Buy European

European arrivals to the U.S. in the first three quarters of 2025 totaled approximately 11.8 million, representing a 3.1% decline compared to the same period in 2024. This data, sourced from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s I-92 air travel statistics, reflects year-to-date trends but does not yet include full-year 2025 figures, which are typically published with a 3–6 month delay after the calendar year ends.

Airbus is preparing to migrate its mission-critical applications to a sovereign European cloud, launching a tender worth over €50 million. The move reflects growing corporate concern over data control under U.S. laws like the CLOUD Act — and highlights the urgent need for mature, secure European alternatives, even as Airbus admits the odds of finding a suitable provider are only 80/20.

This effort is part of a broader industry push led by Airbus, Dassault Systèmes, OVHcloud, and others, who’ve called on the EU to create a sovereign infrastructure fund. Their goal: ensure Europe controls its digital future — from AI to cloud hardware — and reduces reliance on foreign tech giants.

Researchers are devising creative ways to get together as Trump’s policies curb travel to US gatherings.

The EU has approved a €90 billion interest-free loan to Ukraine to support its military and economic needs through 2026–2027 — funded via joint EU borrowing, not frozen Russian assets, after Hungary blocked the latter plan.

The loan aims to keep Ukraine’s state functioning and boost its defense industrial base, covering roughly two-thirds of its IMF-estimated funding gap. Ukraine welcomed the deal, though it falls short of the more ambitious asset-repurposing mechanism originally proposed.

Mantas de Grazalema is a Spanish artisanal brand based in Grazalema (Cádiz, Spain), specializing in high-quality wool blankets and textiles made with traditional craftsmanship.

Their products — including blankets, rugs, cushions, and bedding — are crafted from natural Merino wool, reflecting local heritage and sustainable production. Perfect for those seeking authentic European craftsmanship.

"European Union wants to impose strict “Buy European” rules on Ukraine’s potential loan backed by Russian assets, which leaders will try to finalize during a summit on Thursday."

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Since returning to the White House on Jan. 20, Donald Trump has imposed one-sided tariffs on the European Union, forced the bloc to commit to buying vast quantities of American natural gas, and effectively threatened annexation of Greenland. The latest indignity for Europe includes a White House National Security Strategy that calls on far-right parties to muster patriotic resistance to European policies. Instead of standing up to this blatant foreign interference, EU leaders have repeatedly tried to appease Trump and avoid any possible escalations of tension — even at the cost of their dignity. Examples include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen weakening EU environmental and digital regulations in line with American demands, and NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte addressing Trump as "daddy" in front of the world's media. Trump may be the proximate cause of this annus horribilis for the EU. But the reasons for subservience run far deeper, says Dave Keating, a broadcaster and the author of a new book, The Owned Continent. A key factor is US command and control over the NATO military alliance, which Europe has relied on for protection from Russia for nearly eight decades. Trump and Maga are now openly exploiting that military dependency, amid Russia's assault on Ukraine, to block European regulation of tech oligarchs and fossil fuels. "Never before has there been an explicit connection from the US government between the military protectorate and EU policy," says Dave, who says the extortion is "a first" for the Trump administration. Another factor behind the European reluctance to treat the US in a more adversarial fashion, even as Maga amps up its belligerence, is the pervasiveness of American culture through cinema, news media, social media and streaming platforms. "Europeans are inundated by American culture from birth" says Dave. That also makes it "hard to accept that the US is a threat." Freeing Europe from its long vassalage is a strategic priority that starts with creation sovereign EU defense capabilities, says Dave. But that would require acknowledging that France was right to resist reliance on US military systems and hardware. It also would require Europe to make a decisive break with Atlanticism, an ideology that prioritizes NATO and that remains deeply entrenched among EU elites and in Poland and the Baltics. But Atlanticism may be an increasingly hard sell. It relies on increasingly implausible assumptions: that the US will keep large numbers of troops in Europe and uphold its mutual defense commitment under the NATO treaty despite abundant evidence otherwise. "At what point do citizens say, 'enough is enough, we've had it with these centrist European leaders lying to us, gaslighting us'?" Dave asks. "If Europeans keep electing these people, then they are signing their own death warrant as a sovereign continent." 

SOMO report on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

The Authoritarian Stack project on the threat posed by tech billionaires.

Mp3: https://www.buzzsprout.com/178148/episodes/18370429-ep-123-owned-extorted-and-gaslit.mp3

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