“Are you Alawi?” Identity-Based Killings During Syria’s Transition www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

"An instrument of neo-colonialist oppression" Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger issue a joint statement withdrawing from the #ICC Earlier this year, all three also jointly withdrew from #ECOWAS www.bbc.com/news/article...

Very annoyed with this ”but Turkey shot down a Russian jet”. Turkey doesn’t have a border with Russia. If Finland did the same (when it’s ”only” an incursion), what would stop Russia from starting to shoot down Finnish (or other NATO) jets when they’re flying close to the Russian border ?

Does the UN have a future? I talked to @economist.com alongside @minhthu.bsky.social (who is more hopeful than me!). www.economist.com/internationa...

Via @hrl-yalesph.bsky.social on X: Yale “HRL identified 210 locations where Ukraine’s children have been taken in Russia and occupied Ukraine since Feb 2022. This research expands on HRL’s previous reports + is the highest number of locations to date.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

Finland’s history offers a warning, not a model. Kristi Raik explains how Ukraine differs from Finland – and why trading land for peace is unlikely to bring lasting stability. @foreignpolicy.com @kristiraik.bsky.social

We've just had a special weekend email from the Russian troll factory (they usually email us their latest fake videos Monday to Friday, so this is out of character), and they're all about Charlie Kirk. Unusually, they've also posted them on Truth Social, which they don't usually do in my experience.

This is why Putin has stepped up his war since January. He knows the US response will continue to be weak with Trump’s Putin first policy.

Once again, Teen Vogue out here committing actual journalism.

Humanities, arts and social sciences degrees are disappearing in many UK regions. With more young people than ever studying close to home, course cuts are narrowing their choices at university. @timeshighered.bsky.social covers our 'Cold Spots' report today. Read more at https://bit.ly/46e3wOy

💬 #NATO is not treating the drone incursion into Polish territory as an attack, a NATO source told Reuters. #russia #poland

AlJazeera reports that Qatar's PM stated that - the attack happened when the Hamaz team was discussing the US ceasefire proposal - the US contacted Qatari officials 10 min after the attack. www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

With my colleagues Martin Quencez and @gesineweber.bsky.social, we analyse what the fall of the Bayrou government — and the appointment of Lecornu as the new PM — mean for France’s domestic and international politics. Spoiler: France’s problems aren’t going away. www.gmfus.org/news/frances...

My interview today on @NPR with @michelekelemen about my new book Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

if you are looking for solid on the ground reporting in Chicago, I recommend: - @unraveledpress.com - @mulchy.bsky.social - @pgoyette.bsky.social please do not amplify people who have no record of posting accurate or timely information about events in Chicago

China’s top political advisor Wang Huning meets 149 representatives of ethnic minority groups – Xinhua

NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights. The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system. 🧵 [1/8]

The Hamburg team (Professor Alan Kramer) of our @erc.europa.eu Synergy Grant BLOCKADE is looking for a FOUR YEAR PostDoc to work on blockade as 'slow violence' in the Great War-era Middle East. Please share! www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...

New on Substack: a summary of the issues around Russia's upcoming regional and local votes and why these votes are interesting even under the current circumstances. minczifra.substack.com/p/on-russias...

My interview with France-24 News yesterday on the #SCO summit

China’s Anti-Western Bloc? Not So Fast | "A summit of mostly autocratic countries appears a gloomy signal for the West. But there’s a gap between China’s ambition and delivery." @natashakuhrt.bsky.social and Evgeny Roshchin

EU chief von der Leyen's plane hit by suspected Russian GPS interference

Interested in contested public history? Fulbright-Queen’s University Belfast award now available for an MA in Public History at Queen’s University Belfast. Apply now! @ncph.bsky.social @@qubelfastofficial.bsky.social us.fulbrightonline.org/countries/eu...

With the SCO summit currently underway in China, reupping my piece on China, Russia, Central Asia for @cepa.org

Again - the reason that the Good Friday Agreement locks in the ECHR is that the UK had repeatedly been held accountable by the European Court of Human Rights for human rights breaches during the Troubles - while national courts had failed to do so, even upholding miscarriages of justice

The list includes 17 wartime songs, such as “Soldiers Are Coming” and 20 others like “Red Sun” and “My Moscow.”

