I’m expecting Burnham to get the full Sánchez treatment from the online right.

Pithy on climate science www.ft.com/content/a2ea...

Hydration break with @dzyrl.bsky.social (and celebrating that the temperature has dropped below 25°)

A technical but significant reform proposal, again working on the outmoded basis that Belgium is two monolithic language groups plus an annoying capital city that’s best ignored: www.lesoir.be/756025/artic...

I don't want to hear another word about how much white European visitors are enjoying ranch dressing while team officials, Africa's top referee, and now one of the world's most celebrated fans are turned away from the World Cup. The USA is an utterly unfit host — it's as simple as that

It has come to my attention that some people, less versed in APILN lore, do not know about Ron, who was innocent. Here you go:

Briefly misread this as "Starmer" and oh boy did that wake me up

This feels rather like saying there's a national tendency to talk about not being able to afford the weekly shop rather than the stagnant economy. People see consequences not causes - the politics is to show the consequence is linked to the cause, and make the case what to do for it.

Very exciting for @dzyrl.bsky.social to meet J.H. Van Dale, who began the first first dictionary of the Dutch language (but didn’t finish it due to his untimely death - even though it’s still named after him). #Sluis #ZeeuwsVlaanderen

Met Giorgia Meloni’s ‘meerderheidsbonus’ ontsnapt ook de geest van Mussolini uit de fles

Tonight’s cinema trip was Karmele - a Basque story based on a true family, involving exile and return, political resistance and torture. I think it didn’t *quite* hang together because they tried to fit in a lot of story. But enjoyable and Euskadi a beautiful setting. youtu.be/ojyVJDH0_zE?...

If I can Shazam your car stereo music from the balcony of my third floor flat, you should turn the volume down (and examine your musical choices)

The European Commission has proposed extending temporary protection for millions of Ukrainians until March 2028 while excluding new arrivals who leave Ukraine illegally to evade military service. www.kyivpost.com/post/79046

Bit late for a government alert on the heatwave.

Dutch far-right politician who campaigned on "keeping women safe" found guilty of three rapes of underage children and child pornography offences.

Not just in the UK that right wingers are being annoying about 1976 (to be clear, Jelmer is being sarcastic). Also shout out to Belgium’s right wing defence minister who said we should just sit in our swimming pool with a beer and enjoy the summer.

Very clear and also the solution seems obvious, even from the standpoint of politics. Slash pensions or have a European Defence Union? Not hard.

"The conversation in Jacobabad has already moved beyond questions of liveability. It is becoming a question of survivability" www.dawn.com/news/2009970...

6h15 and 23°, lowest temperature in 96 hours. Getting a moment of comparative cool breeze on the balcony before the heat returns.

"Hey, remember when actions had consequences? Crazy times."

Tosca is off the battlements of the Castel Sant’Angelo and it’s the end of another season at La Monnaie / De Munt for @dzyrl.bsky.social and me. Tosca this evening was good though with some distracting production choices. Highlights for me were Falstaff and new commission Ali.

Article on a train that is "the future of high speed rail in the United States" - but still, I suppose it has air conditioning...

Our paper on the future financing of the EU: we analyse options for new revenue sources in the EU budget 2028-2034. A financial transaction tax, a digital tax, taxes on cryptocurrency and online gambling, aviation-related levies, taxes on the ultra-wealthy could generate revenues: 🧵

Ironic to see Reform being forced to chase a far right party's agenda. Hopefully will give some space for the Tories to grow a spine and put a clear dividing line between the democratic right and the authoritarian right.

Nearly a quarter of voters in Europe now back far-right parties Analysis by more than 150 political scientists finds proportion who back such parties has increased nearly fivefold since 1995 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

French Resistance fighter and historian Marc Bloch, murdered by the Gestapo in 1944, is inducted into Panthéon in Paris.

Looking forward to Tosca at La Monnaie this evening. Something tells me the production will really capture the sweltering, oppressive heat of a Roman summer.

