LACont

Proud anti fascist Canadian. Non-theist, Social Democrat, detest “conservatism” in all its forms. No fucks left for covidiots. Master of Science, Cell Biology.

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

Today the EU made American AI illegal in 27 countries.

The reason is ONE sentence Microsoft's own lawyer said under oath:

This morning in Brussels, EU Tech Chief Henna Virkkunen unveiled the Cloud and AI Development Act. It's the most aggressive anti-American tech move from Europe since GDPR.

The law forces EU public sector procurement in banking, healthcare, defense, and energy to apply mandatory non-price factors favoring software and hardware built inside the EU. Microsoft Azure can be cheaper, AWS can be faster, Google Cloud can have the better model, and EU governments MUST legally prefer European alternatives.

AWS, Microsoft, and Google currently control roughly 70% of the European cloud market. Brussels is now openly targeting greater independence from US providers in cloud, AI, and semiconductors.

The largest regulatory market-share transfer in tech history is being written into law right now.

But the real story is how this happened...

On June 10, 2025, a man almost no one outside Brussels had heard of walked into the French Senate. His name is Anton Carniaux, Director of Public and Legal Affairs at Microsoft France.

Senator Dany Wattebled asked him under oath whether he could guarantee that data belonging to French citizens, stored on Microsoft European servers, would never be transmitted to US authorities without explicit consent from the French government.

Carniaux answered honestly. He admitted he could not guarantee it, because Microsoft must comply with the US CLOUD Act regardless of where European data physically sits. One sentence of sworn testimony from Microsoft's own counsel killed every sovereign cloud defense Big Tech had spent five years building.

It became the legal foundation for the law unveiled today.

Then Trump accelerated the divorce.

January 2025 brought executive orders expanding US surveillance authorities. Vance went to Munich and attacked European democracies on stage.

The tariffs followed and so did the Pentagon's $200 million AI contract war that ended with OpenAI replacing Anthropic after Hegseth labeled it a supply chain risk. So did OpenAI's Stargate and yesterday's Trump AI Executive Order, whose Section 3 lets the White House pick which AI companies get 30-day early access to frontier models. American AI was officially declared a US government strategic asset.

Europe heard every word of it.

On May 12, Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch told the French National Assembly that Europe had 24 months to build sovereign AI infrastructure or become a permanent US VASSAL state.

And the response came fast:

April 24: Cohere acquired Germany's Aleph Alpha for $20 billion with both Germany's and Canada's digital ministers in the room at the Berlin announcement. May 30: SoftBank committed up to $87 BILLION for French nuclear-powered data centers, the largest AI infrastructure project in European history.
Yesterday: EU Parliament announced it's dropping Google for French search engine Qwant tomorrow. France ordered every government workstation off Windows and onto Linux.

Today the Cloud and AI Development Act made all of it law.

- Mistral is building a 1.4 gigawatt AI campus near Paris by 2028 with Nvidia, MGX, and Bpifrance
- SAP's EU AI Cloud, launched last November, runs on Cohere, Mistral, and SAP's own sovereign infrastructure
- McKinsey forecasts $600 billion in sovereign AI needs by 2030

None of that money is going to Silicon Valley.

The America First AI policy built a wall around the world's most regulated economy, and American companies are on the wrong side of it.

Microsoft's lawyer told the truth in a Senate hearing nobody watched. Trump turned that admission into a national security narrative while the EU turned that narrative into procurement law.

And one entire continent walked away from the American tech stack...

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

France has introduced one of the world’s toughest environmental laws by criminalizing “ecocide” under its Climate and Resilience Act.

The new legislation allows courts to impose severe penalties on companies and executives responsible for severe and lasting damage to air, water, or soil. Convicted offenders can face fines of up to €4.5 million, or up to ten times the profits gained from the violation, along with prison sentences of up to 10 years.

This marks a significant cultural and legal shift, elevating environmental protection to the same level of seriousness as threats to public safety or human life.

The law is part of a growing international movement, driven by activists, scientists, and legal experts, to treat large-scale ecological destruction as a serious crime rather than a mere business cost.

While some critics worry the law may prove difficult to enforce, it reflects a broader recognition that the health of the planet’s ecosystems is essential to human survival.

[LACont @LCptbo]

Professional networking sites and online job platforms being used to target Five Eyes nationals - https://t.co/o8N4WJPD5O https://t.co/k9FdvQMA0e

[Captain Dick @CaptainDick12]

Doug Ford has racked up the largest subnational debt in the world. No province, state or small country has as much debt as Ford. Ontario's net debt is projected to surpass half a trillion dollars, sitting at around $507.1 billion and he goes off on vacation for five months?

