From a Trump post-Truth sometng on the wellbeing of the people living in Ghaza.

Now that Trump got that medal from Machado, he will never meet with her again nor will he help her in Venezuela. He’s getting his oil from the Maduro regime, which is all he cares about. He believes she stole what is rightfully his, and now he’s staring at the medal like Gollum.

A big part of why the Right is furious at White women right now is because they're increasingly using their Whiteness as shield and a weapon and it's honestly fucking great.

Or: the op-ed you always feared to have to seen being written.

The limitations of his office notwithstanding it is in fact important to have a mayor, and behind him a series of affiliated parliamentarians and councilors, who will say this and say it repeatedly.

Funny.

The more info we get about this raid, the worse it becomes. ICE had NO valid warrant (administrative warrants do not authorize forceful entry into a home), the guy's sole prior conviction was a since-dismissed drug charge from 2008, AND he had checked in with ICE just days earlier.

Heel trots op Tijn, die óók in hoger beroep is vrijgesproken van 'smaad' jegens een prominente anti-transfeminist. 🥰 Door op LinkedIn screenshots te delen van haar transfobe uitspraken op X, zou hen hebben geprobeerd 'broodroof' te plegen. Na de rechtbank zegt nu ook het Hof daarover: neuh... 🤷

"Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Trump to postpone attack on Iran because Israel is not currently prepared for potential Iranian retaliatory strikes" (New York Times)

NEW: It's not just Jonathan Ross—or even the Trump administration. Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed at least 25 people. Not a single one appears to have faced criminal charges. @lilahassan.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/why-ic...

Same old names behind the organisations making donations….”surprised face”

Na vijftig jaar overbevissing van tong en schol heeft de Nederlandse visserij een nieuwe soort ontdekt, de pijlinktvis. Die mag ongelimiteerd gevangen worden, met voorspelbare gevolgen, schrijft Ben Vollaard.

Apart from the fact that this is impossible, mainland China likes these kinds of loud-mouthing.

ONGELOFELIJK, JURIDISCH BESJOGGE* Zwerver die moet bewijzen dat hij zwerft, kreeg vandaag een factuur van de gemeente @breda voor zijn verblijf als zwerver van 5 nachten in het daklozencentrum in december 2025. Het bedrag 35 euro per nacht voor kamertje met deelbed. 1/

Making friends again.

Pieter Wittenberg na acht jaar vrijgesproken van mensensmokkel. Ik hoop dat Pieter zowel de rust vindt na al die jaren als dat hem de tijd gegeven is om anderen te inspireren om zijn strijd voor rechtvaardigheid & barmhartigheid met dezelfde vastberadenheid voort te zetten.

In some ways, the best option for Netanyahu is a weakened Islamic Republic in an internal spiral. It allows him to continue fearmongering (otherwise he'd have to invent a new arch enemy). It allows him to launch another surprise attack on Iran if the polls are really bad for Likud.

“Trump’s friend Ronald Lauder – who first proposed Arctic expansion – is now making deals in the island.”

Allen! Nog een paar dagen en Trump is een jaar president. Zaterdag komt mijn wekelijkse nieuwsbrief over de laatste ontwikkelingen weer. Deze week héél veel. De nieuwsbrief is iets (behoorlijk) ánders dan mijn dagverslagen hier. Aanmelden kan op laposta.nl/f/sswcayuj7xs3

The NYTimes finds it easy to do plain speaking when it comes to other countries.

A reminder that when Robert Jenrick was running for Conservative party leader he accepted £25,000 from a firm controlled by a sanctioned Oligarch. He should fit in well bylinetimes.com/2024/10/17/r...

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/how-donald-t...

Hij heeft zelf een 'genuanceerd beeld' anders dan anderen zegt. Alleen het presidentieel decorum is beschadigd.

By Christopher de Ballaigue (free to read):

From Jerusalem to Haifa, Palestinian bus drivers and ticket inspectors are facing an unprecedented surge in racist attacks — be it from ultra-Orthodox youth or soccer hooligans — forcing many to choose between livelihood and safety. Charlotte Ritz-Jack reports. www.972mag.com/palestinian-...

