Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, has introduced a bill seeking to ban the questioning of Israel's right to exist. It is now up to the lower house to decide whether to turn it into law.

The Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in public research funding and fired government scientists.

Soldiers in Poland will be able to pick up their uniforms from their nearest parcel locker rather than having to collect them from military stores under a new scheme being rolled out by the armed forces, with private logistics giant InPost responsible for deliveries.

The move is a “simple, practical change” that will make life easier for troops, said a deputy defence minister. The CEO of InPost, which is Europe’s largest operator of parcel lockers, praised the decision to make “dual use” of private infrastructure for national-security purposes.

The European Union on Tuesday condemned the “inflammatory” statement of a Serbian government minister supporting the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians during the 1998-99 war.

Snezana Paunovic, Minister for Local Government, on Monday told the Belgrade-based Kurir that she “would ethnically cleanse Kosovo” had she been in the place of Serbia’s then strongman leader, Slobodan Milosevic, in 1999.

“I would not liquidate the Albanians as they are now trying to ethnically cleanse Kosovo [of Serbs] but in a way that anyone would … leave and go to their mother country,” said Paunovic, who was born in Kosovo herself.

The Serbian government regularly accuses the Kosovo government of trying to drive out its remaining Serb population.

The minister is from the ranks of the government’s junior coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia, the party Milosevic founded in 1990 and led until he died in a Hague detention centre in 2006, awaiting a war-crimes verdict.

An EU spokesperson condemned the comments and called on leaders on all sides “to act responsibly and refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric.

...

“Our main position and key principle is that there should be no place, and there is no place in Europe, for rhetoric justifying and advocating for ethnic cleansing,” Anitta Hipper, an EU Spokesperson, told media in Brussels.

...

In Kosovo, Andin Hoti, Minister of Social Welfare, accused Paunovic of promoting the same ideas “as your ideological father [Milosevic] did”.

“Anyone who calls for ethnic cleansing today is not a threat only to Kosovo. It is evidence that Serbia has not been liberated from Milosevic’s genocidal ideology and criminal politics, which brought wars, massacres and historic shame,” Hoti said.

...

Natasa Kandic, a Serbian human rights activist and founder of the Humanitarian Law Centre, which documents the violations of human rights during the wars in ex-Yugoslavia, said Paunovic’s comments turn Serbia back towards a dark past.

“When Serbian government minister Snezana Paunovic presents ethnic cleansing as a political solution, she is not speaking for a Serbia on the path to the European Union, but for the ideology of the wars of the 1990s,” Kandic said on X.

...

The Free Citizens Movement, a liberal Serbian opposition party, urged Prime Minister Duro Macut to dismiss Paunovic.

“A person who justifies the expulsion of people solely because of their nationality cannot be a member of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. It is especially dangerous that such messages come from the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, who should guarantee the equality of all citizens before state institutions and respect for the Constitution and the law,” the party said.

...

Meanwhile, Kosovo declared Serb minister Snezana Paunovic a permanent persona non grata over her remarks.

...

Archived

Russia will require migrants to buy mobile phones so authorities can track their whereabouts, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said, according to the Russian business news outlet RBC:

Everyone’s interested in what the future holds, in where we’re headed. Every migrant who registers here on arrival — especially for work or for a long stay — will be required to buy a phone. That phone will hold their electronic profile. And we will know the location of every migrant.

As a result, Zubov said, migrants will be unable to move from one city to another “uncontrollably.”

...

Since September 2025, Moscow has been running a pilot program that requires every foreign national who has come to work in the city to install an app called “Amina,” which shows their location. If it receives no geolocation data for three straight days, the person is dropped from the registration rolls.

...

Archived

During a joint conference with European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos in Brussels on Tuesday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama promised to change the country’s disputed Law on Protected Areas to align with EU standards – a declaration that protesters at home hailed as a “moral victory”.

During the press conference, Kos was asked whether Albania’s ongoing environmental protests, nicknamed the “Flamingo Revolution”, would affect its EU integration.

“Even before these protests began, we had agreed with Albania that the 2024 amendments to the Law on Protected Areas would be repealed this year, also repeal of the Law on Strategic Investments,” Kos said, referring to changes made to laws to allow luxury tourist constructions in protected areas.

Rama then said the strategic investments law would be repealed and the protected areas law changed according to EU standards. “We need to repeal the law on strategic investments, something we agreed upon some time ago, because that law has fulfilled its mission,” Rama said.

...

Albanians have been protesting for 45 days, at first in opposition to a luxury resort planed in a protected area of the Vjosa-Narta lagoon with links to Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. They accuse Rama’s government of corruption.

