Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did 'just abortions,' asked for 'Barney-style' slides before gutting agency, per new book Read an exclusive excerpt from Nicholas Enrich's "Into the Wood Chipper"

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health.

'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

America First in Africa - United States Department of State Thank you, Kendra. And it’s a pleasure to be here with Ambassador Giordano, Chairman Jovanovic, and other distinguished guests and colleagues. The Trump Administration remains engaged in Africa. Since...

www.state.gov/releases/bur...

I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves The hours of videos provide fascinating, or perhaps horrifying, insight into the thinking of someone inside DOGE.

So @josephcox.bsky.social watched over six hours of this deposition featuring DOGE staffer Justin Fox who, when asked how he defined “DEI” kept saying he needed to refer to the EO.

Highlights here:

Here's a thread featuring clips of key moments from the DC Metropolitan Police body camera footage of the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that I obtained as a result of my FOIA lawsuit:

Controversial land reform in Zimbabwe ‘helping small farmers over climate change’ Exclusive: 25 years after the programme – widely seen as being characterised by violence and economic chaos – was introduced, new research finds that it has helped smallholder farmers become more resilient to the climate crisis

IDS researcher Prof Ian Scoones shares findings from research on Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme, which suggests that it has helped smallholder farmers adapt to #ClimateChange.

👇 via @the-independent.com #Zimbabwe #LandReform
https://the-independent.pulse.ly/s7zhrjnlkm

Election denier involved in fake electors plot wrote much of SAVE America Act, Trump-aligned think tank claims “I’m here to do everything I can to make this work,” Thomas Lane wrote in a December 2020 email to other organizers of the Trump campaign’s fake electoral plot in Arizona.

🚨BREAKING: An election-denying former Donald Trump campaign staffer who was subpoenaed by the FBI over his role in the attempt to steal the 2020 election is now taking credit for writing the sweeping voter suppression bill passed by the House Wednesday that could disenfranchise millions.

image of a report cover, with a US flag in the background, and the text "The Political Disconnect: Working-Class and Low-Income People on What Politics Means to Them and How They Might be Mobilized”

Today I'm releasing probably the most important scholarly thing I've ever worked on - a report based on talking with 144 people about why they don't vote or only vote regularly, and on what needs to be done to build a democracy that can include everyone.
www.swarthmore.edu/u...
please share!

The City’s Budget is our future. And you deserve to know how it works.

Update on Lives Lost from USAID Cuts In this blog, we report on an update to our earlier estimates of the potential mortality impacts of the administration’s aid cuts. A similar approach to our original estimates using financial data to ...

The projected death toll from USAID program cancellations is rising.

New analysis by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @justsand.bsky.social finds current cuts could cost 1 million lives now, and even more with future reductions. More ⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/4s0Z8w7

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine

i’ll say it again, jennings is a contemptible liar and it is a disgrace that CNN puts him on television every night to spread bullshit

Bluesky community! This is my official NYC mayor account. I’ll be posting updates on what’s happening at City Hall and how we’re delivering for New Yorkers. It’s great to be here.

The Most Anticipated Books of the Year The 30 biggest releases in foreign affairs, history, and political science.

Foreign Policy's Most Anticipated Books of 2026 is here! Read more on the 30 picks here in @foreignpolicy.com, including titles from @brankomilan.bsky.social, @landemore.bsky.social, bethnoveck.bsky.social, and more:

What a line-up! An @antipodeonline.bsky.social first: a "longread" of 68 pages! Expect a splendid New Year's gift, when the issue goes to print early Jan!
@udadisi.bsky.social
@samar42.bsky.social @demonicgrounds.bsky.social
#geosky @darajapress.bsky.social

Really interesting write-up about Zohran's father Mahmood Mamdani and how African History, Africana Studies and the struggle for civil rights and social equity in the US intersect:

I can't emphasize enough why having women of color who champion people of color at the helm makes all the difference.

The cost of living crisis starts with us.
The childcare crisis starts with us.
The student debt crisis starts with us.

Mamdani is (un)knowingly addressing #TheDoubleTax here.

Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total...

By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000.

More than 260,000 will be children.

Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

Finance, Land and Labour Click on the article title to read more.

Our paper is now open access.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#geosky #ipesky #financialization @landrush.bsky.social @ahakram-lodhi.bsky.social @plaasuwc.bsky.social @financeandspace.bsky.social @financialization.bsky.social @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @benbraun.bsky.social

Top GOP Mapmaker Describes a Texas Gerrymander Ordered Up By Washington Read more here.

NEW: This year, Texas handed the keys to its congressional map over to Washington. The Republican Party’s top mapmaker testified Wednesday he received directions only from the White House, as well as requests from the Texas GOP congressional delegation.

www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

It is amazing how fucking awful @schumer.senate.gov is at his job.

People in Sudan and Gaza are starving. The international community must act | Alex de Waal Sudan is the largest food crisis and Gaza is the worst emergency by intensity of deprivation – both disasters need urgent action

The formidable Alex de Waal: "Gaza is the worst food emergency by intensity of deprivation. There’s no case in recent decades that matches Gaza’s severity of starvation or speed of descent into such a state. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...