Tag: eu

Google to be hit with EU charges of breaching Big Tech rules, sources say

Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google is set to be charged with breaching EU rules aimed at checking the power of Big Tech after proposed changes to its search results failed to address the EU antitrust regulator’s concerns and those of its rivals, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The move by the European Commission comes amid tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump who has sided with U.S. tech giants lobbying against EU regulations and criticising fines as a form of tariff. That has in turn triggered concerns that the EU watchdog may ease up on Big Tech.

The European Commission has been investigating Google for potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act since March last year.

One probe focuses on whether Google favours its vertical search engines such as Google Shopping, Google Flights and Google Hotels over rivals, and whether it discriminates against third-party services on Google search results.

The imminent charges concerned this issue, the people said.

The EU competition watchdog declined to comment. Google referred to a December blog post by its director, EMEA competition, Oliver Bethell, who said the company is working to find a balanced solution with the Commission.

Bethell said more changes in Google’s search result format to appease rivals could result in the removal of certain helpful features.

The U.S. tech giant has in recent months announced a series of changes to search result formats in a bid to address conflicting demands from price-comparison sites, hotels, airlines and small retailers. The majority of them have dismissed the proposals as not DMA-compliant.

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The Real Enemy of the American people Is Not Russia, but the EU Regime in Brussels

In his seminal speech at the recently concluded Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance said the following:

“[T]he threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values: values shared with the United States of America.”

Vance’s words convey a paradigm-changing truth that few have yet grasped.

The truth is this: As far as Europe is concerned, the real enemy of the American people is not Russia. The real enemy is the EU, specifically its ruling elite in Brussels.M.D. Rob

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Trump Should Cut Off Europe’s Defense Welfare Queens

The new administration isn’t even a month old, but already hysteria has swept Europe. After visits by Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, top European officials threw “a temper tantrum” in the words of one observer, which featured wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments on a Biblical scale. On Monday French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an emergency summit of selected continental leaders, which generated abundant kvetching but little more.

Ukraine and its European advocates warn of a new Dark Age if the U.S. makes peace with Russia, as President Donald Trump is trying to do. Even worse, NATO members fear the loss of their heretofore presumed birthright to defense by America. Governments which have repeatedly claimed that Kiev’s defeat would invite a reformed Red Army to march to the Atlantic are preparing new excuses for failing to spend more on defense. The spectacle resembles a theatrical farce.

Americans have subsidized the continent’s defense for eight decades. Despite complaints from Washington, Europeans have consistently minimized military expenditures, convinced that the U.S. would continue to do whatever was necessary to protect them. There were occasional American outbursts, such as by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates more than a decade ago. However, this political theater changed nothing—Gates retired three weeks after his famous speech—and the Pentagon continued to provide defense welfare for prosperous and populous nations across the pond and beyond.

Indeed, top U.S. officials, including Joe Biden as both vice president and president, repeatedly told the Europeans “never mind,” visiting the continent to assure listeners that no matter how little they did, they could count on America to bail them out. The Europeans understandably left the heavy lifting to Washington while concentrating on funding generous welfare states at U.S. expense. (The same Europeans often pilloried Americans for their “Anglo-Saxon model” of capitalism.)

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Europe Sending Peacekeeper Troops to Ukraine ‘Unacceptable’, Says Kremlin

Britain is set to pitch a plan for thousands of European NATO members’ soldiers to be deployed to Ukraine as peacekeepers in the coming week, a notion Russia says may constitute a “direct threat”.

Moscow has attempted to pre-empt a European initiative to buttress security in the east of the continent by deterring further fighting after a putative future ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia specifically cited a report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph this week professing to reveal the plan for a European deployment to Ukraine after a ceasefire to keep the peace that would allegedly run to 30,000 troops.

Responding on Thursday morning from the Kremlin, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned “the deployment of NATO countries’ troops to Ukraine cannot be acceptable for Russia”.

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Here’s Why Capital is Fleeing Europe… And Why the Climate Scam is to Blame

We did promise it after Putin blew up his own pipeline supplying cheap energy to Europe, but the implosion of European auto companies is really something to behold. The effects of Capital flight in the industry are stark and widespread.

Consider this:

VW’s profits dropped by 64%. Audi’s profits dropped by 91%. BMW’s profits dropped by 84%. And Mercedes-Benz’s profits dropped by 54%.

German carmakers are in trouble. Their business model was based on two things: cheap Russian energy powering the German engineering coupled with sales in China subsidizing antiquated, overblown unions protecting their cost structure at home. The first pillar collapsed and the second is now under severe pressure.

China now builds its own decent cars. There’s no need for the Chinese to buy anything other than Chinese cars which accelerates capital flight.

Now, let me show you something else. The flow of trade, of course, is seen in the currency markets.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Ukraine’s president calls for creation of ‘armed forces of Europe’ amid fears of reduction in US support

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he believes it is time for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, adding his army was “not enough”.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian president said Europe cannot rule out the possibility that “America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it”.

Ukraine has been defending itself from Russia‘s full-scale invasion for nearly three years.

Mr Zelenskyy noted that many leaders have long spoken about how Europe needs its own military.

“I really believe that time has come,” he told the gathering in Germany.

“The armed forces of Europe must be created.”

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Is Trump Getting Ready To Cut Ukraine—and Europe—Loose?

