The 15 journalists and media workers currently imprisoned in Turkey for doing their jobs:

I really think all the bad habits of LLMs come directly from the human-written text they've been trained on. Yes, the false profundity of bad writing like Seva points out, but also the hollow platitudes of corporate-speak, PR-speak, therapy-speak, positivity-speak, social media-speak.

NATO shot down Iranian missile "headed towards Turkish airspace." Debris of interceptor fell over Hatay.

In Lebanon people are sleeping in cars or sitting in front of schools, which have opened their doors to displaced, because there is nowhere else to go. I witnessed one woman begin screaming outside one school who said they had no more place. People sat along the walls or on motorised scooters.

Some immediate thoughts on possible implications of the current US/Israel-Iran war for Turkey: 1) For Turkey, the security and economic risks of a prolonged war are significant. These include rising energy prices amid ongoing domestic economic fragility, potential declines in tourism revenues,

People keep saying that this goes against the Davis speech. It does not. Carney said the rules based international order was always hypocritical, is now dead, and we live in a time of rupture. I disagree with support but this is not against what he said. The sign is gone. GONE GONE.

There's lots of other good (and free) Euro alternatives to US software (hardware is harder) that also have much greater privacy and no enshittification. Search engines: Ecosia (🇫🇷), Mojeek (🇬🇧), Qwant (🇩🇪) Web browser: Vivaldi (🇳🇴/🇮🇸) Email: Proton Mail (🇨🇭) Word Processor: LibreOffice (🇫🇷)

The only times I've seen bad hallucinating (with ChatGPT and Gemini) is when summarizing an epub book file, or translating long interviews (when it works, the translations are stunning though, much more natural than DeepL because its aware of the context).

One of Turkey's best reporters arrested for the usual political reasons.

EU commissioner Marta Kos’s visit to Turkey—and her warm rhetoric about Turkey’s growing importance and the EU’s need to deepen ties—has had the intended effect. In Ankar, it’s being hailed as the start of a new chapter in Turkey–EU relations. But that reading is far too optimistic. 1/4

Our recent article tackles this question directly. TL;DR: Turkey is not secularizing like Europe, where each younger generation is less religious. Instead, religiosity is being reshaped by political polarization, with decline concentrated among non-AKP supporters. A 🧵

What could have been....

America's unravelling is like a mild heart attack that hurts like hell, but ultimately provides the impetus to make healthy, permanent life changes.

I sadly think getting out of the F-35s is a pipe dream, but Canada will be allotting 5% of GDP to defence, and will award 70% of that defence spending to the country's own (~600) defence firms. www.ft.com/content/cde7...?

Am torn about this chart - it shows that despite the always defeatists talk, Europe and the EU in particular have stepped up for their security. However, it also shows that the level of support is still notably smaller, and in consequence Ukraine has suffered.

For those wanting to avoid American products, I've been trying France's open source Mistral a bit lately, and it seems every bit as good as the other heavyweights. chat.mistral.ai/chat Also don't forget that Deepl (German) generally scores higher for translation than Google Translate!

"Russia has increased its production of shells so much it is 'in effect, preparing for its next war.'" "In 2025, Russian factories produced more than 7mn shells, mortar rounds and rockets, according to Estonian estimates, up from 4.5mn in 2024."

“She was my daughter for 29 years – it’s impossible she jumped from that height." Hundreds of women are recorded in Turkish state data every year as committing suicide by 'throwing themselves from a high place.' But did they all jump– or were they pushed? Reporting with @berileski.bsky.social

People across the country have called 911 on ICE — for hit-and-runs, for broken laws, for shootings. Callers and dispatchers alike have to figure out what to do in this entirely new situation, where people are calling local police to do something about federal agents. link.podtrac.com/hrwz3zhh

"Russia has switched to a war economy, focusing national resources on a rearmament program and military recruitment that go well beyond the needs of the campaign in Ukraine." "Our assessment is that Russia will be able to move large amounts of troops within one year."

Signs that things are going great: “Canada’s former top soldier says this country should keep its options open on the question of acquiring nuclear weapons” www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Despite everything, the Post is still doing great reporting.

Interesting chart today from the FT. Europeans' first instinct is to talk themselves down. So many people here happily nod along with Anglo-Saxon bullies trashing this continent. But their negativity is usually not justified by the facts. www.ft.com/content/af70...

