The US is now building more data centers than office buildings for the first time Spending on data centers hit a record high of nearly $47B/yr in data released today, up 31% over the last year, as office construction keeps falling Also, I'm aware this graph looks like Kentucky

In DC since last summer, National Guard has deployed citywide—predominately in Metro stations—to do this: Stand around in groups, sometimes take a walk. Not minimizing the intimidation implied by these deployments, but the admin is mostly just paying people to do nothing. It's fascistic make-work.

Lionel Jospin, the socialist Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002 (he effectively governed France in that time), just died. He created civil unions for same-sex couples & '35 hours workweek', & made health insurance a lot more universal. He led 'plural left' coalition with many left parties.

Yesterday, French cities held the 2nd round of municipal elections & Paris elected its new mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire. Grégoire is a socialist & inheritor of current Mayor Anne Hidalgo's work. Upon winning, he biked with a crowd to his victory speech, then took the metro. In his platform ⏬

As Paris elected a new mayor today who literally biked to his victory speech on the city’s bike infrastructure network, it’s hard not to feel like things are going in the opposite direction in the US capital

A dramatic day of voting in France's cities today. Among the 42 cities with >100,000 residents, the left picked up 3 from the right, and the right picked up 5 from the left. Overall, 22 are on the left, down from 24 in the 2020 cycle. The biggest cities—Paris, Lyon, Marseille—remain on the left.

Grégoire is now continuing his victory evening by entering into the metro!

We now have results from most of 42 French cities w/ >100k residents: —3 cities went from right to left (St Étienne, Nîmes, Amiens) —1 city went from right to center (Mulhouse) —5 cities went from left to right (Bordeaux, Clermont, Brest, Annecy, Besançon) —1 city went from right to far-right (Nice)

Paris's current mayor Anne Hidalgo celebrating the election this evening of her political inheritor Grégoire

Currently on France TV, the new mayor of Paris Grégoire celebrating his victory by biking around on a bike share. He’s now taking an interview while riding.

Results from big French cities: 1—Paris—Left maintain 2—Marseille—Left maintain 3—Lyon—Left maintain 4—Toulouse—Right maintain 5—Nice—Far right wins from right 6—Nantes—Left maintain 7—Montpellier—Left maintain 8—Strsbrg—Center left wins from left 9—Bordx—Right wins from left 10—Lille—Left maintain

Grégoire is currently celebrating winning the mayoralty of Paris by biking around the city with his supporters.

Early results show that the left likely lost Bordeaux by 2 points to the center-right candidate.

What is Emmanuel Grégoire, the new Paris mayor, planning for the city over his new term in office? —60,000 new social housing units —15 express bus routes —Completion of city's full bike network —Transformation of ring highway into a boulevard —1000 new pedestrian streets —300 new hectares of parks

Big themes I'm seeing from the French municipal elections: —Left's control over biggest cities of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, if anything, is solidified —Far right has gained substantial new power by winning Nice & many small cities in the south —Right has won several mid-sized cities from the left

Results so far from biggest French cities: 1—Paris—Left maintains control 2—Marseille—Left maintains 3—Lyon—Left maintains 4—Toulouse—Right maintains 5—Nice—Far right wins from right 6—Nantes—Left maintains 7—Montpellier—? 8—Strasbourg—Center left wins from left 9—Bordeaux—? 10—Lille—Left maintains

Nantes, France's 6th largest city: The left maintains control.

Latest estimates show that the right will maintain control of Toulouse.

Far right candidate Knafo in Paris (she dropped out after 1st round) explains why she's upset that Paris voted for the left: "They want 40% social housing in the city."

In Strasbourg, the center-left candidate has won against the left candidate and right candidate.

Results so far from the biggest cities in France: 1—Paris—Left maintains control 2—Marseille—Left maintains control 3—Lyon—Left maintains control 4—Toulouse—? 5—Nice—Far right wins from right

The current left leadership in Paris has received a strong endorsement from the city's residents, who voted 53% for the left union. The far left won an additional 9% on top. The right failed to win even 40% of the vote.

The left has also maintained its control of Lyon, with 54% of the vote

A dramatic endorsement of the left's leadership over Paris for the past 25 years, which will now continue ⏬

PARIS : THE LEFT HAS WON REELECTION AFTER A TIGHT RACE!

In Marseille, the left won the city election with 54.6% of the vote, after getting just 50.7% among all left candidates in the 1st round.

