70 years ago, in May 1956, Winston Churchill received the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for appealing to young people to safeguard Europe's future. In his 1946 Zurich speech, he had called for a united Europe to which Britain would be friend & sponsor.

Over at @originstorypodcast.bsky.social is a three-part series on the EU. Highly recommended. www.podmasters.co.uk/origin-story

"The case for inheritance taxes to prevent the entrenchment of a capital-owning elite looks even stronger than before. ... America may find that some public ownership is the best way to make the social upside from [AI] transparent." www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

It’s very rare to have anticorruption institutions strong enough to hit so close to political power so decisively. In Mani Pulite, Italy’s legendary anticorruption campaign, the biggest fish—Giulio Andreotti and Bettino Craxi— never saw the inside of a jail cell!

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

The really important British news today is that my book appears in paperback! It argues against the lazy assumption that white working-class Britons are all backward-looking and grumpy.

It has become clear how abjectly Sir Keir Starmer has failed to honour the promise he was elected on less than two years ago. Register for free to read why it is in Britain’s interest for him to go econ.st/4dmTwFY

Went raving and wrote it up www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Fixing the British voting system is easy. 👇 www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

As part of the 2.5 journalists in a trenchcoat, I'm delighted that our work is up for two Orwell Prizes

The main problem is not the ticket, but that Germany is in the middle of many European routes. You can play the game here. bahn.bet

Es werde (Neon)licht. Chapter Seven of ‘Neon Deutschland’ brings us to Köln, where the spirit of post-war neon continues to flourish.

Many have expressed surprise (and dismay) at this. So I'm happy to have a chance to discus why I think manufacturing's promise for developing countries is fading with Oliver Hanney over at VoxDev. Bring your questions. cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thu...

One design, several different badges. Is this the future of the automotive industry in Europe? This is the power of "badge engineering" – a trend pioneered by Fiat and PSA back in the late 1970s. Benefits: Economies of scale, shared R&D and production costs, simplified service and logistics.

Big spending, little future: Germany is rearming differently from Poland and the UK - our new report is out: www.kielinstitut.de/publications...

Highly recommended, not just for the substance but also because of its empiricism and openness about changing one's mind. 👇

AI saves you time by helping you write emails. You can now use that time saved to catch up on the long AI slop emails you’re now receiving from everyone else.

Soll man Umfragefavorit Bardella interviewen? Ja, wenn man wissen will, was er in Europa vorhat und was es für die Beziehung zu 🇩🇪 bedeutet. www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...

UK 10-year borrowing costs have the unenviable combination of being both the highest in the G7 (and pretty much every other advanced economy) and having the biggest rise in the year to date. Not just political risk, also - inflation - less liquid than peers - more reliant on foreign investors

Sometimes it takes a whole village to raise a paper (or smth like this) Genuinely proud of this one - many a sleepless nights with @jannikjansen.bsky.social coming to fruition For the German readers amongst you, Handelsblatt covered us exclusively www.handelsblatt.com/politik/inte...

Lagarde’s 8 May speech highlights Project Pontes: from September, the ECB will enable DLT-based wholesale transactions to settle in central bank money via TARGET. It reflects Europe’s cautious, infrastructure-first approach to tokenised finance. www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/da...

Will AI democratize skills? www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

One good thing you can say about the UK is that we're spoilt for metaphors

Undoing Brexit is no longer just up to the UK. For the EU to take the UK back, it will have to firmly demonstrate that it is committed to the federal project. The crux of the UK's problem has always been it wanted the European project to just be about a common market; not a federal project. 🧵

Isch over.

11 May 1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi lands at Marsala in Sicily with 1,089 volunteers to begin his campaign of Italian unification.

The Portuguese government will soon unveil measures to cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuels by half over the next decade, its climate minister told me: www.politico.eu/article/port...

The Council has authorised the signing of two agreements between the EU and Mexico: 🔹Modernised Global Agreement 🔹Interim trade agreement These deals mark a major step forward in modernising the EU-Mexico partnership. Facts & figures on EU-Mexico trade: link.europa.eu/FJtWpx

We are talking about a relatively small amount of debt here, so I don't think this is likely. In any case, debt is usually rolled over, so we can issue new euro denominated debt.

"There is no reason why our [€-denominated] paper ... should command a higher rate than that issued by the French or Italians" is especially odd. - UK doesn't raise tax revenue in euros - ECB wouldn't backstop UK debt - BoE can "print" £ but not € in extremis

In case 11pm on a Sunday evening wasn't the best time to post this on social media... here's a list of times you can see me talk about you know what

📊📊📊📊📊

as a data journalist I am obliged to argue for a synthesis. a third way. We can create a world where both stories and spreadsheets support each other to thrive. A world where we don't judge a spreadsheet by its file extension but by the content of its cells

Cunning. And in the next fiscal crisis, the UK will be forced to either join the euro or go to the IMF?

Britain "at the heart of Europe", 2026 edition:

Work on reforms to the EU's accession process is moving forward. European affairs ministers will be asked to outline today which “enhanced forms of gradual integration” they could support, according to an EU Council presidency document seen by Contexte. www.contexte.com/briefing/202...

I found white gold in Britain without having to ask my bank for a loan. Never felt this at home. #Spargelzeit

At this difficult time, it's important to read theory: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

We've documented >70 Reichsadler over the past few years - and sometimes we are still surprised how "public" many of them are. From Schools, Police Stations, Government Offices and Public Housing....

Facebook just resurfaced this class vibe-based opinion poll. They should run it again

More savings than investment?

“For the NATO deterrent to work, Europe and Russia both have to believe that America is coming. Is anyone confident that America is coming?” @claudmajor.bsky.social in fine form in this essay for the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/o...

Just had a look at my new rights, as of 1st May, as a tenant in the UK. Shocking, really. I have rights.

My Charlemagne this week is a report from inside the Brussels deep state. The EU is gaining power. But rank-and-file "eurocrats" who have spent their careers building the European project worry their influence is ebbing. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

This roughly translates into 48% of seats, as the 5% threshold kicks out about 14% of the vote. (Is September 6th the day Germans realise that ranking parties rather than voting just for one is the better electoral system?)

"Zugzwang: when every move worsens the position. The system can persist for as long as Mr #Putin remains in power. But his every move to preserve and expand it accelerates decay." www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

One year in, there is already a stench of death hanging over Friedrich Merz's chancellorship. Things can't go on like this. My anniversary piece www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

just to emphasize again, closing Malacca means 'taking a couple of extra days on a trip.' the economist had a great recent graph on various straits and their relative levels of direness.

A rebound at Mornos Reservoir 🇬🇷 After reaching very low levels in late 2025, rainfall/snow have helped refill the reservoir, with water volumes tripling in 6 months. 📸Copernicus Sentinel-2 images from Oct 2025 and April 2026 show the change 📸Sentinel-1 comparison highlights the rise in water levels.

"For example, at present, London to #Glasgow takes about 4 hours 30 minutes. Under the original HS2 plan, that would have fallen to around 3 hours 38 minutes. But with HS2 now curtailed, the same trip is expected to take around 4 hours 18 minutes."