Europe can build more chip fabs, subsidize domestic manufacturing, and wrap it all in the language of sovereignty, but it still won't escape its dependence on American cloud providers and software anytime soon, according to Forrester. In its first Global Sovereignty Forecast, the analyst concludes that the race for technological independence has already produced two clear winners: China and the United States. Everyone else, Europe included, is left figuring out which dependencies it can live with. Forrester's Tech Sovereignty Index measures countries across areas such as AI investment, cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, software, datacenter capacity, and technical talent. Its forecast puts China and the US far ahead, with overall tech sovereignty scores of 82 percent and 79 percent respectively. Europe's biggest economies, by comparison, barely move between now and 2030: Germany and Spain rise from 34 percent to 36 percent, France from 33 percent to 35 percent, the UK from 30 percent to 32 percent, and Italy from 27 percent to 29 percent. Semiconductors offer one of the few signs of real progress. Governments are spending heavily on domestic production, and Forrester expects chip manufacturing scores to rise sharply in several countries by 2030. The catch is that more fabs do not amount to technological independence. Europe still designs only about 1 percent of the world's chips and has no homegrown equivalent to Nvidia or Qualcomm, Forrester says. Its wider stack is just as dependent: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud account for roughly 65 percent of the European cloud market, while high energy costs and planning constraints continue to slow datacenter expansion. The European Chips Act is unlikely to close that gap. Brussels wants the bloc to produce a fifth of the world's semiconductors by 2030, but Forrester expects Europe to reach just 11.3 percent as other regions expand at the same time. Forrester is also unconvinced by the hyperscalers' "sovereign cloud" pitch. AWS, Microsoft, and Google have rolled out European cloud offerings with separate governance and operational controls, but the report argues they remain subsidiaries of US companies. The datacenters may sit in Europe, but ultimate ownership does not. Rather than chasing complete self-sufficiency, Forrester says most countries should accept that some dependence is unavoidable and focus instead on managing it through alliances, open technologies, and selective investment. "Ongoing geopolitical volatility, AI competition, and semiconductor supply chain risks have put tech sovereignty firmly in the spotlight," said Dario Maisto, principal analyst at Forrester. "Today, tech sovereignty is concentrated in the hands of a few global leaders, creating an uneven competitive advantage for some countries. To compete in the AI era, nations must understand their strategic dependencies and build durable partnerships that safeguard their data, infrastructure, and long-term autonomy." It's hardly the rallying cry sovereignty advocates were hoping for. Europe may eventually produce more chips, but the harder part will be building an entire technology stack that doesn't ultimately answer to someone else's headquarters. ®

Ransomware has soured production at Coca-Cola-owned Fairlife, forcing the dairy business to temporarily halt production at its US plants. In an SEC filing on Thursday, Coca-Cola said Fairlife detected "unauthorized access by a third party to a portion of its systems, including its production-related systems," in what it described as a ransomware event. The company said it immediately activated its incident response and business continuity plans, brought in outside cybersecurity experts, and notified law enforcement. Fairlife has halted production at its US plants while Coca-Cola investigates the ransomware attack, but its Canadian facilities are still running. The business, which was fully acquired by Coca-Cola in 2020 and makes ultra-filtered milk and Core Power protein shakes, said the quality and safety of the products themselves have not been affected. The drinks giant said it is still investigating the incident and working to restore affected systems, adding that it has not yet determined whether the attack is reasonably likely to materially affect the company. The filing sheds little light on the technical details, other than confirming that production-related systems were affected. It remains unclear whether the ransomware reached operational technology used to run Fairlife's manufacturing facilities or whether production was suspended because supporting IT systems were taken offline as part of the company's response. Coca-Cola also hasn't said who was behind the attack or whether any data was stolen. No ransomware gang has publicly claimed responsibility at the time of writing, although such claims often surface days after an attack if negotiations fail or the attackers decide to increase the pressure. The Register asked Coca-Cola how many Fairlife facilities were affected, whether customer or employee data was compromised, whether operational technology was directly impacted, and when it expects US production to resume, but didn't receive an immediate response. The criminals may not have milked the company for a ransom yet, but they've already curdled production. ®

NRC vroeg fotografen om de zomer dicht bij huis vast te leggen. Wat gebeurt er als je het bekende als vertrekpunt neemt? John van Hamond trok een cirkel van anderhalve kilometer rond zijn huis en belde aan bij ieder huis met nummer 11. „Jeetje mina, dat heb ik allemaal gewoon heel dichtbij.”

