Joost
@almodozo.bsky.social
Holland > Hungary > Spain Same @almodozo as on Twitter, just without the Országház. Worked at OSF and CEU, but that's a long while ago. Studied East-European History, but that's even longer ago. Now, somehow, I ended up in Extremadura.
Sat on my dad's balcony. Mid-sized Dutch city. Overlooking a cycle path. Bored young guy down there is scrolling Tik Tok or Insta reels. I know this because he has the speakers on, loud. Snippets of music as he flits through the memes. Pop song, pop song, Soviet national anthem, pop song, pop song.
Népszava hasn't been printed or distributed for a month. On the other end of the political spectrum, Magyar Nemzet is turning into a weekly. And with that, Hungary becomes the only European country without a printed political daily. Others will soon follow. balkaninsight.com/2026/07/30/h...
Hungary Enters Post-Print Age as Political Dailies Disappear
Hungary will become the only country in Europe without a printed political daily when Magyar Nemzet switches to a weekly publication on August 1. Other smaller European media markets are likely to go ...
balkaninsight.com
I put you on a pedestal, you put me on the pill
Secret Drug Addict@scrtdrugaddict.bsky.social · 2w ago
Labour factoid posting: Burnham leads the first Labour Cabinet without a member of the Benn family
The most useless political promise a politician can make. "Andy Burnham promises to end Labour infighting as he becomes party’s leader... ... However, he is already facing tensions within the party over his choice of key members of his cabinet" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Andy Burnham promises to end Labour infighting as he becomes party’s leader
Government has ‘last chance’ to get it right, says incoming PM, while anxiety surrounds his choice of chancellor
theguardian.com
One of the things that illustrates how Burnham's power-shifting devolution agenda is good, actually, is how supposedly progressive Londoners in the comments/replies on these topics instantly start sounding like Tories.
Elizabeth Taylor@elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 3w agoWill we ever ever get a PM who wants to support social liberal ideas or actually likes ‘metropolitan’ people again? I’m tired 🥲
So sad. So salty. Also, insane. hungarytoday.hu/zero-interna...
Zero International Outrage as the TISZA Government Closes Hungary’s Only Conservative College
The internationally respected college of higher education, Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), is to be dissolved at the end of this month, announced Péter Magyar’s chief ideologue, Deputy PM Bálint Ruf...
hungarytoday.hu
Great photo at the NYT site now (Getty Images) - and at least a couple of sportive smiles from Brazil fans for the happy Norwegian guy
TIL Egon Krenz is still alive. He showed up at an "anti-fascist" forum at one of Moscow's swankiest hotel. But hey, who doesn't hate "arbitrariness"?
Jan Wiebe@janwiebe.bsky.social · 2mo agoDas günstigste Zimmer kostet etwa 950 € im Luxushotel “The Carlton Moscow” und trotzdem war es Ende Mai Ausrichtungsort des III. Internationalen Antifaschistischen Forums der Kommunistischen Partei Russlands. Sieben Deutsche waren dabei.Mehr zum Thema: russiawatchgermany.substack.com/p/deutsche-b...
‘The beauty of the useless’: Spain’s super-thin restaurant napkins are throwaway art treasures www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘The beauty of the useless’: Spain’s super-thin restaurant napkins are throwaway art treasures
Forever flimsy and ineffective at cleaning greasy fingers, the servilletas of the Iberian peninsula resist the relentless ‘optimisation’ of our age. A new photo book recognises them as cultural treasu...
theguardian.com
Is this, like, a deliberate move to make Wes Streeting look less bad an option? Jesus.
"Despite what you’ll hear on social media, relationships are becoming more equal — not less," and young men aren't half as reactionary as the Discourse suggests.
Neil Crump@pyramidhead76.bsky.social · last mo.Seems like the flip side of this that I read recently... www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/o...
Echoes of the zealous communists who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Well, except that those had a tendency to end up in a camp, dead, or both. www.bbc.com/news/article...
The people leaving the West behind in search of the Russian dream
The BBC asks Westerners who moved to Russia if life there lives up to expectations.
bbc.com
"London's in crisis. Madame Tussaud has melted. The gherkin has gone limp. Paddington Bear is dead."
That's the thing though. Only half of Spanish households have AC, when it gets plenty hot in almost all of Spain, like in Turkey. But that also means this is maybe not, in fact, about "people from historically cooler climates who think they’re inherently better than those decadent tropical dwellers"
Andrew M@ducalincome.com · last mo.As someone with inlaws in a European-ish country (Turkey) that where it's like pulling teeth to get them to use AC, a lot of it seems to be rooted in energy cost concerns and then they retcon a bunch of other health/morality reasons to avoid saying "I'm worried I can't afford it"
ICYMI: "Your Party officially split, with 250 members voting to start a second leftwing party, the Socialist Federation. Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Zarah Sultana represent this new faction" (but they're mostly from the Sultana-friendly “Grassroots Left”) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
It will surprise no one that Your Party has split. Why can’t the left stick together? | Zoe Williams
Talk of witch-hunts and personality clashes was very publicly aired, when all we wanted to know was what the party actually stood for, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams
theguardian.com
Not the most exact translation, but gets the general point across: Peter Magyar's remarks earlier this month should do away with some pre-election wariness about how bold he'd be on gay rights. Not sure why Holland's catching strays here though🙃 xcancel.com/AlexTaylorNe...
xcancel.com
Far-right MEPs knew they were winning when they chanted "send them back!" last week. In a fundamental shift, the EPP has "voted more with the ECR, PfE than .. with the S&D or Renew" in this legislative period when the European Parliament voted on migration files. www.ceps.eu/the-eu-is-lo...
The EU is looking more and more like an EPP-led minority government – CEPS
At a recent trilogue, European Parliament (EP) and Council negotiators agreed on a much harsher migration policy with the creation of ‘ return hubs’ outside the
ceps.eu
If only this was true everywhere (though it's true more often than the discourse makes it seem): "while a gender gap had emerged among young voters on many issues, this was being driven more by younger women turning to the left than young men going right." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Young men in UK are not more rightwing than older groups, study says
Exclusive: Analysis shows men aged 18 to 25 are less likely to vote for rightwing parties than other age groups of men
theguardian.com
Sánchez had a rough day in parliament, but a poll earlier this month showed that PSOE voters still want him to press on rather than stage early elections, by 64% to 23%, though that majority is divided on how to handle the Zapatero case. 70% of Sumar voters want it to hang on in government too.
La mayoría de los votantes del PSOE pide a Sánchez agotar la legislatura a pesar del caso Zapatero
Según la encuesta de Ateneo del Dato para elDiario.es, el 22,8% de los votantes del PSOE cree que Sánchez debería adelantar las elecciones, frente al 64% que apoya que siga al frente del Ejecutivo, al...
eldiario.es
The school "relies on ceiling fans funded years ago by parents' associations". In Andalusia, Spain's hottest region, "around one-third of schools have air conditioning". "The last four years have been the country's warmest since records began in 1961.' www.rte.ie/news/newslen...
'Burning classrooms' track schools in sun-scorched Spain
Children at a primary school near Barcelona splash water on each other in the late morning heat as classrooms become increasingly unbearable in one of Europe's fastest-warming countries.
rte.ie
Climate change is a class issue. Tackling it is a matter of social justice. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘It’s like a furnace’: French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows
Many of France’s buildings are not designed for hot weather – and low-income housing estates are suffering the worst
theguardian.com
Dit was soort van interessant. Staken tegen bezuinigingen op de sociale zekerheid? PRO-kiezers waren het er meest mee eens, natuurlijk (62%), "gevolgd door kiezers van FvD (47%) en PVV (40%)," die daarmee behoorlijk links van D66-kiezers landden. www.ipsos-publiek.nl/actueel/kiez...
Almost every time I get on BlueSky, I run into a bunch of posts from people being either righteously upset or smug, snide and sarcastic about stuff pretty much nobody else cares about. It's a little exhausting tbh.
The Bangla Büfé. But the old one. I totally understand that they needed more than five tables once they got popular; I was very happy for them because they're great people. But it wasn't really the same
☀️ Starshine@starshine.bsky.social · 4mo agowhat restaurant deli whatever in a place you don’t (currently) live do you yearn for
"“They’re not for people like us – they’re posh,” one thirtysomething woman told me in the Makerfield neighbourhood of Platt Bridge." Speaking about Reform, not Labour or the Greens. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
How the far right got to determine migration policy in the European Parliament: "On migration files, for example, in this legislative period the EPP has voted more with the ECR [and] PfE than it has done with the S&D or Renew."
Quentin Ariès@quentinaries.eurosky.social · 2mo agoVery nice @ceps.eu's post on the European Parliament' shifting politics. www.ceps.eu/the-eu-is-lo...
