AUSTIN, Texas – President Trump’s recent deal with Mexico has that country deploying 10,000 troops to the border. But America’s commitments in agreement have gone insufficiently examined.

“For the first time, the U.S. government will work jointly to avoid the entry of guns to Mexico,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced to reporters.

That promise is in response to a years-old narrative that America’s love affair with guns helped create Mexican cartel monsters who poison Americans with fentanyl. This claim has been relentlessly advanced by Democratic lawmakers and progressive gun-control advocates. Trump’s recent concession to work on the “problem” has added heft to Mexico’s claim that it has nothing to do with its own cartel crisis—as when Mexico recently filed a $10 billion lawsuit against American gun manufacturers for allegedly turning a blind eye to gun smugglers.

“If you want to stop the trafficking of fentanyl to the U.S., if you want to stop the violence that’s leading to a lot of migration across the border, you’re going to need to stop the flow of guns to Mexico because that’s what’s leading to all these problems,” said Jonathan Lowy, an attorney representing the Mexican government in the case.

But this storyline has not aged well. It is so incomplete and devoid of up-to-date context as to qualify as an unproven claim at best, and a flagrant falsehood at worst.

The Fighting Irish may soon be fighting in court rather than on the gridiron. Few universities have practiced affirmative action in hiring longer than Notre Dame, as I document in a new report. Notre Dame’s provost even recently announced that increasing “the number of women and underrepresented minorities” on the faculty is a goal “equally important” to hiring Catholic faculty.

Like all borrowers, The Australia Institute welcomes the 0.25% cut in the official cash rate. It should have happened months ago.

History tells us that interest rate cuts never happen as a one-off.

Whether or not we are in an election campaign, even if we’re just days out from an election, on April 1, the RBA should cut again.

“To suggest there should be no cut in April because it would appear political is absurd,” said Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute.

“Treasurer Jim Chalmers constantly reminds us the Reserve Bank is independent of government.

“A rate cut in April would have nothing to do with politics. In fact, it would be political not to cut just because we are in an election campaign.

“Home owners should not be denied the next cut because of politics. It should be a purely economic decision.

“Today, the RBA has finally recognised that with inflation in the bottom half of its target range, with wage growth slowing and unemployment remaining steady and with the government subsidising energy prices to keep inflation down that the time has come to cut rates.

“The 25 basis point cut will save households around $100 a month on a $600,000 loan. It is small but necessary drop that has been long overdue but it better late than never.”

tl;dr Believing isn’t a good substitute for thinking.

Notes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025. Today is Day Twenty

Changes to Australian law should come from public debate and democratic will, not deals to appease corporate interests ahead of an election.

“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s overriding of government processes and his own Environment Minister recalls the ‘captain’s picks’ of Tony Abbott – like knighting Prince Phillip and scrapping the proposed paid parental leave scheme,” said Bill Browne, Director, Democracy & Accountability Program at The Australia Institute.

“The NSW gambling industry used ‘MoUs’ with politicians to prevent action on gambling harm for a decade. Albanese’s pledge to change environmental laws if they do not suit polluters is just as disappointing.

“In Australia’s Westminster system of government, ministers are responsible for their portfolios – and Tanya Plibersek is Minister for the Environment. It is Ms Plibersek, not Mr Albanese, who promised zero extinctions under a Labor government and who is accountable to Parliament.”

“The salmon industry cannot rely on the Prime Minister’s pledge to make Australia’s environmental laws “appropriate” for the industry: it is Parliament that makes Australia’s laws, and the Labor Party has not controlled both houses of Parliament since World War 2.”

It is still unclear whether the salmon industry has the necessary approvals under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Introduction

Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures” is a ‘go-to’ report for storytellers, artivists, students, scholars and impact practitioners interested in impact storytelling (often referred to as “storytelling for social change”).

This large study from University of the Arts London’s UAL AKO Storytelling Institute has been designed to help answer questions such as:

• What is ‘impact storytelling’?
• What evidence is there that impact storytelling works?
• What is the history and current landscape of impact storytelling, in the UK and internationally?

