Emma on PixelUnion - Free your photos from American tech platforms

New York on edge: the UN summit as pressure cooker

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Today marks the start of the High-Level Week of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On paper, it’s the annual diplomatic high mass: speeches, handshakes, bilateral meetings. Behind the scenes, this year it has become something else entirely.

On the East River, the interests of world powers, international courts, and strategic allies collide at an unprecedented, charged moment. Tensions between the United States, Japan, and the International Criminal Court in The Hague are reaching a boiling point. And with them, the survival of the multilateral legal order is being put to the test.

The unavoidable breach

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The geopolitical foundations of the Western world are shaking. In a historic move in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a proposal that will permanently reshape the world order: Canada is set to become the first “associate member” of the European Union. This “alliance for the future”, driven by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, is much more than a diplomatic gesture; it is a survival pact against a hostile Washington. The strategic shift is complete now that Canada has officially asked to join the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a military coalition of ten North Atlantic states.

Trump: Free $5,000 for Everyone!

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes we watch the political circus on the other side of the ocean from Europe with mounting astonishment. At a rally in Dallas, Donald Trump made a striking promise: every adult American gets $5,000 if the Republicans keep their majority in Congress.

Trump calls this generous payout the “Trump dividend”, a reward for the country’s economic success. The idea that a president is going to make everyone rich single-handedly by simply handing out cheques sounds like a dream, of course. But behind this generous Santa Claus act lies a hefty dose of political opportunism and corruption.

Google and Apple Now Call Lake Ontario "Lake America"

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On August 27, 2026, US President Donald Trump signed a remarkable federal decree: Executive Order 14422. The document ordered Lake Ontario, one of the five great border lakes with Canada, to be officially renamed “Lake America” with immediate effect. What looks, at first glance, like an absurd geopolitical jab in an escalating trade war with Canada actually exposes a deep and unsettling risk about the power of American tech companies.

What is data sovereignty, and why does it matter for your photos?

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Data sovereignty appears in almost every privacy policy and marketing page you read. Cloud providers reference it. Governments use it in legislation. Startups build entire brands around it. But when you ask three people what it means, you tend to get four different answers.

That is a problem, because the term does carry a specific meaning, and the difference between the technical definition and the marketing version is the difference between real protection and a legal loophole.

Why it's time to leave Google Photos

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We take more photos than ever. With its billion users, Google Photos seems like the logical place to keep those memories: convenient, and deeply woven into your phone. But that “free” convenience comes at a price. While Google stores your memories, it also uses them for its own purposes.

We believe privacy is not an extra. That’s why we’re laying out what happens to your photos at Google, and why a European alternative is worth considering.