This is what the billionaire press and many politicians were campaigning so hard to destroy. Their freedom to drive took precedence over our children's freedom to thrive. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds

Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone

theguardian.com

Some of the world’s best places to live are, apparently, now in central and eastern Europe.

A Golden Age in central and eastern Europe, which became one of the best places in the world to live

Some of the world’s best places to live are, apparently, now in central and eastern Europe.

euobserver.com

Today, the Commission fined Google €890 million for two breaches of the Digital Markets Act. One decision concerns Google's self-preferencing on Search (€460 mio.) and the other Google Playstore's anti-steering policies (€430 mio.). digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/commission-f...

Commission fines Google €890 million for breaches of the Digital Markets Act

Today, the European Commission took two decisions finding non-compliance by Google with the DMA for self-preferencing its own services on Google Search, and for putting in place restrictions on busine...

digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu

Lights out and away we go! #Clacton

Technologists interested in promoting the public good: come forward! As @todddavi.es - explains, technology is broad - @yvesalexandre.bsky.social agrees

Alternate headline: "Tech bro discovers that non-tech people can be smart too."

What a cover ! We need a strong 🇪🇺 NOW ! #Europe

Since Google started putting AI Overviews at the top of its search results, traffic to websites all around the world has plummeted. This is a problem. 🧵

The variety of German bees before the Industrial Revolution (187, top) vs after the introduction of pesticides (43, bottom), DHM

Yes. That’s the way forward!

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Spain's renewables build-out has structurally decoupled its electricity prices from gas markets. Gas now sets the price in only 15% of hours, compared to 90% in Italy. Countries that invested early in clean power are far less exposed to fossil fuel price shocks. Those that didn't now pay the price.

Not entirely on topic but I wish people understood that a lot of what "agents" supposedly do would be almost trivially easy if these companies just had open APIs like they used to! Instead we're burning the planet so LLMs can crawl through websites and apps, its crazy!

Not really the point, but I appreciate that Frank's Zoom background makes it feel like he's appeared to you during an ayahuasca vision to deliver this message.

Kate from Kharkiv@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Francis Fukuyama on Trump: "The world has become a very dangerous place because the most powerful country is under the control of a ten-year-old boy. That boy discovered a flamethrower in his parents’ backyard and is now enjoying the ability to burn things up with it."

I'm analysing the Commission's Google AdTech Decision and finding it exceedingly difficult because of the _insane_ number of redactions. There are 4904 redactions yet only 2247 paragraphs in the whole thing. Seriously?!

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem. Thank you. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot

It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/

I find Gmail’s new “write this for me” feature deeply sinister. They’re trying to convince you that you are dumb and helpless. Don’t let them steal your ability to formulate thoughts and communicate. You were capable of writing an email in 2022 and you’re capable now.

"Machine Learning" and "Artificial Neural Networks," not LLM or GPT type "generative AI"

Ada Palmer@adapalmer.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Scientists have used artificial intelligence to create an enzyme that can eat one of the toughest plastics on Earth. The enzyme breaks polyurethane down into reusable chemicals in just 12 hours at 50°C, turning it back into raw materials. Truly circular recycling. buff.ly/oUxRjjl #ShareGoodNewsToo

Academics - if you are expert in the history of the fourth amendment, today is a day you could pitch your favorite news outlet with a piece about it. If you're interested, do a little writing, then email me lollardfish at gmail and I'll give you some free op-ed coaching.

Amanda Katz@katzish.bsky.social · 8mo ago

What’s this old thing

A paper I wrote (on platform regulation & democracy) got nominated for the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards! I wrote a short blog post explaining it here: todddavi.es/2026-concurr... There's a public vote to determine "reader's choice" so please take a look & vote it you're interested :)

I finally deleted my account on X today. If you haven't already, this is a reminder :) It feels good!

If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot

The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Five years ago.

Computational Antitrust? "The best code is no code at all" et al. @todddavi.es ourcuriousamalgam.com/episode/358-...

Anyway, it's hard to see how this makes the US more secure. And I can't help looking at the pictures of this massive naval deployment and thinking about how much it cost relative to giving Ukraine what it needs to defend itself. 10/10

🔥 This is huge 🔥 NEW YouGov poll: British are now MORE pro-EU than France or Italy. 👉 50% would vote to be in the EU 👉 Only 31% want to stay out 👉 Strip away don’t knows 👉62–38 in favour of EU membership. 🔥 Brexit is no more and Parliament must catch up! www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

British voters want to be part of EU more than French and Italians, poll reveals

Exclusive: Campaigners said Labour had to ‘catch up with public opinion’ as PM faces calls for closer ties to the EU after Brexit

independent.co.uk

TIL that "Podcast" is derived from the words "iPod" and "broadcast". 🎙️

Generative AI is having huge effects all across society. But how is it changing competition law and its enforcement? I was invited onto the Our Curious Amalgam podcast of the American Bar Association to discuss, and the episode came out yesterday: todddavi.es/blog/the-fut...

I'm in Tech Policy Press today exploring the intersection of competition law and tech expertise. Who are tech experts? What do they know? And how might competition regulators use them best in an increasingly digital economy? www.techpolicy.press/who-are-tech... @techpolicypress.bsky.social

Who are Tech Experts and What Can They Bring to Competition Enforcement? | TechPolicy.Press

Tech experts are playing an increasingly large role in competition enforcement, writes Todd Davies. But who are these experts, and what are they experts in?

techpolicy.press

"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."

Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?

Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?

windowscentral.com

The Italian Competition Authority has imposed interim measures on Meta for tying its AI assistant into WhatsApp. An extremely welcome development! I wrote up an analysis in the Kluwer Competition Law Blog: legalblogs.wolterskluwer.com/competition-...

The Italian Competition Authority Imposes Interim Measures in its Abuse of Dominance Case Against Meta AI

As previously covered on this blog, Meta recently decided to integrate its AI assistant (Meta AI) into its WhatsApp platform, introducing the ability to chat to Meta AI at various points within the Wh...

legalblogs.wolterskluwer.com