Christophe Christiaens
@chchristiaens.bsky.social
Twitter exile. Brompton evangelist and speciality coffee drinker. Day job in Public Affairs. Alumnus @collegeofeurope. Posts in English and Dutch. My views only; RT≠endorse
OpenAI says it will reduce the price of GPT 5.6 Luna by 80% and GPT 5.6 Terra by 20% after improving the efficiency of the systems that serve them. GPT 5.6 Sol will remain at the same price. Begun, the AI token price wars have.
OpenAI slashes Luna pricing
Efficiency gains drive major GPT-5.6 discounts.
axios.com
“And thus, paradoxically, visitors get what is the authentic Parisian experience: sitting beside other tourists, and doing their utmost to pretend they are not there.” economist.com/europe/2026/...
Dismissing Europe as a museum is glib. Think of it as a theme park
All the continent’s a stage
economist.com
Insane new research. Scientists gave asthma patients free electric stoves to replace their gas stoves, then checked to see if symptoms improved. Not only did symptoms improve, ditching gas was *better than medicine.* Details in today's newsletter: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/electric-s...
Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked.
The latest evidence that gas is bad for your health.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
The Economist’s cover designer, Graeme James, has died, aged 65
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
bit.ly
Swiss chocolate maker Lindt misleads consumers about child labor, US lawsuit claims reut.rs/44KoOD2
Swiss chocolate maker Lindt misleads consumers about child labor, US lawsuit claims
Lindt has been sued in a U.S. court over its alleged use of child labor in Ghana and Ivory Coast, even as the Swiss chocolate maker touts its commitment to responsibly sourcing ingredients.
reut.rs
Ford and Geely strike deal for EV production at Spanish plant, ABC reports reut.rs/3T4zU3j
Ford and Geely strike deal for EV production at Spanish plant, ABC reports
Ford Motor and China's Geely have struck a landmark deal under which the U.S. automaker will sell part of its Almussafes plant near Valencia, paving the way for Geely to manufacture electric vehicles in Spain, ABC newspaper reported on Wednesday.
reut.rs
Went to see The Odyssey. As a person with a 10-week-old baby, I found it a touching portrait of a man enjoying his alone time.
In juli '41 werden de Joodse inwoners van Jedwabne vermoord. Niet door nazi's, maar door Polen. Dit jaar werd de herdenking omringd door rechtsextremisten die Poolse betrokkenheid ontkennen. 'Een provocatie, ten diepste immoreel.' Reportage in @volkskrant.nl: www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/w...
Waarom de herdenking van de massamoord in Jedwabne het middelpunt is van een bittere strijd in Polen
Dat 85 jaar geleden honderden Poolse Joden in Jedwabne werden vermoord door hun stadgenoten, gaat er bij rechts-extremisten niet in. Bij de herdenking in het stadje organiseren zij hun eigen manifesta...
volkskrant.nl
Join us! WTO Trade & Tech Day focus on trade and AI. Sept 14. Program and registration here www.wto.org/english/res_...
World Trade & Tech Day
wto.org
Joining a neighbourhood WhatsApp group on the noise nuisance from a nearby bar
Black Aziz Anansi@blackazizanansi.blacksky.app · 2w agoWhat's your old person trait?
China considers tighter export controls on AI models and chips, FT reports reut.rs/4fHNvGp
China considers tighter export controls on AI models and chips, FT reports
Chinese regulators are considering tightening export controls on AI and semiconductor technologies, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
reut.rs
With Anthropic racing to get into biopharma, I'm sharing my earlier piece on how AI companies are trying to eat pharma's lunch. (How far this will go will largely depend on what they can learn or infer about biology that isn't currently understood) open.substack.com/pub/overmatt...
In Brief #1: The lab with no lab. How AI is changing the rules of drug discovery
Machines are making wet labs matter less
open.substack.com
Waarom niemand vrolijk wordt van het Zomerakkoord: "Dit voorspelt niet veel goeds voor zoektocht naar 10 miljard" vrtnws.be/p.JN6mwk3Yk?t=178... @vrtnws.be
Waarom niemand vrolijk wordt van het Zomerakkoord: "Dit voorspelt niet veel goeds voor zoektocht naar 10 miljard"
vrtnws.be
A great new website and app allows you to map present-day Belgium onto 7 historic atlases and explore topographical quirks. Like the hooked boulevards in Liège that were once waterways. topoferraris.ngi.be?baselayer=fe...
Xi-fluisteraar Wu Xinbo: “Ik verwacht de volgende tien jaar een fundamentele verandering van de wereldorde www.standaard.be/buitenland/x...
standaard.be
NEW ANALYSIS: One of the most consequential discoveries of the 20th century is marked by a small blue plaque near my office. The lithium-ion cathode, Oxford, 1980. Grid batteries have since gone from one 5 MW project to 267 GW worldwide. New Bright Spots 👇 open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...
Batteries are quietly rewiring the grid
From a plaque in Oxford to a third of California's electricity peak: how batteries revolutionise the grid.
open.substack.com
The EU’s new digital border system was meant to bring travel into the 21st century. Unfortunately, it gets confused by identical twins. 🔗 www.politico.eu/article/entr...
18 July 1936 | A Belgian Jewish boy, Sigmund Adler, was born in Ougree. In May 1944 he was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber after the selection. --- ▶ A short video showing the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium III: https://bit.ly/4ql4LTV
Correlatie? Nee, keiharde causaliteit: de nieuwe Shrek-films verschijnen telkens wanneer de S&P 500 piekt.
In 2011, WeChat destroyed my presumption that China could not innovate (in tech, design, business model), and you can't visit China today without noticing innovations large and small. A decade and a half of easily-observable innovation, but much of the American punditry has not caught on yet.
Graham Webster@gwbstr.com · 3w agoMy most important 2¢: ”The Chinese models are not excellent only because of distillation,” said Mr. Webster of Stanford. “There is real innovation going on.” I keep hearing people of a certain ideological bent saying everything China builds in AI is effectively stolen. Not a wise assumption. 2/2
Glad to share some thoughts in this important NYT piece. For various uses and risks, adversarial and otherwise, open Chinese models are functionally at par with US leaders. Only in narrow areas does a perceived current “US lead” now matter. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/b...
China’s Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi Model, Threatening America’s Lead
China’s Moonshot AI unveiled a freely available artificial intelligence model that seemed to narrow the gap with cutting-edge offerings from U.S. tech companies.
nytimes.com
H1 27 Domestic car sales in China - Ice melting away and most of the market down.
This is big. The first vaccine tested to PREVENT pancreatic cancer in high-risk individuals aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...
First-in-human testing of a mutant KRAS vaccine for pancreatic cancer interception in high-risk cohorts
Abstract. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) arises from precursor lesions over a decade-plus, offering a window for interception in high-risk individuals, but current surveillance detects a mino...
aacrjournals.org