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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 16h

I think people should be better educated on the civilizational machinery that makes their lifestyles possible, so I applaud this story as a great public service.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 16h

Man, the New York Times is good. This story about a couple of friends opening a restaurant is so well told and delivered.

Also, it's a great subject! Honest business is a noble pursuit that literally enables modern life.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How to Open a Restaurant in NYC

A year in the making of a rookie’s first restaurant.

www.nytimes.com

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 21h

you’re literally posting a fake photoshopped image in your post about not lying!!

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

As I said, you don't have to agree with her approach. But I don't think you can honestly read her as "blaming the Baltics and Poland for the war."

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Reposted by Ilya Lozovsky

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

You've probably seen a lot of angry posts today about how "Angela Merkel blamed Poland and the Baltics for the Ukraine war" in a recent interview.

They're far off the mark — she did no such thing! 👇

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Reposted by Ilya Lozovsky

Henry Foy @henryjfoy.ft.com · 1d

Brussels to curb the travel of Russian diplomats within the EU, in response to a surge in sabotage attempts that intelligence agencies say are led by spies operating under diplomatic cover.

Czech-led initiative backed after Hungary drops its veto. With @andybounds.bsky.social

on.ft.com/46Umr0T

EU to curb Russian diplomats’ travel as suspected spy attacks mount

[FREE TO READ] Intelligence agencies say sabotage operations are often led by spies posing as diplomats

on.ft.com

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

And here's the original interview www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjSH...

Angela Merkel: a magyar nép feladata eldönteni, újraválasztja-e Orbán Viktort

YouTube video by Partizán

www.youtube.com

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

But this little episode is a great illustration of how easy it is for a bunch of well-informed, well-meaning people to find themselves misled, and to mislead others, on social media.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not here to carry water for Merkel — there's plenty of room for criticism, of how she handled Putin, not the least from Polish and Baltic leaders.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

As far as I can tell, it was all triggered by this Daily Mail story, the top of which reads like this.

Honestly, is this a sound reading of what she said?

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

This is what's got pro-Ukrainian X and BlueSky in an uproar today, to the point that officials (reacting to this uproar, I think) have now issued furious denunciations. www.politico.eu/article/ange...

Merkel blasted by Baltics, Poland for suggesting they share blame for Russia’s Ukraine invasion

“I am astonished that after everything that has happened in Ukraine, she still thinks this way,” a former leader says of ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

www.politico.eu

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

You don't have to love Merkel, or admire her stewardship of Germany, or even to agree with what she's saying here, to see that she's not "blaming" anyone for the Ukraine war. (Unless it's Putin).

Reading it that way is so uncharitable so as to be verging on dishonest.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

This was first pointed out by @codendahl.bsky.social, so I listened to the relevant part of the interview myself.

It's just 1 minute long. Here's a translated transcript, along with the original German if you wish.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 1d

You've probably seen a lot of angry posts today about how "Angela Merkel blamed Poland and the Baltics for the Ukraine war" in a recent interview.

They're far off the mark — she did no such thing! 👇

6 19 40

Reposted by Ilya Lozovsky

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 4d

Proud that our investigation — about how people are recruited for "pro-Russian" sabotage on Telegram — has been short-listed for the 2025 Daphne Caruana Prize for Journalism!
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

‘Make a Molotov Cocktail’: How Europeans Are Recruited Through Telegram to Commit Sabotage, Arson, and Murder

The cases are multiplying across Europe: Young men with pro-Russian views instructed on Telegram to carry out sabotage attacks. Western security officials point to the Russian special services. For th...

www.occrp.org

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

In a funny way, identifying the parts the AI “doesn’t like” is actually a way of getting to the heart of what’s most special about your own writing.

So I keep those parts, and rest a little easier knowing that, at least for now, AI still can’t do it.

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

But almost inevitably, among the parts it wants to cut are those exact parts that make the text most specifically MINE. The parts that make me want my name attached. The parts with the soul!

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

I notice this most acutely when I ask an AI to read over my own work. Usually I ask for ideas on streamlining or improving awkward sentences. Some of its advice is okay, some is worse. (I’ve never seen it be brilliant.)

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

I feel it on an almost primordial level when I read it: “This was not written by a person whose body occupies a place on this earth.”

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

Sometimes you just need a research report, a summary, or a bureaucratic document. AI is more than “good enough” for these tasks, and much more efficient than a person.

But what AIs can’t replace — at least not yet — is writing that reads like it came from an idiosyncratic human soul.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

Is AI going to replace human writers? It’s a question in which you might say I have a professional interest.

For certain kinds of utilitarian writing, I think the answer is yes.

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Reposted by Ilya Lozovsky

Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 3d

Dutch news now reporting this Gaza demo in Amsterdam drew 250,000. If so, I think that makes it the biggest in the Netherlands since the anti-nuclear-missiles demo in 1981.

Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 3d

Red Line demonstration for Gaza in Amsterdam today is very big by Dutch standards. Museumplein packed and overfill, certainly tens of thousands. This is just people on the way, and it’s been like this for kilometers.

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 4d

daphnejournalismprize.eu

Daphne Caruana Galizia – Prize for Journalism

daphnejournalismprize.eu

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 4d

Proud that our investigation — about how people are recruited for "pro-Russian" sabotage on Telegram — has been short-listed for the 2025 Daphne Caruana Prize for Journalism!
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

‘Make a Molotov Cocktail’: How Europeans Are Recruited Through Telegram to Commit Sabotage, Arson, and Murder

The cases are multiplying across Europe: Young men with pro-Russian views instructed on Telegram to carry out sabotage attacks. Western security officials point to the Russian special services. For th...

www.occrp.org

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Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 6d

The latest in a series of incidents that get more ominous the longer they continue.

Now, unidentified drones surveying critical infrastructure and military sites in Germany. www.newsweek.com/nato-drones-...

NATO ally confirms new mystery drone swarm, critical sites targeted: Report

A drone swarm that flew over Germany deliberately surveyed the NATO ally's critical infrastructure, according to an internal government memo.

www.newsweek.com

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