Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Thousands protest in Hungary against Russia-style bill targeting media, NGOs — Russia declares Amnesty International an ‘undesirable organization’ — Aestheticized aggression, why Gosha Rubchinskiy’s ‘Victory Day’ photo book is Russian propaganda — Ukrainian drones destroy Russian radar, supply depots on Black Sea gas platforms … and more
https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/05/tuesday-may-20-2025/
🇭🇺 HUNGARY
🔴 Thousands Protest Orban’s Crackdown on Civil Society
🔸 Orban’s new bill targets NGOs & media with foreign funding.
🔸 It enables donation blocks, strict reporting, fines & asset freezes.
🔸 Protesters rallied outside parliament in Budapest.
🔸 Hundreds of NGOs & media: law aims to “erase what’s left of Hungarian democracy.”
#Hungary #Orban #Democracy #Protest #CivilSociety #MediaFreedom
#LawFirms, #universities and now #CivilSociety groups are in #Trump’s sights for #punitive action
By LISA MASCARO
Updated 12:04 AM EDT, April 18, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — "First the nation’s top law firms. Then its premier universities. Now, President Donald Trump is leaning on the #advocacy groups that underpin U.S. civil society.
"Trump said Thursday that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status not just of Harvard, but environmental groups and specifically the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or #CREW. It could be a devastating financial blow to the #nonprofit organizations — and his perceived #PoliticalFoes.
"The president’s remarks, during an event at the White House, began to confirm what advocacy groups have been quietly warning: Trump’s campaign of retribution is coming next for them.
" 'It’s supposed to be a charitable organization,' Trump said about CREW, in particular. 'The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things.' "
#CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent #USPol #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule #CriminalizingDissent #EnvironmentalGroups #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #LandIsLife #FightForTheFuture #DefendMotherEarth
“#ElSalvador President Nayib #Bukele said he’s pushing forward a “#foreignagents” bill that…would deal another blow to #civilsociety & independent #journalistic organizations… the bill would include a 30% tax on donations to NGOs… …Juan Pappier, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, warned that it falls in line with measures passed by autocratic governments to crack down on #dissent, citing laws in #Nicaragua, #Venezuela, #Russia, #Belarus and #China.” | AP https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-bukele-trump-ngos-foreign-agents-471ed9718bc91b670609128265b8e7b6
The regime #Trump & allies see as a model.
#Orbán’s #Fidesz party proposes #Russia-style crackdown on #Hungary’s #CivilSociety
The new bill fits into a pattern of democratic backsliding for the Central European country.
"The bill says threats to national sovereignty include influencing #PublicOpinion, promoting #democratic #debate, or challenging state-defined values like #Christian culture & traditional family roles."
#auticracy #authoritarianism #tyranny #dissent
https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-fidesz-party-hungary-russia-democracy-transparency-public-life-civil-society/
🇪🇺 #CivilSociety Exposing EU Commission's Closed-Door Compromising of Health and Environmental Policies
"sidelining civil society," and rising tide of "corporate capture," within the European Commission
@clientearth.bsky.social @corporateeurope.bsky.social
www.natureworldnews.com/articles/725...
Civil Society Exposing EU Comm...
1/2 Monday #NoeticSpectrum : Even for purposes of an exercise and limiting ourselves to five hard or physical senses our individual acuities and the way we fuse those inputs varies considerably. Consensus reality is mostly about averaging across populations.
This is in its own way discriminatory and #CivilSociety began to see and make adjustments for biases such that standards of living could be improved for the masses as early as the 1700’s.
In this modern age retrogression is only possible…
"Europe's centrist political forces have an uneasy feeling that the European People’s Party is abandoning them for the far right.
The center-right group — Europe's largest political family and part of the centrist coalition that has dominated EU politics since the bloc's inception — has been leading a political campaign against nongovernmental organizations using EU grant money to influence policymaking.
By targeting civil society organizations, critics say the EPP has embraced a cause associated with the right-wing fringes of politics, in a move that is reshaping EU politics as far-right parties make significant ground across EU countries.
The EPP dismisses such claims. It says it is simply demanding more transparency in how nonprofits use EU taxpayer money, having accused the European Commission of paying NGOs to lobby other EU institutions on its behalf to promote environmental laws.
