cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46901420

Europe’s two biggest carmakers have urged Brussels to tweak purchase subsidies and public procurement to favour domestic production over imported vehicles, calling for clear labelling and additional incentives for electric cars built in Europe.

In an opinion piece published in national newspapers on Wednesday night, the CEOs of Volkswagen and Stellantis – which together account for about 40% of the EU car market – urged the European Commission to build on incoming domestic production mandates with a full-blown ‘made-in-Europe’ strategy.

Their position appears to be at odds with that of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), of which both companies are members, after the lobby group warned that domestic production quotas could complicate European companies’ access to global markets.

...

The strategy should be built on the principle of “fair competition” in the EU single market – a likely nod towards cheap imports from China – and be designed to channel EU taxpayers’ money towards promoting local production, wrote Oliver Blume and Antonio Filosa.

The Volkswagen and Stellantis directors, respectively, reasoned that the made-in-Europe label should be based not just on the location of production lines, but also on where electric powertrains, battery cells and other key components are manufactured.

...

ACEA has urged caution over any made-in-Europe preference, likely due to internal divisions. The German premium carmaker BMW, for example, is understood to be against the introduction of local preference criteria.

...

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46901420

Europe’s two biggest carmakers have urged Brussels to tweak purchase subsidies and public procurement to favour domestic production over imported vehicles, calling for clear labelling and additional incentives for electric cars built in Europe.

In an opinion piece published in national newspapers on Wednesday night, the CEOs of Volkswagen and Stellantis – which together account for about 40% of the EU car market – urged the European Commission to build on incoming domestic production mandates with a full-blown ‘made-in-Europe’ strategy.

Their position appears to be at odds with that of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), of which both companies are members, after the lobby group warned that domestic production quotas could complicate European companies’ access to global markets.

...

The strategy should be built on the principle of “fair competition” in the EU single market – a likely nod towards cheap imports from China – and be designed to channel EU taxpayers’ money towards promoting local production, wrote Oliver Blume and Antonio Filosa.

The Volkswagen and Stellantis directors, respectively, reasoned that the made-in-Europe label should be based not just on the location of production lines, but also on where electric powertrains, battery cells and other key components are manufactured.

...

ACEA has urged caution over any made-in-Europe preference, likely due to internal divisions. The German premium carmaker BMW, for example, is understood to be against the introduction of local preference criteria.

...

Web archive link

Europe’s two biggest carmakers have urged Brussels to tweak purchase subsidies and public procurement to favour domestic production over imported vehicles, calling for clear labelling and additional incentives for electric cars built in Europe.

In an opinion piece published in national newspapers on Wednesday night, the CEOs of Volkswagen and Stellantis – which together account for about 40% of the EU car market – urged the European Commission to build on incoming domestic production mandates with a full-blown ‘made-in-Europe’ strategy.

Their position appears to be at odds with that of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), of which both companies are members, after the lobby group warned that domestic production quotas could complicate European companies’ access to global markets.

...

The strategy should be built on the principle of “fair competition” in the EU single market – a likely nod towards cheap imports from China – and be designed to channel EU taxpayers’ money towards promoting local production, wrote Oliver Blume and Antonio Filosa.

The Volkswagen and Stellantis directors, respectively, reasoned that the made-in-Europe label should be based not just on the location of production lines, but also on where electric powertrains, battery cells and other key components are manufactured.

...

ACEA has urged caution over any made-in-Europe preference, likely due to internal divisions. The German premium carmaker BMW, for example, is understood to be against the introduction of local preference criteria.

...

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46886810

The American president has invited Canada to become his country's "51st state," an idea that has infuriated most of Canada's 40 million citizens.

...

Hence this suggestion: Why not expand the EU to include Canada? Is that so far-fetched an idea? In any case, Canadians have actually considered the question themselves. In February 2025, a survey conducted by Abacus Data on a sample of 1,500 people found that 44% of those polled supported the idea, compared to 34% who opposed it. Better the 28th EU country than the 51st US state!

One might object: Canada is not European, as required for EU membership by Article 49 of the EU Treaty. But what does "European" actually mean? The word cannot be understood in a strictly geographic sense, or Cyprus, closer to Asia, would not be part of the EU. So the term must be understood in a cultural sense.

...

As [Canadian Prime Minister Mark] Carney said in Paris, in March: Thanks to its French and British roots, Canada is "the most European of non-European countries." He speaks from experience, having served as governor of the Bank of England (a post that is assigned based on merit, not nationality). Culturally and ideologically, Canada is close to European democracies: It shares the same belief in the welfare state, the same commitment to multilateralism and the same rejection of the death penalty or uncontrolled firearms.

Moreover, Canada is a Commonwealth monarchy that shares a king with the United Kingdom.

...

Even short of a formal application, it would be wiser for Ottawa to strengthen its ties with European democracies rather than with the Chinese regime. The temptation is there: Just before heading to Davos, Carney signed an agreement with Beijing to lower tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

...

Archive link

The American president has invited Canada to become his country's "51st state," an idea that has infuriated most of Canada's 40 million citizens.

...

Hence this suggestion: Why not expand the EU to include Canada? Is that so far-fetched an idea? In any case, Canadians have actually considered the question themselves. In February 2025, a survey conducted by Abacus Data on a sample of 1,500 people found that 44% of those polled supported the idea, compared to 34% who opposed it. Better the 28th EU country than the 51st US state!

One might object: Canada is not European, as required for EU membership by Article 49 of the EU Treaty. But what does "European" actually mean? The word cannot be understood in a strictly geographic sense, or Cyprus, closer to Asia, would not be part of the EU. So the term must be understood in a cultural sense.

...

As [Canadian Prime Minister Mark] Carney said in Paris, in March: Thanks to its French and British roots, Canada is "the most European of non-European countries." He speaks from experience, having served as governor of the Bank of England (a post that is assigned based on merit, not nationality). Culturally and ideologically, Canada is close to European democracies: It shares the same belief in the welfare state, the same commitment to multilateralism and the same rejection of the death penalty or uncontrolled firearms.

Moreover, Canada is a Commonwealth monarchy that shares a king with the United Kingdom.

...

Even short of a formal application, it would be wiser for Ottawa to strengthen its ties with European democracies rather than with the Chinese regime. The temptation is there: Just before heading to Davos, Carney signed an agreement with Beijing to lower tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

...

Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46874450

Russia’s supreme court has reduced by only one year the 14-year sentence passed against Oksana Hladkykh, a mother of four abducted from her home in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in November 2023. This was presumably a cassation appeal, as the original sentence, passed on 7 June 2024 by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, had been upheld on 7 November 2024 by the first court of appeal in Moscow. All of Russia’s ‘treason trials’, including the supreme court hearing which seems to have been at the end of October 2025, are behind closed doors with this one of the reasons why information is scant and often delayed. Although the supreme court ‘judges’ removed a part of the charge (the accusation of providing “other help to a foreign country”) and reduced the sentence from 14 to 13 years, they chose to see no reason to overturn a manifestly wrongful conviction on ‘treason’ charges under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.

The reasons for dismissing the charges and releasing the 49-year-old Ukrainian could not have been clearer and were set out by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project when it declared Oksana Hladkykh a political prisoner in August 2025. Hladkykh had never concealed her opposition to the Russian invaders and had openly expressed her views on social media, with this clearly the reason for her denunciation on a scurrilous Telegram channel aimed at hunting out those with a strong pro-Ukrainian position, as well as for her ‘arrest’ / abduction in late November 2023). Neighbours from Dobrivka have suggested to RIA-South that Hladkykh’s former husband, who supported the Russians, could have denounced her to curry favour with the invaders. It is also possible that Hladkykh had corresponded with somebody who claimed to be from HUR, and that this was, in fact, an FSB setup.

...

In writing about the cassation appeal ruling on 31 January 2026, RIA South said that Hladkykh’s persecution had become a symbol of how Ukrainians are punished on occupied territory for remaining true to Ukraine. Her neighbours from Dobrivka are convinced that she was seized because of her civic stand and because she was not afraid to speak the truth.

“Oksana was principled. From the outset, she opposed the invaders and was open in calling things by their proper name. She was not afraid to tell the invaders to their face what she thought of them. Her abduction was a warning to us all – so that we would be afraid to say a word against Russia.”

“Her only guilt is in being a Ukrainian and in the fact that she did not betray her country. That’s enough for them to imprison a person."

...

The Russians came for Hladkykh on 24 November 2023. The children were not allowed inside, from where they heard screams. Their mother was taken away, with the Russians initially claiming that this was for four days. This was a brutal lie and Oksana Hladkykh was sentenced, for her patriotism and unwillingness to be cowered by the invaders, to a term of imprisonment higher than the sentences Russia regularly uses against murderers and other real criminals.

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46874450

Russia’s supreme court has reduced by only one year the 14-year sentence passed against Oksana Hladkykh, a mother of four abducted from her home in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in November 2023. This was presumably a cassation appeal, as the original sentence, passed on 7 June 2024 by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, had been upheld on 7 November 2024 by the first court of appeal in Moscow. All of Russia’s ‘treason trials’, including the supreme court hearing which seems to have been at the end of October 2025, are behind closed doors with this one of the reasons why information is scant and often delayed. Although the supreme court ‘judges’ removed a part of the charge (the accusation of providing “other help to a foreign country”) and reduced the sentence from 14 to 13 years, they chose to see no reason to overturn a manifestly wrongful conviction on ‘treason’ charges under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.

The reasons for dismissing the charges and releasing the 49-year-old Ukrainian could not have been clearer and were set out by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project when it declared Oksana Hladkykh a political prisoner in August 2025. Hladkykh had never concealed her opposition to the Russian invaders and had openly expressed her views on social media, with this clearly the reason for her denunciation on a scurrilous Telegram channel aimed at hunting out those with a strong pro-Ukrainian position, as well as for her ‘arrest’ / abduction in late November 2023). Neighbours from Dobrivka have suggested to RIA-South that Hladkykh’s former husband, who supported the Russians, could have denounced her to curry favour with the invaders. It is also possible that Hladkykh had corresponded with somebody who claimed to be from HUR, and that this was, in fact, an FSB setup.

...

In writing about the cassation appeal ruling on 31 January 2026, RIA South said that Hladkykh’s persecution had become a symbol of how Ukrainians are punished on occupied territory for remaining true to Ukraine. Her neighbours from Dobrivka are convinced that she was seized because of her civic stand and because she was not afraid to speak the truth.

“Oksana was principled. From the outset, she opposed the invaders and was open in calling things by their proper name. She was not afraid to tell the invaders to their face what she thought of them. Her abduction was a warning to us all – so that we would be afraid to say a word against Russia.”

“Her only guilt is in being a Ukrainian and in the fact that she did not betray her country. That’s enough for them to imprison a person."

...

The Russians came for Hladkykh on 24 November 2023. The children were not allowed inside, from where they heard screams. Their mother was taken away, with the Russians initially claiming that this was for four days. This was a brutal lie and Oksana Hladkykh was sentenced, for her patriotism and unwillingness to be cowered by the invaders, to a term of imprisonment higher than the sentences Russia regularly uses against murderers and other real criminals.

Web archive link

Russia’s supreme court has reduced by only one year the 14-year sentence passed against Oksana Hladkykh, a mother of four abducted from her home in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in November 2023. This was presumably a cassation appeal, as the original sentence, passed on 7 June 2024 by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, had been upheld on 7 November 2024 by the first court of appeal in Moscow. All of Russia’s ‘treason trials’, including the supreme court hearing which seems to have been at the end of October 2025, are behind closed doors with this one of the reasons why information is scant and often delayed. Although the supreme court ‘judges’ removed a part of the charge (the accusation of providing “other help to a foreign country”) and reduced the sentence from 14 to 13 years, they chose to see no reason to overturn a manifestly wrongful conviction on ‘treason’ charges under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.

The reasons for dismissing the charges and releasing the 49-year-old Ukrainian could not have been clearer and were set out by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project when it declared Oksana Hladkykh a political prisoner in August 2025. Hladkykh had never concealed her opposition to the Russian invaders and had openly expressed her views on social media, with this clearly the reason for her denunciation on a scurrilous Telegram channel aimed at hunting out those with a strong pro-Ukrainian position, as well as for her ‘arrest’ / abduction in late November 2023). Neighbours from Dobrivka have suggested to RIA-South that Hladkykh’s former husband, who supported the Russians, could have denounced her to curry favour with the invaders. It is also possible that Hladkykh had corresponded with somebody who claimed to be from HUR, and that this was, in fact, an FSB setup.

...

In writing about the cassation appeal ruling on 31 January 2026, RIA South said that Hladkykh’s persecution had become a symbol of how Ukrainians are punished on occupied territory for remaining true to Ukraine. Her neighbours from Dobrivka are convinced that she was seized because of her civic stand and because she was not afraid to speak the truth.

“Oksana was principled. From the outset, she opposed the invaders and was open in calling things by their proper name. She was not afraid to tell the invaders to their face what she thought of them. Her abduction was a warning to us all – so that we would be afraid to say a word against Russia.”

“Her only guilt is in being a Ukrainian and in the fact that she did not betray her country. That’s enough for them to imprison a person."

...

The Russians came for Hladkykh on 24 November 2023. The children were not allowed inside, from where they heard screams. Their mother was taken away, with the Russians initially claiming that this was for four days. This was a brutal lie and Oksana Hladkykh was sentenced, for her patriotism and unwillingness to be cowered by the invaders, to a term of imprisonment higher than the sentences Russia regularly uses against murderers and other real criminals.

Web archive link

The EU executive on Tuesday, February 3, strongly rejected accusations made in a US congressional report that it had forced social media platforms to censor American content.

In a scathing 160-page report, the Republican-dominated judiciary committee of the House of Representatives claimed the European Commission had spent 10 years trying to "censor the global internet" and American citizens' speech.

The report's release came on the eve of a hearing by the committee chaired by President Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan, entitled "Europe's Threat to American Speech and Innovation, Part II."

The accusations drew a strong rebuke from the EU. "On the latest censorship allegations. Pure nonsense. Completely unfounded," EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

...

A first report by the US House committee last year took aim at the EU's legal armory, especially its 2023 content law, the Digital Services Act – which Trump's administration accuses of discriminating against US firms.

The new report described the DSA as "the culmination of a decade-long European effort to silence political opposition and suppress online narratives that criticize the political establishment."

...

The Trump-allied tech tycoon Elon Musk cheered the release of the report in an X post entitled "Tyrants love censorship."

But the EU's Regnier pushed back, pointing to online platforms' ability to "algorithmically influence elections" and Europe's efforts to ensure "free and fair elections."

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe," Regnier said, adding that the DSA "is protecting that right against big tech."

...

Archive link

...

Long renowned among residents for slow-crawling traffic and infuriating parking hunts, the Austrian capital of Vienna is taking an unusual approach to solving the problem. Far from adding new lots, it is removing on-street parking.

The idea is to break up concrete, not only to cool things off in summer but to encourage alternative transit options.

...

With more than 350 projects focused on converting asphalt into green and public spaces, the city is removing a lot of parking, even in the central Neuer Markt. Located next to some of the biggest tourist attractions, it was once characterized by rows of parking spaces. Now the square has been pedestrianized and filled with trees and seating for locals and visitors.

And one of Vienna's central arteries has been converted into a "Dutch-inspired" cycling street, where 140 parking spots have made way for 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) of bike lanes and plant life.

...

Ensuring residents can still get around is vital to winning public support for these shifts.

"We have to take people on board," Ina Homeier, a planner at Vienna's Department of Urban Planning and Development, told DW. "We have to ask: how do you want your neighborhood? Do you want it to be filled with cars and without any trees, or do you want something different?" she said.

Expanding paid parking zones brings in €180 million ($209 million) annually, which the city puts directly into cycling infrastructure to encourage alternative mobility. Vienna's green urban agenda has seen residents using cars 37% less than they did in the 1990s.

And though polling indicates that more than two-thirds of the city's residents favor reducing parking and establishing additional green spaces, she believes more people need to be won over.

...

"We have never experienced something like this," said the director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), which has been tracking rights violations in the Islamic republic for some two decades.

As a fragmented picture of the anti-government protests that peaked in early January emerged, IHR and other NGOs set out to verify the reports of thousands of deaths -- painstaking work they are still undertaking weeks later.

"Based on the witness testimonies, all the information we have managed to receive from different parts of the country, it's an unprecedented mass killing at a scale that we haven't seen before," he told AFP.

Along with the sheer numbers, NGOs say their task has been complicated by the internet shutdown, manipulated content and threats against sources inside Iran.

...

Russia carried out a major overnight attack on Ukraine in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday was a broken commitment to halt striking energy infrastructure as the countries prepared for more talks on ending Moscow’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion.

The bombardment included hundreds of drones and a record 32 ballistic missiles, wounding at least 10 people. It specifically took aim at the power grid, Zelenskyy said, as part of what Ukraine says is Moscow’s ongoing campaign to deny civilians light, heating and running water during the coldest winter in years.

“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. Temperatures in Kyiv fell to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) during the night and stood at minus 16 C (minus 3 F) on Tuesday.

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Web archive link