Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Colosseum-inspired stadium could become reality in Bath, England

Published 15 August 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Draft proposal for the new stadium in Bath.
3 minute read

In the ancient English city of Bath, Apollodorus Architecture has submitted an unusual proposal for the city’s planned rugby stadium. The striking concept is reminiscent of Rome and the Colosseum. The proposal is notable for breaking with the modernism that has otherwise characterized the country’s stadium buildings.

The site of the proposed stadium is called the Recreation Ground Stadium and is located in the central part of the city. It is also the home of the city’s rugby team, Bath Rugby.

The new stadium will primarily replace the team’s current Recreation Ground, which was built in 1894.

Several architectural firms have submitted proposals and Apollodorus Architecture is one of them. Their concept is, to say the least, very different from the other designs and is mainly influenced by the classical architecture of antiquity.

“Apollodorus Architecture specialises in classical and traditional design. Our work is rooted in research, scholarship and the experience of historic architecture, particularly that of the ancient Greek and Roman periods and the Italian renaissance”, it can be found on the architectural firm’s website.

Praised by Swedish architect association

The concept began with Bath Rugby submitting its own proposal to the city’s governing and decision-making body for the project – a proposal that Apollodorus Architecture felt could be improved in its own design and submitted a counter-proposal.

The studio is confident that its proposal would integrate more organically with the surrounding city than the proposed stadium.

Architecturally, there is actually very little to speak of, says director Wilson Jones of the official ‘Stadium for Bath’ proposal.

The new design put forward by Bath Rugby is clearly an expedient budget solution. In some respects, this actually makes it more successful and more likely to secure planning than the club’s previous proposals for the site, he told industry publication Dezeen.

The proposal is also welcomed by the Swedish association Arkitektupproret, an initiative that describes itself as “an ideologically independent non-profit movement working for more beautiful architecture, more pleasant cities and more humane living environments”.

Positive response

The general response to the proposal has been “overwhelmingly enthusiastic”, says Wilson Jones. However, he admits that a “very small number of architects” have reacted less positively.

– In a world that is rightfully becoming more broad-minded and tolerant of differences, the modernists’ puritanism when it comes to architecture often feels hypocritical and bigoted, he adds.

What many refer to as ‘uglification of urban environments’ has become increasingly common in architecture.

It remains to be seen whether the innovative concept of Apollodorus Architecture will be the stage for Bath Rubgy and its future victories.

Bath

is a city in the county of Somerset in the southwest of England. It is located in the Bath and North East Somerset district on the River Avon, 156 kilometers west of London. As an English city, it was granted a charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590 and gained administrative independence from the county of Somerset in 1889. Bath was founded in the valleys of the River Avon around natural hot springs where the Romans built baths and a temple, giving the city the name Aquae Sulis.

The city was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987. The city has many theaters, museums and other cultural sites that have helped it become a major tourist destination with over one million overnight visitors and 3.8 million day visitors each year. The city has two universities and a number of schools and colleges.

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Merz acknowledges: The West’s attractiveness is waning

The new multipolar world order

Published today 12:41
– By Editorial Staff
German politician Friedrich Merz advocates for welfare cuts while simultaneously wanting to increase both Ukraine aid and military spending.
2 minute read

Liberal democracy is under attack from new “autocratic alliances”, claimed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week. In the same breath, he acknowledged that the West’s attractiveness is “noticeably diminishing” and that the world no longer looks up to Western values in the same way as before.

Former BlackRock executive Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron painted a dark picture of the West’s crisis on Friday. Both leaders claim that liberal democracy is under attack from various directions, and according to Merz, it is an “axis of autocratic states” that now challenges the liberal world order.

— The centers of power in the world are shifting to an extent not seen since the end of the Cold War. An axis of autocratic states that challenges the liberal order around the world is directly challenging Western democracies, he claimed.

However, why this axis has formed was not explained in detail. In the same speech, he was forced to acknowledge that the West’s attractiveness is declining:

— The radiance of what we in the West call liberal democracy is noticeably diminishing. It is no longer a given that the world will orient itself towards us, that it will follow our values of liberal democracy.

Merz has also recently stated that Germany can no longer afford to finance the welfare state while advocating for investments in military rearmament and continued support for Ukraine.

Macron finds convenient scapegoat

Macron spoke of a “degeneration of democracy” in Europe and found a convenient scapegoat in social media platforms.

— We’ve been guilty of handing over our public democratic space to social networks owned by big American entrepreneurs and Chinese firms, he said.

However, the possibility that the West’s own policies contributed to this development was not addressed at all by Merz or Macron.

— Democratic debate is turning into a debate of hatred, continued the French president.

