There’s something grotesque about this: more border porn from @reformparty_uk as they turn the world’s poorest people into threatening Dickensian caricatures, to distract from the searching questions about their party’s funding by offshore billionaires. eualive.net/battery-cham...

Battery champion Bulgaria helps neighbours maintain electricity supplies

Bulgaria’s rapid expansion of battery storage and renewable electricity has unexpectedly turned the country into ...

eualive.net

Brilliant piece by Jonathan Liew: Ceuta was turned into border porn by the far right, a locus for the, to present their apocalyptic fantasies about the danger of the brown man to white Christian Europe. Compelling reading. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ceuta was a carnival of anti-migrant content for hateful opportunists on the right – and a lesson for the left | Jonathan Liew

It was framed as a perfect storm because nativists dearly wanted it to be. Looking on, progressives failed to meet the moment too, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

theguardian.com

Elon Musk is all for free speech. Except when it comes to his dictatorial mates in Saudis Arabia and elsewhere. For them he will block every dissident account that displeases them. What a giant fraud the man is. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk’s X latest to block Saudi dissident accounts inside kingdom

Exclusive: More than 60 accounts on X have been made unavailable in Saudi Arabia, after similar action on Snapchat and Facebook

theguardian.com

Iran has now gobbled up nearly all U.S. ATACMS and PrSM ballistic missiles, plus half of Tomahawk cruise missiles and a very considerable share of the THAAD and Patriot interceptors, sources tell @reuters.com’s Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay, and Michael Stone. www.reuters.com/world/us-has...

EXCLUSIVE: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say

The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the...

reuters.com

Trump increasingly makes Liberace look like a less than committed amateur in the camp interior decorating league. Who would have thought?

How Moldova is radically changing its scrutiny of judges and prosecutors as part of its efforts to draw closer to the EU. A very informative piece on an important issue related to the key chapters 23 and 24 of the accession process. eualive.net/moldovas-jud...

Moldova’s judicial vetting begins to restore public trust as Ukraine falls behind

Public trust in Moldova’s justice system is beginning to recover after years of sweeping judicial ...

eualive.net

The most dispiriting thing about the Ceuta controversy is that Europeans responded to a threat to their stability with polarisation and confrontation, rather than providing concrete cooperation and solidarity with Spain. www.politico.eu/podcast/brus...

Ceuta triggers two days of EU emergency talks

The crisis in the Spanish territory of Ceuta is adding fuel to Europe’s bitter debate over migration. Following the arrival of more than 50,000 migrants in Ceuta in northern Africa last w…

politico.eu

When EU ministers meet on Tuesday they should insist on an EU- led investigation to find out precisely which forces were behind what was a very serious attempt to destabilise the European Union and damage Spain.

RTÉ News@news.rte.ie · 4d ago

France and Italy have bolstered border controls after around 60,000 people crossed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years

As well as supplying Russia with vast amounts of alumina, Aughinish Alumina is contaminating groundwater around its plant to massive levels, polluting a beautiful part of the Shannon Estuary. Where is Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency? Asleep at the wheel, it seems.

The real story about Ceuta is the desire of some political entities to whip up anger and fear about migration, while the usual media and social media trolls do everything to amplify far right narratives and inflame public opinion. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Spain sends extra troops and police to Ceuta after thousands of migrants arrive

Unknown number of people have swum and waded into Spanish enclave that neighbours Morocco

theguardian.com

What does last week’s split in Poland’s Law and Justice party mean for Polish politics and for Ukraine and the EU? www.politico.eu/article/pola...

Watch out Brussels and Kyiv, Poland’s conservatives are veering right

The rupture of Law and Justice is strengthening hardline parties that oppose Ukraine’s EU membership and may hold the key to Poland’s next government.

politico.eu

⚡️Update: 8 killed, 30 injured across Ukraine as Russia launches massive ballistic missile, drone attack.

8 killed, 30 injured across Ukraine as Russia launches massive ballistic missile, drone attack

Russia launched dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as hundreds of drones, towards Ukraine in the early hours of July 30 in yet another large-scale attack. Damage was reported in various ...

kyivindependent.com

The big question now for Reform UK: exactly how many convicted criminals are funding your party? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UK

Exclusive: Sources say Fiona Cottrell told bankers the transfers, received 24-72 hours before her donations to Reform, came from her son

theguardian.com

Rafael Behr, at his brilliant best, in assessing how the British Right is responding to Andy Burnham. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Suddenly the British right feels a political chill. It’s getting cold in Andy Burnham’s shadow | Rafael Behr

The Tories and Reform had it easy when Keir Starmer was self-destructing – but a new PM with ideas exposes how vacant the opposition has become, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

theguardian.com

British university tuition fees are VASTLY higher than in most EU states already, so pushing for some intermediate fee between 9k and 60k p.a means only the wealthiest students from EU countries could ever hope to study in Britain. This isn’t a solution. www.politico.eu/article/eu-p...

