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Can America switch Europe off? Why does the Kremlin dread August? And who walked out on whom at the UN?
A European President & US comedian make sense of the continental rift.
More Information
Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s (WMO / Copernicus). The Arctic warms faster still, and the heaviest human impacts fall elsewhere.
#AmericaAlone. This X post and hashtag came from the official X account of France’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva (25 July). The mission is headed by France’s ambassador; the post was institutional, not personal.
Elbridge Colby is the Under Secretary of War for Policy — the Pentagon’s top policy official (formerly titled Under Secretary of Defense for Policy). The review he announced is officially the Europe Posture Review.
The UK has a new Prime Minister because under the UK’s parliamentary system it is the winning political party won power, not an individual. Whomever is the leader of the ruling party becomes (by royal ascent) the King’s Prime Minister. Kier Starmer lost his party’s leadership. Andy Burnham won an election to become a Member of Parliament and then gained (unopposed) his party’s leadership and therefore becomes the UK’s 6th Prime Minister in 10 years.
The European Commission fined Google €890 million on 23 July under the Digital Markets Act for self-preferencing in search and app-store services. Trump announced a Section 301 tariff investigation the next day. For more, check out our previous episode Fines & Frugals
On 12 June 2026, 3 days after it was launched, the US government imposed export controls on Anthropic’s new Claude Fable model on national-security grounds; unable to verify nationality in real time, Anthropic suspended access for everyone. 30th June, the Commerce Department lifted its restrictions and global access resumed on 1 July.
A handful of island states exceed Europe on the absolute measure of electricity prices, though EU industrial electricity runs 2-3x US prices and German, Danish and Irish household electricity prices rank near the top globally.
In digitalisation of government Germany ranks 21st out 27 EU countries.
Cro-Magnon vs Neanderthals. "Cro-Magnon" is a 19th century label, taken from the name of the rock shelter in the Dordogne, France where the first skeletons were found in 1868. They are modern humans. Neanderthal brains were as large as ours (or larger) and exhibited complex behaviour. Everyone of non-African descent carries roughly 1–2% Neanderthal DNA. Recent research argues that unsustainable demographics resulted in Neanderthals being absorbed into far larger incoming populations of Homo sapiens amid a volatile climate. One group was too small and too isolated to survive the arrival of a new, bigger, better-connected group.
Various European governments are weaning themselves, piecemeal, off US tech:
France: all ministries must file plans to move 2.5 million government computers to Linux by autumn 2026; Teams and Zoom to be replaced by the French-hosted Visio by 2027; national health-data platform to leave US-law-exposed infrastructure by end-2026.
Germany: Schleswig-Holstein has moved ~30,000 government workplaces (≈80%) to Linux and open-source office software, saving over €15m in licences.
Denmark: the Digital Affairs Ministry is switching to LibreOffice
Austria: the armed forces have completed their move off Microsoft Office.
Italy: the defence ministry is migrating off 150,000 PCs (€29m projected savings).
The European Parliament: voted 471–68 in January 2026 for a resolution to directing the Commission to map the EU’s dependencies.
Chapters
- 00:00:00 Backstory
- 00:01:30 Today's topics
- 00:02:56 Russia's Black August
- 00:06:14 Europe's fires
- 00:09:38 US walkout on France
- 00:13:15 US's Europe Posture Review
- 00:18:52 UK's new Prime Minister
- 00:21:40 Primer: European Tech
- 00:34:59 Credits
Youtube @TheContinentalRift (https://www.youtube.com/@TheContinentalRift)
Instagram @thecontinentalriftpod (https://www.instagram.com/thecontinentalriftpod/)
X @ContRiftShow (https://x.com/ContRiftShow)
CREDITS
- Editor Conan Roberts
- Animation & Design Roland Seer - Tartu Multifilm @rolandseer
- Music by Paabel @paabeltheband (Estonian folk-fusion)
- Executive Producer Fred Casella
© Fresh Lens Film Sàrl 2026 all rights reserved
