Europe

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“Instead of taking responsibility for peace and security in the world as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in an emailed statement before departing Berlin airport on Sunday for her two-day visit to Beijing.

Vladimir “Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is a direct threat to our peace. I will also speak in Beijing about the fact that we cannot simply ignore this in our relations with China.”

The European Union is proposing to sanction several Chinese firms that it claims helped Russian companies develop attack drones that were deployed against Ukraine. Baerbock will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing to address this issue, her spokesman said. Germany’s top diplomat will also discuss the humanitarian situation in China, as well as EU tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles that were introduced in October.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-how-europes-population-will-change-by-2100/

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Archived

The original article in German is here.

• Victor Gao, ex-interpreter to politician Deng Xiaoping and now Beijing's mouthpiece, promotes China's line in the West.
• In the midst of economic problems, China is trying to win back Europe as a partner - on the condition that it does not criticize Beijing.

Where other Chinese experts remain silent because the new anti-espionage law forces them to be cautious, Victor Gao [once Deng Xiaoping's interpreter, now vice president of a government-affiliated think tank and figurehead for China's propaganda] talks. And how. Whether CNN, BBC or al-Jazeera - everyone gets it from him, the party line, eloquently packaged and charmingly served.

[...]

His current mission: to woo Europe, while relations with the West are crumbling under the weight of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, corona and closing ranks with Russia.

[...]

Victor Gao demands: "Wake up from your American nightmare." And immediately delivers the Chinese offer: less morality, more market. China as a "resource", not a rival.

[...]

But behind the smile lurks geopolitical calculation.

After all, NATO has long been seen as the enemy, and Western democracies are described in China's state media as decadent, refugee-ridden orders. At the same time, Gao preaches closing ranks in interviews - as long as Europe refrains from any criticism of Beijing.

[...]

Victor Gao, who translated Deng's words into the international arena in the 1980s, embodies China's transformation: from an aspiring reformist state to an autocratically controlled superpower under Xi Jinping.

What used to be openness is now demarcation - and yet: economic hardship is forcing China back towards rapprochement.

With the economic downturn in its own country, youth unemployment, the real estate crisis, demographic decline and mountains of debt, it now wants Europe back as a partner. Or at least as a market.

[...]

Gao describes Europe as a continent on the brink of collapse: "You have no more money at all," he says. China, on the other hand? Ready to help. With experience, technology and growth. A kind of development aid - made in China.

But the price is high: no criticism. No geopolitics. No questions asked.

Human rights? Tibet? Xinjiang? Are elegantly omitted. Anyone who raises them is either a "gangster" financed by the USA or a naïve idealist. Gao prefers to sell the high-speed train network, the next 6G expansion and the bubbling growth figures.

Problems? "Of course there are," he says - and immediately changes the subject.

[...]

Victor Gao says that Europe is too small to be an adversary.

But perhaps this is precisely Europe's underestimated strength: not wanting to dominate, but to mediate between the extremes - without selling out.

Because Gao is right about one thing: the world as we know it is changing rapidly. But whether China's charm offensive is more than just a tactical smile will be measured by whether Beijing wants genuine partnership - or just a Europe that shuts up and pays up.

Bye bye Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and many others. They can go and play "America First". We'll have our own independent system by november 2025.

I am leaving this group. Do I post with a positive message, that Europe is taking matters into its own hands and immediately get a shit load of negative comments, doomsday scenarios and conspiracy theories thrown at your head as if the European Union has a secret agenda to turn the EU into some kind of Russian or Chinese regime. No, the EU is not perfect, but neither am I, neither are you and no country, manager or company is. I thought things would be different here than on X for example, but the negativism here is not much better. I hope you continue to have fun here, but I (try to) seek more positive places.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

That is what I wonder. Don't know about you guys, but I feel like a European patriot, even though this maybe does not make sense to some.

Being a true European patriot means to me: caring about all of the freedoms we have, our social democracies, is to value the open pluralist societies we developed since WW2, wanting to protect what the reactionaries want to take away from us, stop those who want to lock us all up, back in the small closed-minded nation-states we all come from, which will ultimately lick the boots of either US or China/Russia.

They are well organized, but what is the organization, the movement that fights against this ongoing attack on our shared values and mode of existence?

The post-WW2 Europe is an oasis of bliss in a world which is on fire, and we are all under attack. How can we fight against this destruction from the inside as well as from the outside ?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62370804

Microsoft is responding to mounting "geopolitical and trade volatility" between the US administration and governments in Europe by pledging privacy safeguards for customers worried about using American hyperscalers, and vowing to fight the US government in court to protect Euro customers' data if needed.

