Hans van Leeuwen
@hansvanleeuwen.bsky.social
Journalist and writer, Aussie-origin but a long-time Londoner
If this isn't some kind of negotiating tactic with the Mayor of London, it's a great shame. I've found it a really good, reliable service, and a great alternative to owning a car.
Zipcar is shutting down its UK operations, basically the only car club that worked in London. Massive kick to anyone who tries to live in capital without owning a car. Having been a customer for 17 years and used Zipvans to move house repeatedly, this is.... very bad! (Zipcar is owned by Avis)
December 1, 2025 at 7:58 PM
If this isn't some kind of negotiating tactic with the Mayor of London, it's a great shame. I've found it a really good, reliable service, and a great alternative to owning a car.
It's astonishing how quickly the Trump administration is muscling into the ex-China rare-earths sector, all over the world. How will Britain keep its foot in the door?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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December 1, 2025 at 7:54 PM
It's astonishing how quickly the Trump administration is muscling into the ex-China rare-earths sector, all over the world. How will Britain keep its foot in the door?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
The latest round of sanctions are pushing Putin out of his playground...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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December 1, 2025 at 7:51 PM
The latest round of sanctions are pushing Putin out of his playground...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
French Left-wingers, stymied in their push for a wealth tax, have landed on a new idea: forcing the rich to lend the government money instead.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 26, 2025 at 4:30 PM
French Left-wingers, stymied in their push for a wealth tax, have landed on a new idea: forcing the rich to lend the government money instead.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
My fab colleague Eir Nolsoe and I have told the story of Poland’s and Britain’s contrasting economic fortunes through a tale of two towns. Gliwice has overtaken Darlington in PPP terms … how did it happen?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 23, 2025 at 8:51 AM
My fab colleague Eir Nolsoe and I have told the story of Poland’s and Britain’s contrasting economic fortunes through a tale of two towns. Gliwice has overtaken Darlington in PPP terms … how did it happen?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Japan might be at a fork in the road…
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 22, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Japan might be at a fork in the road…
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Reposted by Hans van Leeuwen
How delightfully quaint some of these old Devon village names are, their etymologies lost in the mists of time.
November 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
How delightfully quaint some of these old Devon village names are, their etymologies lost in the mists of time.
Fascinating new report from AidData, three years in the making. It opens a whole new window on Chinese state-backed lending and investing overseas -- which is far bigger than previously thought, and far more concentrated in the US, Britain and Australia.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 18, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Fascinating new report from AidData, three years in the making. It opens a whole new window on Chinese state-backed lending and investing overseas -- which is far bigger than previously thought, and far more concentrated in the US, Britain and Australia.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
The fraught politics of immigration seem to be coming to Spain. If you're British, Dutch, French, German or Italian it's a familiar tale; but it has come as a surprise to Spaniards, the majority of whom have long had a very liberal attitude to incomers.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM
The fraught politics of immigration seem to be coming to Spain. If you're British, Dutch, French, German or Italian it's a familiar tale; but it has come as a surprise to Spaniards, the majority of whom have long had a very liberal attitude to incomers.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
I'm sorry, but when it comes to this toughest of diplomatic tasks -- coming up with clever but uncontroversial gift ideas for visiting foreign leaders -- the Danes have it so easy.
Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.
November 4, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I'm sorry, but when it comes to this toughest of diplomatic tasks -- coming up with clever but uncontroversial gift ideas for visiting foreign leaders -- the Danes have it so easy.
Donald Trump Highway or Xi Jinping Boulevard?
As Trump tries to muscle SE Asia with poisonpilled trade deals, Xi tells them not to be bullied. Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia don't want to have to choose... but what if they're forced to?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
As Trump tries to muscle SE Asia with poisonpilled trade deals, Xi tells them not to be bullied. Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia don't want to have to choose... but what if they're forced to?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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November 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Donald Trump Highway or Xi Jinping Boulevard?
