Christy Quirk

Sheep, and transhumance, in Roma

100% This is not in the Democratic Party's DNA to make this simple case.

Four in five Ukrainians want to continue attacking Russian oil refineries, even if it means the US stops aid, according to KIIS. 63% support the war for as long as it takes. kiis.com.ua?lang=eng&cat...

Where freedom is forged: Ukrainian women redefining military service #ELLE Ukraine has unveiled a new print issue featuring women who are challenging stereotypes and shaping the future of Ukraine’s defence forces. Read more of their stories on the official website. 📷: ELLE Ukraine/Sashko Yavir

I had let my @wired.com sub expire because my business, industry and career were destroyed by a 28 year old hired illegally but I coughed up so I could read @mollyknight.bsky.social 's story about how that happened. And because I love being enraged in the morning. www.wired.com/story/a-28-y...

The left all over the world needs to stop whatever they’re doing and pay very close attention to what just happened in Brazil. In a matter of 3 weeks, an organic, grassroots movement was born, took back social media, reclaimed the mantle of fun in politics, and won the election in the process.

“It cannot be stated often enough or vociferously enough: The Trump administration is helping Russia to conquer Ukraine. The US has taken the side of an aggressor against its innocent victim. We are helping our actual enemies as they prey upon us and our friends.” www.aei.org/foreign-and-...

Nothing can be done without accountability. Nothing. There were no consequences for the war on terror’s transgressions and look where that got us. There were no real consequences for an armed attempted overthrow of the government and look where that got us.

Among things Meta did in Brazil was have their AI bot within WhatsApp allow users to generate election poster for Flavio but deny requests to do so for Lula. When folks asked for posters for invented candidates, AI tagged them with #22 - Flavio's # - in a country where folks vote by #.

The day after Aleksandar Vucic's party lost Serbia's parliamentary election to a student-led movement, regional public broadcaster RTV apologized to viewers for years of uncritical reporting and ignoring problems. meduza.io/en/news/2026...

FTFY: "Men have no business sending unsolicited nude photos to women."

I emailed Patrick Healy, assistant managing editor for standards and trust at NYT, to ask why their story about a House report with new details of rape allegations against the President of the United States included neither those details, nor a single use of the word "rape." archive.is/1s9AM

691 words about Cheesecake. 434 words about rape.

ODIHR/OSCE: “Entrenched advantages enjoyed by the ruling party, including misuse of state resources, together with intimidation and pressure on voters, candidates, and civil society, as well as disruptions of campaign activities, further marred the electoral environment.” odihr.osce.org/odihr/669165

‘Lustration’ is one of the most fraught concepts in transitional justice. It will be fascinating if Serbia tries it. The reformist wing in Ukraine wanted it after Maidan, but they were too often sabotaged by the corrupt remnants of the ancien regime. Hell, even Germany didn’t do it properly.

If there is to be a regional 'viral' effect from Serbia's elections, it is (sadly) not likely in Bosnia's RS entity. It's Albania where PM Rama is facing off against the most protracted opposition to his own increasingly illiberal rule since coming to power in 2013.

Lot of fear of people lying to polls. We don't have much evidence for it & don't need it to explain error. People uncomfortable sharing their choice are more likely to be in the now ~98% of people who don't respond than to take ~20 min survey to lie. Non-response much bigger deal

In fact, this is the hallmark of competitive authoritarian regimes: elections still exist, but they are unfair (skewed media landscape, regime pressure, etc.), while there is also distrust and anxiety over whether the regime will accept defeat.

If you want to learn more about the Zuckerberg/Facebook vs Brazil dynamic and can stomach the author's shock over all the gambling in the casino at which she was a senior executive, pick up Careless People.

You can play by the old rules and lose or play by the new rules and defeat these f***ers

Any talks/negotiations about a post-war security arrangement for Europe need to start from the indisputable fact that Russia’s neighbours have an acute need of protection from Russia whereas Russia has no demonstrable need for protection (and it already has nukes for that).

