Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, April 25, 2016

To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Dov Friedman argues that Iraqi Kurdistan’s dreams of independence are doomed while war rages in nearby Turkey.

Josh Cohen says that Ukraine’s failure to pursue substantive reforms means that the West must now get tough with the leaders in Kiev.

Atilla Mong explains how — and why — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is pulling away from Europe.

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

Casey Michel offers an update for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project on the scandal surrounding a notorious U.S. congressional junket to Azerbaijan.

Writing for the blog “Americas South and North,” Colin Snider argues that the campaign to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is a “major step back” for democracy. (In case you missed it earlier this month, here’s our profile of the embattled president.)

In Medium, Aglaia Berlutti describes a frightening epidemic of public lynchings that is plaguing Venezuela. For Caracas Chronicles, Amanda Quintero argues that Venezuela’s economy was distorted by oil long before the arrival of chavismo.

Mong Palatino reports for Global Voices that Malaysia may soon compel bloggers and news sites to register with the government.

In Slate, Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus describe what their nonprofit is doing to test the idea that a universal basic income is the best way to fight poverty.

In the “Global Anticorruption Blog,” Jessica Vicentia Marpaung warns that proposed reforms of Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency will weaken the famed institution.

Carnegie Europe publishes a series of essays outlining possible approaches to “non-Western democracy.”

In Muftah, Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani reports on an open letter to President Obama, penned by 26 Middle Eastern activists, urging him to “put human rights first.”

And finally, if you happen to be in Boston next week, check out a May 2 roundtable on the future of technology and democracy hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center.

In the photo, Venezuelan opposition activists protest against President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on April 19, 2016.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images