Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 21h

Why the American flag?

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 2d

I am not a #Merkel fan (as many of you know), but the headlines following her interview with Partizan are complete nonsense.

She does not blame Poland or the Baltics at all.

Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 @reshetz.bsky.social · 2d

We do not hate merkel enough

10 73 270

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 2d

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government....

On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames

time.com/7323442/sout...

House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze

Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.

time.com

77 1.2K 2K

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Georg Zachmann @gzachmann.bsky.social · 6d

GDU Figure of the Week

After 2022 Ukraine often relied on electricity imports.

But this summer, Ukraine, once again became a structural exporter. And last month, Ukraine's exports even exceeded pre-invasion levels.

www.linkedin.com/posts/green-...
thx to R.Stubbe

6 8

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 5d

Apple did something very similar to the people of Hong Kong in 2019, removing an app that allowed protesters to track police movements via crowdsourced information:

gizmodo.com/apple-sells-...

Reuters @reuters.com · 6d

Apple removes ICE tracking apps after pressure by Trump administration reut.rs/4mIfztt

Apple removes ICE tracking apps after pressure by Trump administration

Apple said on Thursday that it had removed ICEBlock, the most popular ICE-tracking app, and other similar apps from its App Store after it was contacted by President Donald Trump's administration.

reut.rs

68 1.1K 2K

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 6d

A memorable, sobering read.

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 7d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

1 3

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 7d

Musée des Beaux Arts
BY W. H. AUDEN

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

6 14 31

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10d

79. American citizen.

2K 12K 24K

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Tom Nuttall @tomnuttall.bsky.social · 10d

The AfD qualified for three mayoral run-offs in cities in North Rhine-Westphalia today, and lost all by big margins. The lesson is not that we have overdone the AfD's rise, but that we do perhaps sometimes underestimate the counter-mobilisation effects - including in east Germany, incidentally.

24 370 1.4K

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Gregory Daco @gregdaco.bsky.social · 10d

on.ft.com/42b1CwY Economists favour Christopher Waller to head Fed but doubt he will get the job

3 13

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 11d

ICYMI: We launched @veron.bsky.social's new event series & podcast What Now, Europe? with a forward-looking discussion on Ukraine & Europe with Oleksandra Azarkhina from the Economic Security Council of Ukraine.
Watch here or subscribe to listen wherever you get podcasts:

Ukraine's future in the European Union

Europe is grappling with a new era of challenges, from building its own defense to pursuing tech independence. It's a good time to ask: What now, Europe? Introducing a new virtual series and podcast w...

www.piie.com

3 4

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 13d

Now available in podcast format from your favorite platform!

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 13d

ICYMI: We launched @veron.bsky.social's new event series & podcast What Now, Europe? with a forward-looking discussion on Ukraine & Europe with Oleksandra Azarkhina from the Economic Security Council of Ukraine.
Watch here or subscribe to listen wherever you get podcasts:

Ukraine's future in the European Union

Europe is grappling with a new era of challenges, from building its own defense to pursuing tech independence. It's a good time to ask: What now, Europe? Introducing a new virtual series and podcast w...

www.piie.com

2

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Meanwhile in Ukraine @meanwhileua.bsky.social · 13d

Putin’s stage show goes on

The same FSO staffers keep playing “grateful citizens” year after year — sometimes factory workers, sometimes fishermen, sometimes “heroes of the war.”

At this point, it wouldn’t even be surprising if 5–6 second-rate actors had been swapping turns playing Putin himself

9 47 150

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 15d

Wish people would stop saying Trump has done a U-turn on Ukraine. He does this every few weeks. Putin then makes a violent point of ignoring him. Trump's alleged change of heart is just a prelude to his next humiliation by Putin.

58 210 1.1K

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d

👇

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 15d

Somewhere in Hell Qaddafi smiles knowing his will never again be seen as the most demented speech in UN General Assembly history.

10 31

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 15d

Foreign aid given per capita

9 13

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 16d

Please consider joining live tomorrow! My guest Oleksandra Azarkhina is among the best experts for a forward-looking discussion of Ukraine's prospects as a (potential) future member of the European Union.

