Europe

Under an agreement signed with France’s Naval Group, Thales is to supply the sonar suite for the Orka-class submarines to be deployed by the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) under the Replacement Netherlands Submarine Capability (RNSC) programme, Thales announced on 19 March 2025.

https://archive.ph/nJfXn

Oil and gas producers, and other polluting companies, would like us to believe that hydrogen is our sustainable energy future. But behind closed doors they have been lobbying to skew emission accounting models, so as to label dirty hydrogen made from fossil gas as 'clean'. With the rules on this expected to be published soon, Corporate Europe Observatory exposes polluters’ latest greenwashing scam to extend our fossil fuel dependency for decades.

Many European leaders believe they can no longer rely on the U.S. for the high level of defensive support they have counted on for decades now that President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of NATO and the European Union, has returned to office.

In this edited conversation, Richard D. Hooker Jr., a senior associate at the Belfer Center’s Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship at Harvard Kennedy School, discusses what Europe has to do to get ready for that new reality.

German newspaper article: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000262056/die-schallwaffe-von-serbiens-machthaber-wurde-identifiziert

Translation (DeepL + minor corrections):

The sonic weapon of Serbia's ruler has been identified

Recordings on social media show sound cannons on the riot police's off-road vehicles. The interior minister becomes entangled in contradictions.

The disturbing images of panic among the peaceful participants at a protest rally in Belgrade went around the world. In numerous videos show thousands of people suddenly trying to escape and trying to flee and stumbling over each other. Some of them fall.

An extremely shrill sound can be heard in the videos. There are many indications the use of a sound weapon by the large contingent of Serbian riot police. Serbian riot police represented in the large contingent. The regime of President Aleksandar Vučić denied any use of such a weapon, DER STANDARD reported.

However, images emerged on Wednesday that contradict the official account from Belgrade. On the images, which were shared by opposition politician Marinika Tepić on X can be seen in police off-road vehicles on which so-called are clearly fitted with so-called Long-Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD). As research by several Serbian daily newspapers has revealed, this is likely to be that this is a product of the US company Genasys.

Weapon for psychological warfare

Specifically, the Serbian police are said to have used an LRAD 450XL. This is, despite its name, a device in the medium size category. Officially the device is marketed as completely harmless: according to a video from the manufacturer, it is a powerful speaker with an MP3 player.

The speaker is designed to make announcements which, according to the manufacturer Genasys are still understandable at 1700 meters distance. The fact that that it can also be used to quell protests is indicated by the sound the sound pressure levels: Sounds at 145 decibels are said to be continuously continuously for over eight hours thanks to the built-in rechargeable battery. Sounds can be reproduced at a relatively sharp angle of 15 or 30 degrees.

Loud noises above 85 decibels are already harmful to human hearing. Acute acoustic trauma can occur from 140 decibels. A fraction of a second is enough to damage the hearing. The weapons are marketed as “non-lethal” and manufacturers do not mention permanent hearing damage.

What the manufacturer only briefly mentions in the official product video is the button for the alarm sound. Only when you click further through the website, it becomes clear that the device is mainly sold to armies or police units. According to the manufacturer 100 countries and over 500 police authorities in the USA are already using such sonic weapons.

The LRAD 450XL is also advertised as a device for psychological warfare: It can be used to acoustically simulate the sounds of gunfire or even even entire battles acoustically. Something that conventional loudspeakers fail, according to the website. The “loudspeaker” also makes it possible to immediately create an acoustic “safety corridor” and disperse crowds of people.

On the hood

The device has a magnetic stand. This allows the weapon to be mounted on the hood of a car. In the case of the material that has now emerged, this is on the Defender jeeps of the Serbian police.

Remote control is also possible. The manufacturer offers a kit for wireless control from a distance of around 200 meters. This is consistent with the statements of the anonymous police officer in the Danas report: he stated that several such weapons were used during the mass protests on Saturday.

