Random pop-ups in Europe

 Pope Francis is visiting Hungary later this week, and I doubt he and Orban agree on migrants but may concur on Ukraine. In 2021 Orban met the pope asked him, "not to let Christian Hungary perish". He gave the pope a facsimile of a letter that 13th century Bela IV, the King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, sent to Pope Innocent IV asking for help in fighting the Tartars.

I wonder if the Pope will comment on Hungary's child protection law which the EU hates. That would be "rich" coming from a Vatican that gives cover for pedo priests.

April 27, 2023

So this confusing issue flares up again: Armenia claims that the Russian force has failed to keep open the Lachin corridor, the only land route that links it to Karabakh across Azerbaijani territory.

Russia is a major arms exporter to Azerbaijan and so is NATO member Turkey. 

Russia is a military ally of Armenia.

Toss in Ukraine war.

April 30, 2023

Armenia and Azerbaijan may hold a new round of talks in Washington on Sunday to try to normalize relations.  I guess because the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will be in Washington DC this weekend. Otherwise, WTF are we, the USA, doing in this mess.

May 10, 2023

 Switzerland's military performed its largest exercises in more than three decades. Big deal for a long-time neutral country.

May 13, 2023

For all the climate change folks: Snow fell in parts of northern Spain yesterday after months of high temps and no rain.

June 3, 2023

Italian PM Meloni: The clampdown on charity ships stops them from acting as "ferry boats" for migrants, going "back and forth with human traffickers to shuttle people from one country to the other."

 Charities' ships are being impounded for ignoring the law.

And to counter so called ‘Pride Month’ Meloni’s has launched ‘Family Pride Month’ to promote the traditional family.

June 6, 2023

Romania is buying two second-hand British minesweepers and two French submarines. Probably to deal with its Black Sea naval fears.

June 18, 2023

Germany will transfer its Patriot missile defense systems, which are currently stationed in Slovakia, to Lithuania to protect the upcoming NATO summit on July 11 and 12.

Shifting gears, Belgian foreign affairs minister Hadja Lahbib is facing calls for resignation after granting visas to delegations from Iranian and Russian cities, which are in countries under international sanctions, to attend a convention of Mayors in Brussels.

June 23, 2023

Some Amsterdam residents don't want to see tourists coming for sex and drugs. You have prostitution museums. Gimme a break!

July 5, 2023

The amount of funds raised for the French cop who shot teenager Nahel M. is 4x the amount raised for NM's family.

Aug 2, 2023

A Scottish lawmaker has been , triggering a by-election that will indicate whether the opposition Labour Party is recovering support from Scotland's dominant pro-independence party.

Aug 1, 2023

Margaret Ferrier (SNP), one of a wave of SNP politicians who swept Labour from its one-time Scottish stronghold in 2015, was stripped of her seat yesterday in Britain's parliament for breaking COVID rules in 2020. Quite a tactic!

Aug 25, 2023

 Macron's advisers feel Le Pen could get elected in 2027 because she'll have the working class and middle class, but it's not due to questions on migration, Hello, runaway migration is a major factor in why she'll have those two groups.

Sept 7, 2023

Bear attacks on humans become an election issue in Slovakia. Over-protected?

Sept 23, 2023

Bulgaria: 115th anniversary freed from Ottoman Empire, also booted out Russia orthodox priest yesterday for being spies.

Sept 29, 2023

Sweden PM Ulf Kristersson called in the chief of the armed forces to help curb a rise in gang killings. New Trend?

Nov 2, 2023

A man tossed dyed rodents into a McDonald's in UK and screamed F^ck Israel. Reuters headline: apparent, anti-Israel protest😕

Nov 20, 2023

Orban's billboard message: let's not dance to Soros Jr and der Leyen tunes

Nov 28, 2023

A man from Kalipetrovo, Bulgaria grilled sandwiches in the office of the electricity distribution company in Silistra to protest that there was no electricity in his house for 24 hours.

Company officials promised the problem will be fixed and that power will be restored to his home within an hour and a half.

Dec 26, 2023

First kiosk in Lisbon opened in 1869 and these cafes are experiencing a revival.

Moorish-style kiosks provide chairs and shade and serve traditional snacks and drinks.

 Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar's laws that began in the 1930s discourage public gathering.

Jan 6, 2024

Sint-Truiden, Belgium: This Christmas season it moved its ice-skating rink inside Minderbroederse, an18th-century baroque church that doesn't host services.

Children skate across the nave of the church and past a nativity scene, with Christmas music filling the air and a starry night image projected on the ceiling.

