Thanks to the WCPS crew for ensuring a presence @MPSA26 next week. Please share widely!!!

Again, the authoritarianism extremism of the American Republican Party far exceeds that of...Viktor Orban & Fidesz, who just immediately conceded an election without any of the shenanigans, coups, nonstop lies about nonexistent voter fraud, or endless litigation of the GOP after every US election.

My crim law professor taught us “most people obey most of the laws most of the time”. Same with countries. The law isn’t only about what powerful countries do at the extremes. It’s also about the middle band of countries that are mostly trying to do most of the things rightly, and giving them tools.

Nomenclature has a lot of semiotic value - it gives us a baseline for challenging behaviour and a shared starting point for understanding why certain things are a big deal. Law is not just about arrests and detentions, it’s also about establishing minimum standards of conduct.

Acted as if the rules didn’t apply to non white populations. The UK decried concentration camps in Germany in 1940 and then established them in Kenya in the 1950s. Germany didn’t acknowledge the genocide of the Herero until the 21st c. The massacres of indigenous peoples in Asia and Latin America.

One reason why we label war crimes is that it creates a mutually intelligible framework for people to understand the gravity of an action across time and cultures. Most of our IHL framework predates the independence of most of the world and for a long time colonial countries

UW graduate student deported through SEA as protesters demand answers A union representing University of Washington graduate student workers says Kennedy Orwa’s student visa was rescinded without explanation.

Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel.

King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.

I don’t read the feed much there but it is great for connecting students to former students. And for job postings of all kinds. (Basically I’m there to help my students get jobs.)

The women coaches ✨

💐💐💐💐💐

Weary professors give up, concede that Africa is a country As of April 1, we’re done.

Happy 10th anniversary to the best #AprilFools prank @dadakim.bsky.social & I ever pulled!

I definitely cannot be trusted.

That desk clearly belongs to Eggsy.

WNBA Players Had an Ace Up Their Sleeve in Pay Negotiations: A Nobel Laureate Harvard economist Claudia Goldin helped WNBA players win a nearly 400% raise. Starting this season, players’ average salary will top $580,000.

After Claudia Goldin became the first woman to win a solo Nobel in economics, she got hundreds of invitations.

She accepted three.

One was advising WNBA players on a labor deal. She helped players land the biggest % raise in US sports history.
www.wsj.com/economy/wnba...

the way I cackled just now.

Man driving a motor scooter with a dog in his lap and smoke from bombs rising in the sky behind them

Man with his dog flees from bombs in Tehran.

(Photo by Pooria Hatami)

If the estimates were right, there were about 9 million people at No Kings rallies today.

That would mean this protest was THIRTY TIMES AS LARGE AS THE TEA PARTY PROTEST which we were told, over and over again, was a massively important sign that US politics had shifted dramatically to the right

Today is the 128th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship in U.S. v. Wong Ark Kim.

Viktor Orbán created a new state foundation that forced independent media owners to transfer ownership, changed the state media into a propaganda mouthpiece, and hounded the remaining few free media with tax audits, raids, and surveillance.

Over 80% of the media in Hungary is now in his hands.

Ever the social scientist—I am curious who the movers are. I wonder if you would consider having them articulate which side they personally prefer before they have to debate (and before they’re even randomized to a side). You could ask half the students that question and another half a placebo q.

Weekend reading.

From the Professors community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the Professors community

Wholesome professor post: www.reddit.com/r/Professors...

He Had a Full Ride at Duke—Until America Cut Him Off Student visas for Africa’s best and brightest were canceled by the Trump administration, leaving behind empty seats and broken dreams.

Zero Americans benefit from this.

All of us, every Conservative and every Liberal American, are watching our future hobbled.

Shattering a treasured national asset: our former status as the top destination for global talent, hard-wrought by generations of visionary Republicans and Democrats.

How AI Hype Masks the Exploitation of African Workers AI is a consolidation of labor hierarchies, a plunder of African skills, and a commodification of African knowledge, write Marché Arends and Kathryn Cleary.

What is marketed as AI “innovation” is, in practice, a consolidation of global labor hierarchies and a commodification of African knowledge, write Marché Arends and Kathryn Cleary, drawing on their year-long investigation supported by the Pulitzer Center and published by Africa Uncensored.

He Had a Full Ride at Duke—Until America Cut Him Off Student visas for Africa’s best and brightest were canceled by the Trump administration, leaving behind empty seats and broken dreams.

The point not captured in this headline is how the US is hurting itself by behaving this way. www.wsj.com/world/africa...

The Second Coming BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

POETRY FOUNDATION Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Chatted with a writer on campus today and she quoted this poem: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/...

Au Mali, un journaliste condamné à deux ans de prison pour un article critiquant la junte au Niger L’article, publié le 2 février, reprochait à Abdourahamane Tiani d’avoir accusé la France, la Côte d’Ivoire et le Bénin d’être impliqués dans une attaque contre l’aéroport de Niamey à la fin de janvier. Cette attaque a été revendiquée par le groupe djihadiste Etat islamique.

Au Mali, un journaliste condamné à deux ans de prison pour un article critiquant la junte au Niger

I just want to reply with did the journal factory explode but

Chatgpt informed me that it was "very likely incorrect" that Peter Mutharika is President of Malawi and that there was an election in 2025.

I feel much better about my prospects of continued employment as an Africa specialist than I did, an hour ago.

Awards nominations are open for African Politics! Please share widely!
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