Is the US's superior economic growth a statistical mirage? open.substack.com/pub/markjone...

Brilliant infographic illustrating ups and downs in US effective tariff rate.

Clever Guardian headline this morning www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Excellent NYT graphic. In the space of about 3 months, tariffs on China: -- doubled; -- went up ≈ 2.5X from there; -- roughly doubled again; -- went up ≈ 40% from there; -- and now have dropped ≈ 80% from the peak -- but are still 3X what they were in February. www.nytimes.com/article/trum...

“The Trump administration is embarking on an economic equivalent of the Vietnam War” www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

‘I once imposed tariffs on an island only populated by penguins’

The US, Canada and Mexico will co-host the 2026 World Cup. That was going to be an enormous challenge even before an isolationist US President came to power: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

This may be one of the most dangerous things Musk and Trump has done so far

Interesting from The Economist - YouTube’s popularity in Russia makes it the most effective way of countering Kremlin propaganda: www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

“Everyone is beginning to realize that the system is broken. People are beginning to crave something different.” When Buzzfeed’s Jonah Perretti writes these words you know it’s the end of an era www.buzzfeed.com/jonah/the-an...

What I've been up to today le.ac.uk/news/2025/ja...

Clever headline in today’s Guardian.

The regressive nature of the UK’s tax system is not widely understood and deserves to be.

X Traffic Falling Relative to Bluesky According to Similarweb, visits to the Elon Musk's X have plummeted over the past 3 months Global traffic to x.com has fallen from 706 million visits in Sept to just 586.6 million by Nov — a 10.5% drop in the past month alone 1/2

NEW: Where the teens are YouTube 90% TikTok 63% Instagram 61% Snapchat 55% Facebook 32% (down from 71%) WhatsApp 23% X 17% (down from 33%) Reddit 14% Threads 6% report: www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...

This is sort of fascinating because if you were to turn on pretty much any talk radio station or pick up any tabloid, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the inverse.

Worth remembering in terms of where next for Syria: the economy is left so thoroughly broken after the world’s deadliest war this century that the World Bank has been having to use data like night-time lights and gas flaring emissions to proxy activity. documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/0...

Day of the Jackal screenwriter Ronan Bennett on how he rewrote a '60s classic for the modern age, including a valuable framing tactic anyone can use: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Have you heard of freebirthing? Where you shun any form of medical intervention during pregnancy and birth? It's making headlines and it's also at the heart of Baby Teeth, my debut novel out next February (on NetGalley and KU for a limited time now). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I like this idea for fighting UK fraud @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk and you could probably solve the whole funding crisis for local journalism industry with it. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...

No fewer than six former editors/EiCs of the Observer have written to the Scott Trust urging them to pause the sale of the title to Tortoise Media pressgazette.co.uk/news/observe...

Good news for former users of Nuzzel at the other place.

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

"Most people only see very little misinformation online, and the ones seeing the most are those who are most amenable and go looking for it" Rescato esto de @matthewleake.bsky.social con voces como @sachaltay.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/are-fea...

Bluesky has overtaken Threads in US.

Man who told The Times in 2021 that he’d only bought his £4.25m farm to avoid paying inheritance tax to lead protest against inheritance tax 😂🤣😂 www.thesun.co.uk/news/3179317...

Really useful guide for getting the most out of Bluesky

1/ “We had a constructive dialogue...” 🥱 💤 WAIT! 🧵 These closing statements from the Biden-Xi summit are more than verbal Ambien. They’re actually a masterclass in great power rivalry. A tale of AI, nuclear weapons, and global domination... all told through bureaucratic prose 🤯

At last some numbers that quantify the full impact of junk food on our health and economy: amp.theguardian.com/politics/202...

New research from the IFS showing the closure of youth centres during the 2010s was shortsighted. For every £1 saved, the costs to affected users, crime victims and public spending in the police and the criminal justice system amount to £2.85 ifs.org.uk/publications...

Dropping X for Bluesky? These tips will make the migration easier The budding social network has lots of neat ways to get up and running.

Sue Gray to Match of the Day, Gary Linekar to Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby Envoy to Nations and Regions?