Europe

https://archive.is/fFywQ

When researchers from Westfälische Hochschule read the publications, they became suspicious. For one thing, many passages sounded inconclusive to them. When they clicked on the provided links to cited sources, they didn't work at all. And on a large scale: according to Der Spiegel magazine, 26 out of 492 footnotes in one of the reports were incorrect.

https://archive.is/2uDjC

President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the law for the national implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA). With this, the right-wing conservative head of state demonstratively sides with US President Donald Trump and his declared rejection of European platform regulation.

cross-posted from : https://sh.itjust.works/post/53035901

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/56955659

Production of the current generation Mercedes A-Class is moving from Germany to Hungary in order to improve manufacturing efficiency.

The vast majority of businesses based in the European Union have moved jobs abroad, with India being the most favoured destination outside the bloc.

Outsourcing is a way for tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to save money — and perhaps to survive. However, it also means slashing positions domestically, which, in most cases, don't get replaced.

The account is in fact authentic:

Die für die digitale Unabhängigkeit der EU zuständige Vizepräsidentin, Henna Virkkunen, eröffnete dort erst am Abend erstmals ein offizielles Benutzerkonto, wie die EU-Kommission der dpa mitteilte.

The vice president responsible for digital independence of the EU, Henna Virkkunen, opened an official account there [on Mastodon] for the first time yesterday evening, the EU commission told dpa [German Press Agency].

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/36979853

The European Left Alliance started an initiative to suspend the agreement between the EU and Israel and if it gets 1 million signatures it will have to be considered by the European Comission.

I highly doubt this will have any effect on EU policy whatsoever but if you live in the EU I would still highly recommend you sign this initiative as it takes no effort at all to do so

Pro-Kremlin propagandists are employing a range of disinformation tactics to deceive Ukrainians, including emotional manipulation, threats, and the creation of fake media outlets and AI-generated visuals. Notably, during the monitoring period, the primary strategy of these propagandists has shifted towards demoralising Ukrainians and spreading widespread discouragement

Migration to Denmark and Sweden has fallen to historic lows as both Scandinavian countries implement tougher immigration measures, reflecting a broader European trend toward tighter asylum rules.

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Polina Azarnykh, a 40-year-old former teacher, uses a Telegram channel to lure young men, often from poor countries, into joining Russia's military.

The former teacher's smiling video messages and upbeat posts offer "one-year contracts" for "military service".

The BBC World Service has identified nearly 500 cases where she has provided documents, referred to as invitations, which allow the recipient to enter Russia to join the military. These have been for men - mainly from Syria, Egypt and Yemen - who appear to have sent her their passport details in order to enlist.

But recruits and their relatives have told the BBC that she misled men into believing they would avoid combat, failed to make clear they could not leave after a year and threatened those who challenged her. When contacted by the BBC, she rejected the allegations.

Twelve families told us of young men they say were recruited by her who are now dead or missing.

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Azarnykh's Telegram channel has 21,000 subscribers. Her posts have often told readers wanting to apply to join the Russian military to send her a scan of their passport. She has then posted invitation documents, sometimes with a list of names of the men they are for.

The BBC has identified more than 490 such invitations that she has sent over the past year to men from countries including Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Her posts have mentioned recruitment for an "elite international battalion" and made it clear that people in Russia illegally - including those whose visas have expired - are eligible.

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Many felt Azarnykh had misled or exploited recruits. They told us the men knew they were joining the military, but did not expect to serve on the front line. Several, like Omar, felt they had inadequate training or thought they would be able to leave after a year.

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Azarnykh became "one of the most important recruiters" for Russia's army, says Habib, another Syrian who has served in Russia's military. He was willing to be filmed but spoke under a pseudonym for fear of repercussions.

Habib says he and Azarnykh "worked together for around three years on visa invitations to Russia". He gave no further details and we have not been able to confirm his role in the process. An image from social media in 2024 shows him alongside her.

Azarnykh, who is from Russia's south-western Voronezh region, ran a Facebook group helping Arab students come to Moscow to study, before starting her Telegram channel in 2024.

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Azarnykh's posts from mid-2024 begin to note that recruits will be "participating in hostilities" and mention foreign fighters who have died in combat.

"You all understood well that you were going to war," she says in one video in October 2024. "You thought that you could get a Russian passport, do nothing and live in a five-star hotel?... Nothing happens for free."

In another case, in 2024, the BBC has heard a voice message sent by Azarnykh to a mother whose son was serving in the military. Azarnykh says the woman has "published something horrible about the Russian army". Using expletives, she threatens the son's life and warns the woman: "I'll find you and all your children."

The BBC made multiple attempts to contact Azarnykh. Initially she said she would do an interview with us if we travelled to Russia, but the BBC declined for safety reasons. Later, when asked in a voice call about claims that recruits were promised non-combat roles, she hung up. In voice notes sent afterwards, she said our work was "not professional" and warned of potential defamation proceedings. She also said: "Our respected Arabs can stick their accusations up their arses."

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"Sondervermögen," meaning special fund, has been picked as Germany's Worst Word of 2025 for its "misleading" use, especially by the government in Berlin last year.

• Iran has sold nearly $3 billion worth of missiles to Russia to aid President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to a Western security official.
• The purchases have included hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, nearly 500 other short-range ballistic missiles and approximately 200 surface-to-air missiles.
• Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment since late 2021.

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Contracts with Moscow starting from October 2021 — before the war began — for ballistic and surface-to-air missiles amount to roughly $2.7 billion, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Moscow and Tehran have drawn closer since Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has triggered sweeping sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin’s most serious confrontation with the West since the Cold War, while Iran’s provision of weapons to Russia has further deepened the two countries’ partnership.

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Iran has delivered millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to the assessment, which doesn’t represent the entirety of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran as more equipment is expected to be supplied.

Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones and shared technology that has enabled Russia to manufacture them domestically under the name “Geran-2” as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed at the beginning of 2023.

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Iran, whose government is crushing ongoing violent protests, sought to deepen its ties with Russia starting in the 2010s, smarting from the West’s ability to isolate it over the country’s nuclear program.

While Iran signed a strategic partnership with Russia in January 2025, it doesn’t contain a mutual-defense pact and Moscow didn’t offer any tangible assistance to Tehran during Israeli and US strikes on Iran last year. Russia is building a trade route with Tehran connecting to India to try to weaken the impact of sanctions, and officials have discussed boosting financial and banking cooperation.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni both recently called for direct EU negotiations with the Russian leader.

https://archive.is/lgRZ7

Figures compiled by European trade body Clepa and shared with the FT show that parts suppliers announced 50,000 job losses in 2025, following 54,000 in 2024, in a sign of continued distress for the struggling sector.

Bosch, the world’s largest auto supplier, announced in September it would cut 13,000 jobs by 2030 after saying it faced an annual cost gap of €2.5bn, leading to protests from employees last month.

After parts makers Valeo, Forvia and Schaeffler announced plans in 2024 to cut thousands of jobs, last year saw the announcement of further job cuts at Continental’s automotive parts division, since spun off under the brand Aumovio.

Germany's military has been rocked by reports of widespread sexual harassment and right-wing extremism in an elite paratroop unit

The German military confirmed the reported abuse, which it said emerged last year after female soldiers from the 26th Parachute Regiment relayed their experiences to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, the military ombudsman.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, female soldiers regularly reported being subject to abusive and degrading comments of a sexual nature and said numerous cases where soldiers used Nazi terms and expressions had also been reported.