Have been waiting almost two years for the right article to smuggle this fact into. (From my leader on America's misguided war on taxes: economist.com/leaders/2026...)

Honestly sounds like a great way to travel. Staterooms! Promenade dining salon, smoking room, bar. If it were not for the burning up in flames business I'd be interested

Remarkable given the weather this January and February

Been playing with Claude to make maps of demographic change in Chicago. This is the non-Hispanic white population, change from 2010-2020 by zipcode, for just under-5s (left) and for the total (right). Confirms my suspicion that where I live (Wicker Park) everyone white is having kids

I fear April 14th is a record for the earliest I have had to turn on the A/C units in five years of living in Chicago

In its "weaponization" report on the FACE Act, DOJ once again struggles to answer the most difficult question of all: who was president in 2020? www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...

Trump has cut legal immigration more than illegal immigration, as I predicted. While illegal entries have fallen, they continued a prior trend, falling more before he came back. Meanwhile, Trump has drastically cut legal entries, reversing the prior upward trend. www.cato.org/blog/trump-h...

Maybe I’ll write about the Affordability Discourse one day but I think that one thing (among many both material and perceptual) that this hard to untangle is that everyone—including those who are doing fine in material terms—has a lot more visibility into how well the rich are doing than in the past

Hungarians celebrated the landslide defeat of Orban by singing "We Are the Champions" out in the streets

went to check out the techno rave outside Parliament and I don't think I have the data allowance to share a video from it but let me tell you: there sure is a techno rave outside Parliament right now, celebrating Orban getting ousted

People outside my hotel in central Budapest are honking their horns "hm-hm-hmmhmm" in the rhythm of "Ruszkik haza", which means "Russians go home"

“The U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces would begin implementing the ‌blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Monday.” Via Reuters

Corruption and competitive autocracy are two halves of the same coin. Corruption is how you reward your supporters and bully your opposition without resorting to outright violence. Keeping the machine going eventually becomes *the* reason for staying in power, over anything ideological.

People will be closely studying how Hungary's opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump's corruption.

This guy makes some of the best new Afropop I've discovered recently www.cheikhibrafam.com

New theory: by the end of the decade everyone in Canada will be Francophone

Iranian source says US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian funds, Washington denies it - www.reuters.com/business/fin...

I hope the new Permanent Secretary at the Home Office is going to be able to look at the UK Visas and Immigration’s practices www.thetimes.com/article/1644...

Pete Hegseth's Defense Dept appears to be caught in a lie. It involves deaths of 21 people (including at least 5 children), injuring 110 in Lamerd, Iran with sports hall and school. By a U.S. missile (PrSM) never before used in combat. NYT sources include: 3 US officials! 1/

I am weirdly really enjoying coding on Claude, to the extent I am trying to come up with random ideas just to play with it more. I have never had much patience actually using code but I am enjoying the challenge of really precise writing to get it to do exactly what you want

Cannot help but see the anime meme in this Bloomberg newsletter headline

Extracting ransom payments is actually the one genuine use case crypto has consistently had for a decade or so

“Once... Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions”: www.ft.com/content/02ae...

Absolutely terrific interview by @ruthmaclean.bsky.social . "I basically am a farmer" says the fabulously rich former president of Congo, Joseph Kabila www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/w...

Niche but this documentary from 1936 about the train that transported post across Britain is amazing. The complexity of a system that ensured a letter sent from London could reach somebody in Edinburgh the next day. With no computers youtu.be/-EZxJ9Bkoeg?...

A Trump merch store has shuttered its doors, with its owner saying business dried up in the wake of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

It's surprising to me how little discussion in the UK there is of the massive progress there has been of making the economy less natural gas dependent. Gas is just 3% of electricity generation today. Total gas use fell by 26% from 2022 to 2024, after Russia invaded Ukraine

flags flown from us government buildings - american flag - department flag - state flag - local flag - the "rambo 2 is real" flag

This is a great documentary to watch in the context of all of the "London Is Falling" internet guff. London in the early 1990s looked... rough www.bfi.org.uk/film/6170238...

This is very funny and the incredible number of people failing to recognise a bit of self-mockery here makes it all the funnier

Trump has insulted and tariffed his European allies, persuaded Denmark to prepare for a US invasion and, by pressuring Ukraine and not Russia, encouraged Putin to keep fighting. All of which he has forgotten. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

View from Artemis II today. Crescent Earth. A view humans haven't captured since 1972.

British citizenship is a good example of quite how messy this can get

“.. tariffs are impacting more than just manufacturing .. blue-collar job loss has been notable across sectors compared to trend growth.” 👀 @mtkonczal.bsky.social

BREAKING: “It is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path our long term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union.. Brexit did deep damage to our economy” Prime minister Keir Starmer 👏

We spoke to diplomats, advisers, scholars, experts and current and former officials in China. Almost all of them see the war in Iran as a grave American error. Register for free to read why: econ.st/4tloDIy

Tbh I am pretty sure this website (and indeed text-based social media generally) has a significant problem with people who cannot read at an adult level

In Zhejiang, there was a boy named Tu 吐. And if he ever formed a company or owned shares in one, we would find him. And find him we did! You can read all about it here. (7/x) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/t...

Four-byline alert: 🚨 “.. A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter.” www.ft.com/content/744e...

Gotta love Scandinavian confidence. "Our lives are so great and we are so happy we just don't need the cathartic release of pop music like you trodden down Americans" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

My favourite remains the jar of peanut butter stating under ingredients '100% peanuts' yet also warning "may contain peanuts". I recall it being more blatant for the Whole Foods variant, but currently only have Trader Joe's at hand. Then again, it can harm some people so better safe than sorry.

Food labelling in America is one of my favourite things. A country where egg boxes say eggs are gluten free, flour packets advise you to cook it, not eat it raw and sugar packets say "not a low calorie food". Genuinely.

Sudan: More than 2 million people in Sudan’s Darfur region have been left without proper medical care after a drone strike last week took a major hospital out of service, the World Health Organization and a senior aid official say.

Student visas for Africa’s best and brightest were canceled by the Trump administration, leaving empty seats and broken dreams. “A punch to the heart,” said one woman who lost her scholarship.

US pedestrian deaths fell 11% in the first half of 2025. The death rate -- 0.9 per 100k people -- was the lowest since 2020. I'm curious why. Was it reversion to pre-COVID norms? Something else? (Note, US ped deaths are still way up over the past decade). www.ghsa.org/resource-hub...

I have a theory that in the long run sustained higher gas prices would actually *benefit* American motorists, because once people began to assume they'd be paying $8 a gallon forever, they would buy fuel efficient vehicles

This is a phenomenal piece of journalism by my colleagues at @economist.com - deep reported detail on how Iran is now being run that I haven't seen anywhere else: www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Personally I have growing concerns about drivers who hit-and-run two teenagers, seems like a bigger issue than the scooters

Okay, this is cool.

Goneril and Regan looking restrained by comparison