I say this with nothing but love in my heart for the fatherland but can you imagine any other country looking at wildfires and thinking "quick, get a philosopher on the line"

this such a moving story. in this week's print edition www.economist.com/1843/2026/02...

He was a Texan dad who had never left America. Then he got deported to Laos

Trump’s crackdown is sending people to a homeland they’ve never seen before

economist.com

Happy birthday to Jane Austen, and to this very on-brand Economist chart www.economist.com/christmas-sp...

"In scale, these proposals would mean deporting greater numbers and a greater proportion of the population than former Ugandan President Idi Amin’s deportation of Ugandan Asians"

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:

John F. Kennedy: The Soviet plan to encircle West Berlin with a giant concrete wall guarded by men with guns, dogs and searchlights is unfunded, unworkable and falling apart.

Reminder: The existence of these in most Scottish supermarkets and corner shops is proof that anyone shilling for the notion that multiculturalism can't work on this island is a charlatan

If you're interested in Tether, I wrote this for the Economist about an NCA operation into a Russian cash-for-crypto money laundering scheme. www.economist.com/1843/2025/07...

How Tether became money-launderers’ dream currency

The stablecoin is fuelling a global shadow economy. And it’s never been more respectable

economist.com

1843 is now publishing regularly in the print Economist as well as digitally. Our debut is this blockbuster investigation into the coup Bolsonaro was plotting, the details of which are INSANE. Kind of like the Battle for Chile as scripted by Armando Iannucci www.economist.com/1843/2025/08...

The untold story of Bolsonaro’s weird and wild coup attempt

How Brazil’s ex-president and his cronies tried to take down democracy

economist.com

This is a really painful read, but fantastic digging by Shane Bauer into the children of political dissidents in Syria, disappeared by the security services into orphanages and made to forget the existence of their parents www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/m...

They Were Treated Like Orphans. But They Knew the Truth.

nytimes.com

"If the princess rings the police...you're dead. I mean literally". Superb long read on the whistleblower who exposed epic British-Saudi corruption. Someone should make into a film www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Very British bribery: the whistleblower who exposed the UK’s dodgy arms deals with Saudi Arabia

The long read: When Ian Foxley found evidence of corruption while working at a British company in Riyadh, he alerted the MoD. He didn’t know he’d stumbled upon one of its most closely guarded secrets

theguardian.com

Fellow Syria obsessives, if you have not listened to the final part of my colleague Gareth's incredible investigation into the fate of Austen Tice I strongly recommend you do so. A chilling journey into the dark heart of the regime www.economist.com/podcasts/202...

The hunt for Austin Tice, part 3

Bird in the cage

economist.com

Previous posts are from the Economist's summer double issue which is on stands today and which contains four fantastic pieces of reportage from 1843, including this absolutely wild tale of identity theft www.economist.com/interactive/...

One William Woods was telling the truth. The other was living his life

How a decades-long deception saw an innocent man end up in jail

economist.com

Every few years about 30m Indians compete for 90K jobs on the railways. To be eg a ticket inspector you must do an insane exam on things like algebra, & the WTO. An entire town has sprung up where ppl do nothing but cram for it. Amazing story (includes sample test) www.economist.com/interactive/...

Would you pass the world’s toughest exam?

Thirty million Indians want a job on the railways, but a fiendish general-knowledge test stands in their way

economist.com

Last year the South African government blockaded an abandoned mine where hundreds of illegal miners, mainly immigrants, were scouting for gold. This is the story of what went on in the darkness during those months, and it is haunting. www.economist.com/interactive/...

really good rundown of Sweida and what the latest sectarian violence in Syria is about newlinesmag.com/argument/how...

How Foreign Agendas Hijacked a Local Crisis in Syria

Seven months after Assad’s fall, an analysis of the violence in Sweida shows how international interference and internal paralysis are pushing the country back toward chaos

newlinesmag.com

This is a really excellent use of graphics and videos to explain what is going on with GHF's aid distribution model in Gaza www.ft.com/content/6c74...

Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’

A US-backed scheme forces hungry Palestinians to trek kilometres for food aid. Many never make it back

ft.com

album of the summer imo www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Wet Leg: Moisturizer review – Doritos, Davina McCall and dumb fun from British indie’s big breakout band

After winning multiple Grammys and Brits, the Isle of Wight band explore love and sexuality on their second LP – but there’s still room for some barbed put-downs

theguardian.com

So many extraordinary details in this unforgettable in-depth account of being a hostage in Gaza - the first of our summer issue pieces. Omer became the chef of the Hamas cell that was holding him www.economist.com/1843/2025/07...

@financialtimes.com's @malaikatapper.bsky.social on how Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has created a whole new predatory black market for food aid: www.ft.com/content/2593...

Gaza’s controversial aid scheme fuels black market for vital goods

Extreme shortages and dangers securing supplies drive trade in food distributed by US-backed foundation

ft.com

The @financialtimes.com continues to cover the BCG-Gaza story, and BCG leadership continues to insist that they're friendly, clueless dopes who had no idea that designing a tool for how to seize control over a starving enclave's access to food could be controversial. www.ft.com/content/6ddd...

BCG chief admits Gaza work was ‘reputationally very damaging’

Christoph Schweizer says consultancy’s role has been ‘profoundly disappointing’ as Save the Children halts partnership

ft.com

Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · last yr.

I am thoroughly unsurprised to learn that there's a Tony Blair angle to this story. Stephen Foley & Jim Pickard, @financialtimes.com: www.ft.com/content/0b1b...

The GHF ignored weeks of warnings that its model would mean overwhelming crowds. And then the inevitable result: "Senior commanders had considered managing the crowds through the use of live fire. 'The intent was to direct the population using gunfire.'" www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

Testimonies: IDF responsible for lethal shootings near U.S.-led aid site in Gaza

***

haaretz.com

Last straw. AFP’s Fida Hussain photographs farmers transporting wheat straw on a tractor in Jacobabad, Sindh province, Pakistan

"Hizbullah gaslit us!" Supporters are cursing it, opponents sense an opportunity. @lizsly.bsky.social profiles the most successful militia in the world as it hits an existential crossroad www.economist.com/1843/2025/05...

The rise, fall and contested future of Hizbullah

Lebanon has spent years under the militant group’s dominance. Could it be coming to an end?

economist.com

As Syria's ex al Qaeda president prepares to meet with Trump seems a good time to re-up Nicolas Pelham's superlative story of how he made that journey (and why being a great political chameleon doesn't necessarily make you great at running a post civil war country) www.economist.com/1843/2025/03...

The great pretender: how Ahmed al-Sharaa won Syria

Syria’s new president is a chameleon. Is that enough to rule the Middle East’s most volatile country?

economist.com

The Enshittification Files

If you were told you had been secretly surveilled by a dictatorship and some of your best friends had been reporting on you, would you want to read the file? Would you trust anyone again if you did? Riveting piece on Taiwan's reckoning with newly unearthed archives www.economist.com/1843/2025/05...

The terrible secrets of Taiwan’s Stasi files

Researchers have unearthed the surveillance records of Taiwan’s former dictatorship. But the revelations inside could tear society apart

economist.com

Frogs were used in pregnancy tests until the mid 1960s

Finally joined this in order to follow Syria developments in as granular detail as possible. Grateful for any suggestions on who to follow