I am once again begging American conservatives who have Big Thoughts on how European leaders should tackle populists to pay attention to what is *actually happening* on migration policy, rather than meme themselves into seeing US '23 conditions everywhere all the time www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...

Israel’s “centrists” are bashing Netanyahu for not committing enough war crimes. It should really tell us something about Israeli society that the opposition sees their way to a majority in painting Netanyahu as weak on war.

"Following the initial strike, several rescue vehicles arrived at the scene and were in turn targeted by Israeli fire."

Would not surprise me if, between Meloni losing her referendum, Trump completely losing his mind and Orbán losing power, we’ll see this government recalibrate some of its positions. Today’s suspension of the security memorandum with Israel might be a first indicator of that.

This is what’s left of Khiam village in South Lebanon after Israel detonated it all Khiam is where Israel ran their notorious torture site during the first occupation

One could not tell from this post that Israel launched an operation called “Eternal Darkness” on Lebanon, that it deliberately targets rescue workers, flattens entire villages, cleanses South Lebanon of its Shia population and has announced a plan of indefinite occupation of Lebanese land.

Average GOP Congressman: We err...uhhh...don't uh need uh...oversight of the DoD because uh...we trust the President to decide what's best Donald Trump: I AM JESUS CHRIST RETURNED TO EARTH THE POPE ISN'T MAGA AND HE'S WEAK ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS I AM GOING TO BUILD A HOTEL ON THE MOON

2010: massive Orbán win 2014: massive Orban win 2018: massive Orban win 2022: massive Orban win 2024: Goodwin visits, starts promoting Orban regime 2026:

💥🇭🇺🗳️First results of the Hungarian parliamentary elections are in: with 14.72% counted, the opposition leads with mandates nearing a two-thirds majority. Everything points to Viktor Orbán’s defeat and Péter Magyar becoming Hungary’s next prime minister.

How plausible is it that Israel attacks Hezbollah’s intelligence command centers, targeting infrastructure and elite combat units more than one month into an ongoing war? Vs. the alternative of gratuitous attacks on civilians to punish Lebanon?

Reminiscing about my time living in DC. If you've lived in DC or spent time there, especially in the Cap Hill area, let's look at some of the places you could be killed for being in range of the blast radius of a Mk 84 2000lb bomb dropped by the USAF or Israeli Air Force on a legitimate target

Lebanon’s medics and hospitals are coming under fire as Israel accelerates its war against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Doctors say the attacks on Lebanon's health system remind them of similar tactics used in Gaza.

I see a lot of people wondering whether info from the Iranian regime is to be trusted more than statements from Trump, but it appears markets already made their decision.

“All of those countries that can’t sell oil and gas because of the Strait of Hormuz, like my good friends in the GCC, which were very obliging in letting me use their territory in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you…”

Gifts aside, I’m sure Russian and American congressmen had lots of things to bond over with, like being members of a constitutional body that is bypassed on consequential decisions like whether or not the country goes to war.

“Ich bin ein Prophet und gelte nichts im eigenen Land” - gez. der Bundeskanzler

Diese Berichterstattung von @deutschewelle.dw.com ist einfach nur das unkritische Übersetzen israelischer Regierungsstatements ins Deutsche.

Détente dauerte auch schonmal länger.

"Noone has the intention to bring about conditions that are incompatible with human life."

Es ist nicht so lange her, als man bei der Welt im Kontext deutscher Innenpolitik noch sehr tief hinabblickte auf das Argument des "Beifalls von der falschen Seite".

Israel used white phosphorus to burn nearly 5,000 acres of south Lebanon’s countryside in order to push Lebanese people out of their homes.

"What do you think of U.S. foreign policy?" "I think it would be a good idea."

