iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Let's all trust OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Gemini as they've already proved so trustworthy. Like what does it take to get regulated these days?

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Deranged screeching about supposed Islamo-gauchisme, this time à l'américaine.

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Newsletter editors assuming their readers are astonishingly uninformed and equipped with the political radar of a 10-year-old, @foreignpolicy.com edition. 🤦

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#EUinfluencer 2026: all the winners - ZN Consulting

Musk's X is a trampstamp. It's the platform to avoid, if you can. Clearly that's difficult when so many leaders who apparently care more about themselves than fascism remain there. Fwiw the go-to in Brussels-EU is LinkedIN. H/t @znconsulting.com znconsulting.com/articles/eui...

znconsulting.com

The results are in. After months of deep research and data analysis, we’re proud to unveil the #EUinfluencer 2026 rankings, and this year, the unveiling carries ten years of history behind it. This is...

Report – Dark patterns, addictive design and misleading influencer marketing | Finance Watch

Finfluencers. Super gross. Stuff that seemed inevitable once you see details. Manipulative and addictive design and influencers without credentials. via @financewatch.bsky.social www.finance-watch.org/policy-porta...

finance-watch.org

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Reposted by James Kanter

“The response to Trump’s attacks on these outlets should be for every news outlet to boycott the Trump White House. They don’t need to stand there to do their reporting. See how Trump likes it when no legitimate news outlet shows up for his tantrums and lies.” www.americaamerica.news/p/is-trump-c...

James Kanter @jameskanter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Good panel. @kbolongaro.bsky.social on how niche social media drives EU chat, and accuracy still is valued; also not all new media will make it. @meabhmcmahon.bsky.social on the tech shock, how lone vid-reporters replaced TV crews; also should influencers access von der Leyen before reporters?

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Fascinating to watch Canada's Carney and the European Parliament's Metsola push themselves to speak French to smooth domestic sensitivities regarding any tieup. It's also making me feel rather better about my French.

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Canada's Carney on the EU "associate member" proposal: the "precise nomenclature is a question for Europe" and the substance is what counts. Takeaway: Ottawa under Carney seems very serious about negotiating formal ties with Europe.

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Carney opens Strasbourg presser with appeal against doomerism in face of authoritarians. "The future is ours to write," he says. The idea is to "combine some of our forces" he says of the EU partnership, which would eventually be approved by votes in Canada and the EU. @europarl.europa.eu #trump

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Loudest applause for this Carney line: "We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law." #trump

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Mark Carney on Donald Trump's boorishness: "I am not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival - only with better manners." #Canada

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Carney sees Erasmus+ as sustaining Canada-EU "alliance for the future" and he lauds Horizon membership. As to the associate membership of the EU mooted by von der Leyen, Carney says "Canada welcomes this ambition".

Both Mark Carney and Roberta Metsola are framing the Canada-EU rapprochement as defense of democracy and freedom though neither mentions Trump and Musk directly. A single tree might fall but "a forest will not" says Carney; a "canopy" is being created through a "deeper partnership".

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EP President Metsola introduces Canadian PM Mark Carney with a recollection about Canada helping liberate Europe from fascism and given fascism is back on the march what she said is apropos and well played. #canada

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Mark Carney and Greens co-leader Terry Reintke, sporting a Canadian hockey shirt, mug for the cameras. #canada @greens-efa.eu

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Maple mania at the European Parliament in Strasbourg ahead of Mark Carney speech. @terryreintke.bsky.social #HeatedRivalry

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Wondering if extremist MEP Sarah Knafo bypassed rules against advertising by waving a copy of her new book on the podium during a session of the European Parliament. Maybe it's OK. But never seen anyone else do it. @europarl.europa.eu #soteu

Oliver Grimm @grimmse.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Greens co-chair Terry Reintke suggests a probe into U-turn by von der Leyen on climate/environment. Her group will "ask for an enquiry committee into the shortcoming of executing what we had already decided in the European Union in the Green Deal". #soteu #climate

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Reposted by James Kanter

Taking off my snarky hat: inviting a little Ukrainian girl who lost a leg in a Russian bombardement to her key political speech is a very important choice by @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu to make the horror and criminality of Russia's war palpable for ordinary Europeans. #SOTEU

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We really need Derek Guy on the choice of suits by far-right leaders at the European Parliament. @dieworkwear.bsky.social

