Politico is part of Springer SE … good old German right wing populism. What do you expect?

Retrotopia.

Rewilding Europe!

Isn’t this what the UN Blue Helmets should be doing?

Once a peace treaty has been negotiated, the parties involved might ask the United Nations for a peacekeeping force to supervise various elements of the agreed upon plan. This is often done because a group controlled by the United Nations is less likely to favor the interests of any one party since it itself is controlled by many groups, namely the 15-member Security Council and the intentionally diverse .

Staan stands for Search Trusted API Access Network. I think that it’s just your typical European „acronym which happens to be or sound like a word“ like PESCO (PErmanent Structured COoperation) or ELSTER (ELektronische STeuer ERklärung). It is really common in EU contexts.

The German Sovereign Tech Fund begs to differ.

No wonder, just look who the author is:

Sebastian Vogelsang is Developer of Flashes, a photo- and video-sharing app built on the AT Protocol.

AT is the blue sky protocol.

FOSS can have a single design philosophy. It just needs enough funding and structure. Just look at the Eclipse Foundation (Java).

If we would have a Fediverse Foundation (perhaps with EU backing) that distributes funds to different Fediverse related organisations and has a board for standardisation we could have a very different outcome.

It’s basically some sort of Enshitification: AI does the job bad in short time so the company can make more? Quality is not important as long as a shitty version of the product can go live.

Disgusting!

Words form realities. We have to start spelling out what is wrong and what is right. The press is called the forth power for a reason!

It is wrong to sell this island to the Trumps. It is wrong to build a rich people disney land.

This island should be a protected area. A natural habitat.

Can we please stop speaking of „development“ when some billionaires start throwing money at a natural habitat that should be protected. Instead it will now become some kind of uber rich disney land.

Just to add to it: This is by no means my own opinion. It just shows the conservative playbook.

It’s the on going debate in German politics and media. Now-chancellor Merz focused his whole campaign in 2024 around „no debt“ (Schuldenbremse, schwarze Null). The first thing he does after becoming chancellor in 2025 is a 500 billion euro package (because of Ukraine, which is fair — but was completely against the campaign proposal) only for defence and infrastructure. In turn the coalition now argues that they cannot maintain „Bürgergeld“ (social welfare) or invest into education. People have to „work more“ because of the debt.

There is no need to cut welfare spending for the sake of defense. Europe can afford both, and must. Once again, Mr. Sanchez doesn’t appear to talk for his country and Europe but rather pursuing interests of others.

Well, in Germany the story is told the other way around: Now that we are investing in more defence, we have to cut social welfare.

Luckily he‘s not the one who decides on that topic. It would be the constitutional court.

Despite their cost-intensive operation, steam engines prevailed over water and wind power (cottages, hammers, mills) during the industrial revolution because they made it possible to exploit workers more continuously and to “decouple” from nature. Against this background, this manoeuvre can also be interpreted as class warfare from above. We need a new system. #Solarpunk #Ecosocialism

Bitter.

As I said: opposition is always a chance to rethink your position and get a sharper profile. The Left is moving in a good direction after the breakup. Parties are huge constructs that need sone time to change. My hope is that the Greens will be pulled to the left as well.

But the Left and Greens are in opposition — this is a chance. Hopefully they are able to mobilise as well in the coming years.