Ervin Goci, a professor in Tirana and a protester, welcomed a “moral victory for the cause.”

“This is one of the greatest victories of the ‘Flamingo Revolution’, which compelled the Commissioner for Enlargement to condition Albania’s progress in the integration process on repeal of the Law on Protected Areas,” Goci wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, referencing rare birds threatened by planned developments.

“Don’t forget that two months ago in Narta, the most popular ‘animal’ was the bulldozer,” Goci said, adding that the real victory would be when all protected areas are saved and Rama resigns.

On June 17, The European Parliament expressed “deep regret” over two Albanian laws MEPs said put the interests of luxury tourism developers ahead of protected natural areas.

...

Archived

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has accused former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó of moving directly from public office to a Chinese company that received extensive state support while Viktor Orbán’s government was in power.

...

Hungary’s political realignment has gathered pace after Péter Szijjártó resigned his parliamentary mandate to take a senior international position with Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer BYD.

Szijjártó, who served as foreign minister for almost 12 years under former prime minister Viktor Orbán [announced] his departure from parliament and appointment by BYD on Wednesday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar responded by claiming that the “complete disintegration” of the formerly governing Fidesz party was continuing at an accelerating rate.

...

Magyar accused Szijjártó of having represented foreign interests while serving in government and of helping BYD obtain substantial Hungarian state subsidies.

“Péter Szijjártó, the former foreign minister, who previously represented foreign interests, officially announced today that he is leaving politics and will become an executive at the Chinese company for which he had previously secured enormous Hungarian state subsidies,” Magyar wrote.

“The difference compared with the previous situation will be that from now on, Péter Szijjártó will be paid for the same ‘work’ not by the Hungarian people, but by his actual employer.”

Magyar’s description of Szijjártó as having represented foreign interests is a political allegation. However, the former minister played a central role in attracting Chinese investment to Hungary and publicly promoted BYD’s expansion in the country.

...

BYD announced in December 2023 that it had selected Szeged, in southern Hungary, as the location for its first European passenger-car manufacturing plant. The project became one of the flagship investments secured under Orbán’s policy of strengthening economic relations with China.

Szijjártó’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was directly involved in the negotiations. The ministry also controlled Hungary’s investment-promotion system and announced the incentives offered to foreign companies.

In 2025, Szijjártó confirmed that the government would provide 20 billion forints, then worth about $64 million, to support BYD’s new European business and development centre in Budapest. The wider project was valued at approximately 100 billion forints and was expected to create around 2,000 jobs.

...

The company’s Hungarian expansion attracted attention in Brussels. The European Commission opened an examination of subsidies connected to BYD’s European operations under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which is intended to identify state support from non-EU countries that may distort competition within the single market.

Szijjártó’s decision to join the company has consequently prompted questions over the movement of senior politicians into businesses that benefited from policies or public funding for which they had responsibility.

...

Szijjártó’s move is also likely to maintain scrutiny of the relationship between the former government and Chinese investors. His new position places one of the principal architects of Hungary’s China policy inside one of the largest companies to have benefited from that policy.

...

Archived

Lithuania is increasing protection around critical infrastructure after President Gitanas Nauseda said intelligence indicated Russia could be preparing targeted physical attacks intended to damage or disrupt energy and transport assets in the Baltic region or Poland.

The warning, reported on 15 July, did not identify a specific target. That absence is important. It suggests a security posture shaped by intelligence indicators rather than by an imminent publicly known threat. For Lithuania, the practical response is therefore to harden likely targets, raise vigilance and coordinate with allies without disclosing operational detail that could help an adversary.

The development matters because it shifts the hybrid-threat discussion from familiar cyber and information operations towards the possibility of small-scale kinetic attacks. Sabotage against a substation, railway link, fuel terminal, communications node or border logistics facility would fall below the threshold of conventional invasion, but could still create political pressure, economic disruption and uncertainty about attribution.

...

Lithuania is especially exposed because geography turns infrastructure into strategy. The country sits on NATO’s north-eastern flank, borders Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and forms part of the Baltic region’s energy and transport connection to the rest of Europe. A disruption in Lithuania could affect allied movement, civilian confidence and the wider resilience of Poland and the Baltic states.

European governments have already been tightening their view of Russian hybrid activity. In recent months, concern has focused on cyber intrusion, suspected proxy networks, drone incidents, logistics disruption and attempts to test civil infrastructure. Defence Matters has examined how Europe’s air-defence debate has widened from Baltic Air Policing to broader protection against drones and missiles. Lithuania’s latest warning adds the ground infrastructure layer to the same security problem.

...

