en:ecrit:articles-en [2025/07/22 07:58] (current) – [Bald eagle's new status as the official US bird brings pride and hope to many Native Americans] natasha
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===== Why Choosing Something To Watch Feels So Difficult =====
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===== Rainbow armbands are dividing opinion at Euro 2025 =====
Too much of a good thing? Streaming service subscribers report that content overload and hidden fees are leading to frustration and subscription fatigue.
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Some captains are wearing them, some are not.
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In fact, the new survey of 2,000 American streaming service subscribers revealed that the average person spends 110 hours per year scrolling through streaming services, struggling to find something worth watching — a stark reminder of the "too much content, too little time" dilemma.
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Rainbow armbands at the Women's European Championship are proving more divisive than perhaps intended for a symbol promoting tolerance and inclusion.
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Commissioned by UserTesting and conducted by Talker Research, the study revealed one in five believe it's harder to find something to watch today than it was 10 years ago. According to them, the underlying cause comes from being overwhelmed by too much content.
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UEFA is giving team captains the option of wearing armbands with the bright colors of the rainbow flag or plain monocolored versions with the word "respect" when they play.
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Many struggled with having larger content libraries (41%) and feeling like there's too much original content being produced (26%).
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"Standard yellow and blue armbands are provided to all teams and rainbow armbands are available upon request," UEFA told The Associated Press.
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**Watch Recommendations: A Double-Edged Sword**
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Both versions have been worn so far at the tournament in Switzerland, with the captains' choices facing scrutiny for the meaning behind their decisions.
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And although 75% appreciate streaming service algorithms serving them accurate recommendations, 51% admitted the quantity of recommended content is also overwhelming, explaining they want to watch everything recommended to them.
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**What it means**
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Nearly half (48%) do not have traditional cable anymore. And those that choose streaming platforms do so because they like the variety (43%), the shows they want to watch are not on cable (34%), and they find streaming more convenient for on-the-go viewing (29%).
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The rainbow armband is intended to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, while it also stands for diversity.
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However, people are generally dissatisfied with the current streaming services available. In fact, 51% would rather have more streaming service options — even if those options included ads.
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"UEFA is committed to making football a safe and welcoming environment for everybody, independent of who we love, our gender identification or gender expression," the governing body said before the women's Euro 2022, where it also gave team captains the option of wearing rainbow armbands.
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When asked what their "dream" streaming platform would look like, top features included premium channels and networks for no added cost (40%) and an easy-to-navigate interface (39%).
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UEFA faced criticism the year before when it nixed Munich's plans to illuminate its stadium in rainbow colors for Germany's game against Hungary during the men's European Championship.
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Further, 52% said a platform's user interface plays a massive or significant role in their decision to subscribe.
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The Germans wanted to protest to a law passed by Hungarian lawmakers the week before that prohibited sharing with minors any content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment.
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The average person said all of the above should be available for no more than $46 per month — although 11% admitted they'd willingly pay over $100 per month for the service.
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**Who's wearing the rainbow armbands?**
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"The streaming landscape has evolved from solving the problem of content access to creating a new challenge of content discovery," said Bobby Meixner, Senior Director of Industry Solutions at UserTesting. "Our research shows that despite advanced recommendation algorithms, viewers are spending nearly five full days each year just trying to decide what to watch–time that could be spent actually enjoying content."
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When Germany played France in their quarterfinal on Saturday, the German captain, Janina Minge, wore a rainbow armband while her French counterpart did not.
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The study also found a number of frustrations streaming subscribers have experienced.
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Switzerland captain Lia Wälti wore a rainbow armband in her team's quarterfinal against Spain the day before. Her opposite, Irene Paredes, did not.
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A substantial 79% expressed frustration with streaming services requiring additional subscription fees for select content.
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Norway captain Ada Hegerberg wore a rainbow armband, as did Wales captain Angharad James, Iceland's Glódís Viggósdóttir, England's Leah Williamson and others.
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When encountering those added fees, the majority (59%) are unlikely to pay and would instead look for content on a different platform they subscribe to (73%), give up and watch something else (77%) or consider canceling their subscription altogether (37%). Nearly one in five (19%) would sign up for a free trial of a platform to find a show they want to watch.
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England defender Lucy Bronze also wore a rainbow wristband during her team's quarterfinal win over Sweden, whose captain, Kosovare Asllani, also wore a rainbow armband.
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Respondents also showed disdain for platforms pulling shows without notice, which directly impacts loyalty.
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Elena Linari became the first to wear a rainbow armband for Italy when she captained the side against Spain, but Cristiana Girelli wore a plain one when she returned for the quarterfinal against Norway.
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Over the past year, 69% have opened a streaming service at least once to find the show they were looking for is no longer there.
