PRESS REVIEW #3
Populist Nawrocki’s triumph threatens Poland’s place at Europe’s top table, The Guardian, 02 JUNE 2025
Last week, I mentioned Orban’s Hungary and the infringement on the rule of law. I quickly brushed on Poland, which was Budapest’s ally before Donald Tusk was elected Prime Minister, evicting the previous PiS government.
Poland narrowly elected a conservative president last weekend and, while Andrzej Duda was also member of the PiS, he wasn’t as hard-right as newly elected Karol Nawrocki. Needless to say, this yet another blow to the EU-27 and to democracy.
Poland’s outgoing PiS-aligned president, Andrzej Duda, deployed his veto, but sparingly. Nawrocki will do so more aggressively and systematically, analysts say, aiming to weaken the prime minister before 2027 parliamentary elections.
PiS and its allies will portray Sunday’s presidential vote as a full-scale rejection of Tusk’s progressive and reformist agenda – and may even be tempted to try to bring down his already fractured coalition government before the end of its term.
Indeed,
The nationalist’s win is also a boost for Europe’s populist EU-critical parties, led by Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister and the bloc’s disrupter-in-chief, whose illiberal rule-of-law playbook PiS follows.
+ A Scandal-Rocked Trump Ally Just Won the Polish Presidency. Believe It Could Happen in Britain, Novara Media, 03 JUNE 2025
This perfectly describes what happens when a political vacuum is left by the Centre or the Left. No, adopting the far-right rethoric won’t get you anywhere, but it will fuel the far-right and make their policies more mainstream.
BBC promotes Israel’s lies about aid massacre, BattleLines with Owen Jones, 04 JUNE 2025
When does it become appropriate to refer to Israel’s government and military as ‘genocidal maniacs’? In the last week, the Israeli army opened fire on Palestinians queuing for food on at least two occasions - this should remind us of how Israel targeted first responders after attacks on Palestinians, waiting for the ambulances to arrive before opening fire again.
They [Médecins Sans Frontières] also published the testimony of Mohammad Daghmeh, a Palestinian man displaced in Al-Qarara, Khan Younis:
I was shot at 3:10am. As we were trapped, I bled constantly until 5:00am. There were many other men with me. One of them tried to get me out. He was shot in the head and died on my chest. We had gone there for nothing but food — just to survive, like everyone else.
Absolute maniacs, a proven genocide. But not for Western media, no no no. For them, everything is merely a little accident, a little ouch on the road of a fantastic seafront housing development: what can Israel do when Palestinians simply tripped and died of gunshot wounds! And what starvation? Israel gave them flour and uncooked pasta but no water, or gas or anything to cook with, but how could they know? It’s not like they engineered the starvation and famine of a whole population………….. Such mystery, how are all these Palestinians dying of mysterious ills (bullets, bombs, curable diseases)? I’m sorry for the heavy dose of sarcasm, but it is really hard being serious in the face of the media (and the elites) denial (lies) of the ongoing genocide.
The Israeli state knows it can keep massacring Palestinians because the BBC and other media outlets will help them to deflect responsibility.
Israel’s genocide would not be possible without Western states arming and supporting it. And if the Western media actually did their job, it would be impossible for Western governments to continue facilitating genocide.
Welsh Independence Is No Longer a Fringe Idea, Novara Media, 04 JUNE 2025
Man, you gotta love the Welsh. They’re so sick of the British government that, for the first time, the poll shows a majority of Welsh are in favour of independence. For reference, Wales has been die-hard Labour for 100 years, and Keir Starmer is so bad that they are considering Plaid Cymru, the centre-left party, instead.
[…] support for Welsh independence is now as high as that for Scottish independence was before the 2014 referendum campaign. And the (bigger margin of error) crosstabs suggest younger voters are strongly in favour, registering 72% of 25 to 34-year-olds supporting independence.
What’s more, when voters were asked in March whether they would support independence if it meant Wales could rejoin the EU, 51% said they would. This is the first time any Welsh independence question has produced a pro-independence majority – though the contingency means we need to apply some salt.
Trump v Musk: world’s two worst people are finally having a big, beautiful breakup, The Guardian, 05 JUNE 2025
We all saw it coming, didn’t we? It was inevitable, Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s egos were too big to occupy the same orbit. I see them two as evil puppets, the most powerful clowns. They may be smart, I don’t know them personally, but I can’t take them seriously and every time I start to, they prove me right. Trump and Musk are the showcase of what money can buy, money can make you look like a smart and successful entrepreneur or tech genius ,but it is nothing more than an illusion. An expensive masquerade.
At first when Musk parted ways with the Trump administration I thought the public divorce might be smoke and mirrors: a mutually beneficial PR exercise. Trump got rid of a creepy weirdo who nobody liked and kept causing him problems. Musk got to show his worried investors that he was putting all his energy back into the companies he’s supposed to be running. Rumours of a fallout, I thought, were greatly exaggerated.
On Thursday, however, things escalated to the point where I don’t think this fallout can possibly be manufactured or exaggerated.
Could it be a PR coup after all, an attempt to distract those angry at Trump and/or Musk? One thing is sure, this little trick made the headlines everywhere and is costing Musk a lot, notably for Tesla: the company lost about $152bn in shares. Is Musk realising his mistake? Maybe, as he implied, a cooling period to come. Don’t tweet and do drugs, it’s dangerous!!!
On the other hand, Ruth Ben-Ghiat warns that Musk is not really leaving, no matter what is being said:
+ “The Whole Government is DOGE Now”: The Coup’s Second Wave Begins, Lucid, 05 JUNE 2025
“We have no idea how many people have been hired,” said an official for the American Federation of Government Employees, but whatever the number, DOGE is apparently recruiting more. That is why WIRED tech journalist Brian Barrett, in a superb article published on May 29, concludes that “the reality is, the whole government is DOGE now…Removing DOGE at this point would be like trying to remove a drop of food coloring from a glass of water.”
So don’t believe the talk about Musk stepping back. Trump himself has commented that “Elon’s not really leaving.” Musk wishes only to distance himself from the fallout his coup tactics have created for Tesla and his corporate profile.
Right, they may be clowns, but to be fair, they do make smart moves like buying Twitter or the alliances they tie, but if you want my opinion, the real Machiavellian prince is Peter Thiel (sorry Sam Altman).
+ The dark lord of Silicon Valley, How to Survive the Broligarchy, 02 JUNE 2025
I could include so many memes of this break-up, they are delightfully hilarious. But let’s remember that there are no winners in this catty fight, these are both awful and heinous people committing atrocities to gain money and power.
Bonuses banned for 10 English water bosses over sewage pollution, The Guardian, 05 JUNE 2025
just :) :) :) :) :) :) nationalise :) :) :) :) :) :) :) water :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Water is a common good and a limited resource, these people need jail. I can’t believe they are still in charge after ‘massive polluting events’. I mean:
Thames’s chair, Adrian Montague, defended the planned rewards of 50% of salary, arguing senior managers were the company’s “most precious resource”.
But, to be fair, it is nice to see Labour do something alright for once.
A Love Letter to Palestinian Women, byline, 21 APRIL 2025
This is such a heartfelt read, just - I mean, you have to read it.
