Europe

Not all threats come from outside Europe’s borders.

One of the most insidious is the fragmentation of the political landscape. Traditional parties are losing ground. Political reference points are shifting — often to the benefit of extreme positions. Disruptive forces are rushing in to fill the vacuum.

Today’s politics is, above all, anti. Anti-European. Anti-immigration. Anti-elite. Anti-woke. Anti-system.

Democratic debate is increasingly drowned out by so-called “culture wars”.

There are always easy targets. In the UK, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has highlighted the weaponisation of the European Convention on Human Rights, accusing it of weakening national identity and border security.

In the US, Vice-President JD Vance, doubling down on his Munich speech, has framed limits on free speech as a direct threat to Western civilisation.

The risk is using the tools of democracy itself — its laws, institutions, and freedoms — to restrict rights, suppress dissent, and create the illusion that security must come first.

A Cypriot cargo ship ran ashore immediately next to a Norwegian household today, and they are currently doing there best to get the ship unstuck. It's a surprisingly sootehning live stream.

Via @DreadShips@mastodon.me.uk on Mastodon.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Berlin announced Tuesday that the BDS movement has been classified as “unconstitutional.”

The head of the office, Michael Fischer, explained that the movement’s status in Berlin’s antisemitic and anti-Israel landscape has significantly strengthened over the past year.

Fischer clarified that BDS’s ideology is based on “explicit denial of Israel’s right to exist.” According to him, BDS activity goes beyond boycotting cultural events or Israeli economic products. “The goal is to make the existence of Israel impossible in the international context. It is aimed at its destruction,” Fischer stated.

https://archive.is/Qn9zd

Likud ministers Eli Cohen and Amichai Chikli were both accused of interfering in Romania's internal affairs by bolstering the country's far-right party, which has a history of Holocaust denial, but was defeated in Sunday's presidential election

According to Kallas, a "strong majority" at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels spoke in favour of reviewing whether Israel still adheres to the basic principles of the EU-Israel Association Agreement

The European Union unveiled plans on Tuesday to make it easier to send asylum seekers to third countries to which they have no connection, in the latest overhaul aimed at reducing migration to the bloc, intensifying the debate over migration policy and sparking criticism from rights groups

As right-wing political forces gain traction across Europe, asylum policy has become a lightning rod for wider questions of security, sovereignty and solidarity.

In a war defined by constant innovation, this deceptively simple tweak to standard FPV drones makes them immune to electronic warfare (EW) and free of limitations brought by radio horizon.

The number of German firms closing their doors for good rose last year by as much as 16% on the year to 196,100, the Creditreform agency and the ZEW economic research institute reported on Wednesday.

Most research shows that young people – both women and men – hold more progressive values than previous generations. While there is a larger gender gap among young people, the main reason for this is not a rightwing turn among young men but a sharp leftwing turn among young women

https://archive.is/2obCw

European capitals have launched a flurry of diplomatic efforts to maintain pressure on Russia and convince US President Donald Trump’s administration not to walk away from Ukraine peace talks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Monday that it was “crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace, because the only one who benefits from that is Putin”.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday said a recent intelligence assessment classifying the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a confirmed "right-wing extremist" organization is not enough to justify banning the party.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34959076

France is "determined" to recognise a Palestinian state, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, condemning Israel for the "indefensible" situation in Gaza created by its military campaign and humanitarian blockade.

https://archive.is/HQeRB

The conclusions of the parliamentary investigative commission on bottled water, revealed by Le Monde and Radio France, show how the French government toned down a report highlighting the contamination of Perrier sources at the request of the Swiss giant.

namely, the use of prohibited filters to purify water contaminated by pesticides and fecal bacteria