The idea of someone being able to invade Poland with a land army has become essentially a pipe dream.

Bailiffs acting for Jaguar Land Rover raided the Dutch offices of a Chinese “copycat” rival before a legal showdown this week over whether its “Defender clone” infringes intellectual property rights.

Bailiffs acting on behalf of JLR reportedly seized digital records from the offices of Chinese carmaker BYD in Schiedam and Hoofddorp in August, according to the Sunday Times.

The raid took place before a court case in the The Hague this week which will decide whether the BYD has a case to answer over allegations that its Ti7 SUV infringes the intellectual property of the Land Rover Defender.

Motoring experts have likened BYD’s seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV to the Defender since it went on sale in China in September last year. The company is scheduled to launch the vehicle, which the BBC’s Top Gear magazine called the “Chinese Defender clone”, in the UK market in January at a price of £47,995, undercutting the Defender by more than £20,000.

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The price of JLR’s seven-seat Defender 110 starts from £68,465and is one of the country’s bestselling cars. The UK-based carmaker, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, sold 29,500 Defenders to retail customers between July and September this year, compared with 25,370a year earlier.

The raid in the Netherlands was carried out by court-ordered bailiffs, with JLR suspecting that BYD reverse-engineered some of the technology that could be used in the Ti7, the Times reported. JLR wanted to secure the digital records before they could be destroyed.

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The dispute with BYD is not the first legal case JLR has pursed against a Chinese company over copycat allegations. It won a legal case to stop Jiangling Motor Corporation selling a copycat vehicle in 2019 after a three-year court battle.

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In some cases JLR has taken a collaborative approach to dealing with the rise of China’s carmakers. It agreed to form a joint venture with Chery in a 2012 deal which later included licensing its discontinued Freelander brand with the company.

Chery’s Jaecoo model, which is not part of the joint venture, has been called the Temu Range Rover because of its similarities to the JLR vehicle after years of collaboration between the pair. It costs £10,000 less than JLR’s Range Rover.

The Jaecoo was the bestselling car in the UK in October, with 10,813 registrations, taking its market share from 2.07% to 4.30%, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. JLR’s sales of the Range Rover fell to 43,300 in the third quarter of this year, from 47,196 cars sold in the same months last year.

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Archived

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/73560376

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a particularly revealing example. When Israel attacked Iran in June 2025, he praised it for doing the West's "dirty work." He defended the much larger American-Israeli bombing campaign launched in February 2026, declaring that this was “no time to lecture our allies on international law.”

Now Merz laments that the war has cost Europe more than €100 billion through higher energy prices. The “dirty work” has come with a hefty bill.

The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke of a “democratic transition” in Tehran as the U.S. and Israeli bombs began falling, now places the war’s price tag at €127 billion ($143 billion) in additional fossil fuels. Neither Merz nor von der Leyen are on the record of connecting publicly the outcome of the elections to the war on Iran, however.

Merz and von der Leyen epitomize a broader European failure. EU governments had little meaningful influence over Washington's decision to go to war. Nevertheless, some, like Germany, supported it. Others, like France, acknowledged that the war violated international law, but put emphasis on Iran’s “destabilizing behaviour” in the region. Still others, like Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Cyprus cooperated by allowing the U.S. to use military bases on their territories to attack Iran. Spain's Pedro Sánchez was a notable exception, fully opposing the war from the outset.

Moscow police detained over 200 people on the evening of Nov. 7, many of whom were minors, during what is being described as a raid near the Kitay-Gorod metro station, according to multiple local Telegram channels.

Detainees told the Russian Telegram channel "Ostorozhno, Novosti" that those over the age of 18 were "persistently" urged to sign a contract with Russia's Defense Ministry. Reports of police beating the detainees, smashing their phones, and prohibiting them from using the toilet later emerged.

Others claimed that they were served with draft notices at the Tagansky police station. Female students reportedly also received draft notices despite having deferment from military service.

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Archived

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12355804

Democratic US Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on Nov. 7 that he would introduce legislation supporting Ukraine, called on Washington to assign new negotiators to peace talks, and urged Congress to impose public interest controls on Starlink and Starshield.

U.S. President Donald "Trump needs new negotiators — not fawning pawns who call this brutal murderer a 'humanitarian.' Congress must lead without delay," he said in a post to X.

The U.S. has sent special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to trilateral peace talks with Ukraine and Russia, as well as to bilateral meetings, many of which took place in Moscow between the Trump administration and the Kremlin.

In Witkoff's latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Oct. 21, the U.S. envoy praised the Russian leader for the release of U.S. political prisoner Stephen Hubbard.

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"A strong pro-Ukraine post-election wind at our back, we must push right away to impose sanctions waived by Trump, stop his despicable diesel deal, provide military aid, particularly air defense — and other measures to show support necessary to bring Putin to serious peace talks," he said.

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Blumenthal's call to impose public oversight over Starlink and its military counterpart, Starshield, comes after Starshield had been operating at limited capacity in October, hindering Ukraine's ability to defend itself from deadly Russian jet-powered drones.

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Archived

In calling for change to region’s ‘security architecture’, Trump’s envoy echoes a Kremlin goal to render Nato meaningless for 16 states

Paywall?

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Saturday announced that personal data had been stolen from him and published on the Darknet.

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Tajani said he had been targeted because of the Italian government's "position on Ukraine," and claimed criminals were "prepared to pay for other details on me and my loved ones," adding, "For days, cybercriminals have been spreading my personal data on the dark web and seeking other information, in fact exposing me and my family to new threats and intimidation."

