Nick Ashdown
@nickashdown.bsky.social
Canadian journalist/writer in Brussels writing mostly about Turkey. New Lines Magazine, LA Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Foreign Policy, Globe & Mail, etc.
Selected clippings: https://nickashdown.weebly.com/selected-published-works
Selected clippings: https://nickashdown.weebly.com/selected-published-works
"Mistral’s customers include ASML, TotalEnergies, HSBC and several European governments including France, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Estonia. About 60 per cent of revenues come from Europe, with the rest from the US and Asia."
Mistral’s revenues soar over $400mn as Europe seeks AI independence
French start-up is riding a growing wave of demand from European businesses for alternatives to US tech
www.ft.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:22 PM
"Mistral’s customers include ASML, TotalEnergies, HSBC and several European governments including France, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Estonia. About 60 per cent of revenues come from Europe, with the rest from the US and Asia."
"Even without an agreement on Ukraine that the Trump administration is pushing, some European officials and security analysts say, the Russian military could instantly free up as many as 200,000 battle-hardened troops just by switching from offensive operations to holding the line."
February 5, 2026 at 2:03 PM
"Even without an agreement on Ukraine that the Trump administration is pushing, some European officials and security analysts say, the Russian military could instantly free up as many as 200,000 battle-hardened troops just by switching from offensive operations to holding the line."
"Russian portrayals of the invasion as a humanitarian mission were sufficient for the U.S. to decline invoking NATO’s Article 5 that calls for allied assistance. Germany proved indecisive, and Poland, while mobilizing, didn’t send troops across the border into Lithuania."
February 5, 2026 at 1:56 PM
"Russian portrayals of the invasion as a humanitarian mission were sufficient for the U.S. to decline invoking NATO’s Article 5 that calls for allied assistance. Germany proved indecisive, and Poland, while mobilizing, didn’t send troops across the border into Lithuania."
USA and Europe. One is an economically dysfunctional place of violence and no-go streets, restricted freedoms and censored media, immigration crises and a non-growing population whose choices threaten the ruin of a great civilization.
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Europe on the decline? Quite the opposite
While the Trump administration targets Europe as a failed continent racked by violence, it’s actually experiencing a revival of economic, political and defence unity, and some of the lowest crime rate...
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 1, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Tooze on EU dynamism vs US: “When this goes wrong in Europe, you get the Eurozone crisis, but in good moments, it's politically dynamic in a way that we don’t see in the US.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...
February 1, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Tooze on EU dynamism vs US: “When this goes wrong in Europe, you get the Eurozone crisis, but in good moments, it's politically dynamic in a way that we don’t see in the US.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...
Shocker
January 31, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Shocker
January 30, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Wind and solar power produced more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU for the first time last year
Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in EU power supply
Wind and solar power produced more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU for the first time last year.
www.rte.ie
January 29, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Meanwhile USD looks bad, Euro and Sterling look great.
"The UK pound and euro reached the highest levels since mid-2021 against the dollar."
www.ft.com/content/04c7...?
"The UK pound and euro reached the highest levels since mid-2021 against the dollar."
www.ft.com/content/04c7...?
Dollar slides as Trump says he is not concerned with its recent decline
Gold surges to further record high as worries over US currency mount
www.ft.com
January 28, 2026 at 12:13 PM
Meanwhile USD looks bad, Euro and Sterling look great.
"The UK pound and euro reached the highest levels since mid-2021 against the dollar."
www.ft.com/content/04c7...?
"The UK pound and euro reached the highest levels since mid-2021 against the dollar."
www.ft.com/content/04c7...?
"In some cases, European production has surpassed the U.S. Rheinmetall alone will soon be able to produce 1.5 million 155mm artillery shells a year, more than the combined U.S. defense industry."
Europe’s $1 Trillion Race to Build Back Its Defense Industry
President Trump’s overtures on Greenland’s future are reviving questions inside the NATO alliance about whether Europe can make enough of its own weapons to fight independently of America.
www.wsj.com
January 26, 2026 at 10:12 AM
"In some cases, European production has surpassed the U.S. Rheinmetall alone will soon be able to produce 1.5 million 155mm artillery shells a year, more than the combined U.S. defense industry."
People forget how thorough his defeat was.
"Perhaps no one in American history has had a political resurrection as remarkable as Donald Trump’s."
"Perhaps no one in American history has had a political resurrection as remarkable as Donald Trump’s."
January 25, 2026 at 9:07 PM
People forget how thorough his defeat was.
"Perhaps no one in American history has had a political resurrection as remarkable as Donald Trump’s."
"Perhaps no one in American history has had a political resurrection as remarkable as Donald Trump’s."
They did this based on years of very careful planning and grassroots activism. They are evil, they are crude, but they are not incompetent.
January 25, 2026 at 8:58 PM
They did this based on years of very careful planning and grassroots activism. They are evil, they are crude, but they are not incompetent.