Off to Bulgaria on Sunday - and hoping to get my hands on some of these beauties…
The Bulgarians adopted the euro on January 1. The Czechs still refuse to set a date.
So how did Sofia overtake Prague on one of the EU’s flagship projects?
robjcameron.substack.com/p/crownland
By the way, Sakartvelo (საქართველო in the Georgian script) offers a lovely example of a circumfix, as the sa- -o are added to the beginning and end of the noun for ‘Georgian’, kartveli (ქართველი), to create the country’s name.
The country of Georgia, while certainly big fans of the saint, most likely shares no word-origin with the Greek name. Instead, it looks like an exonym of Persian origin, one later altered in some languages to resemble 'George'.
(Georgians themselves continue to call it 'Kartvelia', i.e. Sakartvelo)
For St George's Day, here's a thing about the name 'George': it's ultimately Greek in origin, and a compound of two familiar elements.
Ancient Greek geōrgós means 'farmer, peasant', literally 'earth-worker'. It comprises the roots gê 'earth' (hence 'geography') and érgon 'work' (hence 'energy').
Russian attack on Dnipro did this to an apartment building full of sleeping people last night‼️
I remember we used to call this terrorism and fought it united.
Zelenskyy confirms that both the €90 billion loan for Ukraine and the 20th package of sanctions on Russia have now been unblocked‼️
Happy St George’s Day! St George is, as far as I know, the only saint venerated by both Christians and Muslims AND worshipped as a god by pagans in the medieval Baltic
'I've spent a lot of time over the last few years thinking about how people can cope with the present. You can find the result in bookstores starting in June—or pre-order the signed edition now. "The Apocalypse Can Wait" is my attempt to make the world a little easier for us.'
The young people in our @obamafoundation.bsky.social Leaders program give me hope. One of those leaders, Luisa Neubauer, is working to fight climate change and recently traveled to Antarctica.
This Earth Day, I hope you'll check out her incredible story.
Surprised by the growing drive to drain every drop of oil and gas from the North Sea despite no benefits for energy prices or security? Oil and gas lobbyists have met with ministers 96 times since the election, reports this investigation!
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-h...
The biggest change since the Industrial Revolution? The age of fossil fuel security is over, says @ed-miliband.bsky.social, and the “only route” to financial, energy - and national - security is through clean sources.
www.newstatesman.com/speech/2026/...
On Saturday, I'll be one of 60 musicians doing something completely mad: singing the complete choral music of Thomas Tallis (by sight) in 1 day.
10 hours of fabulous music, including The Lamentations, "If Ye Love Me" & the titanic, 40-part "Spem in Alium".
All livestreamed here: bit.ly/TallisMags
'The city of Cologne has moved'
'We’ve had an idea 🙂 Introducing the 'Niki Haas Surcharge': Starting now, we’re charging clients of #FPÖ lawyers an extra fee to be donated to our fund at comun.at/gegenrechtss... It’s a justified move that supports others affected by right-wing #DigitalViolence 🧵'
Simple arithmetic. When you already have one home and somehow by whatever means get a second that means you own two homes. How difficult is that to grasp?
'Just in case: If I ever end up stranded in the Baltic Sea, I definitely don't want to be "rescued" by an esoteric, a right-wing extremist, and an ex-rocker using questionable methods and a huge media spectacle until I'm definitely dead.' 🫤
FRANCIS: Ukraine decided to absolutely ravage Russia’s oil export industry using its own long-range weapons. The best way to defeat Russia is to bankrupt it, and Ukrainians are onto this strategy.
Price per barrel has risen, but number of barrels Russia can actually ship has gone down by about 50%.
'I suppose you could call it a historic moment when Hungary's future head of government announces the end of state propaganda. May the endeavour succeed.'
'My favourite critique of the police union chairman's advice that women should avoid getting into relationships with men is the concern that humanity would then go extinct.
LOL, lads. Even Alice Weidel didn't have to be in a relationship with a man to have children…'
After publicly rejecting Zelenskyy’s offer, stating "We don't need their help in drone defense" Trump’s administration has deployed Ukraine’s Sky Map platform at Prince Sultan Air Base.
The move highlights how Ukraine’s military tech has surged ahead in
GEN. PETRAEUS: Russian spring offensive doesn't seem to be going well for them, and casualties are just horrific.
Now, well over 1.35 million Russians have been killed or seriously wounded. That is more than U.S. forces sustained in all of World War II.
Read David Imel’s summary of ATmosphereConf, a recent gathering of folks building on the AT Protocol: “this conference is nerdy, it’s niche, and most of the people here think they might just save the internet”
davidimel.substack.com/p/bluesky-is...
Spain will deliver 100 VAMTAC armored tactical vehicles and a batch of 155mm artillery ammunition to Ukraine this year, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles announced during a visit to Kyiv.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in May.
Thank you Spain! 🇪🇸🇺🇦
Well, I suppose it’s worth noting that Russia is killing Ukrainians with that money. But if the poorest countries asked nicely, then I guess a few more Ukrainians can die for the cause, right? After all, it’s only 30 more days...🤦♀️
'Buying a train ticket for travel across the EU is more complicated than booking a flight, according to a new study.'
'Wero promises more digital independence and aims to be a European alternative to US payment services. However, the service uses cloud infrastructure from the Amazon subsidiary AWS, of all things. This also poses a security risk for the data stored there.'
✍️ Digital ID, payments, and data exchange should be treated as public infrastructure, not siloed IT projects.
@eaves.ca, @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social, and Beatriz Vasconcellos argue governments must build shared digital foundations to avoid fragmentation.
🔗 Read their article here: buff.ly/bo9FpiL
The incoming Hungarian PM Péter Magyar and Slovakia's Robert Fico spoke for the first time since the election and revived a long-dormant dispute over the Beneš Decrees.
It was proof that post-war borders and grievances still shape politics to this day.
robjcameron.substack.com/p/maps-matter
