Marc Palen

USAID: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

youtube.com/watch?v=tU8S...

Elizabeth Warren: "I am a hard no on a supplemental. This is not a war the American people want us to engage in. This is not a war that makes us safer ... No. No more money. The only thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse."

Even though I'm an economist, I wish there was more focus on the human suffering from this war and less focus on the economic consequences. Hundreds of little girls are dead, and we're worried about oil prices.

Prison Guard Made Mysterious Big Deposits and Google Searches Before Epstein’s Death: DOJ One of the guards responsible for checking on Jeffrey Epstein's well-being while he sat in a Manhattan jail cell googled him minutes before he was found dead.

Does anyone remember who was president when Epstein died in prison?

This is antiwar infrastructure.

Modern International Thought and Southeastern Europe: An Interview with Georgios Giannakopoulos by Dimitrios Mitsopoulos

In an interview with Dimitrios Mitsopoulos for the JHI Blog, Georgios Giannakopoulos discusses his book, The Interpreters (Manchester UP, 2025), which uncovers how British scholars, journalists, and travelers used southeastern Europe as a laboratory for rethinking liberalism between 1870 and 1930.

The impact of Brexit on immigration to the UK A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.

The impact of Brexit on UK immigration - new research by @johnspringford.bsky.social & me for @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social & @ukandeu.bsky.social

Brexit

a) reduced EU-origin employees by 785K (2.3% of workforce)
b) increased non-EU origin employees by 992K (2.95%)

www.cer.eu/insights/imp...

Ending UK customs relief on low-value imports could push up prices, BCC says Business group warns of harm to small firms and trade as it calls for phased end to ‘de minimis’ exemptions Removing the UK’s tariff exemption for low-value imports could push up prices and harm small companies and trade, a leading business group has said, as it called for a phased-in approach to ending the “de minimis” rules. The UK government plans to end the tax break on imports of goods worth less than £135, making them subject to customs duty, with the changes to take effect in March 2029 at the latest. The US removed its longstanding de minimis exemption on 29 August. Before that packages valued at less than $800 (£597) were allowed to be shipped into the US tariff-free. Continue reading...

Ending UK customs relief on low-value imports could push up prices, BCC says

Caitlin KALINOWSKI over X I resigned from OpenAl. I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together. This wasn't an easy call. Al has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I'm proud of what we built together.

OpenAI head of robotics just resigned over company deal with the Pentagon saying…

“Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got”

China no longer buys US exports: Drawing the right lessons for the next Trump-Xi deal China essentially stopped buying US exports in April 2025. President Donald Trump had started his second term by launching a new trade war that he headlined with steep new tariffs on China. When China...

Without Trump’s trade wars since 2017, US exports to China would have been nearly 60% higher in 2025, or roughly $90 billion annually.

Historian here history first time as tragedy the second time as farce.

Middle East conflict strands ships with cargoes of fresh food and live animals Shipping companies struggle to reroute vessels as disruption starts to cause congestion at ports outside the Gulf

Middle East conflict strands ships with cargoes of fresh food and live animals ft.trib.al/P4KngHm

Why do so many conservative group chats end up like this?

Trump’s War on Iran Could Screw Over US Farmers The Middle East supplies a huge amount of the world’s fertilizer. Conflict in the region has sent prices soaring ahead of the critical spring planting season.

there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman

"The most effective consumer boycotts in history share two qualities: they are narrow and they are easy," writes @rutgerbregman.com

What would Winston Churchill make of war with Iran? Donald Trump has said Keir Starmer is ‘no Churchill’, but his dismissal is based on a simplified version of history.

When Donald Trump criticised Keir Starmer for failing to sufficiently support American and Israeli operations against Iran, he did so with a historical flourish. “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” he complained.

theconversation.com/what-would-w...

PPF Live Special: Churchill – The Politician With Nine Lives w/Robert Saunders 178

With all the talk of "what would Churchill have done in Iran" or "who is & isn't like Churchill", it's worth noting how many different roles Churchill himself played over his life.

I discussed The Nine Lives of Winston Churchill with David Runciman in this live pod.
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/ppf...

Series 4: The Soundbite of the Century Episode 1

80 years to the day since the iron curtain speech - hear the full story in our new podcast series.

@finesthalfhour.bky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/1KlK...

Wealthy Dubai residents race back to UAE to avoid tax bills Some risk spending too few days in the emirate and too many in the UK

Tax exiles stuck in London desperately trying to get *back* to Dubai to avoid becoming tax resident in the UK? Just great stuff. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Photo of Jessica Roney in a blue sweater holding a copy of our book. Pretzel, the cat, is in background right, with his white-gloved paw extended in an elegant pose.

Photo of Rachel Herrmann in a blue shell holding a copy of our book. Paz Purrmann stands at left, looking at Rachel/the book/his bag of food. Paz is white with seal pointing and his fluffy gray tail is elevated with interest

Table of contents featuring Rachel Herrmann and Jessica Choppin Roney, Edward Gray, Christian Koot, Alex Zukas, John Morton, and Paul Musselwhite

Second page of the table of contents featuring Kim Gruenwald, Karen Rann, Charles Prior, Chad McCutchen and Jennifer Monroe McCutchen, Rachel Herrmann, Harvey Amani Whitfield and Sarah Chute, and Samuel Truett

Claiming Land, Claiming Water: Borders and the People Who Crossed Them in the Early Modern Atlantic arrived at the houses of Pretzel and Paz Purrmann this week, and their humans (Jessica Roney, and me) were pretty jazzed @pennpress.bsky.social

EU governments are now keen to ‘have a much more comprehensive approach early on’, given the anti-immigrant sentiment present in many countries, the UN's top migration official has told the FT. ft.trib.al/3THFsQW

Trump's trade war timeline 2.0: An up-to-date guide President Donald Trump started his second term in office with momentous plans to change US trade policy to achieve various economic and nontrade related aims. This timeline tracks the development of t...

Keep track of *official* trade actions with our timeline:

Marylanders deserve a refund. YouTube video by Governor Wes Moore

Trump’s illegal tariffs cost Maryland’s businesses and consumers up to an estimated $4 billion.

Marylanders deserve a refund from the Trump-Vance Administration.

youtube.com/shorts/Oe5BG...

Haitian Asylum Seeker Dies of Toothache in What ICE Calls "The Best Healthcare of Their Lives" Detention deaths are a foreseeable outcome of specific policy choices made by people in position of power. This post steps back to think through the broader trends and steps toward accountability.

Haitian Asylum Seeker Dies of Toothache in What ICE Calls "The Best Healthcare of Their Lives"
open.substack.com/pub/austinko...

Downloads are soaring for the new podcast 'Churchill: The Finest Half Hour'. Find out what's attracting thousands of listeners around the world.

On Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7BwF62E...

Or Apple podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

#Churchill

US strikes on Iran ‘outside international law,’ says Macron Macron joins Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez in calling the legality of the strikes into question.

After four days of hesitating, the president of France has joined the prime minister of Spain in saying that the 🇺🇸🇮🇱 attack on Iran is a violation of international law.

But they are still the only 2 EU leaders to have done so. Will others join?

They are literally running with “we have always been at war with Eurasia.” Unreal.

RIP to hundreds of Iranians and one American vacation

Getting flashbacks to Bush Jr’s New Europe vs Old Europe re Iraq invasion

On the Aggregate in Intellectual History by Disha Karnad Jani This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

Concluding the blog's forum on political economy, Disha Karnad Jani reflects on intellectual history's methodological relationship to the "aggregate" in the generations that built upon and revised the social history of ideas. What kind of aggregate, if any, can address contemporary horrors?