British politics is too cheap - and other reasons why it's uniquely vulnerable to corruption by foreigners, a problem that goes way beyond Mandelson. Me @financialtimes.com on why this could (and needs to) be a reset moment for the UK as.ft.com/r/36dd8492-2...

Should Ireland play football against Israel? Me on the excellent @newstalkfm.bsky.social podcast on this case, the history and power of sports boycotts, and how to distinguish (or not) between Israeli and Russian cases. Usual rule: only shout at me after listening. www.newstalk.com/podcasts/new...

Can I suggest that everyone disgusted by Farage’s shameful treatment of @annasophiegross.bsky.social follows her en masse? Let’s show her our support, solidarity and that we stand with her, and every other journalist, who is doing their job and holding all politicians to account.

Fact Check: Nigel Farage claims the FT ignored the Mandelson-Epstein scandal it was on the front page for SIX days (long before he appears to have even noticed it)

It really is a joyous read of Simon's soccer travels. A sort of bookend to his genre-generating Football Against the Enemy.

"Soccer fans will be enthralled," writes the brilliantly insightful reviewer of @publisherswkly.bsky.social about my new book, World Cup Fever. And in incredible news for North American readers, it's now available for pre-order there. US edition out March 3 www.simonandschuster.com/books/World-...

PM Tusk: Some say that Ukraine should be grateful for everything. The truth is exactly the opposite. The rest of us should be grateful to Ukraine.

There may be a cognitive issue here, or perhaps you just didn't manage to read the article before commenting on it. I explain in quite simple language that the population will halve because of falling birth rate, not by murder. Why not try reading the piece? as.ft.com/r/18582166-c...

How to watch/experience the World Cup? My tips for Town & Country magazine, based partly on my book World Cup Fever - out now in the UK and in North America from March 3 www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/spor...

In London on March 18? Please come to my talk about my new book World Cup Fever, at Backstory bookshop in Balham. Tickets here: backstory.london/products/18t...

Simon Kuper: We know the trend, yet each new individual stat is still gobsmacking. The average Chinese woman now has 0.98 children. Last year, the country reported the fewest births since records began in 1949, Thailand the fewest since 1950 and France since the second world war.

Populations in most of the great landmass from Portugal to China will probably halve this century. What might life for our grandchildren look like? Me with an uncharacteristic optimistic take (drawing on the only historical precedent: the 14th-century Black Death) @financialtimes.com

“Gallup Will No Longer Track Presidential Approval Ratings” “Gallup’s decision comes as President Trump has escalated his threats against the press, and sued at least one respected pollster” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

It is so embarrassing that it has taken nearly a decade for a British minister to say this, a statement of the absolute bloody obvious

You go to the United States this can happen to you, too, my fellow Europeans.

Ik ga met @HaagschCollege op theatertour! Onderwerp: "De macht van het WK-voetbal." Het plan: optredens in theaters in zes Nederlandse steden in mei/juni. De eerste, Het Nationale Theater in Den Haag, heeft net de kaartverkoop geopend voor 26 mei. Wees erbij! www.hnt.nl/nl/voorstell...

Big difference between UK and US is that in Britain there is still a shared perception of truth: almost nobody there is arguing that the files are 'fake news', 'Democratic hoax' etc. Vast majority in the UK still agree on most facts, partly because much-maligned BBC is still collective news source

Dutch king, huge football fan, refuses to say if he'll go to the World Cup in US. I think heads of state/government ministers etcetera might stay away, like at Russia WCup 2018; boycotts by teams extremely unlikely unless Trump actually invades a Euro country www.voetbalprimeur.nl/nieuws/17399...

Why Trump is Europe's perfect enemy, even better than Putin and the Brexiteers. Now with a link that works (sorry about previous one): as.ft.com/r/567b004c-d...

Trump has done more to create European unity than any European ever has. Me @financialtimes.com on how he is the perfect enemy for Europe, even better than the Brexiteers and Putin. Free link here: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

@simonkuper.bsky.social: "I’ve never previously seen Europeans feel so European" "I’d always doubted that Europe existed as anything more than an unfinished single market. That might be changing" www.ft.com/content/dc9e...