Great work from the FT's John Burn-Murdoch www.ft.com/content/b474...

I don’t know if this is a conservative or progressive opinion, but I think all the free streaming porn sites should be banned. It’s like free, limitless narcotics for kids.

They took over the executive and legislative branches, the Supreme Court and much of the federal judiciary, much of the bureaucracy, the most important social media platform (-s, with Tiktok on the way), and a decent chunk of the media, and all this after a stunning election defeat in 2020.

When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime. link.podtrac.com/5sskoutn

"the prevailing narrative in Turkey has been that these kinds of groups primarily used the country as a transit point for operations in central Asia or the Middle East. But in Yalova it turned out that the head of the cell and all the members were Turkish, with a large arsenal of weapons."

Oof, from Metropoll.

Canadian soldiers, off the frontlines.

"Bir Başkadır" - "Ethos" in English - was one of the most powerful Turkish series that I have ever seen. Netflix will release a second season this year.

These personalization settings on ChatGPT really help keep the coddling and cloying language to a minimum (sometimes it's outright blunt), and it always includes citations.

I cannot tell you how absolutely infuriatingly this stuff comes across to Europeans. When we say America is no longer a reliable ally, it goes considerably deeper than Donald Trump himself. This kind of complacent, condescending shit is a *huge* part of it.

As Trump rambles on in Davos... "Will the United States invade Canada? The question might seem so ludicrous as to not merit an answer. As ludicrous, say, as the question of whether the United States is willing to destroy the Western alliance by snatching the sovereign territory of Denmark."

I remember meeting this anarchist guy years ago who said "I want to jam a stick into the spoke of society." When I responded, "and then what," he said "that's not my role." I said that's like blowing up a ship full of people because it's rusty, and then leaving them to drown with no new ship.

There has never been a Canadian Prime Minster that has used this kind of language since 1945. It's astonishing. The most powerful statement since Freeland's speech on Canadian foreign policy in the House in 2017 (which was also a response to Trump) - and this goes well beyond that.

Important perspective from Greenland.

We hear it all the time: Since the turn of the 2010s, thanks to the rise of tech, the US has pulled ahead economically. This idea is everywhere from Washington to Davos—and it's paralyzing Europe But it's simply not true! Let's look at what's really happening, with charts🧵

Authorities in #Istanbul, #Turkey, took #French freelancer Raphaël Boukandoura into custody as he was following a rally by the pro-Kurdish DEM Party on January 19, and transferred him to a deportation center today, his lawyers told CPJ. tr.euronews.com/2026/01/20/d...

Where we are: "... Military planners are modelling a U.S. invasion from the south, expecting American forces to overcome Canada’s strategic positions on land and at sea within a week and possibly as quickly as two days." Such an order is still seen as unlikely, the officials add.

Often, EU preference for compromise and joint, diplomatic solutions is confused with weakness. As Putin found out on support for Ukraine, this is a mistake. Trump will find out the same on Greenland:

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

🇩🇰🇺🇸 Leaked Danish defense documents reveal that the US quietly sought sensitive information on military installations, ports, and airbases in Greenland without informing Copenhagen, - Berlingske

Oh thank christ, finally!

[1/6] A reminder: Europe has cards to use against the US. Lots of them. To cite some examples: - Tighten screws on US digital giants (taxes, fines, even bans) - Export taxes disrupting US supply chains eg pharma - Exclude US firms from European procurement, inc defence ecfr.eu/publication/...

Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/

Europe has - in technical terms - an absolute sod load of potential economic leverage over the United States. It has turned the other cheek due to security concerns. The US seems intent on demonstrating that it will not guarantee European security. So Europe may start using that leverage.

You know European unity is powerful because the moment we display just a bit, all the other 'great powers' go into a panic

Really shows how hollow conservative patriotism and “grit” have become. Similarly in Europe, much of the far right would likely roll out a red carpet for invading Russians.

Canadian Net-Favourable Opinion Of: 🇫🇷 France: +50% 🇬🇧 UK: +50% 🇲🇽 Mexico: +37% 🇺🇦 Ukraine: +35% 🇮🇳 India: -34% 🇨🇳 China: -49% 🇺🇸 USA: -50% 🇷🇺 Russia: -86% EKOS / Jan 14, 2026 / n=1012 / MOE 3.1% / IVR