Anyway, Christmas Eve. Enjoy stretching out time a little.

Some 53% of UK exporters told the [BCC] that the trade deal with Europe was unsatisfactory — a 13 percentage point increase from 2024. “By contrast, just 16% of nearly 900 exporters surveyed in October said the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement… was working well.” www.ft.com/content/b3d3...

UCL EI does amazing stuff. Put them in your radar!

well, well, well if it isn't the book I started working on in 2017: academic.oup.com/book/61769

Proust knows us all so well.

An article that brings you back to the good old days of Brexit with its warped and at times strange arguments. I have a question at the end, so please bear with me, but I'll highlight some examples: /1

As @ucl.ac.uk deepens its engagement with Europe, the @uclei.bsky.social is a vital hub that connects our experts with partners, policymakers and the public. This Annual Review offers a thoughtful overview of what that looks like in practice. #UCLEurope

Busy year, 2025. At the UCL European Institute, @uclei.bsky.social, we've put together our latest Annual Review. It's colourful. And packs a bit of a punch. (Right on time for the festive season, too.) Huge thanks to our supporters, contributors, collaborators. www.ucl.ac.uk/european-ins...

'In science, there are many more people with ideas than there are public resources to support those ideas, which raises an unavoidable question about how to allocate scarce resources. Determining the best way to do so is extremely difficult.'

Those who compare AI with the Industrial Revolution only know about the Industrial Revolution from AI.

A quick explanation of how this borrowing to assist Ukraine will work. "Enhanced cooperation" means EU law is being used, but some Member States opt out. The process has been applied a few times before, but never before re the EU budget. 1/

🇪🇺⚖️🇵🇱 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/

Let's go through the Eramus statement together 1/ ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇

EU governments have stressed the bloc’s autonomy to enforce its tech rules, in draft European Council conclusions dated Wednesday and seen by Euractiv – with the new wording following new US threats of retaliation against EU companies that do business in the US www.euractiv.com/news/eu-lead...

"Liberating its historic lands": as the Trump administration pretends peace is around the corner, Putin reminds us that for him, this war is about re-establishing the Russian empire. Ukrainians showed in 1991, when the whole country voted for independence, that they don't see themselves as Russian.

Hanukkah celebrates both an ancient military victory and a miracle of light – modern Jews can pick from either tradition - citing @guesnet.bsky.social of @uclhjs.bsky.social theconversation.com/hanukkah-cel...

Radical right parties in Europe have not moderated. Their positions and rhetoric have entered the mainstream. They have become normalized and legitimized. Unless we understand this, we have little chance of countering their success.

column in this week's New World on Brigitte Macron calling feminist campaigners "sales connes", and the difficulties of translation: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

Haha, well, I'd say this is a new low in The Spectator's coverage of my Reith Lectures. There is so much wrong with the piece that it’s hard to know where to begin, but a few points stand out --> /1

V interesting analysis

A warm congratulations to Elif Shafak on her appointment as President of the @rsliterature.bsky.social Elif is featured on the European Literary Map of London - @europeanlitlondon.bsky.social 📖 Take a moment to read her entry - www.europeanliterarylondon.org/feature/a82d...

Interested in #HannahArendt & her ideas on truth, mendacity and politics? Then this short video interview with writers, scholars, editors Eva Geulen (Humboldt) & Thomas Meyer (LMU Munich) is for you. Produced with (& subtitled by) the Goethe Institut Barcelona. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSKe...

Pls share/re-post! New Onora O'Neill Prize! Here's a brand new @ecpr.bsky.social book prize in pol-theory, regardless of whether it's your 1st/10th book! Had honour of asking Onora myself if she would lend us her good name: ecpr.eu/news/news/de... @biapt.bsky.social @psapolthought.bsky.social

So this week shall I write about how killing unarmed civilians is murder or about how unwise it would be to limit the human right against torture. Western liberal democracies in 2025.

In my new @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight, I explain how France manages to be extremely influential in the EU. www.cer.eu/insights/par...

