I've done a NEW page on my website 🖥️
And I'm starting NEWSLETTER ✉️
If you are interested in the use of AI and other tech in how govts the world over administer the welfare state you should sign up!
Monthly-ish insights, analysis, gossip, thrills and more ⤵️
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Climate-responsive social protection: A primer for philanthropy
We need to take urgent #ClimateAction right now to avoid the worst of Climate Change!
More: odi.org/en/publications/pri...
#ClimateAction
Scalable Targeting of Social Protection: When Do Algorithms Out-Perform Surveys and Community Knowledge?: Emily Aiken; Anik Ashraf; Joshua Blumenstock; Raymond Guiteras; Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
Developing countries are pushing back on Big Tech’s control of user data. The countries want tech giants to store their citizens’ data locally instead of overseas, to reclaim digital sovereignty and have more control, reports @tarykuh.bsky.social for @restofworld.org
restofworld.org/2025/big-tec...
Stark visual!
This proposal is a bomb under the right to asylum in Europe. People who flee war and prosecution deserve our protection. With this proposal, asylum seekers can potentially be deported through unsafe third countries, without any form of connection being needed. 1/2
bsky.app/profile/eura...
Global average temperatures are spiking, rising faster than climate models seem able to explain, and in a sane world, every country would be united in a full-scale effort to figure this out & respond. Instead the US is dismantling its scientific infrastructure.
46% of 16 to 21 year olds say they would rather a world without internet, and 70% say they feel worse about themselves after using social media.
It’s long past time governments stepped in to address the consequences of leaving the internet to the private sector.
None of the 278 men sent to CECOT have been returned. Meanwhile their lawyer has been arrested and "disappeared" in El Salvador.
The government was wrong to cut winter fuel payments.
It was wrong to keep the 2-child benefit cap.
It was wrong to slash disability benefits.
Pushing people into poverty is the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do is redistribute wealth and power so that everyone can live in dignity.
3/ How did Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum became the most popular president in the world? Read this.
“We will not return to the neoliberal model … We will continue with Mexican Humanism and with the maxim of ‘For the good of all, first the poor.’”
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
I've had a long-running thread on twitter on the real migration crisis (not enough migrants). Will start posting here... but for the earlier 1,000-plus examples, see here:
x.com/charlesjkenn...
"Health insurance coverage among pregnant women and new mothers in the DRC remains critically low at 3%"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New research from @itep.org found that Trump’s tariffs will hike the taxes of the poorest 20% of Americans by 6.2%.
Meanwhile, the richest 1% will see a 1.7% hike.
Everybody suffers under tariffs, but as always, it’s the poor that hurt the most.
itep.org/trump-tariff...
Would it surprise you to learn that Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft have avoided nearly $278 billion in corporate taxes over the last decade?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
It's time for wealthy individuals AND corporations to pay up. www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...
Powerful, if scary, read.
With Trump gutting the $17.75 minimum wage for contract workers, corporations with government contracts are free to cut wages for hundreds of thousands of workers.
That can mean up to 25% pay cut—a devastating amount for those just trying to get by. www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...
My new post mapping out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information.
Do read and share. Full 🧵 tomorrow hopefully!
christinapagel.substack.com/p/a-republic...
US tells UN's FAO to stop "distracting focus on climate" and instead help farmers adapt to drought & extreme heat. 🤔
usunrome.usmission.gov/u-s-statemen...
Tax matters may seem almost administrative and of negligible importance within this context, but Israel’s withholding of tax sovereignty has been a significant and compounding factor in the denial of Palestinian rights. taxjustice.net/2025/04/09/a...
In the latest ODID blog, @ophioxford.bsky.social Director Sabina Alkire highlights a lesser-known casualty of the current tumult in humanitarian assistance, the flagship Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program
www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/blog/flying-...
My beloved old professor Ha-Joon Chang on why #tariffs make sense for some countries but definitely not in this case (think child development) youtu.be/Shz3mSMqW04?... @garyseconomics.bsky.social
I'm seeing a huge spike in interest in tariffs from people who normally don't work in the economics of international trade. Here are a few useful things to know about them. (1/14)
New blog by @justsand.bsky.social and me on USAID cuts by country and updated (again) sectoral cuts based on the list that went to Congress today.
Ukraine $1.4bn cut. Ethiopia, the DRC, Colombia, South Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh, Kenya, Afghanistan, and Tanzania >$200m
@emryss.bsky.social
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
Had been waiting for this one: all it takes is political will, yet the massive problem here is the unfettered will to slash rather than serve (and the cutting of all checks and balances in the process) bsky.app/profile/scho... #interoperability #data
A must-read! 📖 This blog delves into the implications of recent funding cuts on social protection, summarizing key insights from our recent Open Discussion. Join the conversation and explore the reflections from the social protection community.