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Coca-Cola and Notre Dame bring poverty alleviation efforts to host cities during the FIFA World Cup 2026
When the FIFA World Cup 2026 games kick off this week, bringing global attention to cities across North America, communities from Boston and Miami to Toronto, Dallas and Los Angeles will come together for one of the world’s largest sporting events. In these same cities, the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI), a program aimed at helping underrepresented populations create and grow independent businesses, is working with local partners to strengthen small business ecosystems throughout a total of 59 cities, including a strategic activation in 13 soccer host cities.
Coca-Cola Park says America 250 fireworks show will be one for Lehigh Valley’s record books
The finale will be the largest in the park's history, creating what organizers describe as the most expansive skyward celebration staged in the Lehigh Valley.
Galaxy Digital Stock Surges on AI Data Center Business
Shares of Galaxy Digital surged on Monday, with investors betting that the crypto financial services company’s expansion into AI data centers will turbocharge its growth. The stock jumped 24% Monday afternoon and was on track for its largest percent increase since November 2024. Mike Novogratz, Ga
What It Takes To Be A Top Tier Entertainment Lawyer in 2026
Share I’ve recently run several popular posts breaking down data related to sought after legal jobs. General Counsel Big Law Appellate Attorney Here is another in this series. Two Lawyers, One Elite Market Entertainment law can sound like a single professional category. In practice, the lawyers who reach the top of the Hollywood market often look quite different from one another. Consider two attorneys from the 2025 top-entertainment-law universe. Lesley Freeman represents one route: the company-side entertainment lawyer. She is chief legal officer of AGBO, where she oversees company-wide business and legal affairs across film, television, video game and interactive experiences, and technological innovation, after senior legal roles at MGM, Amazon MGM Studios, HBO, and O’Melveny. Daniel Petrocelli represents another route: the outside-counsel trial lawyer. He is chair of O’Melveny’s trial practice and a vice chair of the firm, with a national litigation practice that includes entertainment, sports, and media disputes. Their careers differ by platform, role, practice area, and professional identity. One sits inside an entertainment company; the other practices from a major law firm. One is associated with corporate and governance work; the other with litigation. Yet both fall within the same publicly recognized top tier of Hollywood lawyers. That contrast points to the article’s central question. If there is no single mold for a top entertainment lawyer, are the paths simply idiosyncratic, or do they follow recurring patterns? The data suggest the latter. The attorneys recognized on The Hollywood Reporter and Variety’s 2025 top-attorney lists do not follow one career template, but their paths are not random. They cluster around several defined routes: entertainment-focused private practice, company-side or operator experience, corporate and finance conversion, litigation conversion, public-service-to-litigation pathways, and smaller specialized lanes in labor, employment, and celebrity family law. Across those routes, the recurring ingredients are platform strength, educational capital or Los Angeles market proximity, long career tenure, specialized practice identity, and entertainment-industry fluency. The article examines five dimensions of the top-attorney sample: route into entertainment law, firm or organizational platform, education pipeline, seniority, and practice specialization. Data and Methodology The dataset includes 103 attorneys drawn from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety’s 2025 lists of top entertainment or Hollywood attorneys. For each attorney, the dataset tracks current organization, law school, J.D. year where available, first-known bar admission year, practice area, prior roles, platform type, and route into entertainment law. The sample is best understood as a recognized-attorney dataset, not a census of all entertainment lawyers. It captures lawyers who reached public top-tier recognition in 2025, rather than every lawyer practicing in the entertainment sector. Multiple but Defined Routes Into Entertainment Law The first question is how these lawyers entered the entertainment-law market. Because every attorney in the dataset is entertainment-related by definition, the key distinction is not whether they practice entertainment law. It is how they got there. The largest group followed what might be called the entertainment private-practice route. These attorneys appear to have built their practices around entertainment, media, talent, music, rights, production, intellectual property, or adjacent industry work relatively early. That route accounts for 40 of the 103 attorneys in the sample, or 38.8%.
Scientific Games and Hellenic Lotteries Partner to Provide World-Class Scratchcard Entertainment Experiences to Greek Players
/PRNewswire/ -- Scientific Games, the world's largest lottery games company, and Hellenic Lotteries, part of Allwyn Hellas, the leading gaming group in Greece,...
Create & Cultivate Announces Return Of The C&C 100 List Honoring Women Defining Culture, Business And Leadership In 2026
Create & Cultivate, the largest events and media company for women in business, announces the return of its annual C&C 100 List, taking place June 16, 2026, at The London West Hollywood.
Independents 'put politics aside' in Birmingham City Council coalition
But Reform UK say their party had been "completely frozen out" despite being the largest group.
Texas’ health care workforce has increased 123% in 30 years. State officials say it isn’t enough
Health care is the largest and fastest growing industry in Texas — but the workforce isn't growing fast enough to meet increasing demand. Workforce shortages are getting worse, according to testimony from state officials during a House Committee on Public Health hearing.
Texas’ healthcare workforce has increased 123% in 30 years. State officials say it isn’t enough
Healthcare is the largest and fastest growing industry in Texas — but the workforce isn't growing fast enough to meet increasing demand. Workforce shortages are getting worse, according to testimony from state officials during a House Committee on Public Health hearing.
Health experts to screen US wastewater for disease outbreaks during World Cup
Epidemiologists will be busy this summer sifting through sewage and social media with the goal of keeping soccer fans and the public safe from severe illness during the World Cup, one of the largest and most globally diverse mass gatherings ever anticipated.
Haleon to Invest $233.5 Million in India Plant Amid Push Into Emerging Markets
The facility to make oral-health products in Madhya Pradesh is the largest plant the company has taken on.
Scientists confirm more than two dozen new marine species off Brazilian coast within days
"The largest habitat on Earth, the midwater, is filled with incredible animals we are only just starting to understand."
Bellevue-based T-Mobile wants to sell a lifestyle, not just wireless
The second-largest U.S. carrier's distinctive marketing strategy offers exclusive access and perks that aren't typically associated with wireless service.
These 9 Missouri businesses made the Fortune 500 list this year
For the eighth year in a row, Centene is the highest ranked Missouri-based business on Fortune's list of the 500 largest American companies. It sits at No. 19 — up four spots from last year's list.
D‑day’s secret weapon: How wetland science stopped Normandy landings from getting bogged down
Beneath the roar of gunfire and the chaos of D-day, an unlikely hero played a vital role — wetland science. Often overlooked amid military strategies and troop movements, the study of mud proved critical to the success of the largest amphibious invasion in history.