It maps the structure of the impact storytelling ecosystem, identifies its key players, listens to current live debates and questions how to better collaborate in an emerging space that is still fairly siloed. By bringing to the foreground some of the ecosystem’s gaps and blind spots, it hopes to open a space for reflection and debate. The intention is to serve as a base towards cross-industry collaboration and cross-disciplinary consolidation.

Theatre is gay.

Don’t get me wrong—I love theatre. I’ve acted in college and community productions, worked backstage, directed high school plays, and attended a few dozen shows at various D.C. venues. 

But it’s very gay. 

It’s also—like much of the arts—resolutely Left. Playbills invariably frame the shows’ plots in progressive political terms, directors gleefully queer and gender-bend characters, and every theatre in town continued enforcing mask mandates long after they became a joke everywhere else.

So imagine my shock when D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, previously wreathed year-round in rainbow light, began instead to throw pure white illumination onto the dark waters of the Potomac. Theatre will remain at least somewhat gay, but get more based (a week ago, Trump announced Ric Grenell as the Kennedy Center’s interim executive director).

That wasn’t the end, though. Just hours later, President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that the Kennedy Center’s days of hosting drag shows were over. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” he wrote. 

My new book, Globalizations: The Shape of Things to Come published in February 2025, explores the driving forces behind global history and politics. It is structured around three main themes: war and peace, focusing on the case of Ukraine and the OSCE; political economy and the drivers of historical change; and political theory, including justice, democracy, and global agency and institutions. The book stresses future orientation, emphasising how past and present developments influence possible futures and the role of learning in shaping those futures. A central theme throughout is reflexivity – the idea that human actions and interpretations shape history in open systems characterised by uncertainty. By engaging with historical and theoretical perspectives on recent world history the book aims to provide insights into the shape of things to come, not only in terms of acknowledging the uncertainties of historical processes – which nonetheless can to a certain degree be anticipated – but also of advocating for transformative possibilities.

Introduction 

Climate activists have often engaged a wide range of tactics in their efforts to bring down fossil fuel emissions and halt climate change. But what about the tactics used by fossil fuel companies to obstruct climate action and suppress critique?

If activists are to stand up against these powerful forces, understanding their strategies and tactics is important.

Drawing on the work of Lacy-Nichols and colleagues (2022), this article explores key methods used by fossil fuel companies to obstruct and suppress critique.

Strategic Areas

Grouping these methods under eight core strategic areas, the article offers insights to any activist trying to fight back against fossil fuel hegemony. 

The fossil fuel obstruction playbook (based on the corporate playbook developed by: Lacy-Nichols et al. 2022):

Introduction

Part history lesson, part preparation for today’s fight. There is a powerful history of anti nuclear movements across this continent.

This quote was from a panel discussion at a conference called FWD+Organise 2024 in Naarm | Melbourne. The session was presented by:

• Kirsten Blair, Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
• Sanne Deswart, Friends of the Earth

Participants heard from these two frontline anti-nuclear campaigners who shared lessons from their community building, creative tactics, organising and mobilising work from decades past. They explored what those experiences can teach us for the fight ahead. This article based on their session focuses on the campaign that stopped the Jabiluka Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory, Australia, and shares resources for future anti-nuclear campaigns.

Campaign Case Study: Stopping Jabiluka Uranium Mine

The Mirarr Traditional Owners led an extraordinary mass movement to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine – and won!

I was going to make a noose, but instead I made a basket.

The basket coils like a snake in wait, white string binding plain brown rope. It is small but taut. When I rest it on its side, it looks like an eye. I put it on my bedside so it can watch over me as I sleep.

The basket is too small to hold anything but nightmares. But I know it’s working, because I used up all the rope for my noose.

* * *

I wanted to stab someone 8000 times. Instead, I cross-stitched an ancient design.

The design is a Mediterranean dream not my own. A four-square grid of dark blue and light blue: the cross, the star, the carnation, and the scroll, made of tiny x’s.

Remembering Donald Shoup: A Legacy of Curiosity, Credibility and Kindness

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 17th February 2025

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