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Reposted by alina

Michael Pettis @michaelpettis.bsky.social · 3h

4/4
I expect that these ten industries will get the lion's share of the shift in manufacturing investment. In that case I think we can also expect excess capacity to intensify in these sectors.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 10h

Here more than 5,000 people answered the question below (more than 4,200 via quote replies & >800 comments). Lots of interesting stories!

On X, 15 people replied to the same query.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 4d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 9h

🚨Amazing:
🇳🇴 Norway’s drone detection system protecting Oslo Airport comes from 🇨🇳 Chinese company DJI Aeroscope, with system updates coming directly from DJI in China.

Unexpectedly that 🇨🇳 system was down for a full 19h from the evening of September 22nd, which is why the airport had to be closed.

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 10h

Same Unit that helped current President come to power in 2009

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 10h

IOW, the more Labour deliver on their promises the more and longer lasting support they potentially have.

Because people who are young now have grown up with nothing working whilst Conservative in power so they're already primed to be more Labour.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 11h

Interesting polling of 5000 16-40 year olds by J L Partners.

Achieving more 'life milestones' does not make young people much more Conservative
Current voting intention by number of 'life milestones'
— Conservative
— Labour
- Reform
— Liberal Democrat
- Green
Other
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
T
0
T
1
2
T
3
T
4
T
5
Life milestones
Milestones counted as: Having a job, owning a home, living with spouse/partner, being married and having children | JLP

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 11h

Something is up here as well, it's not like Dutch govt pursued this on a whim.

Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 13h

A quiet bombshell in Europe’s tech world

The Dutch government seems to have effectively frozen operations of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker, citing national security, according to corporate filing today - via @zichenwanghere

Dutch govt accused of freezing operations of Chinese semiconductor giant's chipmaker Nexperia

Wingtech, the Shanghai-listed parent, denounces what it essentially calls a boardroom coup involving the Dutch government and local executives

open.substack.com

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 11h

And I still think the case was dropped for other reasons than 'UK govt weak', 'UK govt wants to play friends with China', 'UK govt can't do anything properly', etc

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 11h

Proper spy stuff this: UK spies have enough inside visibility into Chinese spies chatter that they find out about information leaked by these two guys and they pursue this for about 2y before they arest Berry at the airport in 2023

And somehow Nexperia is in this story as well. Hmmm

Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 11h

One of the suspects in the 🇨🇳 China spy case, Christopher Berry, allegedly had secure communication apps used only by Beijing agents installed on ‘burner phones’, acc. to The Mail on Sunday. They were allegedly found on Mr Berry’s mobiles after he returned to 🇬🇧 Britain from China in February 2023.

Police found secret messaging app on spy suspect's phones

The trial of Christopher Berry and Chris Cash, on charges of passing secrets to China between 2021 and 2023, collapsed last month.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 11h

Then you have proof of concept for Flamingo with US targeting and after that you present a case for how much more effective this concept be with Tomahawks.

Glad Ukraine knows how to play this.

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 11h

So Trump wants a deal, so he's long range strikes curious for hiw own deal-making reasons, Ukraine & NATO/US military cooperate for targeting just like they did earlier in the war (per NYT reporting), just now long range.
Added bonus: feeds Trump is everybody buying US fossil fuels

Igor Sushko @igorsushko.bsky.social · 13h

🇺🇸🇺🇦 Trump administration since July has provided US intelligence to Ukraine to effectively strike Russian oil refineries and other targets, enabling Ukrainian drones to evade Russian air defences with route planning, altitude, timing and mission decisions
www.ft.com/content/f9f4...

Ukraine hit Russian energy sites with US help

Trump administration has supported Kyiv’s operations since summer in co-ordinated push to weaken Moscow

www.ft.com

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 13h

Also, I think you can take the setup (principles/mechanisms) of Contracts for difference in energy and apply it to other areas.
Say with munitions/ISR stuff in MoD or public transport stuff in DfT

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 13h

NHS had its share of similar fuckups for similar reasons (hospital build up, covid test & trace, Blair era national IT program) but NHS did do vaccine taskforce well and it does do a lot of things well because of NICE (imperfect as that is).

