Dave Lee
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Interesting links, noteworthy journalism and other miscellanea from around the web.

Kitchen-table populism

The Guardian surveyed 6,000 Democrats in search of the winning formula:

The top-performing messages we tested have a simple formula. They focus on Americans’ day-to-day struggles to pay for rent and groceries, and the widespread frustration with prices that rise faster than working-class wages. They insist that working people should be able to give their kids a better shot. They promise to bring costs down, make the biggest corporations pay their fair share, and crack down on the people who game the system. Ultimately, they tell a simple story: hard work should pay off.

We call this winning combination “kitchen-table populism”.

We surveyed 6,000 Americans. Here is the winning message for Democrats | Dustin Guastellatheguardian.comIt’s about ‘kitchen-table populism’: focusing on Americans’ day-to-day economic struggles

New BBC director general Matt Brittin with what seems like an excellent idea, and the kind of bigger thinking you'd expect from putting an ex-Google man in the role. Will be watching this closely:

The BBC director general has suggested opening up the BBC to YouTube-style user-generated content as he backed the idea of a “public service algorithm” free from the interests of US tech companies.

Matt Brittin, who arrived at the BBC after 10 years leading Google in Europe, said the corporation and public service media in Britain had the opportunity to build a platform “unadulterated by commercial interests, by algorithms that have other interests at heart”.

BBC chief proposes ‘public service algorithm’ with YouTube-style user-generated contenttheguardian.comSpeaking at Edinburgh TV festival, Matt Brittin says BBC platform would be free from interests of US tech giants

From The Trace:

Gun deaths overall have been declining in recent years, but murder-suicides in which at least one of the victims was age 65 or older are higher than ever, according to a Trace analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive. At least 134 older adults were killed in murder-suicides last year, a slight rise over 2024 and the highest number since GVA began compiling data more than a decade ago. Another 85 older adults perpetrated a killing before dying by their own hand.

Murder-Suicide Appears to Be Rising Among Older Americansthetrace.orgA Trace analysis found more murder-suicides involving victims 65 or older in 2025 than in any year since tracking began more than a decade ago.

So long, Dolly.

Dolly Parton, the effervescent and glamorous “Queen of Country” who emerged from extreme poverty in rural Tennessee to become one of America’s most distinguished songwriters and wealthiest self-made women, has died. She was 80.

Dolly Parton, Country Queen Who Sang of Strong Women, Dies at 80bloomberg.comDolly Parton, the effervescent and glamorous “Queen of Country” who emerged from extreme poverty in rural Tennessee to become one of America’s most distinguished songwriters and wealthiest self-made women, has died. She was 80.

Another one. Considering the impact this might have — influencing the actions of the Treasury secretary — this is particularly egregious.

A billionaire acknowledged on Tuesday that his widely read opinion column in The Wall Street Journal criticizing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bond market intervention was written using artificial intelligence.

Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s WSJ Op-Ed Criticizing Bessent Was Written With AInotus.org“I write everything using AI now,” Druckenmiller, who questioned the treasury secretary’s bond market interventions, said.

The Economist digs into a study of 27,000 Chinese students and their use of AI:

After six months, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell from an average of 64 minutes to 45. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on ai’s help. Homework scores once predicted exam performance; now those who score highest are, perversely, more likely to do worse in exams.

Does AI stop children from learning?economist.comNew data show the peril and promise of the technology

Be still, my socialist heart:

A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projectsysph.yale.eduA single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it

A sober analysis from the News Agents podcast of the press's role in the death of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday. Sopel is right here to repeat the adage stressed in every journalism school in the world: What's interesting to the public isn't necessarily in the public interest.

The News Agents (@thenewsagents.co.uk) on Bluesky

“It would seem impossible that the way Jason Arday was treated - as public enemy number one - did not contribute to where he ended up.” Did the incessant coverage of Jason Arday, even after his resignation, cross over into a ‘full-blown witch hunt’?

Trump used the press as human shields but the White House Correspondents Association has barely raised a grumble. Margaret Sullivan on what should have been the last straw:

So what did the White House Correspondents Association do?

Its new president, Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News correspondent, had a talk last week with White House officials to express the organization’s concerns and to suggest different protocols. She also sent an off-the-record memo to WHCA members explaining she had had a “candid and productive meeting” with White House officials.

And that, apparently, was that. A quiet meeting and a quiet memo — sadly weak — along the lines of all those pointless “thoughts and prayers” we hear about after a mass shooting.

Journalists as Trump's 'human shields' should be the WHCA's last strawmargaretsullivan.substack.comInstead, the response of the press group's leader, a Fox News correspondent, was pitifully weak

A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility404media.coWe placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

We seem to be the last to know.

Google Turns On Gemini A.I. for Students Using Its Classroom Appnytimes.comGoogle enabled A.I. features for K-12 schools that have allowed student access to Gemini. Until this week, Google automatically enabled Gemini in Classroom only for students 18 or older.

Time and time again, this vindictive child has served up fabrications regarding the caterpillar’s appetite that consist of nothing but radical left talking points.

Karoline Leavitt Slams Toddler Son Over Baseless Accusations That Caterpillar Very Hungrytheonion.comWASHINGTON—Blasting the 2-year-old’s incessant lying to the American people, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday slammed her toddler son over baseless accusations that the caterpillar was very hungry. “Time and time again, this vindictive child has served up fabrications regarding the caterpillar’s appetite that consist of nothing but radical left talking points,” Leavitt […]