Safeguarding Scholarship in Emerging Autocracies: Preview of an APS Convention Workshop This article provides a preview of a workshop that will take place during APS’s Annual Convention in Barcelona. The workshop is scheduled for Thursday, 28 May 2026, 14:00–18:00.

Here is a sneak preview of a workshop that we will run at the APS meeting in Barcelona in May, about how to cope with autocratization. It will be based on our Anti-Autocracy Handbook. I will be putting it on together with Prof Christina Pagel and Vera Kempe:

Vaccines in the Void: Hesitancy and Heuristics Vaccine hesitancy isn't just a public health problem. It's a communication problem, a psychology problem, and increasingly, a policy problem. This event cuts to

Looking forward to this event in Perth in two days: events.humanitix.com/vaccines-in-... So nice to be back in W.A. Any local folks, feel free to register, apparently a few seats still available.

Malcolm Turnbull, 29th PM of Australia, on risks to democracy from concentrated media ownership YouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit

The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull, 29th Prime Minister of Australia, on the risks to democracy of concentrated media ownership.

Cambridge Disinformation Summit.

youtu.be/BtXUcFBaErc

Trump’s presidency is what evil looks like: absurd, frightening, cruel | Nesrine Malik Commentators have said that the US president’s clownishness and lack of ideology somehow make him less dangerous. They’re wrong, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Trump’s presidency is what evil looks like: absurd, frightening, cruel | Nesrine Malik

What I Saw Inside the Kennedy Center I spent 10 months working at the institution because I thought I could help protect it. What I observed there is far worse than the public knows.

Heartbreaking description of the pointless, thoughtless damage being done to the Kennedy Center. It was such an important part of life in Washington, and is now being destroyed for no reason

www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Check out this important work—developed together with researchers from our Center for Adaptive Rationality @arc-mpib.bsky.social!

Glad that UCS is doing this.

Working on hard topics -- like climate change, vaccines, etc. -- in the public eye is challenging.

Stay safe, folks. But also stay brave. And stay working!

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

The brilliant Rebecca Solnit asks us to "imagine a more democratic, more egalitarian, more generous country, one that operates in recognition of an abundance of wealth that should serve all of us – and nature and future generations too – rather than is driven by the moral poverty of billionaires."

BREAKING: Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán has called Péter Magyar to concede defeat in today's election.

With 53.45% of votes counted, Magyar's TISZA looks set to secure a super majority.

A defeat for Putin, a defeat for Trump, a victory for Europe, and above all, a victory for the Hungarian people.

Trump says US will blockade Strait of Hormuz after Iran talks end without a deal In marathon meetings this weekend, sources say the two sides were deadlocked over Tehran's nuclear program and control of the strait. Updated 11:03 AM EDT, Sun April 12, 2026

please, please make it make sense. edition.cnn.com/2026/04/12/w...

Following Trump’s example of how to return traffic to the Strait of Hormuz, I’m going to unclog my kitchen drain by stuffing it with chewing gum and anything I find in my hairbrushes.

Glad to hear the glorious science reform movement has found some illustrious company. sciencebasedmedicine.org

The great Steve Lewandowsky @lewan.bsky.social presented cutting-edge new work at the Cambridge Disinformation Summit with @almogsi.bsky.social showing how alienating us vs them rhetoric predicts real-world violent outcomes across 145 political manifestos between 1796 & 2024.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

As part of my efforts to combat the COVID Amnesia Project, let's accurately remember what 3 influential laptop class doctors from Stanford said 6 years ago as COVID overflowed hospitals and morgues.

They won't remind you.

I will.

My latest.

RPRN statement on HEPI’s Preparing for Populism debate paper - Reactionary Politics Research Network RPRN statement on HEPI’s Preparing for Populism debate paper

A very good and insightful response to an appalling proposal:

James Orr and the Messianic Transatlantic MAGA Alliance Trying to 'Save' Britain Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed reveal how James Orr, Nigel Farage's new head of policy, is the key religious and ideological linkman for Palantir's Peter Thiel and Sir Paul Marshall's GB News

International far-right networks: Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed reveal how James Orr, Nigel Farage’s new head of policy, is the key religious and ideological linkman for Palantir’s Peter Thiel and Sir Paul Marshall’s GB News. bylinetimes.com/2026/04/07/j...

UCS just released a very nice and concise guide for how to stay safe in the public eye -- for scholars and researchers, but also for anyone else concerned about safety during autocratization:
www.ucs.org/sites/de...

The battle against Trump is a battle against genocide iandunt.substack.com/p/the-battle...

Summer School - Program The Summer School will advance attendees' knowledge about cognitive and social psychological frameworks on disinformation and misinformation and about how to best combat this problem. The program will combine keynote lectures by leading international scholars on misinformation with collaborative

🚨Misinformation is a topic of high relevance due to its negative effects, including conspiracy theories, attacks on science and hate speech.

📍This 4-day program is designed for PhD candidates and early-career researchers eager to dive deep into the cognitive and social roots of misinformation.

📢 We are thrilled to announce the CIMCYC International Doctoral Summer School: "Psychological Approaches to Misinformation in Minds and Society," taking place in Granada from September 15–18, 2026.

💡Full program and applications: sites.google.com/view/misinfo...

Serious possibility: maybe autocratization has something to do with it? Threat of arrest or deportation?

I’ve known Lebanon for three decades. What’s happening now is an invasion.

This is Gaza 2.0 – and the world is barely paying attention.

@CaroleCadwalladr for the Nerve

Link 🔽

White House advisors threatened Pope Leo?

WHAT? Can anyone link to the story and threats?

Drafted by AI, checked and independently approved by 3 people.

We need public funding and public options to replace Big Tech corporations that threaten democracy and society. Stop Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos, and Page/Brin calling the shots + profiting by exploiting our data.

But how?

This is an excellent read, very carefully written + thought through.👇

Must-read from my colleague @scharfbillig.bsky.social with @lewan.bsky.social et al.

Democracy depends on a certain degree of shared reality. The attention economy delivers ever more bespoke realities.

The report sets out why and proposes how to deliver a pro-democracy information space.

Very cool. I'll post it to our reddit.com/r/EuropeanUnion subreddit so more people see it

Fractured reality The report examines the evolving impact of digital technologies on European democracy. In an era of a global struggle to control the information space, this report offers critical insights into the fracturing of perceived realities, the rise of the ”fantasy-industrial complex,” and the systemic risks posed by the attention economy. It exposes how platforms algorithmically prioritise engagement over accuracy, reinforcing ideological echo chambers and amplifying mis- and disinformation that erode democratic resilience. The report highlights how structural incentives and foreign control of the most important players in the information space undermine information integrity, collective knowledge and civic discourse. In response, the report presents a number of recommendations from fostering alternative public spaces and crowd-sourced knowledge systems to reforming business models, restoring user agency, and advancing EU digital sovereignty through decentralised infrastructure.

Launched today at the Cambridge Disinformation Summit.
Read the full report 👇

sks.to/fractured

Mario Scharfbillig
Sacha Altay
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen
Sebastián Valenzuela
Ullrich Ecker
Michael E. Mann
Naomi Oreskes
10/10

77% of experts surveyed call the current trajectory — a "struggle for information supremacy" — harmful. Only 3% see it as beneficial. The solutions exist. The political will is what's needed.
9/10

Third fix: EU digital sovereignty. Most major platforms are foreign-owned & may not share European democratic values. The report backs decentralised alternatives — think Mastodon, FediVerse, Eurosky — and calls for a "European CERN for Data & Democracy."
8/10