Under Trump 2.0, some Europeans fear that storing their data in the bit barns of Microsoft, Google and AWS is no longer safe, a concern voiced to The Register in late February by Bert Hubert, a part time technical advisor to the Dutch Electoral Council.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has criticised Britain’s invitation to Mr Donald Trump for a second state visit, saying it undermined his government’s effort to project a united front against the US President’s talk of annexing Canada.

Mr Starmer, who is trying to improve trading ties with the US after Britain left the European Union, has sought to play to its strengths when dealing with Mr Trump, talking up its security expertise, pledging higher defence spending, and offering the pomp and pageantry that comes with a state visit.

Just under 3000-4000 people are required per country in Lithuania, Latvia, Malta and Luxembourg. Come on now... that's a small town and in some places even just a village. Are there really that few gamers in those countries?

Ursula von der Leyen just lost the "Pfizergate" legal case—and it’s a huge deal. EU judges ruled that she must reveal her secret vaccine deal text messages with Pfizer. Was there a cover-up? Political fallout? Or is this just about transparency? We break down what happened, what’s at stake, and what could happen next.

Or, if you prefer to watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5mFl-P8bHc

A few days ago, I realised that it is very easy to submit an EU petition.

https://feddit.org/post/11980768

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/home

When I asked whether anyone had any experience with this topic, there was no answer. Nevertheless, it seems to be of interest. So I'm starting this thread to describe how my first EU petition went.

I'll create a comment for each step and number them. Furthermore, I am writing in English/German, as the English is only translated with Deepl (free version) and briefly skimmed anyway.

--------DE--------

Vor ein paar Tagen hatte ich festgestellt, dass es sehr einfach ist, eine EU-Petition einzureichen.

https://feddit.org/post/11980768

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/home

Auf die Frage, ob jemand schon Erfahrung mit dem Thema hat gab es keine Antwort. Trotzdem scheint das Thema zu interessieren.Deshalb starte ich diesen Faden um zu beschreiben, wie meine erste EU-Petition gelaufen ist.

Ich erstelle für jeden Schritt einen Kommentar und nummeriere diese durch. Desweiteren schreibe ich auf englisch/deutsch, da das Englische eh nur mit Deepl übersetzt und kurz überflogen ist.

Four former soldiers from the elite 8th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment in southern France have filed formal complaints accusing their superiors of physical violence, moral harassment and degrading treatment.

They also described “entrenched” racism, saying words like “bonobo” and “negro” were used freely.

Tritto said two-thirds of those who joined the regiment in the same year as him have since left the army, and one in four are dealing with depression.

https://xcancel.com/georgesimion/status/1924166718122783128#m

Nicușor Dan is the new president of Romania. Congratulations to everyone who voted!

@europe

The "Accept all" button is often the standard for cookie banners. An administrative court has ruled that the opposite offer is also necessary.

Lower Saxony's data protection officer Denis Lehmkemper can report a legal victory in his long-standing battle against manipulatively designed cookie banners. The Hanover Administrative Court has confirmed his legal opinion in a judgment of March 19 that has only just been made public: Accordingly, website operators must offer a clearly visible "reject all" button on the first level of the corresponding banner for cookie consent requests if there is also the frequently found "accept all" option. Accordingly, cookie banners must not be specifically designed to encourage users to click on consent and must not prevent them from rejecting the controversial browser files.

GNU Taler begins operating in Switzerland, distributed by the Taler Operations AG. Gnu Taler aims to be a “digital wallet” and has been used by the swiss national bank as well as the european national bank as a example for how a digital currency handed out by the state could work. It aims to be as privacy preserving as cash for the buyer while not allowing the seller to evade taxes.

Currently the Taler is brought out by a special organisation, the “Taler Operations AG”, and not the national bank, although both the national bank as well as the Taler Team have shown interest in a official digial currency by the national bank based on the Taler. But we need to relativate as the national council has stated that the introduction of a digital currency would probably take relatively major legislative changes and therefore take a bit of time.

Archived

At a special security meeting held on Thursday at the Polish Navy's tactical command centre in Gdynia, located in northern Poland, [...] prime minister [Donald Tusk] warned that such incidents may escalate, posing a significant threat to the nation's ongoing maritime investments, including offshore wind farms and gas pipelines.

"The Baltic Sea could evolve into a zone of continuous hybrid confrontation, similar to the Polish eastern border," he said, labelling the incident as "a direct aggression" against the country's security.

[...]

The so-called shadow fleet consists of substandard and uninsured tankers operating under various flags, which Russia employs to evade Western sanctions. The ships are also suspected of carrying out sabotage operations in the Baltic Sea.

The West, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, is targeting the fleet with additional sanctions, such as the new set of measures announced by the EU and UK on Tuesday.