Michael Peel
@Mikepeeljourno
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@FT science editor. New book out on April 25: What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except the British). Details:
Joined March 2012
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My book What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except the British) is out next week! If you want to hear about it, I'm talking April 25
@WaterstonesTraf
to ace Guardian political columnist
@rafaelbehr
. And there's more below:👇(1/x)
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If Hartlepool falls to the UK Conservatives, it will fit into a pattern of Tory wins where home ownership rates are 50%+ - wherever in the country this is. Is this the central narrative? Data: See also: .
@davies_will
.
@redhistorian
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The most exquisite part of this delicious Ghanaian government slapdown is that it renders "Operation Red Meat" to save Boris Johnson as "Operation Dead Meat". 🔥🔥🔥
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Something has gone badly wrong in UK politics when a deal with such profound and historic implications is winning approval on this basis.
#Brexit
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NEW: Brussels to withdraw incendiary plan floated hours ago to use new vaccine export curbs to in effect create a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, per EU officials. "It was an error. We are changing it," said one EU official of the abortive plan.
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🚨🚨🚨NEW: The mysterious story of the AstraZeneca Netherlands factory that explains in part why the company has fallen far behind its early coronavirus vaccine delivery commitments to the EU. THREAD 👇 (1/X)
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This gets to the heart of the matter on the UK supply chaos. Ministers talk of a “transition period” to a fairer economy, but there is little evidence of a strategy to do that. Rather, it all feels improvised, the rhetoric a cover for the lack of a plan.
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Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland has left the EU at a time when it has never benefited from it more, and has never needed it more because of the rise in “intolerance and bigotry” in the world.
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I wrote this week about how most Britons will be barred from visiting the EU once the UK falls out of a bloc-wide pandemic travel plan on Dec 31. It foreshadows the emergence of other Brexit “surprises” which shouldn’t really be surprises. THREAD 👇(1/7)
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This is very good on an extraordinary political movement in Thailand >>> BBC News - Thailand protests: Risking it all to challenge the monarchy.
Here's my 2017 FT magazine piece on why this moment was likely to come:
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This striking .
@Reuters
.
@jgesilva
photo showing Queen Suthida of Thailand’s shock as protesters confront the royal motorcade in Bangkok on October 14 captures why
#whatshappeninginThailand
right now is historic and deserves your attention. A THREAD (1/10)👇
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The ECHR and its guardian institution the Council of Europe were part of Europe's collective response to the atrocities of the the Second World War. The Council's key architects included Winston Churchill, who is an idol of Boris Johnson. 👇 (2/x)
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Expect more such shade from other autocratic governments.
Turkey concerned over developments in US, urges calm and lawful solution to problems, says parliament head
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Boris Johnson mused in 2016 without evidence that Barack Obama - Joe Biden's ex-boss - might have removed a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office as a "snub to Britain" or because of "the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire".
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The affair raises questions about both AZ’s management of its EU deal and the EU’s supervision of it. The EU also isn’t receiving production from the two UK drug substance sites named in the contract. In other words, it has supply from only one European factory out of four. (8/X)
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NEW: Brexit is about to get real: most Britons will be barred from visiting the EU after December 31 under Covid safety rules, once the UK falls out of a pan-European pandemic travel plan. How will London handle this? via
@financialtimes
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There's much debate on here about whether to take this and other attacks on the US election's credibility seriously. My answer, having worked in places where people were shocked at how quickly systems fell apart, is: you must. Democracy, like money, depends on public confidence.
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NATO leaders warn Beijing after summit today in Brussels: “China’s growing influence and international policies present challenges to alliance security,” says secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.
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"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is helping to obscure China's expansionism in Asia, where it continues to redraw its land and maritime borders and exert growing pressure on Taiwan." .
@Chellaney
in .
