@simonkuper.bsky.social
Financial Times columnist, and author of books including Chums, Good Chaps, Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century, Soccernomics and out in late 2025, World Cup Fever. British and now French too, lives in Paris with wife and kids.
Amsterdam and Copenhagen are years ahead of Paris for bikes. The interesting thing about Paris is that it was a vast car-clogged city that made the change fast, and recently - hence lessons for other cities now
Here's a new link to my piece on how Paris chose the bike, and what lessons for other cities. Thanks @barrysmit.nl for alerting me to expiry of old link as.ft.com/r/026ab836-f...
Paris, where I live, went in the last decade or so from a car-bound to a bike-dominated city. In the process it became a trendsetter for the world's other cities. Now Paris's mayoral elections are a referendum on that shift. What lessons from Paris? Me @financialtimes.com as.ft.com/r/afafe14b-2...
Thanks, Ian - and everyone else, please do read whole article at the link below. I live in Paris and list some do's and don'ts for how to switch a car-bound city to the bike
Paris, where I live, went in the last decade or so from a car-bound to a bike-dominated city. In the process it became a trendsetter for the world's other cities. Now Paris's mayoral elections are a referendum on that shift. What lessons from Paris? Me @financialtimes.com as.ft.com/r/afafe14b-2...
I talk the Texas Standard through the World Cup, based on my new book about the whole thing. Interview text and audio here: www.texasstandard.org/stories/befo...
Finally, a piece of global good news: insanely cheap solar is spreading around the world fast. This will cut emissions, boost developing economies, and could bring electricity to almost every human. We have a chance after all. Here comes the sun. Me @financialtimes.com as.ft.com/r/42822826-9...
Simon Kuper | At last, the carbon cutter everyone can get behind ft.trib.al/4NuiG9T #FTEdit
Finally, a piece of global good news: insanely cheap solar is spreading around the world fast. This will cut emissions, boost developing economies, and could bring electricity to almost every human. We have a chance after all. Here comes the sun. Me @financialtimes.com as.ft.com/r/42822826-9...
Apologies for the self-promotion, but I have so many books (new + reissued) coming out around the World Cup, plus a World Cup theatre tour of the Netherlands (yes, really), that I wrote my first ever Substack to let readers know what's about to hit them simonkuper547236.substack.com/p/748605cc-d...
Since all US foreign policy flows from Trump's personal desires and psychology, I see only 2 possible scenarios: 1. Mullahs' regime miraculously dissolves within a month into America-friendly regime that gives Trump the oil, or 2. Trump loses interest within a month and moves on to new wacko scheme
Choosing the US president is too big a task to be left to Americans
The "Where are they now" bit gives updates on the subjects. The intro is an old bloke looking back on a book he wrote when he was practically a different person, so I guess that's the update on me
"Just as the Catholic Church is not simply about prayer, World Cups are not simply about soccer."
Dan Friedman reviews Simon Kuper’s "World Cup Fever." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/world-cup-fever-simon-kuper-soccer-football-corruption/
Very Trump to talk about war in golf language
The 24-year-old me who published Football Against the Enemy in 1994 did not imagine this, but in April we're republishing the book as a "classic edition" 32 years on, with a new introduction + a "Where are they now?" from me. Will feel weird. Preorder here geni.us/OpNA Plus our first ever audiobook
We don't have to let Trump ruin the World Cup. In fact, Americans can use it against him. The key is that the US bit of the tournament will happen almost entirely in blue states. Me in a rare guest appearance for
@nytimes.com (paywalled, I think) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...
We don't have to let Trump ruin the World Cup. In fact, Americans can use it against him. The key is that the US bit of the tournament will happen almost entirely in blue states. Me in a rare guest appearance for
@nytimes.com (paywalled, I think) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...
The World Cup is so much bigger than Trump or FIFA. Keep the tournament, but turn it against Trump
Alle zes data van de WK-en-geopolitiek-theatertour staan inmiddels online, hier op de tourpagina van @HaagschCollege www.haagschcollege.nl/macht-van-he... Ontzettend veel om te bespreken, zoveel verhalen, tot dan
Mijn theatertour over 'De macht van het WK-voetbal' komt ook naar Zwolle. Wees erbij op 27 mei: zwolsetheaters.nl/programma/20... Over Dick Nanninga, Cruijff, Poetin, Trump, Jules Rimet, Iran en nog zoveel meer
RACHMAN: “.. Trump is now committed to a process for which there is no real precedent: regime change brought about by air power alone.”
@gideonrachman.bsky.social @financialtimes.com
www.ft.com/content/4371...
Videoed death has become a prime mover of politics - from George Floyd through Charlie Kirk to the recent political street killing that is gripping France. Me @financialtimes.com on what psychologists call mortality salience as.ft.com/r/e6252f2a-2...
The Next Big Idea Book Club shows impeccable taste in their monthly list of must-reads. This is ahead of World Cup Fever's North American publication next week bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com/p/your-march...
No doubt Tulsi Gabbard is drafting her resignation letter as we speak.
= massive improvement in global quality of life. Nobody wants to hear what you did today
Videoed death has become a prime mover of politics worldwide, argues Simon Kuper, derailing all other argument by triggering our deepest fears.
Read the full story on #FTEdit 👉 The grimly compelling rise of videoed death ft.trib.al/wROk3qz
Then take today's #FTEdit poll 🗳️ ft.trib.al/2aSTnZH
Exclusive
The European Commission has requested that the EU’s anti-fraud agency investigate Lord Peter Mandelson’s actions while he was serving in Brussels as the British commissioner for trade between 2004 and 2008.
www.ft.com/content/85b9...
Am chuffed to bits (as we used to say in football) by this @newyorker.com review of my new book World Cup Fever. Better yet, reviewer is the great Ian Buruma www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... The book appears in the US next week but you can preorder it already
Football's coming home! Op 31 mei stopt mijn theatertour over het WK (met geopolitiek, Trump, Mussolini, Cruijff, Dick Nanninga en nog veel meer) in de stad waar ik opgroeide, Leiden. Wees erbij - kaartjes hier: leidseschouwburg-stadsgehoorzaal.nl/voorstelling... (met een paar verhalen over Leiden)