Ethan Plotkin
@ethanplotkin.bsky.social
Audio producer at the Financial Times
ethan.plotkin@ft.com
ethan.plotkin@ft.com
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (July)
December 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (July)
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
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/saudi-neom-l...
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
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:56 AM
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/saudi-neom-l...
I can take a guess
October 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I can take a guess
What a cover
In a region that has known little other than decades of conflict, this is an extraordinary moment: a slender but real chance of a fresh start econ.st/4oddjvz
October 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM
What a cover
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
My column this week: on a world in which your lifeboat seems ever more necessary- but ever more unappealing:
Israel seems more important — and less desirable — than ever for British Jews
Amid rising antisemitism at home, our lifeboat abroad seems less attractive
www.ft.com
October 7, 2025 at 9:35 AM
My column this week: on a world in which your lifeboat seems ever more necessary- but ever more unappealing:
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
August 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
It's also just not true. Cyrus the Great is so revered in Jewish history that some considered him to the the messiah. The authors of the Talmud lived under the Sassanians and often had good relations with them (the Talmud loves king Shappur I). Israel was an ally of pre-Revolution Iran.
Only in the Middle East are relatively comprehensible modern conflicts rooted in the balance of power of nation-states reduced to quasi-mystical "ancient hatreds."
June 17, 2025 at 9:58 AM
It's also just not true. Cyrus the Great is so revered in Jewish history that some considered him to the the messiah. The authors of the Talmud lived under the Sassanians and often had good relations with them (the Talmud loves king Shappur I). Israel was an ally of pre-Revolution Iran.
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
“Special thanks to our sponsor: Coinbase”
June 14, 2025 at 10:47 PM
“Special thanks to our sponsor: Coinbase”
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Starmer v Farage and Reeves’s fiscal fix, dissected by the brilliant @stephenkb.bsky.social @chrisgiles.ft.com and @annasophiegross.bsky.social - plus hot @lucyfisher.ft.com baby news
www.ft.com/content/c005...
www.ft.com/content/c005...
Who’s afraid of Nigel Farage?
Plus: Rachel Reeves’ problems are piling up ahead of the autumn budget
www.ft.com
May 30, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Starmer v Farage and Reeves’s fiscal fix, dissected by the brilliant @stephenkb.bsky.social @chrisgiles.ft.com and @annasophiegross.bsky.social - plus hot @lucyfisher.ft.com baby news
www.ft.com/content/c005...
www.ft.com/content/c005...
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Trust in European Union at highest since 2007, poll shows reut.rs/4k9VQ5z
Trust in European Union at highest since 2007, poll shows
Trust in the European Union and its institutions has risen to an almost two-decade high, a report released on Wednesday shows, as U.S. President Donald Trump upends global trade and foreign policy.
reut.rs
May 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Trust in European Union at highest since 2007, poll shows reut.rs/4k9VQ5z
The end of this passage, from the @ftweekend.com essay, really hit home on.ft.com/3Za27pe
May 10, 2025 at 7:27 AM
The end of this passage, from the @ftweekend.com essay, really hit home on.ft.com/3Za27pe
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP.
May 9, 2025 at 2:18 PM
From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP.
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Good morning why not have lunch with Sam Altman. He's cooking on.ft.com/44qGt3J
OpenAI chief Sam Altman: ‘This is genius-level intelligence’
[FREE TO READ] The tech entrepreneur on the risks and opportunities of AI, his dispute with Elon Musk and why he has the ‘most important job maybe in history’
on.ft.com
May 9, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Good morning why not have lunch with Sam Altman. He's cooking on.ft.com/44qGt3J
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
watching baseball @jonbois.bsky.social
May 7, 2025 at 2:43 AM
watching baseball @jonbois.bsky.social
FT commenter 'grrrf' asking the important questions on.ft.com/3RwFiIn
April 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
FT commenter 'grrrf' asking the important questions on.ft.com/3RwFiIn
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
A good piece from two Israeli analysts on Israel's overreach in Syria: "Its approach resembles its efforts to create a security zone in southern Lebanon in the '80s and '90s—which resulted in a war of attrition that deepened Lebanese resentment." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israe...
Israel’s Dangerous Overreach in Syria
Making an enemy of a potential new ally.
www.foreignaffairs.com
April 23, 2025 at 6:04 AM
A good piece from two Israeli analysts on Israel's overreach in Syria: "Its approach resembles its efforts to create a security zone in southern Lebanon in the '80s and '90s—which resulted in a war of attrition that deepened Lebanese resentment." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israe...
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
To be continued...
www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
April 21, 2025 at 9:12 AM
To be continued...
www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
To try to stave of tariffs, Vietnam is expediting approvals of a $1.5 billion Trump Organization resort www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
Anxious Trading Partners Promise to Buy American to Stave Off Trump’s Tariffs
Countries are offering to buy more American goods in a bid to eliminate their trade deficits with the U.S., but not everyone is splurging.
www.wsj.com
April 17, 2025 at 3:39 PM
To try to stave of tariffs, Vietnam is expediting approvals of a $1.5 billion Trump Organization resort www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
No trade deficit with these guys. So I guess the US will just go for the simple 10% baseline tariff?
April 17, 2025 at 9:28 AM
No trade deficit with these guys. So I guess the US will just go for the simple 10% baseline tariff?
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Pope Leo X and Charles V discover environmentalism
April 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Pope Leo X and Charles V discover environmentalism
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx
April 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Not every stock is down today
April 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Not every stock is down today
Reposted by Ethan Plotkin
Stunning news on the wires just now:
CHINESE STATE MEDIA: CHINA, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA REACH A CONSENSUS THAT THREE SIDES WILL JOINTLY RESPOND TO THE U.S. TARIFFS
I suspected the world was upside down before today. Now I know it's true 🙃
CHINESE STATE MEDIA: CHINA, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA REACH A CONSENSUS THAT THREE SIDES WILL JOINTLY RESPOND TO THE U.S. TARIFFS
I suspected the world was upside down before today. Now I know it's true 🙃
March 31, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Stunning news on the wires just now:
CHINESE STATE MEDIA: CHINA, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA REACH A CONSENSUS THAT THREE SIDES WILL JOINTLY RESPOND TO THE U.S. TARIFFS
I suspected the world was upside down before today. Now I know it's true 🙃
CHINESE STATE MEDIA: CHINA, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA REACH A CONSENSUS THAT THREE SIDES WILL JOINTLY RESPOND TO THE U.S. TARIFFS
I suspected the world was upside down before today. Now I know it's true 🙃