cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/9485476

A new Which? investigation has found potentially lethal knock-off chargers still being sold on online marketplaces seven years after the consumer champion first exposed the danger they pose to UK consumers.

More than half of cheap charger bought from Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Temu and others fail safety checks or miss legally required product markings.

Archived version

Here is the link to the original study by the consumer group Which?

Cheap phone chargers sold on some of Britain’s biggest online marketplaces can explode, catch fire or electrocute users, according to safety tests by Which?.

An investigation by the consumer group found that nine out of fifteen USB phone chargers bought from retailers including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, B&Q Marketplace and Debenhams Marketplace failed electrical safety tests. Some were found to contain lumps of modelling clay to make them feel more substantial.

Every charger tested was also found to be missing legally required information on its packaging, documentation or the product itself, meaning none could legally be sold in the UK.

The findings are likely to increase pressure on ministers to use new powers to force online marketplaces to take greater responsibility for the safety of products sold by third-party agents.

...

The findings come despite repeated warnings about unsafe electrical products sold online. Which? first highlighted dangerous chargers on major marketplaces in 2019 and has since carried out a series of investigations into potentially hazardous products sold through third-party platforms.

...

Which? is calling on the government to use powers contained in the Product Regulation and Metrology Act, which received royal assent last year, to impose explicit legal duties on online marketplaces to ensure products sold through their platforms are safe.

...

The legislation allows ministers to introduce new requirements through secondary legislation but the government has yet to bring forward detailed rules. A consultation on potential changes was launched recently.

Consumer groups argue that the delay is allowing unsafe goods to continue reaching British households.

...

Amazon said customer safety was a top priority and that it had removed the products highlighted by Which?. AliExpress said both identified products had been removed and affected customers would be informed of the risks. Debenhams said it had removed the listing and was contacting customers to offer refunds.

eBay said that all of the products identified in the investigation had already been removed through its existing safety processes before Which? shared its findings and pointed to measures that it said prevented 21 million potentially unsafe listings from appearing on the site last year.

Temu and Shein said they had removed or suspended the relevant listings while reviewing compliance with British labelling and documentation requirements.

German launch company Isar Aerospace has raised €270 million in Series D funding as Europe seeks to strengthen its sovereign space launch capability. The investment, announced on 9 June, will support production of the company's Spectrum launch vehicle, expansion of launch infrastructure and international growth. It comes at a time when governments and investors are placing increasing strategic value on technologies that underpin communications, navigation, security and economic resilience.

...

For decades, Europe has been a major force in satellite manufacturing, scientific missions and aerospace engineering. Yet access to orbit has often relied on a relatively small number of launch systems.

...

Apple blames DMA for delaying Siri AI in Europe. The EU says nothing is stopping Apple from launching it.

Archived version

...

Jan Penfrat, a senior policy adviser for European Digital Rights (EDRi) ... sees Apple’s latest moves as a means of putting pressure on the EU Commission to allow it to break the DMA. “It’s very much a lobbying tactic,” he said. “The problem is not the DMA but Apple refusing to open up its competition-busting software ecosystem.”

For Michael Veale, a professor of technology law and policy at University College London, the core issue is that Apple is making an exception to its own long-standing privacy and security setup “in order to stay relevant and in the game” when it comes to AI. “Apple’s privacy and security model is built like a Jenga tower, based on extreme vertical control by the firm, and risks collapsing when interoperability is introduced.” In other words: Apple’s comfortable altering its own practices for Siri AI, giving the AI the ability to access lots of data across different apps, but argues the same kind of access is too dangerous when competitors ask for it.

Veale and Penfrat both said there’s no way to properly assess Apple’s proposed solution because the company has not made it public. Other experts, such as [the professor of competition law and digital regulation at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Friso] Bostoen, questioned why Apple needs as long as 18 months to implement it, given the interoperability requirements were predictable and should have been addressed in parallel with the development of Siri AI.

...

My path to EU hosted Immich instance on Hetzner servers (Germany + Finland)

In the post you can find:

• Why Immich
• Why Hetzner
• Repository with examples
• Backup strategy
• Cost comparison

Hope you will enjoy this post

The Homemade defence section is relevant to this sub.

Found it interesting that for some reason Italians are opposed to "buying more weapons from European countries rather than from outside Europe" and Poland is pro "Buying more weapons from the US "

Archived version

An open letter from the Document Foundation warns that Euro-Office, which is being “marketed” as the first open-source office suite developed in Europe, isn't what it seems - and may reinforce Microsoft’s closed source technology instead.