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Italy, like other EU and NATO member states, has provided humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against a nearly five-year Russian invasion.

The foreign minister did not specify what kind of information had been shared but suggested the criminal activity targeting him remained ongoing.

"I will not allow myself to be intimidated in any way," he said, adding, "I will continue working to defend my ministry, and Italy, and I will further strengthen the ties and cooperation to protect ourselves together."

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Accusations of Russian involvement in the Tajani hack come as Europe reels from a dizzying number of suspected "hybrid attacks" thought to be orchestrated by the Kremlin.

These have included drone incursions and sabotage in NATO territories, as well as attacks on food supplies, and most recently, threats against media outlets as well as a string of bomb threats that have forced the cancellation and rerouting of airline flights in the bloc.

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[Edit to delete 'amp' from the link.]

Russia is already using its new Rassvet satellite network - billed as a homegrown version of Starlink - for ​military communications over Ukraine, aiming to make its strike drones more accurate and harder to jam, Ukrainian military intelligence told Reuters.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12353864

On November 1, Montenegro reintroduced visa requirements for Russian citizens as part of aligning its visa policy with the European Union. The decision, which also covers several other countries, is part of the obligations accompanying European integration. But it also provides an opening for a familiar form of political pressure: presenting Montenegro’s Western orientation as a threat to its economic survival. Tourism supplies the argument, while fear of economic collapse supplies the mechanism.

The claim that Montenegro cannot survive without Russian tourists has a political function. It turns a commercial relationship into an argument against the country’s strategic choices. Within this narrative, European integration becomes economically destructive, compliance with European rules becomes submission to Brussels, and Russia appears as an indispensable partner whose interests Montenegro disregards at its peril. The intended political consequence is to weaken confidence in the country’s Western orientation by convincing citizens that it threatens their livelihoods.

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This mechanism has a documented precedent. During Montenegro’s movement towards NATO membership, Russian officials explicitly connected its strategic choices with economic consequences. In March 2017, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Montenegro of sacrificing its economic relationship with Russia by joining the alliance. Russian media subsequently circulated negative accounts portraying Montenegro as an unsafe destination.

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That episode explains why the current visa debate must be understood in a broader context. The specific policy changes, but the underlying message remains available: moving closer to the West will impoverish Montenegro. Repetition gives this argument continuity across otherwise different decisions, including NATO membership, relations with Moscow and European integration. Its effectiveness depends on establishing an exaggerated perception of Russian economic importance before presenting any departure from Moscow’s preferences as dangerous.

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Information campaigns work particularly well when they build on recognisable experiences. A landlord who regularly hosts Russian guests does not need to be persuaded that those visitors matter. The manipulation begins when that individual exposure is presented as the condition of the entire national economy. Property ownership, investment, tourist arrivals and overnight stays are then combined into a single impression of overwhelming dependence. Each contributes to Russia’s visibility, but they measure different economic relationships and cannot simply be added together.

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Montenegro’s response should combine factual rebuttal with competent policy.

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The central issue is Russia’s ability to convert perceptions of economic importance into political pressure. Tourism gives that pressure a direct connection to household incomes, making it particularly useful in information campaigns intended to undermine confidence and deepen internal divisions. Montenegro weakens this instrument when it demonstrates that Russian visitors remain welcome, European obligations remain binding, and national policy cannot be dictated by a manufactured fear of economic collapse.

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Archived

Swedbank is laying off around 100 staff in the Baltic states, while the bank says Artificial Intelligence (AI) could lead to further layoffs in future, reports ERR News in Estonia.

They are almost certainly using America AI. Doesn't this create a GDPR violation?

The oil and gas shock from the Strait of Hormuz is speeding up the transition to renewables almost everywhere in the world, but not in Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual renewables report on Friday (6 November).

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117537776055163844

There's a major state sponsored misinformation and smear campaign towards GrapheneOS in the Netherlands and Germany. The misinformation campaign includes unsubstantiated security claims not holding up to scrutiny to scare people away from it. They're also heavily misrepresenting who uses it overall.

These smear campaigns conflate GrapheneOS with forks and modifications of it sold by shady companies. Those usually include a device management app to remotely manage the devices of their customers as if they're employees. These are largely not GrapheneOS devices or have preinstalled malware apps.

France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands are becoming increasingly authoritarian surveillance states with an ongoing crackdown against privacy. It's happening throughout the whole EU and it's likely both secure devices and end-to-end encryption without backdoors are going to end up outlawed.

There are a bunch of companies based in the EU selling phones with drastically worse privacy and security than an iPhone including Jolla, Volla, Murena and iodé. These products are effectively backdoored by not providing standard privacy and security patches/protections while misleading users.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-left French presidential hopeful, will pledge to raise the minimum wage and restore the country's retirement age to 60 when he launches his 2027 election programme on Saturday.

Archived copy is here: https://archive.is/DqZ6m

The article says this:

“Immediately withdraw from NATO’s integrated command and then, in stages, from the organization itself. Reject the tribute demanded by the United States of 5% of GDP devoted to defense spending,” read France Unbowed’s 222-page program.

However, France under Mélenchon would still provide assistance to European Union countries under EU treaties, the document added

Is Melenchon right? Is it better for the EU to be the organisation of mutual defence guarantees for Europe, rather than NATO?