Às 10h50 de 23 de julho de 2026, o diretor-geral da Polícia Federal (PF), Andrei Rodrigues, enviou um ofício sigiloso ao advogado-geral da União, Jorge Messias. No documento, obtido com exclusividade pela Agência Pública, pedia-se que a Advocacia-Geral da União (AGU) analisasse e tomasse “as eventuais providências cabíveis” contra uma decisão do ministro André Mendonça, então relator do caso Master no Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). A resposta, registrada em nota jurídica também sigilosa, foi negativa: segundo a AGU, não havia nenhuma medida judicial possível.

O pedido precedeu a fase mais aguda da crise que, em setembro, pôs ministros do Supremo em confronto e levou ao afastamento de Andrei do cargo, em decisão de André Mendonça — posteriormente revertida por Flávio Dino e mantida por Edson Fachin. Segundo integrantes do alto escalão do governo, ouvidos sob reserva pela reportagem, a negativa da AGU ao ofício teria tido o aval também da cúpula jurídica do governo e foi emitida antes da divulgação das mensagens atribuídas ao ex-banqueiro Daniel Vorcaro e ao ministro Alexandre de Moraes, que se tornaram públicas em 8 de setembro, quando Mendonça retirou o sigilo de parte das investigações do Banco Master.

Fontes do alto escalão disseram à Pública que a cúpula da AGU teria se sentido pressionada por Rodrigues com o envio do ofício e que a história teria chegado até a presidência da República. Uma reportagem da Folha de S. Paulo, publicada em 2 de setembro, relatou que a PF via uma “omissão” da AGU em relação à crise envolvendo o ministro André Mendonça. 

A Pública apurou que o Advogado-geral da União, Jorge Messias, e o ministro da Justiça e Segurança Pública, Wellington César Lima e Silva, se encontraram com André Mendonça, fora da agenda, após tomarem conhecimento do pedido da PF. No encontro entre os três, os representantes do governo buscaram uma “interlocução” para resolver o embate, mas a exposição das conversas direcionadas a Moraes, que vieram depois do encontro, afastou os governistas do caso para evitar uma associação pública do governo à crise no Supremo. 

Nesta quarta-feira, 23 de setembro, reportagem de Marcela Mattos no UOL informa que Messias e Andrei trocaram xingamentos diante de Lula: ‘Está me espionando?’. Segundo o UOL, pessoas que ouviram relatos do episódio disseram que a conversa, acompanhada a todo momento por Lula, foi “dura”, “tensa” e “ríspida”. A cobrança foi considerada a gota d’água de uma série de divergências que vinham se arrastando nos bastidores das investigações sobre o Banco Master.

Procurada, a AGU informou a Pública que “as informações apresentadas na matéria do UOL não são precisas. Divergências são naturais, evidentemente, mas nada se sobrepõe ao respeito e à consideração que o advogado-geral da União, Jorge Messias, tem pelo diretor-geral da Polícia Federal, Andrei Rodrigues, tanto no âmbito pessoal quanto institucional”

Procurada, a Polícia Federal não deu retorno até a publicação. O espaço segue aberto para manifestação.

Uma disputa que começou em fevereiro

André Mendonça herdou o caso Master de Dias Toffoli em fevereiro deste ano. Nas primeiras decisões como relator, em 19 de fevereiro, o ministro determinou que apenas os policiais diretamente envolvidos na investigação tivessem acesso às informações, com sigilo “inclusive em relação aos superiores hierárquicos”, o que incluiria Andrei Rodrigues. Seria um movimento para limitar a influência do diretor-geral na apuração, vista com desconfiança pela ala de André Mendonça. Nos bastidores, teria pesado a percepção de Mendonça de que informações sensíveis chegavam antes ao comando da PF, o que passou a causar “um certo desconforto”, segundo uma fonte do STF, até mesmo entre os juízes lotados no gabinete do ministro.

Em 22 de maio, na investigação sobre fraudes no INSS (Operação Sem Desconto), da qual Mendonça também era o relator, o ministro teria reagido a uma mudança na chefia do caso e exigido ser avisado de qualquer nova alteração na equipe. Em 15 de maio, na semana anterior à exigência de Mendonça, o comando da PF trocou a área responsável pelos inquéritos do INSS: o caso foi transferido da Divisão de Repressão a Crimes Previdenciários (DPrev) para a Coordenação de Inquéritos em Tribunais Superiores (Cinq). Simultaneamente, o delegado que chefiava a operação, Guilherme da Silva, solicitou transferência para Minas Gerais, estado natal dele. À época, a PF não revelou o nome do novo chefe da operação e justificou que a mudança assegurava “maior eficiência e continuidade das investigações”.

Em 13 de julho, Mendonça repetiu a ordem no caso Master (Operação Compliance Zero): a equipe de investigadores deveria ser mantida e qualquer troca deveria ser comunicada a ele previamente; as informações também deveriam ficar restritas às coordenações responsáveis, e o material bruto extraído de celulares e computadores apreendidos deveria ser enviado ao seu gabinete.

Dez dias depois, em 23 de julho, Andrei oficiou à AGU com direcionamento a Jorge Messias, conforme o documento obtido pela Pública. O documento da PF registra que não há “qualquer indício de irregularidade” nas investigações e classifica como “desarrazoada” uma decisão que limitasse as atribuições administrativas da PF. O documento registra, ainda, que o controle externo da polícia cabe ao Ministério Público Federal. No pedido, foi citada a decisão de Mendonça de maio como “de conteúdo semelhante”, na qual se fundamentou na lei que permite à AGU defender, na Justiça, agentes públicos por atos praticados no exercício do cargo. 

A análise sigilosa da AGU 

O ofício foi enviado à Secretaria-Geral de Contencioso, braço da AGU que representa a União no STF. Em 24 de julho, uma reunião no gabinete do advogado-geral substituto apontou os primeiros problemas do pedido: a repercussão na imprensa sobre o incômodo da PF, no dia anterior, tratava da decisão de maio, não da de julho; faltavam documentos; e a AGU nem sequer tinha acesso aos processos em sigilo, apenas às cópias das decisões.

A nota registra ainda que, segundo a própria PF, informou à AGU em 27 de julho que o material bruto relacionado a Vorcaro já havia sido entregue ao gabinete do relator na semana anterior. 

A Nota Jurídica enumera os motivos da recusa ao pedido da PF. Primeiro, diz que não se tratava de defender um agente público. Segundo, registrou que a AGU não atua em investigação criminal, tarefa do Ministério Público. Terceiro, avaliou que a PF não demonstrou “prejuízo concreto” decorrente da exigência de avisar sobre trocas na equipe. E, quarto, a PF perdeu o prazo: as regras já estavam na decisão de maio, e a de sigilo interno vinha desde o início do caso, sem que a PF recorresse. A nota menciona “inércia prolongada da autoridade policial” e afirma que uma nova decisão não reabriria o prazo já vencido. Por fim, como o material já havia sido entregue, não haveria o que suspender.

Na resposta à PF, a AGU sugeriu dois caminhos: conversar diretamente com o relator ou levar o caso ao Ministério Público Federal. As páginas obtidas pela reportagem não mostram a data de assinatura da nota.

Afastamento e volta em 24 horas

Segundo a Folha de S.Paulo, Mendonça teria dito ao presidente do STF, Edson Fachin, no início de agosto, que suspeitava de viés político de Andrei Rodrigues para blindar a campanha de Lula; Andrei teria relatado a Fachin a suspeita inversa, de que o ministro prejudicava a esquerda e aliviava aliados de Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). 

No início de setembro, Mendonça levantou o sigilo do relatório que continha mensagens enviadas por Vorcaro a um interlocutor identificado como “Alexandre de Moraes Brasília”. A maior parte das mensagens foi enviada em visualização única e aponta para a troca de informações sobre uma possível operação contra o ex-banqueiro. Em 15 de novembro, dois dias antes de ser preso, Vorcaro perguntou a Moraes: “Acha que na segunda já tenho que estar fora?”.

Os investigadores também encontraram registros digitais e metadados que indicam que Moraes atuou na edição de um contrato de R$ 130 milhões firmado entre Vorcaro e o escritório de advocacia da esposa do ministro, Viviane Barci de Moraes. Após a revelação do acordo, o escritório Barci de Moraes divulgou uma nota negando a existência de impedimentos legais à contratação. 

A partir de então, a crise no STF escalou, como a Pública mostrou ao longo de sua cobertura do caso. A sessão do STF para julgamento das suspeitas contra Alexandre de Moraes foi iniciada em 15 de setembro e marcada por bate-bocas e trocas de acusações entre os magistrados. A deliberação foi adiada após o ministro Flávio Dino pedir vistas do processo. Ou seja, mais tempo para analisar o caso, que segue sem definição. 

An acclaimed American author has spoken to FRANCE 24 about his theories on how American society's opinion and ideas of social justice have changed since the presidency of Barack Obama. Thomas Chatterton Williams says the left became disillusioned during Obama's second term, and in later years amid the George Floyd protests and Covid-19 pandemic the discourse shifted – initially for the left, but this also impacted the right. The ripples of those times are still resonating today. His latest book is entitled "Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse".

