Europe Pub

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Amsterdam is the first capital in the world to legally ban advertising for meat and fossil fuel products. The ban will be enshrined in the municipal ordinance (APV) and represents a tightening of previous policy.

This decision was taken in Thursday 22nd of January and means that advertisements for meat and air travel, cruises and cars with fossil fuel engines, among other things, will disappear from Amsterdam's streets, metro stations and train stations as of 1 May 2026.

This makes Amsterdam the 9th city in the Netherlands to enshrine a fossil ad ban in its legal system (the ordinance or by-law). The decision follows after a Dutch court ruled last year that municipalities are allowed to ban advertisements that are harmful to health and the climate.

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At the end of 2020, Amsterdam became the first city in the world to ban fossil advertising. The city council passed a motion to ban fossil fuel advertising when renewing contracts with advertising operators. However, this meant that 5 years after the policy was adopted, fossil advertising was still visible everywhere, as the contracts typically run for a decade or more. Moreover, the initiative was in practice limited to the metro stations of Amsterdam.

By implementing the fossil ad ban through the ordinance, all ads for fossil fuel products and meat will be forbidden from May 1st 2026 all over the city, whether the city has a contract with the advertising operator or not, whether this contract is running for another 8 years or not. This makes the ordinance (public law) far more effective to ban climatewrecking ads than a fossil ad ban by contracts/tenders (private law).

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The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported in early January that 2025 was the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since 2022. Civilian casualties were 31% higher than in 2024 and 70% higher than in 2023. Russian attacks killed 2,514 verified civilians and injured 12,142—and the real numbers are almost certainly higher.

The scale of Russian firepower behind these numbers is staggering.

In 2025, Russia launched 53,732 combat drones against Ukraine—a fivefold increase over 2024. That averages to 147 drones every night, over a thousand per week. Russia nearly doubled its use of ballistic and aeroballistic missiles to 568, on top of 1,330 cruise and other missiles. In October 2025, Russia fired a record 89 ballistic missiles at Ukraine. January 2026 broke that record again with 91—plus 6,000 drones, 5,500 guided aerial bombs, and 158 additional missiles.

The human cost is not abstract. On 19 November, Russia struck the western city of Ternopil, killing 38 civilians, including eight children. Ten families lost at least two members. On 31 July, Kyiv suffered its deadliest attack since 2022—32 killed, including five children, 170 wounded.

Along the front, the majority of casualties came from a 120% increase in short-range drone use—the tactic known as "human safari," where Russian operators deliberately chase and kill individual civilians, many of them elderly people unable to evacuate.

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Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure, causing outages that have left hundreds of thousands of people without lighting or heating in temperatures well below zero.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv had requested emergency assistance from Poland after Russia hit the Burshtynska and Dobrotvirska power plants in western Ukraine.

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46943117

Swedish aerospace manufacturer Saab has proposed that a hypothetical Gripen production line in Canada would be large enough to also serve export customers besides making planes for the Canadian Air Force.

The statement is the latest effort by Saab in sweetening the pot for Canada to give the Swedish company a slice of its fighter jet business.

“We need to ramp up our [fighter jet] production capabilities, to a level where it’s not only for Canada – we do see that [the potential line] will produce for export as well,” Mikael Franzén, chief marketing officer for the Gripen at Saab, told reporters at the Singapore Airshow here.

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More than 2,600 EU citizens were asked questions in mostly face-to-face meetings in November.

• 69% say they wanted an expanded security role in global crises
• 87% a more diplomatically aggressive Brussels on topics like peace and climate change
• 90% called for a bloc more unified to tackle key issues
• EU citizens were increasingly focused on defense, which emerged as the top priority in 18 of the 27 EU nations

A utility bill came on paper using:

• black text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, orange, gray..)
• white text (on a variety of different backgrounds- blue, green..)
• very light grey text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• blue text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• 2 kinds of bold text (extra heavy black and dark green)

I’m not blind. I can see it just fine. But when I try to scan this thing into a bi-level doc, it’s impossible because of this shit-show of color combinations. There is no possible level by which all the text can be made clear. As soon as a level is used to eliminate the colored backgrounds, a lot of the light gray text goes white. This forces me to scan it as color, which wastes file space.

