Sign in

Max Harlow

@maxharlow.bsky.social
5.3K followers 1.8K following 9 posts

Data reporter @bloomberg.com. Previously @financialtimes.com. I also run @journocoders.bsky.social. Views are my own. mharlow4@bloomberg.net

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Max Harlow
Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 14/09/2026
Turns out, the author just ... made them up 🤷‍♂️. I can't get over this. It really doesn't seem ok to me for someone to draw some squiggles, claim that they're illustrative of something in the real world, then act as though it's akin to evidence. The vibes you feel aren't data!
No hard mathematical proof can be proffered for the shift from post- to anti- to hyperpolitics. Figure 1 is therefore less an exact representation of historical reality than an intuitive dia-gram, synthesizing fragments of existing graphs-of trade union density, incidence of political assassinations, size and frequency of demonstrations-offered by way of illustration.
1431529
Max Harlow @maxharlow.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
For those that know me for @journocoders.bsky.social, I'm going to be taking a bit of a break -- this is going to be the last one for a while: bsky.app/profile/jour...
011
Reposted by Max Harlow
Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 18/08/2026
Mike Ashley is a former squash coach turned retail billionaire, whose Frasers Group has built a $2.7 billion property portfolio. The company's now snapped up one of the most famous department stores in London bloom.bg/4bZ04uS 📷: Jose Sarmento Matos & Chris J.Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
142
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Registrations are now open for August! Come along and learn how to investigate with maps using QGIS 🗺️ luma.com/7rq6w3sp
luma.com
Journocoders: Investigating with maps using QGIS · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to investigate with maps using QGIS. QGIS is a free Geographic Information System (GIS) — a tool for viewing, editing, and…
013
Reposted by Max Harlow
Sienna Rodgers @siennarodgers.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
NEW: Lord Glasman Wrote A Song For The Exiled Crown Prince Of Iran And Played It To Him: www.politicshome.com/news/article...
politicshome.com
Lord Glasman Wrote A Song For The Exiled Crown Prince Of Iran And Played It To Him
Exclusive: Labour peer Maurice Glasman wrote and recorded a song dedicated to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, in support of his exi...
7129
Reposted by Max Harlow
Andy Bruce (Reuters) @bruceandy.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
"Former Bulk Distributor assistant editor Andy Burnham is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, marking an extraordinary journey from the pages of the tank container industry press to the steps of Downing Street." bulk-distributor.com/2026/07/form...
bulk-distributor.com
Former BD journalist set to become UK PM - Bulk Distributor
Former Bulk Distributor assistant editor Andy Burnham is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, marking an extraordinary journey from the pages of the tank container industry pre...
1424180
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Registrations are now open for July! Come along and learn how to explore connections in text data with embeddings 🔭 luma.com/yzmafq4k
luma.com
Journocoders: Exploring connections in text data with embeddings · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to explore connections in text data with embeddings. Embeddings are used in AI to translate data into numbers that represent…
031
Reposted by Max Harlow
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
www.ft.com/content/7a0f... If I was a political aide with a conviction for fraud, under scrutiny about undeclared financial support… I simply would not write a book called “How to Launder Money”.
In one chapter entitled “The Art of the Bribe”, Cottrell and Files set out how politicians can be bought. They argue that bribes, if in the form of small gifts rather than cash, can be passed off as “a mistake of overexuberance in friendship”.