Great meeting today in Amsterdam with Mayor Femke Halsema and Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki. Discussed our latest work on assessing cities’ capabilities through the Public Sector Capabilities Index (PSCI). ️Read more about PSCI ➡️ buff.ly/BsemWbj

Starmer keeps using this line, & it's bonkers. Most importantly, it's untrue: the party that ended Free Movement, ran the "hostile environment" & made Suella Braverman Home Sec did not run "an experiment in open borders". It's also politically mad. Voters who believe this will not vote for Starmer

I don't know if "enjoyed" is the right word but this was certainly an interesting conversation with @emmashortis.bsky.social at @australiainstitute.org.au, a few months after we last spoke. A lot has happened. A lot of chaotic cruelty.

New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...

Thank you so much to @zackpolanski.bsky.social for inviting me onto his podcast. We talked about critical issues the media & political establishment is ignoring such as the extraordinarily dumb & dangerous UK defence deal with Peter Thiel’s Palantir

Just read this again, slowly.

Une certaine idée

So many interesting findings and points of analysis in @ecfr.eu new global opinion survey. @markhleonard.bsky.social & colleagues polled 26k people in 21 countries around the world and found that - on whole range of measures - Trump’s 2nd term is playing into China’s hands ⬇️ ecfr.eu/publication/...

The Star Tribune had an insane graphic about the presence of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. There are more immigration officers in the metro right now than local police officers.

Hande Firat's column for Hurriyet (a pro-government newspaper) sums up Ankara's fears about the potential collapse of the Iranian regime. There are at least three main concerns: 1) a significant increase in refugee and migrant movements, 2) a power vacuum in + www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/han...

Jenrick has essentially no cards at this stage. He's lost the Tory whip, so there aren't that many other options. I wonder if Farage will revise his offer?

Kijk naar Ruben Terlou zolang het nog kan, want de kans op zulke antropologische en culturele rijkdom wordt bij een afgeknepen publieke omroep (een van de goedkoopste in Europa) snel kleiner. 👉 buff.ly/RJ2aV5R

Pro-Palestijnse gevangenen VK beëindigen hongerstaking na 73 dagen

S-Arabia & UAE in Yemen war conflicted goals - role Yemeni parties & militias in the conflict - S.Yemen never unified - UAE obsession with M.Brotherhood - emergence rival security/power structures - KSA mediator between rival faction - gains and collapse UAEs renegade STC podcasts.apple.com/nl/new

Gulf states don’t want US to bomb Iran, NYT reports (in line with my piece yesterday) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...

Historicus Lotte Houwink ten Cate tipt voor @athenaeum.nl 'Over antisemitisme' van Mark Mazower als één van haar favoriete recent verschenen geschiedenisboeken! athenaeumscheltema.nl/boekentips/d... ISBN 9789057126154 | 316 pag. | Vertaling: Auke van den Berg www.nieuwezijds.nl/boek/over-an...

How Trump's bizarre Greenland obsession could create a global crisis. From @radiofreetom.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Inclusief doodskoppen....

Elk huishouden betaalt straks honderden euro’s BOETE wegens laks VVD-beleid. “De kosten in 2030 en daarna kunnen oplopen tot 2,6 miljard euro. PBL voorspelt dat Nederlandse energieproductie in 2030 voor 32 procent duurzaam is, terwijl dit volgens Europese afspraken dan 39 procent zou moeten zijn.”

🧵

Exactly: see my Volkskrant opinion piece yesterday. www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin...

Een groep wetenschappers, opiniemakers en organisaties eist duidelijkheid over de Amerikaanse overname van Solvinity, het bedrijf achter DigiD. Economische Zaken onderzoekt de overname momenteel, maar wil er niets over zeggen. Juridisch vuurwerk dreigt. www.ftm.nl/artikelen/pr...

My latest for the Observer on the growing Green threat to Labour and why London’s “all up” local elections could provide some of the biggest drama in this May’s local and devolved elections observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

After a document leak from DHS outed him, Enrique Tarrio, head of the Proud Boys militia group, acknowledged that he was now an ICE officer. www.telemundo.com/noticias/not...