Luna moth TL cleanse 🌙

♥️

Alberto Bacchiega, Natalie Harsdorf, me, and Sam Stolton

(We had a few things to say about enforcement in today’s Wild Geopolitics World yesterday too)

A panel photo with Robin Berjon, Sebastian Vogelsang, Tobias Bacherle, Felix Styma, and Lena Boswald

@fotitech.bsky.social and friends rolling deep at today’s Konrad Adenauer Summit talking the future of social media and Eurosky.

Feat. @tbbacherle.eu / @robin.berjon.com / @sebastian.eurosky.social with iconomy’s Felix Styma and Lena from Interface.

Sánchez to Trump: Spain won’t ‘applaud those who set the world on fire just because they then show up with a bucket’ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has emerged as one of the European Union's leading critics of U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran.

“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”

www.cnbc.com/2026/04/08/s...

Stay tuned for:

☁️ A troubling look at our cloud exposures
📱 A plan to liberate Europe from monopoly social media

We can't wait to team up with all of you who share our ambition! 🚀

(reposting from LI yesterday, could not do a BlueSky thread while I was mid-air)

They join our Senior Fellows @robin.berjon.com and @sherif.eurosky.social - an all-star team ready to help Europe break free from its damaging dependence on tech monopolies.

🇫🇷 @luciecastets.bsky.social joins for France – former Director of Finance for Paris, now Mayor of the 12th Arrondissement (supporting FOTI part-time)

⚖️ Jean Cattan is our Of Counsel – ex-head of French Digital Council, 20 years in telecom/digital law, leading our interoperability push

Meet our amazing new teammates across Europe:

🇩🇪 @tbbacherle.eu leads Germany – former Bundestag member & digital affairs coordinator (Alliance 90/The Greens)

🇬🇧 Taylor Gese leads UK – ex-Chief of Staff at Meliore tech, with senior roles at IRC, Purpose & Human Rights Watch

🌟 New team, new look 🌟

At @fotitech.bsky.social, we believe Europe can have a better, freer, more sovereign future where tech truly serves the public. And we're growing to make it happen! 🇪🇺

PS - You can check out our new design here: 👉 futureinstitute.tech

everything we are seeing now is the consequence of having a political environment in which indifference to the deaths and suffering of other people - even by the state whose supposed responsibility is to safeguard their welfare - is a superpower rather than a political liability

Exciting News in eigener Sache:

Als Germany Senior Lead bei @fotitech.bsky.social ( #FOTI / Future of Technology Institute) baue ich den pan-europäischen Think Tank in Deutschland auf. (1/4)

Europe’s fossil fuel dependence poses risks to price stability Repeated cost shocks make a transition to cleaner energy critical

Europe’s energy dependence has become one of the critical vulnerabilities. Recent energy price shocks have transferred vast resources out of Europe, prompted emergency interventions and strained public finances. These costs are real, recurring and largely wasted.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

AP says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history The Associated Press says it will offer buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sust...

People should actually be very alarmed that while AP's business model is shot to bits, Americans are still very much reliant on the news it delivers. The alternatives in some cases are inferior or non-existent.
apnews.com/article/news...

Ministers explore triggering break clause in Palantir’s NHS contract Government is under pressure to eject the controversial American company from NHS England data systems

www.ft.com/content/2d2b...

Ministers consider triggering the break clause in Palantir's NHS contract. They should. Palantir has no place in the NHS. @justtreatment.org @labourlewis.bsky.social @foxglovelegal.bsky.social

An evening by the river, buildings lit across the bank

We have some announcements coming from FOTI but I’ll be posting (even) less for a couple weeks. It’s a beautiful world, friends, give yourself space to enjoy it sometimes ♥️

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over' WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our lo...

Eerily prophetic:
theonion.com/bush-our-lon...

Exclusive | OpenAI Set to Discontinue Sora Video Platform App The app, released last year, allowed people to insert themselves into famous movie scenes, among other functions.

it's over. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

If I had to have guessed your favorite, I would have thought this one. It still makes me laugh, wryly though, not from the belly. The kicker quote is also excellent. theonion.com/cia-realizes...

😂 that’s cute. Tho I tended not to love the topical ones most. I can’t explain it, something about the spelling in mine just gets me every time

Many great oldies here, but this one makes me belly laugh every time: theonion.com/pets-death-t...

Mistral CEO: AI companies should pay a content levy in Europe A revenue-based charge would protect the livelihoods of copyright holders and bring legal certainty

The devil will be in the detail, but good to see Mistral acknowledging the need for AI developers to pay copyright holders for their content. Shows the role that a competitive market plays in challenging the extractive business models of incumbents.

www.ft.com/content/d63d...

This is *the* antimonopoly insight. Firms convert economic power to political power to economic power, until we step in.

“If we will not endure a King as a political power we should not endure a King over the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life.” Sen. John Sherman, 1890

UK promises procurement shift after Palantir deals : Government looks for sovereign tech as NHS deal nears break clause

There is a real chance to choose something better for the NHS and drop Palantir. @foxglovelegal.bsky.social have campaigned tirelessly on this since 2020 - follow them for the latest. We can win this one. www.theregister.com/2026/03/20/u...

Sing it, Teresa

I don't know how to help folks process this, the investigation is far worse than I expected; for some time I've been gently correcting people close to me who saw Chavez as a quote worthy figure that we should look towards the people in our lives and our own successes rather than those long ago.

BBC Audio | Great Lives | Rights activist Cesar Chavez nominated by Cori Crider Human rights lawyer Cori Crider explains why she is inspired by the life of Cesar Chavez.

(Here Pawel and I talked about some of the behaviour she covers in the book, but it sounds like what is forthcoming colours the whole thing differently yet again) www.bbc.com/audio/play/m...

Saddened to learn this. Awhile back, I chose Chavez as the discussion character on a BBC show. Even then, Chavez was known to have been a complex, messianic, even bullying figure (Miriam Pawel's book makes this abundantly clear), but I had not heard of the abuse.

I didn’t know this one but love it ♥️

I think the corollary to Quinn’s point about Thiel’s Antichrist lectures here is one I encounter every day.

In political life, what’s most interesting often isn’t what’s most important.

This is hard for inquisitive souls to accept. But when we hide from this fact, we tend to spin our wheels.