So I thought-- what about blind people? Aren’t they fucked in this situation? If I were blind, I would scan, OCR, then use a screen reader on the text. Some OCR tools can work on color docs but I don’t think all OCR software has that.

Reaching the accessibility law is itself a shitshow in the EU now that the EU blocks Tor. Indeed, only clearnet users are permitted to be aware of the law. I had to pull directive 2019/882 from the archives, where the most recent capture was bad but an old capture was fetchable.

Directive 2019/882 seems to only address “products and services”, and documentation for that commercial category. I see nothing about paper bills. That seems bizarre, no?

I found this Color Contrast for PDF Accessibility: Why Does It Matter?, but that’s not exactly relevant.

So is the utility company legally compliant with this shitty unscannable invoice design?

The American president has invited Canada to become his country's "51st state," an idea that has infuriated most of Canada's 40 million citizens.

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Hence this suggestion: Why not expand the EU to include Canada? Is that so far-fetched an idea? In any case, Canadians have actually considered the question themselves. In February 2025, a survey conducted by Abacus Data on a sample of 1,500 people found that 44% of those polled supported the idea, compared to 34% who opposed it. Better the 28th EU country than the 51st US state!

One might object: Canada is not European, as required for EU membership by Article 49 of the EU Treaty. But what does "European" actually mean? The word cannot be understood in a strictly geographic sense, or Cyprus, closer to Asia, would not be part of the EU. So the term must be understood in a cultural sense.

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As [Canadian Prime Minister Mark] Carney said in Paris, in March: Thanks to its French and British roots, Canada is "the most European of non-European countries." He speaks from experience, having served as governor of the Bank of England (a post that is assigned based on merit, not nationality). Culturally and ideologically, Canada is close to European democracies: It shares the same belief in the welfare state, the same commitment to multilateralism and the same rejection of the death penalty or uncontrolled firearms.

Moreover, Canada is a Commonwealth monarchy that shares a king with the United Kingdom.

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Even short of a formal application, it would be wiser for Ottawa to strengthen its ties with European democracies rather than with the Chinese regime. The temptation is there: Just before heading to Davos, Carney signed an agreement with Beijing to lower tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

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Two Chinese nationals suspected of trying to intercept satellite communications from a base in an Airbnb rental property in southwestern France have been placed under formal investigation, the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Thursday.

Police were first alerted last week when locals noticed that a roughly two-metre-wide satellite dish being installed at the property in Gironde, which coincided with an internet outage, the office said.

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The two Chinese nationals, and two other people, were arrested and brought before an investigating judge on Wednesday and were formally placed under investigation.

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The case is the latest in a series of incidents involving allegations of Chinese spying in Europe.

Tensions between Beijing and Western powers over espionage have risen in recent years as Western intelligence agencies increasingly sound the alarm on alleged Chinese state-backed hacking activity. China has consistently denied the allegations. China has also alleged hacking operations by Western countries.

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The judicial investigation will focus on alleged offences including the unlawful disclosure of sensitive information to foreign entities, potentially harming national interests, and the organised theft of data from an automated processing system.

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The officer, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, served in a critical communications and electronic systems role within the Air Force. Initial reports indicate the leaked data pertained to sensitive NATO-related intelligence, though officials have emphasized that the recipient was not neighboring Turkey, with whom Greece maintains strained relations. Instead, sources point to China as the beneficiary.

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This incident is not isolated. It follows a pattern of confirmed Chinese espionage activities targeting Greek military assets. In July 2025, four Chinese nationals were detained near Tanagra Air Base for photographing Hellenic Rafale fighter jets and nearby facilities operated by the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI). The group, which included a minor and posed as tourists, was found with extensive multimedia evidence of the base's operations. Greek authorities launched a thorough investigation to determine if this was part of a broader intelligence-gathering campaign, raising alarms about Beijing's interest in advanced European military technologies.