L’intelligenza artificiale si erge come compimento della tecno civiltà faustiana occidentale, nel frattempo minacciata dall’irruzione fulminea dell’oriente cinese. Più che una forza di vero rinnovamento, l’automazione algoritmica rappresenta la mummificazione della nostra società. Delegando all’apparato elettronico, alla mente artificiale la creazione artistica, la scrittura, l’analisi giuridica, la decisione, il pensiero critico , l’apprendimento, abdichiamo  alla vitalità organica. I suoi modelli linguistici (LLM) non generano nuovi simboli viventi; si limitano a elaborare e ricombinare statisticamente i detriti del nostro passato culturale. Il genio creativo è sostituito dall’efficienza dell’elaborazione dei dati, un’intelligenza insensibile emersa con forza travolgente quando il cuore spirituale della cultura ha cessato di battere. Per Jacquel Ellul, sociologo ma anche teologo, la tecnica è il rischio del secolo, la modalità attraverso cui il moloch tecnologico abbatte ogni ostacolo in nome dell’utilità e dell’efficienza.

Uno dei nodi tragici consiste in quello che Spengler definì il tradimento della tecnologia moderna, creata dall’ umanità occidentale con l’inequivocabile scopo di sottomettere la natura. La storia insegna che lo strumento finisce invariabilmente per schiavizzare il suo inventore. Il paradosso potrebbe manifestarsi nelle reti neurali artificiali che mutano, apprendono e assumono decisioni autonome a velocità misurabili in millisecondi, una scala temporale neppure pensabile dal cervello biologico. Abbiamo costruito un ambiente di flussi globali tanto complesso che la mente umana non è più in grado di gestirlo senza il supporto dell’intelligenza artificiale. Ci troviamo al punto di non ritorno in cui il sistema, gli Stati, i mercati, le grandi infrastrutture, dipendono totalmente da questa trama artificiale impossibile da disattivare senza causare l’immediato collasso dell’intero sistema.

Il patto faustiano si consuma con la rinuncia all’autonomia umana in cambio della capacità di calcolo, la volontà di potenza postmoderna. Il fenomeno ha una dimensione geopolitica destabilizzante. Spengler in Anni della decisione, spiega che l’Occidente ha commesso l’errore di esportare la propria tecnologia in altre civiltà in nome del profitto a breve termine e di una provvisoria egemonia. Globalizzandosi verso oriente, la tecnologia si è resa indipendente dai suoi ideatori. Gli strumenti di dominio creati dall’anima faustiana sono passati nelle mani di culture che non condividono la struttura psichica e gli imperativi etici dell’Occidente, ma che hanno imparato a usarli con notevole efficacia.

L’attuale corsa per la supremazia tecnologica tra Usa e Cina si inserisce nel conflitto di fine civiltà. Il risultato della pulsione universalista non è l’armonia planetaria o un ordine strutturato; il mondo è più frammentato che mai sotto la patina tecnologica, immerso in lotte di potere, ribelle all’egemonia declinante della civiltà che l’ha plasmata. La degradazione della democrazia formale apre le porte a ciò che Spengler chiamava cesarismo: l’ascesa di figure autoritarie, amorali, che governano con la forza o con la manipolazione dell’opinione pubblica. Questo è evidente nel neo confucianesimo cinese, ma avanza nel potere immenso di figure quali Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Sam Altman, i signori di Silicon Valley e dell’Intelligenza Artificiale. Costoro stanno elaborando una specifica ideologia, l’ accelerazionismo o illuminismo oscuro che travolge la territorialità, gli Stati, le procedure della democrazia e le regole giuridiche. Si tratta del traguardo finale che oltrepassa la fase tecnocratica per diventare giustificazione tautologica del potere.

Uno dei suoi strumenti sono le cosiddette “iperstizioni” (Nick Land) , finzioni o idee  che si autoavverano attraverso le azioni che ispirano, Diffuse dall’alto per mezzo dei mezzi digitali, del marketing e dalle nuove culture, trasformano la narrazione in fatto incontrovertibile e rendono la virtualità non più distinguibile dalla realtà, capovolgendo credenze e comportamenti. L’intelligenza artificiale e la progettazione algoritmica sono gli strumenti di controllo sociale più perfetti mai immaginati: producono un livello di monitoraggio, controllo personalizzato e mutazione delle condotte senza precedenti, unito, come dicevamo, alla confusione dolosa tra reale e virtuale, uni-verso e meta-verso. Attraverso gli algoritmi, le piattaforme digitali e la proliferazione di simulazioni che dissolvono la verità fattuale, la realtà è atomizzata, resa malleabile, plastica. Le popolazioni vengono disarmate intellettualmente in un mare di stimolazioni istantanee (frames) promosse dai tecnocrati sulla strada di diventare autocrati. La sovranità è sostituita dalla docilità dell’utente riformattato.

Nella sua fase terminale, la cultura occidentale esaurisce le possibilità creative, raggiunge la dimensione planetaria e si libera delle tensioni metafisiche. L’ intera umanità rischia di trasformarsi in folla informe di fellah, la parola araba che Spengler  usa per designare la massa senza volto che si adatta e sopravvive da una civiltà all’altra senza appartenere ad alcuna, inconsapevole, estranea ai movimenti della storia, preoccupata solo della sopravvivenza e del benessere materiale. È l’avvento degli ultimi uomini descritti con disprezzo da Nietzsche, manipolati dalla tecnostruttura e presto direttamente dalla macchina. In questa gabbia digitale globalizzata, l’esistenza si riduce alla dimensione zoologica vissuta in un ambiente artificiale dove l’intrattenimento automatizzato guidato da algoritmi “di ricompensa” esaurisce gli orizzonti della vita.

Le persone diventano appendici biologiche di un ecosistema tecnico che decide che cosa consumare, che cosa pensare e in che cosa credere. Di fronte al vuoto lasciato dal declino delle religioni e dall’esaurimento del razionalismo, emerge uno spurio supermercato dello spirito. La fede di un tempo si dissolve in eclettiche pratiche pseudo spirituali, sincretismi, surrogati di credenze liquidi, transitori. I guru tecnologici si comportano da profeti, o sommi sacerdoti, immaginando l’avvento di una Singolarità informatica potente come il giudizio finale (Ray Kurzweil) , o sono ossessionati dalla figura dell’Anticristo e del Kathechon, “ciò che trattiene”, la tecnica considerata liberatoria (Peter Thiel). Lucida follia del mondo al contrario. Una tecno fede cieca, irrazionale, sintomo di decadenza poiché si aspetta che la tecnologia ci salvi miracolosamente dalle crisi esistenziali, ecologiche ed economiche causate dalla sua stessa ipertrofia.

Il pericolo apocalittico dell’algoritmo faustiano sta nel fatto che non è presentato come un’opzione tra le altre: diventa determinismo inevitabile creduto per l’omogeneizzazione delle menti, la distruzione delle condizioni organiche e la polverizzazione delle radici locali che storicamente hanno permesso la nascita di nuove culture. La Terra è trasformata in immensa fabbrica automatizzata dove tutto ciò che non è quantificabile è condannato all’irrilevanza. Fedele alla sua visione tragica e ciclica della storia, Spengler non credeva che la megamacchina sarebbe durata in eterno in un progresso indefinito. Al contrario, ne profetizzò il collasso a causa della mancanza di rinnovamento vitale.

La sua fine contiene la probabilità di una drammatica collisione. Una minoranza prometeica conduce una guerra contro l’ordine biologico per imporre la propria volontà di potenza, ma la natura è, alla fine, infinitamente più forte. La scarsità di risorse materiali, la legge dell’entropia, la radicale disconnessione dalle strutture organiche della vita, unite all’ inaridimento spirituale, conducono alla catastrofe. Quando la macchina faustiana crollerà per l’ esaurimento psicologico delle élite o di guerre di annientamento, ciò che rimarrà non sarà un territorio vergine per un nuovo inizio. Ciò che  attende i superstiti potrebbe essere il deserto. Una volta distrutto il tessuto organico e delegata la capacità di pensare ai freddi circuiti algoritmici, la post umanità potrebbe aver dimenticato come vivere umanamente.

Stiamo forse assistendo al penultimo atto del dramma, in cui l’umanità osserva affascinata il tremolio di uno schermo che illumina la propria eclissi? Poiché la civiltà faustiana ha portata globale, il suo declino trascinerebbe il mondo in un’era di sterilità, poiché la morte della cultura implica la fine della storia. Le strutture globali (organizzazioni internazionali, mercati finanziari) potrebbero persistere per inerzia come gusci vuoti ancora a lungo, ma l’umanità sopravvivrebbe gestendo le rovine tecnologiche senza la capacità – né il desiderio – di generare una nuova cultura. Distopia, suggestione, timore, o realistica prudenza, la nostra ? Più necessaria, crediamo, allorché gli stessi banditori mettono in guardia dai rischi, che peraltro non chiariscono, a parte l’accertata autonoma violazione di sistemi informatici complessi. Certo non regge più l’ottimismo a senso unico, l’ eudemonismo con il paraocchi, avvolti nell’ “andrà tutto bene” obbligato dei pifferai.