There are MoD areas where you could have smth like NICE

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 13h

It is depressing to look at MoD procurement, HS2 and nuclear power stations, three areas where UK has done very poorly and see so many similarities!

Unaffordable plans, shifting specs, over-specification, unreasonable optimism, weak ownership, ineffective kill switches, etc, etc

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Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 14h

On Tuesday @instituteforgovernment.org.uk will publish the first part of Performance Tracker 2025, our flagship annual stocktake of the state of public services

We’re doing things slightly differently this year, so I thought I’d do a quick thread explaining some of the changes

🧵

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 15h

So stingier benefits in the UK didn't get us any growth dividend compared with more generous countries.

And sure there isn't a causal link between benefits & growth (UK or elsewhere), but that's the point, why are we doing it then, out of some inflicting misery kink?

The Institute for Fiscal Studies @theifs.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: The UK social security system offers relatively little income protection after job loss.

THREAD on Martin Mikloš and @xiaoweixu.bsky.social's IFS Green Budget chapter on the options for introducing ‘unemployment insurance’:

Chart shows net replacement rates in unemployment for a single homeowner with no children. Title states: "Unemployment benefits in the UK are low compared to OECD countries, and contributory benefits are no higher than means-tested benefits."

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 15h

Well yeah, sure, building of stuff os happening a faster pace in Eastern Europe but let’s not kid ourselves: France has also been ‘rich’ long enough and still manages to build fast & cheaper thank UK

France has planning laws & bureaucracy. And yet…

Tom Calver @tomcalver.bsky.social · 16h

There are plenty of reasons why. EU funding plus currency independence; thriving tech and defence sectors; lower taxes for young Poles so less brain drain, etc.

But Poland also has a very different attitude to building things.

More in my column

www.thetimes.com/article/52a8...

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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 1d

Has lived in the US since he was NINE MONTHS OLD.

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 1d

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 1d

This is really cool. Do you happen to have Black Sea as well? Thanks

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Paul Kelly @pjthinker.bsky.social · 1d

True on the last point but hard to see how any UK institution could compete with a £20m+ endowment in the field of economics. This is Christiano Ronaldo level economics - we’re more at the Harry Kane level…

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Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 1d

The Chinese have been saying the quiet bit ("we want to use rare earths as an economic weapon", basically) out loud for many, many years. It just took us all a long time to actually think they were serious.

Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 1d

In the same vein, from the same book.

May 2019 as Xi Jinping touted a rare earths processing plant in Jiangxi following Huawei’s addition to the entity list.

People's Daily: "Don't say you were not warned"

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Borners @borners.bsky.social · 1d

I've never met a Libertarian who didn't believe in the redemptive power of state coercion to order society as they would wish it.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 2d

So the absolute insane stupidity of this is the idea that he could set up a theocratic state and also get a 'significantly smaller government.'

The folks on the authoritarian right do really seem to be believe there is a secret government liberalizer ray they can just switch off to change society.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 2d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

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James Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 1d

Are there any live proposals to get DSIT (and/or CLG?) to create a Civic Tech Fund? An initiative to support the UK’s civic tech movement (pro-social platforms like Library of Things, Olio, Park Run, etc) and shared infrastructure for community organising. 1/n

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Prof. Damian Roland @damianroland.bsky.social · 1d

Great listen from @drguddisingh.bsky.social

Lots of learning & eye-opening statistics for both the public and professionals.

What is being described is the need to centre care around children, not bring children to care.

The Foundation of Neighbourhood health

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Three Ages of Child, Episode 1: The Early Years

A journey through the landscape that shapes the health of our children.

www.bbc.co.uk

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alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 2d

And the cherry on top is the fact that they've been trying to fill the National Armaments Director position since last year and not yet filled it, despite the fact it comes with salary >500k/year (PM gets ~170k)

Suitable candidates could get much more in private & not have to handle hot potatoes

alina @ramshackle78.bsky.social · 2d

2024 March - HoC Public Accounts Committee – “No credible plan to deliver desired capabilities”

2024 Dec - National Audit Office MoD review (hardly any green)

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