Day: September 15, 2025
Belgian Prime Minister Attends Controversial Concert by Munich Philharmonic
On Saturday evening, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever attended a performance by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in Essen, conducted by Israeli maestro Lahav Shani. The visit has ignited mixed reactions, coinciding with the orchestra’s recent removal from the Flanders Festival Ghent program, reports 24brussels.
The Munich Philharmonic was initially set to perform in Ghent on September 18, but festival organizers cancelled the event. They cited “insufficient clarity about the conductor’s position towards the genocidal regime” in reference to the Israeli government as the reason behind this decision.
De Wever condemned the cancellation and opted to travel to Essen to show his support for the orchestra. He shared a photograph from the concert on Instagram, asserting: “There will never be room for racism or antisemitism in this country, under any circumstances.”
“That is where I draw the line,” he added. “I strongly condemn the recent cancellation of the Munich Philharmonic by the Flanders Festival Ghent, solely on the basis of the origin of conductor Lahav Shani. I insisted on delivering this message to him personally and to express my appreciation for his contribution to the power of music.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly acknowledged De Wever’s gesture on social media, stating: “I thank the Belgian Prime Minister for the strong sign of solidarity he has given with his visit to the Munich Philharmonic in Essen. Dear Bart De Wever, we cannot allow this flagrant antisemitism to take root.”
The incident has created divisions within Flanders’ government. Flemish Minister President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) distanced himself from De Wever’s action, while Culture Minister Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) supported his stance.
Vooruit party leader Conner Rousseau criticized De Wever, urging him to refocus on pressing national issues like the budget. He contended that De Wever should dismiss the N-VA representatives involved in the cancellation decision.
Additionally, N-VA MP and Aalst Mayor Christoph D’Haese threatened to resign from the festival’s board unless it rescinded the decision regarding Shani’s concert, which he labeled “wrong.”
The far-right Vlaams Belang party has demanded an emergency meeting of the Flemish Parliament’s Culture Committee, accusing the festival of “the purest form of government censorship on the basis of origin.”
Sheikh Mohammed stressed the moment had come for consequences to Israel’s attacks in the wider Middle East.
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“And i’ll stand behind this. be kind, now more than ever.”
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
- Klarna’s CEO said he uses AI coding tools to build prototypes faster and save staff time.
- Vibe coding, using AI to write code, is gaining traction among tech executives.
- Last week, Klarna’s stock popped 30% at IPO, with employees able to trade shares early.
One CEO of a newly minted public company is a big fan of vibe coding.
On an episode of the Sourcery podcast released on Saturday, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said AI coding tools like Cursor have helped him build prototypes faster and save time for his tech teams.
“I was a business person, and then I just started exploring Cursor,” Siemiatkowski said about his non-technical background.
The CEO of the Swedish fintech firm said that he has been vibe coding for 20 years, but the nature and speed of the work have changed. Before tools like Cursor, he said, he would give engineers instructions in a meeting room, and they would return with a prototype weeks later.
“The only difference is now I’m sitting with a computer and I’m doing it with AI, and it’s coming back with the prototype in 20 minutes,” he said.
He added that his use of AI is also saving his staff a lot of time.
“Rather than disturbing my poor engineers and product people with what is half good ideas and half bad ideas, now I test it myself,” he said. “I come say, ‘Look, I’ve actually made this work, this is how it works, what do you think, could we do it this way?‘“
The company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Last week, Klarna went public on the New York Stock Exchange two decades after its founding. Its stock popped 30% on its debut, jumping above its $40-per-share initial public offering price to $52 a share.
In a rare move, the company said it would convert vested restricted stock units into tradable shares, which employees could begin selling a few days after the $15 billion IPO. The email, seen by Business Insider, said that the converted shares are “exempt from the six-month post-IPO lockup and can be traded during this time.”
No longer a nice-to-have
Siemiatkowski is the latest example of C-suite executives embracing vibe coding.
Using AI to write code, dubbed “vibe coding” by the OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy, has skyrocketed this year. While some in tech circles say leaning on it heavily is short-sighted and the task is being trivialized, vibe coding has already started changing how much Big Tech and venture capital value people with software engineering expertise.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in June that he had a “delightful” time vibe coding a webpage. The same week, Business Insider reported Amazon was discussing formally adopting Cursor after employees inquired about using the tool.
In June, Business Insider reported that vibe coding is no longer a nice-to-have skill. Job listings from Visa, Reddit, DoorDash, and a host of startups showed that the companies explicitly required vibe coding experience or familiarity with AI code generators like Cursor and Bolt.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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