Brutalist conservatory dream worlds at Barbican

A lot of books have been written about the Syrian war, but Robin’s earlier book, Burning Country, is still one of the best books I’ve read on the topic. The subject of this next one is, in a way, surreal. Excited to read it.

I have a book out in June.

This article's argument is premised on a 'by-passing' of institutions instead of 'co-optation' but the distinction is not clear to me. I'll grant that US courts are holding up, but certainly not the media, electoral, or political system. www.ft.com/content/b474...

It may be La Cartuja, but the himno is still special

Dia de Betis. Escaped London for a (windy) Seville and a Europa League night 🟢⚪️

The post-US world is already taking shape – look at the massive EU-India trade deal | Ravinder Kaur

The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions. It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.

Speaking in Paris at the Second International Writers Congress in 1937, Langston Hughes declared: “We Negroes in America do not have to be told what fascism is in action. We know.”

India's Republic Day invitation to EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa is a pretty stark sign of the changing geopolitical winds. The global shift away from US dependency is well under way. www.dw.com/en/india-cou...

The reason why they're still pressing ahead is not because they have some secret plan, but the pretty classic Umberto Eco fascist-folly - because of their ideology they are "constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy."

This was the most astounding chart—supporting his argument that humanity has seen three phases of energy consumption: 1. Prehistory-Industrial Revolution 2. Industrial Revolution-1990s 3. China's acceleration in 1990s to present

To this point: "Carney’s statement of the obvious attracted attention only because no western leader had made it before." www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/carn...

"What Trump has done is to produce a kind of European Gaullism — as almost the whole continent (with the exception of Trumpist outriders like Hungary) quietly embraces the need to de-risk from the US." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I cannot tell you how absolutely infuriatingly this stuff comes across to Europeans. When we say America is no longer a reliable ally, it goes considerably deeper than Donald Trump himself. This kind of complacent, condescending shit is a *huge* part of it.

Shades of Kwame Nkrumah and neo-colonialism as a process of unequal integration

Comparing American hegemony to warsaw pact life under Soviet rule is an amazing step. Carney really is punching (rhetorically) as hard as one can. The China move was a real policy change that follows from this attitude. What's next? CAF in Greenland? That he did this before Trump speaks? Wow.

Date for your diary - join us Join us for this online training session on 28th April, hosted by the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social team, which will bring together a panel of historians, librarians and subject specialists to discuss the History of Emotions www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

EU readies €93bn tariffs in retaliation for Trump’s Greenland threat ft.trib.al/5Qfqifp

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

Sums it up. Europeans, Canadians and Mexicans can't trust America again until America visibly changes in strategic approach and cultural outlook towards the world. Americans can't afford their hubris anymore.

Further datapoints for how Europeans can no longer trust American elites whether or not Trump is in power

On the aesthetic of cruelty and the proper response: the public needs virtuous fighters www.bostonreview.net/articles/emp...

Hurrah!!! The brilliant Sumita Mukherjee has a new book out about the lives of South Asian children in Modern Britain in just a few weeks. I love the cover photo! A must read so now would be a great time to preorder and commission reviews. www.hurstpublishers.com/book/imperia...

A lot of the media really struggle to cover the 4chan edgelord meme stuff because it seems so unserious. And it is. But it's also serious.

For many UK journalists the sudden access to highest echelons of America global power in Washington can prove ideologically intoxicating. In the Cooke/Wheeler era this led to absorption of New Deal liberalism. From Reagan onwards an absorption often into the world of Republican powerbrokers.

"...with the United States pushing against China, pushing against Russia, sowing division in Europe, threatening Latin America, with all countries, everywhere, angling for advantage — means there will most likely be more confrontation, more brinkmanship, more war." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/o...

Really sharp analysis on Trump and Venezuela. Interesting idea about US hegemonic projects in Latin America after moments of US globalism & ideological uncertainty (1940s, 1980s, 2020s). The difference now: Trump lacks supermajoritarian support for a world-making project megaphone.link/TPG1253456307

BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped. The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.

What is it? Historian Greg Grandin told the HistoryExtra podcast about the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine, from its origins in the Spanish-American revolutions to its role in interventions, the Cold War, and beyond 🗝️ This article is free to read bit.ly/41KHAsN

The 'civilizing mission' era of 21st-century American imperialism is over. Liberal evangelicalism superseded by iron-fisted Crown rule under high imperialism. It's almost as if I've seen this story before...

Given everything happening right now, I updated this article with options for weather apps, web forms, and translation services — along with some tweaks to existing categories. I hope it helps your transition off US tech!

On the tepid European response to Trump's imperial declarations: "Silence is not safety. It is, to use the language of the day and channel the jubilant Hegseth, 'effing around' and 'soon finding out'" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's not just dumb, it's a historical blunder of epic proportions. bsky.app/profile/esqu...

Trump is trying to force US oil companies to rebuild Venezuelan oil fields that are too expensive to invest in at current crude prices while a full blown energy revolution is happening with cheap solar and electrification growing exponentially. This is a dying empire shit.

4. Former opposition networks, Chavistas that want a fresh start, civil society can't stop a multi-sided civil war as Trump posts racist memes and Vance does a podcast, violence spreads across borders forcing Trinidad, Guyana, Brazil, Colombia and the Netherlands thru Curacao into difficult choices

3. Returning Venezuelan exiles and opposition networks find themselves without promised US support, army factions, militias, narco-gangs, illegal mining paramilitaries, Colombian insurgents like ELN pick sides and a country with 6 million weapons in circulation plunges into escalating conflict

2. Decapitation strikes hit Venezuela, prove successful, Trump declares victory and then gets bored and walks away.

Plausible worst case scenario with Venezuela in four steps: 1. Rubio and Venezuelan exiles sell the idea of decapitation strikes against Maduro to Trump as the one big thing that solves Venezuela, cartels and Cuba for the US.

What the war against London really is about. V good by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social #Giftlink And on a different note: A v Happy New Year to everyone!

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

The incoming mayor will use two family Qurans and a historic edition that symbolises New York City history.

missed this when it came out but FP sent a year in review and this was a subscriber pick. I think it's wrong for two reasons: 1) as the new NSS demonstrates, the US is promoting a fracture *within* the west and 2)kleptocratic transnational networks do not care about civilizational differences

El Retiro Park, Madrid

Happy Christmas to all those celebrating! A Mughal virgin and child, by Ghulam Shah Salim before 1605, after an engraving by Flemish artist Bernard van Orley (1492-1542). Dedication to Prince Shah Salim who became the emperor Jahangir 1695–27.

Newly-announced scheme, supporting international PhD students and postdocs who want to come to Canada www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/canad...

“The other issue raised in [Northanger Abbey] is about the relationship between history and imagination, and how far the historian’s task might overlap with that of the novelist.” www.historytoday.com/archive/out-...

"To borrow a criticism, in his robust defence of Brexit freedoms, Starmer resembles Alec Guinness’s half-mad colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai, protecting an edifice he has forgotten was built for the benefit of the other side." www.ft.com/content/2d00...

The US National Security Strategy is a pretty clear vision of Monroe Doctrine imperialism with an appetite for intervention in Europe to overthrow the liberal democratic order.