I'm currently in Nicosia and the mood is calm; life goes on. But this is very likely to deepen Cypriotsβ unhappiness with the UK sovereign territories at Dhekelia and Akrotiri, a leftover from colonial times.
01.03.2026 11:25 β
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ππ»
01.03.2026 10:23 β
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Wanna try again?
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...
01.03.2026 02:30 β
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What a chart!
27.02.2026 14:42 β
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Siri, how many Kremlin talking points fit into a single op-ed?
responsiblestatecraft.org/hungary-eu-u...
27.02.2026 14:41 β
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Probably an interesting story behind rue de la Roche Fatale in WSL as well...
25.02.2026 06:10 β
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That's because he finally learned how to say Azerbaijan but he can only hold one thought in his brain at a time
25.02.2026 05:24 β
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OrbΓ‘n is a traitor and should be excluded from EU decisionmaking. This stuff is too important to be left to a third-rate would-be authoritarian.
23.02.2026 17:26 β
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Been off grid for a bit
19.02.2026 07:31 β
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Inside a Detention Site at the Heart of Europeβs Harsh New Approach to Immigration
On the hellish detention and deportation system built by EU countries. With quotes from the current and the former German chancellors expressing their commitment to the inhumane cruelty of this apparatus, described here in forensic detail.
11.02.2026 08:23 β
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A tale of two billionaires. Jeff Bezos was at fashion week in Europe while he pulled a let-them-eat-cake firing of 30% of Washington Post journalists. Jimmy Lai stood by his newsroom and he will now likely die in a Hong Kong prison. Tell everyone you know about Jimmy Lai.
10.02.2026 09:29 β
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I don't think the EU could have done anything in this *specific* instance but it's entirely possible that the EU-funded Libyan "coastguard" could have
But the bigger point is about the EU's policy of externalizing migration control and doubling down on "deterrence" and not offering safe pathways
10.02.2026 10:37 β
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I'll take that over Mathias DΓΆpfner's Politico any day
10.02.2026 07:12 β
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All those who religiously read Playbook every morning while quietly cursing about the numerous mistakes and weird takes it serves up daily β could I interest you in The Morning Post Europe? Similar idea but far more substance. In French, English, and Italian.
10.02.2026 07:07 β
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I know, right?
10.02.2026 06:59 β
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Sure but that's 22 words instead of my 12 π
10.02.2026 06:59 β
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Today's @politico.eu Playbook is full of nonsense about EU enlargement such as the quote below. The pace of North Macedonia's and Turkey's accession has nothing to do with the allegedly "labyrinthine process" but with being blocked by EU member states (MK) and deciding it is no longer...
10.02.2026 06:47 β
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R.I.P., Washington Post books section. Required β and instructive β reading for decades, killed off by a tech bro billionaire who has dozens of millions to bribe the President but no money to keep one of the best newspapers in the world going.
04.02.2026 14:31 β
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Unsurprisingly, Politico completely missed the story: the story is LajΔΓ‘k, not Ε efΔoviΔ.
04.02.2026 09:21 β
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...was essentially a Kremlin PsyOps, clearly the Slovak angle deserves a closer look.
(Here is LajΔΓ‘k boasting about his honorary degree from MGIMO in 2018.)
english.mgimo.ru/news/lajcak
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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News digest: βI feel like an idiot,β LajΔΓ‘k tells radio after Epstein file release
A Foreignersβ Police change, a Slovak death in Switzerland and a new trail to KrivΓ‘Ε.
I have no idea what all this amounts to, and I'm not an investigative journalist. (For good English-language coverage of LajΔΓ‘k's emerging links to Epstein, check out the Slovak Spectator.) But given recent accusations that the entire Epstein saga...
spectator.sme.sk/politics-and...
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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He also uses the opportunity β an interview with Slovak Radio β to peddle Kremlin talking points, for example about the self-harm the EU is allegedly inflicting with its sanctions against Russia.
www.sme.sk/domov/c/lajc...
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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Picture showing Slovak Prime Minister LajΔΓ‘k and Jeffrey Epstein together in the Slovak embassy in Vienna
On January 31, LajΔΓ‘k was made to resign as diplomatic adviser to Slovak prime minister Fico over the Epstein revelations. But even in his only public comments so far he's still playing dumb about Epstein. Remember, they met in 2017, years after Epstein's conviction.
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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...together at MGIMO in Moscow before both returning to Slovakia, joining the Communist Party and the foreign service. (Ε efΔoviΔ's official Commission CV omits his time in Moscow, 1985-90.)
LajΔΓ‘k was almost immediately posted back to Moscow.
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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But today, Ε efΔoviΔ is clearly not amused by LajΔΓ‘k's indiscretion. He told reporters through a spokesperson "If Miroslav LajΔΓ‘k mentioned my name, it was for his own purposes with which I had nothing to do."
Now a bit of context. Ε efΔoviΔ and LajΔΓ‘k go way back; in the late 1980s they studied...
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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Screenshot from the Epstein files in which LajΔΓ‘k tells Epstein that Ε efΔovic is running for president
LajΔΓ‘k suggests to Epstein he'd like to replace Ε efΔoviΔ in the college of commissioners, jokingly claiming that this is why he supports his candidacy for president. Given what a careerist LajΔΓ‘k is, this might even be true.
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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LajΔΓ‘k, Slovakia's foreign minister at the time, tells Epstein about Ε efΔoviΔ when the latter β then as now a European commissioner β announces he's running for president of Slovakia, in early 2019. (He lost, and Epstein went to prison.)
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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EU trade chief Ε efΔoviΔ rejects Epstein involvement
βI did not authorize, request or agree to anyone mentioning my name to Jeffrey Epstein,β MaroΕ‘ Ε efΔoviΔ says via European Commission spokesperson.
There is only one reference to MaroΕ‘ Ε efΔoviΔ in the published Epstein files, and it occurs in the context of Miroslav LajΔΓ‘k plotting his own future. (LajΔΓ‘k has a history of leaving posts early to make a step up.) This article curiously omits the content of LajΔΓ‘k's message to Epstein.
04.02.2026 09:17 β
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