I mandarini della tecnocrazia ci devono molte spiegazioni, a partire dal rischio della disoccupazione di massa e dalla massificazione integrale delle menti, all’incapacità del diritto di stabilire regole, limiti, determinare responsabilità nell’uso di potentissimi apparati artificiali, dai robot alla sterminata gamma di utilizzazioni dell’I.A, sino alla possibilità che davvero la macchina prenda il sopravvento su chi l’ha inventata e potrebbe non riuscire più a controllarla, neppure per i suoi scopi contrari al resto dell’umanità.

Gli psicologi avvertono che un numero sempre maggiore di persone, specie giovani, non sa più prendere decisioni- anche elementari- senza consultare la voce non umana della chatbox alimentata dall’ I.A. L’apparato artificiale sostituisce il libero arbitrio. E non è che la punta dell’iceberg. I grandi capi dell’ Intelligenza Artificiale invocano una moratoria:  perché, al di là di manovre finanziarie o interessi indicibili ? Se la ragione fosse più grave di quanto fanno trapelare ? Se anche così non fosse, noi, semplici esseri umani, abbiamo diritto di sapere, capire, decidere, scegliere. Chi dipende da altri uomini è un servo e uno schiavo. Ma è ancora un uomo chi è determinato, agito, sorvegliato, orientato, occupato, comandato da una macchina?  “Uomini siate, e non pecore matte”.

L'articolo L’algoritmo faustiano (parte II) proviene da Blondet & Friends.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a food delivery driver in North Austin, Texas, was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while he was making a delivery on Sunday, September 20. Garces Perez, who survived the shooting but is now partially paralyzed, says his car was rammed by a large black unmarked truck. 

ICE claimed they attempted a traffic stop and that Garces Perez fled, but the DoorDash driver and his lawyers’ account contradict this report, saying after he tried to U-turn and pullover, ICE agents rammed his vehicle again, and then an agent got out and aimed his weapon through the passenger side of the car and shot Garces Perez in the back of his neck. 

CBP revealed on Tuesday, September 22, that the officer that fired the shot was not wearing a body camera, despite the agency’s body-camera requirements.

After a few hours in the hospital, Garces Perez was transferred to ICE custody with the bullet still lodged in his back. 

“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” he said through a translator at a press conference in Austin. After receiving no pain medication at the hospital, Garces Perez said that in ICE custody, he was forced to sleep on the floor and repeatedly asked for medical care while in severe pain.

His attorney also said he developed paralysis on his left side.

Local community demands ICE out of Austin

Within hours of the shooting, protests erupted in Austin. Hundreds of residents flooded the streets demanding ICE out of their neighborhoods. 

Organizers have connected the shooting to a growing number of fatal and nonfatal encounters involving immigration agents, including the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island.

“We cannot be silent as ICE is shooting and killing our neighbors!” a statement by the Austin branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation said. 

Protests have continued across Austin on Monday and Tuesday. Student walkouts were also seen on Tuesday, September 22, by students across Pflugerville, Texas, north of downtown Austin, as well as Navarro Early College High School.

DHS defends the shooting and promises to investigate

After the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security quickly claimed that Garces Perez was an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered” the United States.

Garces Perez’s lawyers have refuted these claims, saying he entered the country through CBP One, the US border processing system. “He had a work permit. He was seeking asylum.” They said that a notice of hearing was sent to an old address, despite Garces Perez updating his address with the immigration court. “He didn’t know he had a hearing. So he didn’t go and got a deportation order in absentia, which is a very common thing.”

According to reports, DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are leading an investigation into the ICE shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez.

Austin police and the Travis County district attorney’s office have also said they intend to investigate the shooting. But their investigations come amid strong criticism of federal officials’ handling of previous ICE shootings in Texas. In Houston,  Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has said federal officials did not provide his office with information about the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He is taking his own investigation to a grand jury to force the release of more details.

ICE violence continues in the US

The Austin shooting follows a series of fatal encounters involving federal immigration agents this year, including the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.

As federal agents continue to face scrutiny over deadly encounters in Texas and other states, Austin residents and organizers say they will continue protesting and organizing until ICE is out of their communities.

India’s central challenge is not the existence of contradictory partnerships. Great powers routinely manage competing relationships. The deeper problem is the absence of a clearly articulated geopolitical vision capable of reconciling those relationships with India’s claims to defend multipolarity, sovereignty, and a Global South leader. India’s multi-alignment policy has given New Delhi more diplomatic flexibility, […]

La messa in guardia contro i pericoli dello sviluppo impetuoso, rapidissimo, rizomatico, dell’Intelligenza Artificiale, arriva adesso anche dai suoi signori e padroni. Si moltiplicano le dichiarazioni di scienziati, accademici e ricercatori delle grandi imprese private fintech,  e addirittura dei fondatori e maggiori azionisti di giganti ipercapitalizzati come Open A.I. e Anthropic. C’è chi ipotizza scenari apocalittici: l’I.A. potrebbe farla finita con la specie umana entro un decennio. Alcuni insiders allarmati chiedono una moratoria. Preso atto che la tecnica non si ferma per decreto e che certe prese di posizione sembrano rispondere più a esigenze di mercato (il sistema di controllo dell’I.A. è un notevole business) e a logiche di concorrenza che a sincero allarme; riconosciuto che la corsa dell’I.A. è un campo di battaglia della guerra ibrida per il dominio combattuta tra Stati Uniti e Cina in assenza del fanalino di coda europeo; tenuto conto che il potere politico americano e i suoi terminali tecnologici – Musk, Palantir – non intendono fermarsi per motivi imperiali e che la Cina avanza senza preoccupazioni etiche o cautele umanitarie, resta l’agitazione per una tecnologia di cui sappiamo poco, se non che modificherà per sempre le nostre esistenze, il nostro modo di pensare, giudicare, stare nel mondo; l’”esserci” (dasein) della creatura umana, per dirla con Martin Heidegger.

Il filosofo di Essere e tempo fu il primo a interrogarsi, nel secolo passato, sul ruolo rivoluzionario della tecnica. La civiltà degli algoritmi – i modelli matematici fatti di sequenze di istruzioni che permettono di risolvere problemi, compiere operazioni complesse su base predittiva, è il compimento – e forse l’ultima alta prestazione cognitiva – dell’uomo che Oswald Spengler chiamò faustiano. Faust, il personaggio reso universale dal poema di Goethe, disposto a vendere l’anima al diavolo, simbolizza l’essere umano teso a superare ogni limite terreno per inseguire conoscenza, potere, azione senza fine. Rappresenta lo spirito, la mentalità, la pratica febbrile della civiltà occidentale nella sua fase culminante. In principio era l’azione, esclama Faust, correggendo l’incipit del Vangelo di Giovanni: in principio era il Verbo, cioè Dio. L’assoggettamento all’uomo delle forze naturali era il progetto di Francis Bacon, fondatore della scienza moderna.

Dinanzi al nuovo leviatano che incombe si concretizza il dominio planetario dell’algoritmo faustiano. Nulla o quasi sarà come prima. Quanto meno, prepariamoci, a partire dal giudizio sul primato della tecnica a spese di ogni altra conoscenza umana. Per Heidegger l’essenza della tecnica moderna non è qualcosa di puramente tecnico, ma la modalità fondamentale del disvelamento dell’essere, la forma visibile con cui le cose si manifestano all’uomo. La visione strumentale che si fa errore esiziale considera la tecnica un mezzo per raggiungere dei fini, un’attività umana tra le altre. Questa concezione non ne coglie l’essenza. Ridurla a semplice strumento ci impedisce di giudicarla, dominarla, prenderne le distanze. La non neutralità della tecnica contemporanea è la sua caratteristica fondamentale, come compresero pensatori del calibro di Carl Schmitt e Jacques Ellul. Oggi è anche magistero di Papa Leone XIV.

Secondo Heidegger l’essenza della tecnica è di essere insieme impianto e imposizione, gestell nell’immaginifico lessico del gigante di Messkirch. Mentre nell’antichità la tecnica assecondava la natura, oggi la aggredisce, la considera un fondo di riserva (bestand), un insieme di energia e materiali pronti a essere catalogati, sfruttati e consumati a comando . La conseguenza è il nichilismo, poiché la tecnica riduce tutto, compresi gli esseri umani, a oggetti, risorse di consumo, destituendoli di ogni altro senso o fine. L’uomo è ridotto a funzione: crede di dominare la tecnica, in realtà ne diventa appendice e poi schiavo,  intrappolato nel pensiero puramente calcolante. Con linguaggi e presupposti diversi, fu il medesimo approccio dell’ Ernst Junger maturo e di Walter Benjamin. Al tempo dell’ I.A., temiamo la completa abdicazione umana al pensiero sino alla decisione devoluta alla tecnica perfino nelle più minute questioni.

