My god this photo.

Scoop: The State Department is telling diplomats to promote American AI companies, oppose foreign AI sovereignty initiatives, and dismiss talk of any kill switch in U.S. tech. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

EXCLUSIVE: Marco Rubio tells diplomats to play down talk of American tech 'kill switch'

Rubio's July 16 cable told diplomats to sell foreign partners on American AI products.

reuters.com

EXCLUSIVE: Diplomatic efforts seek to avert Trump split with UN refugee agency, sources say reut.rs/4b5sKll

EXCLUSIVE: Diplomatic efforts seek to avert Trump split with UN refugee agency, sources say

The Trump administration has in recent weeks weighed cutting ties with ​the U.N. refugee agency, prompting a campaign by diplomats and U.N. officials to persuade the United States to maintain support, sources familiar with the matter ‌told Reuters.

reut.rs

shout out to The Strand bookstore staffer who did this

Excellent banter from a beaming Starmer in Kyiv when he is introduced to a representative of Ukrainian Railways. “Well, it was all on time. We’ve got a job for you in the UK when the conflict is over.” youtube.com/shorts/f_nCV...

Keir Starmer Arrives In Kyiv As Ukrainian Officials Welcome Outgoing UK Prime Minister #shorts

YouTube video by MIRROR NOW

youtube.com

The backlash has arrived www.reuters.com/world/new-yo...

New York becomes the first state to impose a data center moratorium

New York became the first U.S. state on Tuesday to halt construction of large new data centers, imposing ‌a one-year moratorium as concerns grow that the facilities driving the artificial-intelligence...

reuters.com

At the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, journalist and co-founder of The Kite Tales @thinink.bsky.social reflected on returning home during Burma's democratic opening, voting for the first time, and the fragile hope that emerged in the interval between decades of military rule and the 2021 coup.

Rounding up some translations of Count Binface that have been appearing in foreign press 🇷🇴 Romanian: Contele Tomberonez 🇫🇷 French: Comte Tête-de-Poubelle (bin-head, more accurate than bin-face) 🇮🇹 Italian: Conte Faccia-da-Bidone 🇪🇸 Spanish: "un hombre con un cubo de basura en la cabeza" (!) Cont...

www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/o...

The automated voice that reads this article can’t pronounce “AI.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

The new AI-based world order

A single factor is now dictating the hierarchy of global returns

giftarticle.ft.com

Just went to a supermarket in a small Scottish town where the steaks are encased in anti-theft boxes - something I haven’t seen even in London.

My phone often gave warning messages like this when I worked in Southeast Asia. This is a first for me in the UK.

My local pool in London is American-flag blue. How hard can it be?

Tweeted by John Cleese and others today. Timeless. youtu.be/LfduUFF_i1A

Monty Python Philosophy Football

YouTube video by RosenzweigBenjamin

youtu.be

"He thought we could hit him, and that's why he tried to kill us, to shoot at us. But a tank shooting at a Mavic is like trying to kill a fly with a machine gun." kyivindependent.com/they-need-to...

Trying to keep the key defender on side.

Under the Trump crypto playbook, the family always wins - but investors don't. Read the whole investigation by my Reuters colleagues here: www.reuters.com/investigatio...

St Thomas’ Hospital, Waterloo. Among the plaques commemorating donations by long-dead soldiers and long-dead surgeons is one by a long-dead newspaper.

The Trump administration's sidelining of veteran diplomats and experts is eroding America’s ability to understand the world - and raising the risk of instability. My story with @humeyrapamuk.bsky.social @johnshiffman.bsky.social and Reuters colleagues worldwide. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Inside the unraveling of U.S. diplomacy under Trump

Donald Trump’s threats, personal envoys and hollowed‑out embassies are reshaping U.S. diplomacy. Allies from Europe to Asia are rewriting the rules of engagement — ignoring the president’s rhetoric an...

reuters.com

"Europeans may imagine that the EU is a mere bureaucratic inconvenience. But the Russians have never believed that. On the contrary, the Russian president has long understood that when unified, Europe can resist Russian influence and Russian corruption." @anneapplebaum.bsky.social on Europe Day

A Speech to Europe 2026 »The European Moment« - ERSTE Foundation

In her speech »The European Moment«, Anne Applebaum warns of global threats to democracy and the EU and calls for greater European sovereignty and cohesion.

erstestiftung.org

In advertising we used to call that the “duck”. Where you’d make a good ad but stick a duck in it. So the client would be like “yeah we love everything else but can you take the duck out, not sure re the duck?” And you’d go “oh ok thats a shame but if you’re sure, we can make it work with no duck”

Jim Pickard@pickardje.bsky.social · 3mo ago

perhaps the most curious fact from our long read today on the Mandelson scandal www.ft.com/content/a829...

Seeing a lot of Hegseth presser headlines. Feel the need to share a bit from the conclusion of Blood and Treasure.

“It’s like we bought a Rolls-Royce and right now it’s being used to take children to school.”

Henry Mance@henrymance.ft.com · 3mo ago

What does Palantir's software do in the NHS, and does it work? Here's an explanation of why the often-quoted metrics may be misleading: www.ft.com/content/36a5...

A busy Friday for the Justice Department, which closed its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and readopted firing squads. There have been only six executions by firing squad since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. www.reuters.com/world/us/jus...

Justice Department readopts firing squads in US federal executions

The U.S. Department of ​Justice said on Friday it is ‌taking actions to strengthen the federal death penalty, including firing squads and readopting the ​lethal injection protocol.

reuters.com

The Iran war is a security crisis in the Middle East but an energy crisis for anyone who imports oil and gas. The crunch has already reached many parts of Asia, and is rapidly travelling West. www.breakingviews.com/columns/cons... by @ywchen.bsky.social

The internal Pentagon memo also includes an option to consider reassessing U.S. diplomatic support for longstanding European "imperial possessions" such as the Falkland Islands. www.reuters.com/world/pentag...

Exclusive: Pentagon email floats suspending Spain from NATO, other steps over Iran rift, source says

The internal email outlines options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes ​failed to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including reviewing the U.S. position on Britain's ...

reuters.com

It's heartening to read of the appointment of an Urban Beaver Officer tasked with fostering "human-beaver coexistence" - even as efforts for human-human coexistence fall short. uniofbrighton-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/rewildi...

At the weekend I was cutting my garden hedge with a huge electric saw and so the chat with passing neighbors turned naturally to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and what it said about carnage and corruption in 1970s America. Fifty-two years later, the movie's tagline has a chilling resonance.

Russia unleashed its deadliest attack so far this year on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities overnight, killing at least 17 people and wounding scores in drone and missile strikes reut.rs/4mEL61g 📷 Valentyn Ogirenko & Alina Smutko

Hard to overstate what a disaster this would be for public interest journalism

Kate Knibbs@knibbs.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Journalists know that losing the Wayback Machine would be a nightmare: www.wired.com/story/the-in...