But others disagree, including the two other biggest centrist groups in the European Parliament — the liberal Renew Europe group and the center-left Socialists and Democrats — who believe the campaign is an attempt to restrict NGOs’ influence in EU policymaking, a cause of the far right.
It's driving a wedge between the EPP and its long-standing coalition partners — a shaky partnership that has nevertheless endured till now, keeping EU politics on the center ground."
https://www.politico.eu/article/european-peoples-party-epp-ngo-funding-civil-society-far-right/
The @EUCommission's Executive Vice President for tech #sovereignty Henna #Virkkunen canceled her appearance at the #EU Parliament’s working group on the #DigitalServicesAct scheduled for today, which she has repeatedly done.
Also: the following working group discussion features a national enforcement authority (#ACM), a professor, and two corporate lobbyists. Zero #CivilSociety. 😠
And… this little nugget of #GQP / #TrumpVIrus #Truth
Believe your eyes… Raise your hands
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1917793828096073921
#MayDay for #Democracy #Civilization #Law #Respect #Decency #CivilSociety #Reality
So even former #OpenAI employees think the conversion from #Nonprofit to ForProfit is suspect. Here's their open letter to the Attorneys General https://notforprivategain.org/
At a time of great threat to #civilsociety - and great imaginations at work about new org forms and #funding - this is important.
So even former #OpenAI employees think the conversion from #Nonprofit to ForProfit is suspect. Here's their open letter to the Attorneys General https://notforprivategain.org/
At a time of great threat to #civilsociety - and great imaginations at work about new org forms and #funding - this is important.
@proscience I see what you mean and partly agree. I would not say "the EU's aim" is mass #surveillance though.
Hear me out:
The #EU is a complex, diverse political thing. Yes, some EU member state governments want mass surveillance, some #EUCommission officials, Commissioners and members of the European #Parliament want it, also.
In the end it's a question of majorities. And the mission of us #digitalrights and other #civilsociety folks in Brussels is to make sure they don't get those. 🔥💪🏼
DRC: Huge rally for peace in Butembo http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TKPQd1 #DRC #PeaceInButembo #NorthKivu #CivilSociety #RallyForPeace
What's true? How could it be more true? These are questions for poets, but also for those who seek to better the world, don't you think? A few musings before the next meeting(s) of the Philanthropy Book Club (PBC) https://philanthropy2173.ghost.io/is-this-true-what-could-make-it-more-true/
What's true? How could it be more true? These are questions for poets, but also for those who seek to better the world, don't you think? A few musings before the next meeting(s) of the Philanthropy Book Club (PBC) https://philanthropy2173.ghost.io/is-this-true-what-could-make-it-more-true/
🆕 At the invitation of the @EUCommission, Cláudia Ninhos took part for the second time in the Civil Society Forum on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, which took place at the beginning of April in Brussels.
👉 https://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en/claudia-ninhos-brussels/
📷 © Christophe Licoppe
#Histodons #HistoryInThePublicSphere #Antisemitism #CivilSociety #EngagedHistorians #HistóriaNaEsferaPública #AntiSemitismo #SociedadeCivil #PolíticasPúblicas #PublicPolicies
#usa #israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #militaryindustrialcomplex / #militaryaid / #civilsociety / #dissent
„American and Israeli weapons are being used to continue the genocide in Gaza and the apartheid system in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and we oppose this warmongering system.“
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/17/dont-collaborate-with-the-war-industry/
Exciting News from Slovenia!
@Pro_Coast partner University of Primorska, has made significant strides in presenting the PRO-Coast project. Their focus on the case study "Strunjan Landscape Park has garnered recognition, as it has been selected as one of the few projects to be showcased at a prestigious Open Science Festival in Ljubljana. #Biodiversity #biodiversityconservation
#ecosystemservices #nature #coastalecosystems #transformativechange#motivation #civilsociety #NBS #NatureBasedSolutions
TOR is not a gimmick, but it doesn’t claim to be perfect either.
#sidechannel #COSADE #TorProject
A mask is still the best metaphor.
https://yashalevine.com/surveillance-valley
#MIC #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #ChrisHedges #SI #Scheer #Surveillance #Privacy #CivilSociety #MartialLaw #Junta #Tech #CS
#History #MIC #Arpa #ONR
#clock #delusion #psy #genocidalSpyime #Pharoh
The hate group violates our privates with subconscious patrols . . .
