**US hits out at EU for fining Elon Musk’s X **
The European Commission says the social media site is opening its users up to scams and impersonations. ⌘ Read more

EU hits Musk’s X with $210 million fine for breaching bloc’s social media law
European Union regulators say the breaches of the bloc’s digital regulations could leave users exposed to scams and manipulation. ⌘ Read more

EU Hits Meta With Antitrust Probe Over Plans To Block AI Rivals From WhatsApp
The EU has opened an antitrust investigation into Meta over a new WhatsApp policy that could block rival AI assistants from accessing the platform. Complaints from smaller AI developers triggered the probe, which could lead to fines of up to 10% of Meta’s global revenue if the company is found to have abused its dominance. … ⌘ Read more

Henry Zeffman: Less than meets the eye to Starmer’s words on Brexit
This week, the PM was trying to set the scene for what is to come on the UK-EU relationship, sources say. ⌘ Read more

#ptpol #debate #presidenciais

Seguro contra LMM, estamos há 24 minutos a ouvir os candidatos a tentar mostrar as suas diferenças (quem tem mais ideias sou eu, quem tem mais vontade sou eu!) e acabando a mostrar quão iguais são.

Curiosamente estão tão eriçados que o moderador não consegue ter mão.

Onde podem ter diferenças é no pacote laboral, mas nenhum se assume, até aí são iguais.

Considerações pessoais: meh. A única coisa boa de qualquer um destes é que não são o fascista.

EU proposes using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine
Belgium is pushing back on a European proposal to use frozen Russian assets to help financially support Ukraine. ⌘ Read more

EU’s former top diplomat charged in ‘fraud and corruption’ probe
European prosecutors are investigating suspicions of fraud related to an EU-funded training scheme for junior diplomats. ⌘ Read more

EU To Examine If Apple Ads and Maps Subject To Tough Rules, Apple Says No
EU antitrust regulators will examine whether Apple’s Apple Ads and Apple Maps should be subject to the onerous requirements of the bloc’s digital rules after both services hit key criteria, with the U.S. tech giant saying they should be exempted. From a report: Apple’s App Store, iOS operating system and Safari web browser were d … ⌘ Read more

Social Media Giants Liable For Financial Scams Under New EU Law
Platforms including Meta and TikTok will be held liable for financial fraud for the first time under new rules agreed by EU lawmakers in the early hours of Thursday. From a report: The Parliament and Council agreed on the package of rules after eight hours of negotiations to strengthen safeguards against payment fraud. The deal adds another layer o … ⌘ Read more

Google’s AirDrop Support For Pixel 10 Likely Exists Because of EU’s Apple Ruling
Last week, Google surprised the tech world when it announced AirDrop support on Pixel 10 devices – all without Apple’s involvement. “While it initially seemed like this was a rogue move made by Google to coerce Apple into another boundary-breaking decision, it might actually be part of the repercussions that also l … ⌘ Read more

European Lawmakers Seek EU-Wide Minimum Age To Access AI Chatbots, Social Media
The European Parliament has passed a non-binding resolution urging an EU-wide minimum age of 16 to access social media, video-sharing platforms, and AI chatbots, with parental consent allowed for ages 13-16 and a hard ban for anyone under 13. “It also proposes additional measures, including a ban on addictive design f … ⌘ Read more

@arne@uplegger.eu Das klingt interessant. Aber wer definiert, welche Projekte darunter fallen? Keine Ahnung wie das sonst so mit dem Ehrenamt ist, aber das müssen ja dann auch gemeinnützige Vereine oder etwas Vergleichbares sein, oder? :-?

Wenn ich in der Petition schon wieder KI les, wird mir gleich anders.

How bad was the “Digital Sovereignty Summit”?

Heise explains: https://www.heise.de/en/opinion/Analysis-of-the-Digital-Sovereignty-Summit-Open-Source-Gets-Scolded-11084765.html

But I’ll highlight one thing - the Declaration for European Digital Sovereignty, published and signed there, has this ridiculous sentence:

“Open-source solutions can play an important role enhancing digital sovereignty, provided they meet high cybersecurity standards and are complemented by reliable proprietary technologies where appropriate.”

