Europe

Paywall? https://archive.is/CnQUt

India and the EU have long been negotiating the deal. A summit is scheduled for January 27

Paywall? https://archive.is/VuQaG

Field Marshal Lord Richards, who... was the head of the UK's armed forces from 2010 till 2013... issues a stark warning: "[Europe] risks falling between the cracks."

"The EU cannot be a Great Power, nor can any of its constituent nations," he argues. "[So] the UK/EU must decide under whose sphere of influence they should shelter?

"The answer is they are likely to remain in the USA's - and within a reshaped Nato."

Thoughts?

Olivia Bizot, France 24 journalist, has more.

Three quarters of Germans consider the United States to be an unreliable partner, according to a survey published on Thursday.

78% of those queried currently consider France to be a trustworthy partner and 74% consider the UK to be a trustworthy partner.

According to the survey, 40% consider Ukraine to be a trustworthy partner, while 48% of respondents believe that Germany cannot trust Ukraine.

A 38-year-old Russian journalist has been found dead in the French commune of Meudon, in the suburbs of Paris, Le Figaro reported on Wednesday, citing a police source.

Le Figaro said the unnamed man fell from the window of his seventh-floor flat. Police reportedly found a chair placed by the window, as well as medication in a rubbish bin inside the apartment.

...

Denis Balashov, an independent Russian journalist based in Paris, named the deceased as Yevgeny Safronov on Telegram on Wednesday. Safranov had moved abroad from Russia before the start of the full-scale invasion after the media outlet that he worked for was designated a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities, he said.

Balashov continued that Safronov relocated to Paris six months ago and was said to be suffering from depression as he struggled to re-restablish himself abroad. A week prior to his death, his phones, social media accounts, messaging apps and Russian government services account were hacked, Balashov said.

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/56645967

Everything is there...

The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy This document quietly normalizes a major shift in global order:

• Tariffs as coercion – trade is openly treated as a weapon. Market access becomes conditional and reversible.
• Technology with strings attached – access to U.S. tech, AI, capital and standards depends on political loyalty. “Think twice before buying American” is the implicit message.
• NATO as a transaction – security guarantees are no longer assumed; they’re earned (5% GDP, alignment, burden-sharing).
• Europe as a problem to be fixed – described as demographically, culturally and politically weakened, with the U.S. pushing for a fast Ukraine peace mainly to stabilize Europe and reset relations with Russia.
• Preemptive force normalized – strikes and “surgical” military action are framed as standard policy tools, not last resorts.
• Most alarming: the U.S. openly claims the right to block other great powers, force political choices, and intervene to enforce spheres of influence – essentially the logic used by Russia and China, just stated upfront and not yet fully executed.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

cross-posted from : https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/52360969

Today, January 9, Russia is attacking Kyiv with drones. Apartment buildings and cars are on fire in the city.

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Last night, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko reported a massive drone attack by Russia on the Ukrainian capital. Several districts of the city have already been affected. In addition, the mayor reported strong explosions in the Obolonskyi district.

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A UAV fell in the courtyard of a residential building ... fires have been reported in garages ... In the Dniprovskyi district, a fire broke out on the 7th floor of a 9-story residential building.

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In the Pecherskyi district, a residential building caught fire. At another location in Pechersk, cars are burning in the courtyard of a residential building. In the same district, where UAV debris struck a 9-story residential building ... a residential building was damaged on the 20th floor level in a high-rise apartment building ... Later, a UAV struck a 24-story non-residential building, causing damage on the 23rd–24th floors and a fire.

...

In the Desnianskyi district, a UAV hit the roof of a residential building on the 18th floor ... a UAV struck a residential building at the 1st–2nd floor level, causing fires in several apartments ... a fire was reported at a shopping center ... the grounds of a recreational facility [were also struck].

...

Web archive link

The owner of the tanker Bella 1/Marinera (which was seized on Jan. 7 in the North Atlantic by U.S. forces) turned out to be the Russian company Burevestmarin. The firm’s founder and sole owner is Ilya Bugai, a native of Chita who now lives in Moscow, Novaya Gazeta Europe reports, citing data from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Russia’s Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Burevestmarin was registered in Ryazan six months ago and, judging by job postings, was indeed engaged in maritime transportation. Since 2018, Bugai has served as CEO of Rusneftekhimtorg, a company that trades petroleum products. After 2020, that firm’s revenue declined sharply, and in 2024 it posted losses.

...

