Firm contender in the best headline competition. 😁

“Though Black women only account for about 14% of the workforce, they represented over half of all women’s job losses during the U.S. employment market’s most volatile months in 2025, like March, April, June, and December.”

Just going to leave this here

We’re thrilled to announce that early-bird registration is officially open for the 32nd International Conference of Europeanists! Take advantage of discounted rates available through March 24, 2026. Register now: ces-temple.secure-platform.com/a

Just catching up on this and glad to see some Europeans beginning to see the writing on the wall. But there's many a battle to be fought among Europeans & ultimately, I still fear fragmentation. Trump is not the only one giving Russia an easy ride.

Governments always have to make choices, we understand that. But do they understand they should learn lessons too? They talk about red flags in this article. Those flags are not only red, they're huge. So much for Europe's "awakening".

Today’s energy schedule for my part of Kyiv 3.5 hours of power out of 24. This is the worst it has been since the start of the full scale invasion. Putin has used Trump’s “peace process” as cover to increase his attacks. Civilian deaths and energy attacks notably up under Trump.

Zelenskyy might be forgetting the orange baby's birthday. Understandable considering most of us wouldn't be able to tell you the birthday of another (formerly) western leader.

D'ya think?

You could write a thesis on all that this article alone says about how malign, how corrupt, how heartless, how incompetent the Trump regime is.

Quite the distraction today. I'm just going to say some people have far too much money.

Reported from and on hundreds of protests in Russia, wrote countless stories about the “feared riot police,” and not once did I see or hear of them killing a person, just to give a sense of where we are

I'm getting very tired of these people telling us precisely who they are and them just constantly getting away with it.

Anyone tracking the sales of Faraday bags in the US? (A propos absolutely everything.)

All for academic freedom and free speech, apparently & yet they are demonised. But proposed cuts to higher education are good because they mean you can get rid of "ideologically driven studies", specifically Gender Studies. Asked if Leiden has such a course, "no, but it has a minor & electives".

open.substack.com/pub/thomhart... When I read that the young mother who was executed at point-blank range by one of Trump’s ICE goons yesterday was named Renee Nicole Good, it sent a chill down my spine. As the pain and outrage was washing through me, it also struck

The Conservative Party covering themselves in the usual glory. The idea that Wolfson should remain as the Shadow AG is insane.

France led all importers, taking in 87 tanker deliveries totaling 6.3 million tonnes—41.7% of all Yamal LNG shipped to Europe" euromaidanpress.com/2026/01/08/u...

As the Coalition of the Willing meets today, maybe this will concentrate their minds.

Caracas is under fire. Multiple U.S. strikes have hit key military sites: Fuerte Tiuna, La Carlota airbase, and a communications center in El Hatillo. Explosions echo through the capital, the power is out in parts of the city, and U.S. helicopters are flying low. Fires also rage near La Guaira.

The scale of this mindless destruction set out in this thread. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to start a new year this way.

I live in a small village & heard the first fire crackers at 10.36. Fireworks went off at irregular intervals through the day. By nightfall, they were constant but we knew it was midnight by the added intensity. Terrible effects on animals, climate & street cleanliness - to say nothing of humans.

Day 395 Tbilisi Georgia

As Trump 2.0 1 year anniversary looms, I'm reminded of The West Wing episode when Republican nominee Vinick speaks of the presidency as: stewardship, service to the nation, worthy example, sacrifice, trust, commitment, honour. Even when it originally aired, these words didn't sound entirely alien.

As the year ends, it's good to see the summary of this study now available on the Clingendael website. It was a privilege to have contributed. Still, rather depressing when you consider what the prospects for Russia would be if there were any justice in the world.

Also making the point in today's Guardian piece that the sight of global companies working overtly with the US government to coerce a UK government desperate for positive headlines about investment is a hugely worrying precedent which we need to be discussing.

A slap on the faces of both Moscow and Washington.

Corruption calls to corruption. Perhaps the most terrible thing about this is that it seems so normal, we are losing our capacity to be shocked.

I'm not pulling any punches: "So, these are not peace talks.[..] They are a distraction that Ru uses [..] to strain the Transatlantic relationship by pitting the “peace-seeking” U.S. against “warmongering” Europe, even though the only warmonger is Putin." www.policymagazine.ca/whatever-you...

"The UN Environmental Program has warned that the [Caspian] sea “suffers from an enormous burden of pollution”." Heartbreaking & likely because of oil & gas extraction - but sure, let's not wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

Fabulous article that a wonderfully critical thinking colleague just sent me. It's a long read but every sentence packs an on the nose punch.

I just overheard 3 British lads at Schiphol airport talking in amazed tones about how this is the train station. 😁

I don’t know what I did in my previous life, but reporting simultaneously on the Trump cabinet meeting, where they pretend “all is glorious”, and Putin-Witkoff business meeting, where they sell out Ukraine, surely feels like I did something I wasn’t supposed to.

South African radio presenter arrested on suspicion of recruiting fighters for Russia

Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.

70 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama.

I just spoke with President Gitanas Nausėda. The situation at the border with Belarus is worsening, with the growing incursions of smuggling balloons into Lithuania’s airspace. Such hybrid attack by the Lukashenka regime is completely unacceptable.

Mexico amended its Constitution to recognize animals as sentient beings. The reform mandates prevention of cruelty, welfare guarantees, and conservation efforts. It was unanimously approved and is now in effect nationwide.

There's a soundbite here that will not play in Ukraine's favour, making this interview sound politically naive.

Copying Denmark’s hardline asylum policy a ‘terrible idea’, Danes say Helene Brydensholt of the The Alternative party has urged the UK Government to think again, explaining it’s been a disaster for integration and led to more racism www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Congratulations to Graham Phillips for achieving this first - Pro-Russia former civil servant becomes first Brit to face Ukraine 'war crime' charges over clip of pigs eating dead soldiers www.lbc.co.uk/article/firs...

“In days after Alaska, a European intel agency distributed a hard-copy report in an envelope to some of the continent’s most senior national security officials, who were shocked by the contents: Inside were details of the commercial and economic plans the Trump admin had been pursuing with Russia.”

4/Former Prime Minister Petr Fiala, commenting on these figures, emphasised that they completely refute the claims of the current parliamentary opposition about the need to reduce support for Ukraine, as the reality clearly shows: this support is financially beneficial for the Czech Republic.

This is beyond evil 🤬

49 years ago. Not long enough for his victims to forget. All of us who spent our school days being racially abused remember the insults, no matter how many decades have passed. We know our racist abusers intended to hurt, humiliate & to isolate us. His denials confirm he's not changed at all.

🤣🤣🤣 I love my Signal group buddies who alert me to stuff like this.

What a shit show. Everyone could see this plan was written by the Kremlin. Adopted by Witkoff and Trump who demanded Ukraine accept it by this Thursday. After a firestorm of objections by Europe and Republican senators it appears Rubio wants to distance himself from it.

If this is the public statement then imagine what was being said in private channels. The drafting of this is so careful, the signatures so universal, you don’t have to be a diplomat to read between the lines.

A must-read for insights into just how much Russian interests are driving US thinking on Ukraine & Europe right now. Plus, into the US actors actively betraying their own state. That being the case, why on earth would any European think they care about Europe?