James Kanter

Here is where #farmers storm the EU area at Maalbeek near EU HQ. "It looks like civil war" say EU officials as tractors aim for and overwhelm police. #FarmerProtest2024 #FarmersProtest2024

What can EU do about X and Elon Musk disseminating Putin's propaganda? Beyond it being considered illegal content where EC could order a takedown, the EC says "premature" to know whether member states add likes of interviewer Tucker Carlson to sanctions list. #UkraineWar #elonmusk

Brussels journalists are pressuring @EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu on why it hasn't responded to request made a month ago by Spain and Ireland to assess whether Israel complying with human rights in #Gaza. The Commission's talking point that @EUCouncil@respublicae.eu unanimity needed doesn't really clarify.

Here is where #farmers storm the EU area at Maalbeek near EU HQ. "It looks like civil war" say EU officials as tractors overwhelm police. #FarmerProtest2024 #farmersprotest2024

Far-right white identitarian politics are totally on brand for this former head of Europe's Border and Coast Guard, Frontex.

It's a "positive sign" that Wilders can't put together a Dutch government, says EC's @MargSchinas@respublicae.eu who leaps headlong into commenting on national politics; @GiorgiaMeloni is a "barrage" against populism, Schinas tells #MSC2024 ... hmmmm.

"Monstrous evil would be violently spreading in Europe" without Biden, writes former GOP consultant @stuartpstevens@bird.makeup

Biden needs reelection so he can keep playing "a role no American president has played since the Roosevelt-Truman era." #Ukraine️

https://newrepublic.com/article/178435/biden-great-president-say-it-democrats

🚨 There's something of a Jan 6 feel in Brussels with farmers supported by Viktor #Orbán and by far-right extremists who have long supported the Kremlin on a violent rampage during a critical EU summit on aid to Ukraine. This seems like a join-the-dots moment, folks. #euco

It seems discussing the expulsion of millions from Europe provokes only temporary hiccups in relations between the AfD and RN.
#Remigration
https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article250189886/Weidel-trifft-Le-Pen-in-Paris-AfD-und-Rassemblement-National-naehern-sich-an.html

Barnier seems getting a free pass here to deflect from how the @EPPGroup@respublicae.eu and @ecrgroup@respublicae.eu are leading the EU sharply rightwards. Would like to have seen more on that and less on the straw man stuff about EU exits.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/beware-far-right-still-wants-out-of-the-eu-brexit-negotiator-barnier-warns/

EU members like Poland that strayed from democratic norms may need special help making the transition back — Prof @jmorijn@bird.makeup proposes an EU "redemocratization fund" @EP_Justice@respublicae.eu hearing with @JFLopezAguilar@respublicae.eu. @donaldtuskepp@bird.makeup

Attractive politicians aren't just more likely to win votes. Their "beauty premium" also gets them outside earnings and talk show appearances, which, you got it, could distract them from what we elected them to do. h/t
@ifo_institut@bird.makeup
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167268123004109

Something of an announcement at #MSC2024 by @MargSchinas who foresees much bigger and "meaningful" portfolio for security and defence for the next European Commission, with EU ministers having responsibilities going well beyond procurement and research. #Ukraine️

Daniel Barenboim sending quartet to play opening of the Munich Security Conference — a highly symbolic move not least as Barenboim simultaneously holds Palestinian and Israeli citizenship, #MSC2024 chair @MSCheusgen tells conference.

On that Kremlin asset at European Parliament — @EP_President Metsola tells presser she's in contact with Latvia PM "and countries and their leaders that are worried that this could be replicated in other situations whether in the current legislature or the future one." #Ždanoka

Sectors less inclined to care about Musk’s words:
sports gambling;
influencers, such as Andrew Tate.

https://on.ft.com/49YRvgV