A bright coral red graphic with black and white Yugoslavian stamps accross the bottom. Text in the centre reads Cold War Socialism, Non-Alignment and Anti-Colonialism in the Yugoslav Press, 1961 - 1979. With University of Exeter. Uncover fresh insights into Cold War socialism and anti-colonialism from a Yugoslav perspective, centering on the largely unexamined Joint Translation Service (JTS) bulletins. Deadline Tuesday 5 May.

Applications now open for a fully-funded PhD studentship exploring Yugoslavia’s multifaceted role during the Cold War, co-supervised with @exeter.ac.uk .

This is one of a number of studentships available as part of AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme.

Find out more: link.bl.uk/q95

Humboldt U calls for solidarity with University in Belgrade and its endangered autonomy, as "police units stormed the Rector’s Office at the University of Belgrade without warning or prior consultation".

www.hu-berlin.de/en/news/deta...

On Students' Day (Apr 4 '34 when right-wing thug killed student Žarko Marinović), Serbia' Minister of Information offers his opinion, in the light of renewed protests against the Gvmt, that "students are not aware that police have a right to beat them and to kill them".

A quote for the ages.

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done? Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a Nature analysis suggests.

Lazy use of AI by half-ass researchers is putting digital asbestos everywhere, which will be a huge pain in the ass to clean up.

Just do your damn job as a scholar or let someone else with more integrity and competence have your position.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Highly irregular local by-elections in several Serbian municipalities - again. Still marred by gvmt pressure, armed thugs violence and police that effectivelly assists them.
Reaching the point of elections being obsolete as reasonable means of change.

Cartoon by Bernard Hage: Title How to watch the collapse of civilisation 1. A bearded middle-aged man sitting in a chair, looking at his phone. He's slumped forward, his posture is terrible; a broken red line traces the curve of his back, and there's a red X next to the picture. 2. The same man sitting in the same chair looking at the same phone, but this time he's sitting up straight. A broken green line traces his straight spine, and there's a green tick next to the picture.

Today's inspirational message:

A house in Graz that Jochen Rindt grew up in, in 1940s and '50s.

Walked by a small piece of #F1 memorials, an apartment building in Graz where Jochen Rindt spent childhood with his grandparents.
He remains the only F1 champion that won the title posthumously, in 1970.

Iran war is the greatest threat to global energy ‘in history’, warns IEA

Iran war is the greatest threat to global energy ‘in history’, warns IEA

Well, that's just peachy, ain't it?

"Iran war is the greatest threat to global energy ‘in history’, warns IEAc

www.ft.com/content/0952...

It’s weird that there’s a branch of academics pretending that it’s acceptable to have LLMs write any portion of their manuscripts or other forms of public engagement. It’s not. You’re supposed to be the author. No matter what your new toy can do.

And that lasts appx 18 months.
Lots of chatter on the topic in the Western Balkans' candidate states. While recognizing extr difficult UA position, it kind of adds new layer of doubts in pursuing reforms, and encourages the 'wait and see' approach.

He's doing this all the time. Constantly on air, discussing any and all things, predicting this and that (with poor track record). Just another day here with it, really.

Slučaj ministarkine biografije: Gde je diplomirala Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski - Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Srbije Ministarka Đurđević Stamenkovski u biografiji ističe da je na FPN-u stekla zvanje diplomiranog politikologa. CINS otkriva da tamo nikada nije diplomirala.

A i sa "političkom školom" je muku mučila

www.cins.rs/slucaj-minis...

Students in standoff with police, Gendarmerie in Novi Sad Strong police and Gendarmerie forces forced students out of the Novi Sad University School of Philosophy on Wednesday in an effort to break up a protest over th

Serbian police forces have entered the premises of the Faculty of Philosophy at University of Novi Sad, to break up the ongoing student protest started because of the dismissal of one of the professors.

n1info.rs/english/news...

This is the best speech, just from a pure rhetoric perspective - its sophistication and persuasiveness - that I've seen a politician deliver in a good long while. Really recommend watching or reading the whole thing.

