Josh Busby

What’s Next for Iran? Big Change Seems Certain, but Direction Is Unclear. Experts say that Iran’s clerical rulers may be too deeply entrenched for Iranians to topple them, and that the U.S. and Israeli strikes risk setting off deeper radicalization or violence.

President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made public appeals to Iran’s people, saying they've offered a historic opportunity to topple their authoritarian government. How they envision an unarmed population facing down a heavily armed, ideologically driven security force is less clear.

I’m also listening to this book which speaks to the current moment in the US as well with its self-dealing crony capitalists.

We here.

Dybul - There could be opportunities for cost efficiencies if countries are allowed to manage their own data and systems.

Our only offer set to African countries has been aid. They would prefer investment. We had parallel data and procurement systems from PEPFAR, GAVI, and Global Fund.

We made progress over last 25 years but haven't really moved towards country ownership but have tortured countries with competing systems from donors.

Other countries were folding in developing assistance into Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

That was before the United States took action as other states were cutting aid dramatically.

Dybul - OECD says that overseas development assistance dropped by 50% over the last five years.

Elon Musk as the world's richest man has imposed these costs on the world's poorest people.

Natsios - justifying humanitarian aid solely on national security grounds is morally bankrupt and outrageous.

The Trump Administration Is Ending Aid That It Says Saves Lives The State Department will let lifesaving projects expire because “there is no strong nexus between the humanitarian response and U.S. national interests,” according to an internal email.

Alludes to this report that humanitarian aid to 7 countries will be cut because Trump admin doesn't think support for health in the national interest including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.
www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

Bollyky - 97% decline in US global health assistance to Bangladesh.

Natsios - Global health supply chain disrupted which allowed US, UN agencies, to procure medications at low cost. Data collection from USAID also shut down for novel diseases.

Natsios - Catholic Relief Services laid off half their staff. World Vision in Africa laid off 3000 staff, throwing all of these people into poverty from being middle class professionals.

Natsios - 60 USAID missions lost with thousands of local staff.

By 2030, academic estimates worry about as 14 million excess deaths as a result of these global health cuts.

21% decline over past year in spending on global health assistance with 67% decline in US alone.

YouTube video by Council on Foreign Relations A Year Without USAID and What Comes Next

Watching this now.
youtu.be/2N2gDAUw_BU?...

Up to 8 review requests for the year this far.

Umm.

Have to admire the bangers but Spurs in relegation fight and possibly winning the Champions League is not what I would have expected this season...

Great 🧵 with many links to what political science research & history can tell us about FIRCs:

Wouldn't want a little war to get in the way of a golf weekend.

Breaking: China's official statistics report a 0.3% drop in CO2 emissions from energy&industry in 2025, the third time that annual emissions have fallen this century and the first fall predominantly driven by clean energy growth. 🧵

The Enshittificator Digital products and services keep getting worse. In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved…

This is amazing.

This is brilliant.

This is absolute lunacy. Military officers in my phd program at Georgetown contributed to the program as well as receiving from it.

Blackpool Boulevard

Banger. open.spotify.com/track/5TaNnF...

The Real Reason Anthropic Wants Guardrails AI is too powerful and too new to be set free from human oversight.

🎁🔗The Real Reason Anthropic Wants Guardrails

AI is too powerful and too new to be set free from human oversight.

By Thomas Wright @theatlantic.com
February 27, 2026, 11:16 AM ET
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...