#Sovereignty #EU #OpenSource

Betting #pensions in the investment market in order to feed the economy is the EU’s recent and dangerous proposal - unconstitutional in Portugal’s case, and for good reason.

https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/11/20/eu-commission-bets-on-supplementary-pensions-to-drive-investment-and-shield-retirees-incomes/

#DCPS25

Streaming going on here:

https://commons.ngi.eu/event/digital-commons-policy-summit-2025/#WebStreaming

The EU “19.11.2025 COM(2025) 837 final 2025/0360 (COD): Digital Omnibus” Regulation Proposal is out, and it it we have:

• “proposed simplification measures” watering down personal data protection
  
• There are two terms, “open format” and “formal open standard” with different definitions - none “open enough”
  

I’m sure there is a lot more to digest from it, so here you go:

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/digital-omnibus-regulation-proposal

Europe’s Cookie Nightmare is Crumbling
The EU’s cookie consent policies have been an annoying and unavoidable part of browsing the web in Europe since their introduction in 2018. But the cookie nightmare is about to crumble thanks to some big proposed changes announced by the European Commission today. From a report: Instead of having to click accept or reject on a cookie pop-up for every website you visit in Europe, the EU is preparing to … ⌘ Read more

@arne@uplegger.eu @lukas@lukasthiel.de In fact, Yarn.social’s yarnd client implementation actually uses (or did, still kinda does today) PicoCSS 🤟 It was/is a good CSS library! 👍

To everyone previously asking, what my (and other developers) endless complaining about Google, to both every EU body, with a form on their website and every relevant team at Google accomplished…
WE FUCKING WON!!!
“While security is crucial, we’ve also heard from developers and power users who have a higher risk tolerance and want the ability to download unverified apps.”
-source

I was also able to work with my new webhost, to bring back “🐕.fr.to” - everyones favorite vanity redirect domain, for my site, Googles changes to SSL warnings in Chrome, killed at the beginning of this year.

The lesson: I NEED TO COMPLAIN MORE

1. (cont.) António Filipe quer estabilidade, mas uma outra estabilidade que LMM, AF quer estabilidade na vida das pessoas (salário, saúde, habitação, direitos) e diz como.

2. quem tem melhores condições para ser um bom presidente? LMM acha que tem mais condições porque acha que tem mais experiência política. Quer ambição económica em Portugal, enviando mais mensagens ao parlamento (para usarmos mais IA e etc…). AF diz que realmente não temos uma melhor economia… Por opções políticas das coisas que o LLM defende como as privatizações (uma das coisas que faria era tentar parar o actual plano de privatização da TAP). LMM diz que a TAP tem de ser privatizada porque tem de crescer e só privatizando pode crescer, AF diz “não se aprendeu com o erro do passado”.

3. a deriva para o anti-democrático: LMM diz que vai ser intransigente. AF diz que usaria todos os instrumentos que a constituição conferem ao presidente (e parece ainda mais intransigente).

4. EU, NATO, ONU: AF quer que Portugal tenha voz, LMM diz que o último acordo da NATO foi muito bom. LMM tenta dizer que AF é pró-Putin, AF diz que não e que é e sempre foi contra a invasão Russa, LMM finge que não houve.

FIM: para mim AF mostrou seriedade, LMM mostrou falta dela nalgumas matérias

To finish, we have #Macron. #Sovereignty? Nah, what he wants is:

• less regulation
  
• a “smaller”, “risk-based” #GDPR
  
• postpone 1 year the #AIAct obligations for big tech
  

With a straight face, he recommends these anti-sovereingty measures as things that somehow will be good for our tech sovereignty….

At least he puts emphasis on enforcing #DMA, and make sure that hyperscalers comply with it.