Italy, 2nd SWG poll: Constitutional referendum on the Judicial system reform No: 50-54% (+1) Yes: 46-50% (-1) +/- vs. 1st poll ➤ europeelects.eu/italy

Trump has given Israel over 35,000 of these bombs since returning to office, costing US taxpayers billions of dollars. After two and a half years of using these bombs to commit genocide in Gaza, Israel is now using them to carpet bomb residential areas in Lebanon.

He should ask last week’s Merz who understood American intentions so well he smugly talked down to fellow European leaders for saying something.

How it started vs. how it’s going.

Wonder who those other Western intermediaries are and whether they had anything to say at all about Israel threatening collective punishment (while already enacting it on the ground for a long time, but that’s by the by).

One country’s reason to downgrade diplomatic relations with Israel is another country’s reason to send its Foreign Minister for demonstrative solidarity.

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public. I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are. 1/ Here's what I can share:

Here’s Yair Lapid arguing for annexation of parts of Lebanon because it hosts an armed terrorist group.

There’s a very Wiggum-esque quality to leaders like Merz, who voiced full-throated support at the outset of the Iran war but then are dismayed that this war has consequences. There was only one Iran war on the menu, and that’s the one we are going to get.

Once again, the “sovereigntists” suffer from being strapped to the foreign policy of not one but two other powers.

What planet does Merz spend most of his time on if the thinks that an American president that is dismantling democracy at home will start building it in Iran?

Europe, and first and foremost Germany, enabled the Gazafication of Gaza. And now we will watch as the total disregard for the laws of war and for the civilians it seeks to protect becomes a tool in the toolbox of Israel’s Middle Eastern strategy, to be unleashed on the whole region.

You know what, Vance was right, the biggest threat to Europe is internal. But it’s not the imagined oppression at the hands of woke elites, it’s European officials who think that if they submit hard enough to Trump we will be spared.

Needless to say, my thoughts on foreign policy are fairly irrelevant. That’s why I don’t get published in the Atlantic. The invasion of Iraq cleared both congressional and public opinion hurdles, and yet was a disaster, for the USA but first and foremost for the region.

Leave it to American commentators to give you the most self-absorbed reasons for why war in the Middle East that further emboldens Israel’s revisionist agenda is a bad idea.

"Fouqha and his ambulance crew were then forced to watch on helplessly as Jad lay bleeding from his wounds. The paramedic said they watched for at least 35 minutes, unable to do anything. [...] The IDF has said that Jad threw a rock and was a 'terrorist' who 'attempted to attack the force'."

Can we please not fall for this? He is not even trying to pretend convincingly, and at any rate his influence on American foreign policy-making seems rather marginal. The only interest the Trump admin has in not abandoning Europe is that all its leverage would disappear overnight if it did.

Trump support in the US is slowly whittling down to his (still sizable) core MAGA base, despite their propaganda and knowing their target group. With Trump already unpopular over here, them trying to shift opinion in Europe, which exists in MAGA heads only as a caricature, could easily backfire.

Quite the comeback for the CDA, from five seats in the previous Parliament to having Ministers of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Economy.

The NYT still thinks Trump's claims about immigrants stealing elections is a disagreement about facts. But MAGA supporters undoubtedly understand the message: namely that a system of elections that allows MAGA to lose is not worth having. Everything else is a footnote to that story.

I am sure all the people — and countries — that trashtalked the UN because a country like Saudi Arabia also sat on its Human Rights Council will want nothing to do with this Board of Peace contraption.

Generative AI is the devil, but this is genius. And what a song! www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ln...

"If Europe wants to retain its independence, it needs to commit to action. The anti-coercion instrument, for all its faults, is the best option that Europe has. It should start the process of activating it, and quickly announce the specific measures it would impose."

Germany's sane parties really should start hammering the AfD for their ties to MAGA, *before* their apathy leads enough voters to believe that MAGA ideology is just the new normal that one has to find some sort of arrangement with. And the AfD could not make it easier for them.

@abenewman.bsky.social is right. There is an alternative. as.ft.com/r/7b8f914c-f...