Jan 20, 2024

To counter money laundering and terrorist financing, EU has reached a partial agreement, imposing a €10,000(10.9K USD) cap on cash payments. The agreement, struck between member states and the European Parliament, claims it will safeguard European citizens and the EU financial system from illicit financial activities.

Entities involved in financial services, banking, real estate agencies, asset management firms, casinos, and merchants will be required to adhere to the cash payment limit. And they will be required to verify the identity of individuals making cash payments that range from €3,000 to €10,000.

Jan 25, 2024

Sweden will have to wait until Feb 26 for Hungary to ok its accession to NATO. Orban told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that he’ll “urge” parliamentary approval “at the first possible opportunity."

Feb 1, 2024

EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola: "To the farmers that are outside. We see you and we hear you.". I dread these words at work cuz it's just a brush off.

Feb 4, 2024

Portugal moving to the Right ahead of the March 10 snap election. Chega Party is gaining ground in opinion polls. Open Borders and EU climate-mania ain't popular.

Feb 24, 2024

More farmer protests in France amid rumors that Macron invited environmentalist group Soulevements de la Terre to his scheduled debate with farmers' union representatives.

April 17, 2024

Emir Kir, mayor of the Brussels district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,  issued a ban on a conservative conference, claiming the far right is not welcome in the city.

"Police have instructed that they won't let people into the building but won't force them to leave," said Anthony Gilland of the MCC think tank, one of the organizations behind the event.

"Eastern " Europe

I've been slowly reading Inventing Eastern Europe by Larry Wolff which explores a western european view "~we~ are civilized and ~they~ are barbarians" from the 1600s on that entering Prussia/Poland heading east was like entering Asia.  A concept I'm not sold on, but my eyes have become more alert to stories about Eastern Europe.
#Ungureanu , a local MP filed, a criminal complaint on Monday over the death of 66-year-old woman who was undergoing surgery at Bucharest's Floreaca Hospital. for her pancreatic cancer on December 22 when she was set ablaze after the electric scalpel surgeons were using came into contact with flammable disinfectant . #romania 

Jan 4 2020 

On Christmas Day 1989,  Romanian communist dictator #NicolaeCeausescu and his wife were executed by firing squad against a toilet block.

Jan 10

 Poland, a producer of about 17 percent of the EU's  poultry, had to slaughter 40,000 turkeys due to the H5N8 bird flu.

jan 19

 Orthodox Christians across Russia and #EasternEurope have been dipping into icy waters for the Epiphany which commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, and they celebrate on Jan 19.

Jan 24

I've been reading a history of Buda and Pest lately so I've been looking for stories on Hungary.  Hungary's military has deployed a patrol boat to catch swimming migrants along its river border with Serbia.  Many of  the migrants are hoping to reach Austria. #austro-hungarianempire

feb 6

I don't often see stories about the Czechs sending troops anywhere , but they're sending 60 to the #Sahel region of Africa to  assist France. Meanwhile the USA Defense Secretary Mark Esper stated he will pull troops out of Africa to focus more resources on China.

Feb 17

  A 55 year-old Czech walked into a bank in Chur , Switzerland with a pistol and left with several thousand francs. He was apprehended at a nearby bar drinking a beer. The bar owner has put up a sign: “You don’t need to rob a bank to buy a beer here.”

Feb 23

I'm leafing through a tour guide on Bulgaria and notice that rose oil extracted from the damask rose is one of its biggest exports. Also,  the guide mentioned that #Bulgaria entered  WW2 on the side of Germany but didn't expound. The Axis move led to a ton of payback from Russia.

March 14, 2020

 Polish opera star, Jakub Jozef #Orlinski , uses breakdance to lure young audiences to his performance of coloratura pieces and largos arias.

April 22, 2020

 A #coronacorridor ?  Czech Republic proposed the idea to help out Croatian tourism on the Adriatic Coast.The deal  would be among countries in the region who have low Covid 19 rates and would allow mutual travel for citizens in both directions. The obligatory 14-day mandatory self-isolation period would be waived.

May 15, 2020

  Romania’s Orthodox Church criticized a billboard campaign showing doctors as saints with halos for  abuse of Christian iconography. That's a bit strong but McCann Worldgroup, the creator of the display,  doesn't appear to have considered that doctors aren't looking for deification.

June 5, 2020

The "Frugal Four", Austria, Denmark,  Netherlands and Sweden aren't too happy about bailing out Greece and Italy  in the proposed  EU's €750 billion COVID-19 rescue fund.

June 21, 2020

A most wanted man "falls". Gholamreza #Mansouri,  a former Judge who fled Iran last year after authorities there alleged he took bribes, fell to his death from a high hotel floor in Bucharest, Romania. The German chapter of Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint last week with federal prosecutors in Germany urging that Mansouri be investigated on allegations of torture and human rights abuses for ordering the arrest of 20 reporters in Iran in 2013.

July 2

Hundreds of people gathered on Prague's Charles Bridge, which was built in the14th-century, to celebrate the end of the Czech Republic's Covid crisis with a group dinner along a gigantic table

July 7, 2020

 Hungary is offering exemptions for U.S.A film cast and crew from an EU ban.

July 27, 2020

Poland applied to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a binding instrument with goals to prevent violence against women. Of course, some of the protesters are out screaming Poland will promote domestic violence now. However, #Ziobro , Poland's Justice Minister,  objects to the false assumption in the convention articles  that suggest biological sex is archaic, and everything comes down to the socio-cultural gender.

Aug 14, 2020

 Folks in #Belarus are using #Nexta , which has found way to bypass internet restrictions, to  disseminate news about the unrest after its recent "election:. It has no website and a small editorial team of four in Warsaw, but  does have a YouTube and a Telegram channel.

I suspect the "dictator" Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is getting a little nervous. Belarus authorities free hundreds detained after election protestsand  Interior Minister Yuri Karayev apologised on state television for the indiscriminate use of force by police.

September 1, 2020

 Since 2010 Hungary has built or renovated 3,000 churches, but unlike most of Europe not a single one was converted to a mosque. Most of Europe has been converting churches into mosques, nightclubs, or demolishing them.

Sept 14

 A growing sense  that Moscow will back Lukashenko in public while beginning talks behind the scenes on a transition plan.Belarus is going to get uglier.

Sept 27

 Armenia declared martial law and mobilized its military after clashes with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabak, a region which broke away from Armenia in 1991.

The conflict could cause instability in the South Caucasus, which serves as a corridor for pipelines transporting oil and gas to world markets.

OCT 11

 Belarusian President Lukashenko  held a meeting with political opponents in the jail where they are  detained. Other than free me , what else would you say to the President. 

Oct 22

 #GiorgiaMeloni , the leader of Italy’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party, noted the anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 uprising, and said  Europe needs “brave peoples like the heroes of ’56, to remind it of its real identity”.

Dec 1, 2020

 Moldova's incoming president #MaiaSandu has called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the separatist region of Trans-Dniester - a narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Ukrainian border whose main city is Tiraspol. The Kremlin laughs.

April 19, 2021

Putin's boys are busy. Russian authorities on  arrested two men , Yuri Zyankovich and Alexander Feduta, in Moscow who were allegedly planning to carry out the coup attempt in Minsk on May 9, a day when Belarus celebrates victory over the Nazis. Many in Belarus feel the arrests of the two men are a "provocation" organized by the secret services of Russia and Belarus.

april 20, 2021

The  USA  Treasury Department revoked the Belarus-related General License and implemented a 45-day wind-down. The yearly renewed license authorizing U.S. citizens to conduct certain transactions with  nine Belarussian companies was first issued in 2015.

may 6, 2021

Environmental campaigners suspect Prince Emanuel from Liechtenstein, who lives in Austria, killed a 17-year-old male, brown bear on a "trophy" hunting expedition in Romania in March. They say he'd been granted a permit to shoot a female bear that had caused damage to some farms. I suspect the Prince , who apparently like to travel, will pay a fine.

May 16, 2021

A 60-year old male , British tourist, faces charges of “fraudulently crossing the border” after taking a walk on the beach in which he crossed the border from Bulgaria to Romania. He is back in Bulgaria.

 June 6, 2021

Thousands of people marched through Budapest to protest against plans to open Fudan U, a Communist Chinese university campus. Let's see how Hungary's President #Orban, who claims to be an anti-communist, explains this one away. 

July 2, 2021

Can Eastern Europe rise? Slovenian PM, #JanezJanša , dubbed “the Slovenian Donald”  started a  rotation that occurs every six month to chair meetings of the Council of the EU and set the agenda for issues to address.

And Orban contends  that Hungary's law are to allow parents to have more say on their kids education on sexual matters and is not anti-LBGT.

July 23, 2021

Romania lets towns' authorities shoot encroaching brown bears which angers green groups. While I concur with this approach, towns need to do some cleaning  of  illegal rubbish dumps which attract the bears.

Aug 2, 2021

#KrystsinaTsimanouskaya is receiving Japanese protection after members of the Belarusian team took her to the Tokyo airport in a bid to send her home against her will after she publicly criticized the Belarussian coaches. Poland and Czechoslovakia have offered her refuge.

July 31, 2023

Hide & Seek, a 2019 Ukranian TV cop series, reeled me in then dropped me with exaggerated plot twists. Blatant police corruption- scary if it was based on reality. 

Yuliya Abdel Fattakh