When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

Excellent advice for wannabe journalists

Ian Dunt@iandunt.bsky.social · last mo.

Slightly different newsletter this week: A piece for young struggling journalists, in or out of work, about how to get on. And a little fuck-you to the senior journalists who love telling them how doomed they are iandunt.substack.com/p/how-to-get...

What a time to be alive

“Every day, the US is alienating potential visitors, investors, and researchers. Every day, Russia is murdering innocent people in a bloody and pointless colonial war. And every day, Europe offers proof that ancient rivals can live alongside one another in peace, while they pursue prosperity.”

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 3mo ago

"You cannot celebrate European civilization while simultaneously attacking the legal and political order invented here, or while openly seeking to undermine the institutions that protect pluralism and dissent" An answer to Vance and Rubio: www.erstestiftung.org/en/a-speech-...

Germany's electricity mix, 2000 vs 2025: Renewables: 6% → 62% Fossil fuels: 62% → 36% Nuclear: 30% → 0% Nuclear's exit was filled by renewables, not coal or gas. Want more of this content and more detail and links to sources? Subscribe to my new Substack: substack.com/@janrosenow

Journalists face intimidation and violence worldwide, warns European Parliament. The €20,000 Daphne Caruana Galizia prize aims to reward reporting defending EU values and democracy's fragile foundations.

EU Parliament’s journalism prize seeks entries defending democracy in perilous times

EU Parliament's journalism prize seeks entries defending democracy in perilous times

brusselstimes.com

80 years to the month after Orwell published ‘Politics and the English Language,’ his 6 rules for writing clearly and concisely are as relevant as ever, I argue: cleareurope.eu/improve-writ...

How to improve your writing skills: 6 timeless tips from George Orwell - Clear Europe

George Orwell is best known for his dystopian novel ‘1984’ and his political fable ‘Animal Farm.’ But among journalists and writers, he is equally famed for a short essay – ‘Politics and the English L...

cleareurope.eu

“Mayors should not think they are just there to manage the little things of everyday life, but have big ideas…To succeed, you have to have a strategy, be determined and, yes, accept being unpopular.” Wish we had more politicians who thought like Anne Hidalgo. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

‘Changing a city is complicated’: Anne Hidalgo looks back on 12 years as Paris mayor

Political veteran says she faced ‘French misogyny and machismo’ while making Paris greener and more peaceful

theguardian.com

As with wind turbines and solar panels, so with EV cars, Europe had first-mover advantage on the technologies of the future. Then it sabotaged its own efforts www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘It’s stupid’: why western carmakers’ retreat from electric risks dooming them to irrelevance

Iran war should be wake-up call about costs of not going full throttle towards EVs as Chinese have done, experts say

theguardian.com

“The British public continues to support climate action, and politicians risk fighting the wrong battle if they assume otherwise. The real danger is not public opinion – it is elite division and media narratives creating a false sense of risk.”

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"Polling shows that despite the attitudes of politicians and relentless rhetoric against it, a strong core of 40% of voters remain strongly behind net zero, almost double the 24% who are implacably opposed to it."

All Europeans will pay the price for their leaders' reaction to the 🇺🇸🇮🇱 attack on Iran this weekend. European leaders (all except Pedro Sanchez) have now accepted the end of international law. The consequences of this will be felt not for weeks, not for years, but for decades

So to recap: if you're a MAGA American official you have the free speech right to say whatever you want and meddle into other countries politics. But if you're not a MAGA American, then you have no free speech right to criticise the United States or Trump. The hypocrisy is farcical.

American ambassador says Conner Rousseau is now barred from entering US

Following up on his earlier threats, American ambassador has forced prohibition of entering the US on Vooruit party leader Rousseau.

brusselstimes.com

My piece in The Guardian this morning: Europe’s path to technological independence from the U.S. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Europeans are dangerously reliant on US tech. Now is a good time to build our own | Johnny Ryan

By trusting the US, we handed Trump a kill switch. Yet Europe’s digital sovereignty is an achievable goal, says civil liberties campaigner, Johnny Ryan

theguardian.com

A sad trend with profound social and political effects: the mass closure of pubs in UK and cafes in France. Both cornerstones of communities, especially in small towns and villages.

