#Germany is ready to send long-range #Taurus missiles to #Ukraine in coordination with #EU allies, said Germany's chancellor-in-waiting.
Germany has long refused to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which can travel farther than the long-range weapons from #France and #Britain.
The #EU has provided two-thirds of the shells promised in an initiative to give 2 million artillery shells worth €5 billion to #Ukraine.
This shows significant progress compared to the beginning of April, when only half of the required amount of ammunition was collected.
Here’s what we’re reading today:
#Ukraine is ready to buy ten #Patriot air defense systems from the U.S. with financial backing from the #EU for $15 billion, Zelenskyy said.
#Zelenskyy also noted that Ukraine has not received the Patriot systems that were promised at the #NATO summit.
These systems are necessary to protect city centers from Russian missile attacks.
“We call on the European Commission to propose a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting #LGBTQ+ citizens in the #EU”. A European Citizen Initiative (ECI) is not a petition, it is a legally binding instrument.
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/
There are 6 weeks left to reach the thresholds for this one. Berlin, Hamburg, where are you??
"Berlin’s immigration authorities are moving to deport four young foreign residents on allegations related to participation in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, an unprecedented move that raises serious concerns over civil liberties in Germany.
The deportation orders, issued under German migration law, were made amid political pressure and over internal objections from the head of the state of Berlin’s immigration agency. The internal strife arose because three of those targeted for deportation are citizens of European Union member states who normally enjoy freedom of movement between E.U. countries.
The orders — issued by the state of Berlin, whose Senate administration oversees immigration enforcement — are set to take effect in less than a month. None of the four has been convicted of any crimes.
The cases are drawing comparisons to the U.S.’s use of deportation orders to suppress social movements.
“What we’re seeing here is straight out of the far right’s playbook,” said Alexander Gorski, a lawyer representing two of the protesters. “You can see it in the U.S. and Germany, too: Political dissent is silenced by targeting the migration status of protesters.”"
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/31/germany-gaza-protesters-deport/
🚨 Let’s Encrypt at risk from Trump cuts to OTF: “Let’s Encrypt received around $800,000 in funding from the OTF”
Dear @EUCommission, get your heads out of your arses and let’s find @letsencrypt €1M/year (a rounding error in EU finances) and have them move to the EU.
If Let’s Encrypt is fucked, the web is fucked, and the Small Web is fucked too. So how about we don’t let that happen, yeah?
(In the meanwhile, if the Let’s Encrypt folks want to make a point about how essential they are, it might be an idea to refuse certificates to republican politicians. See how they like their donation systems breaking in real time…)
CC @nlnet @NGIZero@mastodon.xyz
Wenn Let’s Encrypt plötzlich nicht mehr klappt, wird das halbe Internet aus Zertifikatsfehlern bestehen. https://www.heise.de/news/Nach-Trump-Dekret-Kampf-um-US-Foerdermittel-fuer-Tor-F-Droid-und-Let-s-Encrypt-10328226.html
#Hungarys Russian-backed Orban regime not only faces collapsing poll numbers but now mass protests have broken out in #Budapest.
Today crowds are demanding Orban step down to face prosecution.
As a part of this socially-asocial #Fediverse network I would like to talk to you on the other side of the ocean.
I rarely write posts in #English and I only have very few followers that are not #Czech or #Slovakian, so I'm not sure if this ever reaches my target audience of this post - the #USA citizens.
I am seriously concerned about what is happening lately with your country, who was supposed to be (or was acting like) a #democracy beacon. Yet, somehow you managed to reach the point, where #president, who most of you (!) elected is felon, who pardons criminals and does pretty rude political statements to country, who is losing lives of it's citizens only because they have chosen the path of being a #free nation.
As a person from central #EU I must admit this is seriously hard to watch as I expected your society to be #freedom and #liberty friendly and yet I see your president fueling #propaganda from #Russia and bullying president of #Ukraine.
I do not think this is a great way to #StopWar - this is a way to lose it. I'm hell-of-a-sure that befriending pretty much dictator of #Russia while his propagandists talks about nuking Washington is not a good idea, but somehow your president believes it is.
Please reconsider and act, this is not funny and people are dying. Your voices need to be heard or somehow you might find out you live in country you never imagined...
BREAKING NEWS 🚨
After yesterday's events in the White House, Haltbakk Bunkers, one of Norway's largest marine fuel companies, appears to have announced that it will no longer refuel American Navy vessels.
Haltbakk has called on other European companies to refuse service to American forces as well.
