Those who thought I would end in 2016 were wrong.

Those who thought the world would end in 2016 were wrong.

“While the American space agency has pinpointed one as a comet, the other has left it slightly more baffled,” Libby Plummer of the Mirror reports. “The comet is set to fly close to Earth this week, but the mystery object isn't expected to make an appearance until February.”

The generation of Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand travelled to Brussels with the attitude that a strong Europe is in the interest of our country. The Viktor Orbán generation says, “we have to defend the interests of our country against Europe”—as if they were being attacked by Brussels.

Read the interview in full at the Guardian.

“Le Pen’s shameless u-turn and lack of detail comes after polls show most French backed staying in the EU,” Laurence Durnan of Political Scrapbook writes. “Only 33% of French voters want to leave.”

Le Pen made the U-turn in a radio interview with Jean-Jacques Bourdin of RMC.

“A bill aimed at decriminalising domestic violence to preserve the ‘tradition of parental authority’ has easily passed through the first stage of approval in the Russian parliament,” Gabriel Samuels of the Independent reports. “Ultra-conservative MP Yelena Mizulina, who chairs a committee on family and women’s affairs, proposed the bill to have ‘battery within families’ taken out of Russia’s criminal code, removing the right of victims to press charges.”

“Two Swedish politicians have been asked to leave the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party after one loaded up a picture on Facebook of a man holding a flag saying ‘Camp Auschwitz’,” The Local reports.

Elissa Strauss of Slate writes:

In his farewell address, President Barack Obama—one of just a handful of people on earth whose talent and achievements are on par with Beyoncé’s—said that, of all his accomplishments, he prizes having raised his daughters most highly.

Hilarious!

Donald Trump's transitional team has telephoned EU officials to ask which member state will follow the UK in leaving the union, Nikolaj Nielsen of the EU Observer reports.

This is what happens when you base your view of Europe on the fantasies of Nigel Farage and the British tabloid press.

“Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of the so-called ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US—besides the fact that it’s so clearly unrequited, with Britain using the term while the US doesn’t—is the neediness.” Jonathan Freedland of the Irish Times writes. “Time and again, London abases itself in its desperation to be noticed by Washington, and especially by the White House – no matter how appalling the incumbent of that office.”

A report by the so-called Monti group suggests new EU levy should be compensated by a decrease in national taxes and that member states’ contribution would be lowered, Jean Comte of the EU Observer reports.

I think this is a good idea, given new taxes are not added to old ones.

“President Obama commuted the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, an Army private convicted in 2013 of taking troves of secret diplomatic and military documents and disclosing them to WikiLeaks,” Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post report.

Moldova’s president, Igor Dodon, who came to power in December, has said he would like to scrap his country’s EU treaty, and confirmed that he has begun making preparations to join a Russia-led bloc instead, Andrew Rettman of the EU Observer reports.

“A British businessman who has poured millions into anti-EU campaigns is launching a right-wing news website on the model of Breitbart, a populist US site, which is also expanding in Europe,” Andrew Rettman of the EU Observer reports. “Arron Banks’s website, called Westmonster, went online on Thursday (19 January), one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration in the US.”

Britain’s far right won its referendum but can’t stop bashing Europe. We are truly subhumans to these xenophobes.

“ISIS fighters have destroyed part of the historic Roman amphitheater in the ancient city of Palmyra,” Jomana Karadsheh, Kareem Khadder, and Lauren Said-Moorhouse of CNN report. “Syrian authorities say recent satellite images confirm renewed devastation in the ancient oasis city, according to a statement Friday from the Syrian Directorate General for Antiquities and Museums.”

I’m watching the presidential inauguration on television. The Donald is now president. May God help us all!

“Trump’s remarks were eerily similar to those DC supervillain Bane gave in 2012’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ once he had overtaken the city of Gotham,” Cole Delbyck of the Huffington Post writes.

In short, according to this article by Gerry Mullany and Steven Erlanger of the New York Times, Europe is ready to take over leadership of the free world.

“We are the start of a patriotic spring in Europe,” Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders told the meeting of European fascists, according to The Local.

Friends of an open and liberal Europe should be scared, very scared. It’s the 1930s all over again. In a few decades, people will ask us what we did to stop these movements from destroying Europe when we knew so well what nationalism and racism has done to our continent in the recent past.

Taking Northern Ireland out of the EU will destroy the Good Friday agreement, Sinn Féin’s president, Gerry Adams, says, according to the Guardian.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post examines the new post-truth president. The “alternative right” now has “alternative facts”.

Prince Charles: The Pentagon has changed the nuclear codes to over 140 characters so President Trump can’t tweet them.

No, it’s not the real Prince Charles.

“Two bosses and one former official—and his wife—at the authority that manages some of Sweden’s most famous landmarks are being questioned in connection with a suspected bribe scandal,” The Local reports.

Going up in Sweden, we were told corruption only happened in other countries.

“That’s the somber conclusion of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group of scientists who maintain the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of humanity’s proximity to apocalyptic destruction” Matt Ferner of the Huffington Post writes. “On Thursday, they moved the clock’s minute hand 30 seconds closer to midnight―the hour symbolizing global catastrophe.”

“The Trump administration is mandating that any studies or data from scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency undergo review by political appointees before they can be released to the public,” the Guardian reports. “The communications director for Donald Trump’s transition team at the EPA, Doug Ericksen, said on Wednesday the review also extends to content on the federal agency’s website, including details of scientific evidence showing that the Earth’s climate is warming and manmade carbon emissions are to blame.”

The Trump administration shows no sign of backing down from an executive order that bans entry to the United States from refugees, migrants, and even green-card holders from seven mostly Muslim countries, Brady Dennis, Jerry Markon, and Katherine Shaver of the Washington Post report.

It’s the 1930s all over again. Soon, we’ll have Trump ordering organisations to register Muslim employees.

The White House has defended its omission of Jews and anti-Semitism from a statement remembering the Holocaust, Alan Yuhas of the Guardian reports.

The Tomb of the Whipping (Tomba della Fustigazione) is an Etruscan tomb in the Necropolis of Monterozzi near Tarquinia, Italy. It is dated to approximately 490 BCE and named after this fresco of two men flogging a woman in an erotic context. The tomb was discovered and excavated in 1960 by Carlo Maurilio Lerici.

“A campaign for California to secede from the rest of the country over Donald Trump’s election is gaining momentum, with supporters allowed to start collecting signatures for the measure to be put to a vote,” AFP reports. “California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave the green light on Thursday for proponents of ‘California Nationhood’—also known as Calexit—to start collecting the nearly 600,000 signatures needed for the measure to qualify on the November 2018 ballot.”

“Steve Bannon, the National Security Council’s newest member, has long been obsessed with waging wars,” Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast writes.

This man now has more power than almost anyone on earth. Be afraid, be very afraid.