China wants to build the world’s largest astronomy base on Saishiteng Mountain
Telescopes at the remote site are set to surpass Hawaii’s Mauna Kea in light-gathering power by the mid-2030s, scientists say.
Haslam College Of Business To Receive Bulk Of The Largest Gift In U Of Tennessee History
Cleveland Browns owners give back to Knoxville in a big way, with $100M going directly to the B-school that bears their name.
Trump's deportation agenda is about to get a $70B infusion from Congress
For those aligned with Trump’s campaign promise for the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, it all but guarantees an uninterrupted flow of money to carry out the administration's immigration enforcement operations — and comes on top of some $170 billion Congress already approved for the department last summer, as part of Trump's big tax breaks bill.
Stanley Cup Final Game 1 draws biggest audience since 2019
The NHL’s strong television run continued with Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final drawing its largest audience in seven years. Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes averaged 4.8 million viewers on ABC, the largest audience for a Stanley Cup Final Game 1 since…
UT Receives Historic $130 Million Investment from Dee and Jimmy Haslam, Largest in University History
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, announces historic $130 million investment by alumni Dee and Jimmy Haslam.
As the largest World Cup ever kicks off, health officials are focused on more than Ebola
Officials are more concerned about highly contagious diseases like measles and respiratory viruses, which can spread quickly through large, fast-moving crowds.
SpaceX aims for world’s largest IPO amid fears it is ‘significantly overvalued’
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Cannon Ballers to Host July 4th Extravaganza at Atrium Health Ballpark
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers are excited to announce a fun-filled Independence Day Extravaganza at Atrium Health Ballpark, bringing together baseball, live entertainment, and highlighted by the largest and most spectacular fireworks display in the region, celebrating America’s 250th anniversary in unforgettable fashion. Fans can expect a breathtaking,
HETDEX opens massive Cosmic Noon dataset to scientists, novices and AI
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX)—which recently completed the largest survey ever taken of the early universe—has released all of its immense, information-rich database to the ...
Iran conflict hasn’t slowed the economy, but rising inflation coaxes businesses to freeze hiring
The largest part of the economy grew faster in May even as businesses had to cope with the worst inflation in several years, but it came at a cost to jobseekers. Many companies have adopted temporary hiring freezes to offset their own rising costs.
Students Gather as Winners of World’s Largest K-12 Science Competition
This week, the national winners of the 34th annual ExploraVision program, the world’s largest K-12 science competition, will gather in Washington, D.C. to be...
iPhone 18 Pro battery capacity could offer far more modest gains this year
It’s long been rumored that the iPhone 18 Pro Max battery capacity would be the largest ever seen in an...
Why are scientists planting tiny forests in big cities?
Healthy forests help combat climate change, provide humans with drinking water and even improve mental and physical health. But it’s hard to imagine an entire forest in the middle of a big city. That’s where micro-forests come into play — public forests on a smaller scale, filled with native plants. They exist around the world, and producer Rachel Carlson went to visit the largest micro-forest in California in this encore episode. She joins host Emily Kwong to chat about what she saw. Interested in more of the science behind urban nature? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Hims & Hers Completes Acquisition of Eucalyptus, Advancing its Position as the World’s Largest Consumer Health Platform
The acquisition extends the company's leadership position across Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, with the scale to redefine healthcare for hundreds of millions of people Hims Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS) has completed its acquisition of Eucalyptus, advancing its position as the world's largest consumer health platform. Building on the earlier acquisitions of ZAVA and Livewell , Hims Hers now has a leading presence across the US, UK, Australian, and Canadi
NASA’s Dragonfly Flight System Faces Heat
In preparation for the journey to reach the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, the heat shield for NASA’s Dragonfly mission completed thermal-structural
KBR (KBR) Valuation Check As PureSAF Win Ties Business To Major Northern Europe SAF Project
KBR (KBR) just announced that NorSAF selected its PureSAF technology for what is planned to be Northern Europe’s largest sustainable aviation fuel and e-SAF plant, a development centered on licensing rather than construction. See our latest analysis for KBR. The NorSAF PureSAF agreement lands as KBR’s 1-day share price return of 1.48% and 7-day return of 4.45% contrast with a year-to-date decline of 13.73% and a 1-year total shareholder return that is down 30.58%. This suggests recent...
AMC Entertainment Records Its Highest Domestic and Global May Attendance Since 2019
LEAWOOD, Kan., June 01, 2026--AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC), the largest theatrical exhibitor in the United States and the world, welcomed more than 4.2 million moviegoers to its U.S. AMC Theatres and internationally at its ODEON Cinemas this past weekend, from Thursday through Sunday. After yet another strong weekend at the box office in May, both domestically and globally AMC Entertainment received 25.5 million guests at our theatres, recording the highest-attended month of May since 2019.
Fil-Am designer R’Bonney Gabriel joins ‘Project Runway’ season 22
Filipina American fashion designer and Miss Universe 2022 R’Bonney Gabriel, also known professionally as R’Bonney Nola, is among the 22 designers competing in “Project Runway” season 22. - Photos from R’Bonney Gabriel’s social media account The Miss Universe 2022 titleholder will compete in the fashion design series’ largest contestant lineup. Filipino American fashion designer and Miss Universe 2022 R’Bonney…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fuels South Korea stock surge
The Nvidia chief is reportedly meet with executives from some of the country's largest companies later this week.
New homes, hotel, entertainment district coming to Miramar as part of massive project
Developers say it will be the largest walkable village of its kind in the city.
Merced County Fair expands entertainment lineup and savings for 2026 return
MERCED — The Merced County Fair will return June 10–14 with its largest entertainment lineup in years, new attractions across the grounds and expanded savings programs for families, fair officials announced Friday. This year’s theme, “Roots Run Deep,” highlights Merced County’s agricultural and cultural heritage.
Major pizza chain might sell business after closing 250 locations
The pizza dining industry is facing a flurry of mergers and acquisitions that could lead to multiple sales transactions in the upcoming months. Papa John's International's largest U.S. franchisee Nadeem Bajwa and investment firm Irth Capital are negotiating with the pizza chain to buy out the ...
Investors and labels are buying into the growing South Asian music business in the U.S.
Warner Music Group, the third-largest music label by market share, is tapping into the South Asian music movement with its latest venture, 5 Junction.