The warning also has a civilian dimension. Energy, transport and communications networks are operated through a mixture of public agencies and private companies. They support everyday life as well as military mobility. A sabotage threat therefore cannot be handled only by the armed forces. It requires operators to share information quickly and governments to give clear instructions without creating panic.

The Baltic states have also invested heavily in reducing dependence on Russian-linked systems, especially in energy. That makes infrastructure both more resilient and more politically significant. A hostile operation against power, rail or port assets would not only cause disruption; it would also test the credibility of Europe’s effort to separate critical systems from Russian leverage.

The Baltic region has long warned that Russia uses pressure in ways designed to avoid direct confrontation. Lithuania’s latest measures show that those warnings are now being translated into practical protection of physical assets. The unanswered question is whether European institutions and NATO can respond just as quickly if an attack moves from warning to event.

...

If you want to build a Turtle Tank, or construct an armored vehicle with some kind of other main armament than a turret... this is as good as a starting point as you are going to get if you aren't trying to breach a minefield.

Fines issued to Russian drivers for parking and stopping violations while they waited in line for gasoline will be canceled, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

“In each such case, all regional traffic police divisions of Russia’s Interior Ministry will issue decisions to cancel the fines, given the minor nature of the offense or the fact that the driver was acting out of urgent necessity,” she said.

...

The move follows complaints from residents of the Saratov region about fines issued to drivers waiting in line for gasoline. Automated enforcement systems in the region had been recording parking and stopping violations near gas stations. As of July 1, Volk said, those systems have been switched off.

...

Archived

Why Poland and Ukraine Are Facing Their Worst Crisis in Years https://youtu.be/ED509nskSmc

cross-posted from: https://feddit.online/c/euro@feddit.online/p/1830291/9-european-nations-have-asked-the-european-union-to-cut-funding-to-the-international-ol

Former Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has announced that he will resign his parliamentary seat and take up an international position at Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD.

...

Szijjártó’s new role at BYD is notable given his long-standing support for Chinese investment and cooperation while serving as foreign minister. He repeatedly argued that closer economic ties between Hungary and China represented an opportunity rather than a threat.

When the European Union considered introducing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Szijjártó criticised the move, arguing that Europe should pursue cooperation with China instead of confrontation.

...

The BYD factory being built in Szeged, Hungary, is facing scrutiny after reports of EU labour laws being violated among the Chinese migrant workforce.

Two workers have died at BYD's Hungary plant, raising concerns over work safety.

...

Archived

The EU and UK blamed Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for a cyberattack that threatened to cut heating to half a million people in Poland last winter.

...

Last December’s attack on Poland’s energy grid came “very close” to causing a “blackout,” a senior minister said at the time. It was described as “reckless” by British authorities on Monday, adding it was “another example of the Russian state’s irresponsible attempts to sow chaos across Europe.”

...

Separately, Poland’s domestic intelligence service warned in May that cyber intrusions targeting water treatment facilities in the country have posed “a direct risk” to the continuity of water supply.

...

According to the European Union, the broader range of activities have included “infiltration of governmental networks and sabotage of critical infrastructure” targeting “France, Germany, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Romania and Finland.”

...

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the sanctions are intended to disrupt the cybercriminal ecosystem supporting Moscow's intelligence services.

“These sanctions strike at the core of the cybercriminal networks propping up the Russian state's aggression, and the U.K. and EU are sending a clear message that Russia cannot hide behind its use of these proxy groups,” Cooper said.

The sanctions package also targets 10 individuals associated with the pro-Kremlin military blog Rybar, including senior executives and content creators. Britain accused the outlet of spreading disinformation about Ukraine and interfering in elections in Moldova and Armenia.

...

Archived

"Hungary must rebuild trust with its allies, and as for the Russians, we are shutting the door on them," Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said during a panel discussion at the Budapest Energy and Strategy Talks organized by the think tank Egyensúly Intézet (Equilibrium Institute).

When asked what his current defense priority is, Minister Ruszin-Szendi said that vision is the most important thing, but in order for the new government to develop a strategy, “it must consider the interests and values of both the nation and its allies.” Hungary’s interests align with those of its allies, and trust with them must be rebuilt, he stated.

This is precisely why one of the government’s first tasks was to apologize to some of its allies, such as the Finns, whose accession to NATO was delayed by the previous government. He noted that as a military man, he considered the previous administration's attitude unacceptable.

“We’re shutting the door on the Russians,” he added, noting that the Russian intelligence service “tried to come in through the back door.” The government is not only keeping an eye on the Russian-Ukrainian war but also on the conflict in the Middle East. The minister is of the opinion that these conflicts will only end when governments, militaries, and societies all want to put an end to them.

...

Archived