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**France chose 'respect' armband**
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Forty-four percent said they would likely end their subscription to a streaming service and subscribe to a new one just to continue watching a favorite show, and 56% would cancel that subscription as soon as they finish watching said show.
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France captain Griedge Mbock Bathy suggested the rainbow armband's message is too restrictive because of its focus on LGBTQ+ rights.
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**Challenges in Cancellation**
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"Highlighting a single issue also potentially excludes the others," she said. "We cannot champion a single cause through our diverse group because there are so many causes to defend."
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But when canceling, nearly a quarter (23%) have experienced difficulties, claiming it's hard for them to find the cancellation option on the platform's website (39%) or that the cancellation process was overly-complicated with multiple steps (36%).
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Mbock said the France team is "so diverse that we cannot highlight just one cause. I think that the armband with the word 'respect' really represents what we want to convey as a message and that is the most important thing."
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"We're seeing a fundamental shift in how streaming platforms need to approach user experience," continued Bobby Meixner. "With 52% of subscribers saying interface design significantly impacts their subscription decisions, and 79% frustrated by hidden fees, streaming services must balance content abundance with accessibility and transparency to maintain subscriber loyalty."
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When told that nine of the 16 countries participating at Euro 2025 wear the rainbow armband, France coach Laurent Bonadei defended his team's choice not to.
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Survey Methodology:
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"Our one has 'respect' written on it. Respect as a word gathers a lot of causes such as racism. I think the 'respect' one is really a nice one," Bonadei said.
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Talker Research surveyed 2,000 American adults who subscribe to at least one streaming service; the survey was commissioned by UserTesting and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7, 2024.
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**Controversy in Qatar**
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===== Poland wants the EU focused on security. Its border with Belarus highlights the challenges =====
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Swedish player Nilla Fischer, the former Wolfsburg captain, was the first in Germany to wear the rainbow armband in the women's Bundesliga in 2017. She inspired others to follow suit, both in women's and men's sports.
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Germany was a strong campaigner for rainbow armbands at the men's World Cup in Qatar in 2022. That developed into a showdown with FIFA over the compromise "One Love" campaign, which featured a rainbow-type heart design that was supposed to be a symbol against discrimination. It was still largely seen as a snub to the host nation, where homosexual acts are illegal and its treatment of migrant workers was a decade-long controversy.
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FIFA banned the armbands and threatened to book team captains who wore them, leading the German players to cover their mouths for the team photo before their opening game, suggesting they were being silenced.
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Germany's interior minister at the time, Nancy Faeser, who was also responsible for sports, wore a "One Love" armband in the stands beside FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
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Qatari supporters later hit back by holding pictures of former Germany player Mesut Özil while covering their mouths during Germany's match against Spain. They were referring to the racist abuse in Germany of Özil, a German-born descendant of Turkish immigrants, who became a scapegoat for Germany's early World Cup exit in 2018.
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Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann called for an end to political statements in 2024, saying they were too distracting for his players. The German men's team ultimately failed to deliver on the field.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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===== The risks and rewards of tokenization as crypto heavyweights push for it =====
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By LORNE COOK Associated Press
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By ALAN SUDERMAN AP Business Writer
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POLOWCE, Poland (AP) — Poland's six-month presidency of the European Union is firmly focused on security. As Europe's biggest land war in decades rages, fewer places highlight the challenges and contradictions of defending the bloc and its values more starkly than the border with Belarus.
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As cryptocurrencies become more intertwined with the traditional financial system, industry heavyweights are racing for a long-sought goal of turning real-world assets into digital tokens.
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Some 13,000 border guards and soldiers protect around 400 kilometers (250 miles) of border. It's become a buffer zone since Belarus' ally, Russia, invaded neighboring Ukraine three years ago. Similar fortifications farther north line Poland's frontier with the Russian region of Kaliningrad.
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"Tokenization is going to open the door to a massive trading revolution," said Vlad Tenev, the CEO of the trading platform Robinhood at a recent James Bond-themed tokenization launch event in the south of France.
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Poland is Ukraine's top logistical backer. Most of the Western-supplied arms, ammunition and equipment helping to keep Ukraine's armed forces afloat transit through. Russia, meanwhile, uses Belarus as a staging ground for its invasion.
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Advocates say tokenization is the next leap forward in crypto and can help break down walls that have advantaged the wealthy and make trading cheaper, more transparent and more accessible for everyday investors.
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At the border near the town of Połowce, a 5.5-meter (18-foot) steel barrier strung with razor wire and topped by security cameras separates once-friendly communities that war has turned into wary rivals. Drones, helicopters and armored vehicles keep watch.
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But critics say tokenization threatens to undermine a century's worth of securities law and investor protections that have made the U.S. financial system the envy of the world. And Robinhood's push into tokenizing shares of private companies quickly faced pushback from one of the world's most popular startups.
