If you're in Exeter, you're welcome to the launch of Security After Christendom, 2pm GMT, Weds 1 May.
There will be refreshments!

If you're not in Exeter but would like to listen in to 45 minutes of talks about the book, DM me with your email for the zoom link.

Tomorrow, I will be at the Ministry of Justice talking about lawfare against research on kleptocracy & then in Parliament for the launch of the cross-party APPG on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax economic crime manifesto.

You can’t fight kleptocracy if you can’t research it.

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-hum…

Ah, trusts.
Privacy = financial secrecy = a tool of transnational kleptocracy = the aiding and abetting of a Russian economy which is resourcing the war against Ukraine.
Maybe some things should not be private?

Yes: 'endless coverage of frivollous crap..'.
On Friday, I noticed that a divorce between two 'celebs' was the top news story on the BBC website.
On Saturday, the excellent journalist Mark Urban announced he was stepping down amidst the BBC Newsnight vandalism.

Elephants? Rooms?
Sometimes they are worth pointing out....

It’s nice for sitting governments & bad for U.K. democracy that great journalists are leaving the BBC & they are effectively ending newsnight.

Why is this happening? Public stupidity is one reason. Check the most-read stories on the BBC news website. Celeb stories are often #1.

Michael Banks (1936-2024) left LSE Intl Relations before I began my PhD work but his work on peace - and his engagement with John Burton's ideas - influenced my own thinking on peacebuilding, especially my 2008 Millennium article.

Rest In Peace.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/condolences/20…

'The truth is the English civil law is a luxury good that is far beyond the means of most citizens of this country'

spectator.co.uk/article/englis…

And in another example of law (enforcement) failing the kleptocracy problem: the near-death of Unexplained Wealth Orders reported today in London.

Ben Cowdock “Have UWOs been effective against high level targets? No, they haven’t.”

cityam.com/why-the-mcmafi…

Once again, law fails the kleptocracy question.

In Fridman v Council, the ECJ insists on a high threshold for sanctions. But this judgment acknowledges neither how money is made in kleptocratic environments nor how elite 🇷🇺 compatriots keep Kremlin ties.
curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/do…

Coming on 2 May.

We are hosting Index on Censorship at University of Exeter for this launch of their magazine on #TransnationalRepression .

I shall be speaking with Hanna Komar.

Credit to Exeter Politics Exeter Central Asia researchers Saipira Furstenberg Edward Lemon who blazed a trail.

Important thread from Steve Swerdlow Temur Umarov 马铁木

Concerned about the rise of authoritarian regimes silencing dissent beyond their borders?

Join Index on Censorship for a thought-provoking discussion featuring experts like John Heathershaw & poet Hanna Komar.

Don't miss out, register today:eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-long-rea…

This is where all the aid money has gone: special Foreign Office walking-backwards-while-taking-PR-film training.

Great story by Tom Burgis Henry Dyer.
We often assume that private intelligence pales into insignificance compared to intelligence and national security. But these people have greater market value, the revolving door, and access to power. No clear blue water at all.

'Despite helming the Gibraltar government since 2012, Picardo remains a partner at the prestigious law firm Hassans.'

Easy to dimiss Gibraltar as 'banana republic', but it is just an acute version of the public-power-for-private-gain story in London too.

theolivepress.es/spain-news/202…

The 3/4 who get peerages and are not party donors should start refusing those peerages if they don’t want the system to be forever sullied. A mass and public refusal or stepping down from peerages should do the trick. I’m not holding my breath.