🚨🚨🚨 We're hiring on my team at @theobserveruk.bsky.social 🚨🚨🚨 Details on how to apply are in the job ad, but feel free to DM me here or send me an email at [email protected] with any questions. (More info below) observer.co.uk/about-us/car...

atproto *personal* data has a ton of potential. this is stuff backed up and synchronized between devices, but not shared with others. personal notes and annotations, sure. what about all your photos? health data? laptop backups? lots of questions for PDS ops.

This Hungarian veto is poised to trigger outrage because: - The loan was agreed at the highest level by EU leaders - Hungary secured an opt-out through enhanced cooperation - Ukraine needs the money no later than April - Von der Leyen and Costa will be in Kyiv next week for the fourth anniversary

Great thread on the need for an industrial strategy worth the name in the UK.

So, any good Substack alternatives that are completely idiot proof to transfer? I have paid subs and my own domain.

A cartoon by Patrick McKelvie. #NewYorkerCartoons

The one thing left for Britain is soft power, as the country slowly fades into dumb chauvinism and stagnation. They decided to dismantle that too.

Check out the latest edition of my @financialtimes.com newsletter (1/2) Britain's penchant for self-destruction: as.ft.com/r/a17bbe0e-b... With insights from @peterallen.bsky.social, Tina Fordham and Kallum Pickering

"A review of the published documents reveals a pronounced double standard: tech platform employees’ names are systematically redacted, while civil society participants and commission officials remain fully identified"

Eurosky-ing feels good

Google are *proactively* supporting ICE by voluntarily providing data without legal requirement to do so. Look at this list: "Google also turned over Thomas-Johnson’s IP addresses, phone numbers, subscriber numbers and identities, and credit card and bank account numbers linked to his account." 🧵

Democracy isn’t restored by good intentions defeating bad ones. Historically it returns when new binding institutions emerge that can again convert truth into constraint and participation into legitimacy

Amazing chart with horrible acronyms - for the first time in my living memory, unemployment in Northern Europe and Southern Europe seems to have converged. Seemed unthinkable during the Eurozone crisis.

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Matt Reuter. #NewYorkerCartoons

Palantir. The reliable partner you trust when there are no alternatives.

From the most left wing government in the EU today. Unimaginable from the perspective of Irish politics.

"there are 12,000 people across Minneapolis on the multi-neighborhood rapid responses. That’s 3.46 percent of the adult population of Minneapolis, and that’s people who can tolerate these giant Signal group chats with a thousand people—most can’t."

TACO 2026 count: 1

Whenever you think Europe has finally understood the existential urgency of the current political moment…

Great speech. @mark-carney.bsky.social “Risk management comes at a price, but that cost of strategic autonomy can also be shared. Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses. Shared standards reduce fragmentations”. globalnews.ca/news/1162087...

It’s part of this story exploring the impact of funding changes at @ukri.org. There are some big changes happening and the article is right that it’s a bit uncertain how it will all play out in practice. Important to flag that discovery research is maintained www.thetimes.com/article/be92...

How long will it take for euro-anger/pride to emerge and for euro-populists to ride on it?

A-Changing times

Internet of Iran continues to experience temporary partial restorations of service before reverting back to a shutdown for everyone but a few privileged individuals. #DigitalBlackoutlran #IranRevolution2026

1/ Donald Trump's aggressive tactics over Greenland are causing consternation among his far-right allies in Europe. With European publics overwhelmingly against surrendering Greenland, leading European far-rightists have come out in opposition to Trump's plans. ⬇️

We're *so* back smokesignal.events/did:plc:k4on...

We're having an AT Proto gathering at FOSDEM, on the Friday right before, at 17h00. Come! It'll be nice and fun. luma.com/jj7nths0

"Argentine regime willingly exploited these career concerns and placed the most pressured agents in the most repressive unit within the secret police (...) career boosting effects were most pronounced for agents with the lowest early career performance"

Internet shutdown in Iran has now surpassed 140 hours making it one of the most severe internet shutdowns in history. #IranianRevolution2026 #DigitalBlockoutIran Egypt shutdown (Jan 2011) lasted 129 hours and didn't disconnect phone lines like is happening in Iran.

"...contractors, who had lobbied for the railway, were embedded as project managers (...). That left too much power in the hands of contractors and government officials without technical expertise." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

We’re hiring hungry ghost wranglers — I mean Machine Learning Engineers. As well as Typescript, React Native, and Go devs.

A bunch of us are working on the practical questions of how to decentralize ATProto and create other strong nodes that complement Bluesky. And Bluesky itself wants this. Coming soon: a European identity for ATProto, 1st step toward Euro infra: www.eurosky.social/register @eurosky.social

🚨Internet (and other comms) has been down in Iran for 96 hours and counting...🚨 Iran is now implementing a whitelist to allow access to approved internet sites — a sign that the govt is preparing continue the shutdown indefinitely. #IranProtests #DigitalBlackoutlran

Interesting discussion between @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and & @sarahoconnorft.ft.com on what developments in AI like Claude Code might mean for social science, including the risk it will lead to an increase in low quality work www.ft.com/content/9183...

A good take in understanding a (developing) new order: greed, pride & cliques www.politico.com/news/magazin...

"Greenland [...] is a second order issue". Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. One might wonder what is for today's Tories a first order issue www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Are you in media or open tech? Interested in exploring the future together? Based in the UK or Europe, or willing to travel there? @protocolsforpublishers.com in London next month should be awesome - and the conversations are ever more important. I’d love to see you there.

Profile of George Borjas and his influence - Marginal REVOLUTION

🚨 BREAKING: EU countries have approved the Mercosur trade deal after 25 years of talks. Read the story: politi.co/4suWWNO

What if using American cloud services becomes untenable for Europe due to deteriorating geopolitics? It's hypothetical for now, but no longer unthinkable. By @quentinsf.com: statusq.org/archives/202... Local-first software to the rescue?

An advance look at Barry Blitt’s “Guzzler,” the cover for next week’s issue. #NewYorkerCovers

The rise and fall of Stack Overflow. Graph shows number of questions posted per month. Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4648...

“Palantir, a technology company with close ties to the Trump administration has cemented its role analyzing data for the U.K.’s military — despite an ongoing standoff between the two governments over trade and digital regulations.” www.politico.eu/article/pala...

If you follow this argument through to its logical conclusion there should be a UK Government channel on pornhub.

So, what did we achieve for 🇪🇺's cloud situation in 2025? It is now crystal clear our governments can't continue to run on 🇺🇸 clouds. Yet even now, neither buyers or sellers of cloud tech in 🇪🇺 sense the urgency. Below I elaborate & discuss an unorthodox way out of this mess: berthub.eu/articles/pos...

Airbus to migrate critical apps to a sovereign Euro cloud

Great title, although a reverse rationality is likely more accurate