Douglas Wong

The New Normal

MAGA’s Attempt to Infiltrate Europe Will Backfire There’s no putting off an overly intrusive friend with a savior complex. The Trump administration is preparing to go to even greater lengths to persuade Europe to return to the path of righteousness a...

'The UK government is unpopular,' says @mbrooker.bsky.social 'but it’s a leap to conclude that the country is yearning for a MAGA-style liberation. Trump's disapproval ranges from 77% in the UK (worse even than Keir Starmer) to 81% in Germany and 89% in Denmark' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

After Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong Probes the Limits of Civic Life With the former media tycoon sentenced to 20 years in prison, Hong Kong residents are exploring the remaining space for debate and expression.

'A lot of spaces and opportunities to express different voices are gone' Lui Ka Chun tells @maryhui.bsky.social & Richard Frost 'But on an individual level, we are each making progress' #HongKong www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

London Isn't the Crime Hellhole of US Fantasy It’s surreal living in a war zone when you can’t see the war. London is under assault: Crime is “through the roof,” creating no-go areas and rendering the city unrecognizable, according to US Presiden...

@mbrooker.bsky.social tells good London stories www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Britain's Housing Crisis Has Seeds in the 1930s Take a trip out on the London Underground’s Metropolitan Line and you soon find yourself passing through neighborhoods of semi-detached and detached houses with gardens, giving way on occasion to gree...

The NIMBY lobby is strong and suggestions to build on green-belt land will encounter fierce resistance, says @mbrooker.bsky.social 'But some fights are worth having. This is one' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Trump’s Ouster of Maduro Shows America’s New World Order Is Here After striking Venezuela, the US president signaled he’ll apply his foreign policy approach elsewhere, speculating about Cuba and Greenland as places he wants to “help.”

'The Trump administration is showing us the makings of an imperial order,' said Bader Al-Saif, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic commented 'There is no international law anymore' www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Open Questions | Political scientist Ivan Krastev on European vertigo in a post-American world While melancholy Europe frets that the US and China will shape the future, middle powers are jostling for a place at the big table.

'The strength in China-Russian relations is no Russian wants to become Chinese and no Chinese wants to become Russian,' Ivan Kratsev tells @fbermingham.bsky.social 'For China, coming to Europe as Russia's husband is probably not going to be the most successful strategy' www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Gen-Z Revolts Against ‘Dystopian Future’ as Protests Sweep the Globe Mass movements have ousted leaders and disrupted governments worldwide. Bloomberg Economics examines what countries may face unrest in 2026

Many of these protest movements lead to promises of radical policies that aren’t sustainable or realistic, says @dacemoglumit.bsky.social 'so they further tarnish the liberal democratic system they come from' www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Here comes the sun: light amid the UK gloom It may be hard to remember in the depths of winter but this has been a miraculously bright twelve months

2025 has been the UK’s sunniest year on record, with weeks and months of unusually clear skies, writes Lia Leendertz. 'The British body, so accustomed to bracing itself against drizzle, remembered the pleasure of sitting still without shivering' #wintersolstice www.ft.com/content/925e...

The Hard Truth Behind the US Indo-Pacific Strategy Most of the world knows how to respond to the US’s new National Security Strategy. As my colleague Marc Champion has written, Russia loves it. Liberal Europeans are dismayed, and the Gulf monarchies o...

'A US establishment that intimidates large companies, conscripts tech into politics, guards its domestic markets and weaponizes its trade will hardly see the Chinese system as an ideological threat,' writes Mihir Sharma bit.ly/4oYz8z1 'That is what unnerves Asian capitals'

More please #bonetemple #28yearslater

Why Britain doesn’t have enough dentists Plenty of trained foreigners want to work, but slots for the qualification exam seem as hard to get as Glastonbury tickets

There's an arrogance to the UK government tone on immigration, writes @sarahoconnorft.ft.com Settling is a privilege not a right Shabana Mahmood says, but how can migrants become net contributors when a shambolic bureaucracy blocks them? And how long will they want to try? www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

UK to Allow High-Earners New, Faster Visa Path to Residency The UK government unveiled a new fast-track path to residency for high-earners, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to keep a broader clampdown on immigration from turning away skilled workers in th...

The rules were announced just before the budget, aligning 'the brightest and best' with tax bands www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Last-ditch effort to get Hongkongers to vote in Legco poll, but turnout uncertain City leader John Lee calls for refocus on reform and recovery, as analysts say city’s worst fire in decades would play decisive role in turnout rate.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption the city’s anti-graft agency, said on Thursday that it had arrested four people on suspicion of inciting others not to vote. Three others were charged with the same offence by the body last month www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...