@Gargron @EUCommission The European Commission is on Bluesky too: https://bsky.app/profile/ec.europa.eu, but hopefully they’ll be able to switch to their own PDS or one based in Europe one day…
So, first things first, all US bases in the EU should be shut down as a matter of urgency. The last thing you want is soldiers of a hostile state within your own walls. Would we have Russian bases in the EU? No? (Well guess what? Now we do.)
Heck, at least the Greeks had the common courtesy to hide in a wooden horse.
Listen to Kaja Kallas who perfectly explains the situation, glad that she is part of the EU Commission.
https://youtu.be/t7HCKOkWUB0?si=UutPI7GwHUU5niZj
So, fascists hand in hand.
What do Europeans think of #Orwell and #Huxley?
- 99% believe that it describes a possible future, and warns for #dystopia if we don't reign in our tech.
- 80% lacks the language to realize that 1984 and #BraveNewWorld are here today. And that #Newspeak makes that unthinkable.
- 70% will build #skynet without realizing it, and confuse it for technological progress.
What do Europeans think of science and technology?
- 83% believe science and tech have a positive impact,
- 67% say science makes life easier, healthier and more comfortable,
- 58% want to learn more about scientific advances.
Organizations, activists, political and material collectives who run for environmental issues, #ClimateCrisis etc. should take action to fight #warmongers. They openly say (everywhere, not just in #EuropeanUnion) that they must spend the money of #workingclass (you remember that big companies have less taxes than us?) for armaments and to leave the (capitalist) green transition aside. Means they don't care at all about the destruction war industry and their inevitable wars produce. Tusk explains better.
«Making references to Russia's full-scale invasion of #Ukraine and Belarus's campaign of instrumentalised migration, which his country has experienced firsthand, Tusk implored EU states to address security "seriously" and be "flexible" and "creative" to design novel ways to finance the necessary boost in military expenditure.»
«"I'll be honest: we shouldn't really care too much about what method we adopt to finance pan-#European defence projects," he told lawmakers in #Strasbourg.»
«In the prime minister's view, "some" of the environmental regulations that the #EU has introduced in the past five years are responsible for the "prohibitively" high #energy prices. - Energy bills began rising in 2022 when the market hit record-high levels in reaction to #Russia 's manipulation of gas supplies.»
A message to my fellow Europeans.
Don't be paralysed by overseas fascism.
It is time for Europe and its citizens to focus less on the USA.
Stop obsessively following the news in a country where you cannot change anything.
Focus your attention on where you can make an impact.
All attention is needed here to fight growing fascism.
So is anyone in the #EU working on a #distributed, #e2ee #chat app?
I know about matrix, no need to go there.
:boost_anim_vanilla:
In these troubled times, it’s nice to finally have a feel good, happy story
An Open Letter to All European Politicians and Leaders to Abandon X/Twitter:
"By abandoning X/Twitter, leaders can reduce its credibility, promote fairer alternatives, and take a stand against the spread of disinformation, ensuring democratic principles are upheld."
H/T to @everton137 for organizing this - already close to 1,000 signatures:
For anyone in the #EU using #AltStore, you can also add my repo with free games:
alt.stux.me/repo.json
BREAKING NEWS 🚨🚨
Another submarine telecom cable has been cut in the Baltic Sea.
This time it’s a cable between Sweden and Lithuania.
Yesterday, the news broke that a cable between Finland and Germany had been cut.
# How many lines of code to show our love for coders?
print("Just one: 🇪🇺 ❤️ 👨💻👩💻")
On #WorldCodingDay, we celebrate your passion and commitment to code an innovative, open digital society.
We are here to help with:
🔹 The Digital Markets Act, ensuring fair access to essential platform services and promoting interoperability.
🔸 The Digital Services Act, protecting your fundamental rights online.
Europe's new digital rulebook is the source code.
You are the compiler that brings it to life.
Two and a half weeks are left, to make the official European Citizens Initiative #TaxTheRich work!
We still need 6̶9̶0̶.̶0̶0̶0̶ 673.000 signatures, which sounds like a lot, but for a union of 450 million people, it should be a piece of cake!
We also still need 4 more countries to reach their national threshold of supporters:
BE, NL, IT, ES, SE are on a good way.
If you are an #EU citizen, and have not signed yet:
What are you waiting for?
Edit: Number updated.
In the near-term, the EU’s regulatory flex is a roadmap for a feature starved version of iOS in the EU. If Apple has to fork iOS anyway, the safe bet is to withhold features from EU users; reducing regulatory risk, containing security exposure, and limiting development investment in the iOS fork.