Been getting some really lovely messages from the bros about this one 🥰💩🤡 as.ft.com/r/c5f6afbc-5a46-4e…

💥 If you read one thing today, make it this story by Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino — captured aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla: beaten, blindfolded, mocked with homophobic slurs, and held half-naked in freezing vans and scorching cells. According to D’Agostino and multiple accounts, Israeli forces subjected Greta to severe cruelty, forcing her to crawl and kiss the Israeli flag. “They did exactly what the Nazis did,” said Ersin Çelik, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla. They publicly humiliated her and targeted her specifically because she’s a well-known figure. It appears that the Italian state, government, and parts of the Church tried to stop the Flotilla not to prevent an armed clash with Netanyahu, but to avoid the media exposure of a country increasingly radicalized and indefensible — except through repressive laws — and to suppress reports of egregious human rights violations. "We were intercepted at 1:58 a.m. on Thursday. On my boat, the Hio, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla mission, five Israeli soldiers boarded with rifles pointed at us, lasers aimed. Exactly one month after our departure from Barcelona. On board, the soldiers allowed us to go to the bathroom, eat, drink, and smoke. Then they redirected the boat toward the port of Ashdod. We stayed moored for a couple of hours. Before letting us disembark, one soldier wanted to speak to our captain: “My friend, my friend, listen to me, you’ll like this one: when dwarfs cast long shadows, it means the sun is low.” That was the last thing he said. As we disembarked, someone from the other boats shouted, “The police will be worse.” As soon as I stepped onto land, an officer grabbed my arm, twisting it behind my back to cause maximum pain. They made us sit on the ground, on a concrete esplanade. Greta Thunberg was wrapped in the Israeli flag like a war trophy. They sat her in a corner; officers surrounded her, taking selfies. Then they turned on another girl, Hanan, forcing her to sit in front of the flag so she’d have to look at it. They kicked people, ordered us to lower our heads and look at the ground — anyone who looked up was forced to kneel. An older activist wet himself. Anything associated with Palestine was ripped away, thrown to the ground, and trampled. They tore bracelets off everyone’s wrists; one girl was dragged because hers wouldn’t break. It wasn’t even the Palestinian flag — it was Somali. We stayed on the concrete for hours. They asked for Italian passports and took us through immigration control. There they opened our bags: anything linked to Palestine was thrown in the trash. When they found a copy of the Quran in my bag, they went berserk — convinced I was Muslim. For two hours, every officer passing by mocked me. In my toiletry bag they found pink wet wipes and laughed, saying “you’re a woman.” They slapped each other’s backs, amused. After border control, they forced us to strip down to our underwear. We went through two interrogations — only one with a lawyer present. They asked if we wanted to be deported. Then came the announcement: we were going to jail. That’s when Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, arrived. He came to Ashdod to make sure we were treated as terrorists. He screamed it at us — that we were terrorists. Right in front of him, the police wanted to show their zeal: they blindfolded us and tightened plastic handcuffs around our wrists until they cut into the skin. They loaded us into an armored vehicle wearing only light shirts. The air conditioning was blasting; it was freezing. A Scottish boy managed to loosen his cuffs and, with help from an Italian named Marco, released the others. When we saw the others getting off, their hands were purple. Some had been tied since the interception — traveling to prison with their hands bound from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. (1/2)

Apparently the locals in Venice aren’t too happy about the Bezos wedding there this week

"They should be ashamed of their silence." This is not a bunch of student protestors. This is the editorial board of the Financial Times.

Hopefully the first of many other universities to join

1.2 million children will die, so billionaires can get a tax cut. The Republican Party is in a state of complete moral collapse.

From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.

This is a big story with essential reporting from @_alexreisner New details about the massive scale of the database that Meta, OpenAI, and others used to train its AI products And internal documents showing Meta employees debating over copyright issues theatlantic.com/technology/a…

In 2004, it took the world a year to add one gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day.

Elon Musk’s “deep sighs on cable TV and emergency Tesla junkets on the White House lawn are hints that he may be beginning to understand the precariousness of his situation,” Charlie Warzel writes: theatlantic.com/technology/a…

🔥 New issue alert! Fintech newsletter #210 is here, featuring: 🏛️ Blowback over plans for a US crypto reserve 🆕 Newcomers to the Fintech 50 📈 A fintech flurry to revive London’s IPO market? 🌐 MWC25 and the fintech 4YFN awards spotlight. Read here 👇 read.letterhead.email/techst…

Barcelona is preparing for #4YFN and #MWC25, and I'm looking forward to the energy these events bring! Particularly keen to check the fintech and green tech programs, discuss the current political shift, and discover new impact startups. If you are visiting, let's catch up ☕

"we are the leaders we've been waiting for." This is definitely worth a read if you are looking for some hope 👇

I’m in Munich and people keep asking me to decode Vance’s speech. OK: In Vance English “free speech” means “Let Musk run your elections” and “democracy” means “let Russia run your elections.” Now move on. 2025 is about what Europeans do, not what Americans say.

Wikipedia rolling out anonymity features piloted in countries with authoritarian governments in the US & is making a change to not show editor IP addresses in response to a global "increase in threats" from Elon Musk, Heritage Foundation, and governments 404media.co/wikipedia-prepar…

a canadian marketing team moving at the speed of light

Why does the world's richest man want to gut the CFPB? Because it would shield him from having to follow financial laws to keep customers' money safe — and give him access to confidential records about his competitors. Follow the money.

🔥 New issue alert! Fintech newsletter #209 is here, featuring: ⚖️ Trump meme coin controversy and concerns 📊 Global fintech growth across regions 💰 Stripe's $1.1B crypto infrastructure move 🏛️ New regulatory changes in EU and US Read here 👇 read.letterhead.email/techst…

If we could show one chart to every US voter each day, today I would show them this one:

Google removed the pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance from its AI principles