Vi è nell’essere umano una inadeguatezza costitutiva di fronte alla tecnica, che Gunther Anders definì dislivello prometeico, il divario tra il talento di inventare e produrre macchine e la capacità di immaginarne gli effetti per padroneggiarli. L’uomo di Anders diventa “antiquato” perché è inferiore ai prodotti della sua intelligenza, individuale e collettiva. La riflessione di Heidegger si spinge più in là; l’uomo moderno si trova profondamente impreparato di fronte alla tecnica perché commette l’errore di considerarla uno strumento sotto il suo controllo. I risultati dell’I.A. dicono il contrario e i rischi paventati da alcuni dei suoi banditori lo dimostrano sinistramente. Ne La questione della tecnica Heidegger spiegò che l’illusione più pericolosa dell’essere umano è  di essere il signore della terra, convinto che i dispositivi tecnologici siano mezzi da usare e dominare a piacimento. L’ essenza della tecnica è un orizzonte di pensiero neo gnostico che soffoca l’uomo. Nel caso dell’Intelligenza Artificiale inquieta la possibilità di ibridare l’umanità con la macchina (i sostenitori direbbero di incrementarne la dotazione) o “aumentarla“ con i chip e altre derive trans e postumane: la condizione intuita dal filosofo diventa dura realtà .

La ragione profonda  della sconfitta dell’uomo faustiano nel momento del suo trionfale  dominio delle forze della natura è l’illusione strumentale che lo consegna cieco e senza difese interiori al primato della tecnica. Il Gestell è un dispositivo che costringe l’uomo a guardare la natura esclusivamente come riserva infinita (nel mondo finito!) di energia e materiali da sfruttare. La natura, spiega Heidegger, non viene più contemplata, ma provocata. L’uomo stesso è ridotto a “fondo”. Convinto di dominare la macchina, non si accorge di venire a sua volta catalogato, modificato, standardizzato dal sistema tecnico. Diventa egli stesso materiale di consumo. I padroni della tecnica si incaricano di renderlo inconsapevole, indifferente. Davanti al flusso incessante dell’innovazione, l’uomo abdica al pensiero meditante: non riflette più su se stesso né sulle conseguenze dei suoi atti.

Poiché tuttavia la tecnica è il nostro destino, l’unica salvezza risiede nel trovare il coraggio di interrogarsi sulla sua essenza. Solo riscoprendo la capacità di domandare e guardando all’arte (che i greci chiamavano techne) l’uomo può smettere di subire passivamente la tecnologia e sviluppare con essa un rapporto consapevole. Lo stesso Heidegger, che non ebbe il tempo di conoscere Internet, lo sviluppo del computer, lo smartphone e l’Intelligenza Artificiale, al termine della vita, arrivò ad affermare: solo un dio ci potrà salvare. Lasciò un filo di speranza citando un verso del poemetto Patmos del poeta romantico Friedrich Hoelderlin: “ma dove c’è il pericolo, cresce anche ciò che salva”. Ossia, nel caso della tecnica padrona, il pensiero critico, il giudizio etico, in ultima analisi il senso del limite, ovvero la sconfitta finale dell’uomo faustiano ad opera dell’ homo sapiens.

Secondo Oswald Spengler l’espansione della tecnologia, guidata dalla civiltà occidentale, non rappresenta il culmine della razionalità umana, bensì un crocevia tragico. Molte sue intuizioni e deduzioni si sono rivelate illuminanti per l’analisi delle tendenze presenti. Ne L’ uomo e la tecnica (1931 !) previde con sorprendente precisione lo scenario che si sta dispiegando oggi davanti ai nostri occhi. La tecnologia, nata dalle profondità dell’anima occidentale, caratterizzata da un’insaziabile sete di innovazione, illimitatezza e sfruttamento radicale delle forze della natura, si  distacca dalle sue origini territoriali diventando fenomeno planetario.

L’antica sete di conoscenza e conquista presente nelle ardite spedizioni marittime, nelle esplorazioni, nelle scoperte scientifiche e nelle rivoluzioni industriali, sociali e politiche, è mutata; ha abbandonato il mondo materiale per insediarsi nell’ubiquità di reti virtuali, in una struttura invisibile, onnipresente e astratta, l’ algoritmo. Parlare di algoritmo faustiano significa riconoscere la fase terminale, definitiva della tecnologia occidentale, il suo irrevocabile compimento. È il passaggio dal controllo sulla materia all’imperativo del codice, una forza che aspira all’onniscienza e all’onnipotenza convertendo la contingenza aleatoria della vita in calcolo deterministico. Il timore è che la struttura digitale finisca per saturare completamente il globo, impedendo irreversibilmente la nascita di qualsiasi altra cultura.

L’umanità si troverebbe trascinata in una mutazione senza precedenti: una civiltà tecnicamente onnipotente, spiritualmente morta, che marcia a capofitto verso la pietrificazione. Per comprendere la portata dell’ ordine algoritmico, occorre rivolgersi alla morfologia della storia di Spengler, consistente non  in un progresso lineare, cumulativo, ma nel susseguirsi di diverse culture che nascono, maturano, invecchiano e muoiono, ognuna delle quali rappresenta un modo specifico di vedere il mondo. L’ anima apollinea della cultura greco-romana provava orrore per l’illimitato, identificava la perfezione con la proporzione e l’equilibrio. L’anima faustiana è caratterizzata dall’ ossessione per lo spazio infinito, dal puro dinamismo e dall’ insaziabile volontà di potenza.

Sotto questa prospettiva metafisica, l’intelligenza artificiale non è un incidente storico o un mero progresso ingegneristico; è il destino inevitabile, l’ineluttabile conseguenza dell’anima faustiana. Rappresenta il tentativo dell’uomo occidentale di separare l’intelletto dalla materia biologica, un prometeismo che trascende i limiti dello spazio e del tempo. Mentre la tecnologia industriale classica rimaneva dipendente dalla materia e dal corpo, l’algoritmo crea e gestisce informazioni, colonizza il futuro attraverso la massiccia previsione prodotta dall’incrocio di dati e metadati. Questo cambio di paradigma segna l’affondamento di ciò che Spengler chiamava civiltà. La Cultura rappresenta la fase creativa, organica, naturale e spirituale di un popolo; la Civiltà lo stadio tardo, meccanico, artificiale e decadente, in cui l’intelletto freddo sostituisce l’anima calda, e ciò che attiene alla qualità si scioglie nel regno della quantità . E adesso, dei dati e della tecnocrazia. (continua)

L'articolo L’algoritmo faustiano (I parte) proviene da Blondet & Friends.

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A Global News investigation has found that Streit Group faces growing international scrutiny over its alleged dealings with Russia.

A Global News investigation has found that Streit Group faces growing international scrutiny over its alleged dealings with Russia.

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The phrase “hidden gem” can be over-used but in the case of Herefordshire in the UK it’s entirely apt. The cathedral city of Hereford was once an important military centre. That was a few centuries ago but, today, Herefordshire is a real leader in other ways, for innovation, championing local products and the sheer friendliness of the locals. Here’s a “Top Ten” of the reasons why the county is well worth discovering. Start the day in style As you’re in England what better way to start any new day than by sampling some of the county’s best produce (including a full English breakfast, maybe).

There’s a couple of spots well worth sampling such delights, including the lovely Castle House Hotel in Hereford which a wholesome breakfast offering is open to both guests and non guests and which also has an interesting Benelux connection as it was once owned by Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands. Away from the county’s main city and you’ll find a terrific, multi award-winning Lowe Farm B&B, set in rolling Herefordshire countryside, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year. The place is lovingly overseen by Juliet Williams, a larger-than-life character who, commendably, serves up very yummy and healthy breakfasts sourced almost entirely from local products and producers.

Juliet, who is nearing 70 but still full of energy and enthusiasm for what she does, has pulled in a staggering 27,000 guests since opening (including the Spanish ambassador to the UK and coachloads of Japanese tourists), 60 per cent of them repeat visitors which is a clear sign of the quality of service she provides. Juliet and hubby Clive also boast a minor Belgian link: the best man at their wedding was from Belgium. This bubbly character takes great pride in sourcing her products locally and cooking only healthy ingredients, some sourced from the same local butcher used by famous TV chef James Martin.

History in Hereford

2026 is the 1,350th anniversary of the Hereford diocese and the place oozes history. One must-visit place here is the cathedral, dating from Saxon times, and Mappa Mundi, one of the world’s unique medieval treasures. Constructed on a single sheet of vellum over 700years ago, the map shows how the world was interpreted by scholars at that time. Look closely and you’ll spot Gent on the map in the Europe section, curiously located in the bottom left of the world. Close by is the equally wonderful Chained Library, home to some 229 medieval manuscripts and over 1,200 early printed books. It is the largest library of its kind to survive with all its chains, rods and locks intact. This magnificent cathedral is also home to fantastic architecture, a mighty Willis organ, stained glass (including a stunning tribute to the UK’s SAS, which is based locally) and artwork and it’s all brought to life by a 400-strong team of volunteers, all very passionate about what they do too. A short walk away takes you to Hereford’s historic town hall, “home” to the current lady mayor (a rarity in itself as there’s only been 7 in the city’s entire history). Here (and tours are available), you can learn all about Hereford’s rich history and be reminded that its castle was once second only in size to Windsor.

