Europe

Albert and Abdou met First Wap’s sales director Günther Rudolph at the company’s booth, to discuss a series of business propositions. Could First Wap help a government monitor opponents abroad? Could the company crack encrypted WhatsApp chats? Could it help the owner of a mining company disrupt protests by environmental activists? “He knows already who are the leaders, or he wants to find out?” asked Rudolph.

Rudolph drew the undercover reporters’ attention to a potential snag: some of the people they propose selling to might be under sanction from the EU or US, meaning that European nationals like First Wap’s executives risked imprisonment if it were known they organised the sale. “That’s why when we make such a deal we make it through Jakarta,” Rudolph said, referring to First Wap’s corporate base in Indonesia. It was a “grey area”, he said. But “we can find a way”. What this way might look like became clear the following day: using a newly invented shell company to mask the connection in the papertrail between First Wap and the sanctioned client.

“We are alarmed by the persistent pattern of police violence and apparent suppression of Palestine solidarity activism by Germany,” the experts said.

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Poland’s foreign minister has accused Russia of a “tactically stupid and counterproductive” escalation of the war in Ukraine, saying its drone incursion into Poland last month appeared to be deliberate.

Radosław Sikorski [...] said all Vladimir Putin had achieved with the incursion was a consolidation of western opinion against him. He also dismissed Russian concerns that supplying US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would be unnecessarily provocative.

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Sikorski said the incursions were a reminder that Putin believed he was “at war with us” – a situation that he argued dated back in the Russian president’s mind to the 2006 Alexander Litvinenko poisoning and his combative speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference.

“He’s been at war with us, but we didn’t acknowledge it because it seemed too preposterous and too strange,” Sikorski said. The incursion into Poland was part of a “spectrum of provocations”, he said, including poisonings, sabotage and arson attacks, such as incendiary bombs at parcel sites in Poland, Germany and the UK.

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Donald Trump is expected to discuss whether to supply Ukraine with US Tomahawks, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles, in a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the issue was of “extreme concern” to Russia.

But Sikorski said concerns about the conflict spreading were exaggerated. “Every time we intended to give Ukraine new missiles, new types of weapons, somebody said, ‘Don’t do it, it’s escalatory. Don’t send them tanks. Don’t send them MiG fighters. Don’t send them F-16s. Don’t give them Himars [rockets] don’t give them Atacms [missiles].’ And every time Russia has had to adjust.”

The Tomahawks, Sikorski said, could be used to target Russian oil refineries, the subject of recent Ukrainian drone strikes. “Russia’s vastness means that you don’t have enough anti-aircraft assets to protect all the targets,” he said, noting Ukraine was having success in reducing Russia’s capacity to produce oil. “When you achieve success you should reinforce it.”

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“Only when Russia loses a war are there any reforms,” Sikorski said. “If Russia lost the war it would be good for Ukraine, it would be good for Europe, but it would also be good for Russia.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44170702

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"Empires don't stop colonizing until they're defeated. That's why a 'brokered peace' with Russia won't work. History shows those agreements collapse almost immediately. The only sustainable path is Ukrainian victory. When Russia loses, then we can talk about peace," Canadian Senator Stan Kutcher said.

[...]

Kutcher added that he is also encouraging the Canadian government to play a more active role in the initiative to establish an air shield over Ukraine.

"We've seen that by not closing Ukraine's skies, Russia has extended drone attacks into NATO and EU countries. So this is no longer just about Ukraine – it's about protecting Europe as a whole," he said.

In late August, Canada announced a new $1.5 billion military aid package for Ukraine.

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Greece's parliament on Thursday approved a government-backed bill allowing people to work 13-hour days, despite fierce objections from trade unions and opposition parties.

The current government has already legalised a six-day working week

Italy plans to apply an extra levy on Chinese fast fashion products to help shield its fashion industry from low-cost foreign imports, government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The move is aimed at avoiding unfair competition in the market for what is one of Italy's key industries, the people said, adding Rome would likely impose the charge on online retailers Temu and Shein, among others.

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There is growing alarm in European capitals that China is progressively diverting goods at lower prices to EU markets as a way of making up for its lost U.S. trade, following the tariff policies adopted by President Donald Trump.

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Rome plans to intervene by adopting a scheme envisaged in a European Union directive on the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), the sources said.

The charge will force manufacturers to cover the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling their products once they become waste.

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[Industry Minister Adolfo] Urso also underlined that measures were being introduced to help ensure that workers' rights were not abused in the supply chain in Italy after a series of high-profile cases involving leading brands.

"We are very pleased with the speed at which Minister Urso and his team are working, responding to the needs of our industry and, above all, defending 'Made in Italy'," said Luca Sburlati, head of the Confindustria Moda industry lobby.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51090737

According to the Economic Security Council of Ukraine, the Sir Industriale S.p.A company from Mario in Brianza (Lombardy) supplied epoxy resins to Russia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51090409

Many grey areas remain surrounding the massacre, including the number of riflemen killed, their identities and the burial sites of the victims, who were not only Senegalese but also came from other West African countries.