... Microsoft ... developed and controls the horrible proprietary OOXML format, designed precisely to prevent Digital Sovereignty by maintaining content lock-in. It is far less understandable on the part of companies that claim to advocate open source, such as those promoting Euro-Office.

Euro-Office defaults to the fully proprietary OOXML document format, developed and controlled solely by Microsoft. This makes it a de facto ally of Microsoft in its content lock-in strategy, with control remaining firmly in Redmond and far from Europe.

So, despite what is being written in support of Euro-Office — the latest of the office suites developed in Europe, and not the first — the announcement is not against Microsoft. On the contrary, it strengthens Microsoft’s strategy against European Digital Sovereignty, or, if you prefer, against the freedom of European users to control and manage their own content.

THE 2026 EUROVISION Song Contest was watched by 131 million viewers, organisers said Friday, down 35 million on the year before after Ireland and four other countries boycotted over Israel’s participation.

Bulgaria won the contest for the first time with Dara’s catchy floor-filler “Bangaranga” sweeping the 70th edition of the world’s biggest live televised music event, with Israel finishing in second place. The UK finished last.

RTÉ joined broadcasters in Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands in deciding not to send an act or air the contest in protest at Israel’s participation amid its war on Gaza.

The 2025 contest was watched by an average audience of 5.8 million people in Spain, and 3.5 million people in the Netherlands. In Ireland, RTÉ’s broadcast of last year’s contest garnered an average of 268,000 viewers.

This year’s Eurovision was held in Vienna, with the grand final taking place on 16 May.

Protests were held in Vienna over Israel’s participation, and chants of ‘stop of the genocide’ could be heard during Israel’s performance in the semi-final.

The contest is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s biggest public-service media alliance.

“While some of our figures are naturally lower without those of our five members who chose not to participate this year, we remain committed to doing everything possible to find pathways back for them in 2027,” said Eurovision director Martin Green.

Big Nordic audiences

The biggest share of viewers watching Eurovision was recorded in Finland (93%), Sweden (86%), Norway (83%) and Denmark (79%).

Across the board in 35 measured TV markets, the grand final attracted an average viewing share of 42.6%.

The share for viewers aged 15 to 24 was higher, at 54.8%.

The EBU noted that viewing figures were down 3.8 million in Poland, 3.7 million in Britain and 3.3 million in France, compared to those for Eurovision 2025, held in the Swiss city of Basel.

Eurovision garnered more than a billion views for content on Instagram this year.

“It’s fantastic to see the impact the Eurovision Song Contest is having on young audiences globally,” said Green.

“The hundreds of millions reached via our digital platforms also underlines the Eurovision Song Contest’s 70-year evolution from a TV show to a true global, cultural, multi-platform phenomenon.”

People in 148 different countries and territories cast votes for their favourites.

Outside the 35 participating countries, the biggest votes were received from the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia and Turkey. Continue Reading - https://www.thejournal.ie/eurovision-viewers-down-israel-7062161-Jun2026/

Sovereignty Is Engineered, Not Procured

Is there any desktop client for Linux that can take free tier Proton?

Cross posted from https://feddit.org/post/30838291

Social media’s impact on society and citizens clearly shows the need for change. Europe has a strong ecosystem of social companies and a deep well of expertise in designing and operating social protocols. We are building on this to move away from large monopolistic platforms with their authoritarian governance and editorial positions, and are joining forces to establish a diverse and resilient information infrastructure in Europe. Together, we will protect people and institutions from interference by these platforms. What’s more, we will bring thousands of jobs and billions of euros that social media generates to our continent, to circulate that revenue in our own thriving business ecosystem.

From this perspective, open European platforms and protocols such as the Fediverse (Mastodon, PeerTube, or Mobilizon), the Atmosphere (Eurosky, Flashes, Tangled, or Web Tiles) and Private Messaging systems (like Matrix or XMPP) are complementary solutions for Europe, with shared common goals.

The EU is betting big on cloud computing and chips to reduce its technological dependence on the US and China, and to re-enter the global tech race. But whether it will succeed and how the two superpowers will react remain open questions.

The European Commission has presented a sweeping tech sovereignty package to boost homegrown technologies and reduce dependency on American and Chinese companies. Whether it will make a meaningful difference — and how the two superpowers will react — remain open questions.

"We live in a world where geopolitics and technology are inseparable. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this," European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said.

The package seeks to boost Europe's domestic tech sector, with a heavy focus on cloud infrastructure, AI services, open source and chips.

The EU imports most of its tech services and products from abroad. The digital market is dominated by US giants such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, and Chinese conglomerates such as Alibaba and TikTok-owner ByteDance.