Area business leader, philanthropist Stanley Star dies
One of the northern Chautauqua County's "brilliant" business and community leaders has passed. Stanley Albert Star, who co-founded Cliffstar Corp. and, through extraordinary determination and leadership, built it into the largest and most respected private label beverage company in the United States, died Friday at 89. His obituary notes he was "a devoted husband, loving…
Fertitta Entertainment to buy Caesars for $17.6 billion
Fertitta Entertainment will acquire Caesars Entertainment in a $17.6 billion deal, creating one of the largest hospitality and gaming giants.
Exclusive | Flavor Maker IFF Nears $4 Billion Deal to Sell Food Ingredients Business to CVC
A sale of IFF’s largest division would be the company’s latest move to boost profitability.
Billionaire Tilman Fertitta to acquire Caesars Entertainment for $17.6B
The lucrative deal combines the hospitality magnate's leisure empire with one of the two largest casino operators in Las Vegas.
Princeton scientists identify first experimental evidence of a 'co-extinction' connection: Without elephants, dung beetles disappear
A new study from Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institute, the Mpala Research Centre and many partner institutions has now documented the interconnection between the largest animals in the savanna and some of the smallest.
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) and Three Other Science and Technology Institutes Launch Korea’s Largest Student Startup League, “GRAVITY 2026” to Foster Global Startups
-Offering a total prize pool of KRW 200 million and overseas acceleration opportunities, the program provides full-scale support for student startup teams preparing to debut on the global stage.
Medicaid’s Vital Role in Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Care
Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity to recognize Medicaid’s essential role in helping people access mental health care and treatment for substance use disorder. As the nation’s largest payer for mental health and substance use disorder care, Medicaid covers approximately twenty two million non-elderly Americans with these conditions who rely on the program’s essential […]
The 'Doomsday Glacier' is poised to lose its ice shelf this year. An Antarctic researcher explains what that means for global sea levels
Researchers have warned that the Thwaites Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the world, is about to lose its eastern ice shelf. We spoke to marine geophysicist Robert Larter about what this means for the "Doomsday Glacier."
Control Without Ownership: How China's Party-Business Networks Dominate Indonesia's Mineral Supply Chains
In 2024, when Jiangsu Delong, the world’s second-largest stainless-steel producer, filed for bankruptcy, several Chinese firms and state-owned enterprises
HCA Healthcare to acquire medical imaging training institute
The country’s largest hospital system is buying the Medical Technology Management Institute and its parent company for an undisclosed sum.
A New York cemetery was hiding 5.5 million bees underground
A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented and say the insects are crucial pollinators for apple orchards and other crops. The bees have likely lived there for more than 100 years, thriving in the cemetery’s undisturbed sandy soil.
Group behind ‘Money Out Of Politics’ campaign submits signatures for Michigan ballot initiative
The group, Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, said its initiative would ban political contributions from some of Michigan’s largest corporations.
College of Health Professions Celebrates Graduates, Strong Growth at Commencement
The College of Health Professions at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) celebrated its largest graduating class, adding about 100 students in the Class of 2026 when compared to last year.
QDOBA Completes $435 Million Whole Business Securitization to Support Continued Momentum
QDOBA Restaurant Corporation (“QDOBA”), the second largest fast-casual Mexican restaurant brand and portfolio company of Butterfly Equity (“Butterfly”), toda...
The world’s largest domestic sporting union announces first-of-its-kind fertility care
The Athletic explores the intersection of professional soccer and motherhood.
Street Fighter 6 server maintenance time revealed for Ingrid and the game's largest content update to date
It's finally almost time for the conclusion of Street Fighter 6 Season 3, and they're looking to go out with a real bang.Capcom just revealed the server maintenance times for Street Fighter 6's incoming update that ...
New DriveTech Wear costumes coming for every Street Fighter 6 character this week, and they're free
Street Fighter 6 is on the cusp of receiving its next big update with Ingrid's arrival, and the patch is shaping up to be one of the largest the game has ever seen in terms of content.Capcom just ...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Initiates Largest Change In 70 Years, Solicits Bids To Replace Caltech As Its Manager
A booming industry is proving that private enterprise can make serious strides in space, and JPL is looking to find cheaper ways to do what it's always done.
Incipient Monopolization in Digital Streaming: Judicial Oversight of Contemporary Entertainment Consolidation — Columbia Undergraduate Law Review
On February 27, 2026, Paramount Global confirmed a $110 billion all-cash offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, creating one of the largest media mergers in U.S. history. The offer followed a bidding war with Netflix; however, Warner Bros. ultimately signed the initial offer from Paramount. Netfli
Bella’s Bites Serves Up Family-Inspired Flavor Powered by Comcast Business
To celebrate Small Business Month, Comcast Business, the largest connectivity provider to small businesses in the U.S., is inviting residents and visitors to...
Italy business lobby urges investment, energy reform to revive growth
The head of Italy's largest business lobby on Tuesday urged sweeping reforms to revive the country's near-stagnant economy, warning that high energy costs and weak investment were undermining growth.
DRC is no stranger to Ebola outbreaks. Why isn’t there a vaccine or treatment to help now?
The fast-growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo came to the world’s attention only a little more than a week ago and is already the third-largest on record. But it’s the 17th outbreak the country has dealt with since the virus was discovered there in 1976.
The World Cup Problem That Could Disrupt All of Sports
After last year’s dangerously hot and humid FIFA Club World Cup in the US, attention has turned to how soccer’s governing body might handle extreme heat during its largest ever tournament: The 2026 FIFA World Cup, set to kick off June 11. Much of the focus has been on how the temperatures could affect the footballers, but the event is a reminder that the ones in real peril are the fans — and the players of the future.
Chicago has a new largest public company
Big IPOs bring new entrants to this year's ranking.