Merz, Macron, Polish Prime Minister Tusk and British Prime Minister Starmer. Photo: Number 10/CC BY 2.0

Putin sees multipolar world

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented a completely different analysis on Thursday. At the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, he described the development as natural.

— Multipolarity has become a direct consequence of attempts to establish and preserve global hegemony, a response to the obsessive desire to arrange everyone into a single hierarchy, with Western countries at the top, Putin said.

Putin also claimed that democracy is in decline in the West. As an example, he mentioned Romania, where the court invalidated the presidential election last year.

Merz also acknowledged that Europe has become “economically weaker” and that the social promises made are “so much harder to fulfill today than they used to be”.

The solution? Europe must “refocus on its economic competitiveness” and “oppose a new wave of protectionism in the world”. This is essentially the same mantra European leaders have repeated for decades – so far with limited success.

EU: Europeans must reduce water consumption

Published yesterday 18:24
– By Editorial Staff
Water consumption should be managed through education and "sound pricing policy," among other measures, according to the EU's strategy.
2 minute read

The European Commission will develop guidelines on how water consumption can be reduced by 10 percent by 2030.

The strategy is based on providing citizens with “increased knowledge” about “how to save water” and introducing “sound pricing policies,” while modernizing infrastructure.

The European Commission presents its strategy for water resilience with the message that “global water demand will exceed supply by 40 percent” by 2030. Therefore, Europeans must reduce their consumption as soon as possible, it is claimed.

Concretely, the strategy, which has also been highlighted by Fria Tider, means that the Commission will develop detailed guidelines on how water consumption can be reduced by 10 percent – according to many critics, yet another example of how the power holders in Brussels want to control citizens’ daily lives.

The methods include, among other things, “increasing public knowledge” through education about “how to save water” and introducing “sound pricing policies” – a formulation that according to analysts is likely to mean higher water costs for consumers.

The strategy also states that the EU needs to “reduce water leakage from pipelines and modernize water infrastructure through public and private financing and digital solutions.” Infrastructure is one of five priority areas in the strategy.

Yet another forum

The Commission’s focus is on governance and implementation, infrastructure and investments, digitalization and AI, research and innovation, and security and preparedness. Both behavioral change among citizens and infrastructure modernization are highlighted as very important.

The EU document also emphasizes that “Europe is a world leader in water technology and holds 40 percent of the world’s patents” and that “our water industry generates €107 billion and employs 1.7 million people”.

The strategy further notes that “very persistent pollutants, including PFAS, continue to accumulate in EU waters with harmful health effects that could cost €52-84 billion per year.” The solution according to the Commission is “water-smart methods” and “green infrastructure”.

From December 2025, the Commission will organize a “water resilience forum” every two years where various stakeholders can evaluate the efforts. The strategy is one of the priorities for 2024-2029 of the heavily criticized EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Orbán warns of Europe’s extinction: “A nation without children has no future”

Population replacement in the West

Published yesterday 16:51
– By Editorial Staff
"In the end it comes down to a very simple thought. If not enough children are born we will disappear", states Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
2 minute read

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán issues a stark warning that European nations face extinction unless birth rates increase.

In harsh terms, he criticizes Western Europe’s “population replacement through migration” and explains that Hungary invests its economic resources in families instead of mass immigration.

In a post on X, the prime minister articulates his clear position:

“If a nation has no children, it has no future. The West chooses replacement through migration, we choose our families and our children. That is why we dedicate every possible economic resource to supporting them. Our future will not be imported from abroad”, he states.

In a radio interview, the Hungarian prime minister develops his argument and describes the demographic crisis as an existential issue.

— In the end it comes down to a very simple thought. If not enough children are born we will disappear, says Orbán, and continues:

— It must be understood that a shrinking country cannot be successful. Thus, when a community shrinks, its members will inevitably be increasingly worse off.

“A matter of survival”

Hungary’s leader emphasizes that the country’s population is “a matter of survival, both in the long term from a histtorical perspective and in the short term for the sake of economy”.

The Hungarian leader presents two paths for Europe to handle the demographic crisis. He is highly critical of the Western model.

— There is the Western path. There, not enough children are born and migrants are brought in one by one. There are fewer Germans or fewer French, and they are replaced by Muslims, he says.

Orbán explains Hungary’s strategy: “That path can be chosen, others tried it before us, we kept our heads down, did not let foreigners in, watched what happened to those who did, and what we not see in western Europe is not attractive. I do not recommend that we copy it, but then we need to have our own children”.

Massive support for families with children

The prime minister acknowledges that having children is a private matter, but emphasizes the state’s role in creating conditions.

