A quick reminder that a lot of people find this time of year very difficult - and even people who seem fine can be really struggling to stay afloat. If you think you know someone like this, call! send them a message! send a stupid gif or meme! It’ll take you 20 seconds & could literally save a life

Kaja Kallas: we have to be really clear-eyed. We have one aggressor and one victim. And the one that needs security guarantees is Ukraine, not Russia. In last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries, some as many as three or four times. None of those countries has ever attacked Russia

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

“A world where China and the US both wish to eat the EU’s economic lunch, and Russia harbours darker designs to the east, is no place for a romantic view of multilateralism..Europeans deserve far better than a continent made fit for Elon Musk.Time to fight back.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If European Digital Sovereignty is to mean anything, it ought to mean NOT posting on a platform owned and run by a fascist intent on undermining the EU! And don't give me the bullshit you have to be there for "balance" or "reach" - the rules are stacked against you from the outset

This book could not be more timely on the day Trump has been named the most influential person in Europe by Politico. And there is nobody who writes with more vim and verve about America’s domination of Europe than @davekeating.substack.com. I’m ordering my copy now.

Article 5 is now not just dead, but three times cremated and then buried at sea

From R. Crumb's satirical "City of the Future" in Zap Comix (1968)

“Europe is losing confidence, sinking into fatalism and justifying its passivity with the soothing thought that it has no real choice, as its cards are weak.” Excellebt op-ed by @sbeverts.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/euro...

This chart (which applies even more to social media than it did to TV) lives in my head rent free. Social media enveloping traditional media means everything and everyone is now competing in the entertainment market. Boring stuff like policy that affects millions of lives doesn’t stand a chance.

Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man

“The project is described as a prime example of 'belgo-belge' politics, where regional-federal tensions, party rivalries and symbolic posturing have overtaken practical problem-solving.” www.brusselstimes.com/1829144/schu...

In short, the ANES data shows: 📉 Social media use is shrinking 💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right 🧩 Platforms are splintering 🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme

Great reporting from my parents’ hometown of Caerphilly - where the leftist nationalist party Plaid Cymru saw off a threat from Farage’s far-right Reform party in a bitter by-election.

The Netherlands has issues but is an extraordinarily successful society - rich, safe, healthy and beautiful, with outstanding public services. Unfortunately a lot of people take this for granted, and believe politicians who claim to be patriots while claiming everything is terrible

It is wild that the 🇺🇸 Vice President is calling senior Republican staffers, men in their 30s, "young boys" in order to excuse their leaked racist, sexist and Hitler-praising text messages. open.substack.com/pub/jill/p/t...

POLITICO prediction vs reality.

Christ this is grim, seeing it laid out this way. The far right is now the most popular party in the UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland… Unprecedented

"We took the freedom of speech away," says the president

The EU: big on the small things, small on the big.

‘The Brussels bubble has found its voice. Unfortunately, it’s ChatGPT’s’. Brilliant, amusing, rant against AI slop in EU circles where dull, samey writing was already a problem.

Incredible insider account of Trump’s ignorance and petulance. But also of how effective his temper tantrums and bullying taxtics are. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

It’s refreshing to hear someone - Zach Polanski, new leader of the UK Green Party - actually making the case for migration as a good thing. Not a view you hear very often at the moment, even from those ostensibly on the centre left www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

exactly like the Chinese surveillance state

Further proof that Britain’s far-right Reform Party is full of Putin puppets.

“Trump and Putin – like-minded, amoral, authoritarian apex predators – are working together, or at least in parallel, to undercut European democracy, security, prosperity and progressive values. It looks like a concerted pincer movement. It feels like 1939.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is the real threat to free speech.

Question to the room: which social channels do you use for EU-related communications? X: Almost no one raises hand. BlueSky or Mastodon: Almost no one. LinkedIn: Almost everyone. #EUinfluencer

I KNEW IT!! it’s official, Dutch only makes sense if you’re drunk

Don't kill anyone. Don't spread hate. How about we all agree on that?

Europe sacrificing its sovereignty for US protection came with two risks, writes @davekeating.substack.com - "that the US would become disinterested, or that the US would become adversarial. We are now in a nightmare situation where the US has become both." open.substack.com/pub/davekeat...

“European federalists, rejoice! The European Union finally has a bona fide president. The only problem: He lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., aka the White House.” Spot-on op-ed lead by @nicholasvinocur.bsky.social

"Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu declared that 'all Gaza will be Jewish' and the Israeli government 'is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out'" In the Knesset on Tuesday "participants spoke of Gaza as an ideal site to relieve Israel’s housing crunch"

No. Next question.

Highway to Halle headline, surely?

An extraordinary front page from a newspaper not normally known for its leftwing sympathies. The tide is slowly, belatedly turning.

Far right conspiracist grifters form a far more globalized network than the WEF could ever dream of

Mythical Belgium: Ahead of national day I write about the seven awe-inspiring places that make me proud to live in this cool, quirky country. 🇧🇪

Do you know the words to the Belgian national anthem? Do you accelerate after you’ve passed speed cameras? And do you prefer ketchup or mayonnaise with your frites/fritjes? As Belgian national day approaches, find out how Belgian you are by taking my tongue-in-cheek test.

New drawing: Hire bike Notes on this cartoon: open.substack.com/pub/diagramc...

"Les Engagés has appointed someone to lead University Hospital of Liège, and someone else to head the Spa-Francorchamps circuit while MR was given the choice over ONE." Pretty staggering how public posts in Belgium are divvied up according to political affiliation. And family ties in Bouchez's case.

A Brussels Times investigation reveals a public sector where systemic blurring of norms has led to potential budgetary fraud.

The UN is dying. Will anyone fight to save it? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I honestly can’t imagine hearing 14 homeless refugee girls (girls!) are coming to live in your town and thinking: let’s go and smash the home up and set fire to it before the girls get here. People are despicable sometimes - and the leaders who rile them up are worse www.dutchnews.nl/2025/07/prot...

Fourteen million deaths. Remember this next time a Republican says they’re “pro life” www.ft.com/content/945a...