mind boggling response from a Labour MP. She either: does not have a clue how important universities are to the local economy; knows but doesn’t care because of some sort of ‘anti-elitist’ brainworm; or knows but is too worried to admit it lest it upset Reform voters. none reflect very well on her!

Wait wait wait Public transport isn't already free in Melbourne? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/w...

Delighted that my book, Improbable Diplomats, was co-winner of the 2025 Richard T. Arndt Prize for an Outstanding Work on Cultural Diplomacy loisrothfoundation.org/news/dick-ar...

Who's gonna tell her

Slow in saying so, but the special issue of Cold War History that Covell Meyskens & I edited is out now. Thoughtful afterword by Taomo Zhou, and splendid articles by Helena Lopes, Hao Chen, @anatolklass.bsky.social, Yasser Ali Nasser, Covell, and myself. www.tandfonline.com/toc/fcwh20/2...

Good company to be in! Improbable Diplomats is on the shortlist for the Richard T. Arndt Prize for Outstanding Work on Cultural Diplomacy. www.instagram.com/p/DQAYH9xCdHh/

Presumably recent problems caused by confusion over just whose party it is

I voted for him twice but I must say I'm increasingly convinced Jeremy Corbyn may never become prime minister

One of my great fears rn is that this Kimmel thing is a Voldemort/baby Potter situation and Trump’s fear drives him to make a totally dislikable know-it-all into his ultimate adversary

Maybe people should have to fill out risk assessments for sending out work emails to >50 people

Only other gym user smoking during warm up. Man I missed mainland

Is James Blunt back and what will it do to Uber’s stock price

Shades of Ramires!

Governor: do not panic, purge will be over by daybreak

“FIFA have also invited children from the Make a Wish foundation so you know the future of soccer in North Carolina is bright”

Ok apparently this is a poorly explained change to… parking rules

Good time for #SHAFR2025 folks to be in DC! Last orders at College Park?!

"Cheng’s focus on negotiations is illuminating" What a superb review by @petemillwood.bsky.social on 'China Between Peace and War', published in @insidestory.bsky.social last week. A must-read! 👏 insidestory.org.au/war-by-other-means-millwood/

Nixon said he ended the embargo on contact with China. In fact, already by 1966 the State Department had given 150 validations for Americans to travel to China. Few got in, but that wasn’t because the US government stopped them

This is what happens when you tell AI to be balanced

Madame Chiang Kai-shek spent the last decades of her life in the US. But first she was told to join a multi-year, heavily oversubscribed queue for Chinese immigrants to the country

Damn, things move fast

Analogy doesn’t completely hold but some parallel between Trump & Ukraine now and US & KMT in 1946-47. Truman stopped weapons to KMT, & CCP played nice about negotiations. What did the Americans get? Momentary peace, followed by indefinite Communist rule of China and a fair few headaches.

When you hear neighbourhood dogs talking to each other it reminds me of those two weeks when Houseparty was a popular social media

Chinese & American scientists continue to find ways to cooperate that serve the broader good, even at times of severe tension in US-China relations. Great story. www.economist.com/1843/2024/11...

They’re going to boo Keys for winning too quickly

I wrote these thoughts up in a bit more detail for ChinaTalk. www.chinatalk.media/i/154997896/...

Where were yellow cards for grabbing players’ faces when Marcus Alonso was a Chelsea player #CHEBOU

TV news talk shows are just Gogglebox but with C-list politicians

Jimmy Carter would probably have said that establishing diplomatic relations with China was his greatest foreign policy achievement. We might now think Carter was easy on China, but in fact he saw our moment coming much better than Kissinger and Nixon. A short 🧵

我接受了《财新》的采访，谈到最近续签的《中美科技合作协定》。该协定最早由已故的卡特总统于1979年签署，但最近首次失效。这次续签可能有助于在双边地缘政治关系紧张的情况下维持科学合作，但未来仍充满许多不确定性。（需订阅）https://weekly.caixin.com/m/2024-12-28/102273000.html

When you know the singularity is coming but you want to sell as many laptops in the meantime

Thanks to Huang Yanjie for this generous review of Improbable Diplomats. doi.org/10.1080/1035... You're right I should have had more on the Snail Incident! Covered in more depth in my recent CWH article.