Darren Loucaides

YouTube video by Lex Fridman Pavel Durov: Telegram, Freedom, Censorship, Money, Power & Human Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #482

This is why we need journalists.

4 hours, few new insights – except new claim of an assassination attempt. Why not ask Durov if he saw a doctor or confirmed poisoning?

Why let Durov again use Edward Snowden's legacy & not ask about Snowden's criticism of Telegram?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjPH...

Spotify founder Daniel Ek steps down from CEO role Ek founded Stockholm-based music streaming company nearly two decades ago and will stay on as executive chair

don't see this reversing the wave of artists taking their music off Spotify. by Ek's own admission he's still at the helm just changed titles, but it provides a good spin opp www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US under Trump deal MGX, chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will take 15% stake, with social media firm valued at $14bn

Cool so TikTok passes from dangerously authoritarian china to authoritarians renowned for phone spyware www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Sounds like potentially grounds for a book in and of itself!

Neuralink, Elon Musk, and the Race to Put Chips Into Our Brains Though brain chips are all over TV and the news now with Neuralink, scientists have worked on the tech for decades. And some question Musk’s approach

Elon Musk and Neuralink get most of the attention re brain implants, but they're building on decades of work by academic research labs like @caltech.edu's – and some experts question the "move fast break things" approach.

My latest for @rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

This is the brown part of Valhalla where we drink lime soda and feast on samosas

Neuralink, Elon Musk, and the Race to Put Chips Into Our Brains Though brain chips are all over TV and the news now with Neuralink, scientists have worked on the tech for decades. And some question Musk’s approach

Elon Musk and Neuralink get most of the attention re brain implants, but they're building on decades of work by academic research labs like @caltech.edu's – and some experts question the "move fast break things" approach.

My latest for @rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

‘People pay to be told lies’: the rise and fall of the world’s first ayahuasca multinational The long read: Alberto Varela claimed he wanted to use sacred plant medicine to free people’s minds. But as the organisation grew, his followers discovered a darker reality

Therapeutic retreat or deadly cult? Fascinating deep dive by @samshepedwards.bsky.social from last month into a company offering ayahuasca sessions around the globe www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

3 layer sophisticated Winnie the Pooh meme Al is like The Library Of Babel Al is like Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote Al is like Ton, Uqbar, Orbus Tertius

Thames Water boss says turnaround to take a decade The company's future remains uncertain as it posts losses of £1.65bn for the year to March.

Thames Water has paid £7bn to shareholders since privatisation. Customers can’t switch companies cos it’s a monopoly. Nationalise it www.bbc.com/news/article...

ISIS, Al-Qaeda… and a group that spray painted planes

Dunno why we still pretend our politics is polarised when the there’s an authoritarian consensus on so many issues across

@darrenloucaides.bsky.social finds some troubling bedfellows. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Additional reporting @gabrielthierry.bsky.social

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and Elon Musk are set to launch a $300m partnership via Grok that caps off a long tech bromance. My piece for the
@observeruk.bsky.social on Sunday

observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Additional reporting
@gabrielthierry

Sets a worrying precedent. If the default is now to state the suspect is white to defuse misinformation, what will happen when their race cant be identified or they’re not white? Troublemakers will be able to fan flames even easier

If the riots had been in, say, France, I would say yes. Can’t see the uk prosecuting musk, but the Telegram boss’ arrest shows you these things are not impossible

lol I wondered when she would try it again

Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI.

A must-read feature (with heart-stopping design) from the @wired.com team:

Elon Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data.

What's next? Unleash the AI.

www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

Erm guess what the reply was

i'm sick ironically and perceiving this through brain fog but are you actually criticising sick pay

i just started a new band 😅

or prey?

That’s so much worse! It’s so weird!

I just keep thinking about the air quotes around his own name

I had a cover story with NS once that seemed to get some traction, but they ignored every subsequent pitch I sent; didn’t even reply to say why

As a child of the West Coast, the confirmation of RFK Jr chills my blood with one of my core fears: hippie fascism.

There's literally no plan to stop this other than promoting Labour deportations with a sky-blue colour scheme

Good morning to this man, and this man only #bbcqt

RFK Jr has just been confirmed as health secretary. Here’s my piece about him from earlier this week

That should be @naomiaklein.bsky.social ofc!