Andrew Stroehlein@andrewstroehlein.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“When there is no longer any place to talk to each other, politics becomes a face-off between the isolated individual and the grand narratives of the media – and in this face-off, discourses that offer simple answers have a structural advantage,” the study adds.  f24.my/Bixk

A continent divided into many states with different languages, histories & religions - overcoming their differences and uniting into one federation. A pipe dream for Europe? No. It's the modern reality of India. And it shows it can be done. My piece on 🇪🇺🇮🇳:

Europe should draw inspiration from the Indian union

The subcontinent was also once split into small states speaking different languages, but the Indian union has brought great success. As the EU and India strike a trade deal, there are wider lessons.

davekeating.substack.com

Almost my entire Bluesky timeline is people commenting on Trump’s every dumb word or act. Every day. All the time. Which is entirely understandable but also completely pointless. And one of the many reasons I don’t waste my precious time on earth here like I used to on X.

It’s surely relevant that the US has never been invaded in its homeland, while west Europeans have seen their towns reduced to rubble by invaders within current lifetimes. Americans don’t seem to see that for Europeans, border disputes aren’t a funny distraction; they’re a matter of life and death

@ironeconomist.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Think the Americans in general and the Trump administration in particular has savagely misjudged how Europeans feel about territorial sovereignty. It’s on an entirely different level of importance from economic security and there is almost no chance Greenland will be surrendered without bloodshed.

“Appeasement does not restrain Trump. Nor does acquiescence preserve stability. It simply confirms that coercion works.” Time for Europe to grow up and grow some. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Greenland is Europe’s credibility litmus test – it must show Trump that aggression carries a price | Fabian Zuleeg

In the new dog-eat-dog world order, appeasement doesn’t work. Time for the EU to grow up, says Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre

theguardian.com

A quick reminder that a lot of people find this time of year very difficult - and even people who seem fine can be really struggling to stay afloat. If you think you know someone like this, call! send them a message! send a stupid gif or meme! It’ll take you 20 seconds & could literally save a life

Kaja Kallas: we have to be really clear-eyed. We have one aggressor and one victim. And the one that needs security guarantees is Ukraine, not Russia. In last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries, some as many as three or four times. None of those countries has ever attacked Russia

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

“A world where China and the US both wish to eat the EU’s economic lunch, and Russia harbours darker designs to the east, is no place for a romantic view of multilateralism..Europeans deserve far better than a continent made fit for Elon Musk.Time to fight back.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on Trump and Europe: more an abusive relationship than an alliance | Editorial

Editorial: The White House is aggressively seeking to weaken and dominate the United States’ traditional allies. European leaders must learn to fight back.

theguardian.com

If European Digital Sovereignty is to mean anything, it ought to mean NOT posting on a platform owned and run by a fascist intent on undermining the EU! And don't give me the bullshit you have to be there for "balance" or "reach" - the rules are stacked against you from the outset

This book could not be more timely on the day Trump has been named the most influential person in Europe by Politico. And there is nobody who writes with more vim and verve about America’s domination of Europe than @davekeating.substack.com. I’m ordering my copy now.

Dave Keating@davekeating.substack.com · 8mo ago

However, freeing Europe from American domination is no easy task. As I write in my new book published today, it isn't just Europe's defence and economy that 🇺🇸 owns. It's also European minds. In my book, I lay out a plan to free those minds. Available now for purchase at www.TheOwnedContinent.eu

Article 5 is now not just dead, but three times cremated and then buried at sea

24Hours Ukraine@24hoursukraine.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺"Now Putin has started making incursions into the NATO borders. The one thing I can tell you is the US is not going to get involved with troops or any of that. We will sell the Europeans weapons." - Scott Bessent United States Secretary of the Treasury

From R. Crumb's satirical "City of the Future" in Zap Comix (1968)

“Europe is losing confidence, sinking into fatalism and justifying its passivity with the soothing thought that it has no real choice, as its cards are weak.” Excellebt op-ed by @sbeverts.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/euro...

Europe’s psychology of weakness

It’s time the EU ditched its failing strategy of “react, hope, repeat.”

politico.eu

This chart (which applies even more to social media than it did to TV) lives in my head rent free. Social media enveloping traditional media means everything and everyone is now competing in the entertainment market. Boring stuff like policy that affects millions of lives doesn’t stand a chance.