John Hooper
@jhooper.bsky.social
Economist correspondent for Italy and the Vatican. Also writes on international organised crime. Author of The Italians and The New Spaniards. Honorary fellow, St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Former Stanford lecturer.
A scary dispatch from the world's fastest-heating continent--Europe. My latest for @theeconomist. www.economist.com/europe/2025/... #Wildfires #globalwarming #climate #climatechange #Europe #EU Photograph: Getty Images
Europe is ablaze
New records are being set for devastation
economist.com
Big changes afoot at Europe’s thought factory in the hills above Florence #EUI #EU #Europe #Europa #Firenze #Florence www.economist.com/europe/2025/...
Europe’s Hogwarts has a new Dumbledore
Patrizia Nanz is trying to make the European University Institute relevant
economist.com
#Italy #Italia #migration #migranti #asylum #asilo A landmark judgement on Italy’s controversial policy of sending migrants to Albania is not quite what it seems. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...
Europe’s top court nixes Italy’s plan to expel migrants, for now
Countries must be completely safe before asylum-seekers can be sent back
economist.com
My early thoughts on the election of pope Leo XIV, interviewed on @economist.com 's podcast The Intelligence: www.economist.com/podcasts/202... #conclave #pope #popeleoXIV #vatican
In Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic church chooses a middle path
Also on the daily podcast: the trouble with choking AI-chip flows and a tribute to Martin Graham, bricklayer and opera-house founder
economist.com
My report on the significance of Pope Francis’s funeral for @economist.com The pope’s last coded message economist.com/europe/2025/... .
The pope’s last coded message
Trump and Zelensky attend in Rome with 250,000 others
economist.com
Thoughts on the approaching conclave to elect the late Pope Francis's successor for @economist.com's The Intelligence podcast shows.acast.com/theintellige...
Cardinals in: choosing the next pope | The Intelligence from The Economist
shows.acast.com
Extraordinary indeed: "Claude, on occasion, will give a plausible-sounding argument designed to agree with the user rather than to follow logical steps." But the researchers found him (?) it (?) out...
Alex Hern@hern.bsky.social · last yr.This is one of the more extraordinary pieces of research I’ve seen about what’s going on inside an LLM. Hoping to write about it this week but it’s overturned some of my preconceptions
Can Europe benefit from a science exodus from America? It's complicated. My latest for @economist.com. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...
Trump is driving American scientists into Europe’s arms
But the continent will have to invest more to lure top talent
economist.com
Trump becomes "a real problem" for his fellow-nationalists in France and Italy. My take with @sophiepedder.bsky.social for @economist.com: www.economist.com/internationa... #france #italy #trump #alt-right
Trump is a problem for Europe’s most important hard-right leaders
His antics are causing headaches for Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen
economist.com
Frazzled friars take on the developers in tourist-saturated Florence. A dispatch from the ecclesiastical frontline for @economist.com www.economist.com/europe/2025/... #Florence #Firenze #Italy #Italia #Catholic #overtourism
A fight over a cloister in tourist-filled Florence
Augustinian friars are protesting against a redevelopment plan
economist.com
How Trump is becoming "a real problem" for his fellow-nationalists in France and Italy. My take with @sophiepedder.bsky.social for @economist.com www.economist.com/internationa... #france #italy #trump #alt-right
For weeks, men carrying rifles have guarded the roads leading into Lincoln Heights, Ohio, stopping and questioning those who approach. The men, some of whom wear masks and body armor, are residents of this small, majority-Black town. They say they’re protecting their own. And they’re on edge.
Neo-Nazis targeted a majority-Black town. Locals launched an armed watch.
Residents of Lincoln Heights, Ohio, have organized armed guards after a neo-Nazi march and the spread of Ku Klux Klan leaflets rocked the Cincinnati suburb.
washingtonpost.com
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East says a summit will soon be held with real estate developers and planners to discuss the plan for the future of Gaza.
Witkoff Says ‘Summit’ of Developers Will Convene on Gaza Future
Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, says a summit will soon be held with real estate developers and planners from the region to discuss the administration’s co...
bloomberg.com
@natashaloder.bsky.social How come you knew the delightful Tim Radford? He was deputy features ed of the Guardian an age ago when I was assistant news ed. Morning conferences were never the same without his Tiggerish enthusiasm.
Dovetailing neatly with the removal of the director of the government ethics office… www.cnbc.com/2025/02/10/t...
Trump to pause enforcement of law banning bribery of foreign officials
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act became law in 1977. In 2024, the Department of Justice announced 24 cases related to the anti-bribery statute.
cnbc.com
Don’t look up…
Alessandro Rigolon@alerigolon.bsky.social · last yr.I was just told that I have to remove “climate” from the title of an ongoing grant if I want to keep it. And publications from that grant cannot include “climate” and other forbidden words. I can’t believe I’m writing this from the United States of America. #AcademicSky
They also covered the People of Color in Cryptologic History honorees—like Wash Wong and Ralph Adams.
Fellow NSA - National Security Agency veterans. Look at what’s happened at the National Cryptologic Museum. They covered up with brown paper the photos of Women in American Cryptology. All in response to President Trump’s anti-diversity executive order.
Giorgia Meloni’s conservative coalition goes after one august financial institution…and just maybe two. My latest dispatch from the boardroom battle lines for @economist.com #italy #italia #Meloni #mps #Mediobanca #Generali #finance www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Giorgia Meloni has grand banking ambitions
Will Italy’s nationalist prime minister manage to concentrate financial power?
economist.com
“We’ve created a monster – a sangria-drinking monster.” Nice piece on the Spanish view of mass tourism. #Spain #España #overtourism
Sam Jones@swajones.bsky.social · 2y agoWashed-up Brits, local lowlifes and a Kray twin’s lighter: Esther García Llovet’s noir novel Spanish Beauty shines fond light on Benidorm www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