How to tell a choir is from the UK: not one but two mentions of cake in their blurb 🤣 (Singing Proud Nottingham)

Duizenden Belgen vochten vanuit Europa mee in de Spaanse Burgeroorlog (1936-1939), die leidde tot de fascistische dictatuur van generaal Francisco Franco. Toch is die Belgische link weinig bekend. Historicus Vincent Scheltiens Ortigosa schreef er een boek over. apache.be/2026/06/25/v...

Listening to @robertsaunders.bsky.social talking about Brexit on @ppfideas.bsky.social. He argues that the Cameron renegotiation was more significant than was thought at the time - but omits the point that by having “leave” and “drift apart” on the ballot paper as a binary choice it excluded

Even ter herinnering - de Vlaamse overheid een federale hittegolfplan heeft geblokkeerd omdat … Vlamingen er trots op zouden zijn om voor de Vlaamse onafhankelijkheid te sterven? Of iets?

Worth noting that CR was credibly accused of rape www.spiegel.de/internationa..., something authoritarian/fascist regimes are famous for supporting or at minimum looking the other way about. Also, while Messi has done sponsorships with Saudi, he didn’t choose to play out his career there.

Amazing.

Join our team! We are looking for a Director, UK Government to become a core member of our senior team. You will build our new UK Government team to make government work well for the people of the UK. ⏰ Applications close on Monday 27 July, 10am www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/about-us/car...

To what extent is the failure to address the climate crisis a driver in a loss of trust in democracy and democratic institutions? Are other major unsolved societal challenges driving disillusion and distrust more?

Two hours' sleep is not helping me focus on a very non-interactive conference programme today.

Taxe kilométrique / kilometerheffing (per-km charge for all vehicles inside the city boundary). In Brussels, drivers from the Rand (the towns and suburbs outside the city) clog the streets and reduce air quality for city centre residents, who mostly don't have cars and use public transport or walk.

Perhaps this is one way advertising works? Here's a thread I found in English: bsky.app/profile/medi...

I generally think that Belgium works quite well, considering, but people should be more angry that Flanders was able to block the creation of a national heatwave plan for the petty politics of nationalism and the suicidal politics of climate scepticism.

the future looks like the past. these people most resemble the "anarchist wave" of terrorism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The year is 2026 AD. All France is occupied the canicule. All? No! One small region of indomitable Bretons still holds out against melted butter…

Just finished reading the long, relentlessly grim @newyorker.com piece by @heidiblake.bsky.social on the Tate Brothers and all I’ll say is that almost every man mentioned in it, and a few of the women, need to spend a very long time in prison. www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/t...

Dutch research from Dian van Huijstee at @vuamsterdam.bsky.social : fact checking works to correct people's factual knowledge, but not the effect of the fake story on their worldview. www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/g... h/t @kutheks.bsky.social

I've just had 48 hours of policy meetings in London and I feel the need to do Tom Friedman "the people are saying" piece, but sadly the only bit of wisdom I got from the taxi driver was that you can't do a U-turn at the top of Southwark Bridge.

Listening to Belgian political journalists trying to explain First Past the Post to their listeners was grimly amusing. In the context of Starmer but also in the context of two right wing parties wanting to bring the system to Belgium. (Unlikely to happen) overcast.fm/+AA2wyeWe1WU

What if governments have been governing to a public opinion that never existed? @pauliewaulie.bsky.social argues that the real political battlefield isn’t what people think, rather it’s what people think other people think. 1/5🧵 medium.com/@pauliewauli...

RIP Yves Lacoste. He created the possibility of thinking critically about geopolitics, wresting it from the right.

How are things in Belfast? Are the people with Legitimate Concerns about paedophilia attacking unionist politicians’ homes in response to the Donaldson verdict? They aren’t? How strange. Their Concerns seemed so Legitimate when they were burning foreigners out of their homes a few weeks back.