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 16d

TOMORROW: @veron.bsky.social hosts a new virtual series & podcast What now, Europe?—chatting with experts & practitioners on Europe's future in a turbulent new era.
Participate live or subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://www.piie.com/events/2025/ukraines-future-european-union

4 7

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 17d

Extraordinary lecture (here translated into French) by the great Russian author Grigori Chkhartishvili, better known as Boris Akunin, who has dedicated over a decade of work to a reinterpretation of the Russian state as successor of Mongol / Golden Horde governance: www.telos-eu.com/fr/politique...

Une autre histoire de la Russie

par Boris Akounine

www.telos-eu.com

1 4

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 20d

Oleksandra Azarkhina is a leading civil society activist and independent government adviser in Kyiv. I am proud and honored that she accepted to be the guest for the inaugural episode of this new series.

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 20d

The first episode of @veron.bsky.social's new virtual series & podcast, What Now, Europe? on Sept 23 is with Oleksandra Azarkhina, co-founder of WeBuildUkraine & former Ukraine Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories & Infrastructure Development.
Join live or subscribe to listen whenever:

Ukraine's future in the European Union

Europe is grappling with a new era of challenges, from building its own defense to pursuing tech independence. It's a good time to ask: What now, Europe? Introducing a new virtual series and podcast w...

www.piie.com

2 6

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 21d

Europe arguably matters more than ever for the world, and Ukraine is the most fateful issue for Europe at this juncture. So that's the theme of the inaugural session of our new Europe-focused events & podcast series at @piie.com. Consider joining us on Tuesday! www.piie.com/events/2025/...

Ukraine's future in the European Union

Europe is grappling with a new era of challenges, from building its own defense to pursuing tech independence. It's a good time to ask: What now, Europe? Introducing a new virtual series and podcast w...

www.piie.com

1 4

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 23d

NEW: @veron.bsky.social hosts virtual series & podcast What now, Europe? launching September 23—exploring Europe's future in a turbulent new era of economic, security, & governance challenges.
Register to participate live or subscribe wherever you get podcasts: www.piie.com/events/2025/...

2 1

Nicolas Veron @veron.bsky.social · 28d

Assuming this video is genuine, it deserves your time.

Belfast Telegraph @belfasttelegraph.co.uk · 28d

Horrors of Trump detention centre: Lisburn man tells his story after arrest for 'looking like a Mexican'

Lee Stinton was lifted by US immigration police on an American street — in an incident he compared to a kidnapping.

Here, he tells us his story.

2 1

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 29d

Watch the EU's flagship speech on one of four US tech platforms, three of which are actively trying torch the EU's digital regulations.

Oh and EBS.

European Commission @ec.europa.eu · 29d

📺 Where can you watch #SOTEU live?

Facebook: www.facebook.com/EuropeanCommission
X: x.com/eu_commission
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/european-commission/
Youtube: www.youtube.com/eutube
European Broadcasting Service: audiovisual.ec.europa.eu

⏰Tomorrow at 9AM (CEST)!

2 22 59

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 29d

👇

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 29d

📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

An illustration of me, and the headline: "AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker
The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security"

To put it bluntly, the path currently being taken towards agentic AI leads to an elimination of privacy and security at the application layer. It will not be possible for apps like Signal—the messaging app whose foundation I run—to continue to provide strong privacy guarantees, built on robust and openly validated encryption, if device-makers and OS developers insist on puncturing the metaphoric blood-brain barrier between apps and the OS. Feeding your sensitive Signal messages into an undifferentiated data slurry connected to cloud servers in service of their AI-agent aspirations is a dangerous abdication of responsibility.

Happily, it’s not too late. There is much that can still be done, particularly when it comes to protecting the sanctity of private data. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app.

Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.

5 16

Reposted by Nicolas Veron

Hala Gorani @halagorani.bsky.social · 29d

Qatar is designated as a “Non-NATO Major Ally” of the United States.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 29d

WASHINGTON (AP) - US had advance knowledge of Israeli strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar, AP sources say.

@apnews.com

4 8