Last week was eventful to say the least. The US Elections, the Van Gogh murder and on top of that Arafat’s death wake. And it will not stop there, the battle for Fallujah is imminent, Bush will reshuffle some of his top cabinet posts and start working on his legacy while the Dutch and Europe at large wonder where to go next in the midst of all this turmoil.

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UPDATE: When looking at events in the US and Europe, Mark Steyn was able to condense the events of last week in a nutshell:

What was revealing about this election campaign was how little the condescending Europeans understand even about the side in American politics they purport to agree with - witness The Guardian's disastrous intervention in Clark County. Simon Schama last week week defined the Bush/Kerry divide as "Godly America" and "Worldly America", hailing the latter as "pragmatic, practical, rational and sceptical". That's exactly the wrong way round: it's Godly America that is rational and sceptical - especially of Euro-delusions. Uncowed by Islamists, undeferential to government, unshrivelled in its birthrates, Bush's redneck America is a more reliable long-term bet. Europe's media would do their readers a service if they stopped condescending to it.

More on European media later.