As Trump tries to muscle SE Asia with poisonpilled trade deals, Xi tells them not to be bullied. Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia don't want to have to choose... but what if they're forced to?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
As Trump tries to muscle SE Asia with poisonpilled trade deals, Xi tells them not to be bullied. Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia don't want to have to choose... but what if they're forced to?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
No chainsaw, no leather jacket... but Milei shows plenty of resolve to use a surprising mandate to press on with his singular economic experiment.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 27, 2025 at 4:45 PM
No chainsaw, no leather jacket... but Milei shows plenty of resolve to use a surprising mandate to press on with his singular economic experiment.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Migration makes for tricky politics even in China.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 20, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Migration makes for tricky politics even in China.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Here’s why global markets are worried about a few bad corporate apples in America. It could upset the whole cart.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Here’s why global markets are worried about a few bad corporate apples in America. It could upset the whole cart.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
'A completely new dawn'. Now that China's economic arsenal is replete with weapons, is Beijing poised to turn its leverage into outright coercion?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
'A completely new dawn'. Now that China's economic arsenal is replete with weapons, is Beijing poised to turn its leverage into outright coercion?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
I went to Milan. I had a very nice Vietnamese baguette, a very ordinary pizza, and a lot of very interesting conversations about the arrival of the uber-wealthy into what was already Italy's most international city.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 14, 2025 at 8:24 AM
I went to Milan. I had a very nice Vietnamese baguette, a very ordinary pizza, and a lot of very interesting conversations about the arrival of the uber-wealthy into what was already Italy's most international city.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Meloni and Trump are politically close, but it seems business is business.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 5, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Meloni and Trump are politically close, but it seems business is business.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
How London lost its lustre for the world's mining industry.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 3, 2025 at 5:21 PM
How London lost its lustre for the world's mining industry.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
In geopolitics/geoeconomics, everything is connected. The White House seems to be sitting at the intersection of midwest American soybean farmers, a newly deal-savvy Beijing, and a chainsaw-wielding Latin American president.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 2, 2025 at 8:12 AM
In geopolitics/geoeconomics, everything is connected. The White House seems to be sitting at the intersection of midwest American soybean farmers, a newly deal-savvy Beijing, and a chainsaw-wielding Latin American president.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
France's fight over the "Zucman tax" on wealth isn't just a policy debate - it could yet determine the fate of the new Lecornu government, and it epitomises the country's polarised politics.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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October 1, 2025 at 8:38 AM
France's fight over the "Zucman tax" on wealth isn't just a policy debate - it could yet determine the fate of the new Lecornu government, and it epitomises the country's polarised politics.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Year by year, fewer and fewer Australians are coming to live and work in the UK. It used to be a rite of passage… why is this changing, and what does it mean?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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September 28, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Year by year, fewer and fewer Australians are coming to live and work in the UK. It used to be a rite of passage… why is this changing, and what does it mean?
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
The tooth is out there.
When a typo in your Google search leads to new and exciting philosophical positions
September 23, 2025 at 11:16 AM
The tooth is out there.
Australians shown here joyously helping themselves to the full menu of anglophone swearwords, rather than taking the selective approach of their British and American cousins.
Britons are more regular swearers than Australians or Americans, but what are their top swear words?
Britons
F*ck: 67% use regularly
Sh*t: 65%
Bloody: 54%
Australians
Sh*t: 61%
F*ck: 56%
Bullsh*t: 52%
Americans
Damn: 55%
Sh*t: 54%
F*ck: 47%
👇 more in chart below
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
Britons
F*ck: 67% use regularly
Sh*t: 65%
Bloody: 54%
Australians
Sh*t: 61%
F*ck: 56%
Bullsh*t: 52%
Americans
Damn: 55%
Sh*t: 54%
F*ck: 47%
👇 more in chart below
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
July 15, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Australians shown here joyously helping themselves to the full menu of anglophone swearwords, rather than taking the selective approach of their British and American cousins.