Prof John O Brennan

Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba chosen as Iran’s new supreme leader Move could lead to escalation of war as Donald Trump has already called Mojtaba Khamenei an ‘unacceptable’ choice

Trump has just spent billions of dollars replacing Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khamenei and, in the process, sent the price of oil soaring over $100 and plunged the world economy into crisis.

Great job, numnuts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba chosen as Iran’s new supreme leader Move could lead to escalation of war as Donald Trump has already called Mojtaba Khamenei an unacceptable choice

The Islamic revolution is now a distant memory as the Iranian leadership opts for family succession.

Amongst other things this gives (inadvertent) legitimacy to the Pahlavi would-be comeback kid.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Germany, Infratest dimap exit poll:

Baden-Württemberg regional parliament election

GRÜNE (Greens/EFA): 32.0% (-0.6)
CDU (EPP): 29.0% (+4.9)
AfD (ESN): 17.5% (+7.8)
SPD (S&D): 5.5% (-5.5)
FDP (RE): 4.5% (-6.0)
LINKE (LEFT): 4.5% (+0.9)

+/- vs. Last election result

➤ europeelects.eu/germany

Polls have closed in the first of this year's five German state elections, in prosperous Baden-Württemberg. It's looking like a remarkable win-from-behind by the Greens under @oezdemir.de. Full results over the course of the evening.

The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump | Simon Tisdall As the Iran disaster escalates, the US president should be seen as an enemy whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdal...

Simon Tisdall’s powerful take on nine days of war against Iran by the lawless, thuggish regimes of the US and Israel and why the UK should break decisively with Trump.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

For those interested in where MAGA came from, I highly recommend Edward Stourton’s recent book, Made in America.

Informative and highly intelligible.

Delighted to join the brilliant RTE team for discussion of Europe’s role in the Middle East conflagration.

Iran crisis - how it could hit your pocket -EU response As the US-Iran conflict escalates, oil prices have begun to rise, so what impact could the crisis have on prices here? Adam Maguire joins Fran and Maggie to explain why the Straits of Hormuz is import...

Thanks to the team at RTE Behind the Story for hosting me on the EU response to war in the Middle East.
www.rte.ie/radio/podcas...

Government monitoring risks to Irish troops amid Middle East escalation Ministers monitor risks to Irish peacekeepers and citizens as fears grow of wider Middle East escalation

Cormac O’ Keefe on the US-Israeli assault on Iran, with my comments on the EU reaction, which has been far too asinine.
www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...

The entire education industry now seems geared toward ensuring that students never, ever read a book in the course of their education. I despair.

In just 25 hours, the U.S. has had four tariff regimes:
1. Liberation Day Mark_II_re-revised_(final)
2. Liberation Day Mark_II_re-revised_(final) - IEEPA tariffs
3. Liberation Day Mark_II_re-revised_(final) - IEEPA tariffs +10%
4. Liberation Day Mark_II_re-revised_(final) - IEEPA tariffs +10% + 5%

U2: Days of Ash review – six new tracks reaffirm the band as a vital political voice On their first collection of new songs since 2017, the quartet have a crispness that has been lacking in their 21st-century material, as they nimbly react to shocking news stories

The best thing U2 have done this century: Days of Ash really speaks to this moment in time. You can say why you want about them
(I have) but this is an angry, urgent, yet sonically beautiful record.
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Great to meet Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister and chief EU accession negotiator, Dr. Cristina Gherasimov at @iiea in Dublin today.

Superb talk on Moldova’s efforts to meet EU accession criteria.

Still on the slow train to nowhere? EU Enlargement between technocratic incrementalism and geopolitical turbulence | IACES.ie IACES Annual Lecture 2026 - Professor John O’Brennan, Maynooth University

Just over a week to go to the @IACESInfo annual lecture where I will be talking about the future of EU Enlargement policy.

To register, visit the website:
www.iaces.ie/events/still...

Excuse me?

Truly superb work by @rtenews RTE Investigates on the appalling state of psychiatric care in Ireland.

We really, really need to address these issues.

Public broadcasting at its finest. @news.rte.ie @rteprimetime.bsky.social

Kid Rock’s ‘MAGA fest’ cancelled after nearly all its acts pull out

BREAKING: Kid Rock’s “MAGA Fest” just got CANCELLED after nearly ALL acts bailed 😂🎸

Even the lineup said NOPE to the red-hat vibes.

Shinedown, Ludacris, and more walked — turns out unity > division.

MAGA music scene in shambles! 🔥 #KidRock #MAGAFlop

This was the piece that triggered the tweet/post from me, plus a conversation with a noted Hitler biographer.

How steep is Trump’s democratic backsliding? The erosion of established norms has been dramatic but institutions are holding up

Mr Ganz could start by reading this: www.ft.com/content/b474...

I would SO love to respond to this!!

Can you give me a link Martin? Thank you.

I’ve submerged myself in writing on Weimar and 1930s. If anything I am understating where we are.

As for ‘self proclaimed”, random net folks just love to demean people in the senior ranks of academia. My 35 years of reading is equated to what they read 5 minutes ago on the internet.

So the Epstein scandal is about politics? Silly me for thinking it’s about the mass abuse of women and girls | Marina Hyde Obsessing over individual players and political chaos leaves less time to focus on the misogyny. And that’s for the best, isn’t it guys, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde, brilliant as ever: “The abused women and girls are nothing but a plot device, just like they always were. It’s the pussy-grabbers’ world – we just live in it. The only difference is you can now see it laid out in black and white.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Triple Lock: What Happens If It Goes? | Newstalk The future of Ireland’s Triple Lock is moving from political argument to legislative reality. F...

discuss some of these issues on this new @NewstalkFM podcast, in particular the ridiculous ‘Triple Lock’ which essentially outsources Irish decision making on international troop deployment.

Good, at least, to see this relic consigned to history.

www.newstalk.com/podcasts/new...

Yes, 1952.

Yes but GDP not an accurate deflator for Irish economy. Better to use GNI* which brings the spend up to about 0.4*. In contrast fellow neutral Austria spends almost 1%.

Defence Forces tell gardaí they can't provide anti-drone security for EU Presidency meetings Gardaí have been told by the Defence Forces that the military cannot secure locations outside of its airbase at Baldonnel.

It is just astonishing that Ireland is so lacking in defence capacity that the country cannot provide anti-drone technology, to properly secure upcoming EU presidency meetings.

We will instead be relying on the kindness of our partner states to help us.
www.thejournal.ie/drone-issue-...

Once again, the regime creeps in Washington DC are trying to get Ukraine to surrender, on the basis of US ‘security guarantees’. Any country which takes such ‘guarantees’ on trust from a bunch of serial liars who always do Putin’s bidding would be making a very grave error.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK Braverman becomes third sitting Conservative MP to join Nigel Farage’s party in little more than a week

Nigel Farage’s Reform party party is now full to the brim with ex-Tory ministers who has 14 years to implement reforms and executed precisely NONE.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I spoke to John Mooney of The Sunday Times, about Ireland’s chronically inept approach to security and defence and why something fundamental has to change.