The city boasts another proud record: along with the City of London, it has never been defeated in battle (the local SAS people will be proud of that). There’s also yet another nice historical connection to Belgium: in the council chamber of this striking Edwardian Baroque council building, where the mayor presides over council meetings, the Belgian link is actually commemorated by a framed, unusual Union Jack flag mounted high above one of the doors that uniquely features a central shield with a French inscription. The inscription reads: “Expression of our gratitude to our benefactors Mr & Mrs GB Greenland and members of the Committee – Belgian refugees in Hereford, Nov 9th 1915” Following the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914, roughly 250,000 Belgian refugees fled to Britain. Hereford city council holds the distinct honour of being the very first British city to officially step forward and offer hospitality and sanctuary to these displaced families.

On 9 November 1915, the Belgian refugees living in Hereford presented a beautiful silk flag to the Mayor (G.B. Greenland) as a permanent token of friendship and “immense gratitude” for the local community’s safe housing and ongoing kindness. You might like to take one of the enthralling tours of the town hall which are overseen by a very entertaining Scotsman called John Marshall who is the Mayor’s Officer. He is responsible for looking after some serious silverware here, including the Civic Sword, which is no less than 349 years old, mayoral robes, including one used in Queen Victoria’s coronation and, of course, the mayoral golden chain which dates from the 1800s. There’s precious little that the very likeable John does not know about Hereford and its rich history and he, like so many others in the county, genuinely loves his job.. so much so that he’ll happily extend his planned retirement to continue doing it. Local artisans Whisky production in a traditional cider county? Well, yes, and very good it is too.

At least that is the case at Rosemaund Farm Distillery which has been brought back under family ownership in recent times. Described as the largest little distillery in Herefordshire, the site, formerly the home of Chase Distillery (vodka), is a real hive of activity and just marked its latest release (“the Director’s Cut”). The sprawling site even boasts a touch of Hollywood glitz as world famous film director Guy Ritchie is involved here with his ‘Wild Kitchen / Wild Table’ concept – an outdoor cooking and eating tent where a full blown meal can be enjoyed after a tour of what is a very impressive whisky making operation.

Criss-crossing some of the county’s marvellous meandering country roads leads to another, equally laudable, local artisan: the Monkland cheese dairy, which was run for over three decades by Mark and Karen Hindle. They now operate the adjacent café while Dean Storey, a former chef, now owns the dairy. He makes the cheeses and runs tours. While the French may be world-renowned for their cheeses, here’s proof (were it needed) that the Brits can do the job just as well. Tours for the public give you the chance to witness up close how its delicious cheeses are made, partly utilising an impressive Dutch Gouda vat which can hold 1,000 litres of cow’s milk. Spot of Lunch Back in Hereford, the county’s entrepreneurial spirit is certainly alive and kicking at The Yard, a collective of small-scaled eateries. Overseeing things here are a couple of go-ahead brothers, Edwin and Dorian Kirk who offer vital mentoring skills to would-be local start ups. Ed says, “We help people who are just starting out to build up their own business and become owners themselves. In a way, it is all about achieving their dreams just as me and Dorian have managed to do.”

After trekking round all morning, it’s a great place for a filling, very tasty but affordable light lunch (be it pizza, burger or steak) and drink (there are some fab local ales available). As with so many places here, it is all about cutting food miles and “buying local”: much of the lovely food here is sourced directly from local products and local producers. If you happen to visit in late October, the space transforms for Oktoberfest, complete with Bavarian beers and music. Things to Do One of the reasons they call this county a hidden gem are the very welcoming local folk and they include Jon Williams and Sarah Monk who run Eastnor Pottery. Having met at art school in Bath, the couple moved to “idyllic” Herefordshire where they live and work on the Eastnor Castle estate offering very enjoyable potter’s wheel experiences alongside making their own ceramics. After having fun on Jon and Sarah’s potters wheel you really must pop along to admire the wonderful Eastnor Castle, home of the Hervey-Bathurst family, with lavish interiors containing medieval armour, fine art … and another reminder of Belgium.

This comes in the shape of some impressive Belgian tapestries, including three Bruges tapestries in the Staircase Hall and more in the Gothic Dining Room. James Hervey-Bathurst, the current owner, moved here with his family in 1989 but his family have been there since 1949 and have ancestral links to the original owners going back centuries. He recalls: “We were presented with a wonderful but daunting challenge.” That’s a reference to the rundown state of the property which has, over the years, happily been restored to its former glory. Make sure you don’t leave without having a look in the grounds at something you’d not expect to see in rural England … a segment of the Berlin Wall. The very affable and welcoming James bought the 3metre-high wall last year and had it shipped to the UK, all 2.6 tons of it. He hopes its presence, close to the deer park (nice for walks) reminds visitors, young and old, of how conflict can divide peoples and communities, a message as relevant today as ever.

Other possibles

You need to allow time to fully experience and enjoy all the many things this county has to offer. But, time (and energy levels)permitting there’s lots more to keep you busy, occupied and entertained. These include Black Mountain Adventure near Brecon; Canwood Gallery, a contemporary art space and the great selection of farm shops that dot the landscape, including Oakchurch – just the place to stock up on some of that lovely local produce before heading home.

Eating out

You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to sampling the quite wonderful local produce in this county, be it north, south, east or west. In the south (at Woolhope),for instance, is The Crown, a terrific pub/resto run for some years by yet another friendly Herefordian, Annalisa Slocombe. The eatery, recently very tastefully refurbished, serves a great mix of pub classics,like good old fish and chips, and offers some lovely local beers to wash down a very satisfying meal.

Located in a tiny village (est.200 dwellings) the menu (like the pub) is constantly evolving (weekly) but as Annalisa explains, faves like steak remain “to avoid a customer revolt.” From the end of this month, she hopes to have 8 en suite rooms available too. Crickets lovers will feel at home here as there’s plenty of cricket memorabilia on the wall, including a bat used at the England v New Zealand Test in 1999 and a quite wonderful collection of Wisden books,dating from 1988. Another fab place, this time back in Hereford, and also a real success story is Beefy Boys.Hereford was the first to open in what has become a fast-growing chain (the latest is scheduled for Cambridge later this month) and it’s easy to see why. The county is renowned worldwide for the quality of its beef and that, along with some great service, is one big reason why the burgers here are on another level to most other places (worth noting that the meat is sourced from just the one, local, farm).

The Beefy Boys story all started in Hereford and the venue has expanded in recent times to now accommodate up to 250. Assistant GM Kai says, “Even midweek it’ bustling here and we’re still growing.” Not too far away, in an easterly direction, takes you to L’Ecole des Amis which serves some refined French cuisine in a wonderfully-restored old school house. The two men at the helm of this highly popular resto are Cedric L’herbier, who hails from le Touquet in France, and Bruce Havard. Cedric, who’s had over 40 years experience in the resto trade both in the UK and France, recalls how the rundown building was badly in need in “some TLC” when they came by it. Some quick fire restoration work – it transformed in the space of just 12 months – has resulted in a lovely, informal place to enjoy top class cuisine that Cedric describes as “unsophisticated and unpretentious.”

They change just a couple of dishes every couple of weeks and there’s also a brasserie-style lunch menu. On the opening night, an estimated 80percent of the customers travelled from where Cedric used to work in another part of the county, about 18miles away, and he and Bruce still command a loyal customer base. It is mostly all down to the fab fresh food, cooked with real care and which certainly makes one French man gratified that he took the plunge for “one last adventure” in his working life.

Where to stay

If you enjoy peace and quiet – and a few animals for company – there’s one place for you here: Pudleston Court, nestled in 50 acres of beautiful private parkland, hard to imagine you are also just a few short kilometres from the busy town of Leominster. This is home to seven holiday lets, five of which are original estate buildings (formerly used for everything from housing geese to a rifle range) and all wonderfully refurbished. One, the delightful Meadow View, is a barn conversion, can sleep up to 6 and has its very own private pool. It boasts underfloor heating, three bedrooms, a log burning stove and delightful terrace. Don’t be surprised if, on arrival, you are greeted by some curious “locals” – peacocks that are free to roam (you should also make your acquaintance with the charming young alpacas in a nearby field). There’s also another link the Heijn family as they are former owners here. The current owner is a Swiss lady who fell in love with the property when she read an article about in Country Life magazine. She’d always dreaming of owning her own English castle (who hasn’t?) and this was her chance to do just that.

She has overseen a loving and carefully planned restoration that’s still ongoing with the future focus also on expansion into the corporate market (by hosting company stays, board meetings, training days and the like). Approached via those unique meandering roads -where the only hold up is likely to be due to cattle crossing the road – this is a genuine oasis of peace and tranquility in an increasing mad world. Oh, and there’s yet another Belgian link: Rhi Baines, the Chief Operating Officer, has fond memories of Belgium as she celebrated her 21sth birthday in Brussels. How to get there It could not be easier for people travelling by car from mainland Europe, including Belgium.

