Loyal readers may have noticed the lack of fresh content. My apologies for the radio silence. I wanted to wait until the news was final: I have started a new job! Which is exciting for me, but also why I’m largely quitting journalism, at least for now.

I’ve been hired by the Dutch Animal Coalition (Liberal Green, the sustainability network of my political party.

Liberal Green does not do animal welfare per se, so the positions should be complementary. But between a paid job and the time I volunteer in Liberal Green, continuing with journalism is just too much.

The Atlantic Sentinel will remain here in archive, as will the newsletter on Substack. I have disabled paid subscriptions, however, and if you recently signed up and paid for a year, you should get the money back.

All Dutch readers (or readers with a .nl email address) have been automatically enrolled in my personal newsletter, which contains an archive of my Dutch-language journalism and where I’ll write about the issues that touch on my lobby and political work. I hope to see some of you there!

I’ve switched on paid subscriptions to the Atlantic Sentinel newsletter on Substack to give readers a chance to support my journalism.

Before I tell you about the how and what you can expect in return, let me tell you why.

When I left XPRIZE at the end of January, I decided to focus full-time on my political and writing interests. I got involved in Liberal Green, which is a network in my political party that advocates for green growth, and joined their Food Team. We’re working on cultivated meat and future business models for farmers, which are issues I (will) write about too. I got a part-time gig with Wynia’s Week, which is a right-leaning internet magazine in the Netherlands, that — in addition to opinion writing — allows me to do investigative journalism about topics like asylum law, energy subsidies and taxes, housing policy and the shortage of nurses in Dutch hospitals. In English, I wrote about Emmanuel Macron’s reelection, Pedro Sánchez’ snubbing of Catalans and the Dutch farmers’ protests for EUobserver and World Politics Review. And, of course, I’ve kept publishing here.

I’ve been writing fewer, but more thoroughly researched stories, with a focus on the countries I know best: the Netherlands, Spain and the United States (where I lived); France (not just because I’m a Macron fan!); and occasionally Italy. That’s what I want to continue to do. With an income from Atlantic Sentinel, supplanted by freelance work, I can write about the topics I care about. (more…)

The Atlantic Sentinel had a facelift. On the home and archive pages, you now see post thumbnails and summaries instead of the full-width image and first paragraphs of the text. I hope this makes it easier to browse. The navigation, which previously moved to the left and right on large screens, has been stuck to the top and bottom. I’ve also tried to give the site an altogether more modern look with some small improvements to buttons and links.

The only casualty are the comments. I brought back comments a year and a half ago, but in that time just 35 comments were posted on 270 stories. I don’t think that justifies the amount of space the commenting form takes up. Of course, existing comments are preserved, but you no longer have the option to add new ones.

Please do keep sending me your feedback by email! Some of you frequently write me to share your thoughts on articles. I appreciate that a lot, so don’t hesitate to get in touch. Also if you want to share general feedback on the site. You can reach me at nick.ottens@atlanticsentinel.com. (more…)

I closed comments a few years ago, when we received a lot of spam as well as comments I didn’t want to publish. There are better spam protections now and I enjoy debate. Those of you who follow the Atlantic Sentinel know I am concerned about the future of liberal democracy, which I believe is under attack from the left, by social-justice fanatics, and the right, by authoritarians and reactionaries. The remedy isn’t cancel culture or ostracism, but engaging in a free and frank exchange of views, in good faith, and being willing to listen.

If I believe that, I ought to practice what I preach. (more…)

I’ve been experimenting with a new format to share news and links: daily roundups of the most important stories from Europe and North America, usually with links to analysis and opinion elsewhere. Follow the News tag to find the latest installments.

My thinking is that the Atlantic Sentinel is not a place you visit to get the latest news, yet I often have something to say about current events that falls short of a full Analysis or Opinion piece. (more…)

Regular readers will know by now I can’t help but tinker with the website every one or two months.

My goal is always to make the site as minimalistic as possible without hurting usability: draw your eye to the content but have all the tools you need to navigate at your fingertips. I think this update does that. (more…)

You’ll notice there have been a few design changes. Most are small: the formatting of the meta data and widget titles is a little different; the author bio has been replaced with a simpler — and what I think is a more elegant — byline.

The biggest change is in the sidebar, where you can now find links to the latest articles about France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. I hope that will let you more easily find the stories you are looking for.

As always, I welcome your feedback! If you have any criticisms or suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

There have been a few changes at the Atlantic Sentinel lately.

If you look between the title and content of an article, you will notice the author name is now preceded by the type of post: usually analysis, news or opinion; in this case, info. In WordPress-speak, these are our categories.

At the bottom of the article, you’ll find the tags. These are usually countries or individuals, for example, France and Emmanuel Macron.

Between those two levels, there are certain transnational issues we keep coming back to. Europe’s culture war is one. The future of social democracy is another. I’ve chosen to put these in the navigation bar at the top of the website. These are the topics I want the Atlantic Sentinel to be about and putting them front and center signals that to the reader and is also a reminder to myself of which stories to cover and which to leave to others. (more…)