In his landmark report on the languishing state of the European economy, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi argued that most of the recent divergence in GDP growth between the EU and the US could be explained by digital technologies.

Having missed the first wave of the digital economy — the internet-driven services boom — Draghi warned that Europe's last chance to rejoin the international tech race was not to be missed, namely the transformative potential of artificial intelligence.

While growing dependency on foreign technologies had been widely known among European decision-makers for decades, US President Donald Trump's assertive trade agenda and China's willingness to weaponise such dependencies have provided fresh momentum.

Will Brussels' move be enough to shift the dial, or is it too little too late? And what will be the economic cost of severing deeply entrenched dependencies if the EU draws the ire of Washington and Beijing? What's in the package?

The main target of the European Commission's proposal is the cloud sector, which provides the physical infrastructure underpinning most digital services. Amazon, Microsoft and Google account for 80% of the European market, with EU-based providers relegated to the margins.

The draft law introduces four different levels of digital sovereignty that public authorities must consider when purchasing cloud services, depending on how sensitive the use case is.

The highest tier, covering sectors such as defence and healthcare, would effectively bar non-European companies from winning public contracts. The aim is to prevent a so-called "kill switch" scenario, the risk that a foreign government might simply cut off access to hospitals or fighter jets.

For MEP Axel Voss (EPP/Germany), the Commission's approach is both bold and pragmatic. "Building genuine European cloud and AI sovereignty is overdue, and giving our providers a fair seat at the table in strategic public tenders is the right instinct," he said.

Europe also needs to catch up on chips — the fundamental components at the heart of almost every electronic device. The most advanced chips, used to develop cutting-edge AI technologies, are designed in the US and produced in Taiwan or South Korea.

After the first Chips Act failed to significantly bring semiconductor factories back to Europe through state subsidies, the Commission is trying again — this time focusing on stimulating demand for European chips, on the assumption that supply will follow.

Certain key sectors, such as automotive, will also be required to diversify their chip suppliers in certain circumstances, as part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on Chinese-subsidised producers accused of flooding the market through dumping. Will it be effective?

The guiding principle of the initiative is AI — the transformative technology that, much like the internet before it, is reshaping the digital economy. Cloud data centres and chips provide the essential infrastructure for the next generation of AI.

Yet the AI market is dominated by the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepSeek. A European preference in lucrative defence contracts could serve as a lifeline for Mistral AI, the only EU-based company at the cutting edge of the AI race.

The EU lags significantly behind in data centre construction needed to meet expected demand for AI services in the coming years, held back by a mix of slow permitting, high energy costs and a scarcity of available land.

"Europe cannot regulate its way out of technological dependency," MEP Matthias Ecke (S&D/Germany) told reporters. "It must build its own capacity, overcoming one-sided dependencies and restoring a genuine choice for businesses and consumers alike."

At the same time, the EU is set to join a US-led initiative, Pax Silica, to secure chip supply chains, in recognition that Europe cannot do without Nvidia chips in the short term.

That dependency could nonetheless prove self-perpetuating: regulators and rivals warn that Nvidia tends to build a closed ecosystem that is difficult to break away from.

Continue Reading here - https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/06/03/can-europe-rejoin-the-international-tech-race

Archived version

• The largest German state, Bavaria, has canceled a nearly billion-euro contract with Microsoft.
• The state administration will pursue a “sovereign basic workspace” based on open-source components.
• Bavaria’s Digital Minister Fabian Mehring says the decision allows the state to protect itself from price hikes and ensure data privacy.

The Bavarian Ministry for Digital Affairs has officially announced the cancellation of a planned framework agreement with American tech giant Microsoft intended to implement its productivity suite across the state administration.

Regional news website Mittelstand in Bayern reports that Microsoft services would have cost nearly €1 billion ($1.16 billion) over a five-year period.

Instead, Bavaria will pursue a “sovereign basic workspace” based on open-source components.

The decision comes after a months-long power struggle between the state’s Finance Ministry, led by Albert Füracker, who wanted to consolidate existing contracts and secure discounts, and Digital Minister Fabian Mehring, who pushed for open source.

...

On 3 June 2026, the European Commission adopted an ambitious set of measures to bolster the EU's digital autonomy.

Archived version

US enterprise services provider Kyndryl tried to acquire Dutch cloud specialist Solvinity, but The Hague has officially stopped the acquisition. Citing a potential security risk to the country's public interest, State Secretary for Digital Economy Willemijn Aerdts recently confirmed the takeover ban. The decision anticipates a potentially disruptive initiative designed to further promote European sovereignty in the digital market.

