Book cover shows an alleyway in a Rio favela, the black and white photo has been given a bluish tinge; my name is upper left, the title of the book "Poverty of the Imagination" is at lower left and at right, in reddish text is the subtitle "The Cold War and the Social Science of Development in Latin America"

Your humble servant has a written a book about the social science of poverty in Cold War Latin America and the contexts that shaped its creation, from international sources like the Ford Foundation to dictatorships across the region. The book is in production and will be ready at the end of 2026

This happens quite a lot to me too (also seeing more AI-generated quotes from "me" in news stories). In a few cases the AI-generated article titles are so good, I feel I should just write an article to make them real.

One Year After Trump’s $400 Million Ultimatum, a Different Columbia

NYT treats Trump’s demands as legitimate and offers up a scorecard for how well Columbia did meeting them. That’s one way to tell the story of a cynical government power grab and a university betraying its ideals and reputation to crush student activism I suppose.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/n...

Do the JASDJ fiscal turn and call to moderation viz civilians owe something to contacts with Al Qaeda, the eternal rival of the IS, which is developing its presence in NW Nigeria and has contacts with the Sadiku JASDJ group there?

Do the JASDJ fiscal turn and call to moderation viz civilians owe something to contacts with Al Qaeda, the eternal rival of the IS, which is developing its presence in NW Nigeria and has contacts with the Sadiku JASDJ group there?

But this is an important evolution. Could the convergence of methods eventually result in a reunification between JASDJ and ISWAP, especially now that Shekau is out of the way? (there have been repeated attempts at negotiations between the two groups)

JASDJ groups can still be very predatory (especially those who are away from the cornucopia that the Lake is). JASDJ in the Mandara mountain are still plundering away, and so do the Ikrima and Gazuwa groups in northern Borno.

So it's looking like Bakura is trying to clean up his act. If you depend on production and taxation, then you have an incentive to make it work. And that means taking care of common tax payers and producers...v

But civilians who ply the Lake to make a living - herders and fishermen and traders are still saying Bakura's men are rougher than ISWAP. Sometimes, you can get kidnapped or abused. Not great for business.

This has been key to Bakura's successful resistance to ISWAP - money has allowed him to procure weapons from Libya, which have helped him fight back and also consolidate his control over other JASDJ groups outside the Lake... t.co/pdZwBgrW7Dht...

More recently, I heard that in the portion of the Diffa region that he controls, Bakura began taxing farmers and herders too.

We have even seen Bakura's men hand out tax receipts (this one here was circulated in 2023 by @ZagazOlaMakama, I think)

Vincent Foucher on X: "A thread on factional competition and innovation in contemporary jihadism... We know that Bakura, the current imam (top guy) of #JASDJ #BokoHaram eventually began to tax herders and farmers. In this, he has followed the lead of the other, Islamic State-inspired faction, #ISWAP." / X A thread on factional competition and innovation in contemporary jihadism... We know that Bakura, the current imam (top guy) of #JASDJ #BokoHaram eventually began to tax herders and farmers. In this, he has followed the lead of the other, Islamic State-inspired faction, #ISWAP.

These last few years, Shekau's successor Ibrahim Bakura Doro began taxing the fishermen in the portion of Lake Chad that he is settled in (incidentally, he has taken control of a lot of the productive high waters at the centre of Lake Chad). x.com/VincentFouch...

Over time, this has played a part in ISWAP's conquest of the JASDJ stronghold of the Sambisa (and suicide of JASDJ leader Abubakar Shekau). t.co/P4QA6MXBKh

Having civilians around to farm, work and fish and forming a stable taxation system has been key to ISWAP's success - allowing it to maintain permanent military units as well as some social services. t.co/eEXn5DsuuW

ISWAP insisted on different methods: Muslim civilians, as long as they did not cooperate with the state and paid defined taxes to the jihadists, should be protected and allowed to go about their business. Even Christians could be allowed in jihadi territory if they pay jizya.

This is important because attitude towards civilians used to be a major difference between #JASDJ and the Islamic State local affiliate, #ISWAP. JASDJ was a sectarian plunder-and-kidnap machine, hitting hard at all non-members, including Muslims.

This cleric is calling for JASDJ members to accept awam ("common men") and others into jihadi territory, and allow them to farm. He is insisting that jihadists should not force civilians to work for them for free but should actually pay them wages.

Very important TikTok video from #JASDJ #BokoHaram cleric tinyurl.com/4p7a5rju (yes, I know, jihadist clerics use the same media as make-up obsessed teens). Here is why...

Assessing LLM Text Detection in Educational Contexts: Does Human Contribution Affect Detection? Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) and their increased accessibility have made it easier than ever for students to automatically generate texts, posing new challenges for educational ...

Just for context: We have done some research in our lab indicating that these 'humanizers' don't really work as advertised. That being said: AI detectors don't really work, either. Educational institutions should refrain from these surveillance measures, in my mind. arxiv.org/abs/2508.08096

lol, so this company can sell this info to bosses and professors for a higher premium, and then sell the students platinum level service where they hide the plagiarism even more, and then …

Check out our new project with @yguichaoua.bsky.social @emorier.bsky.social and @vincentfoucher.bsky.social !

Cc @polscileiden.bsky.social

Black and white profile portrait of a young girl.

28 January 1925 | A French Jewish woman, Zelda Ostrowski, was born in Paris.

She was Deported to #Auschwitz on 9 November 1942 from Drancy in occupied France. She did not survive.
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🎧 Listen about the development of the mass murder infrastructure at Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/tRwZ49q-9e0

To avoid accusations of AI cheating, college students are turning to AI Students are taking new measures, such as dumbing down their work, spying on themselves and using AI “humanizer” programs, to beat accusations of cheating with artificial intelligence.

“Amid accusations of AI cheating, some students are turning to a new group of generative AI tools called ‘humanizers.’ The tools scan essays and suggest ways to alter text so they aren’t read as having been created by AI. Some are free, while others cost around $20 a month.”

"Let us go." Immigration attorney Eric Lee shares a drawing by his five-year-old client, stuck in an immigration prison.

Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

L’UFDG dénonce l’enlèvement du fils d’un de ses cadres, “en l’absence du père”, et exige sa libération “ immédiate” Dans un communiqué, la Direction nationale de ’Union des forces démocratiques de Guinée (UFDG) a indiqué que, dans la nuit du samedi au dimanche 18 janvier 2026, aux environs de 2 heures du matin, …

#Guinée - L’UFDG dénonce l’enlèvement du fils d’un de ses cadres, "en l’absence du père"
mediaguinee.com/2026/01/lufd...

Je viens de lire une tribune (qui paraît demain, je vous la linkerai quand elle sera publiée) qui me fait beaucoup réfléchir. L'auteur, Frédéric Thomas, spécialiste des Caraïbes, souligne à quel point ce qui nous choque dans l'attitude de Trump, c'est qu'il nous traite comme des pays du Sud.

Alors que ce qu'il veut c'est le Groland

Face à la guerre du froid de la Russie, Kyiv serre les dents Alors que les températures plongent, Moscou continue de mener des frappes destructrices contre les infrastructures énergétiques, dégradant gravement les conditions de vie. Les autorités installent de…

Pas de catastrophe, pas de résilience glorieuse non plus : plongée dans le froid et le noir par une nouvelle campagne de frappes russes, Kyiv tient pour l’instant, dents et poings serrés. Une énième épreuve après bientôt quatre ans de guerre totale.

Mon reportage dans @mediapart.fr: