"Navigating Brexit has always been about trade-offs, and if Labour is ready to move then it should be ready to fight for what delivers the most benefit for the longer term, not what appears easy in the short-term." ✍️ @matthewharries.bsky.social on UK-EU relations 🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...

Keir Starmer’s stated preference in today’s big BBC interview for greater EU single market alignment - and access - rather than a customs union deal is a significant choice which, in terms of economic growth, would probably do more good. ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...

Merry Christmas!

"These challenges reflect the trade-offs of any option in between EU membership and the hard Brexit deal Boris Johnson signed." ✍️ Matthew Harries reflects on the different models the UK could pursue in shaping its relationship with the EU https://ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swiss-on-the-eu-uk-reset/

Interesting article on whether folk in the UK should now be looking towards the Swiss model for EU relations - something that wasn't necessarily available a few years ago given EU attitudes, but might be now if UK folk are ready to make the effort. ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...

Away ashes defeats since 2005, ranked from most to least wretched: 1: 2013-14 2: this one 3: 2006-7 4: 2021-22* 5: 2017-18 *void

If Labour’s pro-Europeans are getting more ambitious on Brexit, they should think about Switzerland, not just Turkey and its customs union. My piece for @ukandeu.bsky.social: ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...

Delighted to publish this personal essay by me and John: Getting Britain out of the hole. We wanted to write something quite readable that covers the big picture of the UK’s economic struggles. Hopefully we’ve managed at least one of those! @johnspringford.bsky.social getting-out-of-the-hole.uk

At #lab25 until Tuesday - say hello!

Have to admire the chutzpah of academic publishers. £23 for a 180-day “subscription” to an e-book. Tremendous racket 👏

👀 github.com/deepseek-ai/...

A decision by Russia to build nuclear power plants in Iran won't be a business decision. Rosatom took a USD 3-digit million loss at Bushehr-1, Iran proved a difficult client, & company management by itself would not be very inclined. en.mehrnews.com/news/227056/...

zhengdongwang.com/2024/12/29/2... Super interesting

Reading @milesbrundage.bsky.social, @kpdmusing.bsky.social, wondering when to shout fire

🎺 Here comes the official 2024 NeurIPS paper browser: - browse all NeurIPS papers in a visual way - select clusters of interest and get cluster summary - ZOOOOM in - filter by human assigned keywords - filter by substring (authors, titles) neurips2024.vizhub.ai #neurips by IBM Research Cambridge

Worth recalling how little we know about Syria’s former nuclear weapons effort. Whoever rules Syria next stands to inherit whatever documents the Assad regime retained (and let’s hope that’s all it is) assuming they haven’t been/won’t be destroyed.

this is quite a story, if it really is the same person www.shine.cn/news/nation/...

Six months ago I handed back my body armour after 30+ years covering conflict for the BBC. How have our ways of surviving on the battlefield evolve over those decades? Here’s a bumper 🧵of hard won personal experience

A Russian sanctions "sandbox": China has set up a study group and has been sending officials to Moscow to learn how Beijing could blunt Western sanctions in the event of an invasion of Taiwan. Our exclusive www.wsj.com/world/china/...

Your periodic reminder that there is a Gift Links feed where you can read all the latest non-paywalled articles from major publishers legally, courtesy of subscribers/authors. Save to your feeds and enjoy access to paywalled articles. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Some personal and professional news: Today is my last day as Research Director, International Security @ChathamHouse. I am retiring to write and contribute to the world in a different way.

Chinese Supreme Court releases “FaXin foundation model” for legal profession english.news.cn/20241115/20c...

OMG guys I just got to see an official badge from the mission to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon last year and I…. I cannot stop laughing. 🎈 ✈️ 😂