@NikkeiAsia
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Extraordinary time in Malta as the battle to bring the killers of Daphne Caruana Galizia to justice reaches a crucial moment: Inquiry into murder of Malta journalist steps up pressure on PM via
@financialtimes
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EU expected next week to back countermeasures on Hong Kong, including protections for activists in Europe and ban on exports of equipment used for repression and surveillance, as flagged here. Watch for any US pressure for more action. via
@financialtimes
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US ambassador to Nato Kay Bailey Hutchison says planning of announced pullout of 9,500 US trooops from Germany has “not happened yet” and will “take some time”. “I don’t think anything has been set in concrete yet.” Nato defence ministers will hold talks on it this week.
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The Halix factory hasn’t been approved because AZ hasn’t submitted all the necessary data to the European Medicines Agency regulator, according to EU officials. AZ insists regulatory authorisation of the site is “on track”. 👇 (7/X)
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A striking image. Session on “A New transatlantic agenda” at the Munich security conference - with the leaders of the US, Germany and France. (Boris Johnson is wrapping up matters related to the G7 leaders call earlier today and will speak at his own session later, m/c says).
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Devastating evisceration by historian .
@DavidOlusoga
of the UK government-commissioned Sewell report into racism and ethnic disparities.
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"Mr Topol said it was “deeply troubling” to see Mr Trump promote a “false premise” about the drug to the public, when there had been no proper study to shows it worked." FDA contradicts Trump on status of potential coronavirus drug via
@financialtimes
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Today is the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo that ended the Napoleonic Wars. Last weekend I visited the site of a bloody struggle in which more than a quarter of the 180,000-plus troops who fought there became casualties. A short thread. 👇 (1/7)
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The prime minister of Slovenia, an EU member state, endorses President Donald Trump's baseless claim that he has won the election.
It’s pretty clear that American people have elected
@realDonaldTrump
@Mike_Pence
for
#4moreyears
. More delays and facts denying from
#MSM
, bigger the final triumph for
#POTUS
. Congratulations
@GOP
for strong results across the
#US
@idualliance
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The reason: more than six months after AstraZeneca signed its contract with the EU, the Halix factory is not one of the three facilities approved by the European Medicines Agency to make vaccine drug substance. .👇 (6/X)
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Philippine senator Leila de Lima is about to mark 5 years in jail, despite never having been convicted of a crime. Here's the story of her case-and what it says about the rise of elected authoritarians. .
@NikkeiAsia
quoting .
@Richeydarian
.
@rachelchhoahwd
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My guest piece in
@IrishTimes
about what my travels in a world of myth-making autocrats and demagogues taught me about
#Brexit
Details of my new book The Fabulists here!
@IanDunt
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Also: governments with authoritarian instincts test systems for weak points. If there's no pushback, they press on. The endgame may not be clear - but the strategy is.
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AZ has struggled too with its EU production of vaccine drug substance – the active ingredient. It has seen poor yields at its Belgian plant – and, strikingly, no EU deliveries from its second main plant in the bloc, run by Halix in the Netherlands👇 (4/X)
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Mediterranean Sea battle>>>How disputes over territory and energy have raised the risk of conflict between Turkey and regional neighbours (video particularly recommended) w:
@OilSheppard
@laurapitel
@tomhannen
@sdbernard
@AdrienneKlasa
via
@financialtimes
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There’s more bad news on the way for AstraZeneca’s second quarter EU supplies. That’s because half of the scheduled 180m doses would need come from outside the bloc – and it has proved impossible so far to get shipments from the US or other nations.👇(3/X)
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This is Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa, set in vast grounds outside Brussels. It was built by King Leopold II from plunder from Congo’s rubber, in a brutal occupation in which as many as 10 million people died. THREAD 👇 (1/6)
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On February 24 2017, Philippine senator .
@SenLeiladeLima
was arrested on drugs charges she denies. Five years later, she is still in jail - and campaigning for re-election - while her trial sprawls on. .
@NikkeiAsia
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This is the first time a Chinese government body has publicly acknowledged questions over the effectiveness of Chinese Covid-19 jabs. It also highlights the gamble European countries such as Hungary and Serbia have taken by using them. via
@financialtimes
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AstraZeneca has cut its EU supply estimates for the first quarter of the year from 100m or more doses to 30m. It's one reason why the EU is lagging so far behind the US and UK in its Covid-19 inoculation drive, per the FT’s vaccine tracker. 👇 (2/X)
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🚨 🚨 🚨 NEW: Johnson lobbies EU leaders in bid to avert vaccine export blocks - and the big fight is over production in the Netherlands that London wants to claim. >>> .
@GeorgeWParker
+ .
@Sam1Fleming
The other shoe has dropped 👇(1/x) via
@financialtimes
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Why is this? The contract signed by the European Commission with AstraZeneca way back in August names the Halix plant as a main source of vaccine drug substance. And Halix is producing doses.👇 (5/X)
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Second, the UK is not being treated differently from other countries. All but eight that have very low Covid-19 rates are barred. It feels different for Brits because of their unfamiliar new “third country” status. But that’s how things are now. 👇 (3/7)
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NEW: NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Japan, the first of its kind in Asia. The station will allow the military alliance to deepen engagement with key partners in the region. >>>
@kenmoriyasu
, Rieko Miki and Takashi Tsuji for
@NikkeiAsia
.
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Elsewhere in the Belgian capital, a man in a dog suit cavorts in front of papier-mâché turds strewn in front of a metro station’s turnstiles.
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Beyond the coronavirus crisis, the EU has moved close to giving a long-awaited green light for North Macedonia and Albania to start talks to join the bloc. via
@financialtimes
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I write in my book the Fabulists about an almost tragic quality of Brexit: how the unrealistic thinking consistently promoted by its leading backers has empowered opportunists and turned citizens against each other, to the detriment of all. (7/7) ENDS
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Out today! The Fabulists, a wild ride through a world of political myth-making from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs to the UK battle over Brexit. Available here:
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I went to Cyprus and this is what I found: a tale of Russians, golden passports and a microcosm of EU neuralgia at the bloc's Mediterranean frontier. Great photos by Antonis Theodoridis and editing by
@AliceFishburn
,
@neilos49
and team. via
@financialtimes
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Third, those who dismiss the travel troubles as an elite problem show a lack of imagination and empathy. There are many personal and work reasons why all kinds of people might need to travel - even during a pandemic. They don't deserve scorn.👇 (4/7)
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EXCLUSIVE: Scholz warns China not to use force to alter Taiwan status quo >>> German Chancellor speaks to Nikkei's
@AkagawaDr
ahead of Japan trip. via
@NikkeiAsia
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Fifth, while this travel rule will on day be lifted, there will be many other little thought of impacts of Brexit, especially if there is no deal. You can argue Brexit is still worth it; what you shouldn’t do is pretend these problems don’t exist.👇(6/7)
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"Refugees who were in the air on the way to the US when the order was signed were stopped and detained at airports"
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The apparent closeness of this election was partly a function of the ever-greater distorting effect of the electoral college - and partly an illusion created by the order of vote counting. Biden on course for bigger popular vote margin than Obama in 2012.
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SCOOP: Apple will for the first time ever move some iPad production out of China and shift it to Vietnam after Shanghai's strict COVID lockdowns caused months of supply chain disruptions, Nikkei Asia has learned.
@ChengTingFang
@Lauly_Th_Li
@NikkeiAsia
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🚨🚨🚨 NEW: The EU and India plan to revive long-dormant talks on a trade deal - and launch negotiations on an investment agreement and geographical name protections for food products. It's about economics, of course - but also China. via
@financialtimes
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It’s been a week of turmoil in the EU’s troubled vaccines rollout, as supply shortages start to hamper national inoculation programmes across the bloc. A thread with articles on what’s happening, why - and what might be to come. 👇(1/12)
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A historic moment as a US president baselessly claims on TV that the election is a "fraud on the American public". It is not a partisan point to say that this is extremely dangerous - and that, like money, democracy is a system reliant on confidence for its survival.
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Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen has played an interesting role in this US election. So far, her vote exceeds the margin between Trump and Biden in Georgia and Wisconsin - and it may do in Arizona as well. Which candidate, if either, did she take votes from ?
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EU pressing AstraZeneca for agreement to publish coronavirus vaccine contract, after CEO Pascal Soriot spoke about aspects of it yesterday. "Personally I'm happy that we start taking off the veil," an EU official said, as the dispute (and PR battle) over vaccine supply escalates.
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Temasek-backed property group eyes Vietnam and India hot spots by
@DylanLohNikkei
for
@NikkeiAsia
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First, suggestions that this is some kind of punishment are misleading. It’s simply the way Brexit interacts with pandemic travel rules the EU (plus Switzerland and three others) set up months ago, with limited exemptions for “essential” travel: 👇 (2/7)
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A huge decision that will have a far-reaching impact.
Scholz pulls plug on Nord Stream 2. "The situation now is a different one".
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A superb fact-rich historical thread about food supply anxieties in the UK in the 1970s, how those played into the debate over EEC membership - and the relevance to the Brexit aftermath today. As.
@redhistorian
says, these are serious matters deserving of much greater debate.
The 1970s was a decade of serious anxiety about food supplies. Norman Tebbit, of all people, urged the government to consider rationing basic foodstuffs. That played a significant role in the decision to join the EEC, and raises some important questions today. [THREAD]
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How Myanmar’s coup has the potential to trigger historic unintended consequences. It has ruptured the uneasy but hitherto durable cohabitation between Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularly-backed National League for Democracy and the powerful military.
The Myanmar army coup was meant to be a conservative reset: a rebalancing of power away from Aung San Suu Kyi. Instead, the generals may have inadvertently set off a new revolutionary era, at a time of intense social and economic upheaval. Future's up for grabs.
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Another big development in the probe into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia: France to probe tycoon on Malta journalist’s murder charge via
@financialtimes
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Simon is a great journalist who was doing a crucial job bringing needed attention to a terrible conflict. As the piece on his expulsion highlights, the war in Tigray is very bloody and the repression of Ethiopians who have reported on it has been severe.
The Ethiopian govt on Thursday expelled me after nearly two years in the country where I reported on the dizzying hopes from the moment
@AbiyAhmedAli
won his Peace prize to the horrors of the war in Tigray. 1/5
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Nato chief Stoltenberg on China: “They’re coming close to us in cyberspace, we see them in the Arctic, in Africa, we see them investing in our critical infrastructure. And they’re working more and more together with Russia. All of this has a security consequence for Nato allies."
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This UK government press release on today's Brussels pandemic pledging conference relegates the European Commission's central role in organising the event to the last two words of the footnotes (more details here: ).
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Fourth, this isn’t even about whether Brexit is a good idea. It’s simply an observation that it has downsides. This point continues to be skirted: see Michael Gove’s comments this week on UK access to EU health insurance and education programmes.👇 (5/7)
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🚨 🚨 🚨 European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says the EU is “ready to discuss” the US plan to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines. >>> A cautious response - but also a significant shift from previous EU opposition to the idea.
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Elegant evisceration as ever from
@rafaelbehr
>>> Boris Johnson's Brexit has always been a swindle. Now Ireland will pay the price
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Crucial pandemic lessons via .
@gideonrachman
. 1. National fortunes can change fast; 2. Covid-19 punishes complacency + self-congratulation; 3. The observation that "noone is safe until everyone is safe" may be a cliche - but it is true. via
@financialtimes
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The EU has complained repeatedly that AstraZeneca shipped production to the UK, but not vice versa. And yet…new EU figures suggest Astra sent 1m doses to Britain – hardly enough to affect materially the European bloc’s 80m+ dose inoculation drive.👇(5/x)
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NEW: EU ambassadors reach provisional deal to exempt residents of just fourteen countries from the bloc’s blanket travel ban: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. (1/3)
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A fascinating and brilliantly reported piece on a political figure who is key to understanding the Trump era: How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief via
@NewYorker
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Family of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia criticise belated public inquiry into her murder via
@financialtimes
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Japan-backed Sakhalin-2 LNG project rocked by Shell exit >>> Russia's invasion of Ukraine is already having a far-reaching impact on international business, including in Asia. .
