R Phelps

Isn't the answer here that they know the Dems will never exact revenge and if it tried the Supreme Court would stop them. And the latter is why I gotta say I think the US is cooked long term, the Dems won't do anything about the judges.

“To make matters worse, there is no orderly queue, just a chaotic digital scramble to book an exam slot every time a batch is put online. Blogs and social media posts offer advice on how to maximise your chances: use an Ethernet cable rather than WiFi, for example.”

China’s Weak Currency Is Powering Its Exports and Drawing Criticism

Great Bradsher piece on how the renminbis dramatic undervaluation is supercharging China‘s export explosion.

Germanys trade deficit with China has surged more than 120% this year.

But cutting red tape will surely restore Europes competitiveness!

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/b...

Restrainers gonna restrainer

Ahh so citizenship is just a visa

Waited 15 years for this.

The Syrian city of Homs tonight. For years, the city was besieged, and its population witnessed one of the fiercest battles during the war.

Name names!

The Netflix age has been great for consumers but terrible for artists Returns to musicians and writers are dwindling fast

My column in tomorrow’s FT: on how Netflix and streaming created a huge consumer surplus, but at the cost of a supply side crisis for the artists that produce their material:

Given a) Farage's past; b) the expanding story about Russia and former MEPs; and c) media enthusiasm for "what influence is being bought?" questions, if anyone to left of Mussolini is gifted so much as a cup of sugar, why is Reform facing no such questions about Friday's £9m crypto-bro donation?~AA

Hungary’s Budget Gap Widens to $12.4 Billion, Fitch Cuts Outlook Hungary’s budget gap continued to widen in November after Fitch Ratings cut the outlook on Hungary’s second-lowest investment grade on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s pre-election spending. (https://archive.ph/7pm5A)

Hungary’s Budget Gap Widens to $12.4 Billion, Fitch Cuts Outlook

Hungary’s budget gap continued to widen in November after Fitch Ratings cut the outlook on Hungary’s second-lowest investment grade on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s pre-election spending.

(https://archive.ph/7pm5A)

Good centre left European politicians could take this & make a moral crusade against authoritarianism equal to the Cold War in its ability to bind the left (instead of last time round, the right) together tightly, paint far right as unpatriotic & keep the centre right nervous not to be so tainted.

Trump is shortening it, as is the evidence of all our eyes to see Brexit and ears to hear.

Try not restraining for once.

The severe damage Brexit caused now officially canonical.

Canada, up until the post-war shift to the US sphere, was a vital component of European security, and there are European graveyards that prove it. We should be in on this, not just as supporters but participants.

Does Europe Finally Realize It’s Alone? Washington’s new National Security Strategy ratifies an adversarial relationship.

Does Europe Finally Realize It’s Alone?
foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/05/n...

Restrainers crying, smashing crockery

Russia could be defeated with proper European support.

‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you’: Beijing summons journalists in Hong Kong after fire Powerful security agency accuses international journalists of disregarding facts and smearing the government Beijing’s powerful security agency in Hong Kong has summoned journalists from international media to inform them it will not tolerate “trouble-making”, after critical coverage of the deadly apartment complex fire that has left the territory reeling. Senior reporters from several outlets operating in the city were called to the meeting by the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), which was set up by Beijing in 2020. Continue reading...

‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you’: Beijing summons journalists in Hong Kong after fire

Yesterday the Security Strategy showed the US don't want to be out allies. This shows they couldn't be anyway.

This little boy was 9, Farage was 17. The epitome of a school bully.

Yeah this isn’t good. And the household sizes in the uk as measured by the EHS are already much higher than our closest peers: France and Germany.

Absolutely agree. But if it does manage to do it in the face of US resistance, that's a real independence day moment.

Bang on from Ed Luce and Martin Sandbu.

Getting the Ukraine loan passed is now a key litmus test for Europe if it’s a herbivore in a carnivore world.

The Eliot Higgins law

You love to see it

The World in 2027

If they do manage to use the frozen assets against US pressure that will be a hell of a moment of European independence, and we should say so. Is the UK still pushing using these assets forward too as previously reported?

Bob Crumb coming out of retirement just to say "RFK Jr. is right about vaccines and my ex-wife should've taken more advice from me" is such a fitting end to Boomer Americana and everything the "alt-comix" movement claimed to stand for

Imagine being a Restrainer who whitewashed Trump as muh realism pre election reading far right Reddit posts as the new NSS.