“Between 1898 and 1994, Washington effectively acted to change governments in Latin America at least 41 times, a tally that includes neither many unsuccessful efforts at regime change nor the invasions, filibustering, and gunboat diplomacy that took place the previous century.“ Greg Grandin:

rome statute of the international criminal court, article 8bis: crime of aggression

The outrageous sanctioning of EU lawmakers and citizens in order to pressure democratically-elected European governments to change their laws shows just how intent the US government is on controlling Europeans' lives. We must go into 2026 with eyes open.

#philsky Funded postdoctoral positions (FCT) at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto – Call for expressions of interest:

If there was an academia wrapped it would say: ‘you read these articles, those abstracts, half of this book, a third of that one, maybe a chapter from this…’

Britain could have joined Erasmus five years ago; an agreement on funding was completed between negotiators but vetoed “at the very last minute” by Boris Johnson. From Stefaan de Rynck’s book

"This decision was not taken lightly, with staff feedback taken into consideration throughout the consultation.” I’ve seen an awful lot of consultations in HE & it’s so strange that universities always claim to have taken staff feedback into consideration whilst never acting on any of it.

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

“At the very moment when global competition for research talent is intensifying, Britain has made itself less accessible, less attractive, and less affordable.” This is a good article.

New post: Expertise, Government, the Media and Covid mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/11/expe... The Covid inquiry shows not just political failure on a deadly scale, but of media failure to transmit expertise and to hold to account politicians that let tens of thousands die unnecessarily.

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all." My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away. Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Good journalism; horrifying story. We should abolish the Home Office.

This focuses on politics. But we should also care about *outcomes*. In the UK, migrants (both from EU and elsewhere) are more likely to have a job than the UK born. In Denmark, there's a gap of 15-20%. Similarly for education outcomes. Why would we want to copy that?

After more than 10 years of “the Danish Model”, nativism is hegemonic in the country, the far right polls near level highs again, and the Social Democrats lost Copenhagen and poll at historic low. European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths! Me in @theguardian.com

Me at the LRB blog on the atrocious refugee policy of Mahmood and Starmer

Here's a suggestion: let's create an Association for the Abolition of Artsy Acronyms in Academic Applications and Research Groups in the Humanities. ("AAAAAARGH" for short because the full name is too long, and it has a second layer of meaning that beautifully captures the essence of the project...)

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

Time to reshare this piece on the pitfalls of following the road Denmark has taken on immigration: ukandeu.ac.uk/denmarks-mig...

I think this constant push for immigrants to feel & act ‘grateful’ is so insidious. Let’s change the narrative. Migration is a normal part of human behaviour, not a charity case. If you’re doing your best to do your best, you don’t need to do even more to be accepted. It’s your right to be accepted.

Neo-conservativism presaged Trumpian neo-fascism in several respects. It saw violence as a positive policy option not a defensive last resort. It held laws, norms and the lives of non-white people in total contempt. And many, many centrists either cringed in deference to it or actively collaborated.

Siblings #caturday #proofofcat

Research should inform policy but that’s tricky if it is almost entirely driven by policy. The independence of research is key to change because if you fund only research that responds to policy (even good policy) you’re less innovative, creative & responsive to the open options of the future.

This, from @catherinedevries.bsky.social, is really useful advice for young (and, tbh, old!) academics. Worth passing on if you know any, maybe? catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/fail-bette...

Another eventful Saturday afternoon #caturday #catsofbluesky

Black cats are normally quite hard to photograph. I like how this one turned out. #caturday (as they say, although it’s actually from yesterday evening)

This is great. Clear, very well informed, and rightly passionate.

People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children. This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

That's quite the chart annotation. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Filling classrooms with computers didn't have the huge and positive impact on learning that was promised. Filling them with tablets hasn't done it either. I know this might sound absurd to many (especially politicians) but what if we filled them with highly skilled and properly supported educators?

Instead of judging individuals by what they contribute to society, why not judge society by what it contributes to individuals? Like, y'know, civilized people would.

Developments continue

It’s a developing situation

Lazy Saturday afternoon

There is an increasingly common and very lazy notion that universities are left biased. That needs countering as universities are under attack in the US but also elsewhere. I wrote a thread about it.

#1 Following on from my earlier thread about claims of “bias” in universities (link below 👇), I was struck by James Marriott’s column in today’s Times. It’s full of anecdote & caricature. The real story of UK universities is structural, financial, and political. 🧵 👉 bsky.app/profile/prof...

this is a very sharp piece on why it makes no sense to run universities as if they are businesses. They're not businesses. www.afr.com/work-and-car...

At LSE Philosophy we have two assistant prof vacancies - one for sustainability-related areas, the other for AI-related areas - and for neither of these will you need a $100,000 visa.

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

For those deleting our Academia dot edu accounts (due to their new exploitative TOC) make sure to follow the instructions quoted below or they'll force you to accept the TOC before you can get to the "delete my account" button. See you all on the open-source alternative hcommons Humanities Commons!

STOP APPEASING FASCISTS. Just sums up everything wrong with this government's approach at the moment, encouraging division rather than finding ways to bring the vast majority together.

British Academy/Leverhulme Trust small grants scheme is open. Up to £10k for up to 2 years. For postdoctoral researchers in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, including independent researchers. Applications that meet the quality threshold are allocated through partial randomisation. 5 Nov deadline.

Good morning

Honest Government Ad | Visit Norway! ;-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYjo...

Just heard about someone who got asked *twice* to be an anonymous peer reviewer on their own grant application. On second asking, I think you should just be allowed to do it, personally.

New post: Fascism, Rivers of Blood, and today’s political and media elite mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/08/fasc... Spreading disinformation about minority groups is as old as civilisation itself. Once our political and media elite would call this out for what it was, but not any more.

Like for #Hiroshima, there also is an interactive #NagasakiArchive - sharing photos, eyewitness accounts, and experiences of survivors of the #AtomBomb, keeping their memory alive: e.nagasaki.mapping.jp/p/nagasaki-a...

I wrote this to explain how we reached this point, in the hope it would be a resource for people arguing with friends and family, people with questions, perhaps even people thinking of joining a protest. Do share with anyone who might find it useful. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When we talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we typically focus on August 6 and August 9. But August 8, 1945, is also one of the most important dates for understanding those unprecedented attacks. (This is an adaptation of a thread originally written by @wellerstein.bsky.social in 2020 on Twitter.)

LOL Musgrave