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The border crossing is closed. Around 40 border guards and troops could be seen on Jan. 16, when the Polish EU presidency invited 60 reporters from international media to witness the security effort.
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**What is tokenization?**
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The road was strewn with layers of concrete obstacles and concertina wire likely to dissuade an advancing army. Border guards peered into Belarus.
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The basic idea behind tokenization: Use blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies to create digital tokens as stand-ins for things like bonds, real estate or even fractional ownership of a piece of art and that can be traded like crypto by virtually anyone, anywhere at any time.
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It's needed, the government in Warsaw says, because Russia and Belarus are waging a particular kind of hybrid warfare: helping groups of migrants — mostly from Africa or the Middle East — to break through the border to provoke and destabilize Poland and the rest of Europe.
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The massive growth of stablecoins, which are a type of cryptocurrency typically bought and sold for $1, has helped fuel the appetite to tokenize other financial assets, crypto venture capitalist Katie Haun said on a recent podcast.
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"We have tightened our visa policy, and above all we have decided to suspend the right to asylum wherever we are dealing with mass border crossings organized by Belarus and Russia," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters on Friday.
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She said tokenization will upend investing in ways similar to how streamers radically changed how people watch television.
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**When migrants are equated with danger**
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"You used to have to sit there on a Thursday night and watch Seinfeld," Haun said. "You tune in at a specific time, you don't get to choose your program, you couldn't be watching a program like Squid Games from Korea. Netflix was market-expanding. In the same way, I think the tokenization of real-world assets will be market expanding."
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Almost 30,000 attempted border crossings were spotted last year. Most are young men, often from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Polish authorities say they arrive in Belarus on tourist or student visas and are helped across for a fee ranging from $8,000 to $12,000.
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**Growing momentum**
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Poland says they're assisted by the Belarus security services and other "organizers." They're mostly Ukrainians, perhaps fallen on hard times since fleeing the war. They can earn $500 for each person they help, border officials say.
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Robinhood began offering tokenized stock trading of major U.S. public companies for its European customers earlier this month and gave away tokens to some customers meant to represent shares in OpenAI and SpaceX, two highly valued private companies.
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Border guards claim to be routinely attacked. One guard was killed last year and several injured.
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Several other firms are diving in. Crypto exchange Kraken also allows customers outside the U.S. to trade tokenized stocks while Coinbase has petitioned regulators to open the market to its U.S. customers. Wall Street giants BlackRock and Franklin Templeton currently offer tokenized money market funds. McKinsey projects that tokenized assets could reach $2 trillion by 2030.
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They say that migrants shoot slingshots, throw small explosives or rocks, or use pepper spray on guards. More than 400 incidents were recorded last year in this section of the border, with 307 people hospitalized.
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**Crypto's golden age**
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The deputy commander of the Podlaski border guard division, Col. Andrzej Stasiulewicz, said the migrants are hard to discourage. "Warning shots don't work, so force is needed," he said. Reporters were shown video and photos purported to show migrants assailing the border.
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The push for tokenization comes at a heady time in crypto, an industry that's seen enormous growth from the creation and early development of bitcoin more than 15 years ago by libertarian-leaning computer enthusiasts to a growing acceptance in mainstream finance.
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Stasiulewicz said their actions are "very unpredictable, and very precise and coordinated."
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The world's most popular cryptocurrency is now regularly setting all-time highs — more than $123,000 on Monday — while other forms of crypto like stablecoins are exploding in use and the Trump administration has pledged to usher in what's been called the "golden age" for digital assets.
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Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders paints a different picture. The charity says it's treated more than 400 people since November 2022, "many of them stranded for weeks in uninhabitable forests and exposed to violent practices at the border."
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Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at Duke University, said the biggest winners in the push for tokenization could be a small handful of exchanges like Robinhood that see their trading volumes and influence spike.
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People suffered from exhaustion, hypothermia, dehydration and mental health issues. Last year, it noted "a sharp increase in people carrying the scars of physical assaults, including bruises and dog bites."
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"Which is kind of ironic given the origins of crypto, which was to bypass intermediaries," Reiners said.
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It's almost impossible to independently verify such reports. The area is off limits. NGOs and media must apply for a permit to enter. EU and international agencies that work with migrants are not invited either, although migrants are provided with their contact details should they want to complain.
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**Trump bump**
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**"Turnbacks" not "pushbacks," Poland insists**
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Interest in tokenization has also gotten a boost thanks to the election of President Donald Trump, who has made enacting more crypto-friendly regulations a top priority of his administration and signed a new law regulating stablecoins on Friday.
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Stasiulewicz said those who force their way in "are sent back to Belarus, which is in line with our legal framework."
