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Lane Greene

@lanegreene.bsky.social
8.7K followers 720 following 2K posts

Editor and language guy at The Economist. Author of Writing With Style: The Economist Guide (2023). www.amazon.com/Writing-Style-Econom…

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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
AI-written speeches are taking over politics
British MPs are avid users. But they have nothing on Australians or Canadians
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YouGov America @today.yougov.com · 22/09/2026
NEW Economist/YouGov Sep 18-21: The midterms Among likely voters, Democratic congressional candidates lead Republicans 52% to 38% — a 14-point edge, the largest of the cycle Among all registered voters the Democratic lead is 7 points (45% to 38%) yougov.com/en-us/articl...
A line chart of YouGov polling data with the headline: "Who is leading among registered voters and likely voters in the race for Congress in 2026."

The chart has the sub-headline: "In the elections for U.S. Congress in November, who will you vote for in the district where you live? (% of registered voters picking the Democratic candidate minus the % picking the Republican candidate)."

The chart has the note: "Note: Likely voters are U.S. adult citizens who meet two criteria: (1) They either are registered to vote or say they will be registered to vote by the November elections; and (2) They either say they will definitely vote in November or say they have already voted. The displayed question has been used since the August 14 - 17, 2026 survey. Prior surveys asked the question, "If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held today, who would you vote for in the district where you live?" Responses of "other," "not sure," "I would not vote," and "I will not vote" are not shown."
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This would be a sicker burn if Trump even attempted to use words literally. He will go down as "the first X president" for many values of X, but "the first kayfabe president" is one of them.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
More Britons are failing to comply what used to be seen as civic obligations. Disparate, sometimes important and sometimes trivial, overlay them and it seems like something has slipped in the relationship with the state
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Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Microsoft and OpenAI Workers Worry About ‘Largest Theft of Labor’ in History www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/t...
nytimes.com
Microsoft and OpenAI Workers Worry About ‘Largest Theft of Labor’ in History
Newly unsealed court documents showed concern within Microsoft and OpenAI over the use of millions of news articles to develop A.I. systems.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It is generally a good thing to have politics so boring that there’s little international attention paid. And bad when the whole world is on the edge of their seats.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Is there a technical reason a cafe with two employees can make WiFi work but airports can’t?
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SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
You can't see it but he's typing an essay with his right hand. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/lake PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
1-panel SMBC comic update. A man is rushing away from a lake where a small child is drowning. As he runs off, he says "I'm sorry, my publications and advocacy save a life every five minutes, and it'd take six minutes to save you!" The caption below the comic reads: "ironically, Peter Singer is the only person not ethically permitted to save a drowning child."
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Translation, the higher the share of manufacturing, the higher the AfD vote. The lower the share of foreigners the higher the AfD vote. Does suggest that turning back the clock wouldn’t help, even if we could.
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Armin Wolf @arminwolf.at · 16/09/2026
Jetzt erst gesehen, aber die Financial Times hatte vor einer Woche zwei eindrucksvolle Grafiken zum Wahlerfolg der AfD: Je weniger Ausländer, umso mehr AfD-Wähler. Und je mehr Industrie-Jobs, umso mehr AfD-Wähler. www.ft.com/content/ef6d... (€)
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Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Great case of "land doesn't vote, people do" in Sweden
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This too is "AI", though now what feels like a very old-fashioned kind: neural implants plus machine learning have helped two patients who cannot otherwise move and speak and gesture. Fascinating, non-depressing news.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Great reporting by ProPublica, and then they just... admit it (with a drive-by "fake news" swipe still). And that's that. Who *wouldn't* accept a free jet? When did it become a *crime* to have a buddy of Putin's pay for your wedding? www.propublica.org/article/dona...
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
What @spignal.bsky.social started with a tongue-in-cheek column is now a real proposal
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The Economist @economist.com · 11/09/2026
24 Fields Medal winners have written a letter of objection
bit.ly
Top mathematicians are outraged by OpenAI’s methods
24 Fields Medal winners have written a letter of objection
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A few of you seemed to share my view on this, though not all. For me, length, speed, weight are things you measure—not shortness, slowness or lightness, so "twice as light" makes no sense. Some made the point mathematically: "3x as slow" means less velocity than "2x as slow".
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Have any longtime copy-editors noticed a decline in the past perfect, ie "X HAD HAPPENED when Y subsequently happened"? In more and more cases I feel like I see the simple past where I'd expect the perfect.
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Amelia Malpas @malpas.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Very cool to have my research on progressive insurgent candidates cited in The Economist. TL;DR: there's more progressives who should enter Congress after the November elections than the last several www.economist.com/united-state...
economist.com
How far left will Democrats go?
Its base is almost as mad at their leaders as they are at the president
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
España: Esta noche estaré en La Noche en 24 Horas (22:00) con Xabier Fortes y otros invitados para hablar de los 25 años del 11 de septiembre 2001...
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The Economist @economist.com · 09/09/2026
The number of octopuses off England’s south coast has ballooned in the past two years. For fishermen this presents a challenge
bit.ly
Warming seas are enticing octopus to British waters
But some other fish are being pushed away
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Truth bomb. Danish is THE WORST. It took me years to get fluid with the Danish system. My son is 14 and still struggles with any number over 49. Yes: it really is based on 20s from there, with 70 being something like “half of a fourth 20” etc.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brendan came home that day to my place still covered in ash. I had been on Canal, just nicely outside the cloud radius. Much closer and I’d have been Brendan; any closer and he’d have been hurt or dead. Give this a read.
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)
You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Nerds, sticklers, grouches: How do you feel about sentences like "X is ten times slower/smaller/shorter/lighter than Y"? (If you're answer is "never thought about this, why?" please do respond. I'm curious.)
