🇪🇺❌✉️ May 31st 2024 | EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, is worried about the ”lack of regulation” on Telegram!

Jourová warns that Putin floods the EU with fake news on Telegram. She said the Russian-owned service “is especially active in the eastern member states where we have a Russian-speaking minority.”

She said Telegram was a “special case” because it claims to have only 42 million users in the bloc — below the 45 million threshold needed to be scrutinized under its new Digital Services Act — which places guardrails on the spread of harmful and illegal material online.

Jourová further believes that Telegram is underreporting its number of users to avoid falling under the DSA regulation and thus finds it necessary to inspect Telegram much more closely.

In an emailed response on Saturday, Telegram spokesman Remi Vaughn said the company is abiding by EU sanctions by blocking access to channels such as RT, Sputnik and NewsFront.

Telegram doesn’t use algorithms to promote sensational content to users, who receive only the information they explicitly choose to subscribe to, Vaughn said.

The Digital Services Act took full effect earlier this year and allows the EU to fine major platforms of as much as 6% of global annual sales if it finds violations — or ban repeat offenders from the EU.

🔗 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-31/putin-floods-eu-east-with-fake-news-on-telegram-jourova-warns

🗄 Archive

🇪🇺🔐🗳 BREAKING NEWS | The EU initiative to scan the private conversations of its citizens for child abuse material failed to pass the European Council!

To the dismay of the Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, who firmly believed that even encrypted messaging needs to be verified to ”better protect children”, the Belgian presidency of the European Council noted that too many EU member states will either oppose or abstain during the decisive vote for the child abuse law, citing privacy concerns.

The Belgians tried to solve the deadlock around the draft bill since taking the office last January but failed achieve a consensus and, as a result, the bill failed.

Under the Belgians' plan, messaging apps would scan pictures and links when users upload them via their services, and users would be informed of this under the terms and conditions. Users who refused the regime would be blocked from sending pictures and links.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-council-cancels-vote-on-encryption-breaking-child-sexual-abuse-law/

⭐️🤝🇩🇪 S.O.S. România and its two MEPs, Diana Iovanovici-Șoșoacă and Luis Lazarus, have allied with the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the new bloc, ”The Sovereignists”.

Other members include Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) from Hungary, an irredentist party which claims Hungary's pre-Trianon borders, the Monarchist-Libertarian, Konfederacja from Poland, Se Acabó la Fiesta from Spain, NIKH from Greece and Hnutie Republika from Slovakia.

Both parties share a pro-peace agenda in the Ukrainian war.

🔗 https://hotnews.ro/s-o-s-romania-se-aliaza-oficial-cu-afd-europarlamentarii-partidului-intra-in-grupul-suveranistii-1528095

🇲🇩📊⚡️ In the Republic of Moldova, the economic situation is worsening against the background of an inequitable distribution of labor resources and social obligations.

According to recent data, only 400,000 employees in the real sector financially support 600,000 pensioners and 200,000 budget workers.

This means that four employees in the real sector must provide for the pensions and salaries of eight people dependent on the public budget.

The latest statistical data reveal that in 2023, there were 675.6 thousand pensioners in Moldova. According to CNAS data, the overwhelming majority of pensioners (529.4 thousand people) receive old-age pension (on average about 3,680 lei), and 99.3 thousand - disability pension (2,446 lei). The highest pensions - over 14,631 lei - are given to "certain categories of civil aviation workers" (448 people).

🔗 https://bani.md/a-explodat-bomba-despre-pensii-patru-angajati-muncesc-pentru-sase-pensionari-si-doi-bugetari/

🇷🇺❌🇷🇴📺 Russia will add several TV stations from the EU to its ban list and among them are three Romanian channels:

🔹 Pro TV
🔹Digi24
🔹B1 TV

Noteworthy to remember that the EU banned at the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russian outlets like RussiaToday (RT), Sputnik and just yesterday enacted a ban on Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, and Izvestiya.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🟨🤝❓🇭🇺 AUR co-founder and leader of its Brussels delegation, Claudiu Târziu, told POLITICO that he and AUR are open to dialogue with Fidesz and will not oppose their request to enter the ECR group if Fidesz desires.

Târziu said that Fidesz's outburst came from a lack of communication between the two parties.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/hungarys-mega-presidency-or-just-meh/

🇪🇺🗳⚡️ The other nominees for the remaining three big positions in the European Union are:

♦️ Ex-Portuguese PM, Antonio Costa (S&D) for president of the European Council

♦️ Current Estonian PM, Kaja Kallas (RE) for the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs (head of diplomacy)

♦️ Current president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, (EPP)

These nominations have to pass the vote of the European Parliament, but as is with EU politics, no candidate is nominated if he doesn't stand a chance to pass the vote in the parliament, so we can safely assume that these will be the 4 people in charge of the European Union for the next 5 years.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴✈️🕊🌐 The 57th "Mihail Kogălniceanu" Airbase will become NATO's biggest and most important stronghold on the European continent!

Currently, that position is held by the airbase at Ramstein, Germany.

The airbase will host 16 F-16s of the Romanian army + a number of allied NATO aircraft periodically rotated after 6 months, MQ-9 "Reaper" UAVs recently purchased by the Romanian MoD and once finished, a new "military city" for the American & other NATO allied troops full with every desirable facility like kindergartens, schools, drugstores, restaurants, theaters (cinemas) & more, on top of the other military facilities like a new double runway, hangars, new fuel storage facilities, new command tower & more. The capacity of the airbase will increase from the current ~2000 personnel stationed to 10.000 and the families of those deployed.

