René Smits

Exclusive: the error at the heart of Trump’s BBC attack A report alleging Panorama broadcast misleading Trump quotes contains misleading quotes itself

EXCLUSIVE 🚨 A report alleging Panorama broadcast misleading Trump quotes contains misleading quotes itself

✏️ @jamesrball.com

Waar is Europa?

Europa en onze digitale toekomst staan niet tussen de ‘prioriteiten’ waar D66 en CDA nu een agenda voor schrijven.

Nee, deze onderwerpen scoren niet lekker in de peilingen, maar het zijn wel de fundamenten van onze toekomst. En daar moet deze formatie alle aandacht voor zijn.

How Norway jeopardised its integrity overnight Oslo abruptly changed the ethics rules for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund

"If a country as rich as Norway can’t afford to stick to principles, who can?" impactful question by @martinsandbu.ft.com concluding his fine analysis of the suspension of the ethics council of Norway's SWF for spurious reasons on.ft.com/3JITldB

- Een rapport van Demand Justice toont dat tientallen door Trump benoemde rechters bijna identieke formuleringen gebruiken om vragen over de Capitoolbestorming en de verkiezingen van 2020 te ontwijken. De organisatie noemt dit een “politieke loyaliteitstest.”

And here is the second, 'Mr. Hyde' part of today's votes - where the EPP sides with the far-right, ranging from the ECR, to Orban & Le Pen's 'Patriots for Europe' and the AfD's 'Europe of Sovereign Nations' for a centre-right to far-right majority on the Omnibus 'deregulation':

Partially schizophrenic seems indeed very fitting to describe the current state of politics in the European Parliament

EU Parliament backs governments’ botched climate target - Greenpeace European Unit Brussels – The European Parliament has voted for a 2040 climate target that fails to cut pollution enough to fulfil the EU’s responsibility to tackle the climate crisis, Greenpeace has…

The EU climate target for 2040, backed by both the EU Parliament and national governments, is a 90% cut to pollution on paper only

So many loopholes and caveats means it falls far short, the EU's own science advisers say so

Negotiation and dodgy accounting are no good against droughts and floods

How Norway jeopardised its integrity overnight Oslo abruptly changed the ethics rules for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund

How Norway jeopardised its integrity overnight on.ft.com/47U3wDU | opinion

Want to make America healthy again? Stop fueling climate change From extreme heat to mosquito-borne illnesses, climate change is making people sicker and more vulnerable to disease. Health scientists explain what individuals and governments can do about it.

The Trump administration wants to rescind a 2009 finding that climate change endangers public health.

Physicians and epidemiologists argue the move ignores mounting evidence linking climate change to heat deaths, epidemics, air pollution and mental health crises

Historic. Commentators making parallels with early 1930s accommodation with Nazis. Long story short: conservatives combine with far right and neofascists to pass legislation. The vote was about business supply chains but will be remembered as another waypoint on the EU's lurch rightwards.

Olympians call on Iran to halt execution of boxing champion Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani’s death sentence

Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani should be free - stop the execution
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians

eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/jus...

The Dalai Lama created a Tibetan capital in exile in India. It's shrinking For decades, Tibetans built a capital in exile in Dharamshala, India, and sent their kids to a school founded by the Dalai Lama. That's now changing.

For decades, Tibetans built a capital in exile in Dharamshala, India, and sent their kids to a school founded by the Dalai Lama. That's now changing. n.pr/49BpuhB

YouTube video by Senator Elizabeth Warren Should a working family go broke because of one freak accident or bad diagnosis?

Should a working family go broke because of one freak accident or bad diagnosis?

That could be the new reality for millions of Americans because Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress would rather shut down the government than lower health care costs.

More than 100 organisations tell Hoekstra not to bring fossil fuel lobbyists to COP30! - Fossil Free Politics As COP30 approaches, we're now calling on the EU's climate chief, Commissioner Wopka Hoekstra, to not bring fossil fuel lobbyists to the UN climate talks again this year, and to push member states to ...

A letter signed by more than 100 organisations was sent to Hoekstra, asking not to bring fossil fuel lobbyists to COP30 🇧🇷

👍 Promisingly, there were no lobbyists in the official EU delegation last year

👎EU Member States still brought 113 lobbyists

✉️: fossilfreepolitics.org/news/cop30-l...

