"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." Happy birthday, James Baldwin!
Jon Fasman
@jonfasman.bsky.social
Senior culture correspondent, The Economist. Podcaster: "The Intelligence", "Checks and Balance". Ex-DC, Singapore, Atlanta, London, Moscow, Providence. Author: "The Geographer's Library," "The Unpossessed City," "We See It All".
#OtD 1 Aug 1834 slavery in the British Caribbean officially ended, and the 800,000 enslaved were "freed". Govt compensated former owners, at taxpayers' expense, paying them £20 million, and the enslaved were forced to work for free for four more years stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8043...
Not sure why this is news, it's called a lunch break
I love capturing those moments where London Underground trains line up perfectly with station posters. With a little patience and a bit of luck, you can end up with some wonderfully amusing and unexpected shots.
Beerlao is everywhere in Laos. Its branding is emblazoned on T-shirts and billboards. A marketing campaign fusing the drink with national identity (“Be Lao”) has helped. But its success is not a mystery
Beerlao: probably the most important lager in the world
Its country’s economy depends on it
bit.ly
Wildfires in France and Spain have revealed the difficulties of fire management but also an impressive solidarity, among local farmers as well as European nations which sent firefighting aircraft and personnel to help 🇵🇹 🇨🇿 🇮🇹 🇬🇷 🇸🇪 🇭🇷 🇩🇪 🇸🇰 🇹🇷 economist.com/interactive/...
France and Spain are suffering their biggest wildfires on record
Bordeaux is on alert, and worse is yet to come
economist.com
European football’s governing body said it would boycott the next World Cup if FIFA sold stakes in the running of tournaments. In a recent guest essay, the hosts of the Soccernomics Podcast explained why we may have seen the last World Cup played
This may just be the last World Cup
America’s bellicosity combined with FIFA’s dysfunctionality spells trouble, reckon the Soccernomics podcasters
bit.ly
Tom Holland’s youthfulness prolonged his tenure and success as Spider-Man. Discover the four lessons that aspiring young actors can learn from him
How Tom Holland became the world’s highest-grossing young actor
Lessons from his prodigious early success
bit.ly
being a billionaire and on the internet all day is crazy to me. if i had even five million dollars, you would not find me online whatsoever.
I was explaining the pitching process to a friend who isn’t in journalism/writing, because she was curious about what happens before a story is a story. There was a long pause and she goes “I think I need to subscribe to more things.”
@kairyssdal.bsky.social, naval aviation veteran, is right. -Excellent reporting by @nytimes.com team, @gregjaffe.bsky.social and Kate Kelly. -Appalling portrait of Hegseth era military.
Kai Ryssdal@kairyssdal.bsky.social · last wk.Well, this is depressing. But somehow completely expected. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...
In our interview @ElonMusk went so far as to suggest that, in order to keep AI models safe, he may even be prepared to bury the hatchet with OpenAI’s Sam Altman Both men may need to “set aside our personal differences for the good of the world”, he said
Elon Musk’s vision of the future
The world’s richest man sits down with The Economist
bit.ly
Here is a call for the murder of Home Office ministers + officials by the X user endorsed by the site owner Elon Musk.
"First the traitors, then the invaders" is being used often on X to openly promote political violence as a legit + necessary response to immigration and diversity
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
The Economist’s cover designer, Graeme James, has died, aged 65
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
bit.ly
www.economist.com/culture/2026... Our tribute to a brilliant artist and beloved colleague. RIP
The Economist’s cover designer, Graeme James, has died, aged 65
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
economist.com
There's a reason Elon Musk rarely does interviews with real news outlets.
Elon Musk Melts Down Over Perfectly Normal Questions in Wild New Interview
"Maybe some people do loathe me. And that's probably true. I don't care," said Musk.
gizmodo.com
Here’s What Greeks Think of Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (It’s Their Story, After All.) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/m... Terrible headline. Stories are not collectively ethnically owned. This is Christopher Nolan’s vision of a 3,000-year-old story.
Here’s What Greeks Think of Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (It’s Their Story, After All.)
nytimes.com
My revenue-raising idea is a $200 tax on each use of the word “iconic” and organ harvesting/sale for each use of “problematic.”
I don't think most Americans have internalized yet how permanent the relational damage is. No, Canada can't trade haymakers with the Trump administration (or any US administration) in a trade war. But can we bleed a few key sectors out, slowly but relentlessly? We might have to try.
Max Fawcett@maxfawcett.bsky.social · 2w agoAlberta hasn't banned US alcohol imports. People here aren't buying it anyways. The debate over whether provincial governments should be banning it misses the actual point, which is that Canadians don't want to buy it in the first place. #cdnpoli
It's wild to me how many people do not understand this. "Luxury housing" is not some ontologically separate category from the rest of the housing market. Nor is "affordable housing." It's all one big fluid market & when you build more, everyone moves up & frees up the bottom end.
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 2w agoThe idea that the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor are all in completely separate housing markets with no overlap ignores how things work in the real world. In the absence of new high end housing, wealthy people outbid the middle class for the best available existing housing and renovate it.
Fits w/the theory that the DSA candidates' victories represent not a huge leftward shift in public opinion, but ordinary voters responding to candidates who show up, hustle and ask for their votes. They were more present and visible than the incumbents.
Omar Wasow@owasow.bsky.social · 2w agoWhy has DSA grown? One argument from this research: not just ideology, but organization. Strong membership plus ongoing and continuous participation in social movements creates credibility, committed volunteers, political skills, and durable electoral capacity. www.niskanencenter.org/inside-the-d...
20 years teaching the Odyssey to college freshmen who didn't do the reading have emotionally prepared me for Twitter this week.
Historically accurate Odysseus is steering the ship from the foredeck with a ship's wheel that wasn't invented until the 1700s
Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2w agoPresumably including a historically accurate cyclops
Holy shit, we're actually getting there. "UCLA researchers develop low-cost blood test to detect multiple cancers and other diseases from a single sample [—] In tests, MethylScan detected about 63% of cancers across all stages and roughly 55% of early-stage cancers." (from April) #ShareGoodNewsToo
UCLA researchers develop low-cost blood test to detect multiple cancers and other diseases from a single sample
The test could offer a more affordable approach to early disease detection.
newsroom.ucla.edu
SCOOP: After pardoning hundreds of allies over the course of his 1st 18 months back in the White House, Trump this month quietly rejected clemency applications from nearly 6,000 people who mostly lacked connections & had been waiting in a queue at the Justice Department.
Trump Rejected Nearly 6,000 Clemency Applications Amid Hope of Pardon Wave (Gift Article)
Expectations were raised for a raft of pardons in connection with the country’s 250th birthday but the president granted fewer than 20 on July 3.
nytimes.com
I took this photo of World Cup food specials at a pub in the Vancouver area on Sunday. It’s difficult to overestimate how angry Canadians are at the US.