He also defends EU-first public procurement, but his examples are SAP and Mistral (and their non-interoperable solutions)…

Finally, he things it is important to speed up AI adoption, going as far as saying that next year instead of a digital sovereignty summit we’ll have an AI summit…

No, not finally! To finish, he wants to “protect the children”! We all know where that one leads…

The afternoon didn’t start better: we got a talk about the EUDI, with the implied idea that an “European ID” is automatically an example of digital sovereignty, when in fact what is being implemented isn’t.

I could go further into it, but instead I’ll leave here a link to the comment I was impelled to write on the EUDI project after the presentation:

https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-doc-technical-specification/discussions/19#discussioncomment-15001433

The #EUDI panel was followed by Caroline Stage Olsen, Minister for Digital Affairs of Denmark. The tldr; of her keynote - which had two points of note: 1) “I support AI gigafactories” (because all that is shiny and new is something we should invest in), and “innovation is sovereignty” which is her way of saying that she wants to use the sovereignty topic not to talk about sovereignty but as an excuse to promote “innovation” - in that ideology brand that supports the idea that in order to innovate more we need to simplify and de-regulate…

#EUSummit25

I tuned into the “Summit on European Digital Sovereignty” stream hoping to listen about #DigitalSovereignty and all I got was a morning on how we for some reason to have more #AI, better #AI, (less regulation so we can have) faster #AI, and #AI everywhere.

Somehow, I’m not convinced. Perhaps I will in the afternoon, when they hopefully actually talk about digital sovereignty…

https://bmds.bund.de/aktuelles/eu-summit

Tech Giants’ Cloud Power Probed As EU Weighs Inclusion In DMA
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Alphabet’s Google Cloud risk being dragged into the scope of the European Union’s crackdown on Big Tech as antitrust watchdogs prepare to study the platforms’ market power. The European Commission wants to decide if any of the trio should face a raft of new restri … ⌘ Read more

#Menestrel é uma nova tag mensal para celebrar a música em suas formas mais conceituais: os álbuns. E para abrir com chave de ouro, estreia-se com o tema #debut - que mais?

É suposto ser sobre “os primeiros trabalhos de seus artistas favoritos”, mas eu quis não só escolher isso, como também um album que, lá por ser o debut da banda, não deixa de mostrar o melhor que a banda tem para oferecer.

Não é que os álbums que se seguem na discografia de Ashram sejam menos excelentes que este “Ashram” (sim, é um self-titled - e quem sabe se #selftitled não é um tema de um próximo menestrel…), mas este, lá por ser o primeiro, não fica nada atrás em excelência… e é provavelmente o que eu ouço mais vezes, talvez por ser também o álbum com o qual conheci a banda - e o único que tinha para ouvir até sair o próximo…

Na foto mostro o album na sua re-edição em digipak (limitada a 1000 unidades), com a qual substitui a edição original em jewel case, porque esta tem uma faixa extra (Fourth).

Uma edição mais recente (de 2013) também com esta faixa ainda existe em stock na editora*, aproveitem!

Mas que é isso, Ashram? Bem, Ashram é um trio Italiano de música neoclássica, e em vez de os descrever… ouçam! O disco começa assim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmJsvsWWIuQ

#début

• https://www.mandalia-music.com/produit/ashram/

  Image

WhatsApp Launching Third-Party Chat Support Across EU Countries
WhatsApp is close to rolling out third-party chat support across the European Union, as part its compliance with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Image

WhatsApp parent company Meta is required by the DMA to make its messaging platform interoperable with other third-party services, and Meta says the first apps that WhatsApp will support are [BirdyChat](http … ⌘ Read more

@arne@uplegger.eu … I still haven’t watched that show. 🤦

Verteilung Geflüchteter: EU-Kommission will Deutschland entlasten
Ab kommendem Jahr soll Deutschland keine Geflüchteten mehr aus Europas Grenzstaaten aufnehmen. Der Vorschlag der EU-Kommission sorgt für Unmut. mehr… ⌘ Read more

Klagerechte für Konzerne gegen Politik: Kritik an Investitionsabkommen mit Singapur und Vietnam
Der Bundestag soll EU-Verträge mit zwei asiatischen Ländern ratifizieren. Unter Robert Habeck hielt das Wirtschaftsministerium das noch für „riskant“. mehr… ⌘ Read more

