Notices by Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)

argh
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/29/canada-trump-trudeau-freeland-tariffs/

Holy smokes. #altman is everywhere. #berlin #openai #WorldCoin

...but while there's moonlight, and music, and love, and romance...

France: Socialists suggest readiness to back new government

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure stressed he would not support a right-wing prime minister. The resignation of Prime Minister Barnier following a no-confidence vote has reignited French political uncertainty.
https://www.dw.com/en/france-socialists-suggest-readiness-to-back-new-government/a-70986302

Bad day for Musk? Given the EU launching too...

Iran launches its heaviest-ever payload into space

Iran says it sent into space its heaviest-ever payload using a domestically developed rocket. Tehran's advancing aerospace capabilities have raised concerns in the West.
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-launches-its-heaviest-ever-payload-into-space/a-70981129

Why fertile land is turning to desert

Four football fields of land degrade into desert every second. That equates to an area almost as large as Ethiopia each year. Could efforts to restore and reforest this arid terrain bear fruit?
https://www.dw.com/en/why-fertile-land-is-turning-to-desert/a-70955221

Syria insurgents enter Aleppo in new anti-Assad offensive

Rebel fighters have entered parts of Syria's second-largest city in the biggest offensive against Bashar Assad's government in years.
https://www.dw.com/en/syria-insurgents-enter-aleppo-in-new-anti-assad-offensive/a-70923815

Great draft paper on how platform regulation is designed to support democracy & choice https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4888631 presented at the @article19.bsky.social #DMA meeting in brux just now.

Discussant critiques lack of discussion of other acts and laws themselves, but I love the democracy review.

One thing a few of us have clarified at this meeting is that AI Policy has to include policy recognising when NOT to use AI, not just "responsible AI". A colleague from South Africa insists the entire responsible AI framing is self-regulatory and flawed, I support her. https://aipolicylab.se/news-and-events/ai-policy-summit/

EU fines Meta €797 million over antitrust breaches

The EU Commission fined tech giant Meta for practices favoring Facebook Marketplace that it said violated EU competition law.
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-fines-meta-797-million-over-antitrust-breaches/a-70779835?

I feel like this didn’t get enough traction: Cryptocurrencies align the interests of millions of young, emotionally-desperate gamblers with the criminal oligarchs that money laundering legislation was set up to control.

#democracy #digitalGovernance #AIEthics
https://mastodon.social/@j2bryson/113464379742552002

The German government just collapsed. #thanksAmerica

Quotes were from #thanksAmerica https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-governing-coalition-collapses/live-70692143?

#cdu #germany #ukraine #biden #trump #FDP

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to contact #cdu to examine quick joint solutions to strengthen the German economy and defense —to work together constructively on two or even more issues "that are crucial for our country: On the rapid strengthening of our economy and our defense."

I bet FDP were blocking #germany from making good on its promises to #ukraine an #biden in the event of #trump winning. These next 4 months matter a lot, and way too many #FDP believed Musk’s & GAFAM’s disruptive bs.

Tuesday night at the #electionnightberlin party we heard an otherwise-smart #FDP speech (Michael Link) suggesting more power in Germany to philanthropists. While I understand the liberal inclination to distribute power, supporting individual enrichment leads to CONCENTRATED power, and very real threats. e.g. https://www.vcinfodocs.com/venture-capital-and-trump

Oh it’s okay, we’ve only thrown out the FDP. #win

What we experienced in the UK post Brexit was a huge mandate inconceivably given to the vandals destroying the country, they further dismantled the government, ending all the services the voters somehow still expected. The next election they were absolutely eviscerated, and now the new government has nothing to work with. Even if like Biden they manage to do amazing things, presumably they too will be gone in five years. The US is probably playing the same script now.

Better article about what’s happening in Germany.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-could-face-snap-election/a-70497575?

I honestly think Scholz has been outstanding. And the two Green leaders. Baerbock and Halbeck? They are all young enough to come back in four years. What I heard at a @thehertieschool
panel last night was that since COVID m? Earlier? voters just chuck all incumbents.

#electionnightberlin #Ukraine #FDP #thanksAmerica #germany

We heard wrt the US at Aspen’s #electionnightberlin that a lot of Americans not seeing why their money should go to #Ukraine. The apparently not good enough answer: treaty that got Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons, which Russia has violated. Now Biden and Scholz have four months to finish this war. The #FDP’s Link was saying entirely sensible but radical things about China, until he said that the US was right to hand security to “philanthropists” (oligarchs)
#thanksAmerica #germany

Practically every building in Gaza is ruined. The damage is unprecedented, according to the UN. It will take decades to rebuild, if its destruction ever ceases. 2M lives devastated either in revenge for 1400, or to distract from 1/6th of the country protesting every weekend for almost a full year (and the eventual climbdown on the judiciary "reform"), or some combination of these, and/or maybe so the veil of religion might help Putin cloak his own warcrimes. #giftArticle
https://wapo.st/4gVmIoM

In Linz (where I spoke last week @arselectronica ) and on the train between there and Berlin, there were a LOT of Slavic speakers. (My 1.2 quarters of Russian (the only class I ever failed) aren't enough to discriminate btw Slavics.)

Ukraine's evacuees try to keep 'some feeling of home'

Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are now closer to the front line in eastern Ukraine, and the cities are emptying out. But leaving a life behind is difficult, sad and dangerous, evacuees told DW.
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraines-evacuees-try-to-keep-some-feeling-of-home/a-70162699?