Interior Minister Ivica Dačić confirmed on Tuesday that the police have sonic weapons. These were purchased in 2021 and are the property of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. However, they are not used according to the Minister of the Interior: “These systems (...) have not been neither put into operation nor installed in any of our vehicles or systems installed,” Dačić told Danas.

Sonic cannon? Yes, no, maybe

The police sources quoted by the publication contradict this account. All major police stations in Serbia would have sonic weapons, they say. Research by the newspaper Vreme also comes to the same conclusion.

Dačić had previously stated that the Ministry of the Interior had neither a sonic cannon nor similar sonic weapons. It was later said that this claim was “clumsy”. “What was meant was that the Ministry of the Interior has not included this instrument in its arsenal of means of coercion,” Dačić explained. And: “These systems are in boxes in our warehouses.” On Wednesday afternoon, things sounded different again: yes, sonic weapons were available, but they had only been used as loudspeakers, Dačić explained at a press conference.

President Aleksandar Vučić had categorically ruled out the possibility that the Serbian army had sonic cannons. A diversionary tactic, because it is obviously not the army, but the police police that uses such systems.

At the same time, Vučić announced legal action against all those who accuse the police of using such weapons. Furthermore it was said that a drone gun had triggered the panic, which is highly doubtful from a technical point of view. In principle, drone guns are nothing more than jammers, and these are completely harmless to humans.

“At a moment when everyone was quiet, when thousands and thousands and thousands of people were completely peaceful and not threatening anyone, you come up with the idea of demonstrating violence. That is an attack on on your own people,” says military analyst Aleksandar Radić, sharply criticizing the use of a sonic weapon. (Peter Zellinger, 19.3.2025)

TelegrafRS without much content: https://www.telegraf.rs/english/4075115-this-is-the-device-filmed-close-to-the-assembly-this-is-how-the-communication-tool-works

LRAD-450XL manual: https://genasys.com/content/uploads/2021/08/LRAD-450XL_D00101-Rev.-B_3-4.pdf

Miran Pogačars Video: https://x.com/MiranPogacar/status/1902310681988255912

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/23356354

Police spent over £3m and deployed over 1,000 officers from nearly every force in the country in order to arrest 24 climate activists, Novara Media can reveal.

In August 2024, as the country was gripped by far-right riots, cops swooped on activists planning to hold a mass protest camp near Drax – a power station in north Yorkshire accused of greenwashing.

Police stopped vehicles heading for the camp and made arrests for “public order offences relating to interference with key national infrastructure”. They seized equipment such as compost toilets, wheelchair access ramps and camping equipment.

The protest camp, organised by campaign group Reclaim the Power, was to involve “six days of workshops, communal living and direct action to crash Drax’s profits”. Following the arrests, the camp was cancelled.

150 environmental organisations signed a statement accusing the police of acting as “private security” for Drax, while activists said the sting showed the police had the wrong priorities.

A spokesperson for Reclaim the Power said: “In Yorkshire this morning, police prioritised locating and arresting people suspected of organising peaceful protest with tents, toilets and track for wheelchairs over locating and arresting people who are actually organising far-right riots.”

15 of those arrested face plea hearing at Leeds magistrates court on Thursday, charged with conspiracy to lock on. They deny the charges.

A freedom of information (FOI) request shared with Novara Media can now reveal the scale and cost of the operation.

1,070 officers were deployed during Operation Infusion – the codename for the operation. This includes 334 from North Yorkshire Police, 100 from Police Scotland and 57 from the Metropolitan Police. Officers from 39 police forces were involved in the operation – nearly every constabulary in the country.

North Yorkshire Police used contractors to provide accommodation, vehicle hire, hire of portaloos, carparking, skips and fencing. The names of the contractors were exempted from the FOI request. The total cost of the operation was £3,168,432.

Kevin Blowe, campaigns coordinator at the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol), said: “The scale of the police operation shows how much money the police are willing to throw at shutting down a protest before it even takes place.”