— This is of course a private matter since the state cannot decide how many children someone should have, he says, but explains at the same time that Hungary still does what it can to try to create incentives for increased childbearing.

— What we can do is to support mothers who undertake giving birth to at least two children which means that for themselves and their husbands there is one child each. So they are maintaining our community.

The Hungarian leader describes how the country recognizes and rewards families with children economically.

— We recognize them, we support them, and we do not allow them to live worse lives just because they chose to have two children than those who did not. Those who are willing to raise children must be respected, acknowledged, supported and encouraged.

FBI breaks ties with ADL after absurd extremist list

The Israel lobby

Published yesterday 14:22
– By Editorial Staff
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, whose organization lists American conservatives as "extremists" while defending Israel at any cost.
4 minute read

FBI’s new director Kash Patel has officially severed the agency’s ties with the Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which roughly corresponds to the left-wing extremist organization Expo in Sweden.

The decision comes after ADL received harsh criticism for listing the murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s organization as dangerous and “extremist”.

In recent weeks, the Jewish lobby group has faced intense criticism from tech billionaire Elon Musk and Republican politicians for its so-called “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” – a database where many conservative, nationalist and immigration-critical Americans were listed as alleged “extremists” or members of “hate groups”.

Particularly noteworthy was perhaps the inclusion of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk, who was murdered nearly three weeks ago. TPUSA’s page on ADL’s website described the group as an organization with ties to “a range of right-wing extremists” and that had “generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right”.

After the massive criticism, ADL capitulated and deleted its entire “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” from the website on Tuesday evening.

“With over 1,000 entries written over many years, the ADL Glossary of Extremism has served as a source of high-level information on a wide range of topics for years. At the same time, an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated. We also saw a number of entries intentionally misrepresented and misused”, the organization claimed in a statement.

The organization now claims to want to “explore new strategies and creative approaches to deliver our data and present our research more effectively” – a formulation that analysts interpret as an acknowledgment that the database was inaccurate and misleading.

FBI formally breaks all ties

The day after ADL deleted the database, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency formally breaks all ties with the organization. He explained the decision with harsh criticism of his predecessor James Comey and his close cooperation with ADL.

— James Comey disgraced the FBI by writing ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedding agents with an extreme group functioning like a terrorist organization and the disgraceful operation they ran spying on Americans. That was not law enforcement, it was activism dressed up as counterterrorism, and it put Americans in danger, Patel tells Fox News Digital.

— That era is finished. This FBI formally rejects Comey’s policies and any partnership with the ADL, he continues.

Elon Musk: ADL is a hate group

Elon Musk has been one of the harshest critics and called ADL “a hate group”. In posts on X, he claimed that the FBI took its definitions of hate groups from ADL, “which is why FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk and Turning Point, instead of his murderers”.

Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna demanded that ADL explain its categorization of TPUSA.

“Seems to me like if they don’t agree with you, they will label you a ‘hate group'”, Luna stated on X.

Comey’s “love letters” to ADL

The background to Patel’s criticism goes back to May 8, 2017, when then-FBI Director James Comey spoke at ADL’s national leadership conference in Washington. In a notable speech, Comey declared his and the FBI’s “love” for the Jewish lobby organization.

Comey began by referring to a 2014 speech that he called “a love letter to ADL” and continued: “Three years later I can say, from the perspective of the FBI, we’re still in love with you”.

He concluded his speech with the words: “Love, the FBI”.

This politicized behavior from an FBI director caused strong surprise among many at the time and was considered deeply inappropriate, but only now under Kash Patel’s leadership has the FBI formally distanced itself from Comey’s strange and explicit partisanship.

ADL and Expo

The ADL has close ties to the Swedish intelligence group Expo, which announced in 2022 that the two organizations would continue working together.

— Far-right extremism has always been a transnational threat, today more than ever, said Expo’s CEO Daniel Poohl, in connection with presenting a joint report that targeted the National Socialist organization Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen).

— Collaborating across borders to counter this threat is crucial. We are pleased to have collaborated with ADL to produce this report and hope to work together in the future as well, he continued.

Daniel Poohl’s Expo and ADL have had a close collaboration, and Expo is often described as ADL’s Swedish counterpart. Photo: facsimile/Youtube

ADL was founded in 1913 by the Jewish fraternal organization B’nai B’rith with the stated purpose to “stop defamation against the Jewish people” in protest against the conviction and lynching of Leo Frank who raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl in Georgia, USA.

The organization is today one of the most prominent within the international Jewish advocacy movement. They have among other things become known for their hostile attitude toward ethnic rights for European ethnic groups – while openly supporting the state of Israel as a Jewish ethnostate.

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