The FSB has been returned the right to operate pretrial detention centers by the legislature, which they were deprived of in 2006. A small step (especially as, per the article, the FSB retained de facto control over some cells) but one that signals an even greater turn to repression ahead.

Госдума вернула ФСБ право иметь собственные СИЗО — Meduza

Госдума приняла в третьем чтении закон, который дает право ФСБ иметь собственные следственные изоляторы (СИЗО). Это следует из данных базы законопроектов нижней палаты парламента.

meduza.io

Russia's Communist Party adopted a resolution condemning Khrushchev's "On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences," also known as the secret speech, as "mistaken," "containing falsified facts and false accusations against Stalin" during its party congress today: meduza.io/news/2025/07...

Съезд КПРФ объявил доклад Хрущева о культе личности Сталина ошибочным — Meduza

Партия КПРФ во время съезда, прошедшего в Московской области, приняла резолюцию, в которой объявила ошибочным доклад Никиты Хрущева о культе личности Иосифа Сталина, сообщает РИА Новости.

meduza.io

IU's Slavic, Eastern European, and Central Asian programs were among the best in the world, a gem of American academia that nurtured numerous giants, including Stephen Cohen. Now almost all of them are abolished, including PhD programs. What an unmitigated disaster.

Rebecca Spang@rlspang.bsky.social · last yr.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

Last words of the Zohran canvasser handing me a flyer around the block from the polling place: "anybody but Cuomo"

It’s really wild how there is no reason to deport anyone, let alone children and US citizens and LPRs and students and people undergoing cancer treatment etc. it’s all a fake solution to a made up problem enacted by violent racists who are stealing from you

Harvard just announced a hiring freeze last week, but they have the space for a failure and a war criminal. "inaugural Kissinger Professor." what a joke

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · last yr.

Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has a new job at Harvard: the "inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order"

a gold rush triggered by higher prices from trump's tariffs has caused illegal miners to destroy cocoa farmland in ghana, lowering prices and polluting water supplies in what some NGOs are calling "ecocide"

How illegal gold mining is fuelling a chocolate shortage

Ghanaian farmers are ditching cocoa to dig for bullion and driving up global prices

ft.com

The White House is too pro-Kremlin for the Kremlin: "The Kremlin is increasingly worried that the emerging rift between the U.S. and Ukraine could derail a potential agreement between Washington and Moscow, The Moscow Times’ sources say."

Kremlin Fears Trump-Zelensky Clash Could Harm Its Shot at a Grand Bargain - The Moscow Times

The Kremlin is increasingly worried that the emerging rift between the U.S. and Ukraine could derail a potential agreement between Washington and Moscow, The Moscow Times’ sources say.  As U.S.

themoscowtimes.com

The key here is to understand that for Trump, it's not a "lie" - it's a Sorelian political myth that allows for him to harness anti-trans bigotry in order to create an overarching worldview where teachers must be destroyed to preserve the sacred nature of the family.

David Corn@davidcorn.bsky.social · last yr.

Pretty awful for Trump and others to exploit this lie.

There it is: permanent austerity must decimate our way of life so that we can lose an unwinnable war: www.ft.com/content/3705...

Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state

There is no way of defending the continent without cuts to social spending

ft.com

the reason this isn't likely is the same reason why the tea party worked: the common factor of both parties is that they're a vehicle for capital and billionaires. capital found the tea party useful; capital is not going to find an AOC-like mass movement useful

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · last yr.

these people are hopeless. i hope they all get tea partied next year

hopefully political imagination and political will can be rallied into a new order, not continuing the mistakes that led us here, as the krastev op-ed concluded

in an FT op-ed, krastev recognizes trump ii as a revolutionary government planning to remake the global order into an explicit america-first arrangement, and once agains pleads with europe to display political strength: www.ft.com/content/3507...

More wake up calls, again. To be followed up by another one tomorrow, next week, etc

yuri@ykazakov.bsky.social · last yr.

Yet another wake up call for Europe. To be followed up by another one tomorrow, next week, etc

zelensky's confrontation is made all the more remarkable for how much his country depends on american support. compare with the cowardice of the american press corps and the obsequious groveling of eg Sir Keir

beautiful obit to spassky in the guardian: "In the summer of 1946, Spassky began to visit a chess pavilion in the city’s Central Park and became obsessed with the game: “I used to go at 11am and return home at 11pm. When the pavilion closed in September it was like death, with no chess."

Boris Spassky obituary

Russian chess world champion who lost to Bobby Fischer in the sport’s most famous match at the peak of the cold war

theguardian.com

Notes from the Underground continues to be a basic explanatory framework for our politics.

Musa Okwonga@okwonga.bsky.social · last yr.

One of my best friends is from a sleepy, wealthy small town in the south-west of Germany. He said, so many of my parents’ neighbours are rich and bored, with little to complain about, and they’ve radicalised themselves at dinner parties and online. In their aimlessness, they’ve bonded over hate.

The Trump effect in action:

yuri@ykazakov.bsky.social · last yr.

The Trump effect is remarkable. If there were anything to rekindle the Ukrainian fighting spirit after months of flagging morale, thousands of troops going AWOL, and paper brigades, it would exactly be "Zelensky is a dictator, Ukraine started the war. and it owes us $500 billion."

The Trump effect is remarkable. If there were anything to rekindle the Ukrainian fighting spirit after months of flagging morale, thousands of troops going AWOL, and paper brigades, it would exactly be "Zelensky is a dictator, Ukraine started the war. and it owes us $500 billion."

lmfao holy shit we're reaching new levels of "fuck the yanks"

Yet another wake up call for Europe. To be followed up by another one tomorrow, next week, etc

I ask again: is there any professional with honor left in this country? Why are you running an article asking questions about the electoral impacts of annexing Canada without mentioning that it's illegal, a war crime, that it would lead to death, suffering, destruction? Are you insane?

Peter Baker@peterbakernyt.bsky.social · last yr.

Canada as the 51st state? Trump thinks it would be a boon to his legacy. But it would also be a boon to Democrats, who would gain a lot more voters. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...

an incredible collection of new york times headlines and articles from the last 24 hours. you know, we're all living a society, including the journalists and editors

the full-scale russian invasion of ukraine 3 years ago wasn't a shock enough? www.ft.com/content/1ee4...

who's driving? #nooneatthewheel

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · last yr.

it's so darkly fascinating that America is simultaneously doing: - Hooverism-Trussism-Milleism as econ - Showa era factionalism - NatCon driven social policy - 90s Russia stealing of the state by DOGE - 80s LatAm hybrid regime shit with law

is there a single professional in this country with a sense of honor left?

Brian Stelter@brianstelter.bsky.social · last yr.

Consider the possibility that the Trump White House WANTS this fight. Wants journalists to act like opponents instead of observers. If the entire press pool skipped a Trump photo op in solidarity with The AP, wouldn't the White House welcome Breitbart and One America News to take their places?

This administration is busy playing around with as many third rails it can find. They're going to wind up directly touching one sooner or later. For instance, why not shut down the FDIC? www.wsj.com/finance/regu...

Exclusive | Trump Advisers Eye Bank Regulator Consolidation After Targeting CFPB

Pathways under discussion would attempt to merge the FDIC, OCC without input from Congress.

wsj.com

I hope DOGE deletes the Library of Congress Russian transliteration guidelines. I︠U︡riĭ instead of Yuri? Ulit︠s︡kai︠a︡, Li︠u︡dmila? This never simplified anything