This is the Europeans, where our usual half hour of current affairs discussion has been cancelled because this week has been too depressing.

Instead, welcome to a half hour of guided meditation, accompanied by whale noises.

Oh, actually, I've just realised we can't do that because don't you find that meditation, massagey music really stressful?

I think you told me that once.

Yeah, I do. It makes me much more stressed.

Well, then we won't do that. As usual, we are going to talk through some of the major events of the week,

but can we please try and make it as unmiserable as possible this week, Dominic? Because,

I don't know, it just feels like there's been a really deluge of like really crappy European news

this week. Yeah, I have to say, I've kind of fallen off the wagon this week and I've

become totally obsessed with B word, but this half hour will be very good for me. Yeah, I know we don't

usually talk about the B word on this podcast, but this has been like a particularly fraught week to be

British. And then there's been, there's a other rubbish stuff happening, like shootings and

populist victories,

more of which later. I just feel like I need to breathe into a paper bag for half an hour.

Yeah, I've had tummy ache for quite a lot of this week.

Yeah, it's been that kind of a week. But we shouldn't be Debbie Downers, because in spite of all

that, there's some good stuff happening. It's spring in Paris, I'm about to bake a cake. And you're in Norway. Yeah, I left the nice

like spring time of Amsterdam to get to windy, rainy Norway. You're in Bergen. I am in Bergen, yeah.

I did at least bring an umbrella, which is good. And actually, I had a bit of an umbrella saga

yesterday whilst I was travelling because my bag got pulled out on security after the X-ray

because they were suspicious of it because it had two umbrellas in it and the woman looked

to me she was like so you've got two umbrellas and I was actually thrilled because I thought

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