Today, the European Union took a major step forward. All Member States agreed to open the first accession negotiations cluster with Ukraine and Moldova. At the first Intergovernmental Conference on Monday, we will open the cluster on fundamentals; the backbone of the accession process. It covers the core values and principles on which the EU is built, from the rule of law to strong democratic institutions. This is a recognition of the determination, courage and hard work shown by both countries in advancing reforms, even in the face of immense challenges. And a signal that the EU’s offer of peace, stability and opportunity is unmatchable. Enlargement is a strategic choice. By bringing our nations closer together, we strengthen peace, security and prosperity across our continent. In a world marked by growing uncertainty, a larger European Union is in our common interest. Enlargement remains one of the EU’s greatest success stories and our best investment in our shared future.

Your iPhone has a USB-C port because Europe passed a law. Europe is only 7% of Apple's sales. That 7% rewrote every iPhone on the planet, including the one in your pocket. In October 2022, the European Parliament passed a law requiring every new phone sold in Europe to use the same plug, USB-C, by the end of 2024. Apple had fought this idea for years, arguing that forcing one standard would slow innovation. Three weeks after the vote, Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak sat on a panel at the Wall Street Journal's tech conference and gave up the fight: "We'll have to comply." Eleven months later, Apple launched the iPhone 15. It had a USB-C port. The model sold in Berlin, Chicago, Mumbai, and Shanghai was the same phone. Apple could have built a USB-C iPhone for Europe and kept the old Lightning plug (in iPhones since 2012) for every other country. That would have kept Lightning alive, and Lightning was a real business. Apple ran something called the "Made for iPhone" program. If you wanted to make a Lightning cable, a dock, a car charger, or a speaker that actually worked with an iPhone, you paid Apple $99 a year to join, plus roughly $4 on every connector you sold. Thousands of companies paid in. But making two different iPhones is expensive. Apple sold about 247 million of them in 2025. Two designs means two factories, two parts orders, two boxes, two spare cables in the box, two warranty pipelines. Cheaper to copy Europe's rule and ship one phone to the whole planet. A law professor named Anu Bradford wrote about this pattern in a 2012 paper and a 2020 book. She called it the Brussels Effect. Europe has about 450 million people who buy things. Big enough that companies set the rules for everyone, everywhere, to match whatever Europe says. Your cookie pop-ups come from Europe, a law called GDPR. Safer chemicals in your shampoo and sofa come from Europe, a law called REACH. The new App Store rule that lets you install apps from outside Apple's store comes from Europe, the Digital Markets Act. The USB-C plug on your phone is the same story. The ripple is already spreading. India said every phone sold there needs USB-C by March 2025. California is working on the same law. Apple kept selling one last Lightning iPhone, the iPhone 14, outside Europe until September 2025, then quietly dropped it when the iPhone 17 came out. Lightning is gone from every store in every country. 7% of Apple's money rewrote 100% of Apple's phones.

Google DeepMind researcher argues that LLMs can never be conscious, not in 10 years or 100 years. "Expecting an algorithmic description to instantiate the quality it maps is like expecting the mathematical formula of gravity to physically exert weight."

Boris Cherny ( @bcherny ) created Claude Code, but few know his full career story. Today I'm sharing an interview with him about how he grew as an engineer, we discussed: • Why every engineer needs "side quests" • Why being under leveled is a good thing • The story behind his growth to Principal (IC8) at Meta • Technical book that had the biggest impact on him as an engineer • The most important principle in product engineering • Claude Code stories & competition in AI coding products You can find the full episode here: • YouTube: youtu.be/AmdLVWMdjOk • Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4to… • Transcript: developing.dev/p/boris-chern… • Apple: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcas…