Britain will have to get used to this: if you want access to EU programmes you have to pay in, just as all ‘third countries’ do. Screaming Brexiteers are claiming EU perfidy, but this is the reality Britain faces because of the catastrophe they brought on Britain. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

One more indication of the shocking and increasingly blatant abuses of the rule of law taking place in Bulgaria. Going after the Open Society is straight out of the Orbanite Authoritarian Playbook. And the European Union continues to do nothing. bghelsinki.org/en/2025-11-0...

In New York, Mamdani has defeated the billionaire class which threw everything at him and still couldn’t take him down. I have my doubts about whether this presages “a new kind of politics” but this is his moment.

🇪🇺 Today, the EU Enlargement Summit convenes in Brussels 🇪🇺 To dissect the details of it all, join @anandmenon.bsky.social, @sebastienmaillard.bsky.social, @heathergrabbe.bsky.social & @jobmaynooth.bsky.social 💻 Online 📆 Tues 18 Nov, 1pm GMT ukandeu.ac.uk/events/ukice...

Is the EU too harsh on Serbia? Lovely soft soap interview of the sinister ultra nationalist heir to Slobodan Milosevic at @euronews Enlargement summit.

I think many European leaders are sick to death of Alexander Vucic pretending to be a committed European while his party continues to ritually abuse the rule of law and cozies up to Moscow and Beijing. Serbia will never join the EU unless it faces up to its past and ditches ultra nationalism.

The main consequence of the EU giving into Trump on trade in Scotland is that his gangster state keeps coming back to administer more punishment beatings. This is what appeasement brings in its wake. www.politico.eu/article/us-a...

How can academic freedom be maintained when universities have commercial relationships with totalitarian countries like China? This is a chilling example. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The Peace President

I would much prefer that Ireland invests seriously in *its own* and EU security and defence but here Dr Eoin Drea suggests an Anglo-Irish defence union as the solution to Irish, EU and British concerns about the western exposure of Europe to attack. www.politico.eu/article/angl...

This is very important analysis by @kevcunningham.bsky.social Bottom line: the disaffected voters trending far right are becoming less apathetic and more active. It’s only a matter of time. Who are the people who spoiled their ballot and why? open.substack.com/pub/kevcunni...

Projections coming in for the Dutch general election. A big drop in support for Geert Wilders’ PVV with significant gains for centrist D66 and CDA.

Superb piece by Ben Tonra in today’s Irish Tines, on Ireland’s strategic choices in a predatory world, with the necessity of a strategic pivot towards Europe increasingly apparent. Everyone interested in foreign policy making should read this.

Germany is about to open the financial taps on military spending, with procurement lines of €377 billion detailed here by Politico. Berlin is finally waking up to the need to confront the predators of twenty first century international relations. www.politico.eu/article/germ...

What to expect from the Dutch general election on Wednesday? Prof. Cas Mudde assesses a crowded party political landscape and laments the media’s continuing obsession with the Far Right. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Mmmmm, lovely.

It is just stupefying to me that UK Labour now regularly mention Brexit as the key economic problem facing Britain, yet they don’t have the courage to confront it head on. It will go on gnawing away at Britain’s economic performance year after year. CV www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The demolition of the East Wing facade of the White House is the best visual metaphor for 2025 I have seen.

Yet again, Trump refuses to do anything that might damage Russia.

What a beautiful, moving piece of writing from, Abdallah Aljarra, from Gaza, who is studying literature at Maynooth University. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

He’s saying that Charlie Kirk was a hateful white supremacist, homophobe and misogynist. For once, Trump is right.

Yep, he really went *there*

So we have a non-entity swimmer trying to justify taking performance enhancing drugs so he can make money. Just another sign of the deep moral decline of our society. ‘Enhanced’ sport equals drugged sport. The retirement manosphere is a very dark place. @TonightVMTV

Poor Meloni looks like an unwilling participant in a ‘Lovely Girls’ competition and the chief judge is the groper in chief.

Peevski is an oligarch sanctioned by US, yet nobody in Brussels asks any questions as another Bulgarian election sees Peevski’s party - literally - buy huge numbers of votes. State capture in Bulgaria has reached absurd levels. www.novinite.com/articles/234...

Obviously, great to see hostages freed but it is stomach churning to watch perpetrators of genocide and their enablers posing as peacemakers and suggesting today marked a landmark moment in Middle east history. It isn’t. Nothing has changed for the Palestinians. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Outrageous lies now the new normal in Washington

Social Media apps and smartphones are doing enormous damage to young people everywhere. I’m glad to see some governments are really grasping the nettle and taking serious action. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

First Hungary. Then Poland. Now Slovakia is daily increasing attacks on marginalised communities and taking a wrecking ball to EU equality norms. This is what happens when the EU is unprepared to defend its own values. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Fear, praise, and silence: Reactions to Trump's military gathering reut.rs/4o18NjK

Some people really understand what is happening in the United States. You may think it unimaginable but what we are witnessing is the consolidation of a Fascist dictatorship that is weaponising the military against the American people.

This is the Trump gangster approach to leadership: ‘Applaud me. Worship me. Give me your loyalty. And if you don’t, there will be trouble.’ It’s like watching a low-energy version of Adolf Hitler attempt to bring the German army under Nazi control in the 1930s. www.cbsnews.com/live-updates...

Brilliant (free) piece on the epic battle going on within the US between two different versions of American Christianity, exemplified by what happened at the Charlie Kirk Memorial. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Polls open in Moldova in a tense parliamentary election plagued with reports of Russian interference

This is the most cogent and terrifying piece I have read on the post-literate age we have entered. If you want to understand the collapse of literacy and its link to democratic regression, take 20 to 30 minutes to read and absorb this. jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-o...

Democratic forces are under enormous pressure in Moldova as Russia tries to bribe and cheat its way to ending the pro EU direction of the country. Dr Keith Harrington analyses what is at stake in this election. Excellent piece. www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Every day, a new attempt to deflect from the Epstein files.

One of the most corrupt figures in modern European politics finally gets his comeuppance: Sarkozy found guilt by French court. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

There's now an official U.S. governmental website hawking the "Trump gold card" visa scheme—selling American residency to any kleptocrat, cartel head, or oligarch who can afford it. trumpcard.gov

More vengeance, with the Justice system now fully locked and loaded against any and all that ever tried to take Trump down for his life of sordid criminality.

It is really worth watching. For his humanity as much as the humour.

This is the guy who referred to his boss as “America’s Hitler” not so long ago. The Nazis were a lot more subtle in the way they employed propaganda.

The US is a major importer of Indian products made of Russian oil @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/09/08/n...

Lies and lying have come to define the Republican Party and the US government. By far the most damage is being done to the environment.

The European Union continues to ignore Bulgaria’s slide into autocracy. The crisis has been building for years. Now the state has been completely captured by unscrupulous oligarchic forces. Brussels’ answer is to do nothing. www.politico.eu/article/bulg...

A badge of honour to be attacked by this far right platform. Centrist people are now ‘extremists’. gript.ie/perrins-john...

Truly honoured to be today’s target of vitriol of the lovely people at GRIPT. I’m an ‘extremist’, doncha know? gript.ie/perrins-john...

The great division opening in our world is between people who are curious and read books to cement their knowledge and those who think that some random bollocks they read on Facebook equates to what decades of learning and layers of thought has taught bookish people. Impossible to bridge the gap.

Russia is a pathetic third rate power yet it keeps provoking European neighbours. A bully only understands the language of force. When will Europe use appropriate force to deter the predator? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

The big lie at the heart of MAGA - that they were ever in favour of ‘free speech’. They want to suppress any and all forms of dissent while Trump and his fellow Fascists loot the country and turn the US into Russia. www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...