Centrist. ๐ฌ๐ง citizen. Privileged to be living in rural ๐ซ๐ท. Old age isnโt improving my intolerance of smug fools & the charlatans who exploit them. Prefer animals to most humans. Please say hello here, not by DM
Meanwhile more Israelis are leaving than arriving, many renewing foreign passports.
The ultra-Orthodox double as a share of the population every 25 years, and have largely avoided military service.
39% now fear violence between Israelis, as many as fear a nuclear Iran.
#Israel#Election
His youngest son Gal was killed in Gaza. So were two of his nephews.
He promises an independent inquiry into October 7, accountability for violent settlers, and military service for the ultra-Orthodox.
#Israel
Who is the man trying to unseat Netanyahu?
Gadi Eisenkot, the army chief Netanyahu himself appointed in 2014. He joined the war cabinet after October 7, then quit, saying Netanyahu prolonged the war and endangered the hostages.
#Israel
Ten European countries, including the UK, Germany and Poland, have joined Franceโs nuclear โforward deterrenceโ plan, the WSJ reports.
Nuclear-capable Rafale jets could deploy across Europe.
Italy said no. The Baltics werenโt invited.
#Europe
In one day, two politicians - Bolsonaro in Brazil and Vucic in Serbia - with ties to Trump have lost surprise elections thanks to high turnout. The rise of the international far-right is not inevitable.
In his acceptance speech, Lula says he will work to regulate digital platforms in Brazil. โDigital crimes must be dealt with like real-life crimes.โ This comes after Meta directly interfered with the Brazilian elections, favouring Flรกvio Bolsonaro.
Gary Lineker was a football presenter and dared to voice an opinion and was fired. This anchor of one of the BBC's flagship political shows writes in a fascist rag and it's no problem at all. The BBC has zero credibility.
Power of Social Media?
Andrรฉ Janones, 42-year-old politician from Minas Gerais, runs a viral Whatsapp channel, that, in the lead up to the elections, had attracted in excess of 10 million followers. Janones named the following "Lula's Army" urging them to recruit votersโคต๏ธ
www.bbc.com/news/live/cm...
And they did it the hard way: near-total state control of the media, spyware on activists' phones, a leader calling them a foreign coup.
Their answer was the highest turnout since 1992 and 250 candidates who had never held office.
Every opposition movement facing a strongman just got a playbook.
The achievement of Serbian students overthrowing Aleksandar Vuฤiฤ can't be overstated.
In 2024, they began protesting. In 2025, they transformed a protest movement into civil dissidence. In 2026, they became a political party โ and two months later, crushed a corrupt state-entrenched authoritarian.
We asked if the Bolsonaros would concede. Now we know.
Flรกvio says itโs โimpossible to concedeโ and will seek to annul an election he lost by 4.3 million votes.
His complaint: polls were kept open two extra hours. He didnโt mention his own campaign asked for that too.
#Brazil#Bolsonaro
Lula did it. Brazilโs electoral court says he beat Flรกvio Bolsonaro and won a fourth term.
The 1st candidate in Brazilโs history to win a runoff after losing round one.
Before the result, a top Bolsonaro ally posted: โEither we win. Or we win. Youโve been warned.โ
#Brazil#Election
By the way, the name of his heroic coworker is J.D. Thompson. The BBC featured a new interview with him in July 2026, nearly 59 years after he saved Randall Champion. He spoke about climbing the pole, giving Champion mouth-to-mouth, and the moment Champion finally took a breath.
This man was dead weight, hanging high above the ground after touching a high-voltage line.
His coworker climbed up, held him in place, gave him mouth-to-mouth.
Randall Champion survivedโand lived another 35 years.
Rocco Morabitoโs photo, โThe Kiss of Life,โ won the Pulitzer Prize.
True heroism.
A carefully planned Russian propaganda operation is underway. Having starved people in Oleshky for months, Russia, with the 'intervention' of Melania, will allow people to leave and pretend Ukraine was at fault. Read @zarinazabrisky.bsky.socialwww.kyivpost.com/analysis/88041
Burnham is correct to imply a de facto link between free movement of people and Dublin/Eurodac - all of the non-EU countries agreeing to free movement with the EU are also associated with the Dublin rules. BUT they are all also associated with Schengen. Would the EU insist on it for the UK too?
Iโm all for preparedness for war, but making ourselves dependent on technologies and companies in cahoots with potential enemies isnโt the most obvious choice.
Christmas shopping can help dogs too. ๐๐พ
From gifts and cards to treats for four-legged family members, shop with purpose this Christmas and help support vulnerable dogs with every purchase.
https://www.dogdeskshop.com/
Instead of using American economic power to pressure the country that started this war but shows no capability of winning it, Trump is offering that country economic relief while criticizing the nation that is successfully defending itself.
I have written this weekโs @RestIsPolitics newsletter, on how difficult I find it to answer the question โwhat do you do?โ
Economic, social and technological change means more of us struggle with answering it, I think
therestispolitics.beehiiv.com/p/the-questi...
Free movement as part of a future UK-EU relationship has more support when linked to benefits to trade and opportunities for UK citizens
My blog based on new @britishfuture.bsky.social research for @freemovement.bsky.social
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1. Would the UK public accept free movement as part of a closer relationship with the EU? New British Future research suggests support depends on whether it brings benefits to trade and opportunities for UK citizens.
Antique folding camp table uses an accordion-scissor leg mechanism that expands and locks into a sturdy tabletop that folds away for storage.
IG: @antique vintage_rust
And Anton has separately written with Jim Tankersley our NYT colleague based in Berlin a piece about talks with Putin to push Europe to start buying Russian gas again--a proposal that would turn years of American energy policy upside-down
www.nytimes.com/2026/10/17/u...
This new report today with my NYT colleague Anton Troianovski follows up on our earlier reporting this month on the Lukoil deal that would bring financial benefits to business partners of the Witkoff and Trump families. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...
JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story.
www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...