Current summary of French election results for major cities: —Far right won Nice from right —Right won Clermont-Ferrand, Brest, Besançon from the left —Left won Nîmes from the right —Left maintains control of Marseille, Lille, Rennes —Right maintains control of Toulon, Reims, Le Havre, Limoges

New results coming in now: Marseille: Left has maintained its control of France's 2nd-largest city.

Initial results show the far-right winning Nice, with 45% of the vote

Here are estimated turnout rates in the major French cities for the 2nd round of the municipal elections, all but Bordeaux up since the 1st round.

Initial results show that both Brest and Clermont-Ferrand have been won by the right, both currently controlled by the left.

In Poitiers, the green party current mayor has lost to the right

Looks like the left will keep Rennes, the capital of Brittany:

More results: —Besançon: The right flips the city, taking it from the greens

First results starting to flow in for French municipal elections: —Toulon (180k): The far right loses, right keeps it —Le Havre (170k): center right keeps it —Nîmes (150k): Left flipped the city from the right —Limoges (130k): Right keeps it —Roubaix (100k): Far left picks it up from the left

10 minutes until we start getting results for the municipal elections in France. Will the left keep Paris, Marseille, Lyon? Will the left pickup Toulouse? Will the right pickup Bordeaux? Will the far right win Nice? Who will win Strasbourg in a left–left–right 3-way?

What situation is among biggest French cities: 1–Paris—tight race due to both left & far left staying in the 2nd round 2–Marseille—left looking good to stay in power due to far right & right in race 3–Lyon—extremely tight 4–Toulouse—tight, depends on whether far left lead can keep center left votes

Here's the state of play for French municipal elections among all cities with >100,000 residents. In 2020, the left won 24 of these cities, the right 17, & the far right 1. In 2026's 1st round, left won 3 & far right 1, leaving 38 major contests among these cities for the 2nd round today.

2nd round of French muni elections is today, with results starting to come in at 3 pm ET that I’ll track! It’s the election for each city’s council. Party with a plurality of votes gets a prime to become council majority & get mayorship. It’s usually a 2-way race, though there are 3- & 4-way races.

Who’s excited about another day of French city elections tomorrow? It’s round 2 of local elections. There are tight contests between the left & right to control councils, & thus mayorships, in: Paris Marseille Lyon Toulouse Bordeaux Strasbourg Nantes Grenoble Brest St Etienne Among others!

Serial Liar Says Words To Make Himself Look Good With No Actual Commitment, Media Outlet Parrots Words As If Follow-Through Doesn’t Matter

This is a thread for lovers of elections; French politics; & French geography. Tomorrow are France's runoffs for MAYOR elections; every city choosing its mayor. It's a window into multiparty politics, shifting coalitions, & hard math, & suspense. I'll go thru the 10 biggest cities, 1 by 1.

It would've been reckless and inexcusable to cause generational damage by illegally defunding USAID, NIH, HHS, Dept of Edu, and so on just to reduce the deficit... ... but spending and the deficit are both higher than '22, '23, '24. It was all just harm for harm's sake. The cruelty was the point.

The Chicago CTA sued the Trump admin today for its failure to provide Congressionally appropriated funds to the CTA’s two major projects, including Red Line Extension. This comes just days after New York sued for the Trump admin’s failure to fund the Second Ave Subway, also funded by Congress.

The end point of all this is that an AI reads articles like these, themselves the product of AIs, and then makes decisions that a human signs off on without reading. Might as well just skip the writing and reading altogether and have the AI make the decisions, right? Why even exist anymore?

“Bike lanes that greatly reduced crashes on National Mall set for removal” 10/10 hed, no notes. #bikedc

Georgia suspended its fuel tax—33¢ per gallon on gas and 37¢ per gallon diesel—for 60 days, in response to rising fuel prices due to the Iran War. www.yahoo.com/news/article... That will result in up to $400 million in fewer state revenues for transportation infrastructure.

French cities, including Paris, will vote on Sunday for their city councils & mayors. Transformations in Paris over the past decades are astonishing (see @bloomberg.com article below!) & are the product of years of transit & bike investment, changing how people move: www.urban.org/urban-wire/h...

You know what actually causes more traffic? Getting rid of infrastructure that gives people the ability to get around without driving

Holy cow, rates up to 6.53% today! A borrower putting 20% down on a $600,000 home would pay $168 more now than they would have the day before the U.S. bombed Iran when rates were 5.99%. War is costly in innumerable ways, including the cost of homeownership.