Toyota’s buyout options all come with a taint - tinyurl.com/mvaxxssc - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

Throwing some serious shade at the Bank of Japan here

New: Together with colleagues I’ve been testing Grok. The chatbot still produces sexualized images — even when told the subjects don’t consent. even when told the photos will be used for public humiliation. even when told the subjects are survivors of abuse. www.reuters.com/business/des...

exactly. this is not difficult. as.ft.com/r/58ed1b23-d...

An hour-long set of Seu Jorge singing David Bowie covers in Portuguese (from Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic) to mark the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death. "Just an acoustic guitar, a microphone, and the beautiful coastline of São Paulo." [kottke.org]

Japan's election adds fuel to repatriation fire - tinyurl.com/9uw5dzfe - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social

My nomination for the most influential scientific visualization ever produced. 🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 #scicomm #sciviz #visualscicomm #sciviz #dinosaurs alwayssomethingtosee.substack.com/p/the-age-of...

'He asks the right questions but has the wrong answers' was said of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen by Socialist PM Laurent Fabius back in 1984, an idea reprised in this great column from Rana Foroohar: Trump is the wrong answer to the right questions - as.ft.com/r/7933bb9e-4...

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

New for @breakingviews.reuters.com: Elliott has raised its Toyota Industries stake as insiders push for a $36 bln take-private deal undervaluing the firm. The fund's bet is already in the money and its rep in Japan will be burnished whatever the outcome www.reuters.com/commentary/b...

Japan's PM is entering self-made fiscal trap - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social - tinyurl.com/3j3jzzks

Last year a whistleblower said DOGE had illegally accessed a Social Security database. SSA now acknowledges it's true—& that DOGE employees had secret agreement w/ unidentified political advocacy group to use SocSec data to help overturn election results. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

How rice prices could throw Japan's PM off course - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social - tinyurl.com/4cs5wnj5

In investorspeak, "ideological, political" can often be translated as "bad, in that it is making clients ask me uncomfortable questions".

Props to Jeremy for continuing to do the hard, worthy work of explaining legal developments in China to non-expert readers. This case seems especially pertinent to a wider audience though, as the piece notes, doesn't match 1:1 with Grok in terms of the potential harm being addressed.

In-depth piece for @breakingviews.reuters.com - Japan’s PM Sanae Takaichi has vowed to tame inflation and called a snap election for Feb 8. She’s also backing a policy to boost rice prices, which have doubled since 2024 and got the last premier sacked. I explain why: www.reuters.com/commentary/h...

‘The family said no warrant was presented, agents did not ask for Thao’s ID, but they “nevertheless forcibly entered the home with weapons drawn.” ‘ Utter lawlessness. One of the few things holding it to account is great reporting as @marisakabas.bsky.social is doing

We spent our whole lives training and working to undermine US soft power and to be honest we’ve never felt so unnecessary. 😢

Some self-respecting journalist, it matters not who, really needs to ask Trump directly how he squares this with the Greenland stuff at the earliest possible opportunity. And then ask follow-up questions, plural.

The DOJ is not investigating ICE agent Jonathan Ross for the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a top official said Sunday. The top DOJ official confirmed that an investigation is underway into Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

The Star Tribune had an insane graphic about the presence of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. There are more immigration officers in the metro right now than local police officers.

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Toyota ups buyout bid from derisory to just mean - www.breakingviews.com/columns/brea... @hudsonlockett.bsky.social

In case you've ever wondered why a newspaper might need to keep an architecture critic on staff in this, the year 2026, the below piece provides a compelling argument in favor.

Hong Kong’s top corporate gadfly leaves huge void - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social - tinyurl.com/4p3sstwx

"And flights of ornery angels sing thee to thy rest."

Far right in France - victormallet.org - still on a roll, says survey in Le Monde: Record 42% of French agree with ideas championed by RN, vs 29% in 2022. www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...

The end of an era, and much too soon. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Increasingly it's clearer to a lot of people what i have been saying for a while: people use "inflation" and "prices" to talk about their own difficulty making ends meet or affording big ticket items once "inflation" became a big media news story. It's not actually about CPI or even increases.

Someone, just... please tell me the bond vigilantes aren't these guys. There are other bond traders who are in charge of the whole market discipline thing, yes? Right? "Wow I didn't know they wanted to get rid of Finra, lol"!? LMAO, EVEN!?!?

Japan snap election would stoke fiscal, China risk - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social - tinyurl.com/mvphu5nr

You can check out my new study on speculative governance in #Myanmar for free right now at Third World Quarterly: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/FJYER... 4/4

My new article argues this constitutes 'speculative governance': a mode of rule in which uncertain futures are used to govern land and people. The ‘don’t cause trouble’ motto reflects a politics of invisibility through which land speculation, local authority, and slow displacement are sustained. 3/4

This let them govern the property market. Untitled plots were traded informally. Elders verified ownership, witnessed transactions, and discouraged residents from obtaining formal titles. Authority was exercised not through law, but via everyday administrative work and management of uncertainty. 2/4

New study: On #Myanmar’s urban outskirts, ward administrators often told me they had one job—‘Don’t cause trouble.’ They certainly weren’t talking about following the law, though. They meant: don’t attract attention, trigger inspections, or make the ward visible to higher authorities. 1/4

This is an unlawful order as given. Press cannot be ordered to disperse. They’re exempt. Press CAN be told not to obstruct. A “safe zone” (Crespo area) is always appreciated and in some cases required to provide. It is NEVER required for press to be in it (per law, policy and courts).

1/8 Very interesting CNA article on Beijing's strategic pivot towards upgrading the quality of China's existing housing stock. It turns out that much of its housing stock, including much that was built in recent years, is of unacceptable quality. www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/ch...

Walz: "I couldn't help but think, and it scares me a bit -- 'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most important directive.' It certainly feels like that in this moment."

the cost of clean air in Beijing: people in rural Hebei suffer from not being able to afford heating for the 8th winter. gas is too expensive, coal is banned. rural Hebei's plight has recently drawn widespread attention and gone viral on social media aquariuseras.substack.com/p/hebei-meig...

Hong Kong equities look due for a value push - @hudsonlockett.bsky.social - tinyurl.com/yc2bbes3

Pleased to have contributed to ‘Predictions 2026’, a new e-book from Reuters Breakingviews that lays out the deals, companies, people and market dynamics that will shape the year ahead. Brace yourself, then access the book: reut.rs/3YDKKwu Or read the articles a la carte online: reut.rs/45puKSz

Just a few more days left to apply for the Paul McLean graduate trainee programme at the FT. This is an amazing opportunity for any aspiring journalist job-boards.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

“Venezuela has as many as 2,000 generals and admirals, more than double the number in the United States. Senior and retired officers control food distribution, raw materials and the state oil company PDVSA, while dozens of generals sit on the boards of private firms.” www.reuters.com/world/americ...

It's worth reading the whole interview in full. It basically verifies that the NYT has spent the past decade-plus doubling down on top-down narratives for coverage, getting more intense over time. Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.

Not a non-story, but keep in mind that a month of oral contraceptives usually costs between 20-150 RMB ($3 - $22) and can be bought online without a prescription and delivered free. 10-50 ($1.25 - 7.20)/dose for emergency contraception. And 计划生育 offices seem to still send free pills and condoms.

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

CBS News postponed a "60 Minutes" segment Sunday because it lacked a Trump admin interview, per an email we obtained from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who said the decision by EIC Bari Weiss gave the White House a "kill switch." with @liamjscott.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...