In other news, water is wet

Feels like the "dead internet theory" is becoming the mainstream POV. Great essay from @jamesosullivan.bsky.social www.noemamag.com/the-last-day...

Really hoping this snippet from @barrymalone.bsky.social doesn't become a totem of 'what if' in the months to come. I remember the last major ebola outbreak all too well.

It is always worth reading @kopalo.bsky.social "Over 10m young Africans enter the labor force each year, but the region only creates 3m formal sector jobs." open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

"Trust in institutions is damaged by failures of transparency, but is also damaged by increased transparency." This paper is fascinating. Must read for anyone in knowledge producing organisations, not just scientists. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Let's think about zips. www.bloomberg.com/features/202... A fascinating look into the reality of the new tariff regime hitting the globe.

This from noted socialist outlet the Financial Times

Nobody should be playing God with the climate right? Yet exploration of solar geoengineering by private investors looks to be zooming ahead. Unregulated. New episode with Cynthia Scharf on Europe and the implications of technologies of desperation. In partnership with @cfg-thinktank.bsky.social

Can Europe move from reacting to shaping the future of tech? Think & Do 2025: Control / Alt / Lead brings together leading voices on innovation, governance & agency. 🎤 Speakers include: Anu Bradford, Maria Farrell & Javier Espinoza 📩 Register interest: cfg.eu/event/think-...

I now have at least friends of friends status with two elected politicians. Both connections come from having fun and spending too much time in bars when I lived in Uganda; not from my 10+ years of working in policy. Goes to show it's really easy to over index on career planning 😄

Same energy

Wow this comes across as desperate. How about "the bare minimum"

"We have to take that messy, conflicted, irrational, frustrating and human centre at the heart of the democratic process and embrace it. We have to show that it is a feature, not a bug." www.linkedin.com/pulse/circle...

This eulogy for WTF - the first podcast I got into and one I have never quit - by @dianamoskovitz.bsky.social is a masterpiece. defector.com/there-will-n...

As ever I am many months out of sync with the publishing schedule of @lrb.co.uk, but this piece examining Derrida's exploration of hospitality "in a world that makes a fetish of sovereignty" is incredibly apposite. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Oh but I'm really going to miss when the crows tear apart bin bags and spread trash all over the street. www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/159...

Another day, another warning about the dangers of relying on tech imports www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

"Content algorithms are already a problem - now imagine that turbocharged with personalised brain data" My @cfg-thinktank.bsky.social colleague outlining the extremely overlooked risks of the fast emerging neurotech sector. #copenhagendemocracysummit

The Tech & Democracy day at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit is kicking off. Very proud of the @cfg-thinktank.bsky.social team for shaping the agenda today alongside @allianceofdemsorg.bsky.social

"Hope is not a strategy. Europe must throw off its naivity and complacency." Former NATO SecGen opening #CopenhagenDemocracySummit with a challenge. @allianceofdemsorg.bsky.social

Political misdirection and spillover attacks are hurting EU nonprofits at a time when the funding ecosystem is in turmoil. But now is not the time to side with the establishment. My latest piece on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/pulse/witch-...

Somebody needs to tell Tony Blair that ID cards are somehow directly connected to fighting climate change, we can turn things around.

This piece on pregnancy in the @europeanreview.bsky.social is just so good. europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-business...

I am quick to criticise bad reporting, so I want to do the opposite: round of applause for @thisisbartosz.bsky.social This piece on the human-driven rise of Parkinson's is excellent www.politico.eu/article/bas-...

People have been running the 'Mechanical Turk' scam since the 1770s, and it's still working. uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-shop...

The most noteworthy thing about this article is not the content (which is blindingly obvious to anybody who actually cares about such things) but that it is so necessary and so important in the year 2025. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/g...

What if Europe treated biotechnology not just as a sector, but as a pillar of its geopolitical strategy? Faouzi Braza and Ashley Noriega outline how Europe can harness dual-use biotechnologies to boost competitiveness, security, and strategic autonomy. Read it here: cfg.eu/european-bio...

The chilling assessment today in the Financial Times, a conservative British broadsheet that is not known for hyperbole. www.ft.com/content/d96d...

"Perhaps imposing high tariffs picked by a chatbot, only to withdraw them after 13 hours, was indeed Trump’s master plan." You know it's bad when the FT starts getting catty

Governments spend 12% of GDP on procurement yearly, yet most systems prioritize risk avoidance over strategy, leaving them stuck with outdated tech and rising costs. Time to rewrite procurement for the innovation era, write @geoffmulgan.bsky.social & @leoquattrucci.bsky.social cfg.eu/governments-...

Heartily recommend this episode of Gastropod about a group of scientists fighting for future generations, against all odds. pca.st/episode/abe4...

I see we are still in the "garbage in, garbage out" era of AI usage in the media sector. www.thedailybeast.com/maga-newspap...

The media simply has to stop falling for these nonsensical court politics stories.

New piece reflecting on the first principles debates happening in the nonprofit sector right now. www.linkedin.com/pulse/life-g...

FYI that Trump’s $5m “gold card” idea exists today as an EB-5 immigrant visa and costs only $1m www.uscis.gov/working-in-t...

I suspect this is a HUGELY underestimated factor in radicalization. If you look at, say, QAnon boards, it’s not really folks looking for scapegoats for their dire material circumstances. It’s middle-class people with boring lives who want to imagine they’re in The Parallax View.

Corruption is the most important story in the world, part 212

Anderlecht experiences two nights without a shooting. Mayor of Anderlecht: Welp, seems like a good time to raise municipal taxes more than anywhere else in the country. www.brusselstimes.com/brussels-2/1...

Pretty eye opening from @ranaforoohar.bsky.social on DOGE www.ft.com/content/63a4...

Wow, such a 'revelation'. Thanks for this brave reporting Politico... Can we move on from this nonsense - they are opposing political factions! What do you expect them to do?

Nearly 10 years of Trump, three years since the invasion of Ukraine. Time which Europe failed use to build up any self-sufficiency and as a result is still at the mercy of outside powers.

Pretty cool opportunity for aspiring or early career tech journalists www.tarbellfellowship.org/programme

Oh well, ok then www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/143...

I have a doozy for @eoghanwalshbxl.bsky.social's annals of "people don't give a fuck". As I was dropping my two year old at crèche this morning, somebody threw a trash bag full of empty cans and food from their 4th floor balcony. Landed just in front of us.

As one administrator for a federal agency with deep knowledge about the government’s IT operations told us, “I don’t think the public quite understands the level of danger.” www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Well worth reading @kopalo.bsky.social on the USAID gutting www.africanistperspective.com/p/american-a...

Genuinely an innovative proposal from Trump - the world's first Sovereign Debt Fund www.reuters.com/markets/weal...