@NikkeiAsia
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Medical groups warn of shortages of hydroxychloroquine >>> The campaign by President Trump and others to use the drug as an unproven treatment for coronavirus could threaten supplies needed by patients with other serious conditions. via
@financialtimes
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Big news that will change vaccine strategy. Simultaneous roll out now of BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna jabs for over-65s, and AstraZeneca's for under 65s? All eyes now on the European Medicines Agency's decision expected tomorrow on whether to approve the Astra vaxx for EU use.
Germany says AstraZeneca shot should not be used on people over 65.
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FT editorial urges Thailand's conservative military-dominated rulers to listen to the protests of a younger generation. via
@financialtimes
SHORT THREAD 👇👇👇(1/5)
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"The Marcos family's return to the presidential palace in Manila is a window into a more disturbing world. It has laid bare pathologies that are rotting democracies in Asia and elsewhere from within."
@NikkeiAsia
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And c. it seems to imply that countries in the EU don't trade with countries outside it.
This is fascinating piece on “Lidl Tories” who want “low taxes and free trade” but clearly have no idea of a) value of post
#brexit
trade deals and how little it will lower prices b) costs of ending free trade with EU. /1
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The appalling case of the Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for the right of women to drive - and has now been handed a near-six year jail term. via
@financialtimes
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EU leaders have hailed as "historic" a deal struck after a marathon four-day summit to spend €750bn on a coronavirus pandemic recovery package (and also sign off on the small matter of the bloc's new €1.074tn seven-year budget). via
@financialtimes
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This Theresa May Afghanistan speech has won much praise. But it doesn't seem to me to address the uncomfortable truth that Nato's deployment there relied on US power. The UK and other Nato states followed the US exit strategy not eagerly, but because they felt they had no choice.
"What does it say about us as a country... if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the United States?"
Former PM Theresa May criticises "major setback for British foreign policy... where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul?"
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I wrote about Thailand's generational divide and the bigger power struggle behind it in this 2016 profile of a student activist named Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, who refused to prostrate before the statue of a former king 👇(2/5)
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Cyprus blocks EU sanctions on Belarus via
@financialtimes
. >>> I did a magazine piece earlier this year about Cyprus and its complicated relationship with the EU (also features Russian intrigue and golden passports).
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A UK commemorative HG Wells coin gives his Martian tripod war machines four legs, depicts the Invisible Man in a hat he didn't wear, and quotes words the author never wrote. PM Boris Johnson's post-Brexit "control of our money" in action? By .
@alisonflood
.
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A measure of where AstraZeneca is: it has sent about 13.6m doses to EU states, according to bloc data accessed March 14. That’s subject to upward revision - but it seems clearly behind the target of 17.3m by end February cited by Ursula von der Leyen.(9/X)
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“For critics on the left it can be infuriating to watch high-powered centrists inching their way towards seemingly obvious political conclusions.” Dazzling .
@adam_tooze
essay on the shattering of economic assumptions and presumptions of the past 30 years.
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Big questions for Belgian authorities here after police use tear gas and water cannon to disperse a gathering in a Brussels park. Was this proportionate? Also, outdoor gatherings are much lower Covid risk than indoors - do they want to drive people inside?
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Boris Johnson’s 1984 campaign to become president of the Oxford Union debating society. Extract from the diary of the university paper .
@Cherwell_Online
, reprinted for a 100th anniversary commemoration. Johnson failed that time, but won the presidency later. All seems familiar.
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When a Malaysian multibillion dollar financial scandal met a contentious EU "passports for sale" scheme: via
@financialtimes
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The UK has been the biggest recipient of EU coronavirus jab exports among 31 countries covered by the bloc’s new export monitoring mechanism. More than 9m of a total 34.1m doses shipped by the EU went to the UK between January 30 and March 9, according to internal bloc data.(2/x)
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