Hungarian MOL signs framework agreement to buy majority stake in NIS The Hungarian MOL Group said on Monday that it signed a binding framework agreement to buy the majority stake in Serbia’s NIS oil company from the Russian Gazpr

Hungarian MOL is going to buyout Gazprom's share (~56%) in Sebian NIS oil company. Emirates' ADNOC is part of the deal but it is uclear how exactly.

And now they are going to ask the USA to lift the sanctions on NIS as the Russian ownership is, maybe, on the way out.

n1info.rs/english/news...

"If you wanted to create a tool that would enable the destruction of institutions that prop up democratic life, you could not do better than artificial intelligence." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Serbia to buy 12 Rafale fighter jets in nod to European industry The contract for nine single-seater Rafales and three two-seaters is worth €2.7 billion (US$3 billion), according to French media.

Not sure why the Rafale purchase is thrown in only casually. It was signed last year and at least ~€800M has already been paid to Dassault. It is by far the biggest defence contract, easily 10x of the biggest one with China (FK3) which was agreed back in 2019.

www.defensenews.com/global/europ...

Everything going well.

I’ll see yall next year ✨

A required nod to overall New Year's pessimism

Award of the 2025 Sakharov Prize - Serbian Students: statements by Professor Aleksandar Kavčić - Multimedia Centre This news item presents statements by Professor Aleksandar Kavčić, in representation of the Serbian Students movement, Sakharov Prize 2025 finalist in the framework of the Award of the 2025 Sakharov P...

One wonders who delegated A. Kavcic to represent the student body of Serbia, as their usual channels of communication are silent about him.

And while he is/was a professor in USA, he's not a professor in Serbia nor has any students there.

Pretty odd.

multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/video/awa...

Environmental contradictions in the EU accession process: lessons from a lithium mining project in Serbia The EU’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, alongside its pursuit of strategic autonomy in critical raw materials such as lithium, often finds itself at odds with its own environmental...

My two colleagues and me have just published a paper, tackling a Jadar lithium mining project in Serbia against the backdrop of the EU integrations, inherent norm compliance, and strategic interests.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A Hillbilly EULogy, so to speak.

MAGA->MEGA against the EU will shape to be quite an existential challenge:

"Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland are listed as countries the U.S. should “work more with…with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union].”"

Today’s local elections in Serbia – in Mionica, Negotin and Sečanj – were a snapshot of that reality: fraud, intimidation, assaults on observers, and mobs operating with police complicity.
We believe democracy cannot survive without accountability. Vučić’s regime threatens both.

Why is Vučić afraid of national elections? Because when he’s not sending thugs to beat up students, young people, citizens, MPs or journalists – as he did today in Mionica – he knows he can’t win.
His party is increasingly isolated, holding on to power through violence, fear and voter manipulation.

La vita oscura: Darkwave + Florence in the 1980s | The Florentine In the wake of Patti Smith’s legendary performance, bands like Diaframma and Litfiba made Florence the centre of Italy’s new wave scene.

Since I'm in Florence, been reading the outlet and got hooked on local darkwave bands from the 1980s.

Starting with Diaframma, on to Litfiba, Neon, Pankow....

www.theflorentine.net/2025/11/19/d...

Activism without lasting forms of collective organisation

On 19 November, 16.00 CET, join a lecture by Anton Jäger @ox.ac.uk on his concept of "hyperpolitics", describing today's increasing politicisation leading to few political consequences 👉 loom.ly/deT9Uyc

Organised by @inthiseui.bsky.social

Join us next Monday for an @eui-adgcentre.bsky.social (hybrid) seminar with exciting presentations by @migrutinovic.bsky.social (Yugoslavia-EEC relations, 1980s) & Jonah Berger (early steps towards creation of a European foreign service, 1990s).

Registration here: www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

💬 How were the EEC–Yugoslavia relations? And how did the EC build its own diplomatic corps?

Join us on 17 November for our next research seminar with @migrutinovic.bsky.social (Institute of European Studies, Belgrade) and Jonah Berger (EUI) exploring Europe’s external relations.

🔗 loom.ly/15xC2tE