Curtain raiser for my conference on Wednesday. Note: it’s spicy. open.substack.com/pub/escapefo...

Europe’s quest for tech decoupling from the U.S., now seen as a potential adversary. The times we live in.

Brutal and excellent www.ft.com/content/6f84...

2026 US National Defense Strategy is out. Let's see: »Previous administrations squandered our military advantages ... to uphold cloud-castle abstractions like the rules-based international order.« Yeah, it's what I thought.

A new kind of power is emerging in culture: the identity industrialist. As synthetic humans become lifelike, identity itself can be manufactured, optimized, and scaled. Dave Snyder explores what this means for media, influence, and trust.

Highly recommend this article by @vitrav.bsky.social in National Geographic citing work done by @gloriamark.bsky.social. I have some doubts though that #mindfulness is the solution. The problem is structural, not individual. www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

Nudging doesn't work

How surveillance companies track smartphone users through advertising data

Italian TV news (La7): Meloni is not going to Davos.

"The Council of Europe stands ready to support Denmark and Greenland through concrete legal and institutional cooperation. If Europe fails to articulate a legal and political vision, others will fill the vacuum, shifting security from law to strategic leverage."

I'd wager this is the angriest statement ever issued by the Nobel Peace Prize people...

The article by Liza Rozovsky in Haaretz is worth a read. Key phrase: "If [leaders of the 60 countries invited] "take part in the initiative, they will be personally responsible for participating in the destruction of the old world order." Italy seems to be joining. @nathalietocci.bsky.social

News: US officials have floated the idea of broadening a Gaza “Board of Peace” headed by Donald Trump to include other hotspots such as Ukraine and Venezuela, according to people familiar with discussions. www.ft.com/content/3461...

"Wine’s decline reflects a fraying of the social fabric that once held Western societies together." www.economist.com/internationa...

"The European Commission is fixed on the misguided idea that deregulation will unleash AI innovation, and has made that dogma one of its cornerstone policies. Deregulation in a highly monopolised market, however, only risks further entrenching dominant players."

Is Reddit indeed "one of the few platforms where you can still have substantive discussions"? Dutch media are starting to join the platform precisely for that reason, reports Dutch newspaper NRC (English translation here): www.reddit.com/r/Journalism...

About 42% of respondents said they agreed with "the ideas advocated by the RN," setting a new record (44% were in disagreement). @lemonde.fr

Nice one! www.thelocal.it/20260110/clo...

I changed my profile background to an image of hedgehogs created around 1250. The myth was that these animals carried stolen fruits on their spines. So it is also a warning for us not to fall into the same myth trap 8 centuries later. theconversation.com/why-hedgehog...

Handbook on cognitive biases "that are particularly common and relevant to intelligence work" (67 pages) published by the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) www.vbs.admin.ch/dam/en/sd-we...

Europe readies digital infrastructure push in 2026 A wave of EU legislation will target cloud services, chips and networks and step up Europe’s push to curb dependence on US technology - @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/europe-...

“Those who advocate for international law may now find themselves appealing to a vanishing world order in which Venezuela is the latest burial in an already crowded graveyard.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Presentation by @meredithmeredith.bsky.social and @udbhav-tiwari.bsky.social of @signal.org about dangers of AI agents at #39C3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANE...

Excellent comment thread on European and Italian Venezuela reactions by @nonamikhelidze.bsky.social of @iaionline.bsky.social (Google Translation): threadreaderapp-com.translate.goog/thread/20074... @nathalietocci.bsky.social

In 2019, Fiona Hill testified that the Russian government was “signaling very strongly that they wanted to somehow make some very strange swap agreement between Venezuela and Ukraine.” (Search: Venezuela) i.e. we get Venezuela, they get Ukraine. - via Dave Troy s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6543…

Brilliant piece on cognitive biases and blind spots from Gilliant Tett - drawing on, of all things, a manual from the Swiss intelligence service - www.ft.com/content/d8b2...