Semiconductor decoupling. Powell's politics. Industrializing Ogaden. Free trade and the Magna Carta.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 8th Army’s Front, Italy 1944 Semiconductor decoupling Source: FT One thing that Jerome Powell deeply understood is that chairing the Fed under current conditions is a deeply political job. “Powell has successes and mistakes to his name. But he stands out as having thought more carefully about the Fed’s democratic legitimacy than any chair since Paul Volcker,” said Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor at the Bank of England, referring to the Fed chair who successfully fought the great inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s. … While Powell was at the Treasury in the early 1990s, he watched Alan Greenspan build relationships within the government. That convinced Powell he needed to follow the former Fed chair’s lead and spend more time in Congress than his predecessors Yellen and Bernanke. “The accountability for the Fed runs through Congress,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Fed official who is now chief economist at New Century Advisors. “That’s not just about having people on speed dial — it’s answering questions, explaining policy and getting feedback.” Source: FT Ethiopia’s PM Abiy and Nigerian business tycoon, with Chinese engineering, are driving industrialization in Ogaden/Somali region of Ethiopia. - Michael Masri’s reporting for Africa Report if fascinating. Ethiopia has launched a cluster of large industrial schemes in the Somali region, laying foundation stones for a urea plant and an oil refinery in Gode while opening the first two phases of the Ogaden LNG project. Abiy Ahmed framed the push as part of a broader strategy to link energy, agriculture and industry. “These projects embody more than industrial growth,” he said. “They represent our shared responsibility to harness opportunities, strengthen co-operation and promote peace.” The Gode urea plant, backed by Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), is designed for 3m tonnes a year. Dangote owns 60%, while EIH holds 40%. Officials say Dangote’s equity totals about $2.5bn, while the state provides land and implementation oversight. Gas from the Calub fields will be piped 108km to the site. Construction is slated for 40 months, with operations targeted for 2028. Ethiopia imports most of its fertiliser, spending more than $1.2bn a year for 1.5m–2m tonnes. Usage was roughly 1.7m tonnes in 2023, almost half of it urea, and demand for 2024–25 is put above 2.4m tonnes. If delivered on time, the Gode plant could cover domestic needs and allow exports to neighbours. Brook Taye, chief executive of EIH, called the venture “a significant milestone in the journey toward industrial self-sufficiency”. Dangote told the groundbreaking crowd that the complex would be integrated with gas supply and a polypropylene unit to support local inputs. He pointed to Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with a capacity of more than 5,000MW, and noted his group’s cement operations and expansion plans. The Gode refinery is being developed by Golden Concord Group of China. It is designed to process 3.5m tonnes a year of crude and condensate from the Hilala field, with associated storage. Backers say it will ease foreign-exchange pressure from fuel imports and anchor further industrial activity, including a proposed steel smelting site in Dire Dawa. GCL’s chair, Zhu Gongshan, cast the project as “a key step in Ethiopia’s path to energy sovereignty”, underscoring the Beijing–Addis ties. Financing details are still being finalised, but the refinery is central to the government’s energy-security narrative. Source: The Africa Report Dangote’s Ethiopian vision: Dangote began with cement. His crown jewel, Dangote Cement, dominates Nigeria’s market and has 10 operations in other nations in Africa. The formula has been consistent: identify sectors with chronic shortages – cement, fertiliser, sugar – commit massive local investments, and scale up to serve regional demand. Ethiopia was a natural extension of that model. In 2015, Dangote launched the Mugher Cement Plant outside Addis Ababa at a cost of $600m, with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. The investment gave him a firm foothold in one of Africa’s fastest-growing construction markets. But success came with risks. In May 2018, violent unrest led to the killing of Dangote’s country manager and temporary shutdowns at Mugher. While other investors might have retreated, Dangote doubled down. Today, he is preparing to spend $400m to expand Mugher’s capacity to 5 million tonnes, alongside a new grinding unit near Addis Ababa. Cement is just one market Dangote is targeting. Ethiopia’s enormous state-controlled sugar industry, long plagued by inefficiency and debt, has struggled for years to reform. Its Omo Kuraz Sugar Development Project, touted as one of the continent’s largest initiatives, continues to face delays and mismanagement. … The most ambitious venture of all is the planned fertiliser production complex in Gode, Somali region. Publicised on 28 August 2025, the Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) deal plans one of the world’s largest single-site urea manufacturing plants. The project costs an estimated $2.5bn and has an estimated capacity of 3 million metric tonnes annually, a rate that would not only render Ethiopia independent, but even a net exporter of fertiliser. EIH, the state wealth fund of Ethiopia, will hold 40%, while 60% is held by Dangote Group. … For Dangote, Ethiopia is a trifecta: Cement demand is projected to grow by 10% annually, its sugar consumption is growing with rapid urbanisation, and fertiliser demand is all but insatiable, given that farming supports the livelihood of 70% of Ethiopians. Source: The Africa Report The stakes for Abiy are high: For Addis Ababa, the $4bn fertiliser project in Ethiopia’s Somali region is no longer simply a manufacturing investment. It is increasingly being framed as a strategic state project tied to food sovereignty, import substitution and the government’s broader attempt to build economic resilience under mounting fiscal pressure. “Becoming self-sufficient in food is our main agenda,” Abiy says during the visit. “Land is needed; we have it. Water is needed; we have it. Human resources are needed; we have it.” The scale is enormous even by African industrial standards. Once operational, the plant is expected to produce three million metric tonnes of urea annually, potentially making it one of the continent’s largest fertiliser complexes. Ethiopian officials say the project now includes a 110km gas pipeline, a 120MW power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility and a two-million-tonne NPK blending plant. For a government grappling with chronic foreign exchange shortages, ballooning import bills and pressure on agricultural productivity, the numbers matter politically as much as they do economically. The decision to anchor the project in Gode is deliberate. Long viewed as peripheral to Ethiopia’s industrial economy, the Somali region is now being repositioned by the federal government as a future irrigation and agro-industrial corridor. Officials argue that the area’s vast land reserves and access to water could eventually support large-scale commercial farming capable of reshaping Ethiopia’s food economy. The government is simultaneously building housing infrastructure for about 5,000 residents near the plant, while officials project broader industrial expansion along the corridor. Abiy goes further, comparing the long-term revenue potential of the Gode development zone with Ethiopia’s flagship state enterprise. “The investments we are making in this Gode area, combined, will generate high revenue for Ethiopia, at par with Ethiopian Airlines,” he says. Source: The Africa Report Feliks Topolski 1907-1982 Topolski’s Chronicle, ‘Nazi Revival’, Vol. 8, Is. 1-2, 1960 HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Grim vision of drone warfare by Sylvie Kaufmann For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe The state of the art in Colbert-studies. Jean-Baptiste Colbert was Louis XIV chief minister from 1661 to 1683 and traditionally seen as an architect of absolutism and mercantilism. Alexander Hamilton later cited him as an inspiration in 1782. Now his legacy is disputed. Daniel Dessert, the chief critic, sees Colbert as the orchestrator not so much of an absolutist state as of an elite cabal. Would be great to have a good English-language review of this important debate. Source: lhistoire Didn’t know that the Magna Carta included free trade provisions Fighting for the right to the beach in Oregon in 1967: Source: Research Gate RAF Station – British and Polish Flags, c. 1940-45, The Ingram Collection Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 ink and wash If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Rogers hospital to be first to use Arkansas’ initiative for doulas in maternal healthcare
A northwest Arkansas hospital will be the first to use the state’s initiative to integrate doulas into maternal healthcare, the state’s largest healthcare system announced last week.
The solar system's largest moon may be heating up — offering clues to its mysterious origins
The largest moon in the solar system — Jupiter’s Ganymede — has a unique and inexplicable magnetic field. New research could finally explain it: the moon is heating up.
This year could produce the largest loss of Black political representation ever. Here’s why
The redistricting frenzy across Republican-controlled Southern states threatens to resurrect some of the gravest racial injustices in American political history.
Vikings Look Underrated
It’s not particularly unusual when the national media overlooks the Minnesota Vikings over the spring and summer months. It happens more often than not. After all, the Vikings are not among the largest media market teams and they haven’t been league darlings either, like the Packers often have been or the Lions in more recent […]
Ebola outbreak now third largest recorded and "spreading rapidly"
Ebola outbreak risk level increased as deaths reach 177 with nearly 750 cases.
Guest post: How CMIP7 will shape the next wave of climate science
Hundreds of scientists in dozens of institutions are embarking on the next phase of the world’s largest coordinated climate-modelling effort.
German Ifo business sentiment unexpectedly rises
German business morale unexpectedly rose in May, a survey showed on Friday, offering a glimmer of hope for Europe's largest economy.
French Business Confidence Languishes Below Long-Term Average
French business confidence remained weak in May, adding to evidence that the fallout from the Iran war is weighing on domestic demand in the euro area’s second-largest economy.
How Fanatics cornered the sports collectibles market
As FIFA's exclusive collectibles licensee, Fanatics is set to tap a rapidly growing market in the world's largest sport, but longstanding criticisms follow.
Supreme Court revives damages suit against cruise ship companies that docked in Cuba
The Supreme Court subjected the world’s largest cruise ship companies to a stiff headwind on Thursday, reviving a claim that alleged they trafficked in property confiscated by the Cuban government when they docked their ships in Havana.
Oxford Population Health: Global study of HIV variants underscores challenges for vaccine development
The largest-ever study mapping genetic variants of HIV-1 around the world shows the regional distribution of different subtypes of the virus continues to evolve.
Providence to end most health insurance plans, forcing hundreds of thousands in Oregon to switch
Providence Health Plan is Oregon’s third largest insurer, covering more than 421,000 Oregonians.
e-Fest's 10th Year Adds Challenge From Tommie Alum's Business - Newsroom | University of St. Thomas
The University of St. Thomas welcomes 25 of the country’s top student startup teams to campus each spring for a three-day e-Fest, the nation’s largest cash-prize competition for undergraduates. In this year’s Innovation Challenge, students worked on a real business challenge from a company founded by a University of St. Thomas alum. “For the 10th anniversary,…
Ebola Crisis Sparks Debate Over Global Health Double Standards
To some Africans, the claim that the continent’s largest health agency had already bungled its response scratched a familiar wound.
RECongress Selects Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center for 2028-2032
The Los Angeles Religious Education Congress (RECongress), one of the largest annual Catholic gatherings in the United States, has selected the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center as its new home beginning in 2028. The five-year agreement will bring Catholics from across the U.S. and the world to Long Beach for the four-day RECongress event through 2032.
Radiology Associates of North Texas says it will waste over $51M on costs related to No Surprises Act
The country’s largest independent imaging group—located in Fort Worth and employing about 300 physicians—calculated the figure based on an internal analysis of its billing practices.
Big Europe and Asian private equity health funds merge to defy AI disruption
Global Healthcare Opportunities and CBC Group say $21bn investment manager will be world’s largest in sector
Jaelyn Hammersley Earns Global Prize at International Science Fair
OPRF junior Jaelyn Hammersley has earned a fourth-place award at the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest and most prestigious international high school science and engineering competition.
Bluevine Study Reveals 2 in 3 Small Business Owners Lose Sleep Over Financial Stress
/PRNewswire/ -- A new national survey published today by Bluevine—the largest digital banking platform for small businesses in the U.S.*—reveals that financial...
NYC Health and Hospitals says hackers stole medical data and fingerprints during breach affecting at least 1.8 million people
The New York public healthcare system said hackers stole personal and medical data, and scans of biometrics — including fingerprints — in one of the largest recorded breaches of 2026.
