Lukas Schlogl

1. I am going to tell you why I think the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released on Monday a 53-page report presenting new evidence of Donald Trump’s involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-crime syndicate. But before I do, let me quote the report directly.

October - Madawaska Country A.J. Casson c. 1961

the thought of either the UAE candidate or Orban as plausible candidates as Secretary General shows just how much key states want to destroy the UN, the promise of the Charter, & a future that centers human rights.

Despite the agency's human resources department saying he hadn’t even been onboarded, Jeremy Lewin oversaw the destruction of USAID. It’s not clear he had the legal authority to do so.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change faces perhaps the most serious crisis in its nearly 40-year history — but it is too precious to lose go.nature.com/4yRa7KZ

In newspapers around the world, the report that Donald Trump raped Béatrice Keul in an Atlantic City hotel room commands huge headlines. In US corporate media, it isn't reported. Ask yourself why that might be. Here's the front page of today's Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich.

Ok, so Audi invests billions for a plant that will not produce technologies adapted to the future. Ok, so they on Trump‘s bandwagon at precisely the moment it’s losing momentum. What makes me angry is this:

Incredible gender difference in voting intention in Brazil.

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Es bestehen Engpässe bei Benzin, Kerosin und Diesel. Die Schweizer Regierung prüft deswegen ein #Tempolimit von 80 km/h auf Autobahnen. Tankrabatte, Preisdeckel oder ähnliche Maßnahmen sind in der Schweiz nicht in Kraft und bislang auch nicht geplant. 👏 www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/schw...

Unglaublich, wie oft Österreichs Eliten immer nur auf Autokraten setzen, statt auf Freiheitskämpfer: Orban, Vucic, Putin. Warum hat das Aussenministerium serbische Studenten nie nach Wien zum Austausch geladen? Warum keine russischen Kriegsgegner? Die Liste liesse sich verlängern.

Are you an IR prof feeling like the world's a hot mess and you're not quite sure how to teach global governance or international order? Well, ISQ has a new Special Section out, and my "Making Sense of Disrupted International Order" introduces it. Hope it's helpful!

Trump and Co. will try to steal the midterms. They're already trying. Gerrymandering, bad faith lawsuits, voter intimidation, and a whole lot of lies. But they don't have a genius secret plan. They're already doing whatever they can think of. And it's beatable. Shouldn't have to, but here we are.

Hungary's recent election was less free and more unfair than the upcoming US midterms, and pro-democracy forces still won. Similar point about Serbia's election this weekend. In normal democracy terms, America is in bad shape. But in consolidated authoritarianism terms, we're looking pretty good.

The US is not about to have a free and fair election. The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor the ruling party in multiple ways. It's a mostly free, somewhat unfair election. But still one where the ruling party can be overwhelmed by numbers. Hence the term "competitive authoritarianism."

Der Preis des Sparens: Wie Österreichs „Frugalismus" ein globales Europa ausbremst Meine 2 cents zur außen- und entwicklungspolitischen Dimension der EU-Budgetverhandlungen: www.oefse.at/publikatione...

The next phase of AI training data. Hundreds of thousands of workers in South Asia and Latin America are being paid to wear cameras on their head to record as they engage in their work - from cutting hair to textiles and through to domestic chores www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Washington plans for Viktor Orban to be a "joint candidate" for the US, China and Russia to be UN secretary general, WSJ reports www.wsj.com/opinion/...

Lula: "We had to overcome foreign interference through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. A crime in the digital world must be treated the same as a crime in the real world. We cannot have monstrous companies earning millions... not paying taxes... wanting to steer elections."

Poland. Hungary. Brazil. Serbia. Far Right Populism is being beaten by pro-democratic forces. You're up next USA. Don't fuck it up.

Mit Bolsonaro in Brasilien und Vucic in Serbien wurden in einer Nacht zwei weitere Autokraten besiegt. Es ist viel mehr möglich, als wir denken: Wenn man darauf setzt, möglichst alle Demokrat*innen mitzunehmen. Für uns in der EU kommt es darauf vor allem im kommenden Jahr in Frankreich und Polen an.

Why is AI-generated language so hard to understand?

Scoop: White House lawyers are weighing preemptive mass pardons for junior staff, sources says Under discussion: Pardoning everyone involved in deportation, war, or trade policy www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/w...

