this site really needs a big thread of commentary of the new year celebrations around the world

Bye to 2025, which tasted as dubious as this cloudy violet tide cocktail on ice. Meet you soon, 2026

And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last Good riddance, 2025

12. Bayer, Patrick, and @fgenovese.bsky.social. 2025. ‘Climate Policy Costs, Regional Politics and Backlash against International Cooperation’. @bjpols.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

To be fair, immigration lawyers and public law academics have been warning about the increasing power of ministers re deprivation of citizenship for years now, also in light of the substantially unchecked discretion that courts have granted the government in the exercise of said powers

that time of the year in which I google “can a cold last two months” every other day

that time of the year in which I google “can a cold last two months” every other day

in case you were missing talking points for the dinner with the conservative part of the family these holidays 🫠

A modest wish for 2026: for the big European newspapers to up investments in quality newsletters/serious dispatches from the East.

judging from how many US citizens are boarding on my imminent Eurostar train, lots of Americans are into self-harm, enjoying way too much the very destructive moral ideas behind our big capitals’ lifestyle

The time between Christmas and New Year's eve

Just in time for Christmas: a great interview with an absolute legend. Theda Skocpol and Edwin Amenta on her career, US politics, the erosion of democracy, and most of all, what to do about it. sociologica.unibo.it/article/view...

On 26 December 1965, Franca Viola, then aged 16, is kidnapped from her home in Alcamo. She is raped by her ex-fiancé, who then puts pressure on her and her family to accept a "rehabilitating marriage". Franca becomes the first woman in Italy to publicly refuse this practice [Thread] >> 1

Wow this story. Want to understand the opposition to wind energy? See what @timmonsroberts.bsky.social has been telling us ...

Been meaning to continue reading a book on Italy’s 20th century history so today I cracked open the 1920s chapter and it really does feel like reading the news in 2025.

the housing crisis is a tragedy, the Pope gets it

This is madness Washington is increasingly brazen in its offensive against our right to make our own laws and hold our own values www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

All I want for Christmas is less fascism around the world

**so** excited about this, not least because various scenes were shot last year in Favignana and the Aeloian islands of Sicily, which is historically associated with several key episodes of the epic 💙🌊🌬️

Bob and I were among the hundreds of researchers that were supposed to conduct the 6th U.S. National Climate Assessment. Now it looks like they're gonna produce it with a few people and Grok? Communities need rigorous and accurate information about climate change. This will put communities at risk.

Come and join us at the CEE - Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée: we are looking for a new assistant professor in political science working on ecological transitions. www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etude...

Excellent thoughts and notes, but recall that in 2025 there is not really such a thing as a “center” in EU politics — here we are really talking about the political right rowing back on climate ambition due to fear of being eaten by the far rights.

Excellent thoughts and notes, but recall that in 2025 there is not really such a thing as a “center” in EU politics — here we are really talking about the political right rowing back on climate ambition due to fear of being eaten by the far rights.

People say 2025 was the year of greenlash. Ofc it was at the political *elite* level. However, far less obvious if it was among the public, which gets climate only to a certain extent and is malleable to frames. Among the public climate volatility is still scary and energy transition appealing. 🧵

Ofc we know from history that economic instability/stagnation is bad for political stability, and good to show the patterns of inevitable polarization consequences. But stop w/ pro immigration, green and pro housing Mamdani or Polanski being extreme “anti system flanks”. The center is not immovable

People say 2025 was the year of greenlash. Ofc it was at the political *elite* level. However, far less obvious if it was among the public, which gets climate only to a certain extent and is malleable to frames. Among the public climate volatility is still scary and energy transition appealing. 🧵

Sincerely hope my supervisor, mentor and examiners think the same, because the job market is not improving...

Happy and frankly privileged to do it, but:

Right, Kemi, because the best way of defying a murderous petrostate like Russia is to keep Britain hooked on fossil fuels.

Matthew Goodwin objects to prosecuting this: ‘I think it’s time for the British to gang together, hit the streets and start the slaughter. Violence and murder is the only way now. Start off burning every migrant hotel then head off to MPs’ houses and Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE.’

Because our politics is in such a terrible place, I think we downplay quite how awful Kemi Badenoch has been. In any other era the leader of the Conservatives saying 'only migrants commit sex crimes - mass deportations now' would have not just been career ending but would've sunk the whole party

I don’t think I have ever actively read anything by Matthew Yglesias, and surely I won’t start from an oped on how, to beat Trump, centrist Democrats (not the lefty part, ew!) should continue supporting fossil fuels like… they already mostly do

And remember to highlight in particular the *benefits* that a healthy EV market can have for the economy *at home* (the abroad scenario has less of an effect). @patrickbayer.bsky.social and I have the evidence for that: direct.mit.edu/glep/article...

this xmas, at the fourth hour of the family dinner, do the world a favour and talk to your conservative uncle about the global EV market

we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt - a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage - 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...

Another authoritarian attack with huge global repercussions. Scientists *everywhere* rely on NCAR models. Eg, local authorities in the Global South rely on it to try to predict disasters. Rep’s think this is their move on the “climate culture wars”, but this decision would literally kill people.

NCAR is quite literally our global mothership. Everyone who works in climate and weather has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources. Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet. Unbelievable.

💥📉 A fresh bombshell poll in Hungary by a reputable pollster shows Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz trailing opposition leader Péter Magyar’s TISZA, 36–53. Despite throwing everything at Magyar in recent weeks, the gap has only widened. Just four months to go until Hungary's parliamentary election.

Confirmed — *and* so is the continued rapprochement of the UK to the EU internal energy/electricity market ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

School chat, first week of autumn: “please remember the uniform color code says socks are dark grey (neither dark brown nor black)” Same chat, last week before Xmas: “this week my kid has lost two jumpers, three shirts, and came back shoes-less on Monday, will the school notice”

No, this is actually a concession to China and other emerging giants in the Global South (India). These have been pushing the EU hard on CBAM at COP30 and India has been upset about this since inception in 2022/23. www.politico.eu/article/eu-c...

Puglia is the first 🇮🇹 region to pass a minimum wage for public procurement workers If it was not bad enough that it took years to get to this (and the gross wage is 9 euros), do note that the Meloni government tried really hard to block it w/ appeal at the Constitutional Court, which has now failed

Another authoritarian attack with huge global repercussions. Scientists *everywhere* rely on NCAR models. Eg, local authorities in the Global South rely on it to try to predict disasters. Rep’s think this is their move on the “climate culture wars”, but this decision would literally kill people.

The Libyan "Coastal Security" Service has taken delivery of 4 patrol boats, built in Italy and funded by the EU. They will undoubtedly be used to terrorise migrants, who will be fired on, forced into the water and returned to imprisonment, torture and rape. (Source: Sergio Scandurra, Radio Radicale)

Very good news, and a signal to many UK universities that it is crucial to rebuild closer relationships with European partners.

Very happy for the young’ns. Few things are more impactful on a young life than study abroad.

Yes. This is important. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

When 22nd century historians (living on mars, I presume?) will document the very first signs of the power shifts and dissolving hegemony of the 21st century, they will use stories like this

“hello I know it is the end of the year but remember that chat we wanted to have in mid autumn, would you like to set a meeting sometime in early January?” Me: