Stijn Smismans
europollaw.bsky.social
Stijn Smismans
@europollaw.bsky.social

Prof. of EU law and Governance, Cardiff University. All things EU, democracy, Governance, risk regulation, advocacy, industrial relations, public health, with a little flavour of UK, Italy and Belgium.

Political science 71%
Business 19%

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Super glad Mark Carney laid off 1,400 food inspectors today.
The officer who shot Alex worked for DHS for 8 years. The officer who shot Renee worked for DHS for over 10 years. Both are considered “highly trained.”

The problem isn’t "training." DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity. We must MELT ICE and dismantle DHS.

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal

Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal
Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers
www.theguardian.com
they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.
Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin.

Here is a photo he used for several accounts.
I hope that Democrats realize what’s happening in Minnesota is also a dry run for what the regime has planned for the midterms.
Here is only at first paradoxical reaction I believe we will see more of - AfD member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk argues the US tariffs over Greendland call for more European sovereignty, a European military alliance, a German nuke and ends his video with the slogan "Long live Europe".

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Palantir, which Wes Streeting is giving your health care records to, and which Labour has given a contract for military analytics to, is working with ICE in the United States to work out who to raid. www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
SCOOP: Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activities on the ground.

Inside the app called ELITE—what ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid.
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
Breaking NYT:

The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first boat attack, according to officials briefed on the matter.

The laws of armed conflict forbid combatants from feigning civilian status.

That is a war crime called "perfidy."
U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
www.nytimes.com

We underestimate how dangerous Starmer 's 'pragmatism' is for the country
Yet another huge contract, awarded without any competitive bidding process, to Wes Streeting's favourite NHS supplier, the Hard Right US surveillance tech specialists Palantir, for military decision making capability.
Palantir lands biggest ever UK defense deal
The £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence has renewed a debate about Britain’s dependence on American technology.
www.politico.eu
Yet another huge contract, awarded without any competitive bidding process, to Wes Streeting's favourite NHS supplier, the Hard Right US surveillance tech specialists Palantir, for military decision making capability.
Palantir lands biggest ever UK defense deal
The £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence has renewed a debate about Britain’s dependence on American technology.
www.politico.eu

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Good piece on Miliband’s achievements here. The only point I would make is that decarbonising the grid is the easy part of achieving net zero. We’ll have to see what happens when people have to change their behaviour app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/71896/...
What is Labour actually good at?
In a government of few policy successes, one portfolio stands out
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · Dec 19
. @vkreilinger.bsky.social: "Is the #EU24 the new EU?"

I have mixed feelings about the "solution" used yesterday to provide the 90 bn loan to Ukraine

On the one hand, this is the way that the European Council should have handled the Hungary-problem for long; much better than "bribing" them ...
Article 20 TEU for ”enhanced cooperation“ is mentioned in the Conclusions of the European Council on the reparations loan for Ukraine. A smart move! It allows to go ahead without Orbán, Fico and Babiš. Is the #EU24 the new EU? #EUCO 1/3
YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos have amassed more than a billion views this year, as opportunists attempt to use AI-generated content to profit from political division in the UK

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos viewed 1.2bn times in 2025
Exclusive: More than 150 anonymous channels using cheap AI tools to spread false stories about Keir Starmer, study finds
www.theguardian.com
Now with the same productivity as the US, “core EU” also has more leisure time, higher life expectancy, less inequality

No matter how you look at it, it is a clearly superior economic performance

Oh it seems I forgot to add 😂 to make sure everybody reads the irony

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

❌ Punitive Attendance Policies are unlawful discrimination.

👉 They breach the Equality Act ignore DfE guidance, and are a safeguarding & public health issue.

Schools should not punish children for illness especially during a flu surge.

What we received today 😓👇
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

To the point the poor guy felt he had to rely on gifts.
🔴 REVEALED 🔴

The Institute of Economic Affairs – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group that "incubated" Liz Truss – was bankrolled by oil giants and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

📝 Exclusive findings from @desmog.com 👇
The Institute of Economic Affairs Banked £640,000 from Oil Giants and Murdoch
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group – received more than £640,000 from fossil fuel companies and Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate between 1957 and ...
www.desmog.com

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion

The counter-fraud and error measures during the pandemic under the Conservative Government were accused of being 'so lax they may as well have left the door wide open'

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion
The counter-fraud and error measures during the pandemic under the Conservative Government were accused of being 'so lax they may as well have left the door wide open'
www.mirror.co.uk
I'm not sure how much it is appreciated that there will be significant emigration coming. Those here on graduate visas coming to an end, the toughening up of skilled worker rules re. salaries/sponsorable roles and the 'earned settlement' changes to come. Lots of people are going to leave.

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Israel attacked Palestinian water sources over 250 times in 5 years, data reveals. Armed forces & settlers used bombs, dogs, poison & machinery to attack people & infrastructure. It's "an important part of a genocidal strategy" says Pedro Arrojo-Agudo

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israel attacked Palestinian water sources over 250 times in five years, data reveals
Armed forces and settlers used bombs, dogs, poison and machinery to attack people and infrastructure at key sites
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Today’s Omnibus vote has rolled over an already perforated cordon sanitaire in the European Parliament. For the first time, the EPP sided with far-right groups on a file key to the Commission’s agenda. Make no mistake: this was no accident and it’s unclear whether the centrist coalition can recover🧵
It's not a grassroots working class movement.

"Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler."
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
manchestermill.co.uk
Exclusive: Future of chronic disease journal in limbo after cuts at CDC | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
Exclusive: Future of chronic disease journal in limbo after cuts at CDC
Researchers dismayed by the targeting of Preventing Chronic Disease’s editorial staff
www.science.org

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
‘Lawless London’ is safer than it’s been in decades
Official data suggests the capital may be safer than at any time in the past half century, comfortably beating other major cities
observer.co.uk

Reposted by Stijn Smismans

Home Office wasted billions on asylum hotels due to ‘flawed contracts’, MPs say on.ft.com/47IzPH6
Home Office wasted billions on asylum hotels due to ‘flawed contracts’, MPs say
Leadership failures at UK government department criticised by cross-party Commons committee
on.ft.com
Michael Gove personally intervened to ensure that a Conservative donor's firm was awarded a multimillion pound covid contract.

Private correspondence reveals that Ciga Healthcare’s Brexit-supporting owner had pushed Gove to “take control” of the process.

The contract was awarded just days later
Michael Gove Lobbied Government Officials to Hand Conservative Donor Multimillion Pound Covid Contract
Private correspondence seen by Byline Times reveals that Ciga Healthcare's Brexit-supporting owner had pushed Gove to "take control" of the process
bylinetimes.com