Rumbling away throughout 2024 was EU threats to take action against Twitter/X for abandoning fact-checking. The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) is clear on its requirements - so that conflict will escalate. If X won't change, presumably ultimately it will be banned from the EU.
Meta have decided they'd rather keep EU market access. Today they announced the removal of fact-checking, but only for Americans. Europeans can still benefit from the higher standards the Digital Services Act guarantees.
The next 10 years will see the power of mis/disinformation accelerate with AI. Meta itself seems to be embracing this trend by purposefully integrating fake AI profiles into its networks. From now on it looks like the main battle-ground to deal with this is going to be the EU.
Is there some kind of loophole where Canada can join the EU? I mean we're not really that far away if you fly over the North Pole and down again.
Pretty please? Think of the better costs for Poutine and Maple Syrup!
Literally yes. Cyprus is in the EU, while being part of the Middle East. Being a French-English European clone country with a Danish land border and a strong democracy gives us good odds of qualifying as "substantially European".
The real problem there is that we couldn't technically have our own currency, and the US border would probably be a lot harder to cross as it would be the Schengen border. Also, it might make Trump pay a lot more attention in a bad way. Honestly it still seems like a good deal to me, though.
The irony of all of it is that technically I can become a dual citizen anytime I wanted to file the paperwork since my parents are Portuguese citizens. But up until recently I've never felt the need for that particular escape valve.
I've always known I would have to get it eventually in order to handle my now ageing father's finances over there when he passes. And I always regretted not doing it when I was young and free to travel before life gets one bogged down in trivialities.
Yeah, I would get that in order sooner rather than later. Having you papers ready to go is emergency planning 101.
In my case, Israel is not an improvement, lol.
It's not that you can become a dual citizen. You are a dual citizen you just haven't requested any evidence of that from Portugal
He's already talking about annexing you and he hasn't even taken office, how much worse could it be?
Famous last words, lol.
The dude is incoherent, so it's hard to tell if he says annexation but means a 5% tariff, or if he's serious and also going to decimate the population to show who's boss. Intending one and then forgetting to do it is also an option. If he really means it, Canada's military is a joke, that won't change in under a month, and the rest of the Western world probably can't help in that timeframe either.
That being said, he actually just ruled out using military force to get Canada. Panama and Greenland are valid military targets according to the same press conference, though.
Last week’s economist article
https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/02/why-canada-should-join-the-eu
There's still a lot of bad blood between the Danes and the Canadians. A lot of good young men watched booze being spilled in front of them. It was horrific. I just don't know if there's any coming back from the kind of horrors both countries saw in the Whiskey War.
There is a process. First you need to join Eurovision.