NEW: A Local Snapshot with Orzhytsia (Ukraine) Mayor Olena Sydorenko. 'Openness Is Even More Essential in War' www.democracy.community/stories/loca...

NEW at Democracy Local: Our Local Snapshot feature chats with Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani about his city's water struggles—and how participatory governance and neighborhood democracy may help solve them. www.democracy.community/stories/loca...

They are gulags. Should start calling them that, @nytimes.com

In separatist news, the Welsh nationalists with a strong showing. Cymru Rhydd!

If you’re wondering why ICE Agents, even behind their masks, seem like a bunch of pathetic losers, it’s because that’s exactly the kinds of people who join secret police forces: people who are such failures that a repugnant job is the best they can get. Data: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Always greatful for every reader, even harsh ones. And I’ll readily concede that if you’re the sort of person who prefers politically irrelevant academic agonism to considering technologically enabled possibilities for real change, you probably won’t like our book. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

“The long-delayed realization that what was once considered our grandchildren’s problem is now our own is arriving not in the form of hurricane-force winds, but as a letter of assessment from an insurer.” — @brianstonejr.bsky.social #abundanceagenda #climatecrisis #greentransition

“The ‘Make America Great Again’ movement is less a conservative restoration than a strategic recalibration rooted in the logic of the Warring States.” —Hui Huang #china #history #tariffs

“The path to tyranny is often paved by individuals who ‘obey in advance,’ anticipating what authoritarian leaders want & preemptively meeting them halfway to avoid conflict. In the age of AI, this phenomenon appears poised to occur at an algorithmic scale.” —Andrew Sorota #AI #democracy

Wide-ranging discussion at the UN Forummof Mayors in Geneva

The municipality of Gaborone, Botswana takes transparency seriously. It posts its response times and service delivery promises on a big tablet right outside the Civic Center.

Great local panel at Open Government Partnership.

“That it has fallen to Germans to remind America of what the West is all about suggests we have come full circle to a point where the most ardent pupils of democracy must now tutor their mentors who seem to have forgotten the lessons they once taught so well.” —Nathan Gardels #democracy #patriotism

Bloomberg bubble charts the Bubble:

@katieporteroc.bsky.social 's interview reveals not her manners but her lack of ideas & vision. The question she was asked is a softball--what do you say to Trump voters? The easy answer is to offer your vision. But she doesn't have one. Look at her website policy katieporter.com/priorities/

An incident in Chicago took place that everyone in America should know about. Trump's ICE thugs shot a pastor in the head with a pepper bullet. He's suing. This man should be internationally famous. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

We are starting to witness tantalizing glimpses of the net good that can be achieved via genetic editing. How far will we allow it to go? Aryn Baker explores. #geneediting #crispr

Big news in LA

MAGA’s full-scale assault on civil society is about to begin, and here’s the vehicle: “the threat of the orders comes not necessarily in the form of imminent charges but in the lengthy, resource-draining investigations…” talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-tru...

Despite opposition parties' promises to save democracy once elected, it is not uncommon for these parties to become seduced by the power of their predecessors' authoritarian machinery. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE Truth: No cars rammed ICE Claim: She boxed ICE in Truth: ICE boxed her in Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE Truth: She did not have a rifle Claim: ICE returned fire Truth: Only ICE fired Claim: She drove herself to the hospital Truth: Paramedics found her

A lack of respect for opposition parties and checks and balances led to the unraveling of Bolivia's Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

I was at an event last week when a regional election chief from India discussed banning paid advertising and declared, "the media must fall in line."

Big mistake! The UN just let Democracy Local in. Looking forward to an interesting day of discussion at the Forum of Mayors in Geneva

The Atlantic Writer, Ross Andersen (@rossandersen.bsky.social) in conversation with Futurology Producer Grant Slater (@grantslater.bsky.social) get into the dangerous gap between humanity's understanding of time and the consequences of our actions. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN31...

