New 📈👩‍💼The gender pay gap at large UK firms has narrowed for the sixth consecutive year to a record low of 8.2%* — but remains stubbornly high in the professional, finance and insurance sectors

Ouch. Jet fuel. www.ft.com/content/7181...

🔋⚡ spiralling fuel prices and looming energy shortages are forcing governments to take drastic measures to conserve supplies. Lots of charts in this @financialtimes.com piece about the global wave of energy rationing as.ft.com/r/a26a41a9-6...

Small swings, high drama: why UK polls are less volatile than they seem – in charts - www.theguardian.com/politics/202... "we might see is that people still identify with being on the right or left, but being more willing to switch within those sides.” #greens

The Bank of England was a real outlier with its comms this week, far more hawkish than peers Language analysis shows a sharp shift in tone from the UK central bank this week as.ft.com/r/41e01e51-9...

Niche user experience complaint but I cannot understand why Vinted decided to ruin their search by only allowing size ranges (8-10, 12-14) rather than specific sizes. On the plus side I am saving a lot of money 🥲

exclusive: Nigel Farage has recorded Cameo videos in which he endorsed a neo-Nazi event, repeated extremist slogans and supported a man convicted over his involvement in a far-right riot. w/ @michaelgoodier.bsky.social

Anglosphere agony vs Nordic nirvana. (PS Can't believe I'd never seen this graph before, so grateful to @stephenkb.bsky.social for sharing in his fab morning newsletter (www.ft.com/inside-polit...)

New 📝📈: From next year, large employers in the EU will have to report on their gender pay gap. But will this help to close it? I looked at the evidence from countries -- including the UK -- that have already tried it. www.ft.com/content/9ffe...

New 📊: Should we be worried about another gas crisis in Europe? Prices are up 70% to their highest level since 2023 this week while a particularly cold winter has depleted reserves.

Natgas... "In sheer volume, this could be worse than 2022" www.ft.com/content/78fb... But... zoom out

New 🏭: The price of natural gas in Europe has surged almost 80% since Friday after Iranian strikes on the world's second-largest exporter Qatar and the effective closure of key shipping routes... But zooming out, we're still a long way from the 2022 price crisis

Time for something different, radar for wind farms… 📡 I've been working on a prototype that you can use on your phone to discover more about the wind farms around you.

The first woman in Parliament to appear in the Guardian's 'best-dressed at Glastonbury' feature. You'll never sing that, etc...

Interesting on the future of email vis a vis AI from @claradoodle.bsky.social: feels like the volume will go wild as inboxes play table-tennis with each other as.ft.com/r/f4cf734b-c...

I wrote about the proliferation of AI tools promising to finally sort out our inboxes — will they give us back hours a week or accelerate a broken system? 🤖📧 giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

rare positive journalism news story

Pancake Day reveals a new, highly divisive intergenerational split - while older generations are loyal to traditional lemon and sugar pancake topping, younger adults are more likely to say they prefer Nutella or chocolate spread on their pancakes.

Actually... from my reading of the artists' basic income report, the government did not earn money back from the scheme (although its costs were offset 37%) Most gains were societal and came from putting the artists' improvements in wellbeing in € terms assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

V glad to see this frankly disturbing trend finally being called out !! ‘It’s ridiculous’: publicans bemused by rise of single-file queues to get served | Pubs | The Guardian share.google/riza1ctU9Z1k...

Wowsers look at what happened to posts on Twitter/X about London crime after monetisation of posts was introduced… economist.com/britain/2026...

"COMPANIES SCOOP $22BN IN CONTRACTS FROM TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION AGENCIES" #PeterAndringa / @claradoodle.bsky.social for @financialtimes.com Full Story: t.ly/-C65c #Palantir and #Deloitte are profiting from #DonaldTrump's immigration crackdown. #FinancialTimesUSA #TomorrowsPapersToday #IBPAPERS

Hundreds of companies, including big names like Palantir, Deloitte and Accenture, are earning millions from contracts with ICE and CBP during Trump's second term. Many are mundane but others are directly assisting the crackdown w/ @peter.andringa.me @rafeuddin.ft.com www.ft.com/content/c741...

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.