Kritik aus den EU-Mitgliedsländern: Geheimdienst-Pläne von Ursula von der Leyen sorgen für Unmut
Die EU-Kommissionspräsidentin will einen besseren Zugriff auf Geheimdienst-Erkenntnisse. Warum sich manche Mitgliedstaaten dagegen sperren. mehr… ⌘ Read more

EuGH-Urteil zum Mindestlohn: Besser als nichts
Der Europäische Gerichtshof hat die Mindestlohnrichtlinie gebremst. Ganz gestoppt ist die Idee fairer Löhne in der EU aber nicht. mehr… ⌘ Read more

EuGH-Urteil zu Mindestlohn: EU darf Arbeitnehmer vor Dumping-Löhnen schützen
Das Gericht hat die Brüsseler Zuständigkeit bestätigt, aber auch zwei bestehende Regelungen gekippt. Das könnte sich auf Deutschland auswirken. mehr… ⌘ Read more

Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs: EuGH kippt zentrale Vorgaben der EU-Mindestlohnrichtlinie
Die Rich­te­r:in­nen geben einer Klage Dänemarks gegen die Richtlinie teilweise statt. Diese sollte Ar­beit­neh­me­r:in­nen vor Armut schützen. mehr… ⌘ Read more

EU Eyes Banning Huawei, ZTE Corp From Mobile Networks of Member Countries
The European Commission is considering turning its non-binding 2020 guidance on “high-risk vendors” into a legal requirement that would effectively force EU member states to phase out Huawei and ZTE from mobile and fixed-line networks. Bloomberg reports: Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen wants to convert the European Co … ⌘ Read more

Critics Call Proposed Changes To Landmark EU Privacy Law ‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe’s landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans’ personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation. The changes proposed by the European Commission … ⌘ Read more

Zukunft des BSW: Sahra Wagenknecht schmeißt Parteivorsitz hin
Die BSW-Frontfrau will künftig nur noch Chefin der Grundwertekommission ihrer Partei sein. Als ihr Nachfolger ist der EU-Abgeordnete De Masi gesetzt. mehr… ⌘ Read more

Rechtsruck in Tschechien: Rassist leitet Prags Parlament
Tomio Okamura hetzt gegen Geflüchtete und will Tschechien aus der EU führen. Als Teil der Regierung übernimmt er jetzt den drittwichtigsten Posten. mehr… ⌘ Read more

EU-Lateinamerika-Gipfel: Bitte kein Wellengang
Der EU-Lateinamerika-Gipfel wäre ideal gewesen, das Vorgehen der USA im Pazifik zu thematisieren. Doch viele Europäer kuschten vor Donald Trump. mehr… ⌘ Read more

EU takes aim at plastic pellets to prevent their nightmare cleanup
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Zelenskyy: Putin may attack EU country before war in Ukraine ends, he is in stalemate situation ⌘ Read more

Italy pushes for EU army as Rome-Moscow diplomatic rift deepens ⌘ Read more

Opencloud – an alternative to Nextcloud written in Go
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opencloud - an alternative to nextcloud written in Go
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EU restricts visas for Russian nationals over Ukraine war ⌘ Read more

OpenDesk – a flexible all-in-one office suite for the public sector
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@bender@twtxt.net It’s sad. Remember that Munich once ran the LiMux project. 😞

We could build a strong IT sector in Germany or the EU, but we just don’t want to.

@arne@uplegger.eu Hmm, wird da wieder Krieg gespielt? :-(

Agricultural practices play a decisive role in the preservation or degradation of protected areas, research shows
New research shows that modern agriculture is impacting biodiversity inside protected areas in Europe, while some traditional agricultural practices may help preserve it. The Natura 2000 is the largest network of protected areas in the world, established to conserve the most valuable habitats and species in the European Union (EU). ⌘ Read more

OpenDesk by the Centre for Digital Sovereignty
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@arne@uplegger.eu Du bist ja auch nicht repräsentativ! :-D