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Beyond espionage, tensions extend to maritime domains. The Hellenic Navy has been actively engaged in the Red Sea as part of the EU's Operation Aspides, countering threats from Yemen's Houthi rebels amid disruptions to global shipping lanes. While direct confrontations with Chinese forces have not been reported, analysts note China's growing naval presence in the region, including incidents like a Chinese warship allegedly using a laser against a German surveillance aircraft in July 2025. Furthermore, accusations have surfaced that Chinese satellite technology may be aiding Houthi attacks, which have targeted Greek-owned vessels, exacerbating perceptions of indirect clashes with Chinese expansionism.

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Economic dimensions add another layer to this multifaceted rivalry. China's state-owned COSCO Shipping holds a 67% stake in the Port of Piraeus, transforming it into a key hub for the Belt and Road Initiative. However, this investment has drawn scrutiny from the United States, which blacklisted COSCO in January 2025 over alleged ties to China's military.

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Greek courts have also intervened, blocking COSCO's expansion plans in 2022 due to environmental concerns, reflecting domestic resistance to unchecked foreign influence.

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The dangers that big social media platforms pose to democracy, such as the spread of disinformation, polarisation, microtargeting, and manipulative advertising—are well-documented and significant. The question of whether a ban on user profiling for marketing purposes could address these issues is complex but I still don't understand why a real debate was never started.

What are the potential Benefits of Banning User Profiling for Marketing?

User profiling enables highly targeted advertising, which, as we know, can be exploited to amplify divisive content, spread misinformation, or influence voter behaviour. A ban could reduce the precision and effectiveness of such campaigns, thereby mitigating their impact on public opinion and democratic processes.

Profiling also allows malicious actors to identify and exploit vulnerable groups with tailored disinformation. Restricting profiling could make it harder to deliver customised false narratives, thereby slowing the spread of misleading or harmful content.

Enhanced User Privacy. Banning profiling for marketing would align with stronger data protection principles, such as those enshrined in the GDPR. This could restore user trust in digital platforms and reduce the commodification of personal data.

We could have a massive reduction in polarisation. Algorithmic amplification, driven by profiling, often prioritises engaging but polarising content. Limiting profiling could reduce the echo chamber effect, where users are repeatedly exposed to extreme or one-sided viewpoints.

A ban could reduce the advantage that well-funded actors (e.g., political campaigns, corporations) gain from microtargeting, thereby promoting fairer public discourse.

Seem quite clear what the challenges and Limitations of a ban are. Sure there are enforcement difficulties: Profiling is deeply embedded in the business models of social media platforms. Enforcing a ban would require robust regulatory frameworks, cross-border cooperation, and technical oversight, all of which are challenging to implement consistently.

Obviusly there could be Impact on Legitimate uses, I mean, not all profiling is harmful. For example, personalisation can enhance user experience by delivering relevant content. A blanket ban might disrupt benign or beneficial applications, such as local business advertising or public service announcements.

This would have massive economic Implications for platforms. Social media companies rely heavily on targeted advertising for revenue. This would help the fediverse a lot.

There are some alternative and complementary measures.We could ask stronger transparency and accountability. Mandate platforms to disclose how algorithms and profiling are used, including the criteria for content recommendation and ad targeting. Require independent audits of algorithms to assess their impact on democracy and user rights. for sure a big area of intervation should be the regulation of political Advertising. Implement stricter rules for political ads, such as mandatory disclosure of funding sources, targeting criteria, and the use of profiling. Ban microtargeting for political advertising, as proposed in the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and other regulatory frameworks. We could require platforms to design algorithms that prioritise democratic values, such as pluralism, accuracy, and fairness, over engagement metrics. Introduce "circuit breakers" to limit the viral spread of harmful content, as suggested by some policymakers and researchers.

Important could be empowering users.Provide users with meaningful controls over their data, including the ability to opt out of profiling and access clear explanations of how their data is used. Promote digital literacy initiatives to help users recognise and resist manipulative content.