New paper by our economist Anna Matzner et al. 🌍 Climate change is not only hurting economic growth, but driving up public debt. A 0.1% rise in local temperatures can increase public debt by up to 6.3% in 6 years. Poorer countries hit hardest, widening global inequality. wiiw.ac.at/fiscal-conse...

Autumn Field Billie Rae Busby 2026

Pine Trees in the Fen - 1884 https://botfrens.com/collections/46/contents/13455

I've scoured Online and can't find this anywhere. Seriously considering getting a custom version made, it whips *that* hard.

Yes, it’s how Chinese EV sellers bypass tariffs: selling EVs to middle men who drive three blocks with it, and sell it on as a “used car”.

My latest @nbcnews.com investigation dropped this morning -- We analyzed the YouTube watch histories of 11 students to look into how some students end up viewing over 5,000 YouTube videos in class, on school-issued laptops, in a single school year www.nbcnews.com/specials/hoo...

Musk’s wealth is a threat to democracy—not just in the U.S. but everywhere. He’s probably the greatest threat to the free world today.

I'm no economic genius but I do not think poor countries can benefit from AI growth by creating sovereign wealth funds (with what money??!) that buy shares in frontier AI companies overseas www.chat-gdp.org/p/how-to-acc...

A reminder: 🚗: I hope I find parking. 🚴🏽‍♂️: I hope I don’t die. Our priorities are not the same.

This will be easier to see after the midterms, but the big threat to counter is a techno-fascist coup attempt in 2028. They’ll still have the White House in 2027, and won’t pull out all the stops over losing one or even both houses of Congress, which they mostly ignore anyway. But 2028 — watch out

Given uncertainties, current policies could result in 4.5°C of warming by 2100. 🥵

“During those 15 years, we will not conduct any short-cycle, short-term target assessments. We will assess only one thing: whether you are there in the laboratory" www.nature.com/articles/d41... [Imagine that for social innovation...]

WSJ confirms what the Telegraph has reported: It was Elon. "Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said."

Breaking: Elon Musk ordered the Starlink slowdown that blindsided Ukraine on.wsj.com/4sgcxkt

Ein Pass, der passt! Staatsbürgerschaft für hier geborene Kinder orf.at/stories/3445...

I am in no way sympathetic to the riots in France. At the same time, nor do I see them as some harbinger of the end of civilization. I mainly see it as France being France.

As for them being immigrants, France has a lot bigger track record of people rioting and building barricades in the streets than most the countries they come from. So I’d call it assimilation.

I have been trying to think of what Trump’s hideous “ballroom” project reminds me of — and I finally have it — it is Nicolai Ceausescu’s infamous and unfinished House of the People in communist Romania, which also brought awfulness to a lovely downtown.

Der Preis des Sparens: Wie Österreichs „Frugalismus" ein globales Europa ausbremst Meine 2 cents zur außen- und entwicklungspolitischen Dimension der EU-Budgetverhandlungen: www.oefse.at/publikatione...

🗳️ ADOPTED! Global Europe: MEPs push for expanded budget to match the EU’s global ambitions MEPs from @afet.europarl.europa.eu & @deve.europarl.europa.eu adopted their position on the EU’s Global Europe Instrument, the EU’s funding mechanism for external action for the period 2028-2034. Details ⬇️

Harsh truth from @radiofreetom.bsky.social in the Atlantic: "America is now an Ally of Russia" This is article is a must read: "Trump’s decision has nothing to do with American national security. His de facto alliance with Russia is a sordid arrangement rooted in his own fears and hatreds."

Man muss US Big Tech als Gegner der Demokratien Europas, zumindest aber im Zweifelsfall als völlig unzuverlässige Dienstleister betrachten. Daher: Nichts, was Brüssel bislang zur digitalen Souveränität unternahm, ist auch nur annähernd ausreichend, um die Verwundbarkeit signifikant zu reduzieren.

Das #VerbrennerAus ist deutlich vor 2035 erreichbar, sagten wir Ende 2025. Damals lag E-Pkw-Anteil bei Neuwagen in Dänemark bei 66%, heute sind es 82%. Noch 2021 war der Anteil in DK gleich niedrig wie in Österreich. Wer will, kann die Erdölabhängigkeit rasch verringern. #Energiewende #emobility

Interesting reframing. Cost of aid to #ukraine in cups of coffee per month. (by @topleadEU)