Wessel van Rensburg

New essay ↓ with Andreas Dombret www.reaction.life/p/why-stable... #stablecoins Stablecoins are Silicon Valley's Pandora's box. The Trump admin just signed the GENIUS Act, but the warnings should be louder. Here's what everyone's missing about why stablecoins betray the essence of money itself 🧵

Trump: "We will be officially BANNING the term, 'AI/Artificial Intelligence,' in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"

New court documents show that Meta has been explicitly scheming to control the scientific narrative about their social media platforms

Merz proposed an interregional agreement with members of the 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, that includes Japan, Britain, Canada and Singapore. Together with the EU, these partners "account for more than a third of global trade," he said.

One can but hope.

Just 8% of Germans think Trump has changed the US for the better. Only 1 in 10 say the US and German govts still "share the same fundamental values," although 1 in 3 said most Americans and Germans do. More than half said a US vacation was "unimaginable" now www.spiegel.de/ausland/us-m...

The detail that matters: Telesat's 69 military satellites launch on SpaceX Falcon 9s. Canada can diversify the constellation, but for now not the ride to orbit. Starshield showed the risk is who holds the off switch.

The new Dutch champions are chip equipment, chips, biotech and AI compute. They depend on scarce engineers, grid capacity, housing, export controls and EU-level supply chains. Policy tuned to Shell and Unilever fits them badly.

I am sure historians will note that talk of responsible stakeholder capitalism, ESG had just reached a high water mark at the US Business roundtable and Davos circa 2019 to 2020, and that this was abandoned without blinking.

The reputational damage to Meta and US big tech not just in Brazil worldwide will have long term consequences.

Big tech is so desperate for capital, they're even raising money from the stock market for basically the first time in their existence

Israelis are showing up to voting stations in droves, in what may end up being one of the most widely attended elections in a long time — or ever. Follow our live blog for the latest: bloom.bg/4iHb3N0

Lula: "We had to overcome foreign interference through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. A crime in the digital world must be treated the same as a crime in the real world. We cannot have monstrous companies earning millions... not paying taxes... wanting to steer elections."

From Zelenskyy. Patriot interceptors that could save innocent lives are sitting in European countries for weeks, which they paid for, unable to be transferred to Ukraine because Hegseth refuses to sign off.

Good day for noting that big currency sell-offs in Brazil (like today) also tend to make global coffee and sugar cheaper. Big falls in the real give farmers more incentives to earn dollars from exports and increasing global supply. Arabica coffee futures are off over 3% today.

‘JP Morgan estimates that only 20% of AI capital expenditures will be funded by free cash flow in 2027, with the remaining 80% requiring external financing.’ thedailyshot.com/2026/10/26/c...

in the two hours after voting was extended in brazil, 35k more people cast ballots. makes no difference to lula’s margin of four million votes… story reflects more brazilians’ understandable lack of trust in their supreme court (61% distrust stf justices) than any claims of electoral manipulation

A proposed deal between Airbus, Leonardo and Thales aims to strengthen Europe’s satellite industry as Elon Musk’s Starlink sets the pace in low Earth orbit. It could also leave the EU with fewer suppliers for its own secure communications network. 🔗 vist.ly/5p2bq

That this is in THE WASHINGTON POST is almost too much irony to bear.

*ANTHROPIC FILES PUBLICLY FOR US IPO www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...

Microsoft will offer buyouts to about 60,000 workers, part of the company’s efforts to trim costs and retool its workforce for the AI era. Read more: bloom.bg/3TX8U6D 📷: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Power has it's own logic, and that will prevail.

We are really living in the dumbest timeline - Sources from three countries confirm that the Trump Administration has advocated Viktor Orbán for the role of United Nations Secretary-General www.wsj.com/opinion/vikt...

Incredible gender difference in voting intention in Brazil.

Wow. Vučić has conceded Serbian election. Massive moment for the entire Balkans

Canada is moving away from Elon Musk’s Starlink, committing roughly $5 billion to Telesat and expanding satellite partnerships with Europe, South Korea and Norway. Carney cited Ukraine’s Starshield restrictions as a warning against relying on one provider.

“there is important work that we can do together as middle powers to strengthen our supply chains, make them more robust and resilient and strengthen our economic security as a consequence,” he added.

Former Likud PM of Israel Ehud Olmert accuses Netanyahu of war crimes in Gaza and ethnic cleansing on the West Bank. "The Israeli government was never interested in ending the war (in Gaza). They wanted to keep fighting and increasing the hysteria and fear in Israel."

“ICEYE and Nokia signed a letter of intent with Ukraine's Defense Ministry on Oct. 22, formalizing a partnership aimed at developing Ukraine's own satellite communications system.” kyivindependent.com/amid-starlin...

🔴 REVEALED: Palantir led closed-door review of how MoD buys software The review was presented to defence minister Luke Pollard by Palantir UK boss Louis Mosley in Feb and has mostly been implemented None of this was made public New investigation🧵 democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-p...