Tag: eu

Merkel Urges EU to Keep Regulating Social Media Speech

Angela Merkel used her first major European platform since leaving office to tell the EU exactly what it wanted to hear: keep regulating speech online, and don’t worry too much about getting it wrong.

The former German chancellor, speaking Tuesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, urged the bloc to “continue regulating the social media” and artificial intelligence. “To believe that responsibility for spreading information is no longer necessary, that accountability – there should be no accountability for lies, then that would undermine democracy,” she told the chamber.

Lies. Who decides what counts as a lie? In the EU’s model, that question gets answered by the European Commission, by government-appointed regulators, by “trusted flaggers” that platforms are legally required to obey. Not by courts. Not through anything resembling due process.

Merkel knows this system well. Her government built the prototype. Germany’s NetzDG law, passed under her chancellorship in 2017, required platforms to delete “clearly illegal” content within 24 hours or face fines up to €50 million.

The people whose speech got censored under it included a satirical magazine, a political street artist, and an opposition party leader. NetzDG became an export product, copied by governments in Russia, Turkey, and across Southeast Asia, each adapting it to their own definition of “illegal.”

The EU took the concept continent-wide with the Digital Services Act, which requires major platforms to assess and reduce “systemic risks,” a category broad enough to cover “civic discourse,” “electoral processes,” and “public security.”

The Commission writes the rules, decides whether platforms comply, and levies fines of up to 6% of global revenue when they don’t. No independent prosecutor. X is currently challenging the first DSA fine ever imposed, a €120 million penalty from December 2025, arguing the process involved “grave procedural errors” and “systematic breaches of rights of defence and basic due process.”

More than 50 European NGOs have warned that the DSA’s vague terms could violate the EU Charter’s own free expression protections. The Commission’s response was to declare the law “content-agnostic” and move on.

Merkel acknowledged none of this. She told parliamentarians that “perhaps mistakes will be made, but we learn through mistakes.” That’s cold comfort when the mistakes involve censoring legal speech and silencing political opposition through systems with no judicial oversight and no meaningful appeal.

Her remarks came at the inaugural ceremony for the European Order of Merit, where she was honored alongside 19 other laureates, including Lech Wałęsa, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She framed regulation as essential to democracy. “We’ve had 75 years of European thought,” she said. “Peace, prosperity, and democracy.”

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U.S. Removing 5,000 Troops From Europe

NATO’s top military commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, assured allies Tuesday that the planned withdrawal of approximately 5,000 American troops from Europe will not weaken the alliance’s defense posture in the region.

Speaking to reporters after meetings with NATO military chiefs in Brussels, Gen. Grynkewich — who serves as both Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and head of U.S. European Command — described the move as part of a broader adjustment in U.S. force posture. The withdrawal involves an armored brigade, primarily from Germany, and aligns with efforts to shift more conventional defense responsibilities to European allies and Canada, reported Reuters.

“I’d like to emphasise this decision does not impact the executability of our regional plans,” Grynkewich said. He noted that as the “European pillar” of NATO strengthens, the U.S. can focus on providing critical capabilities that allies cannot yet fully deliver.

The drawdown, announced by the Trump administration earlier this month, comes amid ongoing reviews of U.S. commitments in Europe. Grynkewich indicated that further adjustments to the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in Europe are expected over several years, timed to coincide with growing allied capabilities.

The comments aim to reassure NATO partners following concerns over the reduction, which follows heightened U.S. pressure for European nations to increase defense spending. Grynkewich stressed that the process will be gradual to maintain deterrence, particularly along the alliance’s eastern flank.

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The EU’s sanctions fever: From Russia to China, a crisis expands

The European Union has taken yet another step in its long-running confrontation with Russia. But what now stands out is not only the scale – it is the restless, almost reflexive expansion of sanctions as a default instrument of policy.

In April, EU authorities unveiled their 20th round of sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus, while pointedly extending their reach toward China.

Sanctions spiral

What was once framed as a targeted response now resembles a sanctions regime without clear geographic or strategic limits. By including 56 designations tied to Russia’s military-industrial complex – 17 of them in China, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, and Central Asia – the EU has effectively dissolved the boundaries of its own confrontation. Another 60 entities now face tightened export controls tied to alleged contributions to Russia’s defense sector.

For the first time, even a Chinese state-owned entity has been targeted by anti-Belarusian sanctions. In Brussels, this is justified through the language of “dual-use” goods. But outside Europe, the perception is of a growing tendency toward economic coercion that stretches legal authority across borders, fueled by an escalating appetite for pressure.

