Vice President of Russia’s State-Owned Oil Pipeline Monopoly Transneft Dies in Apparent Fall From Window, Reports Say

Defence or Welfare? Europe Can Afford Both, and Must

This is a highly biased article with little content. The article links to a couple of other media reports, but the author admits that increased military spending will “likely” result in a further erosion of the decades-old European social compact. I very much doubt that the author has had a look into the budget plan of a single EU member. They mention not a single number in the whole article, no research, it’s just a rant with a bold headline that serves a particular narrative.

What makes the whole thing worse is the sentence:

Europe’s leaders have decided to embrace the sort of massive ramp-up in military spending that so often serves as the prelude to war.

No, the current ‘ramp-up’ of military spending is certainly not ‘the prelude of war’ - simply because the war is already here. It has been happening for more than three years with military attacks on Ukraine and what is sometimes called a ‘hybrid war’ against European countries such as a recent arson attack on a restaurant in Estonia ordered by Russian intelligence .

I don’t see what’s wrong if the European countries spend “3.5 percent of their respective GDPs on core military spending, and another 1.5 percent on security and miscellaneous other expenditures designed to harden economies and infrastructure against cyberattacks, people trafficking, and additional risks and perceived risks to NATO economies.”

Estonia, for example, has been spending more than 5% of its GDP for defense already before the Nato summit, and I argue that this has not so much to do with ‘appeasing’ Trump than with its common border with Russia.

Done :-)

This is a very weird framing of this study. The original study (which is linked in the article) is in German. Those who don’t speak German will find a useful translation provider, I provide the study’s summary literal translation:

>Young people: EU and democracy are good, but reforms are needed

• 57% prefer democracy to any other form of government - 39% think that the EU does not function particularly democratically
• Young Europeans want change - 53% criticize the EU for being too preoccupied with trivialities instead of focusing on the essentials
• Cost of living, defense against external threats and better conditions for businesses should be priorities for the EU
• Only 42% think that the EU is one of the three most powerful global political players

Among others, the study also says (again, a direct translation, I am not paraphrasing):

48% of young Europeans believe that democracy in their country is under threat, compared to 61% in Germany. Two thirds rate their country’s membership of the EU as positive. At the same time, 53% of young people criticize the fact that the EU is too often concerned with minor issues. Half of 16 to 26-year-olds think the EU is a good idea, but very poorly implemented.

I don’t say that everything is perfect, but the whole study paints a completely different picture than this article - and especially its headline - appears to suggest.

[Edit my comments for clarity, translation has not been edited.]

@plyth@feddit.org

Your remarks regarding “lessons in realpolitik” and the alleged U.S. policy and the rest is all mentioned in the linked article. Just read it.

But your comment:

If the economic development continues, Taiwan will want to join China.

is pure Chinese propaganda as you know. Taiwan has said the exact opposite multiple times.

I don’t want to defend nor attack England, France or anyone else, but we should never look at one metric when assessing a market. The EU provides some useful insights on its website about the bloc’s housing market (unfortunately without the England or UK data …).

When measured by the gross value added (GVA) of a country’s construction sector as a share of total GVA, France is persistently below the EU average. In 2023, the EU countries with the largest shares were Slovakia (8.4%), Romania (8.3%) and Lithuania (7.3%), and with smallest Greece (2.1%), Ireland (2.6%) and Malta (4.2%).

Regarding the number of dwellings approved for construction between 2010 and 2023, France saw the largest decrease (-27%), followed by Finland and Italy (-36% and -50%, respectively). The largest increases were in Bulgaria (+269%), followed by Ireland (+123%) and Estonia (+117%).

We must also look at how affordable housing is. According to the EU data, Greece, Denmark, and Germany appear to have he least affordable housing in the EU.

You’ll find a lot of interesting data on the site: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/interactive-publications/housing-2024

There is a book (free download available) on Russia and the Far-Right: Insights From Ten European Countries

It describes Russia’s “patterns of influence over the far-right […] milieu in Europe”.

Russia removes Taliban from list of banned terrorist groups

Just an example, there are more on the web.

@bungalowtill@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Germany does not intend to resume diplomatic ties with Afghanistan, so this part of your statement is false.