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I have known the German cognate "Herbst" for more than 30 years without putting this together.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Boo. Spain more than anywhere else needs not to have solar noon fall after 2 for almost half the year.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This isn't easy for me to take neutrally: I've lived in seven states in three regions & in England, and know enough to know what region most answers point to. So I just tried to answer as fast as possible with my oldest recollection, and sure enough, nailed me right down to hometown. mydialect.us
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Vance's boss has attacked the spouses of Ted Cruz, Brian Kemp, Mitch McConnell, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley—all Republicans!—and those of Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden and others. It's a bit late to discover spousal honor and declare even a glancing mention off limits.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Let me put this another way. I'd have thought the lessons were "don't be a racist" and "seek the truth, always". That applies to scholars, to universities, to journalists, to those who comment on this case.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Funnily enough, buying for $61 and selling for $25 is roughly what both Trump's gold dollar and Trump's polls have done this term. nymag.com/intelligence...
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Nature has concluded that there are two lessons from the Arday case: 1) the press shouldn't have covered it so intensively. 2) Cambridge shouldn't have made public on August 5th that it was investigating. And that's it. Nothing else to be learned? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The death of Jason Arday must prompt deep reflection
Universities and media organizations need to scrutinize their roles in the events that led to this tragedy.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
As that husband/dad with a loving golden attention-lavishing retriever myself, I must be the only one on this site pulling for the dad.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Classic ruining-the-thing-you-moved-there-for. I don't fault some abstract evil called "gentrification", and get annoyed at those who do. But I like many people moved to this genuine virbrant old Italian (and black and Arab) neighbourhood in 1999, and when a bunch of others did the same, bam.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
It's bad enough the president is untethered from reality. It's worse that we got such a president in the gen-AI era, where his mind-palace can be filled with images that please him. But smart people should check before sharing: Trump did not post this. Even he can count to six.
A fake Truth Social post from Donald Trump showing an equally fake AI-generated image a soldier with a huge tray of food.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
A lovely hymn from Shakira to Madrid, where "we are all Latinos". By the by she makes the case for "latinidad" in place of "hispanidad", an embrace of the Portuguese-, Italian- and French-speaking worlds by the Spanish-speaking one...
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Cowardly :Google is showing “Lake Ontario” to everyone else but “Lake America” to those in the states.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Either this is faked or geo-specific. I’m getting Lake Ontario from Google Maps.
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Rapporteur @euractiv.com · 30/08/2026
Iceland rejects EU
dlvr.it
Iceland rejects EU
The 'no' campaign looks all but guaranteed to win the referendum, after wooing by Brussels
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
An embarrassingly childish message ("well deserved spanking"? "How about THANK YOU AMBASSADOR?") from the American ambassador to Belgium, trying to imitate his boss.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The world needs a bit more good news. Romania, a leader in solar-plus-battery installation. Who knew? www.economist.com/europe/2026/...
economist.com
Europe’s new renewable-energy champion is a surprise
Romania is leading the EU in combining solar power and batteries
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Our newsletters have become a major part of who we are as a magazine now, written with a bit more colour, personality and digression than the articles in the core magazine can usually have. This is a fun job, and I hope someone awesome—maybe one of you—will get it.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 25/08/2026
NEW: After U.S. missile strikes killed hundreds of civilians in Iran and Yemen, the Defense Department is poised to reinstate a program meant to reduce civilian harm during military operations. Pete Hegseth gutted it over the objections of top commanders.
propublica.org
Top Commanders Told Hegseth Not to Cut Civilian Protection Program, Poll Showed. He Did It Anyway.
The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since gutting its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response mission last year. After significant blowback, the Defense Department is considering part...
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
People like Lutnick, Bessent and Trump himself have been trying to talk America into a wartime-sacrifice mentality, first with the trade war and then with the actual war in Iran: what do you need 20 dolls for? What, a dollar more for gas isn't enough for keeping Iran from nuking you? Meanwhile...
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Ukrainian Independence Day, Lviv, 28 years ago today. It was one of the most moving political events I’ve ever been involved in.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
BREAKING: After the Washington Post fired me last year for speaking the truth in the wake of the Charlie Kirk killing, I fought back. And I'm happy to announce: I won my case against the Washington Post. They have been ordered to reinstate me immediately. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/b...
nytimes.com
Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist Karen Attiah
An arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Karen Attiah, who was fired after posting about “white men who espouse hatred and violence” following Charlie Kirk’s killing.
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
90 days eh? So, say, through November?
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The internet seems to think I'm in Rødekro, Denmark, instead of two hours away (Thurø). Does anyone know technically how ads ("Rødekro: no-screw dental implants!"), security warnings ("You have a new sign-in near Rødekro") etc try to geolocate us?
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Cofnas announced his inability to work with black scholars with an open mind. Noxious beliefs are protected—but free speech doesn't mean you can't be fired for announcing that you won't do your job. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Academic Nathan Cofnas who accused Jason Arday of plagiarism suspended by university
Nathan Cofnas says he is being investigated for discriminating against the late Cambridge professor.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This sign is a great example for helping to explain why chatbots present such a potent illusion. A probably not short thread 🧵>>
Photo of a sign with a doorbell attached. The printed sign reads:

CURRENT GUGGENHEIM ACCES BY HUSKY CARD ONLY
[Logos for Amazon, FedEx, UPS]
DELIVERIES/VISITORS
PLEASE RING THIS DOORBELL

Delivery hours M-F 9:00am-(obscured)
University of Washington

Taped next to the doorbell is a hand written note that reads:
yes! it rang! Pelase wait 30 seconds before pressing again.
thanks!
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Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This conversation, which compares the harms plagiarism, biographical fabulism and academic fraud is very good. There are also good replies on the different values of academics, journalists and others re: these misdeeds and their relative harm.
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