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

Californians, stop talking about secession or independence. We're past that. Trump dumped us. We're already gone. My new column @sfchronicle www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

“Whoever controls AI infrastructure—compute, models, data, & cloud—will shape the economic & political order of the 21st century. The U.S. & China understand this & are mobilizing every instrument of statecraft to secure supremacy. Europe must understand it too.” — @francescabria.bsky.social #ai

Why is it so hard to say the following? Trump has been shutting down the government and the republic since he came back in--dismantling agencies and our rights... We're just trying to use the leverage we have so that we'll still have a government and might be able to restore the republic someday.

Best news of the day is a new California-Brazil partnership on climate and related issues. Good to see an alliance between two targets of the authoritarian American administration. www.gov.ca.gov/2025/09/23/c...

Reports and op-eds still matter. But public opinion today is shaped by influencers, algorithms, and audiences. Experts risk irrelevance if they don’t adapt. In their @carnegieendowment.org paper, @noupside.bsky.social and @rachelkleinfeld.bsky.social suggest high impact strategies⤵️

Meet the mayor whose plan to attract family doctors is turning heads across Canada www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

For my next decree, there shall be a grand Turkish Baths in every town and city, so that all the people of the land may enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of luxurious public spas.

What do computer science, quantum physics & Hindu tradition have in common? It’s more than you might think, Swami Sarvapriyananda, @blaiseaguera.bsky.social & Carlo Rovelli write. #consciousness #ai #hinduism #quantumphysics

About to board for the new destination

“Should China be regarded as a geopolitical threat to the liberal world order or as a Green Giant that is the best friend of the planet; the enemy in a new Cold War or the vanguard in the battle against the existential challenge of a warming biosphere? Or both?” #china #greentransition #climate

Starting in two hours, on YouTube and live in Bern, Switzerland, a discussion of Greenland's future, with Swiss Broadcasting's democracy whiz Bruno Kaufmann and others. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNhk...

Sign the petition to save Swiss Info, the world leader in democracy journalysm. swissinfo-petition.ch/en

Congrats to two essential LA journalists, Mariel Garza and Paul Thornton, on the debut of the Golden State Report. I've just subscribed. Hope you will too. goldenstatereport.substack.com

Democracy Reporting International's new review of Ukraine's governments and institutions in times of war reveals an amazing democratic resilience. democracy-reporting.org/en/office/uk...

Members of random juries on either coast are braver than the most powerful politicians, university administrators, entrepreneurs, and billionaires in the country.

Issue VI is shipping out! Have you gotten your copy yet? shop.noemamag.com

“We can only find eternity in the moment” For novelist Pico Iyer wisdom resides not in mastery but in doubt. From his decades of constant travel to his retreats in silence Iyer describes how humility and stillness can open a clearer view of the world than certainty ever could youtu.be/CFaTxvlMWuY

People I respect are criticizing this think tank, but I think it's brilliant. A think tank that does not believe in ideas is the perfect fit for a Democratic Party that does not believe in democracy

🪴"Greenlash is driving a reconfiguration of EU-level political alliances and prizing apart the decades-long, mainstream pro-European coalition." Erin Jones and Richard Youngs break down the drivers of European greenlash and how activists can respond⏬

TODAY AT #DEMOCRACYLOCAL: Our new feature, by popular demand: "Where In the World Is Bruno Kaufmann?" This debut finds the intrepid democracy reporter-and-supporter in Kirkenes, on the Norway-Russia border. www.democracy.community/stories/new-...

We live in a culture hooked on speed and certainty. Hot takes, quick fixes, and algorithms that appear to know us better than we know ourselves. Despite living in the “age of information”are humans less connected than ever? The Wisdom of Not Knowing with Pico Iyer and Nathan Gardels, available now

“AI sovereignty, as it currently plays out outside of the U.S.-China vacuum, is not a banner‐waving claim to territorial control; rather, it manifests itself as the quiet right to decide what counts as knowledge & how that knowledge shows up in the world.” — @digitaldang.bsky.social #ai #aistacks

What do we do now?