Andi Shehu

I write The Continental Brief to understand Europe beyond daily headlines. My lenses are political economy, climate transition and power. I connects long-term structures with today’s political choices to understand the stakes of our democratic future: shehuandi.substack.com

Otherwise it's perfectly fine...

The leadership of the country that just killed the leaders of another country weeks ago tells us that political violence is not the answer.

I'm Jewish. I condemn genocide. I condemn the Labour Governments role in the Genocide. The Prime Minister repeatedly conflating criticism of the Israeli Governments genocide and actual antisemitism is disgusting - and makes so many of us as Jewish people feel less safe.

The @spdde will support this as well, right?

@DM_Deluca After four years in Berlin, I just learned to be puzzled the whole time about the bizzare political culture that has gripped the country.

The European middle class learned English as a second language and naturally gravitated toward the Anglophone political sphere in search of models and solutions. They fell in love with the Blairs and the Obamas, and dreamed of impossible transplants of political culture from there to their (especially) southern capitals. Yet what is discussed in Berlin matters far more for their future, even though only about one in ten Europeans has chosen to learn German. As a result, this crucial country remains largely shrouded in mystery for most people on the continent. And when a glimpse of its internal debate does filter through the language barrier - as it often has during moments of continental turmoil, such as the debt crisis or the war on Gaza - we non-German-speaking Europeans are left both puzzled and unsettled.

Italy just suspended the renewal. I think it is a PR stunt, but it might have consequences, especially if Israel overreacts as it does. Also it signals the internal stirrings of this government in Italy. (The sad thing is that a PD government wouldn't even have suspended it)

How deeply unpleasant, pathological liars like Merz and Starmer end in power is amazing. But, at least, they are very effective at destroying those same party machines that decided to propel them to power.

With support of the European Legal Support Center a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was filed at the Office of the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe for aiding and abetting acts of genocide. The Federal Prosecutor must respect the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and initiate investigations on potential crimes if sufficient grounds for suspicion are apparent. In an over 100 pages long criminal complaint the lawyers provide extensive evidence for the predicate crimes under the Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL) namely the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed by Israel. Furthermore, the complaint provides extensive evidence for aiding and abetting acts of genocide by German officials through the approval of arms deliveries. READ MORE: elsc.support/the-time-for-a…

"rischi di cadere nel grottesco"?

Buone notizie!🍉🇵🇸 Anche se arriva con un ritardo imbarazzante e inaccettabile, finalmente un passo nella giusta direzione. Il Governo ha deciso di non rinnovare il Memorandum di cooperazione militare tra Italia e #Israele. Una scelta che non sarebbe mai arrivata senza la pressione, la determinazione e la mobilitazione di milioni di persone, in Italia e in tutto il mondo. È la prova che la solidarietà e la lotta non sono simboliche: sono una forza concreta, capace di incidere sulle decisioni politiche, anche dei governi più ostili. Ma non basta. Andiamo avanti finché non sarà interrotta ogni complicità con guerre d’aggressione, colonialismo e genocidio. #FreePalestine

A gentle reminder that Orbàn was a member of the EPP for years and that the same EPP protected and covered for him every time they could. The never kicked him out.

Sarebbe bello se come conseguenza della sconfitta di Orbán in Ungheria venisse ridimensionata l'importanza centrale che molti danno alle cosiddette "interferenze esterne" nei processi elettorali - la teoria del complotto preferita dei "competenti", ma non solo. Sul voto ungherese le influenze sono state tante. La Russia è accusata di aver messo in atto imponenti manovre sotto banco, mentre la Casa Bianca è intervenuta apertamente e in modo diretto. (Ma non facciamo gli ingenui credendo che dall'altro lato siano rimasti a guardare. Lo stillicidio di rivelazioni su Orbán e le sue relazioni con Mosca delle ultime settimane aveva una chiara origine nei governi/agenzie di intelligence ostili al primo ministro ungherese). Ma queste "interferenze", che nel recente passato hanno spinto un paese al passo senza precedenti di annullare un'elezione, non hanno funzionato. Non per una particolare immunità ungherese si sistemi di manipolazione, ma per via del fatto, molto più banale, che qualsiasi fenomeno complesso come un'elezione a cui partecipano milioni di individui è sempre il prodotto di una lunga e complessa serie di condizioni e fenomeni, economici, sociali, culturali. Né i russi né gli americani possiedono la macchina per il controllo mentale in grado di cambiare con l'azione di una levetta il modo di pensare di una parte significativa di una nazione. Le interferenze estere sono una realtà, come lo sono sempre state. Quello che non sono è una ragione per abdicare alla nostra capacità di cercare di comprendere i fenomeni al di là di facili schemini preconcetti.

"We just wanted to give a huge shoutout to that ESA Airbus team, to our friends in the Netherlands and Germany, and at the Glenn Research Center. This vehicle powered us and it propelled us from the Earth to the Moon and back with extreme precision, and we are excited to be a part of your team." -Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid)

I can’t watch this. It causes me physical pain.

It was not just Trump who revealed himself yesterday. The total silence from @Keir_Starmer and his apology for a cabinet in the face of Trump's genocidal threat to Iran, even as they took immediate concrete action to ban Kanye West/Ye, reveals deep and profoundly troubling double standards. As we saw repeatedly with Gaza, the mass slaughter of Muslims really doesn't bother to our government; now even the threat of complete civilisational erasure is not worth a passing comment. Starmer just shrugged and let the B-52s take off with all their bombs primed and ready to drop on civilian targets. A total and irredeemable disgrace.

@stebaraz @CarloCalenda Tra l'altro alla casa bianca hanno discusso di nucleare, ma di nucleare israeliano non targato Usa. hanno discusso della possibilità che Israele lanci una bomba atomica.

Si è svegliato. Paragonate il tono con cui parla di Trump e quello con cui parla di Putin. E, casualmente, non cita il mandante: Israele. Caro @carlocalenda, non la salverai la tua carriera.

Che stanotte succeda qualcosa o non succeda nulla, il silenzio dei vertici europei dopo le inaudite minacce di #Trump è un'onta incancellabile. Vigliacchi e traditori dell'Europa. #IranWar‌

Gaza should have been enough. But you told us we were crazy when we said that if you allowed these atrocities in Gaza, you were opening the entire world to the same brutality. And here we are.

I genuinely feel sick. This is just beyond anything the mind can fathom. And I keep thinking of what Ta-Nehisi Coates said. If you can’t draw the line at the genocide in Gaza, you can’t draw it anywhere else. Moral failure, on a mass and collective scale, brought us here.

How weak is that a Senator does punditry instead of taking action? The Democratic leadership is so incredibly lost.