Recent events at the BBC have wide-reaching implications for our democracy - and the sooner we realise it, the better

YouTube video by Professor Christina Pagel

The parliamentary probe based on conspiracy theories about the philanthropist’s alleged meddling is backed by Bulgaria's main pro-Russian and nationalist parties as well as by tycoon Delyan Peevski’s ...

YouTube video by Professor Christina Pagel

Happy to contribute with facts from our #DemocracyReport2025. https://lnkd.in/eshEMcpd

Disturbing. Election officials from nearly all 50 states gathered on a call last month with the DHS’s point person on “election integrity,” eager to hear how the woman filling a newly created 🌮 position might help safeguard the vote ahead of next year’s midterms. But many of them left alarmed. Rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, Heather Honey used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the right-wing election activist movement that emerged since 🌮 falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Honey, a leader in that movement until her appointment in August as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, complained that her department’s cybersecurity experts tasked with combating misinformation about elections had “strayed from their mission.” The remark echoed a widespread view on the right that the agency had sought to silence supporters of 🌮’s fraud claims. Honey also repeatedly mentioned a report often cited by election conspiracists to support their claims that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats. The ascent of Ms. Honey reflects how 🌮 and his allies, despite a clear victory last year, remain consumed with the belief that the 2020 election was stolen — and how the president is using the powers of the government to upend an electoral system that he insists helped Biden take the White House. In the past few months, 🌮 has elevated multiple proponents of his fraud claims into high-level administration jobs. Now, as government insiders, these activists could wield their newfound power to discredit future results or rekindle old claims to argue for a federal intrusion into locally administered voting systems. On a call with right-wing activists in March, before her appointment to the DHS, she suggested that the new administration could declare a “national emergency” and justify dictating new rules to state and local governments. She said this could be based on an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election if it showed there had been a “manipulation” of the vote. “And therefore, we have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” she said in March, according to someone who joined the call, “and therefore, we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.” She added, “I don’t know if that’s really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory.” Activist Marci McCarthy, who had spread debunked claims about voting machines in Georgia in DeKalb County, was named in May to be the director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. Nearly all of the election experts at CISA have been placed on administrative leave or reassigned this year, amid the agency's downsizing. https://lnkd.in/gBQWiZ96 | 81 comments on LinkedIn

A groundbreaking report published by ISHR today, reveals for the first time how a small group of States led by China and Russia are obstructing and hijacking budget negotiations at the United Nations…

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Trump administration contract with Paragon Solutions gives immigration agency access to one of the most powerful stealth cyberweapons

The Steady State | October 16, 2025

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has suggested that state prosecutors might examine the conduct of ICE agents.

Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

USA är inte längre en demokrati. Det slår forskare fast – ett halvår innan världens största demokratimätning publiceras. – Just nu har USA med råge passerat gränsen till en autokrati, säger Staffan Li...

New political science research suggests democracy can survive leaders like Trump. But there’s a catch.