The Russian army is bogged down in the steppes of Ukraine under the cold weather of -20C. Great news if you ask me. Russia faces an increasing problem of replenishing casualties, Great article in @financialtimes.com at www.ft.com/content/ce74...

🚨 Bitcoin dips below $70,000, wiping out its post-election gains After surging following Trump’s victory in November, the rally has fully unwound #BTC #Bitcoin #Crypto

Looks like me and @eadehemingway.bsky.social are going to be running a workshop on data analysis with @pola.rs at NICAR in March. Maybe see some of you there!

Regime change occurred in US stock markets back on October 29. The last are now first.

Fun new toy - Waldorf Protein

The most popular paid Apple Store download in China is ‘Are You Dead’. The app requires users to “check in” by pressing a button. If they fail to do so over two consecutive days, the app sends a message to an emergency contact nominated by the user www.ft.com/content/e92d...

Keep Alphaville free* by investing in our Free** Jay Powell merch. * without cost ** not under the control of another as.ft.com/r/82db28aa-3...

Where does all the Christmas cardboard go? ft.trib.al/Jh7W7P5

NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.

Three-year temperature average set to exceed 1.5C for first time on.ft.com/3MnJ8nQ

China’s trade surplus in goods has surpassed $1tn for the first time this year even as exports to the US have cratered. Shipments to other regions, especially south-east Asia, are booming. Analysts believe some of these later end up in the US. Read the story on #FTEdit 👉 on.ft.com/3XGzf7a

NEW: The power crunch threatening America’s AI ambitions Big tech is spending hundreds of billions on data centres in the US to fuel the development of artificial intelligence. Our latest visual story explores the main challenge that these grand plans face: access to power. ig.ft.com/ai-power/

Introducing the FT ‘geopolitical mood’ index on.ft.com/4oAy4Rs

Reeves has shifted her focus from growth towards ‘fairness’ based on our analysis of her 2024 and 2025 Budget speeches

Don't want to jinx it, but my first day at the OBR seems to be going really well.

try out the FT's fiscal drag calculator! www.ft.com/content/54cb...

New: 'Shark's fin' chart reveals the uneven impact of 'fiscal drag', the stealth tax beloved of recent chancellors. Plus use our interactive calculator to see how fresh freezes announced by Rachel Reeves at todays Budget could affect you on.ft.com/3KqOYUL

Really proud to see the @financialtimes.com represented in this list courtesy of Eva Xiao

FT Budget quiz is LIVE! www.ft.com/content/d532...

New: A quiz - How well do you know your Budgets? Turns out you can learn a lot about the UK from these questions... on.ft.com/4pijy1y

Very irritating quiz I failed to get them all right

The government doesn’t see UK data assets as priorities at all - includes ONS. Did the idea of a ‘National Data Library’ & data infrastructure in the AI Opps Action Plan just evaporate?

“Unlikely”. Tremendous understatement, epic work.

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

Blood on the streets of El Fasher: satellite images and videos capture new atrocities in Sudan as RSF forces take the city, marking a new chapter in the country’s ruinous civil war. W/ William Wallis, @janatausch.bsky.social, @digitalcampbell.ft.com www.ft.com/content/f39c...

Great to work with @aendra.com @amyborrett.ft.com @jonathanvincent.bsky.social on this important new dataset of deprivation in England

A big development: HMEL, the Mittal joint venture that owns the refinery has responded to our story - and disclosed that it is pulling out of buying Russian crude.

Unhedged chart of the week: Gooooold Sign up for COTW here: www.ft.com/newsletter-s... @hakyungkim.bsky.social

Whirlwind politics: an illustration. www.ft.com/content/f08a...

This looks like a great new data-driven venture from @ashendruk.com …

Donald Trump is pressing other alliance members to pay more for their own defence, arguing the US is 'paying for close to 100% of Nato'.⁠ While America’s military budget dwarfs others in Nato, Trump’s assertion is not true. on.ft.com/4orYeWZ

There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system. Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts Spending is controlled, not spiralling Worklessness is near record lows My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...

Incredibly useful new story by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com on the 'crisis' for young college grads. Most analyses compare mid-20s workers with/without a degree. But as John points out, the relevant comparison group is actually *new entrants* with/without a degree - most non-degree workers enter at 18-19.

🇳🇴 Nobel Institute probes leak of peace prize winner’s name The Nobel committee is supposedly super secret, a bastion of confidentiality and yet... 🤔 FT www.ft.com/content/afc7...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the most unfair tax of them all? An #FTEdit 🧵on the madness of council tax 👇

Council tax valuation bands in England are increasingly disconnected from house prices - new with Sam Fleming and Jonathan Vincent. You can even tap in your own details to see how unfair your council tax bill is on.ft.com/46JBbB9

A key question this year is just how much of US economic growth has come from tech investment, aka the AI boom. The net contribution of the tech to real GDP growth is a bit more than a third YTD. But consumer spending, a bigger part of GDP, has weakened, in effect making tech's contribution larger.

@olihawkins.com getting deep into blockchain nerdery with maths students at @ucl.ac.uk

The Russian spy ship stalking Europe’s subsea cables on.ft.com/4nOeeCn

BIG NEWS! We've updated the website of the Open Visualization Academy, where you can see all its contributors: openvisualizationacademy.org This is the announcement in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/we-re-back... #dataViz #infographics #dataJournalism #dataVis 📊 1/x

Look what we have here then.

Trump promised that tariffs would lead to a big increase in US production at the expense of imports, and at the same time generate enormous tax revenues. Critics replied that it had to be one or the other. So far, revenues are the clear winner. w/ @theboysmithy.ft.com @robarmstrong.bsky.social

I have spent *many* hours making AI-generated Stephen Fry pogo at a 70s punk club, get angry with a kid for throwing spaghetti on the floor, and see his life flash before his eyes. It's been a journey. You should watch our short film: youtu.be/9ztAyAyv5Uk

Sure: it can be useful (as here!) to show two temporally aligned phenomena. You need to ensure that playing with the Y axis doesn’t make the graph start lying, though.

Unhedged chart of the week; Pity the poor Fed via @hakyungkim.bsky.social Sign up for COTW here: ep.ft.com/newsletters/...

Credit to @mayfaircynic.bsky.social for seeing this gem. "Please note the previous owner is buried ..." www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Wide ranging piece from @theboysmithy.ft.com who used to work at the ONS on how to restore our statistical system. He makes the point we need to think of data as a form of infrastructure on.ft.com/45MlLdJ

🎓New data shows top unis are enrolling more UK undergraduates due to “uncertainty” over international recruitment and mounting financial pressures, outperforming lower-ranking institutions which are typically more reliant on the domestic market on.ft.com/46REXsB

As the nationwide drinking rate of Americans plummets to a nearly 90-year low, it seems like Republicans are leading the decline. While it's unclear what is behind the sharp downturn for Republicans in particular, many prominent party members have been open about their sobriety. on.ft.com/4oB94uO