They add: “Long-term relationships keep the bought person in hand while you’re making money and the cohort is making money . . . Money from corruption is a bit like fiscal heroin; one fix and you know you need more.”
410134
Reposted by Max Harlow
Damon Beres @damonberes.com · 06/07/2026
You're laughing... I can't withdraw my Bonk from Kraken and you're laughing?
553404589
Reposted by Max Harlow
Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 04/07/2026
Hotter and hotter and hotter www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New records set in many European countries
5436288
Reposted by Max Harlow
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Buy 404 Media's course: www.404media.co/how-i-bought...
911614
Reposted by Max Harlow
Molly White @molly.wiki · 14/12/2025
Q: How much do you need to spend on mattresses for it to get mentioned in a DOJ press release about your $11 million crypto theft? A: $638,000, which I did not realize was a plausible mattress budget
Even after losing most of the $11 million, RINSCH still did not spend the remaining funds he had stolen on White Horse.  Instead, he used the money to speculate on cryptocurrency, and on personal expenses and luxury items, including at least $1.7 million on credit card bills; at least $3.3 million on furniture, antiques, and mattresses; at least $387,000 on a Swiss watch; and at least $2.4 million on five Rolls Royces and a red Ferrari.furniture and antiques, including approximately $638,000 to purchase two mattresses and approximately $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens; (v) approximately $2,417,000 to purchase
57984123
Reposted by Max Harlow
Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
can strongly, strongly recommend a game of 'sit in the pub with your friends and try to guess the price of an item on Peter Murrell's Embezzlement List' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
How former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell spent the £400,000 he embezzled
BBC Scotland News has collated all of the goods bought by ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell in his £400,000 embezzlement.
98516
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Registrations are now open for June! Come along and learn how about data reporting with R and Quarto 📰 luma.com/9artzr3a
luma.com
Journocoders: Data reporting with R and Quarto · Luma
This month we'll be learning about data reporting using R and Quarto. Quarto is a technical publishing system which allows you to produce readable and sharable…
001
Max Harlow @maxharlow.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Back in Mechelen for #eijc26 #dataharvest26
040
Reposted by Max Harlow
Robert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 12/05/2026
Have to hand it to the WSJ, that’s a heckuva headline
0214
Reposted by Max Harlow
Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
If you want to watch them like a pro then don’t call them midterms
519328
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Registrations are now open for May! Come along and learn how to analyse election data with Polars 🥶 luma.com/t1ylk0vm
luma.com
Journocoders: Analysing election data with Polars · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to analyse election data with Polars. Polars is a Python library for data analysis that's been steadily gaining popularity…
031
Reposted by Max Harlow
Katie Notopoulos @katienotopoulos.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
It’s extremely good. My new favorite podcast
1117319
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dónal Griffin @donalgriffin.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Barclays says will recover +50% of £500m loan to MFS. Yet officials winding down the collapsed mortgage firm are far from certain on how much -- if anything -- can be recouped, citing allegations of widespread wrongdoing and limited access to information. Via @bloomberg.com. shorturl.at/1HffD
shorturl.at
Barclays Eyes Over 50% Recovery on MFS as Asset Hunt Uncertain
Barclays Plc hopes to get back much of the £500 million ($674 million) it lent to Market Financial Solutions Ltd. even as insolvency officials overseeing the now-collapsed mortgage lender remain uncer...
001
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Registrations are now open for April! Come along and learn how to solve mysteries with SQL 🕵 luma.com/h3cjxr87
luma.com
Solving mysteries with SQL · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to solve mysteries with SQL. SQL is a special language for communicating with databases using clear, readable commands. Well,…
011
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Four court hearings, probably £1m+ of fees, all to work out if large marshmallows are a "sweetened prepared food which is normally eaten with the fingers", and therefore subject to VAT. Spoiler: they are not. Because "A > B and C > D, (A + C) > (B + D)"
97319
Max Harlow @maxharlow.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Our look into collapsed UK lender MFS found much of their lending went to companies controlled by five people, allowing them to build up a £530m property portfolio. Many shared a registered address with MFS, and hundreds of the properties have multiple mortgages www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
010
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dónal Griffin @donalgriffin.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
60 Ennismore Gardens, a Knightsbridge townhouse that once counted Ava Gardner as a neighbor, is at the heart of the meltdown at UK lender MFS. Owned on paper by individual with close ties to MFS owner, it secured 2 Wall St-backed mortgages on the same day. shorturl.at/hvadP
shorturl.at
Tangled Web of Loans Brought Down a British Property Empire
The collapse of Paresh Raja's property empire has left lenders facing up to $1.7 billion of losses and questions about their due diligence.
132
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
OK this is nuts. A vulnerability in the Companies House website that let *anyone* with an account view ***ANY COMPANY'S DASHBOARD***, see all personal info and - I think - modify company records.
21351125
Reposted by Max Harlow
nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Couple things here: 1. What the fuck 2. I am allllllmost more offended by the suggestion that I would give this shitbox edit than having my identity stolen 3. The CEO is scheduled to be on Decoder soon and we will see if they back out! www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
431854332
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dónal Griffin @donalgriffin.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Indian rapper Badshah. Dancers performing inside a glass dome. A vast collection of sporting and music memorabilia that has since disappeared. Behind the scenes at MFS, the UK lender backed by £2b+ of Wall Street loans that collapsed last week. Story via @bloomberg.com shorturl.at/VKdK6
shorturl.at
MFS CEO Spent on Artwork, Parties, Indian Rapper Before Collapse
The walls of Market Financial Solutions Ltd.’s London offices were a shrine to the passions of founder Paresh Raja.
012
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Registrations are now open for March! Come along and learn how to produce exploratory data graphics with Altair 🧭 luma.com/2ibfrwr9
luma.com