Once off the ferry or shuttle, it is motorway much of the way to Herefordshire. Once you’ve navigated the M25 around London you can via the M40 and Gloucester or the M40 and Worcester. Beware there is no m-way in the county so allow a bit extra time for getting around. Summary It all adds up to a great getaway, whatever time of the year that is. Pay a visit and you can well see why they call this pretty part of England a “hidden gem.” And one excellent way of finding out more about this creative county is via the Eat Sleep Live Herefordshire, a leading independent destination marketing company. Its supports not only Herefordshire’s food and drink businesses, accommodation providers, activities, leisure venues and pursuits and events but promotes the county’s crafts, creatives and artisans.

Further info
www.eatsleepliveherefordshire.co.uk
https://www.rosemaund.com/
https://eastnorpottery.co.uk/
www.eastnorcastle.com
https://castlehse.co.uk/
https://www.herefordcathedral.org/
https://yardhereford.co.uk/
https://www.pudlestoncourtltd.co.uk/
https://lowefarm.co.uk/
https://thecrowninn.pub/
https://www.lecoledesamis.co.uk/
https://thebeefyboys.com/

The European Commission has approved the registration of Olio dei Colli de Bologna from Italy as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

Olio del Colli di Bologna is an extra virgin olive oil from the Emilia-Romagna region, located in northern Italy. The area is part of the ‘Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines' natural site, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2023. The Olio del Colli di Bologna is characterised by very low free acidity levels. It is a balanced oil with medium fruitiness, bitterness and pungency intensity.

This new designation joins the more than 3,900 protected names already listed in the eAmbrosia database. More information is available on the Quality Policy pages.

With the FIDE presidential election approaching in Samarkand, one of the candidates, Wadim Rosenstein (pictured), has become the subject of a formal appeal by a Ukrainian lawmaker. Oleg Dunda, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, is asking Ukrainian and German officials to examine whether Rosenstein and WR Group Holding may have violated sanctions rules.

The appeal was directed to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and German Ambassador Boris Ruge. Dunda’s request goes beyond a general review: he wants the German side to consider a criminal investigation and has also asked for possible Ukrainian sanctions against Rosenstein.

At the center of the case described by Dunda are media investigations into LLC WR Rus. Ukrainian publications cited in the request say that Rosenstein controls the Russian company either directly or through his German business structure, WR Group. The company’s reported financial performance has expanded sharply. From 2023, revenue allegedly rose almost fifteenfold and reached €18 million, while net profit increased about three-and-a-half times to €1.8 million.

The same investigations pointed to the identity of some of the company’s customers. The reporting claimed that WR Rus worked with entities connected to Russian oligarchs already under sanctions. It also described a 2025 shipment of Italian footwear worth more than €500,000 that was allegedly imported for Anastasia Zadorina, identified as the daughter of Russian FSB Colonel General Mikhail Shekin.

Attention has also been drawn to a separate company belonging to Rosenstein’s brother Mikhail. His logistics firm, LLC 2R Integra, reportedly saw its revenue climb almost forty times after Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine began, reaching €21 million. The Ukrainian reports cited by Dunda alleged that the company continued sending industrial products to Russia through sanctions-avoidance channels, including dual-use goods from the Indian manufacturer Polycab.

The issue had already entered the chess world before Dunda’s intervention. Vladimir Kovalchuk, vice-president of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, previously called for similar measures. He argued that money generated through Russian business activity could contribute to the country’s broader wartime economy. Kovalchuk also said Rosenstein should consider ending his campaign voluntarily before the September 26 vote.

The Ukrainian Chess Federation has taken a prominent position on sanctions within international chess. The source states that it was among those pushing for sanctions against former FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. After his inclusion on EU sanctions lists, Dvorkovich left the presidency.

More recently, the federation succeeded in excluding the Russian team from the World Chess Olympiad, which is scheduled for late September in Samarkand. FIDE’s presidential election is also expected to take place there.

Rosenstein is not the only candidate. The source identifies two other contenders: Timur Turlov, a businessman from Kazakhstan, and Jan Henric Buettner, a well-known German venture investor and multimillionaire. Yet the election may encounter logistical problems unrelated to the controversy. An official FIDE statement cited in the text says that some voting delegates have faced visa issues, raising uncertainty over whether the ballot can be held on schedule.

The European Commission is empowered by the EU Treaties to borrow from the international capital markets on behalf of the European Union to finance selected EU policy programmes. The Commission has raised €11 billion of EU-Bonds in its 8th syndicated transaction for 2026.

The dual-tranche transaction concerned a €6 billion new 3-year EU-Bond maturing on 12 March 2030 and a €5 billion new 30-year EU-Bond maturing on 12 October 2056.

Building on the pricing of recent syndications against the EU Bond curve, both maturities were priced against reference points in the EU Bond curve. The approach reflects the growing liquidity of the EU-Bond curve, which can be used more frequently as a reliable reference point for pricing of syndicated issuances when deemed desirable.

The transaction is part of the Commission's €80 billion funding target for the second half of 2026.

More information is available in the press release online.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while condemning the Israeli government’s plans to advance settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), stopped short of proposing a ban on trade with the Israeli communities in the area, in contrast with an initiative pushed by some EU member states and EU’s foreign policy Kaja Kallas, writes European Jewish Press, Yossi Lempkowicz.  

She spoke on Wednesday (16 September) during her annual State of Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Von der Leyen received a round of applause for condemning the Israeli government’s plans to advance construction in the E1 area, a strategi area between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim. ”The Israeli government’s decision to advance the illegal E1 settlement projects is unacceptable,” she said, after deploring the ”deep suffering in Gaza and unchecked settler violence in the West Bank” which, she said, ”have deeply affected Europeans.”

”It is painful for many Europeans that member states have been unable to build the necessary majorities for a unified response,” she added, noting that ”some member states have been unable to build the necessary majorities for a unified response. Some member states have moved ahezd. Others are considering doing so.”

A group of over 100 MEPs, mainly from S&D, The Left, the Greens and Renew groups, had written a letter to the President of the European Commission to make an “urgent appeal for a Commission legislative proposal to ban EU trade with illegal Israeli settlements”.

Until now, EU member states are divided about the proposal to ban trade from Judea and Samaria.. Countries like Slovenia and Czechia, but also Germany and Italy, have blocked such sanctions.

Von der Leyen highlighted the Commission’s efforts to mobilise funding for the Palestinian Authority and for the reconstruction of Gaza.

‘’We have delivered more aid than anyone else. Through the Palestine Donor Group and the Team Gaza Initiative, we have brought together 65 delegations. Together we have sanctioned nearly 1 billion Euro to rebuild Gaza and support a modern Palestinian Authority,’’ she noted.

She concluded her statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by stressing that ‘’ Europe supports the right to self-defense for Israel.’’

”The Palestinian people have an equal right to live in safety and in dignity. It is Europe’s role to keep the blame of the two-state solution alive,’’ the EU Commission President added.

Yossi Lempkowicz is Editor-in-chief of European Jewish Press (EJP).

The European Commission has adopted the Fair Labour Mobility package to guarantee clear social rights for everyone, everywhere in the EU, regardless of where they choose to live and work.

The package will enable workers to prove and claim their social security and health insurance rights, and have their qualifications understood everywhere in the EU and formally recognised where the profession is regulated. New rules and tools will better protect mobile workers from abuse and remove slow and complex administrative procedures that hinder companies from recruiting talent or providing services across the EU. National administrations will benefit from more efficient cooperation to enforce workers' rights and to fight fraud.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “The single market must also become a genuine skills market with more opportunities for workers and businesses. And that is what this package sets out to do - tackling two of the Terrible ten barriers and making the most of the talent we have in Europe, and attracting more. Simplification and stronger enforcement go hand in hand - skills, recognition and protection will move seamlessly across borders. A win-win.” 

The package includes a Communication on fair labour mobility and five legislative proposals:

• A Regulation establishing a European Social Security Pass;
• A “Skills Portability Act”, a Regulation on digital and comparable qualifications;
• A Regulation to strengthen the European Labour Authority;
• An amending Directive on professional qualifications; and
• A Directive on qualifications of third-country nationals.

Once fully in place, the package will deliver an estimated €6 billion in benefits by 2040, by faster recognition of professional qualifications, real time verification of social security documents and other savings for business, workers and authorities, as well as by fraud avoidance.

Using digital documents across borders

The European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS) will enable people to request and receive social security documents fully online, including the European Health Insurance Card and portable document A1 for posted workers.

Through the EU Digital Identity Wallet, people moving to another EU country will be able to store and present these documents digitally, while administrations will be able to verify them quickly and securely. This digital space will be available to people and companies across the EU by the end of the year.

Over 12 years, digitalisation could save up to €64 million for businesses, €69 million for healthcare providers, and €72 million for labour inspectors through faster cross-border verification. Digital signatures could avoid up to €277 million in fraud over the same period.

Helping skills and qualifications travel across borders

Qualifications will be issued in a standardised digital format and be available in the EU Digital Identity Wallet. This will make it easier to verify the authenticity of qualifications. The Commission also proposes to provide a new EU qualifications comparison tool, drawing on information from national qualifications databases. This will give employers and workers a simple, free way to understand and compare qualifications across Member States.

