Ha, this Polish saying has already been assimilated into English enough to end up in Cambridge Dictionary, first English-language dictionary other than Wiktionary to include it. It's become popular in English in the last few years, starting mostly with its use in Orange Is the New Black in 2017 🐦🐦

I really hope that whoever got the assignment "please embarrass IDIOT DUMB DEMOCRATS by making a SPOOF OF THAT MYSPACE THING, but it's DEMS BEING ANTIFA TRANS" will write a memoir someday

🇮🇹🐺🌴👦👦

I will never not be amused by airports that decided around 2010 to label everything in Chinese and Russian, betting on a massive wave of middle class tourists from 🇷🇺🇨🇳 to be The Next Big Thing. At least now Ukrainians can easily find their way around, I guess.

🇵🇱✈️🇩🇪✈️🇮🇹

It seems Trump will stop at nothing in his quest to turn the White House into a suburban Warsaw wedding reception venue.

Some good news - Latvia REMAINS a party to the Istanbul Convention. For now. Facing unprecedented civil society mobilisation, and after the president refused to sign the withdrawal law, the parliament voted to postpone the decision on the Istanbul Convention until after the October 2026 elections.

The fact that in Polish it's "Burmistrz Nowego Jorku" but it's "Prezydent Warszawy" will never not be funny.

This isn't the only takeaway of Mamdani's victory, but it is the most important one www.ft.com/content/92bf...

🇺🇸🗳️🇪🇸 My favourite part of this US voting cycle is that when Newsom decided to tear down the Schwarzenegger redistricting system, the Terminator himself pushed back by *checks the story* going to Comic Con in Malaga to high-five European cosplayers and sign some t-shirts.

I did a lecture on the impact of Brexit on British politics. Watch it here if you're really bored www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqL...

🇵🇱⚖️🇬🇧 The European Convention on Human Rights turns 75 today! Everyone in this biz has a convention story, be it as an applicant, litigator, researcher, judge or sometimes a government agent before ECtHR. My Convention story is one about Patrick Stewart. 1/

Zohran Mamdani: "So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up."

Shock as Orbán allies buy Hungary’s most-read newspaper

Kinda funny watching all the people who wrote me "get deported, Euro trash" four days ago now share stuff about how comms based around hope and positivity is how you defeat darkness.

🇵🇱⚖️🇬🇧 The European Convention on Human Rights turns 75 today! Everyone in this biz has a convention story, be it as an applicant, litigator, researcher, judge or sometimes a government agent before ECtHR. My Convention story is one about Patrick Stewart. 1/

Safe to say that the "don't speak ill of the dead" concept might not survive 2025.

Romania is a bit more complex. N.Dan is not a liberal in truth, he is best seen as being firstly from the non-party system and as a representative of civic society Personally he is quite a religious conservative

🚨 Surprise drop in our podcast feed: a powerful report from Serbia. Our producer Wojciech is in Novi Sad, where protesters marked a year since a deadly rail tragedy—and showed how peaceful resistance can still move the needle, even in tough political times. www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes...

AI is rewriting the rules — and we are keeping democracy in the loop at DisinfoCon 2025! 🚀We are back! This year’s edition explores the uncharted territories at the intersection of technology and democracy and we are bringing together civil society, policymakers, journalists and AI innovators ⬇️

🇵🇱⚖️Polish legal academia boomers calling eldritch 40yo millennials "young lawyers" who "need to get some experience first" will never not be hilarious. Remember, you're not a serious participant in public discourse in this country until you hit 50.

🇪🇺⚖️Probably not the best thing to read in @politico.eu Brussels Playbook today if you're working at Commission's DG JUST. Looking forward to the analysis by @liberties.eu on the part of the EU rule of law toolbox that increasingly fails to live up to its promise.

⚖️🗺️Our friends at World Justice Project just released the 2025 edition of the Rule of Law Index. Unsurprisingly, they found an accelerating decline in the state of the rule of law globally. Let's take a look at Central & Eastern Europe and how this trend plays out there. 1/

🇺🇸⚖️🗳️ Betteridge's law of headlines strikes back.

Conference participation question: Would you agree to attend a symposium on the rule of law in an expert capacity in a situation where the conference organisers have also sought to invite fake judges and pseudo experts in the name of “dialogue”, “political balance” and/or “diversity of views”?

Eurostar is 75% state owned (55% SNCF 🇫🇷 state, 20% SNCB 🇧🇪 state) and is a monopoly on cross channel routes BUT it sets prices like a rent seeking capitalist What can 🇬🇧 do to up capacity and drive down prices? It can’t control Eurostar. So it can try adding competition How else can you proceed?

