We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
🇪🇺 Final agreement on EU Digital Identity Wallets expands scope of regulations
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have reached an agreement on a new framework for European digital identity, including regulation on digital ID wallets.
A news release from the European Commission says this concludes the two legislative bodies’ work to implement results of the provisional political agreement reached in June around a legal framework for a trusted and secure digital identity for all Europeans.
Under the new eIDAS 2.0 regulations, the EU Digital Identity Wallet will have extensive applications across public and private enterprise, supporting the EU in meeting its 2030 targets for the digitization of public services. With the full guarantee of EU law, wallet holders throughout Europe can use their linked digital ID to open bank accounts and make payments, store digital ID and biometric documents such as mobile driver’s licenses or professional certifications, and expedite services in travel, healthcare and other areas of life. Significantly, the regulation makes it mandatory for so-called Very Large Online Platforms (Facebook, Google, et al) to accept the EU Digital ID Wallet for login. The Commission’s release implies that this is a potential model for smaller companies, for which the features and specs of the wallet could boost both competitiveness and compliance.
Crucial to the wallet system is the user’s ability to choose whether or not to share personal data, and what data is shared in specific cases. In terms of UX, the wallet’s dashboard promises the ability to monitor transactions and report privacy violations, and to allow interaction between wallets with consent. E-signature capability will be free for personal use.
Several of these features mark an expanded scope for the regulation as a result of the trilogue discussions. Other newly finalized points include the wallet’s business model (free of charge to all Europeans), validation and authentication mechanisms for member states, and the status of the wallet’s code, components of which will be available open-source to try and prevent misuse.
Although the agreement between the European co-legislators is set, it still requires endorsement from member states and formal approval, after which it will be formally published in the EU’s Official Journal. Twenty days after that, the new EU Digital Identity framework will become law.
Yanis Varoufakis (former Greek Minister of Finance) describes AI as a new form of capital that produces not goods, but behavioral modification. This is achieved by engineering perceptions.
The answers provided by ChatGPT, or the images rendered by StableDiffusion — as these increasingly inform our perceptions, they in turn define the reality we experience.
This is what makes AI so powerful — he who controls the AI, defines the reality of tomorrow.
⚡️🇺🇸 Some more things coming out for the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Under the preliminary drafts of the bill, the USAF is requesting a release of $57,000,000 USD ($57.0 Million) to retire all remaining 162 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs in current service. Apart of the 2023 NDAA, there was a clause for a few million dollars to be released every so often to gradually retire the (then) 250 airframes by 2034; however due to the push by the Dept of Defense to ‘shed’ obsolete or obsolescent airframes that cannot be overhauled or upgraded further without a whole new airframe, it appears the USAF wants to retire all 162 remaining A-10s by the end of 2026.
The USAF plans to fully divest the 340-total remaining A-10s entirely, including those that currently serve in a handful of Air National Guard units in some states; which will be replaced by F-15EX Eagle IIs (like what is already happening with the Michigan State Air National Guard’s A-10s), or F-35A/Bs.
Included ...
My older sister lives in the country in between Velma Oklahoma and Duncan Oklahoma near the Fuqua Lake area, this story was told by a rural mail delivery woman who delivers the mail in the country.
The incident happened while she was on her route, when she came upon to the mailbox a male Chinese nation came out brandishing a, AK-47 rifle being very hostile,
I don't know if he pointed it at her since it is against the law to do so but she was terrified and said she was never going back and that the location that had a guard tower. Was the sheriff department notified, I don't know, did she notify her supervisor, don't know. But word is from the country folk who live in the area they have seen the guard tower at the pot place;
I refuse to call it a farm because it is an insult to farmers.
And yes she was traumatized by that ordeal
