The European Parliament has for the first time called for a "permanent ceasefire" in Gaza and the start of political efforts to find a solution to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Given the outpouring of empathy and care as well as the condemnation of violence from European politicians, can someone please inform them that over 35,000 Prime Minister Robert Ficos have been murdered in Gaza by Israel, including over 15,000 baby Prime Minister Robert Ficos.
The European Union has agreed on new rules to have cleaner air and zero pollution by 2050. The bloc wants to introduce stricter limits for particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and other harmful pollutants.
There seems to be now more clarity on what is happening on the cereals markets, especially in #EuropeanUnion and how that is related to the #Russia war in #Ukraine. Here’s a good #Poland analysis of the situation:^1
While the farmers’ protests may appear to be a continuation of the response to last year’s grain scandal, when looked at more closely, the situation is much more complicated. At that time, farmers were unable to sell grain produced in Poland at the expected profit because grain imported from Ukraine was undercutting prices. However, it did not meet EU standards (so it was said to be technical grain) and was offered in Poland at the limit of the law. Now the issue has been settled and Ukrainian grain can only transit through our country.
So how come the whole EU and especially Poland is now all bursting with farmers’ protests?
Nervousness is growing both on the domestic and foreign markets as stocks are at record levels and the new harvest approaches inexorably. The situation is exacerbated by the downright dumping of Russian wheat prices, with the March contract at Matif already approaching €200/t.^2
So, Russia has found an excellent leverage on EU, whose farming sector is a very complex and delicate carefully regulated by EU Common Agricultural Policy:
Russia dumping prices on world markets thanks to low fertilizer prices, grain stolen from Ukraine and harvesting on the newly occupied territories;
Russia placing not only Poland but the whole EU farming sector on the verge of collapse due to the dumping;
And Russia presenting this year’s crisis on farming market as continuation of last year’s Ukraine grain imports and Green Deal.
Of course, this could be resolved by EU intervention on the farming market, customs tarrifs on grain imports and other forms of subsidies. The action needs to be fast, otherwise we risk severe political crisis inside EU in parallel with the ongoing war at our borders. Fixing this is certainly possible, as the 2021-2022 gas crisis triggered by Russia demonstrated, but actions need to be taken fast.
EU Commission Preparing to Recommend Ukraine Membership Talks
The European Union’s executive arm is preparing to recommend starting membership talks with Ukraine in earnest, offering a boost to Kyiv as it seeks to ensure that allies continue military and financial support.
Sometimes you need to stand back a little to get a full picture 🌌
Look at some of our stellar EU capitals from our Copernicus Satellite. They are definitely photogenic!
Together with IRIS² and Galileo, Copernicus is one of our space programmes.
It collects data on climate, land and oceans to help fight climate change and is a key contributor in responding to emergencies by mapping the affected areas.
"The #EuropeanUnion on Thursday has agreed tougher penalties for environmental crimes such as importing invasive species and pollution caused by ships, and the illegal depletion of [#water resources].
Under the new deal, offences causing death will be punishable with 10 years of prison while firms risk fines of 3 or 5% of their annual worldwide turnover."
Brussels launches legal action against Elon Musk's X over illegal content, disinformation
The European Commission has launched legal action against social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, under its landmark law for online platforms, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
What do you think is the underlying cause of German, Dutch and Finnish public finances being such a mess compared to the virtuous budgets of Greece and Spain?
(You can vote in the poll down thread)
Every time I look at the drawers of 'put away' items, especially old cell phones and tablets, I see still-functioning devices that could continue to serve a purpose. Take, for example, the old Motorola phone my mother discarded due to years without security updates. I believe it's no less efficient than an old Raspberry PI - it even has a screen, good built-in WiFi, various sensors, a camera, etc. Yet, this Android terminal has been abandoned since 2018, and I feel quite insecure running software on it.
The European Union, often too focused on bureaucracy and not enough on the real world, did make progress with USB-C. It would be wonderful if they could mandate manufacturers to open up their devices once they are abandoned. I dream of being able to install an updated OpenSource OS (not necessarily *BSD, but at least Linux) detached from Android, or at least an AOSP version of Android, without resorting to questionable binaries from XDA.
Essentially saying: 'You've bought my device, I won’t update it anymore, but since the hardware still works, you're on your own but you can keep it running.'
My drawers are full of high-quality, still usable but abandoned devices. I'd rather use my old Huawei as a surveillance camera (which now has outdated and unupdated software) than any device sending my images to obscure clouds in countries with questionable laws.
I'm considering starting a petition – not sure if there are any yet, will do some research – but I'm fairly certain it won't lead to much. Planned obsolescence is a concept too ingrained in today's technology, and there are too many interests behind it.
Don't say the UK is heading fast for retrogressive impoverished isolationism! A public inquiry just recommended that the country keep the metre system! The Brits are progressive, they really are!
"The #EuropeanUnion launched on Sunday the first phase of the world's first system to impose CO2 #EmissionsTariffs on imported #steel, #cement and other goods as it tries to stop more polluting foreign products from undermining its green transition."
But also:
"The bloc will not begin collecting any CO2 emission charges at the border until 2026."
What are they scared of?
my VPS provider #domainfactory shuts down its #JiffyBox product end of May, so the machine I have since 2007 will be gone soon and I have to look for an alternative. Any recommendations?
My priorities are these:
chances of the new provider shutting down my machine in the next years is extremely low
I can install Arch GNU/Linux because I'm used to it and low maintenance time is key
enough CPU power & RAM that compiling normal-sized projects is feasible (i.e., compiling #emacs is a must but compiling #firefox is not)
I’m long fan of #EuropeanUnionEuropean Citizens Initiative mechanism and occasionally following notifications from their website if I see something interesting. Now, after supporting an initiative for planning of high-speed rail network between EU capitals, I’ve found this one:
Everything is wrong about this project: it’s 100% based on manipulated research, conspiracy theories, pseudo-science and misrepresentation of actual scientific research.
Yet, they were able to submit this initiative and gathered ~80k signatures, at which stage they failed short of the required 1m.
And I believe this is perfectly OK that even such fringe initiatives were able to register, because behind each signature there’s a person probably honestly convinced about the harm imposed by 5G who should have a chance to be heard. ECI reduces chances of their marginalisation, radicalisation and resorting to extremist methods, such as destroying mobile towers etc.
I’ve also checked initiatives that passed the 1m threshold and they were all answered by EC and subsequently reflected in EU legislation. There’s a few about treatment of animals (vivisection, slaughter of horses, finning), water rights, rights of asylum seekers etc (there’s just one which I personally consider pseudo-scientific, on the ban of glyphosate).
For an example of how the water rights initiative was answered by EC you can check - essentially, the initiative was used to influence a number of EU directives and international initatives:
120 MEPs demand Hungary be stripped of its voting rights over Viktor Orbán's 'unacceptable' actions
A cross-party coalition of 120 Members of the European Parliament demand Hungary be stripped of its voting rights over the country's democratic backsliding and Viktor Orbán's "unacceptable" use of veto power.