No US visa if you look like an American

My take on why 🇪🇺President von der Leyen and her centre-right EPP group are playing a dangerous game by planning to ally with the far right next week to pass the deregulation demanded by Trump: davekeating.substack.com/p/von-der-le...

IPA, the EU international journalists union, has condemned the firing of an Italian journalist for asking a question in the Commission midday press briefing perceived as critical of Israel. So far no indication that the Commission pressured Agenzia Nova to fire him.

Next week,🇪🇺President von der Leyen's centre-right EPP group is preparing to ally with the far right in order to pass the 1st of her deregulation packages. A Commission official says these #Omnibus proposals are being sold as "concessions" to Trump. Our leadership are going down 2 dangerous paths.

Presumably the first of many peace prizes all awarded to one vain and rather orange man

Now official - the EU has weakened its planned 2040 emissions reduction target at the insistence of national governments. It is part of the overall story of Europe backtracking on its goals to fight climate change - party because of Trump pressure, partly because of changing public attitudes.

It's important for Europeans, and others from visa-waiver countries, to understand they don't have freedom of speech rights when visiting the United States. The Trump regime is still deporting visitors for critical comments made online, because they can.

Now our cowardly European leaders are even letting Trump dictate who they can and can't meet with. Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen will reportedly skip the EU-Latin America summit over fear of angering the US president.

Brussels Airport shut down tonight due to drones. All flights in and out suspended, incoming flights diverted to other airports. Drones also sighted over Kleine-Brogel military airbase.

Business sources tell me that EU companies have been told to get in touch with Mofcom re licenses for Nexperia chips. Reminiscent of the rare earths saga!

This was all foretold. It was spelled out clearly during the campaign by #Project2025. Whether the majority of American voters want fascism or they're indifferent to it, they chose it. In Europe we should have our eyes open to that. My piece from last year:

this is such a great encapsulation of why this race feels existential even to people outside NYC. Cuomo as the final boss of everything wrong with the current Democratic Party, Mamdani happily grabbing the third rails everyone’s told are too dangerous to touch (trans people, Muslims, socialism)

Remember when Farage talks *about* work he is largely talking *to* people who have retired from it

This chimes with what I've been hearing. “Our negotiators had never seen this before in any international talks. People being summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London — intimidation, threats of cessation of business, threats of family members losing visas."

US citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents children would be coming to get bus, lawyers say

The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse. I'm aware of at least 2 stores that had offered struggling customers a discount, then withdrew it after receiving this email

Breaking: it's now official, the pro-EU D66 party came first in the Dutch election. Their best result ever. The National Press Agency has just announced the final vote count. It’s a narrow victory with D66 just 15,155 votes ahead of the far-right PVV of Geert Wilders.

DHS has rejected Illinois Governor's call for a ceasefire from ICE for Halloween Pritzker: "No child in America should have to go trick or treating in fear they might be confronted with armed federal agents & have to inhale tear gas" DHS chief Noem refuses, calls governor's request "shameful".

Yet another implantation of an item from Project 2025 (which Trump claimed he had nothing to do with): The resumption of testing nuclear weapons, which has been halted by all countries except North Korea since 1992 (but resumed last week by Russia).

PSA on 🇺🇸🇨🇳 deal: "Trump got taken to the cleaners here" He starts the trade war, Xi puts in place retaliation. China then agrees to stop the retaliation in exchange for Trump stopping his initial trade war threats *and* additional concessions from Trump like giving access to US AI chips. +10-13= -3

With 99.7% of the vote counted, it still can't be determined yet whether D66 or PVV came 1st in yesterday's 🇳🇱election. But aside from symbolism, it doesn't matter. Wilders has no path to being in government, and the path is clear for Jetten to become PM.

Come on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba!

Everybody gets that Bloomberg is the main reason Cuomo is still afloat, right? archive.ph/4sE8g

🚨Wow - this will be huge if it bears out. Exit polls show the pro-EU D66 party has WON the Dutch election. The far-right PVV party of Geeet Wildsrs has lost 12 seats, according to exit polls. Huge if true.

Could the pro-EU D66 party be the surprise winner in today’s Dutch election? It’s possible in this razor-tight race in which polls show voters may punish far-right PVV for their time in government (even if they come first again, they are likely to lose seats). open.substack.com/pub/lamatina...

