Maybe not a usual ‘news’ but I thought it’s worthwhile (please let me know if I am mistaken).

On Monday, the US Supreme Court decided in Trump v. Slaughter that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore. Since 2000, the EU has relied on the “independent” FTC as the enforcer of EU-US deals on personal data. According to EU treaty law, such oversight must be independent. In the current EU-US deal, the European Commission relies on the independent FTC 259 (!) times.

Max Schrems, founder and chariman of the digital rights group noyb: “Given that there are no independent authorities in the US anymore, we call on the European Commission to orderly withdraw the adequacy decision on the US.”

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Archived version

A month or so ago, the Netherlands reportedly blocked a US company from buying the cloud provider that runs Dutch digital identity (there is a post about it in this community here).

The more recent news is that the Chief Privacy Officer of the Dutch government, who was behind this initiative, is about to lose his job.

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For more than four months, Pieter van Oordt warned internally about the risks of the takeover. When these warnings were ignored, he brought the issue to the media, the Dutch Parliament, and the Cabinet. He showed that Parliament had received incomplete and misleading information and revealed that vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure had been shared with a U.S. company. His actions forced the Ministry of Economic Affairs to block the takeover.

Instead of protection, Van Oordt faced retaliation. He was excluded from meetings, his salary increase was blocked, and his request for protection under the European Whistleblower Directive was rejected, despite an expert report confirming that he should have been protected. He has been suspended, and his dismissal is mentioned in a written notice from the Attorney General on 22 May 2026.

The dismissal has not yet been implemented.

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Someone started a petition (not me), I post this here as you may want to sign it (and maybe spread the word).

The petition calls on the European Parliament and the European Commission to act:

• Protect Pieter van Oordt from an unlawful dismissal.
• Ensure he can continue his work safely within the public sector.
• Place digital sovereignty of vital infrastructure high on the European agenda.
• Hold the Dutch government and the responsible ministries accountable.

[To read the English version of the linked text, you need to scroll down. It’s below the Dutch version.]

Designed in Europe, built in Europe but available to all that seek a truly sovereign choice.

Archived version

While many European organizations use software layers that are built using open source, their underlying infrastructure frequently relies on proprietary silicon architectures developed outside of Europe.

This can expose critical environments to geopolitical friction, trade constraints, and international semiconductor supply chain disruptions.

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SUSE, a global leader of enterprise open source software, and Openchip & Software Technologies S.L., a developer of high-performance RISC-V compute accelerators, have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on Europe’s first enterprise-grade sovereign technology stack spanning from RISC-V-based hardware architectures to open source software.

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The joint integration is designed to help organizations satisfy the data auditing, data locality, and operational resilience mandates of European regulations, including NIS2, DORA, and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

The platform is designed to serve as infrastructure for data center modernization, localized AI and supercompute rollouts, and compliance overhauls for European public sector organizations, healthcare networks, defense agencies, and critical infrastructure operators.

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Openchip is a European systems company developing a unique portfolio of RISC-V–based compute accelerators, infrastructure hardware and full-stack software for next-generation AI and HPC applications. Headquartered in Barcelona, with a growing presence across Europe, Openchip unites top silicon and software engineering talent with a strong focus on AI … For more information, visit https://openchip.com/.

SUSE - headquartered in Luxembourg with operations in Germany - is a global leader of enterprise open source software. By transforming community innovations into secure, sovereign and AI-ready solutions, SUSE empowers customers to escape vendor lock-in and regain control of their IT destiny … SUSE also manages many Linux and Kubernetes distributions. At SUSE, Choice Happens because we prioritize community, interoperability and relentless innovation. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

Archived version

US enterprise services provider Kyndryl tried to acquire Dutch cloud specialist Solvinity, but The Hague has officially stopped the acquisition. Citing a potential security risk to the country’s public interest, State Secretary for Digital Economy Willemijn Aerdts recently confirmed the takeover ban. The decision anticipates a potentially disruptive initiative designed to further promote European sovereignty in the digital market.

As far as technology is concerned, US and Europe are growing apart at an accelerated rate. EU authorities are working to build their own digital sovereignty, while member states are now actively pushing foreign buyers away when it comes to local service providers.

Kyndryl first announced the acquisition in November 2025, saying Solvinity would expand its portfolio of mission-critical enterprise and cloud services. Solvinity operates secure managed cloud platforms and supports key Dutch digital systems, including DigiD, the authentication platform widely used by Dutch citizens.

DigiD allows users to confirm their identity when interacting with public institutions and essential services, from booking medical appointments to completing housing-related transactions. Following a review by the Investment Screening Bureau (BTI), Dutch officials concluded that allowing the acquisition to proceed could weaken the country’s control over an important part of its domestic cloud ecosystem.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8843134

Op-ed by Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Research Fellow, Security Studies at Macquarie University.

Archived version

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Once primarily the domain of non-state actors, including terror groups, drug cartels and armed gangs, hostage-taking has become a lucrative bargaining chip in the hands of countries like Iran, Russia, China, North Korea and Venezuela. (I was imprisoned by Iran for more than two years on false charges of espionage.)

It has become an unorthodox yet highly effective means of forcing concessions, including prisoner swaps, financial payments and the removal of sanctions.

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However, very little scholarly research has examined the phenomenon. The data we do have on cases is patchy. This is in part because the governments whose citizens have been taken hostage usually prefer to negotiate in the shadows. We only tend to hear about select cases that attract media coverage.

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Treating state hostage-taking as a consular issue to be solved via traditional diplomacy hasn’t worked. Bad actors haven’t been deterred; rather the opposite. An innovative new approach is long overdue.

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Some of the ideas put forward in our research include:

1) Expanded international legal approaches

This includes reframing state hostage-taking as a form of torture and, under certain conditions, even a war crime or crime against humanity.

UN torture rapporteur Alice Edwards argues this would help open avenues for victims seeking justice … Legal academic Carla Ferstman governments should look to existing models in the US and Canada and consider passing legislation to allow victims of state-sponsored terrorism to sue hostage-taking states in their domestic courts.

2) Stronger government-led responses to hostage-taking

Many countries don’t have a designated office or role within government to coordinate domestic and multilateral responses to hostage-taking.

These positions exist now in the US and Canada. This step was also proposed in a 2024 Australian Senate inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian citizens overseas. The government has yet to respond to the inquiry.

3) Innovative models for multilateral rapid responses to hostage crises

Several contributors to the journal have proposed new ideas for how states can do this, including former Canadian Justice Minister and Attorney General Irwin Cotler (with international human rights lawyer Brandon Silver) and former hostage Michael Kovrig (with international security and diplomacy expert Vina Nadjibulla).

Their recommendations include:

• developing rapid-response mechanisms to hostage-taking in pre-existing multilateral groupings, such as the G7 or NATO

• strengthening the Declaration on Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations (launched by Canada and now supported by more than 80 nations)

• imposing multilateral sanctions and other tools of economic leverage against states that engage in hostage-taking.

4) Greater investment in post-detention recovery care for both victims and families

Proposals for taking better care of former detainees came from the NGO Hostage International, human rights lawyer Sarah Teich and an Israeli team involved in designing reintegration programs for Gaza hostages.

These proposals include:

• passing legislation to mandate a “duty of care” by governments to former hostages

• developing new strategies for helping former hostages overcome their psychological challenges, based on emerging research in the field.

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