Fwd: Can anyone stop Europe’s populist right?

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Edward Carr at The Economist <noreply@e.economist.com>
Date: December 11, 2025 at 2:17:36 PM EST
To: edmulrenin@gmail.com
Subject: Can anyone stop Europe's populist right?
Reply-To: The Economist <reply-fe881671716d01747c-5049_HTML-234432093-7291843-10020@e.economist.com>



Also: Netflix and Paramount are battling for more than Warner Bros

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌

December 11th 2025

The Economist This Week Highlights from the latest issue

Edward Carr Deputy editor Think back to the presidential campaign Joe Biden (and then Kamala Harris) fought against Donald Trump. The Biden camp's clinching argument was supposed to be that Mr Trump was a threat to democracy and the Republic. It didn't wash: Mr Trump took back power with a bigger share of the vote than in 2016, when he beat Hillary Clinton. I was reminded of all that in our cover package on the European populist right this week. As we report, support for the Alternative for Germany, National Rally and Reform UK is surging. In response, the very respectable leaders of Britain, France and Germany have warned of the catastrophe facing Europe. Just last week, Britain's prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, told Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist's editor-in-chief, that Reform UK was a challenge to "the very essence of who we are as a nation". The doctrines of the populist right do indeed contain much to condemn. Yet talking about them in apocalyptic terms is destined to fail. The doom-mongering of mainstream politicians smacks of an attempt to draw attention away from their own failures in office. Given the strikingly normal way Giorgia Meloni is running Italy, their apocalyptic predictions are not credible. For their own sake, and for the good of their countries, mainstream politicians and their supporters urgently need a different approach. On the Insider show this week, Zanny and I debate China's rise with two of our experts, David Rennie and Alice Su. This year we have run a series of covers on China's successes—in artificial intelligence, green tech and industries such as pharma and driverless taxis. We have also said that it is winning the trade war against America. In the show we assess China's economic and geopolitical power, before probing its strengths and weaknesses. You can watch us now on the Insider hub.

Editor's picks A selection of must-read articles

On the rise Can anyone stop Europe's populist right? Apocalyptic warnings by mainstream politicians are doomed to fail

→ The populists of Reform UK, already topping the polls, may climb higher → The Alternative for Germany is the leading party in some German polls → Once a pariah, the National Rally is now France's most popular party

Muito bom Which economy did best in 2025? Our annual ranking returns

That's not all, folks! Netflix and Paramount are battling for more than Warner Bros They present rival visions for the future of entertainment

1843 The Hermès heist: how an heir to the luxury dynasty was swindled out of $15bn of shares Nicolas Puech had a 6% stake in the French fashion house. Then his stock went missing

Agglomerate this! Why many Asian megacities are miserable places And why Shanghai and Tokyo are not

Well informed Why hangovers get worse as you get older But there are things you can do to help

Podcast

Drum Tower The row over China's "mum jobs" Listen

Video Culture Five of our top novels from 2025 Excited to settle in with a good book this Christmas? Rachel Lloyd, our deputy culture editor, has you covered Watch

Download our app for iOS and Android Unsubscribe Contact us Update your details This email has been sent to edmulrenin@gmail.com because you signed up for this newsletter or because it is included in your subscription. Registered in England and Wales. No. 236383. The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT View email online Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

This email was sent to: edmulrenin@gmail.com

This email was sent by: The Economist Newspaper Ltd., The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, London, WC2N 6HT, GB

Donner 2011 - 2023

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Donner died this morning at 2:30. My heart is broken.  He went lame in his rear right leg 10 days ago, and we had been working hard for me to manage him as a lame dog.  I made the same commitment to him that I made to Sonntag and Leben, that he would not be put down just because he could not walk. I preparing to settle in for the long run with him.

 

It was a difficult 10 days, but we were managing. On Friday, I saw him perk up for the first time since he went lame, and thought we were out of woods.

 

Yesterday morning, he was extremely lethargic and threw up a few times. He had lost his appetite completely. I took him out in his stroller at about 6 pm, and introduced him to a few new dog friends. Boy, did he love dogs! We stopped in Starbucks, where he gave out a strange noise from his throat, as if he was trying to purge fluid from his body.  I looked up the side effects of a new pain killer his orthopedic vet started him on yesterday, and saw that they were similar to what he was showing. Instead of writing it off as a side effect, I took him to an emergency vet to be sure. The vet gave me a bleak report and told me to take him to an emergency vet in Virginia for immediate surgery. I rushed him there and they gave me an even bleaker report.  The vet said, he either has cancer that is speadfing throughout his body or a septic infection that perforated his abdomen and was spreading throughout his body. His belly and lungs were filling with fluid. The only next step was surgery, but the vet warned me that he would probably not come out of it. I had no choice but to let him go. He had lost his pleasant life.

