Amazing how many systematic, really excellent indices we have now on global peace, democracy, autocracy. The world is known/revealed as never before.

Video after video shows Israeli settlers violently harassing and attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, seizing their livestock, bulldozing their schools, setting fire to their property and even killing Palestinians as part of a brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand control over the land – with full political and financial backing from the highest authorities of the Israeli state. This is what a policy of state-led ethnic cleansing looks like. Watch. Share. Demand action.

I'm pleased to see our paper introducing the Democratic Erosion Event Dataset, an events-based dataset on democratic erosion, finally out in Scientific Data. In our data, we distinguish between resistance, precursors, symptoms, and destabilizing events nature.com/articles/s41597-0…

I use the words physical hygiene and emotional hygiene. We should pay equally important attention to the hygiene of our emotions. Physical hygiene keeps us physically fit — but full of anger, what use is that? Real hygiene is emotional: peaceful, compassionate emotion. That is the real inner hygiene.

Very nice.

Excellent piece here about how autocracies are quietly subverting international organizations from within. One of the most significant and sinister recent developments: democracywithoutborders.org/…

🚨 Workers’ rights are under growing attack worldwide! 🚨 The 2026 ITUC Global Rights Index rates 151 countries on workers’ rights and democracy. 🌍 Find your country’s rating and take action. Learn more 👉 ituc-csi.org/global-rights-i… #RightsIndex26 #FightForDemocracy @etuc_ces @CSA_TUCA @ituc_africa @itucasiapacific @ArabTradeUnion

I truly never miss this podcast. Between his insights and Ben Rhodes' (forthcoming book All We Say), I begin to understand what's happening in the US -- how it's part of a centuries-long struggle for the soul of the country: constitutional ideals vs blood & soil nationalism.

The year 2026 is set to be eventful at the United Nations, with a new President of the General Assembly and the election of a new Secretary-General who will take over in January after the conclusion of a 10-year tenure by the outgoing SG Antonio Guterres ipsnews.net/2026/05/when-un-…

Griffith Asia-Pacific Insights special #SoutheastAsia edition explores major issues shaping #AsiaPacific Including Australia’s regional strategy, #Malaysia–#US trade tensions, #Climate risks, #Mekong governance and #Australia–#Vietnam #FoodTrade. 🔗 ow.ly/cIIc50Z4YrC

New episode! Trump’s imperial presidency is showing up everywhere: bogus prosecutions, deportation threats, attacks on speech, war powers, and military escalation abroad. This week on The Oath and The Office, we connect the dots — from Abrego Garcia and Mahmoud Khalil to Iran, Latin America, and the war on drugs. With @JohnFugelsang and filmaker @andrewglazer podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

#Australia is pushing ahead with an ambitious #SoutheastAsia strategy. In this article, adapted from remarks delivered at the latest #PerspectivesAsia series, Nicholas Farrelly examines #ASEAN ties, trade, diplomacy and regional security. 🔗 ow.ly/YTUj50Z4AQG

Pope Leo XIV: "Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. From this perspective, persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them." #MagnificaHumanitas

What he said.

Let us learn to be rich in a different way: more attentive to relationships, more intent on valuing the common good, more attached to the local area, more grateful in welcoming and integrating those who come to live with us.

"Far from making people turn away in horror, political violence in the present is the greatest factor normalizing it for the future. Preventing a downward spiral is therefore imperative." journalofdemocracy.org/artic…

Secret SCOTUS Memos Reveal the Truth About the Shadow Docket | Jodi Kantor youtu.be/pK_Dj6_X-jM?si=aAiO… via @YouTube @JohnFugelsang

The corporate takeover of American politics was rapid and ruthless. In the 1970s, I watched as thousands of corporate lobbyists descended on Washington. Fast forward to today, and lobbying has become a multi-billion dollar industry. It all began with the Powell Memo.

New epiosde! Trump is trying to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of people. @kateashaw1 joins The Oath and The Office to explain the TPS case, presidential power, and the future of the rule of law. @JohnFugelsang podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…