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"Tokenization is an innovation and we at the SEC should be focused on how do we advance innovation at the marketplace," said Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins.
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The Norwegian Refugee Council, a migrant aid charity, has another take. It said that nearly 9,000 "violent pushbacks " have been reported by NGOs in what it describes as "Europe's death zone" since 2021.
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**Is it legal?**
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Pushbacks – depriving someone who may be in fear for their safety of their right to apply for asylum – are illegal under international law.
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Securities law can be complex and even defining what is a security can be a hotly debated question, particularly in crypto. The crypto exchange Binance pulled back offerings of tokenized securities in 2021 after German regulators raised questions about potential violations of that country's securities law.
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Polish Undersecretary of State Maciej Duszczyk rejects the pushback allegations. He prefers "turnbacks." The rationale is that migrants are obliged to apply for asylum in good faith at open border points, not force their way in.
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Under Trump, the SEC has taken a much less expansive view than the previous administration and dropped or paused litigation against crypto companies that the agency had previously accused of violating securities law.
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The nearest place they can do that is in Terespol, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Połowce.
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Hilary Allen, a professor at the American University Washington College of Law, said crypto companies have been emboldened by Trump's victory to be more aggressive in pushing what they can offer.
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**Halting asylum in the name of security**
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"The most pressing risk is (tokenization) being used as a regulatory arbitrage play as a way of getting around the rules," she said.
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As far as the Polish authorities are concerned, their methods are working. The number of people arriving in Połowce has dropped significantly. Around 670 people applied for asylum there last year, and none to mid-January. The Office for Foreigners was empty when reporters visited.
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However, the SEC has struck a cautionary tone when it comes to tokens. Shortly after Robinhood's announcement, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has been an outspoken crypto supporter, issued a statement saying companies issuing tokenized stock should consider "their disclosure obligations" under federal law.
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To keep numbers down, the government intends to suspend asylum applications in times of crisis.
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"As powerful as blockchain technology is, it does not have magical abilities to transform the nature of the underlying asset," Peirce said.
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A draft law winding its way through parliament would see the border shut for 60 days if Warsaw suspects that migrants are being "weaponized" — should they approach the border in large groups, try to intimidate Polish officers or damage border infrastructure.
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**All eyes on private companies**
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"If anyone uses violence against the border guards, we close the border," Duszczyk said.
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One of the most closely watched areas of tokenization involves private companies, which aren't subject to strict financial reporting requirements like publicly traded ones.
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Doctors Without Borders says this could have "dramatic consequences." It's urged Poland "to drastically change course of action" and do all it can to protect migrants and refugees.
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Many hot startups are not going public as often as they used to and instead are increasingly relying on wealthy and institutional investors to raise large sums of money and stay private.
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But EU leaders signed off on Poland's actions at a summit last month. Countries on Europe's eastern flank received a greenlight to suspend the right to protection when they believe that Belarus and Russia are " weaponizing" migrants.
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That's unfair to the little guy, say advocates of tokenization.
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**When security and migration get political**
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"These are massive wealth generators for a very small group of rich, well-connected insiders who get access to these deals early," said Robinhood executive Johann Kerbrat. "Crypto has the power to solve this inequality."
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Ultimately, security and migration policies are highly politicized. Tusk has been in power for more than a year but his party's candidate in a presidential election in May faces a strong challenge from a nationalist opponent.
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**"Please be careful"**
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The EU shifted further right in June after elections to the European Parliament, with nationalists and populists shaking Europe's foundations, particularly in major powers France and Germany. Tusk believes that tough migration policy can win back voters.
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But Robinhood's giveaway of tokens meant to represent an investment in OpenAI immediately drew pushback from the company itself, which said it was not involved in Robinhood's plan and did not endorse it.
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"If we do not want to hand over these matters to radicals, extremists, populists, we must find the right answers so that no one in the world doubts that democratic states are able to effectively defend themselves against illegal migration," he said on Friday.
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"Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer," OpenAI said on social media. "Please be careful."
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He described the "tough protection" of borders as a "sacred duty." Poland's borders also make up the 27-nation EU's external frontier. For Tusk, his country's security is Europe's security. It's a similar argument made by Hungary's staunchly nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
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Public companies have strict public reporting requirements about their financial health that private companies don't have to produce. Such reporting requirements have helped protect investors and give a legitimacy to the U.S. financial system, said Allen, who said the push for tokenized sales of shares in private companies is "eerily familiar" to how things played out before the creation of the SEC nearly a century ago.
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Associated Press writers Monika Scislowska and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.
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"Where we're headed is where we were in the 1920s," she said. "Door-to-door salesmen offering stocks and bonds, half of it had nothing behind it, people losing their life savings betting on stuff they didn't understand."
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Follow AP's coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration