sector.

None of the 278 men sent to CECOT have been returned. Meanwhile their lawyer has been arrested and "disappeared" in El Salvador.

The government was wrong to cut winter fuel payments. It was wrong to keep the 2-child benefit cap. It was wrong to slash disability benefits. Pushing people into poverty is the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do is redistribute wealth and power so that everyone can live in dignity.

3/ How did Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum became the most popular president in the world? Read this. “We will not return to the neoliberal model … We will continue with Mexican Humanism and with the maxim of ‘For the good of all, first the poor.’” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...

I've had a long-running thread on twitter on the real migration crisis (not enough migrants). Will start posting here... but for the earlier 1,000-plus examples, see here: x.com/charlesjkenn...

"Health insurance coverage among pregnant women and new mothers in the DRC remains critically low at 3%" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New research from @itep.org found that Trump’s tariffs will hike the taxes of the poorest 20% of Americans by 6.2%. Meanwhile, the richest 1% will see a 1.7% hike. Everybody suffers under tariffs, but as always, it’s the poor that hurt the most. itep.org/trump-tariff...

Would it surprise you to learn that Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft have avoided nearly $278 billion in corporate taxes over the last decade? Yeah, didn’t think so. It's time for wealthy individuals AND corporations to pay up. www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...

Powerful, if scary, read.

With Trump gutting the $17.75 minimum wage for contract workers, corporations with government contracts are free to cut wages for hundreds of thousands of workers. That can mean up to 25% pay cut—a devastating amount for those just trying to get by. www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

My new post mapping out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information. Do read and share. Full 🧵 tomorrow hopefully! christinapagel.substack.com/p/a-republic...

Judge allows Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil's deportation

US tells UN's FAO to stop "distracting focus on climate" and instead help farmers adapt to drought & extreme heat. 🤔 usunrome.usmission.gov/u-s-statemen...

Tax matters may seem almost administrative and of negligible importance within this context, but Israel’s withholding of tax sovereignty has been a significant and compounding factor in the denial of Palestinian rights. taxjustice.net/2025/04/09/a...

In the latest ODID blog, @ophioxford.bsky.social Director Sabina Alkire highlights a lesser-known casualty of the current tumult in humanitarian assistance, the flagship Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/blog/flying-...

My beloved old professor Ha-Joon Chang on why #tariffs make sense for some countries but definitely not in this case (think child development) youtu.be/Shz3mSMqW04?... @garyseconomics.bsky.social

I'm seeing a huge spike in interest in tariffs from people who normally don't work in the economics of international trade. Here are a few useful things to know about them. (1/14)

New blog by @justsand.bsky.social and me on USAID cuts by country and updated (again) sectoral cuts based on the list that went to Congress today. Ukraine $1.4bn cut. Ethiopia, the DRC, Colombia, South Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh, Kenya, Afghanistan, and Tanzania >$200m

From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

Had been waiting for this one: all it takes is political will, yet the massive problem here is the unfettered will to slash rather than serve (and the cutting of all checks and balances in the process) bsky.app/profile/scho... #interoperability #data

A must-read! 📖 This blog delves into the implications of recent funding cuts on social protection, summarizing key insights from our recent Open Discussion. Join the conversation and explore the reflections from the social protection community.

Columbia Journalism Review tested eight generative AI search tools and found their answers were wrong 60% of the time, and the paid ones actually fared worse than the free ones. Meanwhile, millions of people trust the way they present total bullshit with confident language.

Germany reinforcing climate finance while the UK moves towards a likely cut (given reduction in ODA)

New blog by @valentinabarca.bsky.social et al. on "social protection in a post-USAID world." Important points on: 👉SP is a national model, not an aid model 👉more research needed 2 understand new challenges 👉need 2 invest in civil society so citizens demand SP socialprotection.org/discover/blo...

Carefully chosen instance to defy the courts. But if they get away with it, anything goes. apnews.com/article/trum...

What are the implications of #USAID (and now UK + others) funding cuts on #socialprotection as a sector, often 'competing' with others for funding? As promised, here is the blog summarising the discussions on the 'SO WHAT' for our sector socialprotection.org/discover/blo...

Israeli surveillance of Palestinian civilians' private communication used to build 100 billion-word data set to train AI model for military targeting, found to be “invasive and incompatible with human rights”, by Human Rights Watch @hrw.org #DigitalRights www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Welfare of all Europeans must come before warfare! After years of the EU lying to citizens, saying that rigid macroeconomic constraints forced budget cuts for public services, these have been lifted to enable massive military production -worse,more social cuts are planned www.ft.com/content/3705...

Instead of old-fashioned rhetoric about costs to the state, the government could tell a better story about welfare. It’s a force for good, writes @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social. www.prospectmagazine...

When the DWP makes a mistake, who should pay the price? We wrote to Liz Kendall with 30+ charities & welfare experts, warning that “official error” Universal Credit overpayment debt is pushing hundreds of thousands into unexpected debt. @the-independent.com www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

When your president is also a car salesman.

Well worth a read - out of the box this king on #socialinsurance #financing: "Instead of being determined solely by wages (and thus labor stock), employers’ contributions to these systems could be determined partly by their capital intensity".

My op-ed on the aid cuts in the US, the UK and Europe in The Independent: Foreign aid is how countries show their national character to the world www.independent.co.uk/voices/musk-...

Musk once again declaring his intentions visavis 'entitlement spending' i.e. social protection www.foxbusiness.com/video/636985...

NEW: One million children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from malaria and 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by polio over the next decade, internal memos estimated. The USAID programs were cut anyway. By Brett Murphy and @annamaria.bsky.social

If you’re interested in what is really happening with USAID you must read this by @danielagabor.bsky.social

The new UN #tax convention would permit states to tax economic activity where it actually occurs, rather than allowing multinationals to shift profits to tax havens. Nations lose $492bn (£390bn) annually due to corporate tax abuse @taxjusticenet.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/magd...

Copying old language by Milton Friedman and others, Elon Musk called #USA #SocialSecurity the biggest Ponzi Scheme - as prelude for current attack on it www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...

The Social Security Administration was already in the middle of a customer service crisis. Reducing the workforce further amounts to social security cuts via administrative burden www.cbpp.org/blog/ssa-bud...

'forcing the world’s poor to pay for Britain’s safety'. Brilliant and brutal Guardian editorial about UK's decision to redirect aid to defence. Must read. chakrabortty.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID. This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC. What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.

Break the system till it stops working, from its most important heart, the frontline workforce (while creating 1 trillion dollars in tax breaks) bsky.app/profile/dday...