China’s response was swift: officials condemned what they described as “long-arm jurisdiction,” rejecting the EU’s attempt to discipline Chinese firms operating far beyond European territory. More importantly, Beijing read the move as a signal of the EU’s shifting posture toward China itself.

Within a day, China placed seven European entities on its control list over arms sales to Taiwan, imposing restrictions that mirror the EU’s own extraterritorial reach. These measures prohibit the transfer of Chinese goods to the targeted firms, extending the ripple effects well beyond those directly sanctioned.

The list includes one German entity, two Belgian firms, and four Czech companies – including military industrial manufacturers Omnipol and Excalibur Army, all deeply embedded in supply chains connected to Ukraine.

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EU Governments Move To Open Offshore Migrant Camps, Reform the ‘European Convention on Human Rights’ and Curb Unchecked Mass Migration

Offshore migrant camps are the name of the game.

For years, in Europe, suggesting that unchecked mass migration was a bad thing was considered ‘far-right’ and ‘racist’.

But those days are far from over, and even the most liberal of countries have now begun implementing policies to deal at least minimally with the invasion.

Italy under Giorgia Meloni has the ‘Albania plan’; Britain under Rishi Sunak had the ‘Rwanda plan’, in both cases, camps were built to receive failed ‘asylum seekers’ (a.k.a. economic migrants) outside the European Union, as a way to start dealing with the migrant invasion.

Both in Italy and the UK, the deportations to the camps were stopped by activist judges, on the grounds that the plans were illegal in the face of the ‘European Convention on Human Rights’.

Now, a group of European governments is demanding permission to run offshore migrant camps, in a push to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

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Romania Strikes Back and Humiliates the EU After Their 2024 Electoral Coup

On May 5, 2026, the pro-European government of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan collapsed in a parliamentary no-confidence vote engineered by an unlikely but explosive alliance: the Social Democrats (PSD) and the sovereigntist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). The motion passed with 281 votes, well above the 233 threshold in Romania’s 464-seat parliament. Ten months after Bolojan took office, the Brussels-backed austerity regime he presided over lies in ruins. For millions of Romanians, this wasn’t just politics. It was payback.

Everyone in Romania knew what happened in November 2024. An obscure independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, surged from nowhere on a platform of national sovereignty, anti-austerity, and skepticism toward endless NATO adventures in Ukraine. He won the first round outright on a wave of grassroots TikTok energy, no lavish campaign, no oligarch money, just raw popular discontent with the neoliberal order. Then the machine kicked in. The Constitutional Court, citing declassified intelligence reports about “Russian interference” via social media algorithms, annulled the entire election. Georgescu was branded a Kremlin puppet, banned from future runs, and hounded with investigations. The rerun produced a safe, pro-EU placeholder government. Romanians called it what it was: a coup d’état.

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WW3 WATCH: Russian Parliament Approves Law Authorizing Military ‘To Protect Russian Citizens Abroad’, as Critics Warn It Allows Putin To Invade Other Countries

Blood is thicker than water (and oil).

The brutal war in Ukraine is in its fifth year, and seemingly nowhere near the end, despite statements to the contrary by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and US President Donald J. Trump.

But already on the horizon, there appear dark clouds suggesting further military conflicts may be about to erupt.

Euronews reported:

“Russia’s State Duma approved a law allowing the use of the armed forces “to protect Russian citizens abroad,” which de facto permits Vladimir Putin to invade other countries.

Russia’s lawmakers have passed a law formally authorizing the Kremlin to deploy troops abroad to ‘protect Russian citizens’, giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the authority in practice to invade foreign countries.”

“According to the State Duma documents, the ‘bill was drafted to protect the rights of Russian citizens in the event of their arrest, detention, criminal or other prosecution pursuant to decisions of foreign courts vested with criminal jurisdiction by other foreign states without Russia’s participation’.”

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Dangerous Substance Found in Baby Food Jars Leads to Arrest, Discovery of Extortion Scheme

A 39-year-old man allegedly put rat poison in at least five baby food jars sold across central Europe, leading to his arrest in Austria.

The poisonings resulted in HiPP, the manufacturer of the baby food, recalling jars across Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office started investigating after a baby food jar in Eisenstadt, Austria, was determined to contain rat poison on April 18.

Investigators later found that jars of 190-gram carrot-and-potato baby food jars — meant for consumption by 5-month-olds — were the products impacted by the tampering.

They were sold in SPAR food markets in Austria.

HiPP recalled all of its baby food jars sold in SPAR stores, with vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic also recalling HiPP products as a precaution.

The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office announced the arrest but declined to provide further details, saying they could jeopardize the investigation, according to a report from USA Today.