Ilan Shor — a fugitive Moldovan oligarch sentenced in his home country to seven years and six months in prison for the theft of $1 billion from the country’s banking system — previously chaired Avia Invest’s administrative board. Working with Promsvyazbank, Shor also created the cryptocurrency company A7, which helps Russian businesses carry out international settlements in circumvention of U.S. sanctions.

...

Web archive link

Granted, the part

The globally recommended app by privacy and security experts, Signal, is now being downloaded massively and tops the Danish Google Play Store

is a little ironic, but you gotta push this winning tide and then work from that.

The deal concludes months of tough talks and will allow Ottawa to take part in procurements financed by the EU’s SAFE program.

🇨🇦🤝🇪🇺

I believe the world is facing a new threat: disinformation and cognitive and psychological warefare. Russia is already doing it. They call it "new generation warfare".

The article describes it best:

"the Russian view of modern warfare is based on the idea that the main battlespace is the mind and, as a result, new-generation wars are to be dominated by information and psychological warfare, ... morally and psychologically depressing the enemy’s armed forces personnel and civil population. The main objective is to reduce the necessity for deploying hard military power to the minimum necessary."

Now Europe is facing another threat. The United States.

The NSS says "Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations".

I don't know for sure how they will do it but I suspect it could be similar to what Russia does. Things like online trolls and bots brainwashing vulnerable people.

So I'm calling for action: please contact your politicians and warn them about this and warn everyone you can. Demand media literacy education and classes designed to foster critical thinking skills, mitigate the harm caused by social media, encourage emotional resiliency and strength, encourage conflict resolution skills. I singled these out because I notice that those who are weak in these skills are more vulnerable. This is by no means a silver bullet but I hope that experts can also look into how to deal with psychological warfare and by making it an issue more people are aware of hopefully we can do everything we can to stop it.

Also you can make a difference yourself. Block and report trolls and people who regularly share disinformation on social media, call out those who unintentionally shared disinformation. Ideally trolls would be blocked shunned as opposed to people being drained/tricked by them. Also do what you can to give the gift of media literacy to others. This website has three different tests you can try for disinformation: https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/c.php?g=1241077&p=9082320

I would also recommend reading this article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_warfare

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/40677034

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24122615

A team of students from the Eindhoven University of Technology has built a prototype electric car with a built-in toolbox and components that can be easily repaired or replaced without specialist knowledge.

The university's TU/ecomotive group, which focuses on developing concepts for future sustainable vehicles, describes its ARIA concept as "a modular electric city car that you can repair yourself".

ARIA, which stands for Anyone Repairs It Anywhere, is constructed using standardised components including a battery, body panels and internal electronic elements that can be easily removed and replaced if a fault occurs.

With assistance from an instruction manual and a diagnostics app that provides detailed information about the car's status, users should be able to carry out their own maintenance using only the tools in the car's built-in toolbox, the TU/ecomotive team claimed.

In particular:

• Education Cannot Wait (Geneva, Switzerland)
• European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Helsinki, Finland)
• Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (Brussels, Belgium)
• Freedom Online Coalition (The Hague, The Netherlands)
• Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (Geneva, Switzerland)
• Global Counterterrorism Forum (The Hague, The Netherlands)
• Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (The Hague, The Netherlands)
• Global Forum on Migration and Development (Geneva, Switzerland)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, Switzerland)
• Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Bonn, Germany)
• International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (Rome, Italy)
• International Development Law Organization (Rome, Italy)
• International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Stockholm, Sweden)
• International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (Malta)
• International Lead and Zinc Study Group (Lisbon, Portugal)
• International Solar Alliance (Paris, France)
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (Gland, Switzerland)
• Regional Cooperation Council (Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
• Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (Paris, France)
• Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)
• Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, France)
• International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (The Hague, The Netherlands)
• International Trade Centre (Geneva, Switzerland)
• UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (part of FAO, Rome, Italy)
• UN Conference on Trade and Development (Geneva, Switzerland)
• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Bonn, Germany)
• UN Institute for Training and Research (Geneva, Switzerland)
• UN System Staff College (Turin, Italy)
• UN Water (Geneva, Switzerland)

The US is openly saying they want to breakup the EU. Obviously 26 singular states that have to negotiate with a big bully are weaker than one united front. But the seppos have already been attacking the EU with their social media influencers, the manosphere, paying ~~think~~propaganda-tanks to influence politicians and the population, funding right-wingers, hacking into our infrastructure, and more. Only recently is the entire union waking up to the threat the US poses.

But can we resist? How do you think the EU as a whole should or will react? Will the seppos be successful? What are your predictions?