Also, support independent journalism and public interest media to counterbalance the influence of algorithmically amplified contentaEncourage the development of decentralised social media platforms (e.g., Mastodon, PeerTube) that prioritise user control and reduce reliance on centralised profiling.

Bans on certain forms of targeted advertising (e.g., based on sensitive data like political opinions or sexual orientation). Risk assessments for systemic risks, including impacts on democratic processes. The AI Act further restricts harmful uses of AI-driven profiling, reinforcing the EU’s commitment to mitigating the risks posed by big social media.

So, yes, a ban on user profiling for marketing could be a valuable component of a broader strategy to protect democracy. Why there is basically no conversation about this?

Russia’s supreme court has reduced by only one year the 14-year sentence passed against Oksana Hladkykh, a mother of four abducted from her home in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in November 2023. This was presumably a cassation appeal, as the original sentence, passed on 7 June 2024 by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, had been upheld on 7 November 2024 by the first court of appeal in Moscow. All of Russia’s ‘treason trials’, including the supreme court hearing which seems to have been at the end of October 2025, are behind closed doors with this one of the reasons why information is scant and often delayed. Although the supreme court ‘judges’ removed a part of the charge (the accusation of providing “other help to a foreign country”) and reduced the sentence from 14 to 13 years, they chose to see no reason to overturn a manifestly wrongful conviction on ‘treason’ charges under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.

The reasons for dismissing the charges and releasing the 49-year-old Ukrainian could not have been clearer and were set out by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project when it declared Oksana Hladkykh a political prisoner in August 2025. Hladkykh had never concealed her opposition to the Russian invaders and had openly expressed her views on social media, with this clearly the reason for her denunciation on a scurrilous Telegram channel aimed at hunting out those with a strong pro-Ukrainian position, as well as for her ‘arrest’ / abduction in late November 2023). Neighbours from Dobrivka have suggested to RIA-South that Hladkykh’s former husband, who supported the Russians, could have denounced her to curry favour with the invaders. It is also possible that Hladkykh had corresponded with somebody who claimed to be from HUR, and that this was, in fact, an FSB setup.

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In writing about the cassation appeal ruling on 31 January 2026, RIA South said that Hladkykh’s persecution had become a symbol of how Ukrainians are punished on occupied territory for remaining true to Ukraine. Her neighbours from Dobrivka are convinced that she was seized because of her civic stand and because she was not afraid to speak the truth.

“Oksana was principled. From the outset, she opposed the invaders and was open in calling things by their proper name. She was not afraid to tell the invaders to their face what she thought of them. Her abduction was a warning to us all – so that we would be afraid to say a word against Russia.”

“Her only guilt is in being a Ukrainian and in the fact that she did not betray her country. That’s enough for them to imprison a person."

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The Russians came for Hladkykh on 24 November 2023. The children were not allowed inside, from where they heard screams. Their mother was taken away, with the Russians initially claiming that this was for four days. This was a brutal lie and Oksana Hladkykh was sentenced, for her patriotism and unwillingness to be cowered by the invaders, to a term of imprisonment higher than the sentences Russia regularly uses against murderers and other real criminals.

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paginademedia.ro/stiri-media/e…

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46901420

Europe’s two biggest carmakers have urged Brussels to tweak purchase subsidies and public procurement to favour domestic production over imported vehicles, calling for clear labelling and additional incentives for electric cars built in Europe.

In an opinion piece published in national newspapers on Wednesday night, the CEOs of Volkswagen and Stellantis – which together account for about 40% of the EU car market – urged the European Commission to build on incoming domestic production mandates with a full-blown ‘made-in-Europe’ strategy.

Their position appears to be at odds with that of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), of which both companies are members, after the lobby group warned that domestic production quotas could complicate European companies’ access to global markets.

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The strategy should be built on the principle of “fair competition” in the EU single market – a likely nod towards cheap imports from China – and be designed to channel EU taxpayers’ money towards promoting local production, wrote Oliver Blume and Antonio Filosa.