In July 2024, Drax had secured an injunction which created a “buffer zone” against the threat of direct action protests around its north Yorkshire power plant. The plant has been a magnet for protesters for years, with previous protests against Drax infiltrated by undercover police officers.

Some of the arrests in August were made for conspiracy to “lock on” – when protesters attach themselves to people or buildings making it difficult to remove them. “Locking on” was specifically criminalised for the first time by the Public Order Act 2023, brought in by the Conservative government which cited “groups such as Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain” to justify its crackdown on protest.

Blowe said: “In 2024 there was a marked rise in the use of conspiracy charges to arrest campaigners for the newly introduced or expanded offences included in recent anti-protest legislation. Invariably this is because they were associated with groups targeted for ongoing police surveillance.”

Blowe is the author of a forthcoming report which claims that aggressive policing and the portrayal of protesters as threats to democracy has grown so routine and so severe that it amounts to state repression. He said: “Events at Drax last summer are one of the reasons why, for the first time, we are calling this state repression: measures to disproportionately deter, disrupt, punish or otherwise control protesters, campaign groups and entire social movements, with a total disregard for their human rights.”

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said: “Whilst part of our role is to facilitate peaceful protest, we also have a responsibility to minimise disruption and prevent a breach of the peace.

“There is an ongoing court case relating to the operation in question, so it would be therefore inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Drax used to be the UK’s biggest coal fired power station. It has transitioned to use what the company claims is “sustainable bioenergy”, but it has been found to burn wood from “old-growth” forests, pumping huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It has also been accused of “environmental racism” as its toxic wood processing plants are mostly based in poor communities of colour in the southern United States.

In February, the government extended subsidies for Drax until 2031 to the dismay of environmentalists and communities in the southern United States.

Simon Childs is a commissioning editor and reporter for Novara Media.

Before Christmas, Slovakia’s Ministry of Defense bought two planes, both of which had previously served as private jets for the wealthy. One was used by the daughter of long-time Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, the Slovak ministry bought them from a Florida company. That company is represented in Eastern Europe by a man the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak (ICJK)fkucaik previously wrote about in connection with the Grupo America drug gang. The investigation has found that the Florida company violates Slovak law because it did not disclose its true owners in the state register, in which every company doing business with the public sector must enter. According to lawyer Andrej Leontiev, the ministry should therefore consider suspending the contracts or reviewing their validity.

Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday, March 19, that they had each swapped 175 prisoners in one of the largest exchanges of the war. Severely wounded soldiers and fighters whom Russia had prosecuted on fabricated charges were among those released, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We are bringing back soldiers, sergeants, and officers – warriors who fought for our freedom in the ranks of the Armed Forces, the Navy, the National Guard, the Territorial Defense Forces, and the Border Guard Service," Zelensky said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it had released an additional 22 severely wounded Ukraine captives "as a goodwill gesture." Zelensky noted that they were returned through a separate negotiation process

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.19-144216/https://www.ft.com/content/a9d0bde3-f10e-4113-b21c-cb02bf31a8f2

The decisions are the first sign that the new commission, which started its current mandate in December, will continue enforcing the DMA. That push comes despite the risk of potential retaliation by the administration of Trump, who has directly attacked EU fines on US companies, calling them a “form of taxation”. 

From next week, the bloc is due to take more sensitive decisions on how to handle Big Tech because of legal deadlines to wrap up several investigations against Apple, Meta and Google. 

These probes could result in immediate fines, risking an escalation of the transatlantic tensions amid an escalating trade war.

The US president is considering tariffs on countries that levy digital services taxes against American companies. According to a memo released last month, Trump said he would look into taxes and regulations or policies that “inhibit the growth” of US corporations operating abroad. 

But the commission is also under pressure from other companies, civil society and the European parliament to stick firm by its own digital rule book, which only entered into force in 2022.

Archived

According to [the French company] Normandie Hydroliennes, the grant will accelerate the deployment of one of France’s first commercial-scale tidal energy pilot projects, advancing marine renewables in the country.