Journocoders: Exploratory data graphics with Altair · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to explore data with charts and graphics using Altair. Altair is a Python library for building a wide range of graphics and…
021
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Simon Goldberg denied to me he’s running a huge tax fraud. He says he's an expert. Says he “studied under Winston Shrout” Shrout was convicted of tax fraud, got 10 years, fled, & was captured by US marshals
311122
Reposted by Max Harlow
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Is this what they call soft power?
1588
Reposted by Max Harlow
Thomas Germain @thomasgermain.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I just did the dumbest thing of my entire career to prove a much more serious point. I tricked ChatGPT and Google, and made them tell other users I’m a competitive hot-dog-eating world champion People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I’ll explain how I did it
8748162123
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Registrations are now open for Feburary! Come along and learn how to make maps and analyse geographical data with Python 🗺️ luma.com/kospxtu7
luma.com
Journocoders: Making maps and analysing geographical data with Python · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to make maps and analyse geographic data using the Python programming language. In this session we'll be following a tutorial…
001
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Registrations are now open for January! Come along and learn how to scrape the web with Beautiful Soup and Playwright! 🥣 luma.com/50ge2x1e
luma.com
Journocoders: Scraping the web with Beautiful Soup and Playwright · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to scrape the web using the Python programming language and two libraries, Beautiful Soup and Playwright. Beautiful Soup is a…
001
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Registrations are now open for December! Come along and learn how to automatically categorise things with AI 🎁
luma.com
Journocoders: Automatically categorising things with AI · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to use AI to put data into categories. Categorisation is one of the most practically useful applications of AI for data…
022
Reposted by Max Harlow
Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 30/11/2025
don't really think drugs, as a concept, will ever be able to recover from the reputational hit they're about to take
632312339
Reposted by Max Harlow
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Beth Rigby spotted that the OBR accidentally published their Budget papers too soon. It's down now, but I've archived a copy: buff.ly/SfFAiCu
buff.ly
65913
Reposted by Max Harlow
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 21/11/2025
Amazing. Bypass model safeguards and get helpful responses about nukes, bioweapons, cyberattacks, etc., simply by putting the adversarial prompt in a poem. Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models arxiv.org/abs/2511.153...
1155
Reposted by Max Harlow
Jess McCabe @jessmccabe.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Wtf: in the 18th and 19th centuries, green park and st James’ park were covered with cows and milkmaids, and you could buy milk fresh from the cow memoirsofametrogirl.com/2020/05/02/s...
261
Reposted by Max Harlow
Alison Killing @alisonkilling.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
ig.ft.com
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
56734217
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Registrations are now open for November! Come along and learn how to use computer vision for AI image and video analysis with @roboflow.com 👀 luma.com/3928sgrf
luma.com
Journocoders: Computer vision for AI image and video analysis with Roboflow · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to use computer vision for AI-powered image and video analysis with Roboflow. Computer vision is a field of AI that enables…
011
Reposted by Max Harlow
Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 03/11/2025
My latest: Move over bat tunnel, here’s the wild story of how HS2 were forced to build a multi-million pound bridge for a road that… doesn’t actually exist.
martinrobbins.substack.com
How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere
A state-of-the-art road bridge has been built deep in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. Designed to carry traffic over the HS2 railway, there's just one tiny problem - there's no actual road.
2129396
Reposted by Max Harlow
Amanda Shendruk @not-ship.com · 30/09/2025
I'm launching something for us. Not-Ship: a newsletter using data and visuals to navigate our turbulent world. Everything feels like A LOT lately. It's all so uncertain. And the way I try to make sense of things is with data. So, that's what Not-Ship is all about. Come chart the chaos with me.
not-ship.com
Not-Ship
A newsletter charting the age of uncertainty
1208
Reposted by Max Harlow
Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 18/10/2025
I think this is the weirdest story I've ever reported. www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...
londoncentric.media
The snail farmer of London, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman
Terry Ball runs elaborate mollusc-based tax avoidance schemes that are costing London councils millions of pounds. Yet when London Centric tracks him down, an even stranger story emerges.
39505194
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Registrations are now open for October! Come along and learn how to track boats and see the seas with @globalfishingwatch.org 🌊
luma.com
Journocoders: Tracking boats and seeing the seas with Global Fishing Watch · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to track boats and see the seas with Global Fishing Watch. Global Fishing Watch is nonprofit that freely shares knowledge and…
011
Reposted by Max Harlow
Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 22/09/2025
July September
1319550
Reposted by Max Harlow
christogrozev.bsky.social @christogrozev.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
More than a year's worth of investigation into the very Russian life of ex-Wirecard COO, and wannabe Russian super-spy Jan Marsalek: in English: theins.ru/en/inv/284980
716045
Reposted by Max Harlow
👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Babe, new candidate for "most unfathomable spatial comparison" just dropped.
31682198
Reposted by Max Harlow
Journocoders @journocoders.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Registrations are now open for September. Come along and learn how to tell stories with maps using @mapbox.com! 🗺️ luma.com/blz20uhu
luma.com
Journocoders: Telling stories with maps using Mapbox · Luma
This month we'll be learning how to tell stories with maps using Mapbox. Maps are a great way to tell a story which has a geographical element at its heart.…
021
Reposted by Max Harlow
Press Gazette @pressgazette.co.uk · 21/08/2025
Wired and Business Insider have removed features written by a freelance journalist after concerns they are likely AI-generated. Freedom of expression non-profit Index on Censorship is also in the process of taking down a magazine article by the same author pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...
pressgazette.co.uk
Wired and Business Insider remove 'AI-written' freelance articles
Wired and Business Insider have removed freelance articles over concerns they were written by AI under a fake name.
01911