Europe

An extensive Russian offensive on European satellites was behind several disruptions to the children’s channel BabyTV, in which Russian propaganda played on the channel multiple times in the spring, Nieuwsuur discovered. The disruption to the Dutch children’s programming was a side effect of a larger sabotage action against European satellites. Russia has attacked at least six European satellites in recent months, the current affairs program reported.

The Russian sabotage affected the Netherlands for the first time on March 16. KPN broadcast an hour of interference instead of children’s television. No one noticed at the time. At the same time, the Ukrainian television channel FreedomTV was interrupted, showing a Russian propaganda video instead of the normal programming.

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Russia was likely targeting Ukrainian television, Dutch, French, Swedish, and Ukrainian government services told Nieuwsuur. The interruptions of BabyTV were likely collateral damage. 

In recent months, Russia disrupted at least four more Eutelsat satellites and one satellite managed by the Luxembourg company SES, according to investigations by the satellite companies in Nieuwsuur’s possession. Some of these satellites not only carry TV signals but also government communications and possibly even military communications, according to brochures from the companies.

Pact hailed as EU migration breakthrough in tatters after judges rule asylum seekers must be transferred to Italy

A multimillion-dollar migration deal between Italy and Albania aimed at curbing arrivals was presented by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as a new model for how to establish processing and detention centres for asylum seekers outside the EU.

But it seems neither von der Leyen nor Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, had taken existing law into account.

Unrest broke out before and after the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv football match in Amsterdam on November 7. In the following days, international media coverage of the riots was criticised. Many outlets focused on anti-Semitic attacks, while overlooking anti-Arab or anti-Muslim behaviour by Maccabi supporters. Part of this was because a video filmed by Dutch photographer Annet de Graaf was widely circulated and often misrepresented. Our guest in this edition of Scoop is professor and disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones.

France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces the prospect of being banned from running in the 2027 presidential election if found guilty of embezzling EU funds. But a guilty verdict, if it comes, could be a blessing for Le Pen’s photogenic protégé Jordan Bardella, leaving the 29-year-old with a clear path to the Elysée Palace.

It says upcoming transparency rules are too vague.

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The choices, and the stakes, would remain very similar to what they were in February 2022, says Historian Anne Applebaum, senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the School of Advanced International Studies.

"Either we [the Western democracies] inflict enough economic pressure and military pain to convince Russia that the war can never be won, or we deal with the far more ominous, and far more expensive, consequences of Ukraine’s loss."

“Land for peace” sounds nice, but the president of Russia isn’t fighting for land. Putin is fighting not to conquer Pokrovsk but to destroy Ukraine as a nation. He wants to show his own people that Ukraine’s democratic aspirations are hopeless. He wants to prove that a whole host of international laws and norms, including the United Nations Charter and the Geneva conventions, no longer matter. His goal is not to have peace but to build concentration camps, torture civilians, kidnap 20,000 Ukrainian children, and get away with it—which, so far, he has.

Putin will truly stop fighting only if he loses the war, loses power, or loses control of his economy. And there is plenty of evidence that he fears all three, despite his troops’ slow movement forward. He would not have imported thousands of North Korean soldiers if he had an infinite number of Russians to replace the more than 600,000 soldiers whom he has lost to injury or death. He would not have paid American YouTubers to promote anti-Ukrainian propaganda if he wasn’t worried by the American public’s continued support for Ukraine. His economy is in trouble: Russian inflation is rising fast; Russian interest rates are now at 21 percent; Russian industries particularly vulnerable to sanctions, such as liquefied natural gas, are suffering. The Russian navy was humiliated in the Black Sea. The Russian military has still not recaptured territory lost in Russia’s Kursk province, conquered by the Ukrainians last summer.

A resolution aimed at "protecting, preserving and strengthening" Jewish life in Germany passed with widespread support in the Bundestag, despite significant criticism from legal experts, civil society groups and activists, many of whom are themselves Jewish.

The Capitals brings you the latest news from across Europe, through on-the-ground reporting by Euractiv’s media network.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about the minimum wage in Romania being on its way to increase, the Polish ruling splitting ahead of the presidential vote, and so much more.

While the first march on Wednesday evening brought together the usual supporters of the Palestinian cause, the second brought together left-wing Jewish organizations opposed to the war. Some were demonstrating for the first time since October 7, 2023.

The planned visit of Smotrich, who openly advocates ethnic cleansing and the annexation of the West Bank, was a catalyst to the pro-Palestinian movement in France, but also to the most liberal and peace-loving elements of the Jewish community. Despite the cancellation of the far-right Israeli minister's visit, against whom several organizations and lawyers intended to file a complaint for complicity in torture or genocide, the two demonstrations against the gala organized by Israel is Forever were maintained.

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Ireland: Cork City Council first to pass motion committing to "using factual and accurate information in council discussion and debate"

The motion commits all local representatives to using factual information in their contributions to the Council and in debates.

It was brought forward by Councillor Pádraig Rice, following an election pledge as part of the CheckTheFacts campaign by Belong To', a non-profit dedicated to the LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland, which the organisation had developed in response to the increase in misinformation and disinformation both in Ireland and internationally.

