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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's more than 3 years since Frontex Executive Director promised to make the EU border agency more transparent. We're all still waiting...

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My book, Unruly Subjects, is out with @manchesterup.bsky.social 📘✨ For the last decade, I’ve been researching Europe’s border struggles in Greece, in the Aegean archipelago. It's a look at how people - citizens and non-citizens - carve out spaces of hope amidst state violence and abandonment. (1/4)

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Matthias Monroy @matthimon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Beim „Munich Migration Meeting“ mit 17 EU-Staaten fordert IM Dobrindt eine „schnell verfügbare Einsatztruppe“ bei #Frontex, die in Lagen wie Ceuta #Massenabschiebungen erledigt. Vorbereitungen in Warschau laufen. Fraglich ist nur der Sitz dieser #QRF: www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1195...

nd-aktuell.de

Neue Eingreiftruppe für Frontex

Frontex will eine »Quick Reaction Force« aufbauen. Sie soll auch außerhalb des direkten Grenzschutzes operieren und könnte gegen den Willen eines Mitgliedstaates entsandt werden.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's more than 3 years since Frontex Executive Director promised to make the EU border agency more transparent. We're all still waiting...

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"What we see, we pass on". And that's precisely the problem. That's precisely how Frontex becomes routinely complicit in a regime of deadly pushbacks and pullbacks, as documented by the agency itself. Detect, alert, share, and, occasionally, drown, would be be a more accurate motto.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

It's about the transformation of the Aegean into Europe's carceral archipelago. Amidst the 'death worlds' of Moria, it's about the stubborn refusal to accept the disposability of the lives of others. And it's about the way these spaces of unruly solidarity are now being policed and eviscerated (4/4)

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

It's about everyday resistance - individual and collective, quiet and loud. It's about the everyday encounters between volunteers and refugees through which the boundaries that separate become unsettled. It's about the ways refugees claim their dignity, rights, and presence in public spheres. (3/4)

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Told through the testimonies of those warehoused in EU-funded refugee camps and the thousands of ordinary citizens who set up vital infrastructures of support, the book is about the lived experiments in solidarity - precarious, fraught, ambivalent - that emerged on the Greek islands in 2015. (2/4)

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.

Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.

The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”

Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.

“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

These passages are part of this essay of mine from late 2020 when we were supposed to appease fascists for beating them at the polls, in ways no one ever asked fascists to appease/understand/pander to us.

lithub.com

Rebecca Solnit: On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway

When Trump won the 2016 election—while losing the popular vote—the New York Times seemed obsessed with running features about what Trump voters were feeling and thinking. These pieces treated them …

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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Hard to overstate what an extreme position* is being advocated by the FT here, in historical terms 1/🧵 *she gets it wrong of course: settlement after 5 or 10 years is standard now (for those who qualify: it’s not “automatic”); Mahmood proposes to increase it to 20 years or never for many people

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/.
https://www.ft.com/content/acfe49a7-3b6d-4930-a37a-5f1b91ed6dc8?syn-25a6b1a6=1

A looming challenge is how many recent arrivals will seek indefinite leave to remain (ILR), becoming eligible for welfare benefits. While Burnham has kept the hardline Shabana Mahmood in place as home secretary, it is less clear if he will actually adopt her proposals. Labour MPs have already indicated their unhappiness with her plan to double the time it takes to automatically qualify for ILR from five to 10 years — an essential move.

(Article is linked in the quoted post)

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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

"They started kicking everybody, including women & elderly people, to throw them inside the...boats, even a 2-month-old baby." A year after Frontex boss Hans Leijtens said abuses like these kept him "awake at night", plus ça change... For @lemonde.fr w/ @grillmeier.bsky.social tinyurl.com/2b4dpkh5

tinyurl.com

Frontex continuing mission in Greece despite serious violations of migrants' rights

How long will Frontex tolerate the growing violations of migrants' rights in Greece? A Le Monde investigation documents the many warnings issued by the Fundamental Rights Office of the European agency...

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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Delighted to read in Europol's internal correspondence that a certain "researcher & journo" (👀) "appears" merely "to be dissatisfied"; that there is "no issue" in the way the agency handles FOI requests. Let's review the record of just one recent complaint, shall we?

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Oh, and if you're wondering why all of this *really* matters: bsky.app/profile/stav...

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

What's more, Europol even tried to concoct a bizarre legal argument to carve out an exception for the minutes of its principal decision-making body from any future FOI requests. The Ombudsman did not buy it.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Protecting internal decision-making processes? Nope.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Protection of audits? "...it was not readily clear that those parts of the documents contain 'sensitive details'...."

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Safeguarding "frank, objective and comprehensive legal advice"? "...the Ombudsman considered that they do not appear to contain legal advice...and that it was thus unclear why Europol relied on this exception to redact the relevant parts of the meeting minutes."

