The most important skill in politics is to be very clearheaded about whose interests you are there to serve

Hungarian PM Péter Magyar condemned ex-FM Péter Szijjártó’s move to BYD, saying it raises legal concerns after he backed the Chinese carmaker with public funds while in office. Magyar accused him of now serving the Chinese Communist Party, something a real Hungarian patriot would never do.

Ukraine’s digital-reformist defense minister may be about to get “promoted” to PM to get him out of a job where he has angered generals. economist.com/europe/2026/...

I wish more journalists would point out that Sen. McConnell and Rep. Tom Kean (missed 4 months of work) are/were essentially on paid sick & medical leave. The same employment protection they’ve spent their careers blocking other Americans from having.

My only encounter with Graham was a press tour with him, McCain and Amy Klobuchar at the Hanoi Hilton museum in Hanoi in 2009. He trailed behind McCain cackling obsequiously at each of his modest jokes. He seemed like a man who needed to be someone’s sidekick.

If Jared Kushner paid €110m to buy an island in Albania that has no fresh water from a guy who did not own it, it would help explain why his negotiations with Iran on behalf of the US have not been entirely successful

Europe’s slow electrification is a ‘major mistake’ www.ft.com/content/fbeb...

New NSF policy essential bans all collaboration with Chinese scientists. This is another disaster for science. www.science.org/content/arti...

Orbanism is still the model www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/u...

New York, the city that never sleeps. My daughter however wants to find the city that always sleeps; any suggestions

What a class move.

Two political recruiters called this dude up and asked him whether he wanted to be a Senator, and he’s acting like he’s a plucky grassroots activist who built a movement from scratch

I knew Trump liked Mamdani but didn’t realize he was co-opting his city-owned grocery store concept. Tbf it makes slightly more sense to have socialist gas stations, since unlike supermarkets the profit margins are often high

The basic epistemological shift from the 1960s to the 1990s is from Scooby Doo to The X Files

Logically if you wanted to vertically integrate as a news media organization, you would start carrying out terrorist attacks so you could report on them more efficiently

Here's the definitive numbers take on Graham Platner: He's bad. Specifically, he's running about 10 points behind expectations — and in a race that decides control of the Senate about 10% of the time (the third most likely tipping point). www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-07-07...

The lesson from the Belgium-USA match and from the Hungarian election is that you need to defeat populists by such a convincing margin that claiming the contest was rigged becomes implausible.

Overturn this! 😎

"Volodymyr Zelensky's call for help rings with extra intensity after Russian missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital twice in less than a week, crashing into blocks of flats and killing more than 50 civilians." @bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

Alderman in Berkelland resigns after paper exposes him for "paper terrorism": on behalf of a German "Reichsburger", he sent dozens of threatening fake legal summons to embassies, threatening tribunals. Also sent fake "search warrants" to a city hall and a bank, accusing them of treason and genocide

1/ Russian horse breeders are reporting booming sales due to the ongoing fuel crisis. Despite the expenses of owning a horse, they are now cheaper to maintain than constantly refuelling an SUV. ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/igor...

Goeie morgen Nederland: America's proposed "MATCH Act...would restrict ASML’s provision of servicing, spare parts and software support for 100s of DUV machines [in China, and] give the Dutch and other allied governments 150 days to align their controls with America’s—or face action."

This piece by Thierry Breton is quite good open.substack.com/pub/europemo...

As a Nazi philosopher who helped get his Jewish colleague permission to emigrate to the US once said, sovereign is he who determines the state of exception

Intentie om wet onnodig toeteren in te voeren lijkt voorlopig geen afschrikkingswekkend effect te hebben.

Happy July 4 to Americans and our boring 2-party political system. Here in the Netherlands, after left-liberal D66 won, the right-liberal VVD forced it to leave GreenLeft/Labor (now PRO) out of the new coalition. Result is that in opposition PRO has risen to top of the polls. Never dull!

But surely Jews could have stayed in Poland and built a democratic socialist future rather than emigrating to Palestine

The Ukrainian president has announced a new drone surge to “compel” Russia to negotiate for peace. Register for free to learn why

Is "roids" the only remaining artefact of the 1980s slang device of using only the final syllable of a word?

Barbarians

Actually, it was a volunteer archivist at The National Archives, Kew called Michael Scurr who found it, not the "UK" that found it. (with a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers). giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

wake uppe chat, newe schism just droppid

Today’s best photo-caption combination www.ft.com/content/30af... Why Americans are about to pay so much for their July 4 hot dog

Nice lady asked me to watch her bag for a minute while she used the bathroom, came back and thanked me. Spent the next 5 minutes worrying this was the play in a con that would lead to her stealing my bag

More time has passed between the release of the movie that made "Houston, we have a problem" famous and today than passed between the moon mission that had the problem and the release of the nostalgic movie about it

Not sure why people are complaining about Trump buying stocks, he’s using his wealth to push up the value of shares, benefiting America

Stock trades by President. The blatant corruption is just staggering

The Censorship Industrial Complex is a free speech absolutist conspiracy theory that Republicans and tech bros weaponised to go after fact-checkers, so its really good to see this outcome.

Two years ago, my colleagues and I were sued by Stephen Miller's America First Legal. The Hines v Stamos case — built atop a number of false allegations — was a central element of the "censorship industrial complex" myth. Today, that case was dismissed (by a Trump judge in LA). We won.

And a very good morning to you too

🇺🇦Never forget Ukrainians. Tonight, thousands of people will spend the night in the Kyiv metro, hoping to survive one more day. Stand with Ukraine.

If you were trying to defeat AI, which Batman villain would you become?

If you undermine independent judges, media and civil service, shroud decisions in secrecy and let it be known that government is for sale.... Then corruption is what results. America and Zimbabwe in this sense are no different.

You know what I bet really drives up the cost of building more Dutch housing? The bouwvakantie. Curious whether any Dutch politician or even citizen is willing to take up that issue.

Jordan Bardella, the National Rally’s heir apparent, sat down with @sophiepedder.bsky.social to talk about his background, his rise and the possibility that he will run for president next year. He may well win. Gift link economist.com/europe/2026/...

Are there reports of BYDs crashing into things autonomously? Don’t think I’ve seen any

Translation does not accurately convey volume of profanity in the original. Would be amazed if this person is in Russia rather than abroad but if so…good luck

Jackson.

You will probably not correctly guess who the ultimate target of this 19thC senator’s racist rant turn out to be. Very Grandpa Simpson vibe