Initiatives like the Riyadh Comedy Festival aren’t helping Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman “clean up” his image abroad. But the kingdom’s international reputation isn’t its main priority here.

@andrewleber.bsky.social, on @npr.org: www.npr.org/2025/10/04/n...

Wind River --> state capacity

Motherless Brooklyn has a thinly fictionalized version of Robert Moses in NY city government

Two especially good bits ⬇️

What @andrewleber.bsky.social’s analysis captures, that much discourse around “-washing” events in the Gulf & beyond often neglects, are these domestic drivers.

Not everything is done solely, or mainly, for an international gaze. Some risks are taken despite that gaze.

Dwayne has his job back because we organized for it. We fight or we die. Join AAUP today www.aaup.org/join

I looked at the domestic drivers of the Riyadh Comedy Festival for @carnegieendowment.org

carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

Speaking tomorrow with Elias Muhanna at Brown University on a panel about Gulf-monarchy "giga-projects," for anybody interested in stopping by.

events.brown.edu/middle-east/...

"Perhaps the most ghastly piece printed during Hegseth’s reign as publisher was an assertion that Princeton’s characterization of sex with an unconscious person as nonconsensual was an effort to “indoctrinate” students."

thebaffler.com/salvos/battl...

it's a great interview, and what's striking is that at the end of the day both klein and coates believe in winning people over. the difference is that coates thinks you do this by telling them the truth, and klein thinks you do it by empathizing with them and recognizing their concerns as Real

"As AI bots like ChatGPT become inextricably tangled with people’s private and public lives, it’s causing unpredictable new crises."

futurism.com/chatgpt-marr...

With due respect to the authors, this article further affirms the bankruptcy of terrorism studies in being a) value-neutral on "the state" and b) drawing artificial divisions with other forms of political violence.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.

Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

Across the Middle East, Israel’s strikes on Qatar have raised questions– among them whether the region can rely on the U.S. for protection.

Amr Hamzawy, Sarah Yerkes, @andrewleber.bsky.social, and Marwan Muasher share more: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

🔝 This is the most-read story on FT right now >>

I joined Carnegie colleagues Amr Hamzawy, Marwan Muasher, and Sarah Yerkes in assessing the regional fallout of Israel's recent strikes on Doha.

carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

'“They don’t want to go down in history as the people who facilitated either a genocide or the pathway to a genocide,” he says; they want jobs in the next White House.'

nymag.com/intelligence...

[email protected] is "seek to hire an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Comparative Political Economy." Open area focus, but looking especially for:
energy transitions
natural resources governance
domestic environmental/climate politics

apply.interfolio.com/172989

"A headline in “Intelligencer” captured Cassidy’s posture: “Key Republican Almost Annoyed Enough at RFK Jr. to Act.”"

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A good look at US democratic backsliding in comparative perspective from McKenzie Carrier and Thomas Carothers.

Via @carnegieendowment.org

carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Sadly a feature, not a bug, for a Trump administration bent on destroying "liberal" institutions.

www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...

3 The Saints open next week in the Caesars Superdome, a building named after a casino in a world more dominated by MLMs, crypto, and assorted scams than ever before. Fans will spend a lot of their time watching while also placing bets on apps designed to bleed money from them all day.

The decline in three Superdomes.

1 Katrina ripped the roof off the Louisiana Superdome, a place where Louisiana citizens expected to feel safe

2 The Saints won a championship playing on the Mercedes Benz Superdome, a more expensive, corporate sponsored, literally gilded version of the old building

Have also come across "made-up quote from a real publication"