CNN chief Mark Thompson met privately with the White House last week. The next morning, he urged the network to ease up on its coverage of Trump's East Room demolition. The scoop from @nataliekorach.bsky.social in @status.news www.status.news/p/mark-thomp...

As the EU (and the wider world) tears up its climate legislation, here's an interesting case study of how one MEP managed to get a new environmental law passed in the European Parliament this week against the odds.

Note to Europe: when you stand up to Trump instead of immediately surrendering, he backs down. TACO. Learn it.

So the trade bazooka can't be used against America, but it can be used for America.

Our European leaders are talking vaguely about a need for independence but they don't have the courage to say publicly *from whom* the independence is needed. 🇨🇦 #Canada's PM @mark-carney.bsky.social has the courage. Why don't we have any leader like this here? Why have our leaders been cowards?

It is really hard for me to imagine a scenario where there are free and fair elections in the US in 2026. Europeans need to come to terms with that. America is transitioning to an authoritarian form of government. So what are we going to do here?

What would it look like if we had a European leader who was willing to speak to citizens with clarity and honesty like Canada's #Carney has done? I explored this alternative reality in today's Substack column:

Here are the companies who paid to demolish the East Wing of the White House:

What would it look like if we had a European leader who was willing to speak to citizens with clarity and honesty like Canada's #Carney has done? I explored this alternative reality in today's Substack column:

#EUCO latest: It looks like leaders have given their assent to the 2040 climate target, in exchange for a commitment by the Commission to continue slashing climate laws to add 'flexibility', and to add a review clause. link.europa.eu/qV4VDr

🇺🇦President @ZelenskyyUa speaking to #EUCO press now, as we wait to see if 🇧🇪Belgium drops its reparations veto. "I hope that they will make a positive political decision in one way or another to help Ukraine with funds, based on frozen assets," he says.

#EUCO defence conclusions now out. The Commission's white paper gets short shrift and is full of language meant to rule out the EU taking a leadership role on defence. www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

#EUCO latest: the pressure on Spain from other EU leaders apparently worked today. Just announced: Spain will pay to transfer US weapons to Ukraine through PURL.

🇪🇺#EUCO summit latest: Yes to new sanctions, but so far still no to giving frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. 🇧🇪Belgian PM @Bart_DeWever is still digging in his heels, saying he needs cast-iron guarantees on shared liability in order to release his veto.

Greetings from the #EUCO press room, where all of us are completely reliant on American technology to be able to cover this EU leaders' meeting. Do our leaders view this as an urgent problem to be solved? No. They think our biggest problem is bureaucracy.

“The likelihood that Trump will weaponise the US cloud services may not be huge, but the costs if he does are potentially catastrophic. If the EU wants to Trump-proof its economy and become a strategic power, it needs to act more like one.” on.ft.com/4o56MU9

At today's🇪🇺#EUCO summit, national leaders are discussing ways to scrap EU climate legislation adopted in 2019-2024 term. 🇩🇪Chancellor Merz wants to kill the 2035 petrol car phase-out. And he's pushing to scrap corporate sustainability reporting, as promised to Trump.

🇺🇦President Zelenskyy is arriving now at the #EUCO summit in Brussels. He was first invited as a show of support after the telling off he got from 🇺🇸President Trump last week. But breaking news overnight that Trump has cancelled his Putin meeting and sanctioned Russia has changed the context.

🇪🇸PM Pedro Sanchez is cutting a lonely figure as he enters the #EUCO summit right now in Brussels. For his refusal to bend to the 🇺🇸president's extortion, he has been vilified by other European governments. Those anti-Sanchez briefings have grown more intense over the past week.

The EU's 19th package of sanctions against Russia will list 4 companies involved in China's oil industry that circumvent Western restrictions: 2 independent Chinese oil refineries 1 Chinese trading firm 1 entity involved in circumvention

Exactly. If you want to see client states, take a look at Europe.

From the pre-#EUCO summit briefings today, it's clear Europe's ultra-Atlanticist governments are determined to throw up every roadblock possible to sovereign EU defence. In response to the white paper, we're hearing over and over that Commission should not be in driver's seat.

Such is 🇪🇺President @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu's deference to member state capitals that she's apparently even willing to accept them spying on her.

Spain just announced €6.9 billion in defence spending. The problem? They're buying weapons from a Spanish provider. The US military-industrial complex doesn't like that. As Sanchez talks of an EU army, he's chastised by other 🇪🇺leaders for not giving in to Trump's command to spend more on 🇺🇸weapons.