Interesting. I can read some Dutch, and have a machine translation, but I'd love to get more background here on what exactly happened. The formateur was accused of calling another politician a 'liar' but that didn't actually happen? I don't see the right-wing businessman mentioned in the apology.

If yes, we are both in the wrong this morning. But it is not.

This one was particularly good. Reminded me of essays by Joseph Roth

'living'. Not 'leaving'

'leaving beyond your means,' eh? Wasn't he wearing like a 16,000 dollar shirt when he made that speech?

Right. It's like what I tell journalists about using AI: It's a tool, but it isn't your brain. You can't rely on AI alone to fact check things. If an AI tool spits something out that doesn't seem right, double check. Don't trust information just because 'the AI said so.'

Noise pollution isn't a joke but, speaking for myself, I couldn't imagine complaining to a public authority about the noise made by emergency vehicles. Surely we all understand that they make noise to get people out of the way because lives are literally at stake, right?

And then you'll get in trouble for putting it in the wrong trash container. Seriously, no way would I follow that advice!

I bought this at an independent bookstore in Oostende, Belgium. I haven't read it all but it's a good read, so far.

Interesting observing this question from Europe where I would say it's pretty common to see anonymous spokespersons. Could a case be made that it matters more what the agency says not which individual spokesperson is saying it? Though disparaging someone anonymously is definitely not okay.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw that story in the FT this morning, like, we've heard this before, right?