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You have shown "great courage" in confronting Trump, Iratxe García Pérez tells Canada's Mark Carney. The target of García Pérez's remark is of course von der Leyen, who bent the knee to Trump at his Scottish golf course and called Trump's tariff a good deal. #soteu #turnberrry

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Von der Leyen says of Ratko Mladic's funeral that, "Glorifying war criminals simply has no place in the European Union" and yet pulls her punches by failing to critique attendance by high-ranking Serbian ministers in government led by her political ally President Aleksandar Vučić. #soteu #serbia

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Von der Leyen rightly celebrates 12 April as the "day the Hungarian people took their future into their hands" by evicting Viktor Orbán from power in Hungary but overlooks the way her own EPP group waited until 2019 to suspend Fidesz's membership. Europeans could use an apology. #soteu #epp #fidesz

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Perfunctory nod by von der Leyen to situation in Israel. Netanyahu "government’s decision to advance the illegal E1 settlement project is unacceptable." She says it's "Europe's role to keep the flame of a two state solution alive." #soteu #naza #netanyahu

Von der Leyen admits EU sanctions on Russia plagued by "loopholes" and she says, "What is needed is not necessarily new sanctions, but above all the enforcement of existing sanctions." #russia #sanctions #soteu #belgium

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Inviting Canada into the EU's orbit requires von der Leyen to try to ward off a new tantrum from Trump. "This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength." #soteu #trump #canada #carney

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Von der Leyen invites Canada to become "the first associate member of the European Union." #soteu #canada #eucanada

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Von der Leyen presents the EU's AI Act as "crucial piece to putting guardrails in place" with "likeminded partners like Canada" so why has she watered down important aspects of the same AI Act at the behest of the US and tech oligarchs? MEPs need to get her to square that circle. #soteu #ai #safety

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Von der Leyen says "energy prices are structurally too high" but she's been structurally incapable of imposing an EU-wide windfall tax on fossil companies growing fatter on the fuel shocks from US war in Iran. #soteu #fossil #gas #diesel

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Von der Leyen should be accountable for using her State of the Union to criticize "ultranationalists" in Europe while maintaining a de facto alliance with the ECR group which harbors a disturbing number of neo-fascists and bigots including the Sweden Democrats. #soteu

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Von der Leyen talks about securing the "Homeland" in an echo of US language vogueish since 9/11. She's previously referred to the EU as a community of values etc. The language is "homelands" in the pre-release transcript. #soteu

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James Kanter @jameskanter.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Europe is where "journalists are free to write" and "justice and the rule of law are the hallmarks of our way" but notably not in the EU country of Malta where the speaker this morning Roberta Metsola comes from. #soteu #daphne

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Covering Carney? This essay provides excellent context and very thoughtful EU framing, e.g. "While European governments squabble over the precise parameters of how to ‘Buy European’, Canada is simply doing it." @bigeurope.bsky.social big-europe.eu/publications...

big-europe.eu

Carney’s ‘Rupture’ is an urgent lesson for Europe

Ominous parallels between the 1930s and our present moment have become almost a cliché – even as Germany’s far-right celebrates an historic regional election win in Saxony-Anhalt. Yet there is no...

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James Kanter @jameskanter.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Schengen 2026. Full German police passport check on the Luxembourg-German border by the Moselle.

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Reposted by James Kanter

Matt Ortega @mattortega.com · 11/09/2026

Never should've stopped calling these freaks "weird."

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Reposted by James Kanter

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The absolute scale of graft in this administration, especially in homeland security. A Lewandoski ally was pulling in 19K a week as a contractor with FEMA. A conservative watchdog group got millions to attack Dems in what was supposed to be anti-terrorism funding.

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James Kanter @jameskanter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Fantastic piece on ways Rahul Ghandi at 56 may be finding his political path by challenging the bigotry of Narendra Modi and the RSS movement that has its roots in fascism. By Rana Ayyub. ranaayyub.substack.com/p/the-uprisi...

ranaayyub.substack.com

The uprising that exposed Narendra Modi may resurrect Rahul Gandhi

A Gen Z uprising has exposed the Modi government’s vulnerability and given Rahul Gandhi an opportunity to transform mockery into political power.

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James Kanter @jameskanter.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Why is this newsletter called Surge? It should be called Datacenter. Ffs.