 

I spent his last hour with him telling him the same thing I had told him more than 20,000 times, "Good dog." Those were the last words he heard. But he already knew that.

 

I have now had and lost six magnificent German shepherds, but this guy was so very special. I often wondered if he was purebred,  although it would not have made a difference if he was not. So, just 10 days ago I sent in a DNA test.  The results came back yesterday – 100.0% German shepherd.  I congratulated him, but he knew that all along, too.

 

I will forever cherish the day in 2015 when I saw his video on my Facebook page at 5:00 a.m. as I was getting ready to take the train to NYC to see some plays and operas. He was scheduled to be put down that night in a high-kill shelter after spending his first four years chained in several backyards.  I instinctively tossed the tickets to NY aside, got a ride to Dulles Airport, and caught the first plane to LA.  What a absolutely joyous eight years he gave me.  What an absolutely magnificent dog he was. Life will not be the same without him. He was my buddy.

 

Here is the link to Donner's (then, Thunder) video on Facebook that made me fly 3,000 miles to rescue him.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=494535337385772

 

On The Road 12, episode 5, Shenandoah State Park , day 2, 7pm

The day is done, gone the sun. Time to retire to tent.

If a experienced a calmer day in my life, I cannot recall. Most of the day was spent under a nearly cloudless sky, watching the Shenandoah River lazily roll by. I am not good at doing nothing, but there is something to be said about it.

We are still alone in this camp. The solitude does something to the brain.

Tomorrow we head back to civilization, at least 2022's version of it. I will take a detour on the way home to visit Jeremy's Run one more time, to bring back some find memories of Montag, whose ashes were scattered in that valley 32 years ago.

Ed and Donner

On The Road 12, episode 5, day 1, 730, Shenandoah River State Park va

Donner absolutely loves his new bunking arrangement. He did not even glance at my cot and when straight for his. Now I am filled with guilt that I never thought of this for Montag, Sontag and Kessie, and Leben and Erde. But they never complained.

Setting up the tent in the light rain was not as onerous as I thought it was going to be. A couple of poles got disconnected in the tent sleeve that required sione patience to resolve. All in all, we met the challenge head on with both the tent and tarp and I must say we did a pretty good job. Donner played his part by giving me his company.

We are alone in the entire camp. I kept seeing a light through the woods in the distance, but it was my headlight reflecting on something.

Dark is coming early these days. I had to use my headlamp outside at 630. We were in the tent by 654, which means I will get a lot of reading done or another 10 hours of sleep. It is drizzling lightly outside so that will be conducive to a good night"s sleep. The temperature is cooperating with us during this episode unlike in Blackwater Fslls, where the temperature was 25 all three nights.

The plan for tomorrow is simple. Up at 7, take Donner for a walk, and sir outside my front door testing as the Shenandoah lazily rolls along, as it has got so may eons and much history.

Ed and Donner, from the road.

Just arrived in Shenandoah River State Park, 2 PM

The weather was fairly nice for the entire drive of two hours until I hit front Royal. Then the rain started. It is raining slightly now, but the chance of rain increases from 83% to 93% over the course of the next three hours, so I have no choice but to go out there and set up the tent now. Interestingly enough, of the hundreds of times I have pitched my camp, I can recall only two times where we actually had to set up the tent in the rain. It is not a pleasant task to do, but once complete, and once the inside the tent and is dried out, it is pretty cozy inside .

We have the camp all to ourselves for the next two days, so if it is isolation I am looking for, it is certainly here.

Since there is no place around the campsite to set up a tarp, my guess is dinner will be served in the pavilion in the park down the road a bit.


Sent from my iPad

OTR 12, episode five

Donner and I are all packed and ready to shovel four episode five of OTR 12. I decided to stay close to home and return to the Shenandoah River State Park, where I was able to reserve site number five, which is right on the river. This is symbolic because my very first road camping trip was to the banks of the Shenandoah river in 1969, the year humans first reach the moon.

