Rustdesk started as an open-source alternative to TeamViewer. Now, it offers more than just remote desktop access, making it handy for casual self-hosting.

With no need for (dyn)DNS, port forwarding, or a VPN, you can get:

• Remote terminal
• File transfer
• Tunneling (similar to SSH port forwarding)
• Remote desktop

I think it’s a solid choice if you have a simple one-server setup.

Governments all around EU, as well as the EU itself, are fighting hard against privacy, free thought and communications.

If you or your company stores user's personal information, make sure to use tech infrastructure from outside the EU!

Surprise: the highest taxed country in the world managed to increase taxes!

At a certain moment you don't feel the pain anymore. It's not that it's gone. You just got used to it. You lose connection. With your emotions. With your body. With your sense of self.

Then you let go.

The Night of Enitharmon's Joy by William Blake (1795)

What signals do you look for? Do you decide based on reason or instinct?

Summary:

STEM participation in Flemish secondary schools fell for the fourth consecutive year, reaching its lowest level in ten years. Last school year 35.5% of pupils chose a STEM track, down from 36.44% the year before and below the government target of over 40% by 2030. The decline continues despite more than a decade of intensive promotion. Employers' group Voka warns this hurts capacity for addressing major challenges like climate and digitalisation — six of ten shortage occupations are STEM roles, Voka chair Frank Beckx says. Ann Caluwaerts (Imec, STEM platform) calls the trend "a time bomb under our prosperity."

Summary:

VAF will lose €734,000 in funding, affecting its Media and Game funds while Film Fund allocations remain unchanged. The cut represents about 10% of the roughly €7 million annual Flemish dotations the fund has received in recent years.

An additional €169,000 from the Education cabinet for the Game Fund may also be removed, further reducing support for games. VAF and the minister’s office are in discussions amid a difficult regional budgetary situation.

The Flemish government expects the expanded audiovisual stimulation scheme, which forces media companies active in Belgium to subsidise Belgian media—which now includes videoplatforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok—to partly compensate. The minister says the new scheme will yield €26 million extra for the sector, with over €11 million earmarked for VAF.

Summary:

The Flemish government, led by Environment Minister Jo Brouns (CD&V), plans to significantly increase the fees for citizens wishing to appeal against approved building permits. Currently set at €200, the fee is proposed to rise to between €400 and €500. This move aims to deter misuse of the appeal process and expedite permit procedures.

Brouns emphasizes that the increase is intended to signal that only serious appeals should be filed, while still allowing individuals to challenge permits if they experience genuine personal harm. The government acknowledges that processing such appeals can cost society around €5,000 per case, highlighting the disparity between the appeal costs and the societal expenses involved.

Despite the anticipated revenue of only €1 million from this measure, it is viewed as a step towards a more streamlined permitting process, a key promise of the Flemish government. The complexity and lengthy nature of obtaining permits have been problematic for developers, compounded by the ability of various stakeholders to contest permits, leading to protracted legal battles.

Additionally, the Flemish government aims to simplify and accelerate permitting procedures, although previous attempts have faced setbacks from the Constitutional Court. Recent rulings have mandated that provinces will now review local permit applications to prevent conflicts of interest, ensuring that municipal construction projects can proceed without interruption.

Hugsies 4 everyone

Summary:

A 47-year-old man of Afghan descent was arrested in Izegem after fatally stabbing three people in Roeselare. Earlier that day, he was involved in a domestic violence incident where his former partner was found dead. The man, who had a history of violence against his wife and children, had been sentenced just four days prior for domestic abuse.

Despite being convicted to one year in prison (with half suspended) and a fine of €800, he had not yet served time due to ongoing legal proceedings. He also received a six-month effective prison sentence, which is not currently enforced for such short durations. The court deemed probation supervision unfeasible due to his limited understanding of Dutch, and no restraining order was imposed after the verdict.

Summary:

The Belgian Federal Planning Bureau has concluded that, in an optimal scenario, Belgium will need to build 8 gigawatts of new nuclear power plants to achieve a climate-neutral electricity supply by 2050. This study supports the current government's push for a nuclear revival. The report outlines three scenarios for meeting electricity demands, with the most cost-effective option involving significant investments in both offshore wind energy and nuclear power.

In this optimal scenario, offshore wind capacity would increase from 2.2 to 8 gigawatts, and new nuclear plants would generate nearly one-third of Belgium's electricity by 2050. The study predicts that electricity consumption will more than double, exceeding 200 terawatt-hours. Without nuclear energy, Belgium would need to import nearly 40% of its electricity, significantly increasing energy dependence.