**Increase in Hate Crimes in Ireland **

In May 2024, Ireland's An Garda Síochána published its annual figures on hate crimes in Ireland showing a 12% increase in the number of reported hate crimes and hate-related incidents, while the European Digital Media Observatory reported in 2023 that the LGBTQ+ community is one of the most consistent victims of mis- and disinformation in the European Union.

Commenting on the motion, Cllr Rice said: “We are in an age of misinformation, and Cork City Council is not immune to that. For my part, I intend to call out misinformation, and I have called on my Council colleagues to do the same.”

Also commenting was Moninne Griffith, CEO of Belong To, who said: “I wish to express my gratitude to Cllr Rice for bringing forward this motion as he committed to doing in the local election campaign. We know that misinformation impacts heavily on marginalised communities in particular and the circulation of misinformation has real-life consequences.

“The Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland research from Trinity College Dublin, published this year found that 1 in 4 members of Ireland’s LGBTQI+ community have been punched, hit or physically attacked due to being LGBTQI+, and 72% experienced verbal abuse due to being LGBTQI+. These incidents do not happen in isolation. They are fostered in an environment of misinformation and disinformation. So we thank Cllr Rice and all counsellors who voted to pass this motion for their commitment to facts.”

The EU executive’s proposal to postpone the implementation of the regulation on imported deforestation for one year was approved by the Brussels hemicycle with 371 votes in favour, 240 against, and 30 abstentions. On the final vote, socialists, greens and leftists opposed it, with the same compactness with which the popular and far-right supported the text, while the liberals split.

The EPP, which had tabled 15 controversial amendments to the Commission’s new text, announced before the vote that it was withdrawing some of the most significant ones: the proposal for a two-year delay and several exemptions for traders on supply chain control charges. According to a statement on the sidelines of the vote by Christine Schneider, a People’s Party MEP who signed all of the amendments, the EPP withdrew the amendments because it got reassurances from the European Commission in return, particularly the commitment to review the guidelines for companies and make sure to avoid an overlap of bureaucratic burdens between companies.

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European leaders should have started preparing for another Trump presidency long ago. They had been warned.

Now, leaders should envisage a world where NATO no longer exists—or where the United States is no longer the leading force in the alliance, writes Phillips Payson O’Brien, Professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland. He is the author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler—How War Made Them, and How They Made War.

"In some ways, this is more scary psychologically than in practice. Europe—which is to say, the democratic countries enmeshed in institutions such as NATO and the European Union—has the economic and technological resources to underwrite a serious defense effort. It has a large and educated enough population to staff modern armed forces. It also has some strong and growing military capabilities. For instance, European states either have received or will receive in the coming years as many as 600 F-35 fighters—the most advanced and capable aircraft in the world. Such a force could dominate the skies against a clearly inferior Russian opponent."

[Edit to include the link.]

Update: The anti-deforestation has been delayed and relaxed, pending agreement of member states. https://www.dw.com/en/a-70728269

Maria Troyanivska had come home early the night a Russian drone hit her bedroom.

“It flew in through the window, right into her room,” her mother Viktoria tells the BBC. After the explosion, she and her husband Volodymyr ran from the next room to find their daughter’s room on fire.

“We tried to put it out, but everything was burning so strongly,” she says through tears. “It was impossible to breathe – we had to leave.”

The Russian Shahed drone killed the 14-year-old in her bed, in her suburban apartment in Kyiv, last month.

“She died immediately, and then burned,” her mother said. “We had to bury her in a closed coffin. She had no chance of surviving.” BBC/Kamil Dayan Khan Maria's bedroom in suburban Kyiv

China should face “a higher cost” for supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine, the EU’s incoming foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said.

The former Estonian prime minister was speaking to MEPs during a three-hour hearing before she takes office, when she listed Ukraine’s victory as a priority – stronger words than vaguer formulas of support voiced by some EU politicians.

“Victory of Ukraine is a priority for us all; the situation on the battlefield is very difficult,” Kallas told MEPs in her opening remarks. “That is why we must keep on working every day, today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes, and with as much military, financial and humanitarian aid as needed.”

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French prosecutors said that France's far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, should face jail time and a ban from public office that would bar her from the 2027 presidential race as she and members of the National Rally party stand trial for using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19893452

« Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but at this point X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there » the Guardian said.

Responding to the announcement, Musk posted on X that the Guardian was « irrelevant » and a « laboriously vile propaganda machine ».

Last year National Public Radio (NPR), the non-profit US media organisation, stopped posting on X after the social media platform labelled it as « state-affiliated media ». PBS, a US public TV broadcaster, suspended its posts for the same reason.

This month the Berlin film festival said it was quitting X, without citing an official reason, and last month the North Wales police force said it had stopped using X because it was « no longer consistent with our values ».

In August the Royal National orthopaedic hospital said it was leaving X, citing an « increased volume of hate speech and abusive commentary » on the platform.

After Musk's comments on Italy's interior politics and his recent appointment in Trump's administration, isn't it time for his fascist propaganda to be gone?