A daily joy of mine is reading the latest attack on Trump's wild economic policies by Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winner for Econs. Krugman has forgotten more economics than Trump & his cohort have ever known. Trump's often out of his depth when it comes to the interface of Econs theory & practice

I've just been listening to a fascinating podcast on Jensen Huang & his Nvidia company. Check out The Guardian's,Today in Focus,'The secrets of the world's richest company' with Tae Kim & Helen Pidd. It's a story that deserves to be listened to. Jensen Huang is a brilliant CEO - one of the best ever

Away from Trump for once, today I want to look at public opinion as expressed in inane text messages about players or coaches sent to the TV channels covering any sporting event. Why some of these moronic comments ever get to see the light of day is beyond me unless it's to infuriate the rest of us

Trump's dystopian universe has become a perilous nightmare for those who believe in democracy, equity, commonsense, decency & the rule of law. A vindictive Trump acts as if he is above the law & his MAGA base crassly endorses his preposterous claim. So where is American soft power now? In the gutter

I pity those who are trying to go down south to Italy, Slovenia & Croatia through Austria by car today. There are massive queues in several.places on the autobahns & as such it's likely to be nightmarish for both parents & kids. Patience is a virtue & much needed today because anger rises so easily

It's high time that the Democrats drained the MAGA Swamp. A more sordid mess could hardly be imagined than that conjured up by Trump & his hopelessly incompetent crowd of appalling enablers. Do any of these unsavoury characters have any moral conscience? If they did they should have already resigned

I love farmers markets. I would far rather buy fruit & veg & fish/meat from them than in supermarkets where you have no clue as to the amount of fertilisers that have been used in the growing process. Organic food grown in the local fields & lakes remind me forcefully of the countryside I grew up in

Just finished an hour long interview with a Korean TV channel from Seoul on the search for Korean independence after WWI. What a pleasure it was to work with my producer Nuri & her crew behind the scenes. It was part of the Hidden Stories series of diplomacy & its impact on international relations

I've just been watching the England team win their way - belatedly as always -into the final of the UEFA Women's Championship in Switzerland. What a team! They put their supporters through a nightmare of emotions before grabbing a victory at the very last! It's tremendous to see the support they get

Thankfully 1/6th of Trump's presidency has gone. I can't wait for the remainder of it to go! I don't want to know what he's thinking about everything. His posts reveal not his so-called fabled intelligence but his lack of it. His distorted view of the world shows a lack of morality & generosity. Ugh

I have never known a US presidency like this one! It's mind-blowing that so many politicos & businessmen both at home and abroad fear Trump's disapproval & jump to fall in with his whims. He's become the world's most powerful personality & he must love that feeling! Wheeling & dealing with toadies!

I meant to post this about 2 months ago but forgot! So now is the time to make up for that omission. I watched 'A Complete Unknown' a film based on Bob Dylan's early career with Timothée Chalamet in the title role. I thought it was great. It's exactly the sort of film I would watch again. Loved it!

It's clear that universities face real systemic problems currently with financing, student numbers, AI & political interference especially in the US. But unfortunately there is also a much darker side that is suffocating & springs from jealousy/envy as well as personality clashes among colleagues

Just spent the weekend in Budapest. What a beautiful city & one that has such a good vibe to it. It was full of young people having fun. What makes it even more attractive is that it rejects Orban overwhelmingly. I've always had a fascination with Hungary driven by sport, music & its courage in 1956

In beautiful Budapest. It is a total joy to see the city after teaching Hungarian history for over 40 years! Off to see the memorial to the heroes of the '56 Uprising. I have had a bond with Hungary that may have been forged through both sport & music & which has endured from my youngest days.

We can only hope for the best in the election to come.

Why does anyone believe anything that comes out of the mouth of the current inhabitant of the Oval Office?Truth Social (a misnomer if ever there was one) is utterly unreliable & a wild distortion of the truth. Exaggeration & lies come thick & fast & yet the media still continues to lap it up. Weird!

On Midsummer's Night last Saturday I took myself off into the local woods beyond my Austrian village in a search for those magical little creatures with their beautiful white lights - the fireflies. They only appear in our woods for a few days in late June but they were there in profusion. What joy!

I tuned into Jon Stewart's podcast on Bsky this morning & loved his introduction about the incompetence of the real Donald. No wonder the dollar is tanking when little other than Trump's ego remains the same from day to day. Threats & abuse abound from the bullying dealmaker. He really is unsavoury

Really sorry to hear this news,Sheila.Words are hopeless on these occasions but our feelings are with you nonetheless

How any sane person can read & absorb the posts displayed on Truth Social & believe them is beyond me. Apart from the ridiculous lies, pompous distortions & sweeping exaggerations that appear on a daily basis, the mean-spirited way in which Trump treats Joe Biden is unconscionable & shameful

I've just listened to a fascinating talk given by an AI expert on the range of sophisticated tools used by university students to tackle their course assignments. It was mind blowing! We older profs are so out of it & nowhere near finding suitable assessment criteria to mark the work of our students

I've recently been watching the first two series of Yellowstone, the neo-Western film series that stars Kevin Costner. I missed it when it first came out, but I'm delighted to have been following it over the past fortnight. I don't care what the film critics may say about it, I've really enjoyed it!

I shouldn't have been astonished by the inane comments of Laura Loomer & others of the MAGA crowd about the new pontiff Leo XIV describing him as a Marxist. And yet I was! If these people are Christians they clearly haven't read The New Testament recently or understood the words of Christ. Pitiable!

Some urban myths can be dismissed immediately but some have a certain traction because they would be a welcome addition to our daily news. I heard the other day from a professional source that the new pope was a jazz trombonist who played concerts under the name Bobby Prev. Sadly, I wish it was true

Last Friday I suggested that the Opposition parties in Singapore might cause a surprise or two in the forthcoming General Election. How wrong I was! As a historian, I ought to have realised that my abilities as a discerning psephologist are about as flawed as most political scientists & so it proved

Fascinating general election in Singapore on Saturday pitting the People's Action Party (which has been in power since 1959) against the opposition. Despite what the Establishment media may say, this election may well spring a few surprises. Watch out for Pritam Singh & the Workers Party to do well

Accountability & the Trump administration are irreconcilable. Those in power in DC see any kind of intellectual output/oversight as a threat to them personally & their goals such is their insecurity. Trump lies through his teeth on a daily basis and the MAGA crowd laps it up as if it's gospel truth!

It was a source of both joy and relief to me!

I know we need the best trade deal we can get from the US but I hate to see Starmer sucking up to Trump in the hope of getting him onside. Trump will play him like a violin in order to get what he wants from a waning power. Anglo-American relations might seem fool-proof until you try to improve them