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The real story about Ceuta is the desire of some political entities to whip up anger and fear about migration, while the usual media and social media trolls do everything to amplify far right narratives and inflame public opinion. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Spain sends extra troops and police to Ceuta after thousands of migrants arriveUnknown number of people have swum and waded into Spanish enclave that neighbours Moroccowww.theguardian.com

What does last week’s split in Poland’s Law and Justice party mean for Polish politics and for Ukraine and the EU? www.politico.eu/article/pola...

Watch out Brussels and Kyiv, Poland’s conservatives are veering rightThe rupture of Law and Justice is strengthening hardline parties that oppose Ukraine’s EU membership and may hold the key to Poland’s next government.www.politico.eu

The big question now for Reform UK: exactly how many convicted criminals are funding your party? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UKExclusive: Sources say Fiona Cottrell told bankers the transfers, received 24-72 hours before her donations to Reform, came from her sonwww.theguardian.com

Rafael Behr, at his brilliant best, in assessing how the British Right is responding to Andy Burnham. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Suddenly the British right feels a political chill. It’s getting cold in Andy Burnham’s shadow | Rafael BehrThe Tories and Reform had it easy when Keir Starmer was self-destructing – but a new PM with ideas exposes how vacant the opposition has become, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behrwww.theguardian.com

British university tuition fees are VASTLY higher than in most EU states already, so pushing for some intermediate fee between 9k and 60k p.a means only the wealthiest students from EU countries could ever hope to study in Britain. This isn’t a solution. www.politico.eu/article/eu-p...

EU pitches Brexit reset tuition fees compromiseNegotiations between London and Brussels are continuing ahead of a summit, which has yet to be rescheduled after Britain’s change of government.www.politico.eu

Brilliant piece from Erwan Fouéré on why the EU’s failures to resolve Balkan disputes undermines its credibility in the region and the enlargement process. balkaninsight.com/2026/07/22/e...

EU’s Failure to Address Balkan Disputes Undermines Its CredibilityBrussels’ double standards towards North Macedonia over its historical disagreements with Bulgaria reflect the EU’s wider failure to adopt a strategy that addresses various bilateral disputes in the W...balkaninsight.com

Every day Rupert Murdoch pours poison into our societies and our governments stand back and do nothing. Few men have done as much damage to the world as Rupert Murdoch has over the last 50 years.

Spotlight on Romania and the strong lead in opinion polls of far right party AUR. Can Romanian centrists put together a new coalition and stave off calls for a snap general election? www.politico.eu/article/geor...

Political chaos turns spotlight on Romania’s MAGA championAs the possibility of snap elections draws closer, hard-right leader George Simion tells POLITICO that “God” is on his side.www.politico.eu

My piece on Montenegro’s ambition to join the EU, and how the Irish EU Council presidency may play a vital brokerage role before the end of the year, as some member states introduce new demands of Podgorica. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

John O'Brennan: Ireland could be crucial to Montenegro's EU accession chancesLike Ireland in 1973, Montenegro is small, peripheral and insecure, in a world of increasingly volatile international relations and a multilateral order in retreatwww.irishexaminer.com

Extraordinary things happening to the economy of Japan. Imagine a conservative government planning to spend almost 2 trillion Euros *just to try and get GDP growth to 1% annually? Without serious immigration and with v low level birth rates this may be the future for many states. lnkd.in/dxaHGEFZ

Once again the EU's Digital Markets Act helps to protect European consumers, in this case fining Google almost €900 million for infringements of EU rules. More than ever, regulation of Big Tech matters. www.politico.eu/article/eu-f...

EU fines Google €890M for breaching Big Tech rulebookBrussels orders U.S. search giant to overhaul how it ranks rivals in search results and how it polices its app store — or face further penalties.www.politico.eu

Ready for the great Ivo Dimchev!

My op ed argues Bulgaria is fast becoming the new Hungary within the EU, at least where Ukraine policy is concerned. New PM, Rumen Radev, has has set in train a pivot in Bulgarian policy: from strong support for Ukraine to obstruction of EU sanctions. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

John O'Brennan: Orbán is gone, but the EU has a new headache in BulgariaThe country’s new administration has made a number of moves that indicate a striking change in its position towards Ukraine, placing it at odds with EU partner states and Irelandwww.irishtimes.com

With the Irish govt report on Rusal’s Aughinish alumina plant due any day there is still a HUGE discrepancy between the latest CSO figures which show that 50% of the alumina produced in Q1 2026 went to Russia and the Irish Times investigation which showed 80%+ to Russia. They can’t both be right.

We are really beginning to see the value of the EU’s Digital Services Act, as huge fines are applied to MNCs that fail to respect European rules. European consumers have to be protected from predatory operators. www.politico.eu/article/eu-h...

EU hits China’s Alibaba with €550M record fine over illegal products“There were a lot of counterfeit products, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics” on AliExpress, Europe’s tech chief says.www.politico.eu

One of the great tragedies of our time: hoe the von der Leyen-led European Commission caved into the farm lobby and gutted its own ambitious European Green Deal. New report details how the farm lobby so successfully achieved its ambition to gut the EGD. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Revealed: how Europe’s most powerful farming lobby killed EU’s pesticide lawExclusive: High-level documents show how Copa Cogeca worked to weaken legislation to protect climate and wildlifewww.theguardian.com

This is a terrible tragedy for humanities and social science education in the UK. Some years from now, when AI has annihilated our capacity for critical reasoning, we will realise what an own goal these cuts represent. t.co/FcKEP1AG5D

Bulgaria is rapidly turning into the new Hungary. Not in respect of domestic affairs but rather buffering Russia within the European Union. This was always likely with Radev as PM. But it is rapidly getting worse (I.e. keeping Patriarch Kirk off sanctions list). www.novinite.com/articles/239...

Radev Rejects Ukraine "Coalition of the Willing", Says Bulgaria’s Place is in Diplomacy - Novinite.com - Sofia News AgencyBulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that Bulgaria has no place in the “Coalition of the Willing,” arguing that the country should not join a format whose members support continued financial and ...www.novinite.com

Me, On Nigel Farage and this week’s psychodrama x.com/ChrisWChrysa...

Chris Wright (@ChrisWChrysalis) on XIs Farage unravelling like his and Reform's money trail? This week's episode of my podcast Wright on the Nail: Trump, Fifa, Farage & Burnham? Good Week or Bad Week? Joined by the highly informe...x.com

Sincere thanks to Montenegro's Chief Negotiator with the EU, Dr Predrag Zenović, for an excellent conversation today in Podgorica about Montenegro’s EU accession prospects and the EU enlargement process. Enlargement is a key issue for Ireland during its current EU Council Presidency.