The Volkswagen and Stellantis directors, respectively, reasoned that the made-in-Europe label should be based not just on the location of production lines, but also on where electric powertrains, battery cells and other key components are manufactured.

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ACEA has urged caution over any made-in-Europe preference, likely due to internal divisions. The German premium carmaker BMW, for example, is understood to be against the introduction of local preference criteria.

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Long renowned among residents for slow-crawling traffic and infuriating parking hunts, the Austrian capital of Vienna is taking an unusual approach to solving the problem. Far from adding new lots, it is removing on-street parking.

The idea is to break up concrete, not only to cool things off in summer but to encourage alternative transit options.

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With more than 350 projects focused on converting asphalt into green and public spaces, the city is removing a lot of parking, even in the central Neuer Markt. Located next to some of the biggest tourist attractions, it was once characterized by rows of parking spaces. Now the square has been pedestrianized and filled with trees and seating for locals and visitors.

And one of Vienna's central arteries has been converted into a "Dutch-inspired" cycling street, where 140 parking spots have made way for 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) of bike lanes and plant life.

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Ensuring residents can still get around is vital to winning public support for these shifts.

"We have to take people on board," Ina Homeier, a planner at Vienna's Department of Urban Planning and Development, told DW. "We have to ask: how do you want your neighborhood? Do you want it to be filled with cars and without any trees, or do you want something different?" she said.

Expanding paid parking zones brings in €180 million ($209 million) annually, which the city puts directly into cycling infrastructure to encourage alternative mobility. Vienna's green urban agenda has seen residents using cars 37% less than they did in the 1990s.

And though polling indicates that more than two-thirds of the city's residents favor reducing parking and establishing additional green spaces, she believes more people need to be won over.

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I am attempting to transfer all of my data from my Google Drive to my local NAS. If I copy all of the files from drive, does that get everything from Google Photos?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50272655

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Valerie Baudson, whose firm has €2.4tn of assets under management, said Amundi would advise clients to shift away from the greenback over the coming year, warning that if US economic policy remains unchanged, “we will go on seeing a [weakening] of the dollar”.

“Amundi has been diversifying a lot and has been advising [clients] to diversify a lot . . . over the last 12-15 months, and is going on advising its clients to diversify their positions for the year to come,” Baudson said in an interview on Tuesday.

Amundi is the latest big investor to say it is looking to cut or hedge its exposure to US assets amid concerns about Donald Trump’s volatile economic policies. The dollar has weakened sharply since the president’s “liberation day” tariff shock last April, a fall given new impetus this year by Trump’s threats against European allies over Greenland and worries about the independence of the Federal Reserve.

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The EU executive on Tuesday, February 3, strongly rejected accusations made in a US congressional report that it had forced social media platforms to censor American content.

In a scathing 160-page report, the Republican-dominated judiciary committee of the House of Representatives claimed the European Commission had spent 10 years trying to "censor the global internet" and American citizens' speech.

The report's release came on the eve of a hearing by the committee chaired by President Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan, entitled "Europe's Threat to American Speech and Innovation, Part II."

The accusations drew a strong rebuke from the EU. "On the latest censorship allegations. Pure nonsense. Completely unfounded," EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

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A first report by the US House committee last year took aim at the EU's legal armory, especially its 2023 content law, the Digital Services Act – which Trump's administration accuses of discriminating against US firms.

The new report described the DSA as "the culmination of a decade-long European effort to silence political opposition and suppress online narratives that criticize the political establishment."

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The Trump-allied tech tycoon Elon Musk cheered the release of the report in an X post entitled "Tyrants love censorship."

But the EU's Regnier pushed back, pointing to online platforms' ability to "algorithmically influence elections" and Europe's efforts to ensure "free and fair elections."

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe," Regnier said, adding that the DSA "is protecting that right against big tech."

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AUR se află în centrul unui scandal financiar internațional după ce a încheiat un contract cu o firmă americană de lobby pentru a facilita accesul liderului său, George Simion, la înalți oficiali ai administrației SUA, inclusiv președintele Donald Trump și vicepreședintele JD Vance.