The nuclear scenario is deemed the cheapest, with total costs estimated at €115 per megawatt-hour, compared to 25-35% higher costs in scenarios without nuclear energy. However, the Planning Bureau emphasizes that economic factors are not the only considerations; energy independence and the uncertainties surrounding nuclear fuel costs and waste management are also critical.

Investment in new nuclear plants is projected at €7.7 billion per gigawatt, with potential cost overruns posing risks to the feasibility of the nuclear option. The Bureau remains skeptical about the viability of small modular reactors due to their higher costs. The findings align with previous studies and provide additional support for the government's nuclear energy ambitions.

Summary:

The Flemish government is in the final stages of negotiations to finalize its budget by Monday, aiming to find €1.5 billion to maintain a balanced budget by 2027. The discussions, which resumed at 5 PM after a night of deliberation, have reportedly made progress, with key proposals on the table, including an increase in the healthcare premium and a truck toll. The government is under pressure as the projected deficit for 2026 has risen from an agreed €2.7 billion to €4.2 billion, necessitating urgent measures to address the shortfall.

In what the N-VA party describes as the "most ambitious interim budget ever," all expenditure and revenue items are being scrutinized. The government is considering delaying or spreading out certain expenditures, such as reforms to inheritance tax, increased funding for welfare, and initiatives to promote Dutch language skills in education. Additionally, new revenue sources may include making the inheritance tax reform budget-neutral by excluding real estate from tax-free gifts to family businesses and implementing a wealth test for social premiums.

Another potential revenue stream could come from increasing the healthcare premium, currently set at €64 for approximately 4.7 million Flemish residents, which supports over 300,000 individuals in need of care. There are also discussions about raising the truck toll, particularly targeting polluting vehicles. If an agreement is not reached by Monday at 2 PM, when Minister-President Matthias Diependaele is scheduled to present his September statement in the Flemish Parliament, the speech will need to be postponed.

Summary:

• The Bierset airport in Liège is overwhelmed by a surge in e-commerce packages, with 3.8 million products arriving daily, a 33% increase from the previous year, but customs can only inspect 0.006% of these shipments due to limited resources.

• 40% of the packages are found to have issues, including counterfeit goods, incorrect valuations, and safety concerns, prompting calls for better scanning technology and data sharing with e-commerce platforms to improve oversight.

• The Belgian customs face additional challenges, such as enforcing sanctions against Russia and addressing competitive disadvantages for European businesses due to the influx of Chinese products, leading to demands for stricter regulations on companies like Shein and Temu.

Summary:

Brussels Airport is still experiencing disruptions after a cyberattack yesterday targeted an external provider of check‑in systems. Several airlines faced technical issues that forced staff to perform check‑ins manually with pen and paper, causing longer processing times. The airport says its own systems were not affected and that it is working with carriers and the external supplier to limit the impact, but a precise timeline for resolution is not yet available.

As a result of the outage about nine flights were canceled and around fifteen experienced delays of an hour or more; some TUI fly morning departures were diverted to Ostend with passengers bused there. Passengers with planned flights are advised to check flight status before traveling to the airport and to arrive two hours early for Schengen flights or three hours early for non‑Schengen flights. Multiple European airports are affected by the same supplier incident; Brussels Airport continues to monitor the situation and share updates through its channels.

Summary:

• Iberian harvester ant queens (Messor ibericus) mate with males of a different species (Messor structor), store their sperm, and produce males that are genetic clones of M. structor while retaining M. ibericus mitochondrial DNA.

• Queens produce both M. ibericus males (hairy) and M. structor-like males (nearly hairless); all colony workers are female hybrids of the two species.

• Researchers coined the term “xenoparity” for this phenomenon; it challenges traditional species concepts because two distinct species are required for the M. ibericus colony’s reproductive system.

• The relationship appears mutually beneficial—M. ibericus secures workers and spreads M. structor via cloned males—but cloned males may accumulate harmful mutations over time, risking long-term viability.

Summary:

• Belgian Finance Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) wants to make cross‑border shopping less attractive because high excise taxes make many goods cheaper in neighbouring countries, causing Belgians to shop across the border (e.g., at French Auchan).

• He plans to address this in upcoming budget talks and focus on reforms (two‑thirds of efforts per the coalition agreement).

• Jambon says Belgium is one of the highest‑taxed OECD countries, so scope for new taxes is limited; instead, lowering certain taxes (like some excises) could raise revenues by reducing cross‑border purchases.

• The government will also study which other excises could be reduced to deter cross‑border buying. Alcohol and sugary‑drink taxes are among the levies that affect cross‑border shopping the most, but cuts will depend on political support and other coalition goals.