Thread

US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS

388 points · 396 comments · mywacaday

guidoiaquinti · 1790685221 · focus · HN ↗
Several International Criminal Court (ICC) judges have been unable to access their bank accounts or receive routine salary payments and financial transfers due to financial blockages triggered by United States sanctions. In the country where they live
1. noosphr · 1790695203 · focus · HN ↗
  I would like to thank the US for single handedly killing the EU cashless society plans.
  I would like to request the US sanctions all members of the EU parliament asap.
  1. dzogchen · 1790695324 · focus · HN ↗
    Do you mean accelerate the digital euro plans?
    someonebaggy · 1790695494 · focus · HN ↗
    talking about "digital currency" is always so frustrating because you never know what the other person means. Almost all money is already digital.
    dzogchen · 1790695557 · focus · HN ↗
    Well, that's that the European Central Bank calls it. <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.ht...
    someonebaggy · 1790701741 · focus · HN ↗
    Error 503?
    pnt12 · 1790702736 · focus · HN ↗
    Digital euro is an ongoing initiative by the ECB that aims to reach the whole European union.
  2. mike_hearn · 1790697969 · focus · HN ↗
    Unfortunately no. The EU loves doing these kinds of sanctions itself and has spent decades withdrawing high value notes from circulation. There are thousands of people sanctioned by the EU:
    <a href="https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/individuals/" rel="nofollow">https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/individuals/
    An example of the EU doing similar sanctions would be Jacques Baud, a Swiss general sanctioned for "promoting conspiracy narratives and false claims about the war in Ukraine". The sanctions left him unable to buy anything including food. As he had a wife and family, the EU sanctioned them as well to prevent them helping him.
    The same batch of sanctions also added an American citizen to the list, basically for running websites the EU doesn't like and considers fake news, and a French citizen, for "spreading conspiracy theories":
    <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202502568" rel="nofollow">https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L...
    Cash doesn't help because there is no notice and most people don't keep enough cash on them to survive long enough, especially as there is no way to get unsanctioned - the entire process runs outside the judicial system and depends only on the whims of the Commission. The results are utterly brutal:
    > Baud spoke in particular about how the sanction restricted his daily life. The measure caught him completely unprepared; from one day to the next, his credit cards, insurance policies, and bank accounts—including those in Switzerland, even though it did not adopt the sanction—were blocked. He could no longer make payments, and even shopping was impossible. "I survived, that's the only way to put it, thanks to my neighbors. They delivered food to me," Baud said.
    Under the sanctions regime, the Geneva resident, who lives in Brussels, is entitled to support intended to cover his basic needs. According to him, the Belgian authorities granted his application at the beginning of February, but three months passed before the banks implemented it. Baud is also prohibited from leaving Belgium and therefore cannot travel to his home country.
    <a href="https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/ich-ueberlebte-dank-meinen-nachbarn-der-sanktionierte-schweizer-jacques-baud-meldet-sich-zu-wort-die-eu-widerspricht-ld.10013842" rel="nofollow">https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/ich-ueberlebte-dank-meinen-nachba...
    The EU doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about sanctions. The ICC judges only lost access to some emails and other nice-to-haves, the US didn't stop them buying food or water.
    arw0n · 1790700094 · focus · HN ↗
    Even crazier, they sanctioned a German journalist of turkish decent due to support of the palestianian cause / support of terrorist groups. [0] Even if you think he supports Hamas as a terrorist group (which is questionable), these sanctions are decided by executive committee, without a judge involved, and they make it impossible for the person to have banking, work, rent, or buy within the EU. It is essentially a social death sentence, worth than going to jail, and no due process whatsoever is involved.
    [0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCseyin_Do%C4%9Fru" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCseyin_Do%C4%9Fru
    mike_hearn · 1790704380 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah they've done a bunch of Israel/Gaza related sanctions actually, in both directions. And there are way more sanctions like Baud's, for saying anything the EU thinks might be somehow advantageous to Russia. Only a few cases reach public attention. You can just scroll through the list and see.
    e.g. <a href="https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/185512" rel="nofollow">https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/1855...
    > Daniella Weiss is the Director of the Nachala Movement (“Nachala”). Nachala has the aim of promoting Jewish settlements and illegal outposts in the West Bank.
    or <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32025R1278&qid=1751352470824" rel="nofollow">https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...
    > Nathalie Yamb is a social media influencer. Since the Sochi summit she attended in 2019, Nathalie Yamb has been an outspoken supporter of Russia, adopting Moscow’s language and targeting France and the West in particular, with a view to ousting them from the African continent. She has specific ties with AFRIC, an organisation linked to Russian private military companies.
    She has links with an organization that has links. She "adopts Moscow's language".
    or <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202600647" rel="nofollow">https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L...
    > Through appearances at symbolic conflict sites, interviews with Russian television, publications on his X account (which has 18 100 followers) and contributions to Kremlin-funded outlets such as International Reporters, he amplifies Kremlin narratives that distort the realities of Russia’s war
    or <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202500965" rel="nofollow">https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202...
    > [Thomas Röper, a German war correspondant] legitimises Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory by serving as an election “observer”
    Observing elections in Russia controlled territory might mean you can no longer buy food.
    The ICC judge got sanctioned because he's trying to arrest a head of a US allied state. The EU does sanctions vastly harsher - outright deadly - against random nobodies, triggered by things as minor as posting opinions to X, or merely being related to someone who did. It's on a different level.
  3. Cider9986 · 1790736910 · focus · HN ↗
    What are you referring to? Cashless is terrible so that would be good but I don't know what you mean.

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