The rest of your statement may occur from the fact that you have (intentionally?) misunderstood my comment.

As much as I agree with Mr. Türk, it unfortunately is a “logical and consistent step” as Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said. We must not forget that Russia didn’t even adhere to bans on mines in peace time: Moscow has never signed the Ottawa Treaty and has used anti-personnel mines in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Maybe I am wrong, but if I lived in one of these countries bordering Russia, I would even better understand this decision I guess.

Exactly. This.

Old (from 2021), but good: Profiting from authoritarianism: How Tim Cook Surrendered Apple to the Chinese Government - (alternative YT link is here)

A new video from May 2025: Apple’s unsolvable China problem: How Apple Sold Its Soul to an Authoritarian Regime- (alternative YT link is here)

This is horrible, but unfortunately not the most horrible thing regarding this country. A Taliban diplomat on Tuesday [1st July] assumed the role as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Russia.

A move taken by China already in 2023, making Beijing the first government worldwide which assumed diplomatic ties with the Taliban-ruled “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, stating that “China respects the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and the decisions of the people of this country” …

And Ukraine is the next country to exit mine ban treaty, citing war demands, realities on the ground

EU tech rules not included in U.S. trade talks, EU Commission says

The European Union’s trade chief will hold negotiations this week in Washington to avert higher U.S. tariffs just days before a July 9 deadline, saying he wanted a fair deal as the EU executive dismissed any forced changes to EU tech rules …

This is propaganda, there is no evidence that Russia did this. We should not turn every random act of vandalism into a headline, hinting at russian involvement.

As the article says:

The pro-Russian channel claimed the operation was carried out by “our people” and celebrated the destruction of equipment allegedly bound for Ukraine. However, the reality indicates a direct attack on German property and military readiness […]

In other news on the attack you can read:

Russian pro-war Telegram channel Voenacher published a video of the incident that depicted several military vehicles engulfed in flames. It claimed that the vehicles had been under repair for the Ukrainian military, and alleged that “[its] people” conducted the attack.

You’ll find more on the web. It adds to a series of dozens of Russian attacks across Europe in recent years.

I feel I might just as well copy and paste my comment to that post

I feel you might just copy and paste this comment to a lot of posts, unfortunately …

In addition to Italy and Ireland as mentioned in the article, regulators in several countries have been increasing scrutiny of Deepseek.

The Netherlands banned the country’s civil servants from using Deepseek, citing policy regarding countries with an offensive cyber program. At the end of January this year the Dutch government urged Dutch users to exercise caution with the company’s software over DeepSeek’s data collection practices.

In early February, Australia banned DeepSeek from all government devices over concerns that it posed security risks.

At the same time, India’s finance ministry asked its employees to avoid using AI tools including ChatGPT and DeepSeek for official purposes, citing risks posed to confidentiality of government documents and data.

Taiwan banned government departments from using DeepSeek also in February labeling it as a security risk, censorship, and the risk of data ending up in China.

South Korea, the U.S., increased pressure for similar reasons, and this list may not be complete.

This is not only aimed at France as we can see, for example, here:

Renaming the EU, Dismantling the Commission: Polish, Hungarian Illiberals Seek U.S. Backing - [March 2025]

As the Trump administration advances The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda, the influential conservative think tank is forging closer ties with illiberal forces in Poland and Hungary to shape its stance on the European Union.

And it doesn’t only come from the West:

Marriage of Convenience: How European Far-Right and Far-Left Discovered China - [January 2025]

Some European far-right and far-left political parties have discovered an unlikely area of convergence: a degree of alignment with China. While not universal across the ideological spectrum, certain parties and individuals within both groups have leveraged overlapping arguments to challenge the more critical stance adopted by several EU members and the European Commission toward Beijing. This emerging alignment, though nuanced and varied in intensity, holds potential implications for EU-China relations and the broader political dynamics within Europe.

Or, in other countries, you disappear in a so-called Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RDSL), and not even your family would know where you are.

DWS wants to make business in China (among others, they seek to invest in Harvest Management Fund, one of the largest asset managers in China). That doesn’t seem to have too much to do with Europe.