The airspace around the airbase will become the most protected in Romania and perhaps even in NATO.

📝 This is a strong message to Russia that NATO has no intentions to leave Romania and hopes of that happening anytime soon are delusional, in fact, NATO is digging in.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴🤝🇹🇷 Defense minister, Angel Tîlvăr met with his Turkish counterpart, Yaşar Güler and the commander of the Turkish Navy, Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu.

They toured the Istanbul Shipyard Command meaning that the Romanian MoD is likely interested in acquiring some Turkish ships.

The ship industry in Romania took a big hit after the Dutch company, Damen Holding B.V. decided to leave the Mangalia shipyard following a blunder committed by the ministry of the economy, laying off its employees and returning the shipyard into the hands of the Romanian state who struggled to find orders before selling the shipyard to Damen in 2018.

Damen only retains the shipyard at Galați which it continuously expands. It successfully built a number of search & rescue ships for the Romanian Coast Guard and plans to build a ”drone carrier” for the Portuguese Navy. Damen has built at Galați a lot of ships for other navies, like the Pakistani Navy for which it built two corvettes, the Dutch navy for which it built a Combat-Support Ship (CSS) and a Joint Support Ship (JSS).

The Romanian Navy to make up for the lost capacity in the shipbuilding sector has resorted to buying old ships from other countries and refitting them with newer systems, like the two Sandown class minehunters and the two frigates bought from the UK. Last time we've heard from the navy was when it decided it wanted to build two brand new offshore patrol vessels (OPV) and jointly purchase with other EU members a planned new generation of corvettes believed to be ready past 2030.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🟦🗳⚡️ Elena Lasconi is elected the new president of the Save Romania Union party (USR).

🔗 https://www.digi24.ro/stiri/actualitate/politica/elena-lasconi-este-noul-presedinte-al-usr-a-castigat-alegerile-interne-cu-68-2839691

🇪🇺🗳 Ursula von der Leyen was nominated for a 2nd term as president of the European Commission by the following heads of state:

🇬🇷 Greek prime-minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis who, despite technically winning the 2023 Parliamentary elections, his party, New Democracy, he did so because of the Greek electoral law grants an additional bonus 50 seats for the party that gains 40% of the vote during an election and thus managed to form a majority. He is negotiating for the European People's Party (EPP)

🇵🇱 Polish prime-minister, Donald Tusk, and his party the PO, marginally defeated Law and Justice by forming a grand coalition of centrist and leftist parties. He is negotiating for the EPP.

🇩🇪 German prime-minister, Olaf Scholz, whos party, the SPD recorded the worst performance in the European elections since 1980, falling to under 14% behind CDU and AfD. He is negotiating for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)

🇪🇸 Spanish prime-minister, Pedro Sanchez, who lost the last election to the center-right PP, but remained prime-minister because the PP wasn't able to form a coalition. He is negotiating for the S&D

🇫🇷 French president, Emmanuel Macron, whos party, Renaissance, was crushed by National Rally in the European Elections and as a result called for snap elections. He is negotiation for Renew Europe (RE)

🇳🇱 Dutch prime-minister, Mark Rutte, whos party, the VVD, lost the 2023 general elections to the PVV recording its poorest performance since 1971. Rutte promised to retire from politics after the elections but he broke the promise when he accepted his nomination as the future head of NATO. He is negotiating for RE.

These heads of state who are hated at home negotiated the future of the European Union behind closed doors and chose some particularly unreliable politicians.

Ursula von der Leyen is investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office for the COVID-19 vaccine acquisitions. She has refused to this day to reveal her private chat with Pfizer CEO, Alex Bourla when she sold some 40 billion EURs worth of vaccines in what is the biggest corruption case in the history of the EU. She is alleged to have bought COVID vaccines 25% more expensive than their market value.

Antonio Costa who is to lead the European Council was toppled in Portugal following the biggest corruption scandal in Portuguese history (Operation Influencer), regarding two lithium mines who might pose dangers to the health of the inhabitants nearby.

Kaja Kallas, the Estonian PM, will lead EU diplomacy after she was turned down from NATO because she was considered "too hard on Russia" despite being married to a man who had business dealings in Russia and kept conducting business in Russia after the placing of sanctions on Moscow.

It is unclear who will lead the European Parliament but it is expected that current president, Roberta Metsola (Malta) will continue to head it for the foreseeable future.

@CIG_telegram

🇷🇴🤝🇰🇷 More details from the contract signed between the Romanian MoD and Hanwha Group were revealed:

Romania will purchase 54 K9 "Thunder" self-propelled howitzers and received the Romanian designation: K9 "Tunet" and 84 tracked K10 Ammunition Supply Vehicles as well as 17k 155mm shells worth 4.1 billion Romanian lei (~920 million EURs)

The K9 Thunder SPG can fire 8 shells in under a minute, which follows the lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian war, that artillery needs to vacate its position quickly after firing otherwise it risks being destroyed by counterbattery fire.

18/54 K9s will be manufactured in the city of Changwon the capital of South Gyeongsang province and will be delivered in 2025. The remaining 36 will be assembled in Romania.

Hanwha assures that the K9s were tested in the most difficult of conditions in South Korea and elsewhere, like Norway, India, or the Middle East, to account for climates and certain terrain features which South Korea lacks.

🔗 Adelin Petrișor