Europe

The chief spokesman for the European Union’s executive arm, Eric Mamer, announced the move Monday evening, saying that it will send senior civil servants rather than commissioners to informal meetings of ministers held in Hungary, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.

He cited “recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian Presidency” as the reason for the move in a post on the X social media site. The commission will also skip the traditional visit of its commissioners to the country holding the presidency.

The move follows a decision by Sweden, Finland, Poland and three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to skip the informal meetings during Hungary’s presidency, which lasts through the end of the year.

Orban blindsided western allies working to present a united front on Ukraine when he traveled to Moscow earlier this month to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then to Beijing to see President Xi Jinping.

The move by the commission doesn’t apply to a planned informal summit of leaders in Budapest in November, or the regular meetings of ministers in Brussels and Luxembourg during the year.

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Investors are looking at UK markets as a potential haven as political uncertainty rises in the U.S. and elsewhere in Europe, in what could mark a stunning turnaround for a country that appeared to have lost its traditional appeal to global capital.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17999198

The head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, Andriy Kostin, said that the Ukrainian side is ready to provide all physical evidence.

On July 8, Russian troops launched a missile attack on several Ukrainian cities. In Kyiv, children’s hospital “Okhmatdit”, another hospital and a residential building came under fire. As a result of the attack, 33 people died, including 5 children. Another 121 people were injured, including 10 children aged 2 to 17.

As reported by a social media user on Mastodon, a Russian propagandist wrote an article on Russian state-TV website, claiming that "the children's hospital in Kyiv is not an accident". "Such enemies [Ukraine] cannot be considered human. We must acknowledge—simply and fearfully—that there are no humans on the other side. Not a single person. Our missiles do not kill humans. Not a single person. They are not human," the Russian propagandist is cited in an English translation.

Earlier this week, Osint group Molfar identified 95 war criminals involved in the shelling, and provided a detailed analysis of the attack.

DUESSELDORF/WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - Berlin is taking reports of a plot to assassinate the chief executive of arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, very seriously and will not be cowed by Russian intimidation, the German government said on Friday.

Edit. Removed link reference that was removed during copy.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/24868460

Archive: [ https://archive.is/Tllsn ]

The government denies that the busing is connected to the Olympics. But we obtained an email, which was first reported by the newspaper L’Équipe, in which a government housing official said the goal was to “identify people on the street in sites near Olympic venues” and move them before the Games.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17926027

Archived link

Alipay. BYD. AliExpress. Vivo. If you’ve been following the UEFA EURO 2024, these Chinese companies are hard to miss as they dominate the stadium banners...Some of these sponsorships raise serious concerns and call UEFA's credibility and ethical standards into doubt.

The sponsors are linked to a wide range of contentious issues such as allegations of mass labour abuses of Uyghurs, pornographic content for minors to illegal subsidisation, political interference, and fundamental human rights violations.

This appears to be a move to counter the UMPK gliding bombs Russia has started using recently to great effect against Ukraine.

Russia can launch these from Russian soil, safe from Ukrainian fire. These missiles will allow Ukraine to strike grounded planes and weapons stockpiles in Russia.

It's an interesting move, considering the US has been telling Ukraine not to use any western long-range weapons against Russia directly.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17477295

Archived link

US intelligence discovered earlier this year that the Russian government planned to assassinate the chief executive of a powerful German arms manufacturer that has been producing artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine, according to five US and western officials familiar with the episode.

The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who were supporting Ukraine’s war effort, these sources said. The plan to kill Armin Papperger, a white-haired goliath who has led the German manufacturing charge in support of Kyiv, was the most mature.

When the Americans learned of the effort, they informed Germany, whose security services were then able to protect Papperger and foil the plot. A high-level German government official confirmed that Berlin was warned about the plot by the US.

For more than six months, Russia has been carrying out a sabotage campaign across Europe, largely by proxy. It has recruited local amateurs for everything from arson attacks on warehouses linked to arms for Ukraine to petty acts of vandalism — all designed to stymie the flow of weapons from the West to Ukraine and blunt public support for Kyiv.

But the intelligence suggesting that Russia was willing to assassinate private citizens underlined to Western officials just how far Moscow was willing to go in a parallel shadow war it is waging across the west.

Archived link

During a deadly Russian missile barrage on Kyiv on July 8, Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital suffered a direct hit. More than 600 patients and at least that many medical staff were inside the Okhmatdyt Hospital at the time of the strike, which killed two adults and injured more than 50 people, including seven children. Another child who was evacuated from the hospital later died.

Anna Brudna was working in an on-call room when she heard the first explosion. A colleague suggested that everyone move to the corridor in case the windows got blown out. But Brudna didn’t listen; as a doctor in the bone marrow transplant division at Kyiv’s Okhmatydyt children’s hospital, she had too much work to do.

“The patients we prep for transplants are hooked up to machines and kept on IVs in sterile isolation rooms — if we ran off somewhere every time there’s an air raid alert, we simply wouldn’t be able to treat anyone,” she says.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17905753

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17417643

In a conversation held a few days before the elections, Macron warned Netanyahu that Chikli's actions, which were openly and blatantly aimed at assisting Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, constituted "unacceptable" interference in France's internal affairs.

An Israeli official who is involved in contacts between the two countries described Chikli's behavior as "a diplomatic bomb" and a number of other diplomats who spoke with Haaretz said Chikli hurt relations with France.

The Osaka prefectural police arrested Andrey Sova, 38, from Suita in Osaka Prefecture. Sova is president of the Osaka-based trading company Astrade Co. in Chuo Ward, and was arrested on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.

According to a police announcement, Sova is suspected of exporting a total of 27 items worth about ¥43 million overall, including four watercraft, a marine engine, a trailer truck and a used motorcycle, from Osaka Nanko Port to Russia via South Korea in January 2023 without obtaining the Japanese government’s permission.

The suspect has not confirmed or denied the allegations, saying he will speak after consulting with his lawyer.

[Edit typo.]