We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
🇪🇺 EuGoingDark surveillance plan: timeline, agenda, background
Highly controversial, non-transparent and rarely questioned: the Commission and Council of the European Union are currently preparing a new, EU-wide digital surveillance package. The plan includes the reintroduction and expansion of the retention of citizens’ communications data as well as specific proposals to undermine the secure encryption of data on all connected devices, ranging from cars to smartphones, as well as data processed by service providers and data in transit.
Behind closed doors the Commission has announced it is already preparing impact assessments and an implementation plan.
Former Pirate Party MEP and digital freedom fighter in the European Parliament Patrick Breyer comments:
“The plan is still widely unknown among citizens, journalists and politicians, even though we hold the documents in our hands and the extent of the plans is frightening. A number of questions remain unanswered.”
Open questions:
Who participated in the meetings of the EuGoingDark group and its sub-groups? Participant lists are still undisclosed. Mullvad VPN has reported that at least one former US secret service official has participated.
Why were digital rights NGOs such as EDRi not invited to the meetings of the working group even when the group‘s website says it is an “collaborative and inclusive platform for stakeholders from all relevant sectors“?
Why aren‘t the group and its sub-groups registered in the Register of Commission Expert Groups and other similar entities (i.e. consultative entities) which would provide for significantly more transparency?
How do the new EU Commissioners directly and indirectly involved in the issues concerned, the European Ombudsman, the data protection authorities of the EU and the member states, IT security experts, consumer protection organisations and others assess the working methods and plans of the EuGoingDark-group?
🔗 https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/eugoingdark-surveillance-plan-timeline-agenda-background/
📝🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 - On the Brink: Showdown in the Middle East
Amid an escalating American buildup, it’s clear Witkoff’s list of demands is more of a request for surrender. Accepting the abolition of its nuclear program and limitations on its ballistic missile force would leave Iran powerless to defend itself in any future conflict, which is the entire point of asking for these “concessions”. This demarche is a poison pill meant to justify further action when Iran rightly refuses it or, should they be foolish enough to actually accept it, will make the job of Israel and the U.S. easier when they inevitably tear up any agreement to conduct strikes anyway. The goal here for Tel Aviv and Washington isn’t peace and anybody who thinks they actually care about protesters needs to get their head checked; they want a final showdown with Iran to remove it as an obstacle to themselves in the Middle East.
For those that don’t remember, in the lead up to the 12 Day War last year...
The Democrats got new talking points, but the question is why this sudden shift in direction that betrays a part of their lunatic base. Something really shifty is going on over there.
EDWARD DOWD
🇺🇸 White House: U.S. exits Hague tribunals and Venice Commission
The United States is withdrawing from two international criminal tribunals based in The Hague and from the Venice Commission, as part of a broader disengagement from 66 global organizations, according to a White House statement.
The U.S. will no longer participate in the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which prosecutes remaining cases from the former Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide. The move reflects a wider recalibration of American foreign policy under President Donald Trump, aimed at distancing the U.S. from bodies seen as undermining national sovereignty or offering limited return on investment.
This withdrawal underscores Washington’s shift away from multilateral judicial structures and toward a more unilateral, interest-driven approach in international affairs.
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