Navigating the Digital and Political Landscape: A Snapshot of Recent Developments


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In recent news, the European Union is set to introduce the EU Digital Identity Wallet, a significant step towards digital identification for its 400 million citizens. This initiative aims to enhance privacy and streamline access to services. Meanwhile, major tech companies like Google are pushing back against new EU fact-checking regulations, highlighting ongoing tensions between tech giants and regulatory bodies.

On the political front, the U.S. is witnessing significant changes under President-elect Donald Trump. His administration's decisions, such as the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency and the controversial shutdown of USAID, are sparking debates about the future of American governance and international aid.  Additionally, the rise of AI technologies, exemplified by the popularity of the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, is raising privacy concerns and influencing global tech policies.

These developments underscore the dynamic interplay between technology, governance, and privacy, shaping the future of both digital and political landscapes.

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The EU Digital Identity Wallet: A Beginner's Guide
Dock.io, Mar 05, 2025 As this story reports, "With the approval of eIDAS 2, 400 million EU citizens will soon have a EU Digital Identity Wallet containing legal credentials issued by their national governments." eIDAS stands for electronic IDentification, Authentication, and Trust Services. As Entrust says,...
EUDI wallets: challenges and opportunities in public sector
In the MyData Matters blog series, MyData members introduce innovative solutions that align with MyData principles, emphasising ethical data practices, user and business empowerment, and privacy. Wallets offer opportunities for privacy-friendly, proactive services and new use cases based on verifiable data. Are you wondering how your organisation...
Google: Were not participating in European fact-checking rules for Search or YouTube
After Mark Zuckerberg's big announcement that Meta will no longer fact check, Google is also sending a message to the European Union: The search giant is opting out of a new EU law that requires fact checks.While tech companies might feel emboldened now to make such policy decisions in an attempt to curry favor with President-elect Donald Trump, it's...
What DeepSeek knows about you — and why it matters
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Trump's new 'Department of Government Efficiency': What it is and what it isn't.
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If TikTok is banned in the U.S., this is what it will look like for everyone else
In just a matter of days, the lights will switch off on the app that has almost dominated, and certainly defined, the United States in the last five years. TikTok — the second most downloaded app in the country in 2024, and with 170 million active American users — is going to shut down in the U.S. following a law passed last year that requires Bytedance,...
6 Trump Inauguration speech highlights — and how the internet reacted
Donald Trump is officially the 47th President as of Inauguration Day. In a 30-minute speech, Trump proclaimed that "the golden age of America begins right now," and promised many changes. Here are a few of them below, along with how viewers on social media reacted to it:Declaring a national emergency at the southern borderTrump ran on an anti-immigration...
The Daily Show gleefully recaps Trump getting a lecturing in church
Donald Trump is only a day into his presidency and he's already getting into new feuds with people.The latest subject of his ire? Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who was filmed asking the president to "have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now" including "gay, lesbian, and transgender children," before telling him that "the vast majority...
Thousands of datasets from Data.gov have disappeared since Trumps inauguration. Whats going on?
Since President Trump was sworn into office, almost three thousand datasets have disappeared from Data.gov, the U.S. government's repository of open data. According to 404 Media, online archivist communities discovered since Trump took office on Jan. 21, the number of datasets on Data.gov has decreased to 305,564 from 307,854 datasets. Screenshots of...
USAID website shut down as Musk kills humanitarian aid agency
As DOGE head Elon Musk works to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID's official website has gone dark. Following Musk's threats to kill the office in charge of distributing foreign aid — including humanitarian allotments — Musk officially announced on Monday that President Trump had signed off on his so-called cost-cutting...
Elon Musk killing USAID would hurt Americas future. Heres why.
When Elon Musk claims he wants to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) because it's a "viper's nest" and a "ball of worms" full of bad actors, you may be skeptical. (And you'd have good reason for doubt, given Musk's 70-plus falsehoods so blatant as to be noted on his own service, Twitter/X.) You may agree with lawmakers and...
What Elon Musk could do with the digital keys to the kingdom
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US sets AI safety aside in favor of 'AI dominance'
Large-scale shifts at US government agencies that monitor AI development are underway this week. Where does that leave AI regulation?
DOGE is reportedly developing an AI chatbot to analyse government contracts
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly developing a custom AI chatbot for use by U.S. government employees. It looks as though Elon Musk is hoping to use AI to replace the millions of workers he wants to cut.WIRED reports that DOGE is building an generative AI chatbot for use by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), an...
Finnish politicians worry about Trump-Putin call
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Trump moves with light speed and brute force in shaking the core of what America has been
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king.No one can absorb it all. By the time you try to process one big thing — he covets Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and Gaza; he turns away from historic...
Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk’s Government Initiative
One of Elon Musk’s closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump’s administration to help Mr. Musk carry out his drive to slash the federal bureaucracy, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder, is a board member at Tesla who lives in Austin, where Mr. Musk, Tesla’s...
Tesla stock gains since Election Day almost completely wiped out as plunge continues
Trump giveth and Trump taketh away.Tesla, led by its CEO Elon Musk, is on track for a record seven straight weeks of losses, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Yahoo Finance reports that Tesla stock is down 30.2 percent year-to-date. Tesla's slump can be attributed to its falling sales numbers around the world, which appears to be the result...
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is finally real
The United States has gotten serious about Bitcoin — though maybe not as serious as some had hoped. On Thursday, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.Essentially, this means that the U.S. government now treats Bitcoin as a

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