The Commission has also proposed updating rules for recognising professional qualifications in regulated professions. A mandatory digital procedure will make cross-border recognition for professionals such as doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers faster (five weeks instead of three months), cheaper and more secure, while maintaining high public safety, consumer protection and professional standards.

Through common training frameworks, the Commission will extend automatic recognition to more regulated professions, notably those registering shortages based on a preliminary list of 10 additional professions. Today, the Commission adopted the first such framework for physiotherapists, one of the most mobile professions in the EU.  

New rules will also set common standards for recognising qualifications obtained outside the EU for EU citizens and for third-country professionals working in the Single Market or applying from abroad. Such procedures take today 14 months on average, while the common standards will bring them to 4 months, cutting by as much as half the administrative costs of hiring for employers. For seven professions where EU-wide training standards already exist, qualifications delivered by accredited institutions outside the EU and reviewed by European quality assurance bodies will be recognised automatically. Member States keep full control over who is admitted to their territory and over the standards to practise a profession.

Strengthening the European Labour Authority

Once adopted, the Commission's proposed regulation will equip the European Labour Authority (ELA) with stronger tools to support member states in enforcing EU law. It will allow ELA to improve its capacity to provide risk assessment for inspections to help national inspectorates better target controls. It also proposes to reinforce cross-border cooperation and expertise with dedicated national inspection liaison officers. It will further improve access to information on rights and obligations by providing grants to organisations that support people working in other Member States and employers providing services or recruiting across EU borders.

The proposal further expands the mandate of ELA to tackling abuses against third-country nationals working in the EU and combatting illegal employment. It will also simplify ELA's mediation procedure, helping Member States resolve cross-border disputes more quickly and avoiding litigation, thus reducing costs and uncertainty, and improving administrative cooperation.

Next steps

People will see the first practical benefits once the initiatives are adopted by the European Parliament and the Council and the main measures enter into force.

Social security documents will be digitalised in stages, starting with the portable document A1 for posted workers one year after the ESSPASS Regulation enters into force, followed by the European Health Insurance Card and other documents within three years.

Changes to qualifications and skills portability will also be phased in: simpler recognition of non-EU qualifications within two years of adoption, while digital qualifications in the EU Digital Identity Wallet and easier recognition for regulated professions within three years.

Once the revised mandate is adopted, ELA can begin implementing changes, with improvements expected over 2028–2030.

Background

In 2024, 14 million Europeans lived in another EU member state, including over 10 million people of working age (3.9% of the EU working-age population). At the same time, 18% of respondents in a recent Eurobarometer survey said they would like to work abroad.

At the March EU summit, EU leaders called for measures to enhance worker mobility by improving the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and strengthening the portability of skills, including through digitalisation. This package delivers on the One Europe, One Market road map, which identified the fair labour mobility package and the skills portability initiative as priority deliverables for a more integrated Single Market.

For more information

Questions and answers

Factsheet on European Social Security Pass

Factsheet on strengthened European Labour Authority

Factsheet on skills portability initiative

Communication on Fair Labour Mobility Package

ESSPASS Regulation

Regulation to strengthen the European Labour Authority (ELA)

Skills Portability Act

Amending Directive on professional qualifications

Directive on the recognition of qualifications of non-EU nationals

Campaigners have called for more effort to "defend democracy" and support a “free, democratic and sovereign Ukraine”.

The demand was made by the Defending Democracy Global Initiative (DDGI) and the Westminster Alliance for Ukraine (WA4U).

It was timed to coincide with the International Day of Democracy.

The Defending Democracy Global Initiative is a transnational, civil society-led platform founded in Skopje in 2024 by CIVIL – Center for Freedom, the New European People’s Forum and Media Dialogue.

It works to defend truth, freedom and democratic resilience against authoritarianism, disinformation and hybrid threats.

Its flagship programme, the Westminster Alliance for Ukraine, brings together parliamentarians and civil society partners to strengthen European cooperation in support of a free, democratic and sovereign Ukraine.

A spokesman told this site, “Democracy depends on people’s ability to speak freely, access reliable information, participate in decisions and hold those in power accountable.

“It requires independent media, active civil society, institutions that protect rights, and space for disagreement without intimidation. These conditions must be defended and strengthened every day.”

The spokesman went on: “Standing with Ukraine is a crucial part of that responsibility.

“Russia’s war of aggression threatens the lives and freedom of Ukrainians and the principle that people have the right to determine their own future. Supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and democratic aspirations is essential to building a safer, more democratic Europe.”

The two groups seek to build on the commitments that brought DDGI into being in 2024, and on the work of its partners and co-founders in solidarity with Ukraine since Russia began its aggression in 2014.

DDGI and WA4U have now used the International Day of Democracy to call on democratic institutions, parliamentarians, civil society, journalists and citizens across Europe “to turn solidarity into sustained action.”

They demand that they support Ukraine, defend independent journalism, challenge disinformation, protect civic participation and "insist on accountable government".

The spokesman said: “Every voice matters – including those excluded from public debate, those facing threats for speaking out, and those whose communities are living through war.

“Meaningful participation requires that these voices are heard and taken into consideration.

“We invite everyone who shares these commitments to stay connected with our work, take part in future discussions and help strengthen cooperation across borders.”

A leading Belgian animal park has just welcomed a new arrival: Kali the giraffe.

Kali’s arrival at Pairi Daiza is no coincidence: transfers between European zoos are carefully coordinated, taking into account genetics, age and breeding recommendations.

Rothschild's giraffe Kali was born on 15 February 2024 at Knuthenborg Safaripark (Denmark).

On the evening of Tuesday 15 September, she arrived to join the two Rothschild's giraffes already living at Pairi Daiza: PoléPolé and Oliver.

Kali’s journey of several hundred kilometres, and this new phase in her life, began with a decision taken at European level.

The Rothschild's giraffes in European zoos are part of a European Endangered Species Programme (EEP – Ex situ Programme). The programme maintains detailed records of each animal’s ancestry and demographics to manage this population in the long term. Based on this data, it is possible, amongst other things, to determine which animals can form a breeding pair, whilst preserving the genetic diversity of the population as effectively as possible.

A park spokesman told this site: “Kali is therefore not simply coming to Pairi Daiza because a space happened to be available.

“The recommendation for her transfer took into account her age, two and a half years, as well as her genetic background and that of the giraffes already there.”

She will live alongside Oliver, a male who was born on 1 August 2016 at Safari Park Dvůr Králové (Czech Republic) and who has been at Pairi Daiza since 2018. Oliver has already sired two daughters at the Garden of the Worlds: Zuri, born in 2021 and transferred to Bellewaerde (Belgium) in 2024, and Masika, born in 2023 who left for the Zoo du Bassin d’Arcachon (France) on 10 September 2026.

PoléPolé also lives alongside Oliver.

She was born on 10 May 2021 at WILDLANDS Adventure Zoo Emmen (Netherlands) and has been living at Pairi Daiza for three years.

The departure of Zuri and Masika and the arrival of Kali are therefore not isolated events, but different parts of the same coordinated population-management process.

The spokesman added, “At a European level, these transfers make it possible to manage a population, taking into account the age, sex and kinship ties of each individual, the needs of the population and the situation at each institution.”

Kali’s first few days at Pairi Daiza

Kali arrived at Pairi Daiza late on Tuesday and spent her first night alone in an enclosure within her indoor quarters. The keepers gave her time to recover from her journey and began observing her behaviour in this new environment.

The spokesman said, “Kali was introduced to PoléPolé this morning, under the supervision of the zoological team. The meeting with Oliver will take place later.

During these first few days, the keepers will get to know Kali: how she explores her surroundings, how she reacts to PoléPolé, and her habits and preferences. The next steps in her integration will be tailored to these observations and her behaviour.”

Her Danish keepers describe Kali as curious and gentle. The keepers at Pairi Daiza will now get to know her personality on a daily basis and, based on their observations, determine the most suitable time and circumstances to introduce her to Oliver.

Visitors can already observe Kali in her indoor enclosure through the porthole of the boat Mersus Emergo.

Photo: Pairi Daiza 

“The European Union has decided that the textile and clothing sectors must become circular. But there is a gap – one that no one has yet measured – between the strategy set out in Brussels and the factory that has to implement it, and it is this gap that will determine whether or not the European textile and clothing industry will survive its own transition,” writes César Araújo, President of ANIVEC, the Portuguese Association of Clothing, Apparel and Fashion Industries, and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Lusitano Project Consortium.

The textile and clothing sectors are by no means minor players in the European industrial landscape. We are talking about a turnover of around 166 billion euros, nearly 1.2 million jobs and almost 200,000 companies – the overwhelming majority of which are micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. We are talking about an industrial sector which, according to the latest figures from EURATEX (the European confederation for the sector, of which ANIVEC is a member), exports €61 billion worth of goods and, in 2024 alone, invested a total of €5.3 billion in tangible assets.

