🇪🇺💉🦠 EU countries destroy €4B worth of COVID vaccines

At least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by EU countries at the height of the pandemic have since been thrown away at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of €4 billion, an analysis by POLITICO reveals. And that's almost certainly an underestimate.

Since the first coronavirus vaccines were approved in late 2020, EU countries have collectively taken delivery of 1.5 billion doses (more than three for every person in Europe). Many of these now lie in landfills across the Continent.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-bonfire-covid-vaccines-coronavirus-waste-europe-analysis/

🇪🇺❌🗣 Press service of the European Commission:

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.

On the basis of the preliminary investigation conducted so far, including on the basis of an analysis of the risk assessment report submitted by X in September, X's Transparency report published on 3 November, and X's replies to a formal request for information, which, among others, concerned the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel, the Commission has decided to open formal infringement proceedings against X under the Digital Services Act.

The proceedings will focus on the following areas:

🔸 The compliance with the DSA obligations related to countering the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, notably in relation to the risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to counter the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, as well as the functioning of the notice and action mechanism for illegal content in the EU mandated by the DSA, including in light of X's content moderation resources.

🔸 The effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform, notably the effectiveness of X's so-called ‘Community Notes' system in the EU and the effectiveness of related policies mitigating risks to civic discourse and electoral processes.

🔸 The measures taken by X to increase the transparency of its platform. The investigation concerns suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to X's publicly accessible data as mandated by Article 40 of the DSA, as well as shortcomings in X's ads repository.

🔸 A suspected deceptive design of the user interface, notably in relation to checkmarks linked to certain subnoscription products, the so-called Blue checks.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_6709

⚡️🇮🇸 A volcano near the location of Grindavik has erupted.

@themediterraneanman

🇷🇺❗️In proportion to external threats, the strength of the Russian Armed Forces will be increased to 1,500,000 military personnel - Shoigu

NASDAQ 100 INDEX HITS RECORD HIGH, LAST UP 0.2% AT 16,765.75

https://x.com/DeItaone/status/1737118971571429673?t=a5I6yM2-XGUWOFTKcFXFXw&s=09

🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 The news of Nippon Steel moving to acquire US Steel is an opportunity to post this important chart; and to remind ourselves that steel is the backbone of civilization, necessary for industrial production, essential to our daily life, and a sustaining element of military power.

📎 malmesburyman

— 🇷🇺/🇺🇦 NEW: As the war turns gradually in the favor of Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested the mobilization of 500.000 additional troops

@Middle_East_Spectator

On Friday, the S&P 500 ETF, $SPY, saw its biggest single-day inflow on record, at $20.8 billion.

Dating back to the ETF's inception in 1993, this has never been seen.

Total inflows last week alone hit $24 billion, also posting a new record.

Yesterday, $SPY saw ANOTHER $10 billion of inflows, putting the total at nearly $35 billion since last Monday.

That's $35 billion in 6 trading days, or $5.8 billion PER DAY.

Year-to-date total inflows for $SPY are at $50 billion.

This means that ~70% of YTD inflows for $SPY have happened over the last 6 trading days.

The market is really betting on Powell sticking to a "Fed pivot."

https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1737149047113236757