"Brussels civil servants are locked in an escalating standoff with the European Commission over their right to protest the EU’s stance on Israel.
A growing number of staff argue that the bloc’s failure to exert pressure on Israel while it’s accused of committing war crimes in Gaza makes it impossible for them to perform their duties without breaching EU and international law.
EU institutions have imposed “complicity” on employees and violated their “moral and legal obligations, suppressed conscientious resistance and delayed meaningful action,” one official, asking to be identified only as Ramona for fear of professional repercussions, told POLITICO.
The bloc’s own diplomatic arm has accused Israel of violating its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel trade agreement and has floated cutting the country off from both favorable trade relations and its Horizon research-sharing program. However, European leaders have yet to agree on either measure, drawing scorn from critics who complain that the Brussels is failing to take its own treaties seriously.
The Commission maintains that EU foreign policy is a matter for national governments, and has warned its employees to stay out of politics. Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà cast the internal outcry over the EU’s failure to cut ties with Israel as inherently political and noted that staff must “comply with their duties and obligations … in an impartial, loyal and neutral manner.”"
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-staff-revolt-over-gaza-inaction-grows-israel-protest-war-crimes/
#EU #EC #Brussels #Palestine #Gaza #Israel #HumanRights #WarCrimes
"Nyx argues that the notion of requiring public housing residents to keep a hackable device that can become an audio eavesdropping tool in their apartment may represent the most disturbing application of the Halo 3C. “That kind of took it up a notch as far as how egregious this entire product line is,” Nyx says. “Most people have an expectation that their home isn’t bugged, right?”
As sensors like the Halo 3C proliferate across schools and even homes, Vasquez-Garcia says the biggest takeaway from his and Nyx’s findings ought to be that putting microphones and internet connections into every device in our lives as simple as a smoke detector is a decision that carries real risk. “If people remember one thing from this, it should be: Don’t blindly trust every internet of things device just because it claims to be for safety,” Vasquez-Garcia says. “The real issue is trust. The more we accept devices that say 'not recording' at face value, the more we normalize surveillance without really knowing what's inside or bothering to question it.”"
https://www.wired.com/story/school-bathroom-vape-detector-audio-bug/
#Cybersecurity #USA #Motorola #Surveillance #Privacy #Hacking #IoT #SmartObjects
"A narrow absolute majority of 54 percent of German citizens are in favor of recognizing Palestine as an independent state now. Just under a third – 31 percent – are against recognition at this time. Respondents in West and East Germany largely agree: In the East, approval is somewhat higher at 59 percent (53 percent in the West), while 29 percent there (31 percent in the West) reject the question.
A look at the age cohorts shows that those under 30 are more strongly in favor of recognizing Palestine now than the older respondents. 60 percent affirmed the question of recognition of Palestine, while only 22 percent rejected it. Among those aged 30 to 44 and 45 to 59, in contrast, there is only a narrow absolute majority, with 50 percent each, in favor. Among those aged 60 or older, approval is at 58 percent."
https://internationalepolitik.de/de/sollte-deutschland-jetzt-palaestina-als-eigenen-staat-anerkennen
#Germany #Palestine #Gaza
RT @pressfreedom
Today's killing of four journalists in #Gaza includes Anas Al-Sharif one of Al Jazeera’s best-known reporters and one of several whom Israel had previously alleged were members of Hamas without providing evidence. Most recently, Al-Sharif had reported on the starvation that he and his colleagues were experiencing because of Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient food aid into Gaza.
#NotATarget
https://cpj.org/2025/08/israel-kills-al-jazeera-journalists-in-gaza-city-airstrike/
RT @BenjaminNorton
The US government is selling the whole country to Wall Street.
A Trump executive order allows private equity and crypto firms access to Americans' pension funds.
The FT confirms Trump was lobbied by BlackRock & Apollo Global Management, of Jeffrey Epstein associate Leon Black.
Link: https://ft.com/content/6647ad13-0954-4257-8112-cb02e9515cf6
"For three weeks in May, the fate of the world rested on the shoulders of a corporate recruiter on the outskirts of Toronto. Allan Brooks, 47, had discovered a novel mathematical formula, one that could take down the internet and power inventions like a force-field vest and a levitation beam.
Or so he believed.
Mr. Brooks, who had no history of mental illness, embraced this fantastical scenario during conversations with ChatGPT that spanned 300 hours over 21 days. He is one of a growing number of people who are having persuasive, delusional conversations with generative A.I. chatbots that have led to institutionalization, divorce and death.
Mr. Brooks is aware of how incredible his journey sounds. He had doubts while it was happening and asked the chatbot more than 50 times for a reality check. Each time, ChatGPT reassured him that it was real. Eventually, he broke free of the delusion — but with a deep sense of betrayal, a feeling he tried to explain to the chatbot."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html
#AI #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #Delusions #MentalHealth #Hallucinations #Chatbots
RT @KenRoth
The head of the Anti-Defamation League won't repudiate the claim that it is antisemitism to insist on equal rights for Palestinians within the "one-state reality" that Israeli settlements have created. In other words, it's antisemitic to oppose apartheid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/magazine/jonathan-greenblatt-interview.html
RT @BenjaminNorton
Trump's tariffs make much more sense in the light of this very prescient analysis by Samir Amin back in 2006:
"The US economy lives as a parasite off its partners in the global system, with virtually no national savings of its own. The world produces while North America consumes".
"Indeed, without extra-economic means that violate the ‘liberal’ principles imposed on its rivals, the United States would probably not be able to compete" (which is why Trump has to resort to such aggressive tariffs).
"The American superpower depends from day to day on the flow of capital that sustains the parasitism of its economy and society".
https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1954219783353761827
"Privacy advocates and some cities around the country have expressed concern about Flock’s technology, saying the products provide customers access to vast surveillance capabilities.
Langley acknowledged Flock has its detractors, but downplayed concerns. He pointed to other companies including wireless carriers that also track individuals’ whereabouts but don’t necessarily help police.
“We are unapologetically focused on building safer cities,” said Langley. “Flock’s job is not to write the laws, it’s to enforce the laws that democratically individuals write.”
Along with law enforcement agencies, universities, hotels and other groups also are customers. The company said only law enforcement would have access to the new AI tools.
Dave Maas, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Flock Group Inc., the company that operates Flock Safety, empowers a growing number of users and increases surveillance with little accountability. He called Flock’s role governing the use of its technology “minimal at best.”
“These tech companies are serving their investors first, their customers second and members of the public third,” he said. “Their primary goal is not to make it safer, it’s to make money.”"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-07/controversial-surveillance-startup-flock-adds-ai-to-police-tech
#AI #USA #Flock #Surveillance #PoliceState #DomesticWarfare #Privacy
United States of... Bullshit and Pseudoscience?
If anyone needed a reminder that US health secretary and fervent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has no background in science or medicine, look no further than the video he posted on social media Tuesday evening.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, Kennedy announced that he is cancelling nearly $500 million in funding for the development of mRNA-based vaccines against diseases that pose pandemic threats. The funding will be clawed back from 22 now-defunct contracts awarded through the federal agency tasked with developing medical countermeasures to public health threats. The agency is the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Kennedy is generally opposed to vaccines, but he is particularly hostile to mRNA-based vaccines. Since the remarkably successful debut of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic—which were developed and mass-produced with unprecedented speed—Kennedy has continually disparaged and spread misinformation about them."
https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/rfk-jr-defends-500m-cut-for-mrna-vaccines-with-pseudoscience-gobbledygook/
#USA #RFKjr #Vaccines #mRNA #Science #Disinformation #Misinformation #PseudoScience
Miguel Afonso Caetano