De FIFA gaat een onderzoek instellen naar de acties van Argentijnse spelers na afloop van de halve finale van het WK tussen Argentinië en Engeland.

Lunchen is op de Britse werkvloer „een kort en eenzaam gebeuren”. In de kleine kantines speciaal voor taxichauffeurs doet een traditioneel ontbijt van bacon, ei en worstjes het altijd goed.

Tim Post dacht aanvankelijk dat dromen iets zweverigs waren, maar ontdekte een wetenschappelijke wereld erachter.

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Sakurakouji Park
桜小路公園

In another pond in Sakurakouji Park, I saw a double-flowered lotus called Makotohasu, which has many petals.

桜小路公園のもう一つの池では、誠蓮（まことはす）という花びらの多い、八重咲の蓮が見られました。

Fujisawa city, Kanagawa pref, Japan

The condition that causes people to get lost in their own home. Some estimates suggest up to one in 30 people may be affected by Developmental Topographical Disorientation, a condition that has been described as a lifelong inability to orient oneself — even in extremely familiar surroundings.

Hij weet niet precies waarom, maar Menno uit Dwingeloo zou toch eigenlijk “dat Soldaat van Oranje weleens willen zien”. De 34-jarige hovenier vertelt: “Het voelt alsof het opeens weer heel erg leeft onder de mensen, ik denk dat ik daarom wel zin heb om er nu eindelijk eens heen te gaan. Het is alsof er iets in de lucht hangt. Je hoort er veel over, dan zal het wel goed zijn. In die Hangaar, toch? Lijkt me wel vet.”

Menno heeft naar eigen zeggen niks met musicals: “Daarom heb ik het zo lang voor me uitgeschoven. Maar het verhaal lijkt me wel interessant, dus moet het er nu toch maar eens van komen. Het is in Valkenburg hè? Ook wel leuk, ben ik nog nooit geweest. Lijkt me wel gaaf hoor, met dat vliegtuig.” Hij staart even voor zich uit. “Ja, ik ga het nu eindelijk eens doen. Morgen is vandaag toch?”, sluit Menno vrolijk af, voordat hij online op zoek gaat naar kaartjes voor de musical.

​

&

Social

WIJ ZIJN NEDERLAND. De blikken polonaise is verslagen. Na een jaar met file (geen idee) hedenochtend weer eens GEEN FILE. Nul komma nul kilometer. Is dit land ons land nog wel, ja, dit is het land van de VVD, van de Madlener Highways, van automotive klungel Koos Spee, van Mark 'sjakie' Harbers en van Vincent Karremans - al is die laatste een verrader, met z'n ""benenwagen"". Nee, dan wij. We scheuren 130 met de vlam in de pijp & 180 linkerbaan, triple zo hard als toegestaan. We komen op tijd op ons werk. We hadden vanochtend zelfs tijd een gehaktballetje uit de pan te trekken bij de Esso. We zwaaien naar links en daar rijdt niemand, we steken een middelvinger op naar rechts en daar rijdt óók niemand, en de schooiers van XR hadden kennelijk ook een dagje ijsvrij. NUL KILOMETER, met tot slot een dienstmededeling voor iedereen die in het veevervoerabonnement van het rijdende afvalverwerkingsbedrijf Koolmees Travels is getrapt: uw abonnement is doorlopend en zal stilzwijgend tegen een veel hoger tarief worden verlengd.

?????

Social