I wanna keep doing this work, in any form (podcast! newsletter! movie? AI literacy class!). Pls msg me on Signal at nitasha.10 if you need someone who’s well-sourced in AI & SV, worked hard to understand the technology + ideas + players, cares about getting it right and informing the public

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

always bears repeating that this is NOT a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post

@SimonKuperFT: "Any politician still invoking “the international community” or calling the US an “ally” is either a liar or hasn’t been paying attention." www.ft.com/content/fcb5...

The "hope you're enjoying Saudi" is the perfect sign-off line here, beautifully caps whole email

As Mark Carney said, we're in a new world order. So how does it work? What are its rules? Errr - are there are any rules? Me @financialtimes.com. Free to read as.ft.com/r/2bae5b49-b...

‘Weirdly, the only multilateral organisation that is getting stronger is the one whose demise was always being predicted: the EU.’

As Mark Carney said, we're in a new world order. So how does it work? What are its rules? Errr - are there are any rules? Me @financialtimes.com. Free to read as.ft.com/r/2bae5b49-b...

Martin Wolf too!!

📷 Last chance: the FT charity lunch auction closes on Saturday. Bid now for lunch with me, or with one of my much more impressive colleagues, e.g. @mccrum.bsky.social or @jemima.bsky.social 📷 ft.com/auction #FTCharityLunchAuction

📷 Last chance: the FT charity lunch auction closes on Saturday. Bid now for lunch with me, or with one of my much more impressive colleagues, e.g. @gilliantett or @gideonrachman 📷 ft.com/auction #FTCharityLunchAuction

The EU‘s fight over the ‚combustion engine ban‘ was a waste of the public‘s attention. Performative politics. By 2035, collectors with special licenses may still want one, if they can pay for the fuel and find some last gas station. History doesn‘t proceed in a linear fashion.

And you just know those Islingtonians were being ironic.

Anyone who thinks this won't happen at the 2026 World Cup games in the U.S. is delusional.

Reform replacing the House of Lords as place where forgotten kooks go for the afterlife www.ft.com/content/0d8a...

Great article @financialtimes.com on American land grabs, which shares my conversation with @simonkuper.bsky.social on the power and unceasing allure of land www.ft.com/content/d59c...

the Chinacene

Agree. I think he backed down because the stock and bond markets were hit by his Greenland bullshit. Still, Europe was right to stand firm at last

Het Uur is mijn favoriete Nederlandstalige podcast en het was erg leuk om mijn vriend @simonkuper.bsky.social als gast te horen. Altijd interessant, niet alleen over voetbal. Zijn blik op Nederland is altijd verrijkend.

At the 2022 NATO summit Biden congratulated Switzerland on joining the alliance, when he meant Sweden. He had some form of dementia too, but wasn't a sociopath and had a staff of mostly competent people

klinkt raar en bijna egoistisch, maar sinds ik heb gedoneerd voor generatoren voor Ukraine, verdraag ik de verschrikkelijke verhalen over de kou daar ietsje beter (of minder slecht). We zitten bijna op de twee ton. ANBI dus belasting aftrekbaar: vvodiel.nl/doneren/

Not the right moment to come out as out of touch with the actual world. UK leaving NATO now would be insane betrayal + shooting self in the foot à la Brexit but worse

FAZ: Norwegian intelligence anticipates that in the event Trump invades Greenland, Russia will launch a coordinated attack to seize the Norwegian archipelago of Spitzbergen

Oxfam have a very topical new report out www.oxfam.org/en/research/...

Kavanaugh raid

By amazing coincidence, the very same people were also wrong about Brexit. Am sensing some kind of pattern

The very stable geniuses of British politics should not be allowed to forget their sycophancy towards Trump.

I associate this winter with three things: cold, darkness, and gratitude. I am not mentioning Russian missiles and drones because they strike civil infrastructure all year round. That is why we in Kyiv are sitting at minus -17 degrees without heating, electricity, water, or communication. 1/1

FT editorial: the constant sacking of football head coaches (wrongly still called "managers") illustrates how badly most clubs are still run. Both clubs and fans need to realise that the head coach just isn't that important. Recruitment (= transfers) matters much more as.ft.com/r/73922630-9...