New MatterChat Model Helps AI to ‘See’ the Language of Science
From writing emails to generating computer code, much of the artificial intelligence prevalent in our daily lives has succeeded by mastering one domain: text. However, this leaves a major blind spot in the physical sciences, where models depend on the high-resolution, three-dimensional data of the physical world, like the intricate lattice of atoms in a crystal. Delivering on the promise of using AI for science requires teaching these data-driven text models to seamlessly “talk to” physics-based models. Now, a new AI framework from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), called MatterChat, solves this problem by creating a specialized “bridge.” It connects the conversational power of a Large Language Model (LLM) with a physics-based AI that models “interatomic potentials”: the complex physical forces between atoms. The resulting system already significantly outperforms general-purpose AI tools like GPT-4 at predicting material properties, and the team hopes it can accelerate scientific discovery by serving as a robust research partner that provides grounded insights and generates step-by-step instructions for synthesizing novel materials. A paper describing this work was recently published in Nature Machine Intelligence. “Traditional simulations can provide the physical rigor required for materials science, yet their computational cost remains prohibitive for high-throughput screening. Conversely, while LLMs excel at rapid knowledge synthesis, they inherently lack the ‘structural vision’ to interpret materials directly from their underlying atomic coordinates,” said Yingheng Tang, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and lead author on the paper. “MatterChat was built to solve this dilemma, empowering LLMs with a structural ‘vision’ that allows researchers to leverage their full potential for solving complex, real-world materials challenges.” Empowering language models to solve complex challenges in materials science To build MatterChat, the Berkeley Lab team drew inspiration from technologies like Vision Question Answering (VQA) and Text-to-Image (T2I) generation. In these tasks, AI must translate high-level text concepts into visual images, or vice versa. Doing so requires developers to build tools that “bridge” two fundamentally different forms of data. The researchers adapted this concept to the physical sciences. With MatterChat, they created a “bridge model” that successfully connects an LLM’s general knowledge with the deep understanding of the atomic-scale world encoded in scientific interatomic potentials. Until now, researchers using LLMs to solve materials problems usually had to feed them raw data files as if they were just strings of text. It’s like asking an AI to understand a complex 3D engine based only on a parts list: the LLM can read the names, but it can’t “see” how the atoms fit together in space. MatterChat solves this by training a specialized AI bridge model, pre-trained on millions of crystal structures and an LLM, to align the LLM’s representation of the world with the interatomic potential’s representation of the world. The bridge model can translate physical insights into a format the LLM can actually understand. By giving the LLM these “scientific eyes”— a scientific “inductive bias” in the terminology of AI — the Berkeley Lab team has transformed it into a robust research tool capable of providing grounded scientific insights into complex materials challenges, such as predicting thermal stability or analyzing electronic band gaps. “We think of atoms as living in a physical space, but from a machine learning perspective, they are just vectors living in some very non-trivially structured manifold in a high-dimensional Euclidean space; and, of course, the same is true for the sentences and paragraphs that we use to express our ideas about those atoms,” said co-author Michael Mahoney, Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SDD) AI Initiative Research Lead. “The bridge model basically gets those two structures to ‘talk with’ each other.” As a proof-of-concept of this general approach, the team trained their bridge model on a dataset curated by pairing nearly 143,000 stable atomic structures from the Materials Project with their corresponding physical properties. This training data was automatically assembled using the Materials Project’s API and deliberately enriched with properties fundamental to microelectronics design — like formation energy and bandgap — allowing MatterChat to learn the complex patterns connecting a material’s atomic blueprint to its functional performance. To validate their model, the researchers benchmarked MatterChat against a suite of other AI systems, from general-purpose LLMs to other specialized scientific AI methods. The results show that MatterChat consistently outperformed its competitors across a range of tasks. The model was more accurate in classifying material types and demonstrated superior precision in predicting numerical properties. For example, it excelled at predicting a material’s bandgap, a property critical for designing new electronics from high-capacity energy storage to next-generation computer chips. “Our design is significantly more efficient because we don’t have to build a massive AI model from the ground up,” said co-author Zhi (Jackie) Yao, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR. “Instead, we take two powerful, pre-trained models — a structural encoder for materials physics and an open-source LLM — and use them off-the-shelf. The only component we actually train is the lightweight ‘bridge model’ that translates between them. It’s the difference between building an entire car factory and simply designing a smart adapter that connects a world-class engine to a world-class navigation system. This approach is not only computationally efficient, but also makes the system modular, so we can easily upgrade components or adapt the bridge for other scientific domains in the future.” Crucially, this modular design highlights exactly how institutions like Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy are carving out a highly valuable niche in the booming AI landscape. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley tech giants to build ever-larger language models from scratch, the lab is focusing on the specialized connective tissue that makes commercial AI useful for hardcore science. Because the bridge model approach underlying MatterChat is forward-compatible, it is perfectly positioned to leverage these parallel tracks of innovation. As Mahoney pointed out, “We expect that industry will continue to develop improved LLMs, and we expect domain scientists and facilities will continue to generate new data. An important part of scientific machine learning is not simply to solve problems on today’s data, but instead to develop general methods that will be forward-compatible with orders of magnitude more data, whether from scientific domains or from LLMs.” According to Yao, the MatterChat project, which was initially developed and enhanced with funding from a Berkeley Lab Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program, will now expand its capabilities. In a collaboration with Fermilab, MatterChat is already contributing to a U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission project — called Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon (AXESS) — that aims to speed up the development of next-generation, high-speed, radiation-hardened detectors for challenging particle physics experiments by using advanced 3D integrated circuits (chiplets) and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to the LDRD support, the team also credits supercomputing resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab, with MatterChat’s success. “We are incredibly grateful to NERSC; this research simply would not have happened without access to the Perlmutter supercomputer through their AI for Science program,” said Tang. Wenbin Xu, a NERSC postdoctoral fellow at the time, was also a major co-author of the work, as was Benjamin Erichson, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s SDD, highlighting the benefits of AMCR-SDD collaboration on AI for science. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Supercharging Connectivity: Brightspeed Business Launches New 5 Gig Fiber
/PRNewswire/ -- Brightspeed, the nation's third-largest fiber builder empowering consumers and businesses with multi-gig-speed connectivity, announced the...
Dominion, NextEra to merge and create world’s largest utility business
Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, the largest electric power and energy infrastructure company in North America, will merge, creating the world’s largest utility business.
NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy to Combine, Creating the World’s Largest Regulated Electric Utility Business and North America’s Premier Energy Infrastructure Platform Benefiting Customers
JUNO BEACH, Fla. & RICHMOND, Va., May 18, 2026--NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) and Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE: D) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction.
'Truly significant': James Webb telescope reveals largest-ever map of the universe's hidden megastructures
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Prolight + Sound Guangzhou 2026: the world's largest entertainment and professional AV fair returns on 28 May
/PRNewswire/ -- The 24th edition of Prolight + Sound Guangzhou (PLSG) is set to open on 28 May and will run until 31 May at Areas A and B of the China Import...
Prolight + Sound Guangzhou 2026: the world's largest entertainment and professional AV fair returns on 28 May
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IRC to World Health Assembly: Close the Global Health Equity Gap — for the World’s Benefit
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New Wings exhibit traces Paul McCartney’s reinvention as husband, father and bandleader
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UW’s Science Initiative Roadshow Completes Historic Year
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Ariel Investments Cuts Stake in Dolan’s Sphere Entertainment by 22%
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A Conversation on the Future of the UCF College of Business
Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business, shares his vision after the largest gift in university history positions UCF to lead the future of technology-driven business education.
Scientists Find Fossils Of Southeast Asia's Giant Dinosaur In Thailand
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Japan’s Largest LSI Pledges More AI as Translation Business Falters
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Chartbook 449: Voldemort on Threadneedle street. The Bank of England and the "haunted house" of English politics.
Imagine the scene: In some Harry Potter version of 21st-century London, a group of deathless UK Treasury officials gathered from across the last century huddle over warm pints and glasses of Chardonnay. Around the table there are officials from the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1970s, 2022 and today. Inevitably, in May 2026, the subject of conversation is the disintegration of the current Labour government. Despite its huge majority in parliament, it has been reduced to tatters by catastrophic local election result. These exposed the fact that rather than having a government with a clear popular majority, the UK is like most other modern societies divided into 5 segments each of which commands between 26 and 16 percent of the vote. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the leadership at Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street - where the Prime Minister and the Chancellor (Treasury Secretary) work - seem paralyzed. They are caught between mounting discontent over unfairness and the cost of living, and tough fiscal strictures that push them into making unpopular spending decisions. In the London pub, the Treasury officials from across the ages, can barely hide their satisfaction at the latest display of democratic politics caught in the vice-grip of financial logic. “Remember the mur d’argent and the banker’s ramp?” “Just like yesterday!” There are smirks around the table. Then the representative of 2026 pipes up: “One thing you have to say about the current lot (referring to the latest hapless Labour government), you don’t have to teach them about the bond market!” There is a murmur of ascent from the Treasury Mandarins. The trauma of the fiscal crisis of September-October 2022 sits deep. Back then, in the final stages of Tory decay, a ‘mini budget’ that challenged fiscal orthodoxy led to a brief but fierce panic in one of the oldest government bond markets in the world (aka gilt market). Now all you have to do is to mention the “bond market” to hush debate. [ Paul Mason@paulmasonnews In the name of public service, and as ex-economics editor of BBC Newsnight, I offer to do a zoom call, tonight, with any Labour MP who wants to understand why bond markets do not "fall into line" with governments. 1/ 3:57 PM · May 12, 2026 · 466K Views 224 Replies · 674 Reposts · 3.93K Likes ](https://x.com/paulmasonnews/status/2054229532404519082?s=20) “And the funny thing is”, the young man in the huddle continues, “they don’t even want to talk about … ”. There is a sudden hush. Significant looks are exchanged around the table. About? One of the senior figures puts down his glass with a decisive “clink”. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has entered their thoughts. Meanwhile, a few miles away in a grubby pub in Bloomsbury, two conspirators from the camp of Critical Macrofinance huddle over cans of low-alcohol IPA. They look at each other and blurt out loud: “The Bank!” “Everyone in the bloody Labour party is talking about the bond market. But why aren’t they even mentioning … the Bank of England!?” “Why is no one talking about Voldemort?” In Paul Mason’s blogpost, after much chest-thumping about basic fiscal logic, the basic point about the Bank of England is buried in the fine print at #3 in his list of suggestions as to what a radical Labour government might actually be able to do! [ Conflict & Democracy Down with the bond market! Down with gravity! It may seem unfair to focus on Labour MP Paula Barker for her off-the-cuff assertion that the bond market would have to “fall in line” with Andy Burnham, should he replace Keir Starmer as prime minister. But Burnham himself told the New Statesman that Labour had to “get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets… Read more 2 days ago · 100 likes · 3 comments · Paul Mason ](https://htsf.substack.com/p/down-with-the-bond-market-down-with?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Back in Bloomsbury they shake their heads and ask: “Didn’t we learn anything from the Eurozone crisis?” Meanwhile, as if summoned to the conversation by some higher force, the “pink pages” announce: “The days of ultra-cheap government borrowing have come to an end” and Martin “Whizzard” Wolf publishes the graph of the season Look at the UK in 2026, perilously positioned on the upper edge of the pack. No wonder no one in London needs any lessons about the “bond market”. But, look again. Imagine how they feel in Rome. What is London’s nightmare in 2026? The nightmare is that you end up like Italy in the early 2010s during the Eurozone crisis. Once comfortably situated in the middle of the pack, watching with horror as your ten-year yields explode to 7 percent and “spreads” become a national nightmare. One of the largest economies in Europe, a founding member of the euro, stigmatized. But the message of the Italian experience is ambiguous. After all, the stigma didn’t last. In 2026, Italy borrows at rates lower not only than the UK but the US. The US, which, as everyone knows, enjoys the “exorbitant privilege” of being the issuer of reserve, safe asets. What kind of magic is this? How did Italy, in the space of fifteen years, go from being good, to bad and back again? Which brings us back to our dissident friends in their Bloombury boozer and their memories of the Eurozone crisis. Italy never was Britain - with its ongoing fiscal deficits. Without interest payments, on primary balance, from 2000 to 2020 Italy ran a tight fiscal ship. Even in 2008 it barely went into deficit and when it was being put on the rack in the early 20210s its primary surplus matched that of austere Germany. So, what happened? How did it end up stigmatized? Of course Italian politics didn’t help. Berlusconi was at the helm and he had legal issues. But amongst friends in the Bloomsbury pub, Berlusconi is a sideshow, the name we whisper to each other is “Trichet”. From 2004 to 2011 the ECB was headed by Jean-Claude Trichet, ex of the French Treasury, more German than the Germans. After 2009 as the news of the Greek fiscal disaster broke, the European bond markets wento into panic mode and Trichet began a brutal game of cat and mouse. Between 2009 and 2011, Trichet intervened in the bond market to help, only when he thought he had compliance with austerity. When he thought they were uncooperative, he withdrew. In the summer of 2011, he even made direct suggestions to his Italian counterparts in Rome, as to how Italy should be governed. It was this cat and mouse game that drove the bond markets crazy and exposed Italy to a violent squeeze. When Mario Draghi took over the ECB at the end of 2011 and declared “whatever it takes”, the pressure on Italy, gradually eased. It is that starring role that has made Draghi into the towering figure in European politics that he remains today. So now you see why voices in London hush when it comes to the Bank of England. “The bond market” isn’t an irresistible objective force like the weather or an avalanche. It can appear like that. But that depends on the way it is being handled, or not handled by the central bank. Which is why the silence about the Bank of England in London right now is so significant. If you think this all sounds a bit fishy, coming from a left-liberal Keynesian like myself, well, let me introduce you to Robin Brooks, who, to put it mildly, plays on a different quidditch team to me. Here, from the position of a fiscal hawk is Robin’s celebratory account of the Bank of England’s role since 2022; In October 2022, at the height of the bond market blow-up in the UK, something incredible happened. Governor Andrew Bailey told British pension funds the Bank of England would end its support program for the country’s fragile gilt market, drawing a line under how much help the central bank was willing to give to exposed pension funds and - implicitly - the government. By the end of that week, Kwasi Kwarteng - the finance minister - had resigned. Prime Minister Liz Truss would soon follow. This episode is so incredible because it contrasts with what happened in the Euro zone earlier that year. Bond markets in Spain and Italy were under pressure amid