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Russian pro-war sources have published a video of a drone strike on a UN convoy in Ukraine. The footage surfaced on the morning of Oct. 15 via the Telegram channel “From Mariupol to the Carpathians,” which is associated with Russian UAV operators in the Kherson sector. The Ukrainian side had reported a truck attack on Oct. 14, and the UN stated that the incident could be considered a war crime.

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The truck targeted by the drone bears the inscription WFP — the abbreviation for the World Food Programme. On top of the trucks, the UN abbreviation is also visible, marking them as United Nations vehicles.

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The strike on the convoy was reported on Oct. 14 by Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Ukraine’s Kherson Regional Military Administration. One of the four trucks burned out completely, and another sustained serious damage. There were no reported casualties.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, called the deliberate attack on humanitarian workers and facilities a severe violation of international humanitarian law. He emphasized that it could be considered a war crime.

The European Union is pushing for the development of drone defense systems. It wants to set up a so-called drone wall along its eastern border following numerous airspace incursions by Russia. Officials are expected to lay out a roadmap to address that threat.

Germany's role in European defense is also on the agenda in parliament here in Berlin today. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been addressing German lawmakers ahead of next week's summit of EU leaders. Merz stressed the need for European strength and unity - including a strong Germany - in the face of what he called an increasingly hostile world.

Invidious link: https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=BnquGPwhhR8

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5102559

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Spanish executives are asking their government to back European Union plans that would force Chinese companies to hand over key technological secrets when operating inside the bloc.

Executives made their case to Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares during a meeting in Hangzhou Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The business leaders also suggested that Spain impose more stringent demands for companies to hire local workers rather than flying in Chinese staff and to prevent the EU single market from being inundated with low-quality goods, the people said, asking not to be named discussing private conversations.

As the European Commission puts the final touches on policy plans due to be published next month designed to support domestic manufacturers, officials in Brussels are considering drastic new measures to demand tech transfers from Chinese firms.

While the rules would technically apply to all non-EU firms, their main goal would be to keep China’s manufacturing might from overwhelming European industry, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

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The Spanish government has been courting Beijing as a potential source of trade and investment, even as the EU toughened its approach to China in an effort to shield its companies. Last year, when the EU was considering imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on his fellow leaders to rethink the plan and referred to China as a strategic partner.

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Spain has recently secured two major Chinese investments. Automaker Chery is setting up a plant outside Barcelona, and battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is working to construct one of Europe’s largest battery plants in partnership with Stellantis NV.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51077066

Orsted, which helped create and dominated the offshore wind industry, has felt a huge impact from these setbacks. The company said last week that it would lay off 2,000 people, or 25 percent of its staff, over the next two years.

Instead of lining up new, multibillion-dollar wind farms to build in shallow waters around the globe, Orsted will mainly focus on finishing those it has under construction and managing them or selling them off.

Orsted said 235 of the 500 layoffs planned for this quarter would be in Denmark

Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm, forecast that less than 50 percent of the cumulative targets set by national governments, excluding China, for offshore wind for the end of the decade will be achieved.

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A whistle bought from a Chinese global retailer that may put children at risk of choking and strangulation due to a long cord, slime containing boron, which can damage the reproductive system, and magnetic toys that risk being ingested are just some examples among the products assessed by Toy Industries of Europe in their study about EU safety rules.

Toy Industries of Europe, the European association representing the leading toy manufacturers, says it purchased over 100 unbranded toys through online marketplaces such as AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, Shein and Temu and found that 80% of the toys failed to meet EU safety rules.

To address this, under the new rules approved on Monday, all toys will require a digital product passport, allowing consumers and regulators to check each toy’s compliance with EU laws.

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Various studies have shown that many toys purchased outside Europe, mostly via online platforms, fail to meet EU safety standards.

[The European consumer organisatio] BEUC’s own investigation into Temu claims that the Chinese online marketplace “is an entry point for dangerous products in Europe.”

Temu has long been under investigation for breaching European rules. In July this year, the European Commission found that the e-commerce platform was in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for failing to properly assess the risks of illegal products sold on its website.

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The newly adopted regulation also expands the ban on carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic-for-reproduction chemicals in toys to include other hazardous substances such as endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with regular hormonal activity in the body, such as bisphenols and phthalates. Exposure to them can be dangerous even at very low doses and may have effects later in life.

Because the endocrine systems and brains of children are still developing, they are particularly susceptible to substances that affect their growth.

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals has been linked to declining sperm counts, an increased number of children born with congenital malformations, and rising cases of certain types of hormone-sensitive cancers.

The text also introduces a limited ban on the intentional use of PFAS – harmful “forever chemicals” linked to cancer and other serious health risks – in toys, with exemptions for components necessary for electronic or electrical functions where the substance is entirely inaccessible to children.

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