Industry lobby group opposes consumer protection movement. In other news: water is wet.

This is an important milestone. However, in several countries including large ones like Germany, it is possible to sign the petition without an eID. There definitely needs to be a security buffer.

However, the relatively simple method of signing in Germany and countries that similarly don’t require you to jump through many hoops makes it easier, in my view, to encourage other, older people to sign. Feel free to openly discuss the topic with your family. In my family chat, a simple share with a short explanation of why the issue is important to me resulted in two more signatures.

As a Dutch person living abroad (even though only in neighbouring Germany) it’s true that our directness is sometimes seen as impoliteness. Most Dutch people I know mean absolutely no offence and just say out loud what they are thinking. Somehow many other countries prefer to skirt around uncomfortable direct communication.

I even understand much better why Germany fell prey to fascism at the time. Germans had gone through two million KIA, major territorial losses, a once in a century pandemic, hyperinflation, crippling economic war reparations and a once in a century economic depression in the span of less than twenty years and yet only a third of them voted for the fascist in the last free election. Keep in mind that democratic tradition was not firmly established in Germany by that point. Meanwhile US citizens have gone through a major economic crisis in 2008/9, a major pandemic and and increase in egg prices and suddenly more than half of voters there chose the fascist.

So we’re now at the stage where people risk being arrested without a charge by goons unwilling to properly identify themselves and then being killed because of that?

The current situation in the United States is eerily similar to 1930s Germany in my opinion. We’re probably just a few months away from political opponents being picked up on made up charges or even disappeared straight up.

This was one of the key policy changes promised by the conservatives that now lead the new government. While only about 1000 people per month were coming to Germany on this type of visa, it has remained a topic of great importance for many German voters.

It’s difficult to say if this decision is “right” or “wrong”. It does seem to reflect what a majority of voters in Germany want though.

As it turns out, it really didn’t have to. Brazil simply respected agreements instead of unilaterally reneging on them at short notice. If the World Cup ever comes to Brazil again, I’d recommend pulling a Qatar and just nodding along until two weeks before the tournament starts and then just changing the rules according to what you believe is correct.

"In its annual report, released on Tuesday, the CLAIM coalition recorded 3,080 cases of anti-Muslim incidents in 2024, up from 1,926 in the previous year.

The figures are not directly comparable, as the number of advisory centres rose from 17 to 26 over the course of the year."

While there certainly is some level of discrimination towards Muslims in Germany, especially among people on the political right, this rise seems to correlate with increased measurement. If I correct for the increase in advisory centres the rate seems unchanged since last year.

We’ll have to wait for a full analysis first. However, Boeing is known for having lackluster quality control that has led to accidents in the past. If the company is indeed responsible for the crash, I fear that the current UD regime will likely do everything within its power to shield it from consequences.

Yes, the family reunification for people with this status has been a controversial issue in Germany for years. While some people end up with a refugee status similar to other countries, many others are recognised as “with subsidiary protection status” or even plainly have their application rejected altogether. Critics have long since advocated for an end to family reunification for people without full refugee status. Some have even proposed cutting social payments to non refugees like several other EU countries do. For now it’s only this somewhat limited measure, which is still controversial among the left. My personal prediction is that with far right political pressure increasing the current centre government in Germany will continue to develop its refugee and asylum policy more in the direction of Denmark and less in the direction of Merkel.

Canada used to be the largest source of international visitors to the United States by a large margin. I suspect that Canadians especially will take, on average, quite a bit of convincing to travel south of the border now.

I’m not so sure it’s only that. Using Germany as an example, since it’s a place I’m fairly familiar with: there’s been a majority in parliament to legalise abortion several times, most recently under Chancellor Scholz, yet nobody wants to touch the issue. There’s also a broad consensus that it should be legal. Even 59% of far right voters and 62% of Christian Democrats voters believe it should be legal. Probably the minority is just very vocal and committed.

My mother, who was born in the 1950s and grew up in Amsterdam in the 1960s and 1970s, happened to live near a doctor’s office that provided abortions to foreign women back then. Unfortunately it really seems like very little has changed in the last 50 years. While reproductive rights on paper are largely ok in most European countries, the real situation on the ground often differs.

I for one, as a Dutchman, am still flabbergasted that abortion remains technically illegal where I live (Germany) and it’s only thanks to the good graces of the state that this crime isn’t punished. Why do Germans (Italians, Poles, …) accept this? This is not acceptable. As the article states: if men could get pregnant you could get an abortion at the barbers.

I believe your wording is a bit poor. The government doesn’t “give” that money to Microsoft, but instead buys and rents various products and services. While I agree that the public sector in general, especially here in Europe, should try to set an example by trying to make use of open source software if possible and feasible, I know from experience at my own company that Microsoft is so firmly entrenched that there’s no short term solutions here.

The sender of the goods was a company from Spain, and the recipient was from Azerbaijan.

I’m sure these legitimate businessmen could perhaps consider transporting their wares via Turkey and Georgia? You know, along the well established transit route for commercial cargo between the EU and Azerbaijan.

The man has a personal grudge against France. I find it more likely that a Russian is lying, to be honest.

Europe got lucky there. While I’m happy that Romanians chose wisely in the end, the margin is still very worrying for our future.

With initial, preliminary results from actual votes being counted now coming in it looks like Dan only has the slightest of leads thus far. Since this only includes votes from within Romania it now looks likely that the votes of Romanians living abroad will swing the election in favour of Moscow. It seems incredibly frustrating that people not living in the country get to (perhaps) change the outcome of the vote for the people who actually live within the country and therefore need to live with the consequences.

According to the police, one officer was dragged into the crowd, forced to the ground and trampled on. The 36-year-old reportedly suffered severe injuries to his upper body, including a broken arm, and remains in the hospital.

Just your friendly neighbourhood demonstration. Nothing to see here, move along.

While Muslim minorities in Europe tend to vote for left parties, predominantly voting for the left in Germany, France or my home country of the Netherlands for example, there’s also the more recent phenomenon of parties established to specifically cater to Muslim voters.