UK — BUYING BREXIT INFLUENCE:
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 6:42 am
The former public face of Uber in Europe talked about the company’s clashes with regulators, how he rode the highs and lows of Europe crashing from the top of the mobile world to being middle of the tech pack, and why his new company is aimed at helping start-ups navigate the world of Brussels.
“I always believe that Uber was the enterprise of generation,” he said, because it “disrupted a very corrupt, very antique consumer industry,” but he doesn’t blame the taxi drivers who reacted sometimes violently to the disruption, forcing him to need bodyguards 24/7. He also has advice for incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “This notion of a political European Commission was terrible … It’s designed to be an executive, it is designed to be a senior civil service.”
GLOBAL GLANCE
30 YEARS OF GEOPOLITICAL INFLUENCE: telegram data Simon Fraser explains the world since 1989 in Twitter bites.
Authorities in Northern Ireland plan to spend three-quarters of a million pounds reassuring citizens that everything will be OK if there’s a no-deal Brexit. They’re searching for a company to sell the upbeat message.
CHINA — MILITARY DATA DU JOUR: In “the past 28 months, Chinese naval ships have made more port visits to more countries than in the previous 28 years,” U.S. Air Force Magazine reported.
KENYA — MINISTER AND OFFICIAL ARRESTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES: The arrests suggest China may have good reason to be getting cold feet about its infrastructure investments in the country.
“I always believe that Uber was the enterprise of generation,” he said, because it “disrupted a very corrupt, very antique consumer industry,” but he doesn’t blame the taxi drivers who reacted sometimes violently to the disruption, forcing him to need bodyguards 24/7. He also has advice for incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “This notion of a political European Commission was terrible … It’s designed to be an executive, it is designed to be a senior civil service.”
GLOBAL GLANCE
30 YEARS OF GEOPOLITICAL INFLUENCE: telegram data Simon Fraser explains the world since 1989 in Twitter bites.
Authorities in Northern Ireland plan to spend three-quarters of a million pounds reassuring citizens that everything will be OK if there’s a no-deal Brexit. They’re searching for a company to sell the upbeat message.
CHINA — MILITARY DATA DU JOUR: In “the past 28 months, Chinese naval ships have made more port visits to more countries than in the previous 28 years,” U.S. Air Force Magazine reported.
KENYA — MINISTER AND OFFICIAL ARRESTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES: The arrests suggest China may have good reason to be getting cold feet about its infrastructure investments in the country.