Thank you to the speakers, participants, and the Goethe-Institut Barcelona for a wonderful conference reflecting on Hannah Arendt’s legacy and her relevance today. The event was curated by @ukstaiger.bsky.social, in close collaboration with local academic and cultural partners ❇️

The UK Trade and Business Commission’s new report sets out how the UK and the EU could implement a Youth Experience Scheme. “The report is likely to give weight to the arguments of Britain’s negotiators in talks over the deal,” writes Arj Singh. Read: https://bit.ly/48tqyTY

Following her speech at the British Academy’s Festive Parliamentary Reception last week, Professor Dame Mary Beard FBA has written in the Times Literary Supplement reflecting on why humans need the humanities – and why they are essential to a democratic society. www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

From kellnerp.substack.com/p/the-majori...

British universities’ reliance on Chinese fees fuelling self-censorship, say academics on.ft.com/48YhMxh

My speech of today to NIHRC now published in full by Joshua Rozenberg: “The ECHR - the view from London and Strasbourg”

When I finished writing this a couple of weeks ago, I didn't expect that the US would set out in its National Security Strategy how it could help Putin achieve his goals.

the things i have taught and thought and drafted of these buildings, the way they scaffold ideas,,,, an acute loss, compounding jameson's

A few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today. 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

KI in der #WissKomm? Ich bin skeptisch. Wegen Fakes, Vorurteilen etc.? Auch. Aber außerdem, weil Authentizität auf der Strecke bleibt! Heute hab ich beim #fwk2025 auf 2 Panels darüber diskutiert. Hier nun 1 kleiner 🧵 mit (subjektiver) Zusammenfassung unserer Diskussionen! (1/11)

My latest piece - inspired by 3 workshops in 2024 organised with @uclei.bsky.social & with intellectual input fm @benhnoble.bsky.social . As Witkoff & Kushner enjoy Putin's hospitality in Moscow, seems like a good time to say that Europe must build its security with UA, against RU & without the US.

Brilliant briefing, coming out of a longer project run by Ian Bond (@centreeuropeanref.bsky.social) and Ben Noble @benhnoble.bsky.social (UCL) under @uclei.bsky.social’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence programme 2023-26.

From Arendt's 1975 Bicentennial Address, her last published piece I think - and very interesting on deception, defactualisation and lying as a way of life in modern democracies. www.nybooks.com/articles/197... #HannahArendt

Guten Morgen.

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research has published a paper on the impact of Brexit siepr.stanford.edu/publications...

The month of December Boar Hunt in the forest, with a view of the towers and central keep of Château de Vincennes Tempera on vellum, c.1440, attributed to painter Barthélemy d’Eyck Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly

“Lies!“ Zur Kombination rechter Partei- und Kanonpolitik - ein hoch informativer Text über neurechte Versuche der literarischen (Gegen)Kanonbildung - von Prof. Torsten Hoffmann (Stuttgart) in der aktuellen APuZ www.bpb.de/shop/zeitsch...

Vor 70 Jahren, am 1. Dezember 1955, weigert sich Rosa Parks, ihren Sitzplatz im Bus für einen später zugestiegenen Weißen zu räumen. Ihre Aktion markiert den Auftakt des Busboykotts gegen die Rassentrennung in Montgomery, Alabama – und den Aufbruch der modernen Bürgerrechtsbewegung.

„Ich vermute, einer der Gründe weswegen Menschen so hartnäckig an ihrem Hass festhalten, ist, weil sie spüren: Ist der Hass erst einmal fort, werden sie gezwungen sein, sich mit Schmerz zu beschäftigen." James Baldwin, gest. 1. Dezember 1987 

A lovely thread on Tom Stoppard’s life, work, imagination.

Beautiful start to our Hannah Arendt Days in the @ateneubcn.cat yesterday. #HannahArendt

Musiker der Mannheimer Philharmoniker spielten gestern Werke von Hans Krása und Viktor Ullmann, die im Ghetto Theresienstadt entstanden, bevor die Komponisten nach Auschwitz deportiert und ermordet wurden. Dazwischen durfte ich mit Kollegen über die Bedeutung von Kultur in den Ghettos sprechen.

Increasingly obvious yet usually badly discussed. The 1960s / 70s was the ending of the post-war European industrial growth era, 2010s the breakdown of its free market replacement together with the fraying of 1940s rules indirectly by 21st century technology.