high inflation and rising interest rates. In the middle of this, Mario Draghi - Italy’s Prime Minister - resigned, compounding pressure on bond markets of high-debt countries on the Euro periphery. Unlike the Bank of England, the ECB caved. It bought Italian and Spanish government bonds in an effort to cap yields and introduced a new tool that signaled to markets it might do such caps more frequently going forward. Faced with pressure on bond markets, the ECB capitulated to political pressure from high-debt countries like Italy and Spain. The Bank of England stood its ground and toppled the Truss government. This kind of thing has long-lasting consequences. It means markets price a higher probability of yield caps in the Euro zone, which keeps Italian and Spanish yields artificially low, while markets feel free to push up UK yields without fear of central bank intervention. As I flagged in yesterday’s post, this means you really can’t compare UK yields to those of other high-debt countries. The UK looks worse, but only because its central bank isn’t interfering with markets. There’s more to this than just that 2022 episode. The Bank of England has also been much more aggressive in its quantitative tightening (QT) than other central banks. If one motivation for quantitative easing (QE) is to lower bond yields - especially longer-dated ones - then it stands to reason QT pushes yields up. The left chart above shows a four-quarter moving average of UK government debt issuance (black line) in percent of GDP and which sectors absorb this issuance, including the Bank of England (blue bars). The right chart above compares the Bank of England’s accumulation or run-off of government bonds (blue line) with that of other central banks, where this blue line is the same as the blue bars in the left chart. The Bank of England was quicker and more aggressive than other central banks in downsizing its bond holdings, so UK yields will have risen more than elsewhere also for this reason, not just because of Governor Andrew Bailey’s remarks in October 2022. Back in October 2025, after a conversation in New York with friends in British politics, my sense of dysphoria was such that I raised the issue of the Bank of England openly in the FT Since 2008, the UK has slid into a deep economic and political predicament. Growth has stagnated to a degree far worse even than in the 1970s. The Tory leadership’s wager on the Brexit referendum spectacularly backfired, leaving the UK isolated from Europe and at the mercy of its special relationship with the US, many of whose political class regard the UK as a basket case. After years of austerity, the Labour party lurched to the left and then back to the centre. The Tory party has been eclipsed by the populist nationalism of Reform. Any British government should be worrying first and foremost about how to restart growth. Instead, Keir Starmer is beset by shades of the gilt market panic triggered by the Liz Truss government in 2022. The debt level is higher than in recent years, but there is no cause for panic. UK debt is at far from critical levels and of long duration. Whether you want to “take back control” or launch progressive economic policy, a democracy dogged by fear of bond market vigilantes is unhealthy. In a country that is a monetary sovereign, this climate points to one thing: a disconnect between the government and the central bank. Since 1997, the independence of the Bank of England has become a sacred cow. But independence is what you make of it. And in the wake of the gilt market crisis of September 2022, relations between the Bank of England and the UK government need a reset. In normal times, there is no doubt that an inflation-targeting independent central bank can serve a country well. But since 2008, the UK and other advanced economies have not had the luxury of such simple problems. To their credit, central bankers around the world have not stood on orthodoxy. After 2008, the US Federal Reserve rescued the global banking system and, through quantitative easing, it stabilised the Treasury market in the face of huge deficits. In Europe, things were trickier. Both the Bank of England under Mervyn King and Jean-Claude Trichet’s European Central Bank played cat and mouse with national governments. This was a high stakes wager that between 2010 and 2012 escalated bond market tension and triggered a disastrous turn to austerity. Shaken by the impact of those shocks, their successors, Mark Carney and Mario Draghi adopted a more protective stance (assuming you were not the government of Greece). Recall that Draghi’s legendary slogan, “Whatever it takes”, was uttered to face down the City of London’s bond vigilantes. In 2015, Draghi launched QE — financial repression by another name. In 2016, Carney used the authority of the Bank of England to stabilise markets following the vote for Brexit, an exemplary demonstration of how central banks can underpin democratic choice, even when those choices are wrong headed. All these were independent central bankers steeped in the best practice of the 1990s, who recognised that historic crises demanded radical action. It was the price surge of 2021-2023 that poisoned the atmosphere. Though the shock came mainly from the supply side, central banks ended up in the dock. Nowhere more so than in the UK. The Bank of England reacted with aggressive normalisation. Faced with a cost of living crisis, the governor called for workers to accept real wage cuts. In early 2022, as gas prices were at record levels and Russia’s army was poised to invade Ukraine, the Bank adopted a stringent programme of quantitative tightening, elevating interest rates. When the Truss government got itself in trouble, the Bank took almost a week to come to the rescue. Rather than enacting a charade of normality, it is time to recognise that in 2025 the UK faces a period of historic transition. To meet this challenge, what is needed is a new concordat with the Bank. This should not ignore inflationary pressures or the long-run trajectory of debt, but should affirm the priority of reviving investment-led growth. One could follow Donald Trump in demanding interest rate cuts. The Bank could shadow the ECB in its commitment to capping Eurozone yields. But the top priority should be to lay the ghost of September 2022. The Bank’s slowing of QT last month was a concession. An immediate and complete end would send the right signal. Such a concordat will not by itself restore sanity to politics, solve the housing problem or rebuild the NHS. But it would help to lift the fear of bond market crisis, which is paralysing the effort by democratic politicians to answer the fundamental questions facing the nation. Now, that call for a new concordat between government and Bank of Englands seems more urgent than ever. The problem is that in October 2025, Starmer still had some authority. Today the government is in tatters. And when you are the “under the harrow” - to echo a phrase of Montagu Norman’s from the 1920s - it is the worst possible time to consider institutional change. To make general arguments at a time of crisis can only seem like special pleading rather than a general argument for long-term change. The same, unfortunately, is also true for the other basic institutional reform that Britain urgently needs i.e. the abolition of the out-dated first past the post electoral system and its replacement by a moderated form of proportional representation. And thirdly - whilst we are saying the quiet parts out loud - Britain needs to reopen the question of EU membership. What the local election results of 2026 show is that this remains a key issue. And what they also show is that there is a clear majority that would favor a return. Until these basic features of Britain’s political economy are addressed the country will carry on its politics as though in a haunted house, governed by governments that lack actual majorities, conjuring up false constraints whilst ignoring the real ones. This one is for DG and MI. I love writing the newsletter. If you enjoy it too and fancy buying me a coffee once a month, you know what to do. Click below! Subscribe