European foreign ministers in the dark about a US-Russia pact on Ukraine, first reported by Axios

City of London this afternoon #architecturephotography #blackandwhite #bnw

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish prime minister says weekend rail line explosion near Warsaw was act of 'sabotage'

A rare glimmer of good news, with many caveats, but still. The ban on neonicotinoids appears to be helping the recovery of bird populations

Today is #RLSDay which marks the birthday of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson who would have been 175 today. It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵

In memoriam 13.11.2015 (photo from May 2016)

Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut. Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect! 2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse... #MosaicMonday #Archaeology

PARIS (AP) – France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy to be released from prison under judicial supervision, a Paris court says

Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analyzed them in 2004. Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.

"Fedora man" is a 15yo boy who takes sartorial inspiration from Poirot and other mid-20th century detectives. “When something unusual happens, you don’t imagine a normal detective,” he said. “You imagine someone different.” Gem of an interview by AP's Thomas Adamson, who's also a fashion writer

Bad news from Georgia where Georgian Dream is banning the opposition and charging its main leaders with plotting a coup.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

'I stood with the dead so forsaken and still, when dawn was grey I stood with the dead' Siegfried Sassoon Battle-scarred at barracks, Ypres, 1917 by Frank Hurley.

Beep beep, Bermondsey

If Pokrovsk falls, it could pave the way for Russia to take the rest of the Donbas - a key goal for Putin. It could also influence US perceptions about the war and sway the course of peace negotiations. @apnews.com story with interviews from the front line and analysis 👇

Police said officers were alerted Wednesday night when a man reported that he noticed the shape of a swastika applied in a reddish liquid on a parked car. A test revealed that the substance was human blood. Almost 50 cars had been defaced

New anti-drone system in Poland, Romania and Denmark. "The American Merops system, which is small enough to fit in the back of a midsize pickup truck, can identify drones and close in on them, using artificial intelligence to navigate when satellite and electronic communications are jammed."

This time it's Belgium. Drones * forced the closure of Brussels airport last night * were spotted last weekend around the Kleine-Brogel military base where US nuclear weapons are stored * also spotted last month around the Elsenhorn military base, near the German border

"A good way to learn German is to read children's books to familiarise yourself with basic grammar and vocabulary" German children's book:

Perfectly normal Saturday afternoon in Bermondsey, yes

The big rally is underway in Novi Sad. A change of tactics from Vucic, who apologised to protesters for calling them agents of Western intelligence. Protesters are having none of it #serbia

Give me a story more French than the Louvre heist, no, not like that, it's too French

Spirulina Macaron. Second (and final) President of the French Sixth Republic, served February 2nd-7th, 2033.

Serbia's Gen Z protesters are on the move, marching to Novi Sad from Belgrade for a major rally on Saturday. They stopped in the town of Indjija overnight. The mayor, a Vucic ally, refused to let them use a sports hall, so residents put out mattresses and bedding for them in the streets

Every year on #Halloween we carve a #Pumpkin from our collection of Penguin Books. 🎃 We're up to our elbows here in juicy plots and seedy characters. Luckily there's not much pulp fiction. 🎃

La Joconde attendant le bus après avoir quitté le musée du Louvre. Paris.

When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there. Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found. Happy Halloween everyone. Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman

Weather good, we are gradually working our way north in search of the Loch Ness Monster.

The door of St-Gatien cathedral in Tours, France (photo from September 2025) #adoorableThursday

I'm dressing up as actually more of a comment than a question

Young Serbs are on the march towards Novi Sad for the 1st anniversary of the train station collapse that led to a year of protests. Tens of thousands expected to join the demonstration, piling pressure on Vucic. @apnews.com story here

D66 in the lead, Wilders' party down but another far-right party, Ja21, jumps from 1 seat to 9. Complex results from the Dutch elections and it'll take a long time to form a government

The sequence of this announcement is interesting. The Romanians announced first that the US was drawing down 1,000 troops on Nato's eastern flank - only later was the move confirmed by the US military. Poland & Lithuania say they haven't been told of any drawdowns.

Spoiler alert: it's in Hamburg. Thread well worth a read. Nature is healing

this headline hums with ancient autumnal dread

The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast' 10/10 response, no notes

Now it's Lithuania's turn, apparently

Such empathy with these huddled beasts on a 10th/11thC whalebone chesspiece, perhaps a rook or a bishop, snuggling up against cold and damp autumn days… www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

The descent to the Underworld is easy. Night and day the gates of shadowy Death stand open wide, but to retrace your steps, to climb back to the upper air— there the struggle, there the labor lies. Virgil, Aeneid: 6.149–152, tr. Robert Fagles

Bronze Portrait of Marcus Aurelius. AD 160-170 AD. Found at a Roman frontier fort at Dunaszekcsó (ancient Lugo) on the banks of the Danube in Hungary. Currently at the state exhibition, Rheinisches landesmuseum, Trier. On loan from Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs. 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

Trump will meet Putin in Hungary

There is no cat in this photo

In a potential indicator of Russia's post-Putin foreign policy, intelligence services loyal to the balding man sitting on the right spent 8 years trying to kill the bearded man sitting on the left

I'm saving the second one for future use. Likely to come in handy, sooner rather than later

There are four house martins feeding above my head. They’re six inches long and are about to travel 6,000 miles. That’s about 63 million times their body length. The lunatics.

The tomb of Robert Badinter, who led the campaign to abolish the death penalty and decriminalise homosexuality in France, has been vandalised with graffiti - on the day of his induction into the Pantheon

Olive harvest in Primrose Hill

I hereby declare Belgrade reconnected to the rest of Europe from today! MAV is selling through tickets Budapest-Belgrade from €26. (Photo courtesy of @hvondelen.bsky.social)