Andrew Jacobs

Trump ambushes South African president in Oval Office with video | CNN South African President Cyril Ramaphosa sat in awkward silence as he listened to a video US President Donald Trump played in the Oval Office. CNN’s Larry Madowo reports that Trump was pushing debunked...

staging a show-and-tell about a fake genocide during a real genocide to the government that has done the most to seek justice for that real genocide is designed to break our brains. They know what they are doing. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/w...

I follow @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social which offers a daily reminder of what we, as a species, can do to each other.

Never again, we said. Yet, here were are. Again.

Two people who are not going to be pleased about UK getting closer to EU are Putin and Trump. Which is enough almost to prove it's a good idea.

My God. I never had the slightest hope this could happen. It seemed impossible. Romania votes against populism, rejects the far-right. An incredible result www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Labour has chosen nativism over growth.

inews.co.uk/opinion/star...

Or 'you must'. Much easier...

Espérons que l'Esprit Saint, s'il existe, aura soufflé sur cette rencontre qui aura au moins produit une belle et inhabituelle image.

Today we come together to honour a man who led with kindness, peaceful strength and compassion.

Quote from a Trump interview comparing US economy to a department store

The economic illiteracy is disturbing, the claim to ownership is sinister. The combination is standard Trump.

EU-Switzerland: a new approach to partial integration into the single market? The new EU-Swiss agreement breaks new ground, and could offer lessons for the EU-UK relationship

But new Swiss agreement, which didn't exist during Brexit negotiations, may, as pointed out in reports by both @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social and @bruegel.bsky.social, be useful in discussions of future EU-UK relations.

The new EU-Swiss deal: What it means and the lessons it holds for the UK-EU 'reset' The recent political agreement between the European Commission and the Swiss government promises to stabilise their long-troubled economic relationship. The British government should pay close at...

Switzerland is not in the Single Market, but a large number of treaties with the EU provide access to much of it. New agreements have recently been negotiated between the Commission and Switzerland provide a clearer framework for SM participation. www.cer.eu/insights/new...

This is organist Olena Kohut, killed today in Sumy by the Russian missile. Joseph Rheinberger, Visione, op. 156 no. 5
💔

Kemi Badenoch has supported Israel deporting two British MP's saying, "I'm not surprised Labour MP's were removed."

How utterly disgraceful.

Kyiv residents are forced to spend their Sunday morning in the metro because of the killer state, Russia.

View across the Straits of Gibraltar towards Africa, from Tarifa

Palm trees in the town of Tariifa

Tarifa’s ancient stone walls

Tariffs get their name from Tarifa, a pretty Andalusian port just west of Gibraltar which was base to notorious pirates who used to mug traders passing between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

Trump has proved what a humiliating position the UK is in We are having elements of our domestic policy dictated by tech bros in the White House

Labour is doing the sensible thing in seeking to limit the damage of tariffs. But there's a limit to how much humiliation this country can take. And we're getting pretty close to hitting it.

inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

I understand why media coverage resists labelling him insane but that’s the signal fact about Musk these days

Great comic timing from the Danes here.

Screenshot of headline: THE TIMES VIEW Barring Marine Le Pen from the presidential election will inflame tensions

At a stroke, the judges have displaced one of the most popular politicians in the country, a presidential favourite no less, and dismayed the 12 million voters who supported her. The apparent muzzling of an anti-establishment figure will feed into the culture of grievance that propels the hard right across the world.

So on brand for The Times to help whip up the victimhood of the right, rather than calling it what it is…
Criminal abuse of power. A corrupt politician being found guilty in a court of law.
Judges did their job. Le Pen muzzled herself. She is responsible for her own demise. Democracy is safer today.

Europe's appointment with history. Time to stand up in defence of European Values. And to enforce EU law strictly on US companies: data protection rules, competition rules, environmental laws, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, etc. No more privileged treatment of the US, put Europe first.

Latest OBR assessment: Brexit caused a 4% hit to GDP.

That's an astounding amount, the equivalent of more than £100,000,000,000 lost to Brexit.
obr.uk/forecasts-in...

Canada to join Horizon Europe on equal terms with Europeans

Headline in Politico: “Boris Johnson: UK considered military raid to seize Dutch Covid jabs”

Would all those British commentators waxing indignant that the EU isn’t choosing to spend its money on British weapons kindly sit the fuck back down. This was only four years ago.

This is a nightmare that people in many South American countries are familiar with.

Serviërs en Hongaren massaal de straat op tegen autocratie. Georgiërs nog steeds massaal de straat op tegen autocratie. Roemenen en Italianen de straat op vóór Europa. Zij laten zien: Europa is meer dan een continent. Het is een keuze voor vrijheid.

It doesn’t matter what Vance says about us. It doesn’t matter what Trump spews about us. They could cosy up to us, they could say they’re our best friends, they’re still racists and we should oppose them until they’re gone. We are not like them.

Don’t look away

Greenland was part of the EU but left, following a referendum, in 1985.

The other ultra-peripheral regions are Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin, Martinique, La Réunion, Mayotte, the Canaries, the Azores, and Madeira. No other non-European territories of the EU Member States are part of the EU.