#COP30

I Will Vote Be a voter. Find everything you need to vote in your state’s next election.

Everything we care about, from the cost of groceries to the character of our republic, will be affected by decisions that are happening at the ballot box today.

So if you care, make sure you vote!

MEPs face pressure to curb Europol’s reach The EU's police agency Europol is set to have its migrant-busting powers expanded, as MEPs in the civil liberties committee head to a vote on Wednesday (5 November).

The EU's police agency Europol is set to have its migrant-busting powers expanded, as MEPs in the civil liberties committee head to a vote on Wednesday (5 November).

"Trump has built his appeal on licensing every prejudice under the sun. That includes the west’s deadliest. In the primeval soup of nativist social media — and especially on Musk’s X — Nazi admiration is no longer in hiding." 3/

"a constellation of figures — from JD Vance, the US vice-president, to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man — are, wittingly or otherwise, making antisemitism respectable again." 2/

on.ft.com/43ejpDU Don’t blame the left for US antisemitism The anti-Jewish threat in America today comes largely from the right says @edwardluce.bsky.social in today's @financialtimes.com 1/

When we look at this massacre and many more perpetrated by the RSF, let's be clear who funds, equips & sustains them. It's the UAE. Yes, the same UAE that might own your football club, fly you on your holidays, invests in our national infrastructure. If boycotts work, we should be boycotting now.

Rob Jetten zegevierde met een vrolijk liberaal verhaal. Nu wacht hem een onmogelijke taak Rob Jetten loste zijn ideologische ankers, pakte het vooruitgangsoptimisme van de VVD en leende gemeenschapszin van het CDA. Zo dreef hij naar een steeds leger midden, waar hij iedereen moet bekoren d...

Top-analyse. Jetten stuurde naar rechts, kloonde Obama-optimisme en brak met oude politicologische wetten - maar wordt nu zelf het spectrale midden waarin iedereen kan zien wat hij wil zien.

About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says Demonstrators took to streets after president’s main challengers were excluded from ballot

severe repression of nationwide contesting of rigged (excluding Tundu Lissu and others) elections in Tanzania reported 🇹🇿
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o... @titomagoti.bsky.social @mariastsehai.bsky.social

Ok, D66 is the biggest (medium) party in the Netherlands.. by a whisker… Good news. Congrats!

Can we now focus on the fact that the second biggest party/person is engaging in thinly-veiled election denial?

Republican Politicians Are Already Celebrating the End of the Voting Rights Act Supreme Court justices often claim that their work is technical and nonpartisan. The reactions from the politicians who stand to benefit from their work tell a different story.

Pretty notable difference in tone these days between the conservative Supreme Court justices, who insist that their jobs aren't "political," and Republican politicians, who are already celebrating the death of the Voting Rights Act at the hands of the conservative Supreme Court justices

Wilders deelt op X berichten die gesjoemel tijdens verkiezingen suggereren PVV-leider Geert Wilders heeft op X twee berichten gedeeld waarin de suggestie wordt gewekt dat er gesjoemeld is met stemmen bij de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen. Wilders schrijft dat 'het regent van dit s...

Onder het mom van 'eerlijke verkiezingen' het vertrouwen in het verkiezingsproces ondermijnen door incidenten niet zorgvuldig te (laten) onderzoeken, maar uitvergroten en ophef te creëren. Zeer zorgwekkend.
www.rtl.nl/nieuws/polit...

Unrest in Tanzania as reported by Semafor Africa @semafor.com www.semafor.com/newsletter/1...

If you have let down the people of Gaza under the pretext of inability, then you have no excuse for letting down the people of Sudan, while you are capable.

nationwide protests against election rigging and suppression of opposition in Tanzania 🇹🇿 probably ongoing but without internet unverifiable what’s actually happening #FreeTunduLissu @mariastsehai.bsky.social @eastafricapaper.bsky.social @africanunion.bsky.social

A @financialtimes.com reader rightly imploring the newspaper to give prominence to climate science findings on ecosystems collapse (given a dismissive heading by the editors) @gilliantett.bsky.social

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Letter: A reader’s plaintive climate change plea