Hong Kong Summons International News Outlets for Rare Warning Authorities in Hong Kong summoned international news organizations to a rare meeting on Saturday to warn against “false information and smear campaigns” surrounding the city’s deadliest fire in nearly...

Hong Kong is holding legislative elections on Sunday that will be closely watched for turnout. Participation fell to a record 30.2% in the 2021 race www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?

'Every day, another corporation, elected official or family member chooses to speak to you in this particular voice,' writes Sam Kriss (or does he?) 'This is just what the world sounds like now, how everything has chosen to speak. Mixed metaphors and empty sincerity' www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...

'Being called a f---ing P--- is not a new thing for me, but there's a lot more of it around in recent times than there has been over the course of the rest of my life,' Shabana Mahmood tells Emily Smith, after using the same words to rebut criticism that her policies encourage racism bit.ly/43L9GFt

In race-shifting London, is it just a matter of time before there’s no love lost? With rising xenophobia, the writer ponders a return to the safe familiarity - and responsibilities - of S'pore. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

When Tan Shzr Ee came to the UK in the 1990s, she faced racism for the 1st time, 'so quirkily delivered I didn’t clock it as racism.' On Sept. 14, 'a giggling chorus of youths' overtook her on the A30, their SUV window wound down, to shout: Ching-chong hee-haw! www.straitstimes.com/world/europe...

November nights

The United States Is Missing in Action on Free Speech Once a beacon of democratic ideals, America now struggles to live up to them. From Nepal to Indonesia, a new generation is looking elsewhere for inspiration.

'For decades, free speech & an impartial justice system were assets reassuring allies, attracting talent & offering hope to those living under repressive governments' writes @dantenkate.bsky.social. 'Now it’s becoming increasingly difficult to discern what values the US stands for' bit.ly/4oK7GFh

What Trump’s dance said about us, not him The US president may have danced, but Malaysia led — in rhythm, warmth, and grace.

Malaysia, Truly Asia #MalaysiaBoleh www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opi...

China Is Already Winning the Trade War America Wanted Trump's “grand bargain” won’t happen at a time when tariffs and export controls have become combat by other means.

'The underlying structure of Sino-American relations is getting terribly precarious,' says Hal Brands. 'The question is whether Trump grasps this ugly truth' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

How our brightest minds get trapped in the City Money is just one reason why graduates are drawn to finance, management consulting and corporate law

'Do you want to polish slides no one will remember, or tackle the problems no one can forget?' asks @simonvanteutem.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/f01c...

Britain's Road to a Smaller, Pettier Place In the days when Britain could still regard itself as a world power, the country played a key role in developing the postwar international architecture that was designed to prevent a repeat of Nazi-er...

The ECHR has taken over post-Brexit as the symbolic oppressor of Britain’s sovereign freedom. But grandiose gesture of leaving would do little to solve the problem it’s designed to address: immigration. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

No one will escape Reform’s immigration plans Faced with the prospect of being deported, I feel a need to justify my existence in the UK

'The prospect of pledging allegiance to a country out of fear that said country might deport me is an unsettling one,' says @meganjgibson.bsky.social 'Who can feel settled in a system this arbitrary or a state this cruel?' www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Although upset by Xi Jinping's authoritarian revival, he was not distraught, writing that 'his rule will not last forever, and one can then expect another swing of the political pendulum toward a more moderate polity' www.economist.com/china/2025/0...

Japan could soon make history with its first-ever female prime minister.

Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi has been elected the new leader of Japan's ruling party, putting her on track to lead the world's fourth-biggest economy: https://bloom.bg/4gRaKNc

UK Immigration Policy Is Dancing to a Dutch Economic Tune A University of Amsterdam research paper has made the question of migrants a financial issue.

'Britain already feels like a less tolerant country than when my family moved here from Asia three years ago,' writes @mbrooker.bsky.social 'This anti-immigrant environment will impact the high-skilled, high-value workers the UK would like to attract' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

How tech lords and populists changed the rules of power Digital moguls and strongman leaders are far more than disrupters of the old liberal order. Together they seek to sweep it away, writes Giuliano da Empoli

'Together, political predators & digital conquistadors have decided to wipe out the old elites & their rules,' says Giuliano da Empoli 'If they succeed it will not only be the parties of lawyers & technocrats that will be swept away, but liberal democracy as we have known' www.ft.com/content/85ee...

Jerome Cohen, the First American to Practice Law in China, Dies at 95 An expert on China—and a sometime critic—Cohen defended companies and dissidents.

“I had this terrible thirst for contact with Chinese people,” Jerome Cohen, RIP, once said. He went on to spend decades influencing the country’s legal, trade and human-rights policies. www.wsj.com/world/china/...