This surge in applications from the US comes at a time where the grant and job market in Europe is already *very* competitive. Unless Europe invests more in science and higher education this influx of talent will put a squeeze on an already fragile system. www.ft.com/content/cd80...

Ditching France and ECOWAS for Russia is going as expected for Very Serious and Important Men in Camo Uniforms.

The Netherlands should end its 31 years of counter-drugs cooperation with the US in the Caribbean Sea. By illegally killing alleged drug traffickers, the US not only tarnishes its reputation, but also that of its partners in the Joint Interagency Task Force South. www.eanews.com/30-years-col...

🇪🇸🇮🇸🇩🇪🇬🇧🇵🇱 I appreciate the idea of Rosalía's "Berghain" being the new European anthem, but I keep thinking about whether the fact that the video was shot in Warsaw isn't some metaphor for CEE being the assembly line/outsourcing place/logistics centre for the West.

🇺🇸 Mildly tempted to start a "hot takes on American politics and life" Substack and retire happily in the Dutch Antilles (thanks @mollyquell.bsky.social for the idea).

Didn't figure MTG for an Event Horizon fan but it's a free country I guess

This took a while, but it's finally dawning upon some people that American far-right obsession with Israel is really about *checks notes* how close to Christianity is whoever controls the fields of Megiddo when the trumpets go off.

Belarus continues to lock up anyone who criticizes the government. The Belarusian journalists Igor Ilyash and Katsiaryna Andreyeva, who are married, have both been detained for their work — showing how President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s repressive machine grinds on despite warming ties with the U.S.

🇮🇹🍷Happy to inform you all that Veneto whites are not as famous but just as good as reds.

Dutch anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders goes full Trump, claiming on X after he lost the election that there are reports of vote fraud. Also claimed the election authority was not neutral. Tearing down the pillars of Dutch democracy. nos.nl/l/2588722

This spectacular @thetimes.com screw-up deserves much wider attention. It’s the second bullshit story that the “paper of record” has deleted in a week after Monday’s attempted hatchet job on @torstenbell.bsky.social. A sad descent for a once serious paper

This is what happens when you confuse Europa Universalis with reality and start wondering why the "convert faith" button doesn't work on your family members.

💥🇭🇺 For Hungary watchers: a detailed inside look at Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party's recent internal crisis — how they underestimated opposition leader Péter Magyar and how all the traps they set for him backfired. Orbán's spring offensive against Magyar even caused tensions within the government.

If cemeteries create a community of both the living and the dead, what happens when the living get displaced? Case in point: German cemeteries in the PL "Recovered Lands." All Saints' Day is a good day to reflect on what happens to memory in the absence of those who remember. 🧵(not an easy read)

🇵🇱🪦One consequence of my intense dislike of Warsaw is that only now I got to visit the Powązki cemetery. Very climatic, but the persistent police heli hovering above the place kind of ruins the atmosphere.

The educated liberal big city US folks outraged at Trump's renovation of Lincoln bathroom really need to scroll some Facebook of their less established relatives and friends to see what kind of aesthetic resonates with Trump's target audience.

The most French news ever

🇵🇱🚅🇵🇱 Sometimes, PKP is something new, cool and hopeful for the future of Polish rail. Sometimes, PKP is a 2nd class carriage in place of 1st class, with both entry doors broken and vintage XX century 8-person compartments without power sockets.

⚖️🗺️Our friends at World Justice Project just released the 2025 edition of the Rule of Law Index. Unsurprisingly, they found an accelerating decline in the state of the rule of law globally. Let's take a look at Central & Eastern Europe and how this trend plays out there. 1/

💻🇵🇱 I would like once again to meet in a dark alley the person at Zoom who decided that "Alt+C" is the shortcut for starting the recording (context - it's the shortcut for "ć" in Polish [programmer] keyboard layout)

With all the caveats that the far right hasn't been weakened, only splintered in the Netherlands, it's still very good to see an election where liberal democracy is not on the line and a government with a pro-European outlook is back in sight

This year's Batman annual still remembers who the heroes and villains are, even if everyone else has forgotten

Who’s keeping #AI accountable & who’s just a bystander? From #LLMs shaping civic info to generative media decorating political campaigns, AI is quietly influencing what we see, think & vote. At #DisinfoCon2025, CSOs are taking the driver's seat to how AI systems can be audited & held responsible⬇️