Dutch coalition formation still stalled by the refusal of Dilan Yesilgoz (not pictured), head of the #3 Liberals, to join a govt with #4 GreenLeft-Labor. The “scout”, Wouter Koolmees, is starting with a “motorblock” of #1 D66 and #5 Christian Dems and will work out from there.

for God’s sake

To fight communism, America bombed Laos more heavily than any country ever in history. It lost. It took in the refugees who managed to make it out. Now it has changed its mind and is shipping them back. What kind of government does this

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

Blatant anti-Turkish prejudice

Eleven of the parties in the provincial parliament of Limburg have now requested the Limburg government to look into the possibility of creating a (temporary) memorial for our Black American liberators in cooperation with Eijsden-Margraten (where the cemetery is located). www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Trump has pardoned Troy Lake, according to Senator Lummis. Lake, who owned a diesel servicing company, had pleaded guilty to disabling emissions controls on hundreds of heavy-duty commercial trucks. A study showed that it caused increases in carbon monoxide & pollutants known to cause lung cancer.

Guess which other minority US soldiers are prominently featured at the cemetery in Margraten? I wonder how long till they come for them

Former Chair of the Republican House Freedom Caucus.

Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

This is pure 100% Protocols-style antisemitism and she is the most popular and most powerful antisemite in America. And the ADL has unilaterally disarmed against the most virulent threat to Jewish well-being.

This entire discourse is mindbogglingly stupid. But it’s closer to true that the rebellious maverick form of masculinity that took over the US after the 1960s, attacking responsible conscientious masculinity, is what has “destroyed the West” whatever that means. Hence women, Asians doing better.

The resurgent nationalists have spent decades arguing that international law is whiny globalist bs. This is the result. We are all going to regret allowing the bombing of civilians to be completely normalized again.

Also ultra-relevant for the Netherlands and, frankly, every other country especially but not limited to Europe and North America

Can’t believe the British think it is bad to be earnest

The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

About an hour after Ellis entered this injunction, a group of agents, including Bovino, drove away from a Southwest Side gas station where they were confronted by protestors, and fired a round of pepper balls at a sedan that pulled up alongside their vehicle, reports @chicagotribune.com

Republican politicians can commit all the crimes they want and victimize as many people as they want because right after they are convicted Trump pardons every single one of them. Every Republican politician is above the law and can do whatever they want. Total immunity.

““For a state that claims to be a Jewish state for all Jews,” said Strober, “if you just show up one day and stand in support of Palestinians by doing something as basic as picking olives together, actually, then your Jewishness is irrelevant.””

Now we get to see whether the rule of law holds in America, again, prob will do it again very soon

Never been a better time for journalists and politicians to get off of X.

Can I tell my NYC mayor story again today? Ok, fine.

I was on a German panel last night, where *every speaker* had strong French links (study etc). And every speaker expressed massive dismay over the state of Franco-German defence-industrial cooperation. How can we not get this right?!

Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Seems useful to think about the social media era as politically deranging in the same fashion as widespread photographic and film propaganda made people insane when it first appeared in the 1920s-30s

Neal Katyal's opening volley against Trump's tariffs: "May it please the court: Tariffs are taxes."

I hope someone is writing "12 Hangry Men" about the sandwich guy jury

Ik herken jouw stad ook niet, misschien is het gewoon niet heel herkenbaar

Feel like there is untapped populist potential in arguing that bears, having gone woke, no longer shit in the woods www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/10/15/l...

Intussen klinkt bij ons, luid en onbeschaamd: “Ik herken mijn stad niet meer” - code voor: “er zijn te veel buitenlanders.”

Hm

😢 "Perhaps the most striking findings is that the British public vastly overestimates the cost getting to net zero by almost 14,000%, fueling scepticism & a reluctance to pay. On average, they estimate it will need 28% of GDP by 2050, compared to @thecccuk.bsky.social forecast of just 0.2%"

"The authoritarian populists target Verfassungsblog not only for what it does, but also for what it is: an open space dedicated to the serious and systematic pursuit of truth."

So we’ve all just given up the fight against “meteoric rise”, have we

If Europeans are angry at the people who have been running their governments for decades, they should demonstrate against the sugar beet and rapeseed lobbies

I like the loop method of tying a scarf, it’s simple and convenient. My wife thinks it looks dumb and you should tie a knot with the tail tossed over the back. Which is correct?

Amid many a silly “free speech” panic, here is a genuinely chilling case … Sheffield Hallam professor accuses the institution of negotiating “directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In our polling with YouGov, since the start of his second term Donald Trump's net approval has fallen 17pts among white Americans (+17 to -1), 28pts among Hispanic Americans (-9 to -37) and 38pts among black Americans (-36 to -74)

I wrote up my 1000-word understanding of the lessons of the Dutch election, which, because the Dutch political system has 15 parties in parliament at any given time, cannot properly be described in less than 50,000 words www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

People don't want to pay for journalism, either! We're just like AI. Can I have $10 billion per quarter please

This is wonderful. Everyone should read it. Central to understanding why Britain is having such a hard time coping with its problems. And almost every other rich country has its own version.

This surge in applications from the US comes at a time where the grant and job market in Europe is already *very* competitive. Unless Europe invests more in science and higher education this influx of talent will put a squeeze on an already fragile system. www.ft.com/content/cd80...

Brake lights, thermostats, those cool red LED countdown clocks they used to have in the '80s

Volgens mij was Yesilgoz de enige politicus die de Woningwet van de Jong consequent gefaald beleid heeft benoemd. Of was er nog iemand?

Dems *really* need to embrace anti-corruption

Reading Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967). Animating fear of American revolutionaries was a corrupt executive of a nominally legitimate government who fills offices with venally corrupt buddies and establishes militarised police to uphold this. Trump is a perfect irony!

“Ja, maar als die woningen verkocht worden dan is dat toch niet zo’n probleem? Want daar maak je een starter blij mee?” www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Confirmed: In the White House fact sheet on China trade deal: "China will take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world."

Was just listening to Jetten's answer to a question I asked him about the flag-waving thing. He said he wanted to reclaim it because it "stand(s) for a country that is tolerant, that is ambitious, and not a country where we are just…hating at each other from our own algorithm bubbles.”