EU pitches Brexit reset tuition fees compromise

Negotiations between London and Brussels are continuing ahead of a summit, which has yet to be rescheduled after Britain’s change of government.

politico.eu

Brilliant piece from Erwan Fouéré on why the EU’s failures to resolve Balkan disputes undermines its credibility in the region and the enlargement process. balkaninsight.com/2026/07/22/e...

EU’s Failure to Address Balkan Disputes Undermines Its Credibility

Brussels’ double standards towards North Macedonia over its historical disagreements with Bulgaria reflect the EU’s wider failure to adopt a strategy that addresses various bilateral disputes in the W...

balkaninsight.com

Every day Rupert Murdoch pours poison into our societies and our governments stand back and do nothing. Few men have done as much damage to the world as Rupert Murdoch has over the last 50 years.

Spotlight on Romania and the strong lead in opinion polls of far right party AUR. Can Romanian centrists put together a new coalition and stave off calls for a snap general election? www.politico.eu/article/geor...

Political chaos turns spotlight on Romania’s MAGA champion

As the possibility of snap elections draws closer, hard-right leader George Simion tells POLITICO that “God” is on his side.

politico.eu

My piece on Montenegro’s ambition to join the EU, and how the Irish EU Council presidency may play a vital brokerage role before the end of the year, as some member states introduce new demands of Podgorica. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

John O'Brennan: Ireland could be crucial to Montenegro's EU accession chances

Like Ireland in 1973, Montenegro is small, peripheral and insecure, in a world of increasingly volatile international relations and a multilateral order in retreat

irishexaminer.com

Extraordinary things happening to the economy of Japan. Imagine a conservative government planning to spend almost 2 trillion Euros *just to try and get GDP growth to 1% annually? Without serious immigration and with v low level birth rates this may be the future for many states. lnkd.in/dxaHGEFZ

Once again the EU's Digital Markets Act helps to protect European consumers, in this case fining Google almost €900 million for infringements of EU rules. More than ever, regulation of Big Tech matters. www.politico.eu/article/eu-f...

EU fines Google €890M for breaching Big Tech rulebook

Brussels orders U.S. search giant to overhaul how it ranks rivals in search results and how it polices its app store — or face further penalties.

politico.eu

Ready for the great Ivo Dimchev!

My op ed argues Bulgaria is fast becoming the new Hungary within the EU, at least where Ukraine policy is concerned. New PM, Rumen Radev, has has set in train a pivot in Bulgarian policy: from strong support for Ukraine to obstruction of EU sanctions. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

John O'Brennan: Orbán is gone, but the EU has a new headache in Bulgaria

The country’s new administration has made a number of moves that indicate a striking change in its position towards Ukraine, placing it at odds with EU partner states and Ireland

irishtimes.com

With the Irish govt report on Rusal’s Aughinish alumina plant due any day there is still a HUGE discrepancy between the latest CSO figures which show that 50% of the alumina produced in Q1 2026 went to Russia and the Irish Times investigation which showed 80%+ to Russia. They can’t both be right.

We are really beginning to see the value of the EU’s Digital Services Act, as huge fines are applied to MNCs that fail to respect European rules. European consumers have to be protected from predatory operators. www.politico.eu/article/eu-h...

EU hits China’s Alibaba with €550M record fine over illegal products

“There were a lot of counterfeit products, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics” on AliExpress, Europe’s tech chief says.

politico.eu

One of the great tragedies of our time: hoe the von der Leyen-led European Commission caved into the farm lobby and gutted its own ambitious European Green Deal. New report details how the farm lobby so successfully achieved its ambition to gut the EGD. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Revealed: how Europe’s most powerful farming lobby killed EU’s pesticide law

Exclusive: High-level documents show how Copa Cogeca worked to weaken legislation to protect climate and wildlife

theguardian.com

This is a terrible tragedy for humanities and social science education in the UK. Some years from now, when AI has annihilated our capacity for critical reasoning, we will realise what an own goal these cuts represent. t.co/FcKEP1AG5D

🇫🇷🇺🇦 Ukrainian Defenders marching on Champs-Élysées during the Bastille Day. 🇺🇦🇫🇷

Bulgaria is rapidly turning into the new Hungary. Not in respect of domestic affairs but rather buffering Russia within the European Union. This was always likely with Radev as PM. But it is rapidly getting worse (I.e. keeping Patriarch Kirk off sanctions list). www.novinite.com/articles/239...

Radev Rejects Ukraine "Coalition of the Willing", Says Bulgaria’s Place is in Diplomacy - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that Bulgaria has no place in the “Coalition of the Willing,” arguing that the country should not join a format whose members support continued financial and ...

novinite.com

Me, On Nigel Farage and this week’s psychodrama x.com/ChrisWChrysa...

Chris Wright (@ChrisWChrysalis) on X

Is Farage unravelling like his and Reform's money trail? This week's episode of my podcast Wright on the Nail: Trump, Fifa, Farage & Burnham? Good Week or Bad Week? Joined by the highly informe...

x.com