Both catalyst events paved the way for new opposition movements - the Student List in Serbia, built out of outrage over the Novi Sad catastrophe, and TISZA in Hungary, assembled by Varga's maverick ex-husband, Peter Magyar. While these parties differ in character, their origin stories are similar.

This event became, for many, emblematic of the Vučić era: Serbia falling apart, literally (check), shady foreign investment (check), authorities doing nothing to materialise any accountability (check), and provided the spark that started a fire.

Ćalciland this morning. That's the former goon squad camp in front of the National Assembly in Belgrade. Masked men in black arrived at 7.30pm last night - then legged it when Vučić conceded. The Student List supporters cleared out the camp. For the first time in 18 months, it's safe to walk here.

Celebrate today. Get to work tomorrow. Be patient for the next few months.

youtu.be/VwcKwGS7OSQ

Lula winning is great for the planet, great for Brazil, and great for people who aren't revanchist assholes everywhere in the world, but let's not forget that it's also going to make some of the worst people on Earth extremely sad and mad. We should enjoy that, as a little treat.

Today was the best day for global democracy in quite a while.

A few basic points as we await results from Serbia later today: a. It is unlikely that we will have a clear winner tonight. Turnout is looking impressive, and Serbia’s ballot counting is slow at the best of times. High turnout also suggests large mobilization by the opposition...

If still debating whether Donald Trump or Elon Musk willfully crippled Ukraine's missile defense, helping to slay innocent civilians, you are a rube. If the U.S. President had no role, then an oligarch governs national security. If not, the U.S. President serves Russia. Both answers are mortifying.

Fights on the streets of centre Nice. Far right group attacks protestors. Water cannons in Massèna. How Istanbul. www.nicematin.com/societe/same...

The question is: Why did Trump derail peace talks?

Average Russian doesn’t care about the war in Ukraine or actually supports it. “I believe we are very lucky to have Putin” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/w...

Trump and Musk are just stringing Ukraine along and letting Russia attack it with impunity. And the American press is foolishly falling for blue smoke and mirrors, arguing whether Musk or Trump are responsible. Hint, they both are!

All eyes on Serbia this weekend. Impossible to know what’s going to happen. www.politico.eu/article/serb...

From someone who has lived in Ukraine over 30 years (me), this is bullshit. Hundreds of billions didn't flow to Ukraine - Ukraine's oligarchs made their (relatively modest) fortunes by ripping off Ukrainians, not foreigners. Ukrainians are fighting to stop this happening again.

One of the world’s worst jobs

Who is ultimately responsible for throttling of Ukraine's access to Starlink? Musk? Trump? Hegseth? Honestly, I'm not sure which is the worst scenario here. All of them are terrible, but each in different ways. Europeans need to take note. So does the United States.

Interesting dynamic, if it holds up

America is still great, in spite of it all

Basically, the FiftyPlusOne team now has extensive enough sourcing and the data chops that if you're doing bad shit with polls, we are going to find out about it.

What the Attorney General of the United States seems to not understand, but the people who matter do, is that Congress hasn’t given DOJ any authority to block states from certifying the election. This isn’t a thing. And we don’t have to pretend it’s a thing just because he says it’s a thing.

"Perhaps no contemporary series better captures the current moment’s despair over the decay from within" This is a brilliant piece of TV writing that nails why Slow Horses is the best thing on television www.newyorker.com/culture/on-t...

With the illusion of UNLIMITED productivity, that forcing function is gone. Now you can just ask Claude to slop up the idea you thought of on the toilet, and feel like you've done something. It's basically the equivalent of thinking that poasting is praxis: a quick dopamine hit mistaken for impact.

@english.lemonde.fr story about the man arrested for burning Limoges city hall has it all: Hodei C. D.'s grandfather had been a Spanish anarchist: "Hodei's father is a revolutionary anarchist, it's a legacy from the Spanish Civil War. They don't care about the left." www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...

The POTUS and VP hyping the Acton ad is like Springfield “eating the pets”. You think the guys at the highest levels won’t go so low — surely they’ll leave the gutter swimming to their minions — but no they will absolutely go to the depths. You have to conclude, they like it.

Well if there were more women in politics it would probably happen a lot more so there's that.