"There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes." Ernest Hemingway, For whom the bell tolls, 1941
Vincent Baby
@vincentb.bsky.social
I share interesting reads about world politics, the news media, and corporate governance. French scribe based in Hong Kong.
"The State Department said it took 'full responsibility'" www.reuters.com/world/africa...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...
reuters.com
As usual, as soon as an economic policymaker starts to do things differently, financial journalists, those guardians of orthodoxy, are up in arms (on behalf of financiers, richly rewarded for taking risks but who want to be spoonfed what the Fed is going to do) giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Kevin Warsh is confusing markets
The Fed is a player, not a referee
giftarticle.ft.com
37000 salariés, dont la seule contribution serait de réaliser des pertes année après année... open.substack.com/pub/gabrielz...
Pourquoi Total ne paie pas d’impôt sur les sociétés en France
C'est l’occasion de démasquer les artifices rhétoriques que les multinationales comme TotalEnergies utilisent pour camoufler leur évasion fiscale.
open.substack.com
"We can decide whether our silence will become another weapon"
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 2w agoBenjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.
John Healey as chancellor of the Exchequer is a smart move. Balances Burnham's folksy persona with a serious/sober number two without downsides of Miliband (media/City hysteria from day one) and Mahmood (in-your-face, eat-your-greens style + personal ambition). Also positive signal for defence.
Leandro Paredes should be banned from international football for life viciously assaulting Spanish players after the final whistle. Indefensible thuggery and criminality.
I guess the best you can say for Messi is that he can walk (walk, not run) and chew gum at the same time 🤷
“If Pat Oliphant couldn’t draw, he’d be an assassin.” #RIP www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/a...
Pat Oliphant, Cartoonist Who Skewered the Powerful, Dies at 90 (Gift Article)
The winner of countless awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, he was described in 1990 as “the most influential political cartoonist now working.”
nytimes.com
"The insularity of the English, their refusal to take foreigners seriously, is a folly that has to be paid for very heavily from time to time." George Orwell, The lion and the unicorn.
"Why is it that mainstream politicians, including those who promised so much for so long, end up doing little more than tinkering? The key ingredient that eludes them is courage." open.substack.com/pub/johnkamp...
The lesson for Burnham - before it's too late
It wasn't an absence of charisma that did for Starmer; it was an absence of courage
open.substack.com
Now scientifically proven. "The only trait that consistently predicted objections to remote work was narcissism — the tendency to be self-centered and entitled." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/o...
Opinion | The Secret Reason Bosses Want Everyone Back in the Office, Every Day of the Week
nytimes.com
Alan Greenspan's reputation has suffered since the financial crisis, making it hard to remember how lionized he once was. I covered Wall Street in 1995-97 and remember clearly how any talk by a financier or business leader always included an encomium to the brilliance and foresight of the maestro.
"We are at what feels like a pivotal moment for human dignity, with all the risks to the downside." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Why dignity is the measure that matters
From litter-pickers to cage fighters, the signs of a society’s health are often hidden in plain sight
giftarticle.ft.com
"Just having power, showing it, and not having to use it is very effective and in keeping with the Chinese approach, and I expect that we will increasingly see Chinese power exerted in that sort of tribute system/art of war way." open.substack.com/pub/raydalio...
The Tribute System: The New World Order
On Chinese Culture, the Tribute System, the 100 Years of Humiliation, The Art of War, “One China with Taiwan Part of China,” Where We Are Now, and Where We Are Headed
open.substack.com
It would take a heart of stone, etc. Netanyahu backstabbed and humiliated, like anyone who thought they could be Trump's friend. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/w...
Israel, Stunned by Trump’s Iran Deal, Sees It as a ‘Catastrophic Capitulation’
nytimes.com
Seems to me the banks know that policy violations would proliferate and are just getting out of the way. The commuting disruption argument makes no sense, especially with the exemption being applied nationwide. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Goldman and JPMorgan ease office working rules to counter World Cup disruption
Wall Street lenders say employees can ask to work from home on match days to ease congestion in host cities
giftarticle.ft.com
Future historian department: -Front page of today's NYT reports creation of world's first trillionaire. -Lead op-ed of same NYT is about worst-ever Ebola outbreak, which *this VERY SAME trillionaire* enabled, with his "chainsaw" destruction of US public health in the world. The book writes itself
Litany of assertions about firms named in report weren't even checked with these firms, it seems giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
KPMG report contained AI hallucinations on benefits of . . . AI
Bogus case studies on UBS and transit systems exaggerated adoption of the technology
giftarticle.ft.com
"The next war won’t be won by armies, navies or air forces alone. It’ll be won by the country whose 19-year-olds can code, whose factories can build drones in weeks not years, and whose grid stays on when someone tries to switch it off." open.substack.com/pub/fraserne...
The end of pretence
The defence revolt is about more than military spending. It is a rebellion against a politics that refuses to make hard choices
open.substack.com
“My belief that corruption is at the core of oppression predates my public life.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/o...
Opinion | Why Everyone Wants Jon Ossoff to Run for President
nytimes.com
"These crazy milkers adjust after each cow. They adjust according to her milk flow, her milk production, her teat location. That all happens, and I guess that’s A.I." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/m...
From Cow-Milking Robots to Weed-Zapping Lasers, Farmers Are Embracing A.I.
nytimes.com
The mother of all externalities (and understatements): “A society that doubles GDP and doubles its extinction risk has made a much less impressive bargain than the national accounts suggest.” open.substack.com/pub/importai...
Import AI 459: AI oversight is difficult; scaling laws for protein folding models; and pricing the extinction risk of AI systems
Do you feel as though you are living in a revolution?
open.substack.com
"What Blair won't acknowledge is that on his watch, Britain didn't just spend the defence dividend — it spent the depreciation dividend too." open.substack.com/pub/nixons/p...
Which Blair Project?
Thoughts on Tony Blair's sins of omission, what he gets wrong on Europe, the end of the eurozone holiday from reality, what Kazakhstan can teach Europe on AI, and the case for Ferrari's new EV
open.substack.com
Must read: AI is not a tsunami and humans are not powerless (gift link) giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
Should AI steal your job?
The real question is not what the technology can do but what it ought to do. Sarah O’Connor on the people fighting for the future of work
giftarticle.ft.com
A businessman with a backbone, Mr Reid Hoffman 👏 open.substack.com/pub/reidhoff...
Trump is investigating me to keep me quiet. I choose to speak up.
A jury found Donald Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation. His response is to weaponize the Justice Department against the woman he wronged — and against those who helped her seek justice.
open.substack.com