President Donald Trump started peace negotiations over Ukraine with dramatic flair. Although he had been expected to send his envoy Keith Kellogg to present a peace plan at the Munich Security Conference this week, Trump instead had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, announcing on Wednesday morning that they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” Along with the peace talks, the two countries announced a surprise prisoner exchange. And Trump snubbed Kellogg, leaving him out of the announced negotiating team.

European governments panicked at the notion that they would be left out of any final deal. “Peace can only be achieved together. And that means with Ukraine, and with the Europeans,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters. “There will be no just and lasting peace in Ukraine without the participation of Europeans,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said to France’s cabinet. Leaders across Europe made similar statements.

The talks about Ukraine are about more than Ukraine, and everybody on both sides of the Atlantic knows it. The new Trump administration seems eager to draw back from America’s post-World War II role as Europe’s military protector. In a speech on Wednesday, a few hours before Trump’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called on the other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to pick up the tab for defending Ukraine and Europe.

“Our transatlantic alliance has endured for decades. And we fully expect that it will be sustained for generations to come. But this won’t just happen. It will require our European allies to step into the arena and take ownership of conventional security on the continent,” Hegseth said. “The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe. Full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship that encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.”

Of course, Trump talked about having European countries pay a bigger share of defense in his first term, too. He also built up U.S. forces close to Russia’s borders, and sent the first lethal military aid to Ukraine, mocking former President Barack Obama for giving Ukrainian troops only “pillows and sheets.”

The stakes, however, are different now. During Trump’s first term, the conflict was a war between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia rebels. Since then, Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to the most intense combat in Europe since World War II—and burning through U.S. resources. The threat of a direct U.S.-Russian war has loomed in the background. 

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EU/NATO Freak Out Over Trump Position On Ukraine – Zelenskiy Says Trump ‘Not Nice’

Since Ukrainian “President” Volodymyr Zelenskiy is not a legitimately elected leader at this point, we find these statements humorous.

Zelensky: The question of the elections is not at issue at the moment, it’s really not very nice that Trump called Putin first. I did not discuss joining NATO with Trump, but I know that Washington does not want us to be a member of the alliance.

We will not accept any deal between Moscow and Washington without Kyiv.

Hegseth: There is no betrayal of Ukraine. The world and the U.S. are investing in peace—through negotiations. Russian aggression was a wake-up call for NATO that it must be stronger.

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EU Launches “Democracy Shield” Initiative to Tighten Controls on Tech Giants and Enforce “Hate Speech” Compliance

EU’s new “European Union Democracy Shield (EUDS)” committee, which aims to impose more control over tech giants now perceived as aligned with US President Trump, and promote their compliance with “hate speech” laws while imposing more “fact-checking” has gained its chair – French member of European Parliament (MEP) and French President Macron-allied politician Nathalie Loiseau.

The EUDS initiative was first unveiled by EU Commission’s Executive VP Henna Virkkunen, and Loiseau appears to have been given the job in true unelected-Brussels-bureaucracy fashion: this was known before a vote on her nomination took place.

“Nathalie Loiseau will be elected this evening at 6 pm,” it was announced early on Monday by La Lettre (this effective appointment has in the meantime been confirmed).

And it gets worse – another French MEP, Virginie Joron, said that Loiseau had announced she would be elected “the weekend before” those electing her had a chance to vote.

Stalin could never.

However – given the role that “Democracy Shield” is expected to play, namely, control speech/opinions, this odd process is seen by some as basically symbolic of the body’s purpose – albeit it happens to be one that is “denying democracy.”

Loiseau is a member of the European Parliament’s Renew group, whereas Joron is from the Patriots for Europe (PfE); the manner in which the EUDS selected its chief was particularly offensive to the latter since the PfE had hoped to have its own candidate, Antonio Tanger Correa – but that was rendered pointless by the manner in which Loiseau was appointed.

Correa denounced it as a “sham democracy” while Joron slammed the European Parliament’s “theater” where one can get “elected” before the vote.

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EU AI Act Effectively Legalizes Biometric Mass Surveillance

On February 2, the EU AI Act, which came into force in August, reached the first compliance deadline. These are provisions that contain rules that allow the bloc to legalize biometric mass surveillance.

This is happening via Article 5, that on the face of it seeks to introduce protections against using AI systems that represent “unacceptable risk.” But, there are also exceptions to this, defined in the act as the “strictly necessary” cases when those same systems are allowed to be used.

It is this that gave rise to the fear that one of the consequences of the AI Act is to in fact legalize some highly contentious deployments of biometric data-fueled mass surveillance.

Article 5 prohibits real-time remote biometric ID systems from being used by law enforcement in public spaces – but only “unless and in so far as such use is strictly necessary.”

The “strictly necessary” instances are described as those when law enforcement is searching for “specific victims” of crimes like abduction, trafficking, and sexual exploitation, but also when they look for missing persons.

The second definition gets less precise in scope as it allows for AI surveillance systems to be used to prevent crime. This includes a threat to life or physical safety of individuals that is deemed to be “specific, substantial, and imminent” – or threat of a terrorist attack that law enforcement decides is “genuine and present” but also – “genuine and foreseeable.”

Lastly, the AI Act treats as “strictly necessary” to exempt from prohibited AI activities the following: “Localization or identification of a person suspected of having committed a criminal offense, for the purpose of conducting a criminal investigation or prosecution or executing a criminal penalty for offenses.”

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