All I want for Christmas is for Sweden to revive its spooky Christmas goat tradition.

A shame Musk and Trump have fallen out. Otherwise I’m sure we would have been given the whole task from concept design to construction.

Nu är väl inte fakta det som brukar avgöra diskussionerna vid julborden. www.dn.se/sverige/har-...

Tror detta ska bli mitt bidrag till julbordets år. Tyvärr kan jag ju inte smaka själv som vegetarian.

En klassiker på julbordet!

Har nu fått förslag om 2025 wrap-ups från både LinkedIn och min bank. Kan inte riktigt säga vad som upphetsar mig mest.

Spain’s newspaper refers the number of people “assassinated” in international waters by the US under Donald Trump

Publicly declaring that you are giving in to threats is a great way to make absolutely certain you and your colleagues will get more threats in the future.

Wonder how they make it work. My experience from Brussels (Avenue Louise) is not very positive since cars drive like on a regular street.

Seems like there is a clear “is the glass half empty” divison here in reactions to the deal. A more negative thread here.

I Paris satsar kommunen på subventionerade hyresrätter. Resultatet är en mer blandad innerstad, där människor från olika samhällsklasser och bakgrunder möts. Men det finns också kritik. https://www.dn.se/varlden/bor-granne-med-louvren-far-hyran-sponsrad-av-kommunen/

Och där satte jag på auto-reply på mailen och gick på ledighet.

This would be only decent. Unfortunately think the chance it will happen is quite small.

Fantastic review of Nicolas Sarkoy's toe-curlingly awful 'prison diaries' observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Haveri för EU-toppmötets stöd till Ukraina med ryska miljarder omeuropa.se/haveri-for-e...

So Ukraine will get funding in the end through joint borrowing, which is the most important at this point.

4 years of imperialist, genocidal warfare by Russia hasn't been enough to wipe that smugness off the face of certain Western European leaders (in this case, Bart de Wever) or diminished their propensity for condescension. www.politico.eu/newsletter/b...

Varför i hela friden kommentar EU:s högsta ledare nattens förhandlingsresultat på X? De skulle kunna göra det var som helst, bli hörda, och inte ytterligare stärka Musks grepp om den politiska diskussionen i Europa. Och ändå väljer de X. 🤯

🇫🇷 Solidarity with our French friends in this difficult moment.

Ahead of today's #EUCO summit, the centre-left @TheProgressives group of 🇪🇸PM Pedro Sanchez adopted a declaration condemning recent American aggression toward Europe. "We will never accept attempts to weaken Europe from any head of state or president."

En del potatis på gatorna efter protesterna.

D-Day for Europe to shore up Ukraine funding. As EU leaders huddle in Brussels, Stephen Paduano and I analyse the reparations loan in a new piece. This is not only a "There Is No Alternative" (TINA) moment—but the financial and legal risks are also manageable. 1/ www.cer.eu/insights/ukr...

Brussels right now

Kapitalistisk julgran på stationen i Strasbourg.

Two things: - It is remarkable how far the French Republican Party has gone in relativising and minimising criminal offences.

Des « erreurs » ? Non. Il a commis des infractions pénales (dont le délit de détournement de fonds publics) & a été définitivement condamné pour cela. Et depuis, ses honteuses positions pro-Poutine nous font mesurer notre chance (collective) qu'il n'ait pas été élu Président de la République.

🇪🇺⚖️🇵🇱 Revenge is a dish best served cold (and after five years). Moments ago, CJEU, in the case Commission v. Poland, found that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal has not only violated EU law with its anti-EU rulings, but also was (is) not an independent court established properly by law. 1/

#EU-toppmöte #Ukraina #Ryssland Detta är det viktigaste EU-toppmötet sen kriget bröt ut. Det är helt öppet om vi kommer att kunna enas eller ej om stödet till Ukraina. Vill ej spekulera nu om olika scenarier (som att köra över Belgien). - Kristersson

Eventuella litterära kvaliteter åsido så borde den här recension ha av varit tydligare med fakta. www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/bokre...

💥On his flight to the EU summit, Viktor Orbán revealed what appears to be direct coordination with Vladimir Putin: Hungary would be spared Russian countermeasures if Orbán votes against the EU’s confiscation of frozen Russian assets: "So we Hungarians have protected ourselves."

Touching how the Belgian left party PTB is so concerned about the international banking system in relation to frozen Russian assets.

Wild story from south of France. A Latvian national arrested for a suspected attempt to plant software allowing the remote control of a ferry.

More about Italy’s brinkmanship.

Still funny to see how they distinguish between "illegal content" and "content that needs to be removed under local laws".

”The American influence campaign that has seen Trump administration officials bypassing Brussels and backchanneling with capitals has led to Italy, Bulgaria, Malta and Czechia joining the group of dissenting countries.”

Impressive level of westsplaining.

And so with a wimper, the EU scraps the ban on internal-combustion engines from 2035. The new rules are an incomprehensible fudge that only lobbyists will understand. Saying "the climate matters, here is something tangible we are doing about it" was a big deal. Whatever this is, it's a little sad.

Väldigt intressant om hur Europa kan bemöta Trump.

Is Germany again dragging its feet and undermining a "simple" solution to the Ukraine financing problem, instead pushing the ubercomplex reparations loan? It's a tempting eurocrisis reflex that if only there were a will in Berlin, there would be a better way. But there isn't. Here is why:

This is right, I think. Do the idiot test: would the Danish EU Presidency, the Commission and many member-states pursue the reparations loan if easier options to fund Ukraine were available?

Känns tryggt att ha en gigantisk Winston Churchill bakom mig när jag dricker en kaffe i Europaparlamentet i Strasbourg.

The art of the deal.

Three days ago Starmer was arguing that the UK shouldn’t think about rejoining the EU because it would unpick all these great US trade deals.

Found this framing bit weird. US has already pulled back almost all funding?

Apparently the Orban regime imagines Trump can save them from the landslide electoral defeat they're facing according to the polls. I can't see how Trump could help, though. Does the US plan to start Ru-style electoral interference in Europe through disinfo, vote buying, threats, agents of chaos?

Finns ju en stor grupp svenskar med rötter i Chile. Hade varit intressant med intervjuer av dem apropå José Antonio Kast valvinst.

Intressant krönika om högerextreme José Antonio Kast vinst i presidentvalet i Chile.

Jaja farfar.