Is there a Mastodon plushie made in the #EU? I want one, but buying from USA is not possible.

Erdoğan’s fascist regime in Turkey has arrested more members of the secular and progressive Istanbul municipality – including Murat Ongun and his wife. (This comes after he arrested the mayor – Ekrem İmamoğlu – Turkish presidential candidate and his main rival.)

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/turkey-detains-47-members-istanbul-municipality-widening-crackdown-2025-04-26/

The last time I’d spoken with Murat was when he’d invited me to speak in Istanbul about my work on Small Technology. I sadly had to refuse as they couldn’t guarantee my safety because I’d spoken out against Erdoğan in Berlin and labelled a “terrorist” by the mayor of Ankara for it:

https://ar.al/notes/my-speech-at-general-assembly-in-berlin-november-2017/

(Needless to say, the place I can be most useful is not in a Turkish prison.)

Erdoğan is a dictator who has installed fascism in Turkey with the full blessing and billions of euros of support from the EU (because we use him as a dam to keep the Brown people away from our shores).

Shame on you, @EUCommission, for your silence and complicity.

#Turkey #Erdogan #fascism #EU #EuropeanUnion #complicity #Türkiye #Erdoğan #faşizm #AB #AvrupaBirliği #SuçOrtaklığı

Apparently the #EU is introducing new product labels for smartphones and tablets that include #repairability scores and battery endurance information.
There is also a document on the repairability scoring system including how many steps you have to take to replace primary parts, parts availability and minimum duration of guaranteed security updates.
https://susproc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/product-bureau/sites/default/files/2021-12/JRC_Report_Repair_Score_Smartphone_Tablets_v2.pdf

This is really awesome!

A billboard by The Telegraph, reportedly in Kent, England.

NL is een van de weinige landen in de #EU waar overheidsdiensten zo afhankelijk zijn van niet-Europese techaanbieders. In landen zoals Duitsland is deze afhankelijkheid een stuk lager. Dit laat zien dat digitale #autonomie een haalbare kaart is. Toch ontraadt staatssecretaris Szabó de motie van Six Dijkstra c.s. over het hanteren van de doelstelling 'dat de continuïteit van de Nederlandse digitale #overheid niet rechtstreeks afhankelijk is van partijen vanuit de #VS'. Map

#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.

@SnowshadowII

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.

#EU #Science

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:

https://www.openpetition.eu/petition/online/an-open-letter-to-all-european-politicians-and-leaders-to-abandon-x-twitter