The project will install four Proteus Marine Renewables’ AR3000 horizontal-axis turbines in Normandy, delivering 34 GWh annually to the French grid by 2028, enough to power 15,000 homes. The tidal energy developer’s NH1 farm aligns with France’s 2030 renewable energy targets and broader energy transition strategy.

[...]

Normandie Hydroliennes expects 80% of the project’s construction value to be sourced domestically, creating 400 direct and indirect jobs in France.

UK-based tidal energy company Proteus Marine Renewables, a key technology partner, is supplying the four AR3000 turbines for the NH1 project. The company highlighted the importance of the EU funding.

[...]

In February, Proteus Marine Renewables installed a megawatt-scale tidal turbine in the Naru Strait, Japan, making it “the first to operate such devices in two countries”.

[...]

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.19-115656/https://www.ft.com/content/eb9e0ddc-8606-46f5-8758-a1b8beae14f1

The planned fund for capitals to spend on weapons would only be open to EU defence companies and those from third countries that have signed defence agreements with the bloc, officials said on Wednesday.

It would also exclude any advanced weapons systems upon which a third country had “design authority” — restrictions on its construction or use of particular components — or control over its eventual use, the officials added. 

That would exclude the US Patriot air and missile defence platform, which is manufactured by defence contractor RTX, and other US weapons systems where Washington has restrictions on where they can be used.

The policy is a victory for France and other countries that have demanded a “Buy European” approach to the continent’s defence investment push, amid fears over the long-term dependability of the US as a defence partner and supplier sparked by President Donald Trump.

At least 65 per cent of the cost of the products would need to be spent in the EU, Norway and Ukraine.

EU member states would not be able to spend the money on products “where there can be a control on the use or the destination of that weapon . . . It would be a real problem if equipment acquired by countries cannot be used because a third country would object,” one of the officials said.

EU policymakers must galvanise a shift away from coal-based steelmaking to boost industrial competitiveness and guarantee a future for over two million workers, according to research launched today and endorsed by 28 civil society organisations.

The research titled “The State of the European Steel Transition” highlights that the industry is at a crossroads but that “there is a clear pathway to green steel”, noting that this year is critical for advancing policies to drive the EU steel industry’s transition.

Documents show the European Commission initiated its attacks on civil society funding due to pressure from right wing MEPs early 2024, even if the institution must have known their arguments were false. These attacks on NGOs were recently amplified by fake news; worryingly, Parliamentary proposals are now being made and voted on the bases of these false claims.

On 19 March 2025, Erik Møse, chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, updated the Human Rights Council on the findings of the Commission's latest report, which found that Russian authorities have committed enforced disappearances of civilians in the areas of Ukraine that they control and these are crimes against humanity.

"If you see what they are doing on sabotage, hybrid attacks, using migrants ... trying to destabilize our countries with disinformation, fake news and so on, the willingness in Russia to have a fight against Europe is quite big," she added. "I'm not sure it will change, unfortunately."

Russia and Ukraine have launched air attacks that damaged each other's infrastructure, hours after Vladimir Putin said Russia would stop targeting Ukrainian energy sites. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's targets included hospitals. He said the Russian leader had in effect rejected a comprehensive ceasefire in his call on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump. 

Putin told Trump a full ceasefire would only work if Ukraine's allies stopped giving military assistance - a condition Ukraine's European allies have previously rejected.

Brussels prepares to release a proposal on boosting investment into European firms via reforms to capital markets regulations. Also in this edition: entrepreneurs show off their ideas for a more sustainable use of outer space at a London trade show.

Democratic U.S. lawmakers will call on President Donald Trump's administration to restore a program that helps track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and to use sanctions to punish those responsible for the rights violation.

As it slashes a wide range of U.S. government programs and most foreign aid, the Republican president's administration has ended a government-funded initiative led by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) that tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine, the lawmakers said.

That decision meant researchers have lost access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine.

