North Carolina has highwaymen now??

First, “severe [i.e., slightly hot] weather”, now a “supermarket trolley on the track” — a tough day out there on the railways!

A sunny 31C/88F afternoon in the south of England = “severe weather”

Oxford and Cambridge are “linked by easy bus connections”?? The direct bus is no more, and when it ran, it was an endless slog, involving many circuits of the roundabouts of Milton Keynes. (But we’ll probably have a rail link by something like 2040, restoring Victorian levels of connectivity!)

Does the UK media not have this story yet? England-Mexico apparently shifting to a reasonable time of day on Sunday (6pm GMT)?

Well, they’ll be pleased they spared themselves a longer stay in my hometown, then, by getting themselves knocked out by Paraguay.

This essay covers some of the same (literal) terrain as Jay Sexton's terrific presidential address at #SHAFR2026 foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/23/a...

Congratulations, @uhackett.bsky.social!

Hadn’t realized Raleigh was potentially in the frame for an MLB expansion team. Some great baseball history in this piece, too.

I can’t read German, but curious this piece on my hometown (Germany’s World Cup base) focuses on Winston-Salem as a tobacco and college basketball town, with a minor league baseball team, not mentioning that Salem (founded by Moravians) was a German-speaking community for much of its first century!

The German public broadcaster’s “Sportschau” has a nice piece on Winston-Salem, home base for the German team during the World Cup.

A slight subediting oversight here!

Thoroughly bizarre to see this framed as a story about an “attempt to revive” what was WH Smith, when every single detail makes it crystal clear that it’s a bunch of vulture capitalists sucking vast amounts of cash out of the company until it collapses. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I don’t suppose there’s any point in my playing this game anymore. I’ll never do this well again! www.maptap.gg May 13 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 Final score: 1000

In the 1960s, the U.S. created a migration pipeline from Mexico. In the 1970s, Mexico came up with a plan to stop the flow. The U.S. rejected long-term economic partnership in favor of unilateral punishment: zps.la/4sTACxf

After all the hue & cry about dual nationals caught out by the requirement to enter the UK with a UK passport following the introduction of the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) requirement, note the same thing will happen in reverse with the launch of the EU’s ETIAS system later this year.

Privitizing the postal service continues to go well for the UK, I see. ( #SaveTheUSPS )

Nice to see my former @raioxford.bsky.social colleague Jay Sexton featured here.

Sad to see this news. Dan Howe was a longtime Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford and regularly made return visits to @raioxford.bsky.social during my time there. newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/in-m...

Well, yes, who *actually* does the bulk of the teaching at a place like Harvard?

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

FRUS in the news …

Mexico really did have the strongest WWII poster game

Mexico Versus Nazis is a theme that’s really resonating with me of late

This Mexican WWII poster is some of the hardest shit ever

Interesting about Harvard’s President visiting the UK, but the Crimson has done the weird (American?) thing of conflating the capital with the country: Though the reception with Rhodes Scholars and meetings with Oxford officials apparently took place in Oxford, it’s described as a “London trip”.

A lengthy piece in today’s FT on the Mexican political landscape on.ft.com/4okwcfV How long can Mexico’s president straddle populism and pragmatism?

People know that buying (or winning) a house in another country doesn’t actually entitle you to move and take up residence there, right? I fear many of the Americans who might think this sounds like a good idea don’t know anything about UK immigration law.

One of my occasional rants about the UK’s increasingly extortionate international postage rates: After a big hike in April — the point in the year when rate changes are usually made — Royal Mail will next month again raise the price to send a letter or postcard abroad, to £3.40. 1/X

One of my occasional rants about the UK’s increasingly extortionate international postage rates: After a big hike in April — the point in the year when rate changes are usually made — Royal Mail will next month again raise the price to send a letter or postcard abroad, to £3.40. 1/X

Those most inconvenienced by having to apply for a US visa in their country of nationality or residence will be those living in the US: Though the US is their country of residence, you can’t get a US visa *there*. Previously, renewals could be done in Canada or Mexico, subject to appt availability.

An afterthought, in paragraph 16: “The Department of Defense and the secretary of defense were named through acts of Congress, so it is unclear if Mr. Trump’s order will go into effect immediately.”

The FBI returned to Mexico a 500-year-old manuscript page signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. The manuscript was initially stored in Mexico’s national archives, but archivists microfilming the collection in 1993 found that 15 pages had gone missing. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

A West End/Broadway star on belonging in Britain & becoming a citizen: “[In the UK] They saw me for who I was. I didn’t have to change anything about myself; I didn’t have to be anybody else.” … Britain, she said, “was the first place I ever felt like I belonged somewhere, and they understood me.”

The framing here is (as so often) exasperating. The headline: “Trump threatens to strip Rosie O’Donnell of U.S. citizenship” Not until 9 paragraphs in: “Experts said the president does not have the power to take away the citizenship of a U.S.-born citizen.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/u...

The comments on this are exactly what you would expect …

Interesting to see the US included here (and I like that Uruguay is down as ‘Uruguay’!) …

Ah, the old hometown …

The media is really hitting the key points in its coverage of the move to strip Harvard of its ability to enrol international students …

Hmm. I suppose knowledge of history might be a bit of ‘spoiler’ here …

Spotted in the city centre today: a reminder that Oxford is home to a significant East Timorese community … and that East Timor is one of handful of countries (along with El Salvador, Panama, and Ecuador to use the US dollar as its official currency.

The FT on a backlash against narcocorridos …

Interesting from the FT on Sheinbaum’s quiet shift in Mexico’s security strategy. on.ft.com/42ktM95 Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum woos Donald Trump with security shake-up

MAYBE it would be a good idea for our national library to actually buy hard copies of books to, you know, preserve them and make them accessible to researchers for decades to come

If you’re planning a visit to the UK within the 2 years and need the new “electronic travel authorisation” (ETA) for visa-exempt travellers, looks like the date for the ETA fee hike — from £10 to £16 — is now set to be 9th April (if I read these regs correctly), so apply now for big savings!

UK naturalisation and passport fees increasing, as well …

If you’re planning a visit to the UK within the 2 years and need the new “electronic travel authorisation” (ETA) for visa-exempt travellers, looks like the date for the ETA fee hike — from £10 to £16 — is now set to be 9th April (if I read these regs correctly), so apply now for big savings!

¡Feliz 18 de marzo to those who celebrate! 🇲🇽🗃️