The suspect was arrested in Salzburg, a city that borders Germany.

HiPP said that the poisonings may have come as an attempt to extort the company.

An email was sent to HiPP two months ago demanding $2.3 million in the following six days, although the message was not noticed until two weeks after the deadline had already passed.

The email was sent to an address that was not frequently checked.

The National Pesticide Information Center at Oregon State University says that rat poison, which is designed to kill mice and rats, can be lethal to children.

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EU Climate Cultist EXPLODES in Unhinged RAGE at Renowned Geologist During Brussels Lecture – Calls Opponents “Criminals,” Then Fires Off Midnight LinkedIn Meltdown to the Professor!

Brussels, the beating heart of the European Union’s bureaucratic empire – where “science” means whatever the green agenda demands and dissent gets you labeled a heretic. In a jaw-dropping display of totalitarian intolerance straight out of the climate cult playbook, a top EU official completely lost it during a public lecture by one of Europe’s leading geologists.

The incident unfolded Monday night at the end of a conference featuring Professor Alain Préat, a respected geologist and one of the finest scientific minds of his generation. Préat had just delivered a measured, fact-based presentation painting an encouraging picture of the evolving climate debate. Including the IPCC quietly ditching some of its most hysterical alarmist scenarios.

You know, the kind of inconvenient truth that doesn’t fit the EU’s trillion-euro “climate emergency” grift.

Enter Philippe Tulkens, Director of the European Commission’s Climate & Planetary Boundaries unit (and apparently self-appointed High Priest of the Green Inquisition). Under the flimsy pretext of “asking a question,” Tulkens launched into a foaming-at-the-mouth tirade. Screaming like a man possessed at the elderly professor.

Witnesses described him as red-faced, sweating, and completely unhinged as he ranted about the sacred “climate urgency” while insulting Préat and fellow professor Samuele Furfari – who tried to step in and restore order – as “old” and “flat-earthers” (platistes in French). He even took a bizarre swipe at Belgium’s classical-liberal MR party, calling it “far-right” for no apparent reason other than pure ideological derangement.

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Who’s Your Daddy Now? Failing War Empowering Euros To Break With Trump

Nearly a year ago, NATO Chief Mark Rutte of the Netherlands was excoriated for calling Donald Trump “daddy” in reference to the American president’s “tough talk” on Europe, whether it be on member states’ per capita contributions to the defense pot, or Washington’s demands to “take” Greenland.

This was at a time of course when European leaders believed that appeasing Trump in such ingratiating terms, and in dulcet tones pitched to soothe rather than challenge, was the way to the man’s heart, if not soul. It certainly did not work.

So after Trump’s second attack on Iran in Feb. 28 and the resulting Iranian closure of the Hormuz Strait happened, some Europeans decided to change their tune. In addition to Rutte never again uttering the word “daddy,” the Spanish president Pedro Sanchez closed off the country’s bases to U.S. military access and condemned Trump’s war as a violation of international law. Germany’s Frederich Merz called the Iran War “humiliating” for the U.S. Italy has closed its bases, and UK and French leaders said the U.S. could only use their bases to defend UK and French assets, not to launch operations against Iran.

Meanwhile, Trump looked around and demanded NATO member states help him wrench control of the strait from Iran. Aside from pledging to meet and come up with ideas to secure the strait after the war, no one has complied. To say Trump is agitated and lashing out as a result is an understatement.

The situation has called into question the future of NATO, as the administration has suggested that the alliance is falling down on its Article 5 obligations, which is not true — a member was not attacked and NATO is not an offensive alliance designed to enter wars at members’ behest. Regardless, if the cohesion of NATO was shaky before, some are saying it’s on life support now.

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EU chief turns up heat on social media’s ‘addictive’ design

The European Union is working on new rules to protect children from the addictive designs of social media platforms such as TikTok, Meta and X, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on May 12.

“Sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addictive behaviour, cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, suicide. Risks are multiplying fast,” she said in a speech in Copenhagen.

“These risks are the reality of the digital world. They are not accidental. They are the result of business models that treat our children’s attention as a commodity.”

Ms von der Leyen said the commission would specifically target “addictive and harmful design practices” in its Digital Fairness Act (DFA), due to be proposed towards the end of 2026.

The DFA would also set strict limits on the use of artificial intelligence in social media, she said, while advocating a minimum age for social media access.

Ms von der Leyen said the EU must consider setting a minimum age for access to social media, adding that the commission might make a proposal in the summer on the issue following recommendations from a panel of experts.

“The question is not whether young people should have access to social media, the question is whether social media should have access to young people,” she said.

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