Leyla Boulton
@leylaboulton.bsky.social
FT journalist and City of London councillor for Bassishaw ward. Development editor, FT Live and Liaison with the FT's Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign charity. Ex-correspondent in Ankara, Moscow, Paris, Brussels.
‘He raised the idea of the police using the Public Order Act 1936 [that] relates to a group forming in uniform that can be seen as acting against the state and was drawn up to counter Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British fascists in the 1930s.’ @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/f244...
Police face questions over Dover disruption caused by masked protesters
Up to 500 activists dressed in black brought part of UK port town to a standstill on Saturday
ft.com
The most worrying news ahead of the midterms, and thank you whistleblowers of the world @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...
Whistle-Blower Says USPS Is Secretly Proceeding on Trump’s Mail Voting Plan Before Midterms
The Postal Service disputed allegations by the whistle-blower that the agency had violated several court orders that should have halted work on the plan.
nytimes.com
For anybody interested in what the UK calls assisted dying, I recommend this compassionately detailed article - with useful comments - from the @washingtonpost www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...
Column | I lost my sister to cancer. Here’s what I learned about medically assisted death.
Known as medical aid in dying, or MAID, it was something I knew little about before my sister’s terminal illness.
washingtonpost.com
Is AI financial advice regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority? No. But almost half young Britons don't know that. This @financialtimes.com article is free to share, thanks to the FT's Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign charity www.ft.com/content/d299...
Nearly half of young Britons wrongly think AI financial advice is regulated
FCA warns over widespread misapprehension that investors are protected when AI advice goes wrong
ft.com
'Essentially everyone in the book trade knows loads of memoirs are fake and there are near-zero checks' is one of those stories I keep expecting to tank that part of the industry, yet it never does.
Janine Gibson@janinegibson.ft.com · 2w agoON the radio Alexandra Pringle, apparently the former editor in chief of Bloomsbury is asserting that of course memoirs aren't true stories and no publishers are not responsible for checking books. This well spoken lady is achieving tech bro level of don't be so naive it's not MY business
Don’t know much about silverbacks but they sound like a more plausible analogy than lame ducks www.economist.com/internationa...
As his presidency flounders, Donald Trump is more dangerous than ever
Forget lame ducks. America’s president will defend his dominance like an ageing silverback gorilla
economist.com
Ever wanted my undivided attention lunch? This is your chance!
Leyla Boulton@leylaboulton.bsky.social · 2w agoLunch with the FT - starring you! Bid for lunch with @henrymance.ft.com and he’ll write up his time with you - all in aid of the @financialtimes.com financial education charity FT FLIC! Not your cup of tea? Check out who else is on the five-star menu⬇️ app.galabid.com/ftflicluncha...
Good scoop and why I subscribe to the @washingtonpost.com in spite of some weird coverage too www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Secret White House bunker undercuts Trump’s ballroom lawsuit, ex-officials say
The White House already has a nuclear-proof facility buried deep underground and built in secret after 9/11.
washingtonpost.com
Great piece about the new thing to be furious/worry about - courtesy of Meta, Zuckerberg and co
John Reed@johnreedwrites.ft.com · 2w agoCool or cringe? Great Big Read today on AI-powered "smart" glasses: “These glasses are cringe stalkerware and as we already see every cool person hates them. They represent yet another Big Tech-enabled breach of the social contract.” as.ft.com/r/3657ab7d-d... @mshannahmurphy.bsky.social @tim.fo
Lunch with the FT - starring you! Bid for lunch with @henrymance.ft.com and he’ll write up his time with you - all in aid of the @financialtimes.com financial education charity FT FLIC! Not your cup of tea? Check out who else is on the five-star menu⬇️ app.galabid.com/ftflicluncha...
Free speech in Russia: Klepach said the economic woes and tougher western sanctions would lead to a “social crisis [ . . . ] when nobody expects it”, likening it to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. www.ft.com/content/a1b7...
Russia fires economist over Ukraine war warning
Andrei Klepach dismissed after bleak remarks about economic toll of conflict
ft.com
When running to Mommy doesn’t work: ‘The American people stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the witch hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll hoaxes. [President] will keep winning against liberal lawfare…’ www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...
Supreme Court Again Rejects Trump’s Appeal of $5 Million E. Jean Carroll Payment
The court declined President Trump’s long-shot request that it reconsider his appeal. He has separately asked the court to overturn a much larger 2024 award.
nytimes.com
‘If you really want to drive out dodgy shops, then fund #HMRC properly and direct its officials to start kicking down doors. You’ll be amazed at what else they uncover.’ Jim Waterson of @londoncentric.media to @andyburnham.bsky.social in @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/936c...
