JUST IN: The Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city, lost re-election last night to a Democrat.

Mayor David Pruhs is a conservative who fought protections for LGBTQ+ residents; he made comments this year drew condemnation this year from Alaska Natives. He lost to Mindy O'Neall.

One of the more incredible stories out of LA this year has been how a taco review blog became the best on-the-ground coverage of ICE raids in the city.

They do a dispatch every day, follow-up on the kidnapped people (which almost no media outlet has done), and fact-check government claims.

Congrats Sacha!!!

Any Oxford students following me! A chance to win a prize for your college and my eternal gratitude for getting involved with our experimental social science lab.

Excellent thread by @abenewman.bsky.social . This particular point shows the dark side of Keck and Sikkink’s boomerang theory: transnational networks of democratic subversion. Coming soon to a polarized democracy near you!

chart showing Relative child poverty has remained stubbornly high over the last twenty years and has risen over the past decade, from 27 per cent in 2013-14 to 31 per cent in 2023-24. As things stand, child poverty is on track to reach record highs within this Parliament

Relative child poverty has remained stubbornly high over the last twenty years and has risen over the past decade.

Without action, levels will soon break records.

Scrapping the two-child limit in full would be the most targeted and cost-effective way of reducing child poverty.

In addition, I think also: politics is about argument! When I say 'the free movement of services, goods, capital and people is good for growth', I am not saying it because it is popular, but because it is true. It is in fact racist to say that mixed-race people should be deported!

Happy to publish today in the @ejprjournal.bsky.social

Pop culture (think Netflix's Sex Education) make us think that emerging cohorts are happy to socially incorporate partners with sexually modern backgrounds and experiences 🏳️‍🌈

But is this really the case?

doi.org/10.1017/S147...

chart showing Relative child poverty has remained stubbornly high over the last twenty years and has risen over the past decade, from 27 per cent in 2013-14 to 31 per cent in 2023-24. As things stand, child poverty is on track to reach record highs within this Parliament

Relative child poverty has remained stubbornly high over the last twenty years and has risen over the past decade.

Without action, levels will soon break records.

Scrapping the two-child limit in full would be the most targeted and cost-effective way of reducing child poverty.

Opinion | The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Crackdown on Academia

Enough of the BS. It's not a 'crackdown' on academia. You 'crackdown' on criminals and villains. It's a wild assault and a desperate power grab. And that shouldn't be hard to say, regardless of ideological preferences.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

I just…

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air for Charlie Kirk Comments After F.C.C. Pressure

I cannot think of a democracy anywhere in the world where this sort of thing could happen. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

Fancy half an hour of me coming up with increasingly obscure ways of noting that Keir Starmer is not gifted with charisma? Listen or watch below.

Delighted to have the cover story this month on whether there is a left populist solution for Keir Starmer’s Labour. TLDR? Nah, it’s not too long - so read it…

❗Among their electoral potential, social democratic parties face very few strategic dilemmas. Left-progressive appeals resonate most strongly.

New study in @worldpolitics.bsky.social
with @tabouchadi.bsky.social , @indubioproreto.bsky.social, Nadja Mosimann, and @markuswagner.bsky.social

Thread👇

I’m sure everybody needed yet another ‘Labour One Year In’ piece ;) But how many others draw on Jon Elster and the problem of ‘byproducts’?

I grew up in rural South Carolina with a single mom who worked multiple jobs. At times, we relied on Medicaid and SNAP—like so many others. My heart breaks for those now wondering if that help will still be there.

Imagine having all that power and choosing to make people’s lives worse.

Shameful.

I am excited to see my ARPS article reviewing the return of industrial policy with @dbreznitz.bsky.social is now published! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Have written up some of my thoughts about the increasingly sinister use of 'non-UK born' and 'white British' in the British press. The obsession with 'white British' citizens over other British citizens harms all of us and needs to be called out.

benansell.substack.com/p/who-counts

Poland's Polarised Election Signals a Wider Crisis for Liberal Democracy A razor-thin victory for the national-conservative Law and Justice Party reveals deep societal divisions and a broader erosion of centrist coalitions across the West.

📌 What Poland’s razor-thin presidential election result tells about crisis for liberal democracy across the West,

where centrist coalitions are eroding, and populist forces are gaining ground.

My piece in Social Europe: www.socialeurope.eu/polands-pola...

The far right and the conquest of education Archives - Foundation for European Progressive Studies While education is commonly understood as a force that can create equal opportunities, the way education systems are designed impacts how they can promote and propagate diverse values and can even rei...

#FarRight forces in Europe & beyond are trying to redesign education systems to promote their illiberal & authoritarian principles🧑‍🎓

This ProgPost dossier discusses this w/ articles by @anjagiudici.bsky.social @neszter.bsky.social & @jovanakaraulic.bsky.social

🗞️ feps-europe.eu/dossier/the-...

Remarks by Director Kratsios at the National Academy of Sciences Remarks by Director Kratsios at the National Academy of Sciences REINVIGORATING AMERICA’S SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY Washington, D.C.

I'm increasingly concerned by the elision of the science lobby and the tech lobby in the US and elsewhere. Michael Kratsios, a Thiel acolyte, was formerly chief technology officer. Now chief science advisor. Scientists need to unhitch their wagons from tech www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

I get personal about the Trump administration's latest visa moves in FT Opinion.

Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go

1/A government that is willing to do this is the same government that would nationalize a company. It is the same mentality of state-market relations. This is not an issue of Universities need to stand up. The whole free market system needs to stand up.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

🚨 NEW REPORT: Progressive parties are losing the battle of ideas – and votes – to the populist right. The centre-left must reinvent or die. Today, we launch a new project to forge a bold new identity for progressives in the 21st century.

Read here: www.ippr.org/articles/fac...

What do tax cuts for the rich do?

They increase inequality.

They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.

"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."

At some level, the SC majority is clearly aware that they are risking the full faith and credit of the United States. They are trying to go right up to the line but no further. It won’t work.

The entire nation should protesting this utterly unwarranted, unprecedented, & probably illegal on-going attack on a university. It's right out of the authoritarian playbook. It's an assault on possibility free speech, free thought, & dissent.
Fascism is coming small step by small step, not at once.

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

'Adoption' is entirely the wrong word for this. AI systems are incomplete. They are not plug-and-play. Their 'adoption' is actually a process of continued innovation, which requires additional work.