@warmatters.bsky.social joins today’s @lawfaremedia.org Daily to discuss his new book “War in the Smartphone Age.” We talked about everything from ‘context collapse’ on social media to the future of ‘participatory warfare.’ Listen wherever you get your podcasts! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Something appears to have gone haywire with Russian propaganda bot software. A couple of deepfake videos are claiming that Jane Austen (who was 14 when he died in 1799) once plotted the assassination of George Washington, and also would have done the same to German Chancellor Friederich Merz.

Here’s a suggestion. Rather than overhaul the current immigration appeal system to grab some headlines, why not properly fund it and properly fund its judiciary. It won’t grab the headlines but would surely be a more effective route to speeding up the appeal system.

My @crisisgroup.org colleagues on why the diplomacy aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine must meet a higher bar & how it can be achieved: www.crisisgroup.org/europe-centr...

Но для стран как Польша и Румыния будет важно, чтобы США еще раз подтвердили, что они действительно стоят за спиной этих стран и в наихудшем случае будут их оборонять. @rferl.org.web.brid.gy @radiosvoboda.org.web.brid.gy @ekhokavkaza.com.web.brid.gy @sceeus-ui.bsky.social @russlandwatcher.de

This! Today Russia is warring in Ukraine, to subdue it, while it has taken over Belarus against its peoples will. The #Georgians are fighting for their & Armenia's future every day. They are the ones who need our full support, to secure a free future & still hangs in the balance. 🇬🇪 Moldova too. 🇲🇩

What is called negotiations in Europe is hybrid warfare in the Kremlin's world. Julian Loevenich and @jeanneplaumann.de for @diebild.bsky.social with quotes from @thomasjaeger.bsky.social @wisocologne.bsky.social and me @sceeus-ui.bsky.social @russlandwatcher.de @ukrainki.bsky.social

Dr Natasha Kuhrt explores Russia’s economic influence amid the #UkraineWar and China’s growing investments in #CentralAsia. It also examines evolving security dynamics, with Russia’s traditional role challenged by China’s expanding engagement. 🔗Read more: bit.ly/4oIkHzV @natashakuhrt.bsky.social

I just finished recording this week’s Power Vertical Podcast with the always insightful Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com to discuss his essay "Putin's Genocidal Quest for Symbolic Immortality" Episode drops soon so watch this space! democratic-integrity.eu/anton-shekho...

John Bolton, 12 days ago: “ I think he's already come after me… it is a retribution presidency.”

Some people on the left have argued politics is destined to become 'blame the migrants vs blame the rich'. Fair or not, this binary turns out to be a surprisingly useful question for dividing the country right down the middle! Look at the generational splits, madness.

WaPo talks to experts who say Putin overplayed his hand in Alaska, trying but failing to “persuade Trump to force a disadvantageous deal onto Zelensky,” but I think the key insight here is this: “Russia is confident that it will win on the battlefield and doesn’t really need a peace process.”

To add - what military bases, exactly, do they think are available with sufficient accomodation? The UK government decided to sell off much of the defence basing estate as part of cuts back in the 2010s.

Britain’s top business minister will visit China in September to reopen trade talks with Beijing, multiple figures familiar with the plans have told us.

China’s flows of rare-earth magnets to the US continued to recover in July after Beijing agreed to normalize exports as part of its trade truce with Washington

@warstudieskcl.bsky.social my piece on the Russia-China relationship and Central Asia for the Center for European Policy Analysis.

🔴Robert Jenrick and the Conservative Party’s Embrace of ‘Blood and Soil’ Nationalism The British right is adopting an increasingly extreme form of ethnic identity politics, while failing to explain what the rest of us should be so worried about, argues @jdportes.bsky.social

We’re hiring! BFPG is recruiting for a Senior Researcher to join our team. If you’re passionate about UK foreign policy, we'd love to hear from you. Apply by 11:59pm on Thursday 4 September 2025. Full details: bfpg.co.uk/2025/08/job-...

Meanwhile, even as everyone is talking about security guarantees and “land swaps”, note what we’re not talking about: reparations, accountability for war, crimes, and dealing with the fact that Russia is bent on military dominion in its neighborhood. /9

This is in some ways part of the problem -viewing the world as chessboards on which some countries are ofc bishops, queens etc while others are pawns to be moved around.