How Burnham can curb Britain’s tax-dodging shops
The prime minister is missing a simple trick in his campaign to revive high streets: enforcing the basic laws of doing business
ft.com
‘For the Kremlin, her victory was hardly a failure. The Moldovan government had to spend a small fortune and devote vast law enforcement resources to thwart Russian interference. And the Kremlin allies have used mass arrests of Ms. Sandu’s opponents for propaganda.’ www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/w...
Russia Campaigned to Derail Moldova’s Pro-Western Government
In the tiny nation, Moscow paid Orthodox priests, conducted a vote-buying scheme and set up training camps on election interference — all in an effort to derail the Western-leaning government.
nytimes.com
Spot on, Pilita Clark: ‘The truth is, it requires dedicated ideological belief to argue against the scientific evidence that net zero is needed to stop ever more expensive and destructive warming.’
@vjmalletft.bsky.social · 4w agoHow to stop global warming - as.ft.com/r/0ab0ee38-4... via @FT
Absolutely heartbreaking in Lebanon: ‘the FT saw entire villages with barely a building left standing: historic markets, squares and winding streets reduced to a sea of concrete. The sound of blasts, apparently from building demolitions, continued through the day.’ as.ft.com/r/153a7c25-e...
How Israel is making southern Lebanon ‘unliveable’
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed homes, roads, farmland and forests despite ceasefire with Hizbollah
as.ft.com
‘Tice said, however, that it was “not surprising no one reads the FT”, adding: “it’s so boring”.’ www.ft.com/content/4abf...
Reform repaid Tice loan on same day £1mn donated by mother of Farage aide Cottrell
Transactions fuel criticism of the party’s lack of transparency over its financing
ft.com
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
What’s not to like about New Zealand’s stipulation that rich foreigners can only buy properties worth more than NZ$5m? It turns out that beautiful Nelson doesn’t have properties worth more than NZ$5m…(not sharing my even more favourite place) www.ft.com/content/1cf8...
‘Every dollar is mobile’: California’s rich snap up New Zealand ‘golden visas’
Applications for indefinite right to work, live and study in the country have risen after rules were eased
ft.com
Spectacular own goal? Is this how important Kemi Badenoch thinks local government is? www.thetimes.com/article/bbbc...
Kemi Badenoch: Former neo-Nazi candidate would just be sorting out bins
Tory leader defends allowing Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who carried out a campaign of antisemitic abuse against the Jewish MP Luciana Berger, to stand as a councillor
thetimes.com
financialtimes.com: Saadoun said her younger brother had been swept up by a culture captivated by emigration. “It was his friends who filled his head with the idea of emigration…What makes me so sad is to see our country and our youth lost like this.” www.ft.com/content/a011...
Morocco counts its dead and missing after mass swim to Ceuta
Families search for children not seen since 60,000 people crossed into Spanish enclave, as death toll rises to 72
ft.com
‘To Jared and Ivanka, Sazan is not an island shaped by Hoxha’s paranoia or a symbol of Albania turning into a playground for the rich …It is simply prime real estate with an unfortunate previous tenant, on its way to becoming curated Instagram content’ www.ft.com/content/5e74...
Albanians don’t want their islands sold off to Trump and Kushner
Ivanka and Jared won’t let snakes, landmines or the region’s tortured past get in the way of Balkan real estate deals
ft.com
“We need the photo of him and [Harry] Kane lifting the trophy and exorcising 60 years of doomed futility…Or else he will just be a man who came and thrilled and wove himself into the tapestry of this tournament’s memory, surrounded by brighter suns.” Well said. www.ft.com/content/29a2...
Brand Bellingham heads for the big league after World Cup heroics
England star Jude Bellingham’s match-winning performances are likely to be rewarded with new brand endorsement deals
ft.com
A better way? ‘I propose dividing peer review into two stages: first, verifying the methodological soundness of the research, which could also benefit from recent AI developments; second, allowing the findings to be debated openly within the scientific community.’ www.ft.com/content/dbb9...
Yes, peer review has problems. But Trump’s solution is dangerous
Replacing academic judgment with political alignment undermines the very engine of discovery
ft.com
Count Binface translations continued... 🇩🇪 German: Graf Mülltonnengesicht 🇯🇵 Japanese: ゴミ箱伯爵 (Count Trashcan) or ビンフェイス伯爵 (katakana loanword version) You're welcome!
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...
What about the latest? In the late 1950s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser quipped to CIA operative Miles Copeland that “the genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves”. @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/e5df...
There is no grand plan on Iran
An over-reaching Tehran seems to be looking at America’s confused moves and wondering what it may be missing
ft.com
EXCLUSIVE: Volodymyr Zelenskyy told me in an interview today in Kyiv that the decisive phase of Russia’s war against Ukraine has shifted from land and sea to the air, arguing that the “battle in the sky” would determine the conflict’s outcome. @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/6ca8...
Zelenskyy says ‘battle in the sky’ will decide outcome of war with Russia
Ukrainian leader says Donald Trump has changed his mind about the conflict
ft.com