[Bev 🇨🇦 @Garnet_2203]

Ontario's education unions have officially served notice to bargain.
They're asking for smaller class sizes, more special education supports, and an end to mandatory e-learning.
And this explains exactly why Doug Ford is shutting down Queen's Park for the summer until October.
We've seen this before.
When it comes to education, Ford's government has a history of fighting teachers instead of fixing classrooms. Larger class sizes. Fewer supports. Labour disputes. Constant battles with the people educating our children.
Teachers aren't asking for luxuries. They're asking for the resources needed to help students succeed.
Doug Ford has failed teachers. He has failed parents. He has failed students.
If Ontario is heading toward another work-to-rule campaign or labour unrest this fall, nobody should be surprised. The warning signs are already there.
Instead of showing leadership and investing in public education, this government appears content to disappear until October and hope the problems go away.

The only union Doug Ford supports is the police unions.

Ontario's children deserve better.

[Ame Todd @ame_todd]

Looks like Pierre and Ana had their annual Garden Party at our mansion, and we def were not invited.

[Yipeng Ge 葛义朋 @yipengGe]

Canadians kidnapped by the Israeli occupation during Gaza Flotilla mission call for answers from Prime Minister Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anand

Canadians kidnapped and subjected to torture on civilian flotillas to break the illegal siege of Gaza testify during a press conference on Parliament Hill and call on the Canadian government to sanction Israel

[John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) @Harryslaststand]

Doug Ford's government may be on vacation. But always remember, their corruption never rests.

[@RGBAtlantica @RGBAtlantica]

Is everybody in the world enjoying
"The Golden Age of Stupid?"

[Rachel Gilmore @atRachelGilmore]

"'He yells,' said one MP (...). 'He punches down at caucus all the time.'"

This is pretty unsurprising based on various reports on some of Carney's behind-the-scenes behaviour since day one, but it's still really off-putting to read.

Great reporting from @althiaraj. She's killing it.

[ONTSpecialNeeds @ONTSpecialNeeds]

Truth:

Ontario educators are being asked to support increasing student needs with fewer resources, fewer supports, and less time. The burnout is real.

#OntEd

[Tina Yazdani @TinaYazdani]

NEW: Ontario’s education unions are officially serving notice to bargain today.

Among their demands:

• smaller class sizes (capped at 24 students for grades 4-8, and 26 for kindergarten)

• ending mandatory e-learning for high school students

• spec ed investments

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

Marit Stiles: "The government wants to get out of there as fast as they can and I think it's likely because the Premier is having a very bad time right now."

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

More of CNN's false equivalence language. Ukraine is not targeting St. Petersburg, but striking military installations, Russian warships, and oil refineries. It's the Russian terror state that strikes cities and targets civilians. https://t.co/Cy7DgqtkuT

[Darwin @ThisIsDarwino]

Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport lost 300k passengers in 2025 (1.7M, down from 2M), while Pearson airport keeps growing. JP Morgan is lobbying @fordnation into supporting the airport expansion, to bail out their declining asset which has no business case or feasibility. #onpoli

[Plymouth Fury III™ Guitars 🎸🇨🇦🇺🇦🟠🏳️‍🌈✊🦊 @FuryGuitars]

The 'house' that the mafia / corruption built.
#CanadianBakin

[daz @MetamateDaz]

Albanians just showed the world how it's done.

The government was selling off prime coastal land and protected islands to Jared Kushner and linked investors for a massive luxury resort turning public beaches and nature reserves into private playgrounds for the ultra-rich. The people said: HELL NO. Thousands poured into the streets under “Albania Is Not For Sale.” Protests turned fiery. They stormed government buildings and burnt down the Prime Minister’s house. This isn’t just about a deal. It’s about sovereignty. It’s about refusing to let your country be auctioned off to foreign billionaires while locals lose access to their own coastline. When elites sell the nation’s future for kickbacks and luxury resorts, the people have every right to push back hard. Respect to the Albanians for refusing to be colonized by cash. Other countries should be taking notes.

[Colin D'Mello | Global News @ColinDMello]

At Queen's Park, Tourism Minister Stan Cho yells that the Ontario Liberals had 15 years in government with "nothing to show for it but record debt."

In fact, Ontario's debt under the Ford government is set to cross half a trillion dollars next year under Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy

#onpoli

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

You are not seeing a lot of news you should be seeing.

Israel is targeting hospitals in Lebanon. Dialysis patients, babies in NICU, and others will die. This’s a crime against humanity.

[Alex Tyrrell @AlexTyrrellPVQ]

In the middle of a live streamed genocide the Canadian Prime Minister is making speeches in front of an Israeli flag, telling us that the real victims are those who’s feelings are hurt by criticism of the offending state.

This picture was taken yesterday.