Not stereotypical, but typical: a big candy section in a small Danish supermarket. Adults eat plenty of candy here too. (The adult here is my wife.) The candy is weird to my American palate — oddly savory and lots of licorice flavors. But it’s t is a strangely big part of the culture.

That Times Square sucks has been a commonplace for so long I’m amazed that tourists are till accidentally lured there. But here’s El País quoting them: “this is it?” Yep, that’s it.

EL PAÍS@elpais.com · 2d ago

Opinión | “¿Cómo, es solo esto?', el chasco es casi unánime cuando los viajeros llegan por primera vez a la plaza más famosa de la ciudad más famosa del mundo: Times Square". Por Paco Nadal

As a reporter I cannot accept swag from any organization I might cover worth more than about $50: “a bottle of wine may be OK. A case is not.” And I don’t have regulatory power over them.

ProPublica@propublica.org · 4d ago

FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s latest financial report said Paramount gave him tickets to the 2025 Kennedy Center gala worth $12,390. He and his wife sat in skybox seats. Such seats sold for $125,000 a piece, according to Kennedy Center guidelines.

this was a total surprise to me. twitter is a sort of dumpster in which evidently increasingly mainstream media rummages for the flotsam & jetsam of pseudo-news. quoting people instead of inviting them to write a serious, thoughtful prose piece & paying them a modest fee has become common.

Joe Adalian@tvmojoe.bsky.social · 2w ago

I love that @theguardian.com put the whole @joycecaroloates.bsky.social vs. Wilson thing in the main news section of Friday’s paper.

Fun fact! If you ask a bunch of social-science grad students—spefically St. Antony's College, Oxford—to design an electoral system they will go for ranked-choice, as we did in 1997 for student government positions. So I was elected Social Secretary (yes really) by RCV.

Lane Greene@lanegreene.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here's some advice: ask Americans not "do you support ranked-choice voting?" (what's that?) but "would you like to not only vote for the candidate you like most, but have a second vote against the one you hate most?" Landslide.

Here's some advice: ask Americans not "do you support ranked-choice voting?" (what's that?) but "would you like to not only vote for the candidate you like most, but have a second vote against the one you hate most?" Landslide.

Andy Craig@andycraig.bsky.social · 2w ago

For our mega-survey on populist attitudes, we asked whether people would prefer a more multi-party system or a two-party system. The former blew the latter out of the water. Asked about specific reforms to get there, people are less sure. Also, Trump populists are the most fond of the status quo.

Interesting. Wonder what fed-up Europeans in multiparty systems would say.... (I imagine Trump populists are only fond of the status quo because they're in power; like right-track/wrong-track, views of the economy etc the party whose guy is in the WH is happier about all status-quo issues.)

Andy Craig@andycraig.bsky.social · 2w ago

For our mega-survey on populist attitudes, we asked whether people would prefer a more multi-party system or a two-party system. The former blew the latter out of the water. Asked about specific reforms to get there, people are less sure. Also, Trump populists are the most fond of the status quo.

Great news: you can use the em-dash again. We studied a lot of AI prose, a lot of our own, and that of other journalistic outfits and books. The analysis found that today's models uses the em-dash slightly less than we do. www.economist.com/culture/2026...

How to spot AI writing

Large language models like long words and em-dashes—or do they?

economist.com

The methodology behind the central claim referenced in a report by the far-right Restore Britain party is obviously flawed. We explain why

A widely repeated statistic is shaping Britain’s grooming-gangs debate

The Economist investigates whether it stands up

bit.ly

Trump on Venezuela: For a long time, I've known their country, and I own the Miss Universe pageant and Ms. Venezuela always did very well in that pageant so I know something about the country

Graeme was a total mensch, in many ways out of place at The Economist. I enjoyed many a laugh at a smoke break with him. The genius behind so many of our unforgettable covers will be irreplaceable.

The Economist@economist.com · 3w ago

For most of the past 30 years, the person in charge of The Economist’s covers has been Graeme James. We remember our dear friend and colleague

one of my favorite charts

On the language of Homeric Greek, and the language of a certain forthcoming film: here are a few simple observations.

Finally we have made the long-requested episode that you can share with your overly credulous friend who thinks the button dogs on instagram are actually cracking jokes rather than being highly edited (plus lots of whale facts!!)

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 4w ago

Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? How about bonobos? What have we learned from the first-ever recording of a sperm whale birth? In this episode we get enthusiastic about how people use technology to enhance our communication with these three animals!

There is so much life-and-death stuff that we simply haven't had the time to focus properly on the corruption. I wonder if this level of norm-breaking can be turned around. Anyone know a good recent historical parallel, of a relatively clean country that went off the rails and came back?

Adam Rogers@jetjocko.bsky.social · 4w ago

We live in a modern golden age of grifting. Things haven’t been this good since guys with names like Two Tone Sammy the Icicle fleeced traveling salesmen on the mean streets of Kansas City. abcnews.com/US/white-hou...

China is now viewed more favorably than the U.S. in most of the 36 countries surveyed by Pew. More respondents also expressed confidence in Xi Jinping than in President Trump — a reversal from the Biden years.

China surpasses U.S. in global favorability, poll finds

The U.S. leads China in only six of the 36 countries surveyed.

axios.com

Russia accused of spreading disinfo for German far right ahead of polls

Russia accused of spreading disinfo for German far right ahead of polls

In recent months, posts spreading misinformation have been appearing in ever greater numbers across X, TikTok and Bluesky

dlvr.it

Like a lot of "it needs an Oxford comma" examples, there's no real ambiguity here. There's no comma after "Iran" to return us to the main clause, so this is clearly a list of three things, not an aside giving two things about Plath. (Don't get me started on the Shakespeare authorship nonsense…) /1

Sean Marshall@seanyyz.bsky.social · 4w ago

Why I’m a fan of the Oxford comma.

3 of 4 World Cup quarterfinals are between countries with imperial pasts: Belgium was part of the Spanish Netherlands. England was part of the North Sea Empire under Danish kings along with Norway, and the Norwegians tried to conquer it in 1066. And of course Morocco was a French protectorate.

BREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · 2mo ago

BREAKING: in May 2026, *every single one* of the 599 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 6,665 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November 2025), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

How silly of me not to know @begus.bsky.social was here, now properly tagged for this great piece of work.

Lane Greene@lanegreene.bsky.social · last mo.

Very cool: Gašper Beguš of Berkeley has used an LLM to build incredibly detailed constructed languages, from phonotactics to morphology to grammar HIs paper: aclanthology.org/2026.acl-lon... Some press: spectrum.ieee.org/conlangs-ai-... And some languages! conlangcrafter.github.io

Very cool: Gašper Beguš of Berkeley has used an LLM to build incredibly detailed constructed languages, from phonotactics to morphology to grammar HIs paper: aclanthology.org/2026.acl-lon... Some press: spectrum.ieee.org/conlangs-ai-... And some languages! conlangcrafter.github.io

ConlangCrafter: Constructing Languages with a Multi-Hop LLM Pipeline

Morris Alper, Moran Yanuka, Raja Giryes, Gasper Begus. Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). 2026.

aclanthology.org

This week we ask an uncomfortable question: are we always wrong? Some have proposed betting against any Economist prediction. Have a look and see if you think that would build a strong portfolio. [Sadly gift links are not available for our interactives] www.economist.com/interactive/...

Is The Economist always wrong?

We used artificial intelligence to test the accuracy of our forecasts

economist.com

This is a great read, and after 8 years living in the UK I learned a new meaning of “chippy”.

Duncan Robinson@duncanrobinson.bsky.social · last mo.

Wrote about the ascent of the "chippy southerner" www.economist.com/britain/2026...

A writer friend whom I will not embarrass was asked by his sister-in-law if he used AI to write. He snapped: "would you use a robot to have sex with my brother?" She was shocked. But I remember this story often, and the two kinds of people it reveals. *Most people are the sister-in-law*. 🧵

Archie Hall@archiehall.bsky.social · 2mo ago

AM I A WRITING LUDDITE? New post from me about AI writing: why I think we should be ruder about it, and how I might be wrong. Read to the bottom for as clear-cut a case as I can make that the "Productive State" report was largely AI-written. notes.archie-hall.com/p/am-i-a-wr...

AM I A WRITING LUDDITE? New post from me about AI writing: why I think we should be ruder about it, and how I might be wrong. Read to the bottom for as clear-cut a case as I can make that the "Productive State" report was largely AI-written. notes.archie-hall.com/p/am-i-a-wr...

Good points here. "Legacy" outlets—ie ones with real standards—quickly retract and apologize for actual fake news. That's uncomfortable for MAGAland types calling everything fake news. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

A Tough Day for NPR

Are there any lessons to the newsroom’s Supreme Court error?

theatlantic.com

The Hormuz debacle has taught friends and adversaries of America a bleak lesson. To get Donald Trump’s respect, show that you can hurt him. My column on a world of coercion. It’s reported from Taiwan, home to a chipmaking choke point economist.com/internationa... from The Economist

Allies learn how to bully America

Can Taiwan use its chipmaking industry to strong-arm Donald Trump?

economist.com

Kavanaugh's opinion scrupulously avoids any pronouns at all for the litigant B.P.J. in the trans athletes case. (Note the repetition of B.P.J. in every instance that would call for a pronoun here.) Sotomayor's opinion uses "she".

News! Economist Education and I have developed a new course, Essentials of Business Writing. It's a self-guided course that teaches anyone who writes for work the fundamentals of clear, vivid storytelling as we see them in The Economist's style book. education.economist.com/courses/esse...

Essentials of business writing

A practical short course designed to help professionals write clearer, sharper and more effective everyday business documents.

education.economist.com