Douglas Herbert
@dougdecodes.bsky.social
World Affairs Commentator at France 24, public speaker and media trainer. Beyond just “fighting disinformation”, I seek ways to promote the acceptance of #facts. Journalism lecturer at Université Paris Panthéon-Assas & IJBA
« As the nation’s publicly funded broadcaster, the #BBC has been a political punchbag for all sides of the fevered culture wars. » www.ft.com/content/28b4...
BBC faces ‘existential’ threat after exit of top executives
Broadcaster’s deepest crisis in recent history comes amid fresh questions over its future role in British society
www.ft.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:49 PM
« As the nation’s publicly funded broadcaster, the #BBC has been a political punchbag for all sides of the fevered culture wars. » www.ft.com/content/28b4...
“It really wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s especially that Republicans start to see cutting the budget as an important political tool.” -Brent Cebul, a specialist in 20th-century U.S. history. #shutdown penntoday.upenn.edu/news/five-in...
Five insights into the history of government shutdowns | Penn Today
Penn historian Brent Cebul traces the transformation of federal shutdowns from rare occurrences to strategic political tools.
penntoday.upenn.edu
November 10, 2025 at 10:23 AM
“It really wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s especially that Republicans start to see cutting the budget as an important political tool.” -Brent Cebul, a specialist in 20th-century U.S. history. #shutdown penntoday.upenn.edu/news/five-in...
Even the political analyst who has hailed #Putin as one of history’s great men has been branded a “foreign agent”. The Guardian reports on a #purge that’s extendibg to the regime’s supporters. #Russia www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Putin’s repressive machinery turns inward to target pro-war figures
Analysts say a purge of the Russian regime’s own supporters is under way as rival factions turn on each other
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Even the political analyst who has hailed #Putin as one of history’s great men has been branded a “foreign agent”. The Guardian reports on a #purge that’s extendibg to the regime’s supporters. #Russia www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Quotable: “As Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” -New York City’s Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, referring to a Socialist icon. #NYC
November 5, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Quotable: “As Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” -New York City’s Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, referring to a Socialist icon. #NYC
“‘He’s an antidote to all the darkness and despair that people are feeling right now,’ says Sarah Balistreri, an attendee of the October rally. ‘He makes you feel like at least here, in New York City, we can have some control over our lives.’”
The meaning of Zohran Mamdani
Will the New York mayoral favourite be a boon to the Democratic Party, or a millstone around its neck?
on.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:47 AM
“‘He’s an antidote to all the darkness and despair that people are feeling right now,’ says Sarah Balistreri, an attendee of the October rally. ‘He makes you feel like at least here, in New York City, we can have some control over our lives.’”
Martin Sandbu nails it in this FT cautionary piece about the wisdom of certain regulation when it comes to protecting #democracies and reliable information from potential manipulation & exploitation by Big Tech. Takeaway: wise #regulation can help foster democratic growth. www.ft.com/content/01e7...
Don’t let Europe’s deregulatory temptations weaken its democracies
A good tech strategy would aim not just to catch up but to cultivate better alternatives
www.ft.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Martin Sandbu nails it in this FT cautionary piece about the wisdom of certain regulation when it comes to protecting #democracies and reliable information from potential manipulation & exploitation by Big Tech. Takeaway: wise #regulation can help foster democratic growth. www.ft.com/content/01e7...
October 31, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Dutch Voters Deliver Major Setback to Far-Right Party of Geert Wilders
www.nytimes.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Even if the full context of what she said before & after is missing from the excerpt below, what we hear in the snippet certainly gives pause for you and me to want to know more. For a fuller explanation of what she means and whether it really represents #Trump’s thinking (it does sound like him).
The Trump administration just declared that erecting a ballroom is the President’s main priority.
Meanwhile.
The cost of living is way too high and the Republican healthcare crisis threatens millions of Americans.
Meanwhile.
The cost of living is way too high and the Republican healthcare crisis threatens millions of Americans.
October 25, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Even if the full context of what she said before & after is missing from the excerpt below, what we hear in the snippet certainly gives pause for you and me to want to know more. For a fuller explanation of what she means and whether it really represents #Trump’s thinking (it does sound like him).
Reposted by Douglas Herbert
While we spectate on The East Wing being torn down, it isn’t just another hallway, it’s where Eleanor Roosevelt built the modern Office of the First Lady, where WWII bunkers were hidden, and where the public enters the People’s House. Erasing it is rewriting history.
October 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM
While we spectate on The East Wing being torn down, it isn’t just another hallway, it’s where Eleanor Roosevelt built the modern Office of the First Lady, where WWII bunkers were hidden, and where the public enters the People’s House. Erasing it is rewriting history.