As far as technology is concerned, US and Europe are growing apart at an accelerated rate. EU authorities are working to build their own digital sovereignty, while member states are now actively pushing foreign buyers away when it comes to local service providers.

Kyndryl first announced the acquisition in November 2025, saying Solvinity would expand its portfolio of mission-critical enterprise and cloud services. Solvinity operates secure managed cloud platforms and supports key Dutch digital systems, including DigiD, the authentication platform widely used by Dutch citizens.

DigiD allows users to confirm their identity when interacting with public institutions and essential services, from booking medical appointments to completing housing-related transactions. Following a review by the Investment Screening Bureau (BTI), Dutch officials concluded that allowing the acquisition to proceed could weaken the country's control over an important part of its domestic cloud ecosystem.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/9308386

Archived version

...

MPs have told the government to cut its ties with Palantir, and end the US spy-tech firm's controversial involvement in the National Health Service's Federated Data Platform.

Warning against vendor lock-in across government, the House of Common science and technology committee said it was most concerned about Palantir, which had secured central roles in health and defense systems.

“Palantir should not have a such a significant role in the UK public sector… it is far from the only company capable of providing the data analysis ‘middleware’ required by public bodies,” the report from the Science Innovation and Technology Committee said.

...

The report notes concerns about Palantir’s origins as a company getting a foothold in government with security, immigration services, and defense contracts. It also describes the political musings of co-founder Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp.

However, it added: “Our view that Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector represents an unacceptable point of weakness is not ideologically motivated or driven by concerns about the quality of their products. The government should retain the ability to pick and choose individual suppliers and safeguard against the risk of vendor lock-in and debilitating dependencies, particularly in areas of critical national importance such as healthcare and national security infrastructure.”

...

Palantir won the £330 million Federated Data Platform (FDP) contract in November 2023 after a procurement process, which NHS England, the soon-to-be-defunct health quango, maintained was open and fair. The award followed £60 million in Covid-era NHS contracts awarded without competition.

The committee recommended that the government use the February 2027 break clause in the FDP contract and either “develop an in-house replacement or seek an alternative developed by UK-owned and UK-based providers that are more compatible with UK values, and do not pursue either technical or contractual dependencies.”

...

As of Thursday June 4, "Qwant will replace Google as default search engine on European Parliament computers,” officials told lawmakers in an email seen by POLITICO.

Airbus explores building a Canadian helicopter assembly plant if selected for federal defense contracts including the C$18.4B nTACS fleet renewal program.

Why the Dutch government blocked the takeover of DigiD infrastructure by an American company, and what that says about privacy, digital autonomy, and European data sovereignty.

I looked up different brands of sunscreen and was thinking that others could be interested. The brands are the most common (they were high up on the top list for a couple of different pharmacies) in Sweden, it might be different brands in other countries. Unfortunately I couldn't see where any of the sunscreen is produced when I search for the brands online.

The sunscreen from Apoteket is produced in Sweden and the one from Hjärtat is produced in Denmark according to the packaging.

European

Non-European

The European Union has opened an investigation into Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com’s proposed €2.2 billion takeover of German electronics retailer Ceconomy, which is the second-largest shareholder of French group Fnac Darty. Regulators suspect the bid may involve Chinese subsidies.

Web Archive link

The European Commission announced on Thursday that it is examining the transaction under the bloc’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation – the first time a Chinese deal has been targeted under rules designed to prevent state-backed firms getting an unfair advantage in the EU's single market.

“JD.com may have received foreign subsidies distorting the EU internal market,” the Commission said in a statement, citing possible support including “preferential financing, tax incentives and grants” potentially attributable to the Chinese government.

Beijing-based JD.com – short for Jingdong – rejected the concerns, stating the acquisition would not be funded by foreign subsidies from China or any other state.

“We consider the in-depth review of a transaction of this scale to be a normal procedural step,” JD.com said in a statement to French press agency AFP, adding that its acquisition of Ceconomy would be financed “by bank loans and cash from our ordinary activities”.

...

Ceconomy owns the MediaMarkt, Saturn and MediaWorld chains, with more than a thousand stores across Europe, including in Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria.

The probe has also intensified scrutiny in France, where Ceconomy holds a 22 percent stake in Fnac Darty, a major entertainment and electronics retailer.

...

Under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the European Commission can impose fines, suspend tenders or block takeovers by state-funded firms.

The commission says it was officially notified about the Ceconomy acquisition on 17 April and "now has 90 working days, until 2 October 2026, to take a decision".

...