[...]

The Trump administration is considering scrapping the longstanding role of the U.S. in leading NATO's military operations in Europe, NBC News reported on March 18, citing unnamed defense officials.

For nearly 75 years, a four-star U.S. general has held the position of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), overseeing NATO's military strategy and operations.

Switzerland is often considered the human rights capital of the world due to the presence of numerous international organisations. However, for Uyghurs and Tibetans living in the country, who still feel they can’t escape China’s surveillance, intimidation and threats, it’s also seen as a place where they often confront their cross-border oppressors.

“We are aware that we are subjected to surveillance, especially on the internet,” Arya Amipa, co-president of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, who lives in Switzerland, told SWI swissinfo.ch. “We keep receiving suspicious emails asking us to send confidential data, such as renewing our email passwords, from what at first glance appears to be our email provider. It’s only when you look closer that you notice the email address changes when you hover over it.”

Amipa believes that the Chinese government is behind these phishing operations with targets in the Tibetan diaspora communities. So “we have to protect ourselves by using end-to-end encrypted messengers, two-factor identification, and VPN clients”, even when communicating with others in Switzerland.

[...]

A recently released report, “Situation of Tibetans and Uyghurs in Switzerland”, based on the findings of a University of Basel study commissioned by the Swiss government. This details extensive surveillance and pressure tactics by Chinese authorities against Tibetan and Uyghur individuals residing in Switzerland.

The research report [commissioned by the Swiss government and published by the Swiss University of Basel] concluded that it’s “highly probable” that members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities in Switzerland are “systematically monitored, threatened, and co-opted by actors from China”. The Swiss government added that “the extent and intensity of the forms of pressure identified in this research report are more likely to be underreported than overreported”. This is partly because the perpetrators often operate in the shadows and the targets fear reprisals if they speak out about their experiences.

[...]

China’s transnational repression has become a hot topic over the past year, but the phenomenon is not new. Some Western governments have taken steps in recent years to address the issue more meaningfully.

[...]

The World Uyghur Congress confirms that Uyghurs face increasing levels of transnational repression abroad through surveillance technologies including WeChat and the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a policing program based on big data analytics in Xinjiang, harassment through video and phone calls, malware, spyware, hacking and espionage. But “we are not aware of any resources or tools available to address this issue within the Swiss context” it [said].

[...]

Some 8,000 Tibetans are estimated to live in Switzerland, making it one of the largest Tibetan exile communities outside India. The Uyghur community, however, is in the double or low triple digits. Both communities have awaited the Swiss report for years.

[...]

Switzerland followed a “change through trade” approach regarding China for decades. That means Switzerland believed that trade would bring about positive changes, including a greater emphasis on human rights, as China gradually opened up. But the past ten years have shown the opposite to be true. China’s treatment of Tibetans and Uyghurs, including the diaspora, has deteriorated sharply.

Regarding the actions of the Swiss authorities, the research report indicates that a perceived tightening of restrictions on peaceful demonstrations and asylum practices is described as a form of pressure.

For example, the documents of Tibetans in Switzerland used to give “stateless” as their country of origin. Now it says “China”. This change forces Tibetans to have regular contact with the Chinese consulate, exposing them to registration and further surveillance and intimidation by Chinese officials who remind them not to engage in political activities.

Migmar Dolma, a 33-year-old Swiss citizen of Tibetan heritage, expressed [...] her disappointment at the Swiss authorities’ hesitance and failure to address the violation of the democratic rights of Tibetans in the country.

At a political demonstration in 2014 [in Switzerland], she was forcibly grabbed, pushed and held to the ground by Chinese embassy officials. She filed a complaint against an unknown person in the footage, but the case was rejected by the public prosecutor. She believes the decision was politically motivated.

The EU's economy has been struggling with stagnant growth since the pandemic and Trump's trade wars could upset the apple cart even more. So in this video, we break down the deficiencies in their economy and how they could be addressed to improve things.