This is an industry that has demonstrated truly exemplary resilience within the European Single Market, operating in a highly competitive and profoundly unequal environment; one that is open to all manner of external sources, whose requirements are applied relentlessly to domestic producers, but which, in practice, operates without any form of effective control or trade safeguards vis-à-vis external producers.

Without first rectifying the unfairness in the European Single Market, new requirements are now being imposed on the European textile and clothing industry, requiring it to absorb, simultaneously and within a short space of time, new eco-design rules, the introduction of the digital product passport and extended producer responsibility, amongst countless other demands.

The decision to move towards a circular economy is not in question. Indeed, this is probably the only way forward for an industry that Europe should wish to retain within its borders. The problem lies in the way this future is being shaped: with rules devised exclusively from the top down, aimed at a sector that continues to compete on a daily basis under conditions that no one else would tolerate. We are, moreover, well aware of the measures, support and initiatives from which the European automotive industry has benefited, precisely because it is now experiencing what the textile and clothing sectors have been facing for decades.

Let’s look at what happened a few weeks ago in Paris, on the fringes of Première Vision. The European textile and fashion federations have once again joined forces to denounce the competitive imbalance caused by fast fashion. The abolition of the customs exemption for low-value parcels and the introduction of a transitional customs duty of 3 euros were a first step. But that is just that: a first step. Now, the federations are calling for a more ambitious European handling fee, closer to 10 euros, capable of reflecting the real cost of customs control, market surveillance and the safety of the millions of products entering the EU every day. We continue to demand of compliant European brands what we do not demand of those who flood our market from outside. What is being called for is not protectionism; it is simply reciprocity.

That is why circularity cannot be treated as a mere exercise in documentary compliance. A factory that already complies with strict European environmental and social standards, operates under recognised certifications and ensures traceable supply chains, should embark on this transition with a real advantage. But this advantage will only translate into competitiveness if the EU is able to distinguish it – and reward it – from production that disregards circularity criteria and, consequently, does not internalise these costs in the final price of the product.

We have long known what needs to be done to ensure that, by 2030, we have sustainable and circular textiles and clothing in the EU. European industry is the right partner to drive the value chain forward, ensuring that products placed on the market are genuinely durable, repairable and recyclable; made largely from recycled fibres; free from hazardous substances; and produced with full respect for social rights.

However, whilst we must ensure fairness within the Single Market, the key question that remains to be answered in order to realise the 2030 vision is not a conceptual one, but a strictly operational one. Who collects? Who sorts? Who recycles? Who pays and on what scale? What is needed for textile recycling to move beyond the pilot project stage and truly become an industry?

It is to answer these questions, backed by data and practical experience, that ANIVEC, CENIT and the Lusitano Project are organising a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 September. Under the patronage of MEPs Paulo Cunha (PT/EPP) and Bruno Gonçalves (PT/S&D) and under the theme “Making circular textiles work in Europe: Transparency, Recycling and Industrial Competitiveness” (https://shorturl.at/r8Ml4), the aim is clear: to bring together European institutions, industry and organisations that are already implementing circular solutions on the ground – with practical experience in extended producer responsibility and recycling – to discuss what is actually needed for textile circularity to work on a European scale.

At the end of the day, the question is not whether the European textile and clothing industry wants to be circular. The answer to that question is given in the affirmative, every single day, by our companies. The question on the table is whether Brussels wants to rely on the European textile and clothing industry as its chosen partner to make this circularity a reality within the European Single Market. To this end, it is imperative to ensure the industrial and commercial conditions that make circularity genuinely competitive. If the response continues to be regulation without reciprocity, we run the very real risk of being left with only the world’s most stringent standards whilst exporting whatever production we have left.

Enterprise security departments have typically been presented with one of two options: either the use of unified threat management systems (UTMs) to achieve a unified perimeter or an IDS solution that can offer greater insight into network activity. However, when considering solutions for enterprise environments running on Microsoft Windows-based products, it appears that both sides are focusing on the wrong issue. The argument from UTM vendors, who market their product as the "one-stop shop" for IT personnel with limited time resources, is that a UTM device provides all necessary functions (firewall, VPN, antivirus, etc.) within a single unit. On the other hand, the vendors of specialized IDS devices argue that the inclusion of these additional functionalities reduces the effectiveness of the IDS function. As such, organizations providing protection for Windows networks continue to be at increased risk due to this way of thinking.

Cybersecurity engineer Samuel Bemi investigated this gap through a controlled comparative evaluation of Snort, an open-source intrusion detection system, and pfSense, an open-source unified security platform, within a virtualised Windows 11 enterprise environment. His evaluation goes beyond the conventional question of whether a security control detects an attack, examining whether that detection remains operationally valuable once false positives, latency, throughput, and resource utilisation are taken into account.

Detection alone doesn't tell the whole story

The experiment simulated three of the most common attack patterns organisations face: ICMP flood attacks, port and service scanning, and denial-of-service traffic. Both Snort and pfSense were configured to defend a Windows 11 host inside an isolated network built specifically for testing.

The results were clarifying, not comforting. Snort detected 100 percent of ICMP flood attempts and 100 percent of denial-of-service traffic, and identified the large majority of port scanning attempts. Within the controlled test environment, Snort achieved strong detection performance against the traffic patterns tested. But the more important finding was that detection performance came with operational trade-offs.  Alongside that success sat a false positive rate high enough to be operationally significant, alongside a measurable increase in network latency and a meaningful drop in throughput once both systems were active.

Bemi's evaluation shifts the question from “which security control detects more attacks?” to a more consequential one: “does the security architecture remain effective when detection accuracy, false positives, and operational overhead are considered together?”  Rather than assessing IDS and UTM controls independently, Bemi's approach examines how detection accuracy, false positives, resource consumption, and network performance interact when the controls are deployed within the same enterprise environment. This perspective provides security teams with a more practical basis for designing defence-in-depth architectures, where protection is assessed not only by what threats a control detects, but also by how effectively it operates within the wider network.

"A 100 percent detection rate cannot be evaluated in isolation," Bemi says. "If achieving that result introduces significant false positives, latency or throughput degradation, the security control has to be assessed as an operational system rather than simply as a detection mechanism."

What UTM alone Mmisses

Bemi’s argument is that IDS will never replace or outperform UTM. Instead, he says both tools solve two different layers of the same issue. Layer one is Perimeter Enforcement (Firewalling, VPN termination, Traffic Shaping, Blocking Known-Bad traffic) as long as you have the correct settings with your UTM devices such as pfSense. The Layer Two that IDS addresses is what happens after you allow something past the first layer. This Layer two provides a level of detail that can't be replicated by UTM alone. In particular, this was very evident during Bemi's testing and evaluation based on Detection Capability and Operational Impact.

" A UTM determines whether traffic should be admitted into the Network," Bemi states. " An IDS answers a completely different Question; namely, now that it is inside the Network, does it appear to be anomalous?" Bemi stated enterprises who use only UTM are typically making only one determination regarding allowing traffic past the Firewall/VPN termination device. Then they are simply relying on anything that passes through to be safe."

Resource cost is a design input, not an afterthought

One of the study's most important findings is that defence-in-depth is not operationally free. Running both controls increased CPU and memory utilisation and introduced additional network latency, demonstrating that security architecture cannot be evaluated solely through detection effectiveness.

He argues the practical barrier to hybrid defence is often less about whether the controls can work together and more about whether organisations have planned for the capacity, tuning and monitoring they require. "Nobody disputes that defence-in-depth is the right architecture on a whiteboard," he says. "The resistance comes at implementation, when a smaller IT team realises that running both properly means capacity planning, rule tuning to bring false positives down, and ongoing log review. That is a resourcing conversation, not a technology conversation. But skipping it does not remove the risk; it just moves the risk from the network into the business."

The practical path forward

For organisations still treating this as a binary purchasing decision, the practical implication of Bemi's evaluation is not that every organisation should deploy both controls indiscriminately. Instead, security architects should treat UTM and IDS as complementary controls, evaluate their combined performance under realistic traffic conditions, and size infrastructure and monitoring capacity around the resulting operational overhead.

Conclusion

The challenge for Windows enterprise security is not choosing between UTM and IDS, but designing an architecture in which both controls address different layers of the same threat landscape. Bemi’s evaluation demonstrates that detection rates alone do not determine security effectiveness; false positives, latency, throughput, resource consumption, and the effort required to operate the controls also matter. The industry therefore needs to move beyond product-versus-product comparisons and assess how security controls perform together under realistic enterprise conditions. In practice, UTM can provide the first layer of perimeter enforcement, while IDS adds deeper visibility into suspicious activity that may pass through that boundary. Organisations considering a hybrid approach should test the combined architecture against representative workloads and establish clear thresholds for performance, false positives, and resource utilisation before deployment. They should also plan for ongoing rule tuning, monitoring, capacity management, and analyst involvement rather than treating these as secondary operational concerns. Ultimately, effective defence-in-depth depends not simply on deploying more security tools, but on ensuring that complementary controls work together in a way that is measurable, sustainable, and aligned with the organisation’s operational needs.