Ruffling a few feathers for the New Year… the takes out there on #EuroStack are typically terrible, so here goes some weekend read…

The EU is a “digital colony of the US”. This Italian is trying to change that, with some success. lemmy.world/post/41040949 www.reddit.com/r/eurostack/... DeepL translation of NRC article @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social @francescabria.bsky.social @karlitschek.bsky.social @berthubert.bsky.social

"We were looking for a term to describe the thin layer of life on the surface of plastic and we named it plastisphere in reference to the biosphere which is the thin layer of life at the outside of the earth." Can they be pathogenic? [English subtitles can be enabled] @niozsearesearch.bsky.social

Kids are smarter than regulators

New Article Alert 🚨 By me @fastcompany.com "Digital surveys may have hit the #AI point of no return. New study shows bots can be indistinguishable from humans in survey responses," in which I remind people that Qual exists, so HIRE ANTHROPOLOGISTS. I'm available! www.fastcompany.com/91467125/dig...

Steve Rosenberg's Russian press review: Russian media have no doubts where Donald Trump's true sympathies lie. And they also report on the serious pressures the Russian economy is facing.

Excellent series of four articles (a fifth one is forthcoming) by Derin Sonmez on the Chinese automotive industry and the automotive outlook in Europe. www.linkedin.com/pulse/chines...

A significant amount of safety research has existed for decades on Human Machine Interfaces proving exactly this. It's exhausting to watch money and effort wasted in a tech hype cycle to constantly undo and redo what we already know in safety engineering.

"The point of AI companions is to take away bad feelings — of alienation, inadequacy, doubt and all the things that make us fear actual company. They promise the pleasures of society without the risk of being with others. AI “friends” are to companionship what pornography is to sexual intimacy."

Social networks are not "trusted" communication protocols (where not losing messages is the top priority), but media consumption protocols that delegate media creation and users don't worry too much about what they do or don't see. by @ploum.mamot.fr.ap.brid.gy ploum.net/2025-12-15-c...

Quite an astonishing map by @monde-diplomatique.fr on media ownership in France.

COMMENTARY: Russia’s war on Ukraine seems likely to end next year — and on terms highly unfavorable for Kyiv. Why the prediction? Because of the EU’s failure last week to agree to use Russia’s money. 🔗 politi.co/3MSmMuQ

“‘DeepSeek is more humane,’ my mother told me. ‘Doctors are more like machines.’” Why some patients — including our reporter's mom — are embracing AI chatbots, despite knowing that their advice may be flawed or even dangerous https://restofworld.org/2025/ai-chatbot-china-sick/

The European Commission strongly condemns the travel restrictions imposed by the US. Our digital legislation has been democratically decided by the European Parliament and our Member States.

Over half the toys and electronics inspected failed EU safety tests. Customs reforms target dangerous goods flooding Europe through online shopping.

Missed this gem. "The transatlantic alliance will be far better off when the EU is consigned to the dustbin of history." www.heritage.org/europe/comme...

Pleased to see this piece. Personally, I find these uses of synthetic data v concerning and I find the traction and endorsements that this work has to be quite baffling, esp given the well-storied role of algorithmic targeting in undermining democracy

Excellent article by Le Monde's Rome correspondent Allan Kaval which aims to contradict "the idea that this former professional activist, who came from a minor political family rooted in fascism, would be moderated by contact with the venerable institutions of the Italian Republic".

Not a single positive reaction. Not in the replies. Not in the quotes. Starts off well.

Top Dutch Brussels correspondent on how the Americans have put incredible pressure on EU government leaders to ensure that they do not touch Russian assets at Euroclear. (English translation of key paragraph attached.)

The Francesca Albanese effect. @franceskalbs.bsky.social

Malware on Italian GNV passenger ferry "capable of allowing the vessel's operating systems to be controlled remotely".

I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf