Hettie O’Brien

“The world that Trump and his acolytes have said they want to build, in fact, bears many striking resemblances to the unbearable policing that happened under apartheid. But the message from the vast majority of South Africans to people in the US is: you won’t like it.”

Money Beyond Borders — the making and breaking of global currencies The US dollar’s future is explored in Barry Eichengreen’s well-informed history on purchasing power in the monetary market

I reviewed Barry Eichengreen's new book about global currencies and the future of the dollar, check it out:

Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’ Exclusive: Rented datacentres and unrealised supercomputer site raise questions for Starmer’s push to ‘mainline AI into veins of economy’

“Investment” is one of the most abused words in the English language, particularly in government press releases. This great piece by @aishadown.bsky.social shows how a number of AI data centres announced by ministers and big tech don’t even exist: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘That resentment is real’: Mahmood’s Denmark visit aims to hammer home tough line on immigration On tour of returns centre, home secretary says ‘legitimate grievances’ have to be acknowledged as part of ‘responsible’ politics

A lot of thought goes into the clothing politicians wear for photo ops. So I’m wondering what Shabana Mahmood was thinking when she decided to wear this coat www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The influencers leaping to Dubai’s defence [FREE TO READ] As missiles streak across the region, unfazed residents insist they ‘know who protects us’

‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’

No notes.

as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...

Blackstone’s flagship private credit fund hit with wave of redemptions Investors pull net $1.7bn out of vehicle over first quarter as industry strains intensify

Asset managers like Blackstone made two big and desperate bets: that private credit and retail investors would be their saviour. Now, those retail investors are starting to have doubts 👀 www.ft.com/content/7dad...

One of the funniest things to come out of this are the brits who won’t leave Dubai even as it’s being bombed. One influencer adjacent guy went on a live stream on his balcony and said he’d rather be killed by Iran than go back to Wigan

Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI The long read: I was a newcomer, negotiating all of usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack

There have been a lot of 'AI and the classroom' essays. But this one, by writer and now high school English teacher @apcbapcb.bsky.social, is, in fact, the best www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

❤️

(and this is an excellent investigation from @edsiddons.bsky.social)

Fines for UK financial crime nosedive to ‘pitiful’ lows Penalties from the FCA drop by 78% in five years as it prepares to take on a new role as 'super-regulator'

strikes me that one of the most obvious things this government should do is properly resource regulators. There’s a gigantic gap between law and its enforcement, yet politicians always focus on announcing new rules rather than applying the old ones www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

#1 Stored up inside my head What I'd like from this newsletter

I promised myself that I’d make a bit more effort to share what I’m working on this year, so I’ve started posting on Substack. If you like my work, please do subscribe for very infrequent updates on what I’m writing / reading: open.substack.com/pub/hettieve...

every time i look at instagram, i feel like im the only adult who doesn't know how to make money

Cédric Durand, After AI — Sidecar Legacies of the bubble.

(from @cedricdurand.bsky.social’s excellent piece on the AI data centre goldrush - and the exotic financial arrangements precariously supporting it) newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

nothing to worry about here then

UK private equity investor plots closure of up to 80 former WHSmith stores Modella rebranded high street shops as TG Jones after buying them last year

WHSmith’s private equity owner is planning on closing 80 stores, affecting thousands of jobs. Pretty sure any of those workers could have told them that rebranding as “TG Jones” while continuing to deal mainly in grubby carpet tiles and dusty snacks was never going to work www.ft.com/content/6d68...

On Politics: Mandelson and the Private Life of Power

Best of the pods on this so far 🫡 @piercepenniless.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/399w...

The tragic awfulness of this government is that it has extended a factional war against the left of the Labour Party into a war against almost all the good things we might have expected of it. It cannot respond to the crisis it faces, because its hatred of the Labour left is definitional.

Good luck with what’s next!

sincerely regretting each of the Danish words I chose to include in this book

Reform’s local councils are bringing climate denial into the… Top polling party’s moves to ‘undeclare’ the climate emergency and scrap net zero targets could be a sign of things to come

I keep hearing that the rise of the populist right is one of the biggest threats to the climate. Watching Trump’s second term it’s hard to disagree

So @tbij.bsky.social looked at what councils controlled by Reform UK are doing on climate

What we found was pretty shocking

Yorkshire Water fined over £700,000 for repeated sewage releases Company admits three pollution events that killed fish and insects in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield

would be nice to think this kind of thing had an effect on the behaviour of such companies, rather than something they simply priced in as a cost of doing business www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Secrets of the shore: the landfill rubbish laid bare by the sea How coastal erosion in Essex is revealing decades of human over-consumption and forcing us to reckon with our past.

back in 2019 i went down to essex to write about how coastal erosion was unearthing landfill that was never supposed to see daylight again. A similar story - but this one has far higher stakes www.newstatesman.com/politics/201...

Just another Monday morning.

Rapid UK coastal erosion throws spotlight on £40bn nuclear plant More than 27 metres of cliff lost over a year in area just 2km from Sizewell C

perhaps building a gigantic £40bn nuclear power plant on the edge of a rapidly eroding coastline where sea levels are expected to rise *wasn’t* such a great idea after all www.ft.com/content/7f09...

Absolutely fascinating piece, this -- with an unexpected, starring role for Ernst Mandel, whose 1972 visa refusal case played an important role in subsequent history of US ideological policing of its border

The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

Really great reporting by the brilliant @pollysmythe.bsky.social on Criterion Capital and the billionaire philanthropist behind “one of the worst mass evictions in our capital’s recent history” www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

On this, really interesting piece on X’s “ideological ratchet” by @jwherrman.bsky.social: the platform is pulling users to the right, even elites who thought they were immune to radicalisation
nymag.com/intelligence...

closest thing you get to a UK McMansion

What a great title for what is promising to be the most interesting book on private equity in some years.