New 🤖: Anthropic's latest Economic Index report is out, revealing some interesting differences in how people use Claude around the world. Higher-income countries aremore likely to use it for personal tasks, vs lower-income correlating with education

For this graphic we compare the terrain of the three most expensive rail projects in the world. HS2 costs an eye watering $537mn per km despite being built on relatively flat terrain. Read Gill Plimmer, @pickardje.bsky.social and Jonathan Vincent's excellent article www.ft.com/content/3f73...

The only good thing about Stansted is the guy who works at Harris & Hoole who's learning a bunch of languages and seems to try out different ones on every customer. (Unclear whether he got lucky speaking Irish to me or does ginger based profiling but either way I respect the commitment to the bit)

Great piece by @claradoodle.bsky.social in the @financialtimes.com including comments from me about why, with the ever growing list of issues planning applications are expected to consider, it's little surprise that it takes so long for applications to be determined. www.ft.com/content/10d3...

'Venezuela' rapidly replacing 'tariff' as the word my brain refuses to spell correctly on the first try despite typing it ~100 times per day

Our @yougov.co.uk data journalism extraordinaire Matt Smith has compiled all news tracker results from 2025 into this stunning graphic This tells us so much about what 'cuts through', how news cycles evolve, and what grabs attention re: flash moments vs ongoing stories yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

Maybe a mildly hot take, but the prevalence of firework shows was a function of the nation's industrial capacity for gunpowder and a demonstration of that power capacity via excess. Drone shows will have the same function in a drone warfare era. "Look how many we can control at once more than you"

Drone shows have tripled in popularity this year but can they rise past novelty status? A fun little new year's eve story using data on warnings issued to pilots about drone swarms 🌌

if you're running out of family dinner conversation may I suggest hitting them with some fun cardboard facts from our big cardboard story? 📦🎁📦 as.ft.com/r/e9673efd-f...

A really nice—and surprising—chart from Amanda Shendruk's excellent newsletter, Not-Ship www.not-ship.com/when-do-most...

New🍿📉: Netflix originals are now rated lower than rivals on IMDb — although things have improved since 2022 (funnily enough, I think I cancelled my subscription that year). Interactive version here if you want to see the individual titles: public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...

Could ChatGPT be losing its lead? Downloads of Google's Gemini chatbot app surged to rival ChatGPT's over the summer. Gemini 3's hyped launch this month may have pushed this even higher ..

Reeves has shifted her focus from growth towards ‘fairness’ based on our analysis of her 2024 and 2025 Budget speeches

‘A new service called Objector is offering “policy-backed objections in minutes” to people who are upset about planning applications near their homes.’ Another reminder that AI can be used for things you don’t like as well as things you like…

some properly jaw dropping graphics in this excellent piece by @alisonkilling.bsky.social

Lovely image editing evals with before/after sliders https://genai-showdown.specr.net/image-editing

Do you enjoy playing chartle.cc? We’re opening up to the community! Are you a scientist, journalist, researcher or just a data-enthusiast and would like to submit your own data (it should be a country-based time series)? Get in touch with us - we’d love to feature it!

Neither candidates or voters are used to a 2 horse race in Ireland; I think it'll lead us to a fractious, attack-laden campaign, and turnout below 40% Latest newsletter #Aras25 www.thebriefing.ie/our-first-am...

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

How unfair is your council tax? on.ft.com/470KNX9

Mt Fuji from the office this evening - the photo really doesn't do it justice

Actually... from my reading of the artists' basic income report, the government did not earn money back from the scheme (although its costs were offset 37%) Most gains were societal and came from putting the artists' improvements in wellbeing in € terms assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

I've been in Japan a week and so far the biggest culture shock has been being surrounded by dozens of places to get really excellent looking coffee, none of which open until 10am

A cool use of AI in newsgathering, this. US companies are talking more and more about the risks rather than the benefits of AI in their SEC filings (while still being super-optimistic in earnings calls). By @melissahei.bsky.social @chriscook.news & @claradoodle.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/e93e...

Matcha has been getting more popular for a good few years now but this summer it really took off - with sales doubling in UK cafes vs 2024. 4% of drinks sales are now matcha-based, according to Square payments data🍵

Scrolling through a big csv of Farage tweets is quite the experience