The good news about these Monday to Thursday trip says that there's very little preparation and packing that I have to do. And track, I did very little until this morning and it only took me about two hours to go through the routine of getting ready and showing off. I have a feeling that this is going to be a regular routine for me starting like next May

Time to turn on "this land is your land" and get on the road.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 4

On the way home from cold snowy Blackwater Falls State Park WV. Taking in the view on route 48 listening to John Denver singing Tske Me Hime Oountry Road.absolutely beautiful day today, no clouds, 35 degrees. Sure could use more of these days.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3, 330pm

After stopping at the Lodge for a treat for Donner. We drove to the Nordic center, whe I found an off-road trail for 4x4 vehicles only. See photo. After driving about a half mile, I turned around. I had not check out the winch, we were alone on the trial, there was no cell phone service, and Donner cannot walk far. It was a pretty rough trail.

After that, we drive into town and gassed up. I then discovered J and D automotive where Josh topped off my differential oil. There has been a persistent leak that needs to get fixed.

We are now at the nature center enjoying the view on the lake before heading back to camp for dinner, the plan is to head in tent at 530 and get a good night's sleep before the long drive back tomorrow,

Driving the narrow winding snow covered roads through the forest brought back a lot of good memories of past journeys with all my dogs. How pleasant it is that those journeys took place and still burned onto my retrievable memory.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3 1135

Snowing and cold 29°, Instead of staying in the tent all day and reading, I decided to drive around to different stops in the park. Right now we are sitting outside the lodge waiting for a hamburger for Donner. Got to do something to stay warm and avoid ennui,
The snow is expected to last all day so it looks like I will be packing up tomorrow with several inches of snow. I think the last time that I had to pitch in break camp in the snow was in 2016 when Stephanie and die camped at the Arctic Circle in Alaska for a couple of nights. Not pleasant, but doable

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3

I was expecting this, prepared for it, but not acclimated to it. Everything was nice and cozy in the tent last night (all 12 hours of sleep) but it is cold cold cold outside, 25 degrees. I will have to decide where to make breakfast, outside, in the vestibule of the tent, or in the defender. While I always opt for the most difficult option in all I do, I might make an exception today. But the marginal degree of difficulty among the three options is negligible.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 2 1330

At home, I never have the chance to do nothing. I cannot walk three feet around my condo without hearing the silent screams of one cluster of things begging for me to pay some attention. If I were to count the different categories of these clusters, there would be tens. The books cluster would be divided into tens, and then in each of them there would be tens upon tens of unfinished or unstated books. On The Road it is the same way. There is always something that needs to be done, things that are not easily avoided. Even my forced layover of five weeks in the Yukon back in 2016 was no time for leisure. After the quotidian chores of the day were behind me, my days were spent working on plans A, B, and C. (For those who do not read my 2016 blog, plan a was to stay in the Yukon and drive the defender home; Plan B was to Paul the defender down to Skagway, onto the ferry, from the ferry, and then to someone who could install the motor in Seattle; plan C was to leave the defender behind and then return sometime in the future to retrieve it. There was no plan D, abandon the defender, and plan a was the one finally executed, albeit until we got to Salina Utah.)

These Monday to Thursday local on the road camping trips or something different. Outside of the myriad quotidian tasks of the day when I am staying put in a camp, there are only three things begging for my attention: reading and writing, walking, or doing nothing. I think this must be the first time in my life that I have ever experienced the option of the latter. I what I am learning is that there is something to be said about that.

It is snowing on and off. The temperature reached 29°, the highest for the day. I drove around the park to get some fuel for the lay of the land, and realized that I had been here once before in the fall of 1994 or 1995 for a land rover off-road event In the Monongahela national forest.



Sent from my iPad

Black waterfalls, date to

The temperature dropped to 25° last night. Even though I was in my winter sleeping bag, the temperature in the tent was slightly intolerable, so I pulled out my summer sleep bag and doubled up for a cozy sleep for the rest of the night.

Ashley snow this morning. My first of the season. I think today that I will just drive around to the different sites. It's too cold to read outside, so I will read in the Defender and in the tent. Thank goodness that I filled up my gas tank the last opportunity I could. Except for my stays in Denali In the Yukon,I'm not used to staying in one place when the temperature drops below freezing.

Victory for Donner

As good luck would have it, our only next-door neighbor at Blackwater Falls happened to be a handsome 10-year-old dachshund named Thor, which means thunder, as does Donner. Thanks to Thor's guardians, Jana and Patrick from Texas, Thor and Donner had an opportunity for some quality Face Time,literally. As you can see from Thors eyes, he was a little wary of his greeter.