Piotr Rydzkowski

Illustration of a woman with a helmet carrying a bicycle while boarding a blue and white train. The text reads: ‘Bikes on trains? You want it – EU got it!’ An EU flag is shown on the ground and in the top-left corner.

Hop on, ride off! 🚆🚲

As of today, bikes are welcome on-board of EU trains. All new and upgraded trains in the EU will have dedicated spots for full-sized bicycles.

So, you can ride wherever the train takes you!

This RU inside view is of course meaningless. What are you expecting them to say: „we’re exhausted, please give us a fair peace”?!? They will hide their weaknesses (economy crumbling due to the war effort) and showcase their strength (putting more and more soldiers to die on the battlefield).

Ah so much still to learn about good governance. Thankfully the world is there to share advice and good practices.

It’s super when our belief in the exceptional nature of our time is challenged by an academic work from many decades prior.

If this is the only polling information that Trump is exposed to, then that explains a lot.

I recommend to look back to this 2019 piece by Anthea Roberts

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Wily Economy Coyote

When the moment came, Harvard didn’t hedge or flinch—it stood up. A reminder that integrity isn’t complicated, it’s just rare.

The dream is dead

His Highness Mohamed bin Zayed and I just decided to launch negotiations on an EU–UAE free trade agreement.

This agreement will strengthen our bilateral relations and contribute to the prosperity of the broader region.

Read-out ↓
europa.eu/!XJGdd4

Turns out markets absolutely love a 10% universal tariff

So, we have a pause of the tariffs, but only for some, under certain conditions, and in any case a 10% tariffs remains, which is 3x higher than the US’s average applied tariffs from the past. So the logic seems to be: unpredictability will bring manufacturing home.

“5/10: The EU's Deforestation-free Supply Chain Regulation (EUDR) aims to prohibit imports of seven products—including cattle, cocoa, rubber, and wood—unless exporters meet various burdensome compliance requirements, including due diligence and geolocation data. It is estimated the EUDR will potentially impact $8.6 billion worth of annual U.S. agricultural and industrial exports.” 7/10: Illegal logging and illegal mining in South America, particularly in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, fuel environmental degradation and create unfair competition that harms U.S. businesses committed to responsible sourcing and compliance with environmental laws. These illicit activities, which usually involve transnational criminal organizations, distort global commodity markets by driving down prices and allowing bad actors to undercut legitimate American exporters.

I’m losing my mind here. USTR made a list of “Unfair trade practices” they’re retaliating against, complaint number 5 is that the EU cares too much about stopping illegal deforestation, complaint number 7 is that the South Americans are doing too much illegal deforestation

Of course it does…🙄

And Iran and Venezuela are of course well known economic powerhouses and good examples to follow.

News travels fast in today's age of globalisation. I suppose we might return to the semaphore soon to listen to some folk, but in the mean time a lot of people seem weirdly keen not to spend their time in a detention facility.

I kind of want to go

A day for the history books.

What an incredibly misleading byline?!? Now why would politico want to put out something like that?

Uh huh: but the whole VAT thing does not add up. UK with a20% VAT is considered as having a 10% tariff levy. So VAT does not seem to be included. Of course trying to rationalise and dissect populist policies is a dead end.

I’d love to understand how Trump arrived at the 10% figure for the UK. Switzerland with its 0% tariffs for industrial goods gets hit with 31% - all because of agriculture presumably. Cant wait to see how the logic of all this is unpicked in the coming days.

But why would anyone actually want to invest in the US - supply chain stability impossible. Super costly to integrate operations.

I’m wondering at what point will these announcements actually stop mattering in that the US economy will have tanked to such a degree that no one will really be contemplating buying new cars? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

Oh my!!!

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Land of the free, update.

Le Monde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to US after a search of his phone & computer revealed messages critical of Trump's science cuts, "which [says CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated

Does this mean that Ukraine needs to stop striking Russian energy infrastructure, which seems to be the only thing that hurts? How about Russia stopping attacks against civilian targets? That would be a nice confidence building measure.

Toronto excludes Tesla from EV incentive due to US trade war Toronto is no longer providing financial incentives for Tesla vehicles purchased as taxis or ride shares due to trade tensions with the United States, the city's mayor, Olivia Chow, said on Monday.

Toronto is no longer providing financial incentives for Tesla vehicles purchased as taxis or ride shares due to trade tensions with the United States, the city's mayor, Olivia Chow, said reut.rs/3DPWR2O

Dear allies, the investigation of the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office has confirmed our suspicions that responsible for setting fires to shopping centres in Vilnius and Warsaw are the Russian secret services. Good to know before negotiations. Such is the nature of this state.

Commission imposes duties on unfairly subsidised imports of aluminium road wheels from Morocco The European Commission has imposed countervailing duties on imports of aluminium road wheels from Morocco, shielding EU producers and defending 16,600 jobs from unfair trading practices.

Interesting EU move to counter transnational subsidies

Aluminium wheels made in Morocco found to be in receipt of Chinese subsidies slapped with duties

"The imports were found to be unfairly subsidised, inc via China’s BRI and were harming EU industry"

policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/news/commiss...