Europe

https://archive.is/HjHUk

The UK announced it was considering whether to join the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) convention as part of its new trade strategy published last week, arguing it could help boost the UK’s flagging goods exports. However, the European Commission has made clear to the UK that it would not currently support such a move, according to four people familiar with discussions

https://archive.is/QkiSO

Polluting sectors such as steel, cement and aluminium should not pay for the carbon emissions of their exports, the commission will propose

Archived version

An arson attack on a Ukrainian restaurant in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, was an influence operation ordered by Russian intelligence and carried out by two Moldovan citizens, a court heard on Wednesday.

The incident occurred at the Slava Ukraina restaurant in Tallinn's Telliskivi district on January 31 ... camera footage clearly showed it was a deliberate act. The restaurant owner said:]: "It was arson, they smashed the windows."

The defendants ... were caught by law enforcement agencies in Italy on February 11, [One of the defendants admitted to participating in and supporting intelligence activities directed against Estonia by carrying out two counts of arson.

Under a plea agreement, he told the Prosecutor's Office that he established ties with individuals connected to the GRU – the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russian Armed Forces – in summer 2024 and was tasked with setting fire to a supermarket in Osula village, Võru County.

...

Archived

According to a report by Telex, more than 100 employees could soon be laid off at the CATL factory in Debrecen, the result of a top-down corporate decision. The round of layoffs is already underway. One affected worker said the reason was that in the “current market environment,” the company needs more Chinese professionals than Hungarian ones.

The terminations began last week, initially affecting employees still on probation. This week, the cuts extended to those with permanent contracts. Some of them had been with the company’s Hungarian subsidiary for over a year. The layoffs are impacting not just factory workers, but office staff, skilled labourers, quality inspectors, and process engineers as well. Chinese management has not provided the affected employees with a reason for the decision.

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The company has struggled to attract workers. Resistance to battery manufacturing remains strong, and some employees leave shortly after being hired, spreading negative word-of-mouth and damaging the company’s reputation. These challenges may have led the Chinese leadership to stop recruiting locals for mid-level management and skilled positions. The immediate cause for the downsizing may be that CATL is no longer expanding production as previously planned. Construction on the second plant unit has been suspended indefinitely.

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In 2022, CATL announced plans to build a massive battery plant in Debrecen with an investment of HUF 3 trillion (EUR 7.5 billion), creating thousands of jobs in three phases and absorbing a large share of the local workforce. For now, only the first unit has been completed. Test production is set to begin this fall, followed by mass production in the winter. It’s still unclear how the current layoffs will affect the Hungarian government’s significant financial investment in the project.

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Archived

Here is the report (pdf).

The French National Agency for Information Systems Security, or ANSSI, said Tuesday it observed French organizations affected by activity using a slew of security flaws to break into an end-of-life version of the Utah company's Cloud Services Appliance applications. The campaign affected government agencies, telecoms and firms in the media, finance and transport sectors. ANSII dubs the intrusion set "Houken".

[...]

The hacker used a wide number of open-source tools "mostly crafted by Chinese-speaking developers," were active during Chinese working hours and exhibited behaviors consistent with intelligence collection. The threat actor also sought self-enrichment, installing a cryptominer on one victim system. Chinese nation-state hacking is an unusual combination of intelligence agencies and private sector companies. Some hackers choose their own targets and sell exfiltrated data or access to government agencies - or may do for-profit hacking on the side. "Nevertheless, the use of cryptominers remains uncommon for this threat actor," ANSSI wrote.

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[Edit title for clarity.]

BYD will expand its production footprint in Europe with a new facility in northern Hungary. The company plans to invest 32 billion forints (approximately $94 million) in the construction of a new plant in Komárom, tripling its local production capacity to 1,250 electric buses and trucks annually

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/43047345

Emmanuel Macron has suggested the 2040 target could be delayed

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/43048768

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/43047791

Source: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works_en

In other news the petition should reach 900k signatures any minute now:

https://stopkillinggamestracker.pages.dev/

Serbia getting their own Proud Bois to do their authoritarian regime's bidding

Archived

The EU's top foreign policy official, Kaja Kallas, issued a sharp warning to Beijing not to undermine Europe's security.

“China is not our adversary, but our relations are under growing strain in the security field,” Kallas said before meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“Chinese companies are Moscow's lifeline, supporting the war against Ukraine. Beijing is conducting cyberattacks, interfering in our democracies, and trading unfairly. These actions harm European security and jobs,” she added.

Wang's visit to Brussels — after which he will travel to Berlin and Paris — comes about three weeks before the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and leading EU representatives in Beijing.

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Trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing have deepened over allegations of unfair trade practices.

The 27-member bloc continues to condemn the flow of vital technologies that reach the Russian military via China.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37845691

Archived

The Philippines and Lithuania signed an agreement to build a security alliance resulting from their mutual alarm over what they perceive as growing aggression threatening their regions by countries such as China.

The memorandum of understanding signed Monday in Manila by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and his Lithuanian counterpart, Dovilė Šakalienė, would foster defense cooperation particularly in cyber security, defense industries, munitions production, addressing threats and maritime security, the Department of National Defense in Manila said.

Šakalienė described Lithuania’s alarm over an emerging “authoritarian axis” of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, which she raised in an international defense forum in Singapore last month. The emerging alliance needed to be confronted by a unified response from pro-democracy countries, she said.

“What we see now is that authoritarian states are really cooperating very efficiently,” Šakalienė said at a news conference with Teodoro. “One of the worst results is the cooperation on Ukraine.”

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Šakalienė cited China’s actions toward Taiwan and Filipino fishermen in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing has claimed virtually in its entirety. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have been involved in prolonged territorial standoffs but confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces have particularly spiked in recent years.

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The Philippines has adopted a strategy of shaming China by documenting Beijing’s assertive actions in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, to rally international support.

“We see these horrifying materials, videos of how they are threatening Filipino fishermen, how they are treating people who are simply making their living in their own waters, in their own territory,” Šakalienė said. “If they work together to threaten us, then we must work together to defend ourselves.”

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Šakalienė expressed support to former Filipino senator Francis Tolentino while in the capital for talks aimed at deepening defense ties between the two countries.

Tolentino was sanctioned by China on Tuesday for his strong criticisms of Beijing’s acts of aggression and for his work on two new laws, which demarcated Philippine territorial zones, including in parts of the South China Sea that Beijing claims.

Šakalienė said she and her family had also been sanctioned by China and banned from entering the country for her strong criticisms of China’s aggression and human rights record.

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Šakalienė said that in the Baltic Sea, Chinese ships and crew members have helped suspected Russian fleets damage undersea oil pipelines, and data and electricity cables belonging to rival European nations like Lithuania by dragging steel anchors on the seafloor. She warned that such acts of sabotage could also be carried out in Asia by China and Russia.

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Poland plans to introduce temporary controls at its borders with Germany and Lithuania starting next week. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the move was in response to German border controls and pointed out that he had already warned the German side in March that such action would be taken. Borders within the Schengen Area are supposed to be open. Commentators assess the motives and ramifications.