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Protecting public security? "not readily clear how such a risk would occur"

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

So, it's true that the @ombudsman.europa.eu has, thus far, not issued any findings of "maladministration" against Europol. But what Europol seems to conveniently disregard is that the EO *did* - on multiple occasions - find that Europol had wrongfully withheld access to internal documents.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

tinyurl.com

Frontex continuing mission in Greece despite serious violations of migrants' rights

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Last year, Frontex director Hans Leijtens said he was getting "impatient" with Greece's human rights track record. W/ @grillmeier.bsky.social, we found that, since then, continuous reports of violent pushbacks have led to no meaningful action from the EU border agency. www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decod...

lemonde.fr

Frontex continuing mission in Greece despite serious violations of migrants' rights

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Franziska Grillmeier @grillmeier.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Our investigation shows that the numerous alerts issued by Frontex's internal rights watchdog (FRO) over the past year have not only gone largely unheeded - Frontex is planning to enlarge its mission for the years to come. With @stavinoha.bsky.social at @lemonde.fr

withstavinoha.bsky.social

Bluesky

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

DM me for a free copy of the story.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Reviewing internal records obtained via FOI, we found that repeated alerts by Frontex's own Fundamental Rights Office, not just about pushbacks, but Greece's failure to comply with basic rights safeguards - such as cameras on Frontex co-financed vessels - have gone unheeded.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

lemonde.fr

Frontex continuing mission in Greece despite serious violations of migrants' rights

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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

More than three years after Hans Leijtens vowed to make Frontex more transparent - this is the state of play: its most senior decision-making body insulated from virtually any public scrutiny.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

More than three years after Hans Leijtens vowed to make Frontex more transparent - this is the state of play: its most senior decision-making body insulated from virtually any public scrutiny.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

For years, Europol invoked the 'international relations' exception to refuse access to exchanges with other EU bodies like Frontex. This seemed like BS to me. So I complained to the European Ombudswoman last year, who has now confirmed that Europol was wrong.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Excessive delays, redactions, refusals - there are not many wins in the struggle to make Europol more transparent. But, after years of legalistic gaslighting, Europol now finally acknowledges that its interpretation of EU law was erroneous all along; and has vowed to amend its internal FOI rules.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The famous "Wedges" paper was used repeatedly to shut us up when we argued against the continued use of fossil fuels, and, esp, against carbon capture and storage and the mass use of bioenergy. "But these eminent scientists say ..." Now we learn BP co-authored it. www.propublica.org/article/wedg...

propublica.org

How BP Execs Influenced a Climate Study That Shaped a Generation of Global Policy

BP sponsored an elite Princeton research center to address the climate problem without getting off fossil fuels. Its key work, a paper known as “Wedges,” guided climate discourse for a generation.

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 28/06/2026

BP not only funded the research behind the influential “Wedges” climate science paper, but company execs even tried to revise versions of it. “Chaps, I have had a go at rewriting the paper,” a BP climate adviser wrote the researchers at one point.

propublica.org

How BP Execs Influenced a Climate Study That Shaped a Generation of Global Policy

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Reposted by Luděk Stavinoha

Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Just when you think you've seen all the absurdities from Frontex's 'transparency' office...you learn that the EU border agency is fighting 'criminals' by redacting sub-heading (of the minutes of its Fundamental Rights Compliance Panel). Orwell wept, once again.

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This is part of Frontex's reply to my FOI appeal. For background see: bsky.app/profile/stav...

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

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Luděk Stavinoha @stavinoha.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

For the first time, former high-ranking insiders have blown the whistle on Europol's 'shadow IT' system that, for years, operated w/ basic security and privacy safeguards required under EU law. Our investigation tells the story of how Europol appears to have gone rogue: correctiv.org/en/europe/20...

correctiv.org

“They protect the law while breaking it”: Inside Europol’s Shadow IT System

Europol has created secret data analysis platforms that have put innocent citizens at risk – an issue that appears to remain unresolved today.

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netzpolitik.org @netzpolitik.org · 07/05/2026

Datenanalyse: „Europol hat über Jahre ein paralleles Datensystem betrieben, das jenseits rechtsstaatlicher Kontrolle arbeitet“, sagt Birgit Sippel. Doch kocht der „Pressure Cooker“ noch? netzpolitik.org/2026/correct...

netzpolitik.org

Europol betreibt mutmaßlich illegale Datenanalyseplattformen

Die europäische Polizeibehörde Europol hat offenbar jahrelang eine Schatten-IT betrieben. Mitarbeitende sollen damit widerrechtlich große Mengen an personenbezogenen Daten durchsucht und ausgewertet h...

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