October 23, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Douglas Herbert
Wow..Dutch intelligence suspends sharing arrangements with the US after concluding that high level intel was routinely being shared by the White House with their friends in the Kremlin.
Dutch intelligence is smart
Dutch intelligence is smart
October 19, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Wow..Dutch intelligence suspends sharing arrangements with the US after concluding that high level intel was routinely being shared by the White House with their friends in the Kremlin.
Dutch intelligence is smart
Dutch intelligence is smart
“I respect the history, culture, and people of the USA. They are not my enemies, nor do I feel them as such…The problem is with Trump, not with the USA.” -Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the latest target of Donald Trump’s vendetta-driven foreign policy.
October 20, 2025 at 9:19 AM
“I respect the history, culture, and people of the USA. They are not my enemies, nor do I feel them as such…The problem is with Trump, not with the USA.” -Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the latest target of Donald Trump’s vendetta-driven foreign policy.
Reposted by Douglas Herbert
Any American medium that fails to cover the largest protests in American history is failing in the basic mission of informing the public about the facts.
#NoKings
#NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Any American medium that fails to cover the largest protests in American history is failing in the basic mission of informing the public about the facts.
#NoKings
#NoKings
Reposted by Douglas Herbert
OK guys, post your best signs from today for entry into my Top 15 No Kings Sign Contest.
October 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
OK guys, post your best signs from today for entry into my Top 15 No Kings Sign Contest.
Poison #passport: At the rate the #Trump administration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of the world’s countries soon required Americans to get visas. www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/t...
US drops out of world’s most powerful passport top 10 list for the first time | CNN
Once a ticket to visa-free travel across the world, the US passport’s potency has dwindled in recent times. And now, for the first time, it’s completely fallen off the leaderboard of nationalities ran...
www.cnn.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Poison #passport: At the rate the #Trump administration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of the world’s countries soon required Americans to get visas. www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/t...
As a TV commentator who speaks Russian and has lived in #Russia, I believe I have a degree of credibility in “analyzing” Putin’s motives in his war against #Ukraine. Not so with #Trump. “Analyzing” him is a losing proposition. He’s guided by egocentricity, and flips on a dime. Here’s the #NYTimes:
October 17, 2025 at 9:40 AM
The #CIA is hiring. I can’t imagine what the person who ends up getting this job will spend their days doing. The current CIA director, in his confirmation hearing, testified that his CIA would be “going places no one else can go, and doing things no one else can do.” Any thoughts, Ethics Attorney?
October 16, 2025 at 11:04 AM
The #CIA is hiring. I can’t imagine what the person who ends up getting this job will spend their days doing. The current CIA director, in his confirmation hearing, testified that his CIA would be “going places no one else can go, and doing things no one else can do.” Any thoughts, Ethics Attorney?
Sébastien Lecornu, #France’s fifth prime minister in under two years, urges lawmakers in a fragmented and bellicose parliament to follow him on “a common path despite differences” as he seeks to stave off another government collapse and deliver a budget by deadline.
October 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Sébastien Lecornu, #France’s fifth prime minister in under two years, urges lawmakers in a fragmented and bellicose parliament to follow him on “a common path despite differences” as he seeks to stave off another government collapse and deliver a budget by deadline.
Natalia Antelava on Coda Story, writing about the conversations we are not having in a social media world that encourages the simplistic or titillating narrative.
October 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Natalia Antelava on Coda Story, writing about the conversations we are not having in a social media world that encourages the simplistic or titillating narrative.
Matt Berg, writing on What A Day, on the possible consequences for the Mideast peace process of #Trump not winning his coveted Nobel Peace Prize. (Written before the Nobel pick was announced.)
October 10, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Matt Berg, writing on What A Day, on the possible consequences for the Mideast peace process of #Trump not winning his coveted Nobel Peace Prize. (Written before the Nobel pick was announced.)
« Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said Oslo must be ‘prepared for anything.’…’When the president is this volatile and #authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything’. » (The Guardian) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize
US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says
www.theguardian.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:34 PM
« Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said Oslo must be ‘prepared for anything.’…’When the president is this volatile and #authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything’. » (The Guardian) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
For Trump, the ‘Enemy From Within’ Keeps Getting Bigger www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...
For Trump, the ‘Enemy From Within’ Keeps Getting Bigger
www.nytimes.com
October 9, 2025 at 12:29 AM
For Trump, the ‘Enemy From Within’ Keeps Getting Bigger www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...
Political turmoil deepens in #France as the country’s prime minister, Sébastien #Lecornu, resigns less than 24 hours after unveiling his government. He is the third PM to exit in less than a year. Disinformation, anger & grievance are destabilizing society, undermining trust in governance.
October 6, 2025 at 9:17 AM