randomname

Archived link

"We're currently observing a steady trend towards an increase in the number of appeals from children about recruitment attempts," says Vasyl Bohdan, Head of the Juvenile Police of Ukraine, on the national joint 24/7 newscast, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency.

"As of today, almost 50 children have reported to the National Police that they had been contacted via messengers and social media by unknown persons from fictitious accounts who were agitating for arson attacks on military vehicles, government and local authority buildings, civilian and critical infrastructure, as well as collecting various information, for which they promised financial reward."

Bohdan said that the Juvenile Prevention Unit of the National Police, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, is implementing an information campaign across Ukraine. During visits to schools, they hold lectures, discussions and open lessons for teenagers to raise their legal awareness.

Law enforcement officers also work with parents and teachers to explain how to recognise the signs of recruitment, how to talk to children and how to act in the event of a threat.

At first, children may be given simple tasks such as gathering information about the location of military facilities or distributing leaflets discrediting the Ukrainian Armed Forces or containing elements of Russian propaganda, before being assigned more complex missions.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2842427

Canada sought to send a firm message with a Ukrainian minister's presence at the start of a G7 finance leaders gathering Tuesday, where war in Ukraine and economic turmoil from US President Donald Trump's tariffs remain top of mind.

In meetings through Thursday [May 22], leaders will discuss global economic conditions and seek a common position on Ukraine, whose representatives have been invited to attend.

Ukraine's presence "sends a strong message to the world" that members are recommitting to support the country against Russia's invasion, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters Tuesday.

"We're also going to talk about what we're going to be doing in terms of reconstruction," he said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian counterpart Sergii Marchenko.

...

Canada sought to send a firm message with a Ukrainian minister's presence at the start of a G7 finance leaders gathering Tuesday, where war in Ukraine and economic turmoil from US President Donald Trump's tariffs remain top of mind.

In meetings through Thursday [May 22], leaders will discuss global economic conditions and seek a common position on Ukraine, whose representatives have been invited to attend.

Ukraine's presence "sends a strong message to the world" that members are recommitting to support the country against Russia's invasion, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters Tuesday.

"We're also going to talk about what we're going to be doing in terms of reconstruction," he said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian counterpart Sergii Marchenko.

...

EU lawmakers demand release of Tibetan religious leader whom Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared in 1995 at the age of six, call for stronger stance on human rights issues regarding China

Seven Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across four political factions submitted inquiries to Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

China should "immediately and unconditionally" release the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choki Nyima and his parents, whom Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared on May 17, 1995, and who have not been seen for 30 years.

The MEPs condemned the government in Beijing, saying that "the enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama is one of the most troubling cases of religious and cultural repression in Asia in recent decades."

...

Archived version

Op-ed by Elena Davlikanova, Democracy Fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis.

...

On May 9, European foreign ministers convened ... to approve the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine ... Following a formal request from [Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Council of Europe's Secretary General Alain Berset was tasked with leading the process.

...

The tribunal will not replace the International Criminal Court, which already issued an arrest warrant for Putin for the deportation of Ukrainian children. Instead, it aims to fill a gap that the ICC cannot fill because its current legal infrastructure is insufficient for prosecuting sitting heads of state for violating the UN Charter with the crime of aggression.

...

While much of the discussion around the tribunal has focused on accountability, deterrence and an attempt to restore respect for international law, its implications for Russia may prove to be just as important.

Prosecuting the Russian leadership is not simply about punishment. It may offer the country a chance to break from a cycle of impunity that has shaped its modern history. Without addressing the political culture that enables wars of conquest, repression and myth-making, Russia is likely to reproduce the same patterns, with new victims at home and abroad.

The human rights organization Memorial — now banned in Russia but still active abroad — has already acknowledged one of its own historical blind spots: not calling for perpetrators of Soviet-era atrocities to be held accountable after 1991 for their crimes. That omission, Memorial argued, helped allow for the return of authoritarianism and state violence in the post-Soviet era.

...

A tribunal would not only document crimes but also shape public discourse inside Russia and beyond. The Nuremberg Trials did not eliminate fascism in Germany. But they helped discredit it. A tribunal for the crime of aggression could initiate similar debates in Russia around the costs of empire, the role of political leaders and the meaning of national responsibility.

...

For Russia’s future, examining its past matters. A society that never discusses how wars begin or are allowed to continue is a society doomed to repeat a cycle of violence. Bringing senior officials to justice for launching the war in Ukraine may serve not just as a warning to future aggressors, but as a protective mechanism for Russia itself. It would help dismantle the idea that greatness is measured in destruction, oppression, and reassert the principle that power must answer to law.

...

The tribunal may not only contribute to saving Ukraine. It may help save Russia, too.

Archived version

Big Tech’s battle with European regulators may ultimately be overshadowed by the Trump administration’s destabilization of the broader Europe-U.S. security relationship. President Trump’s threat of using tariffs as retaliation for EU tech regulatory policy is not happening in a vacuum. His questioning of NATO’s value, ambiguity over Ukraine, threats to reduce U.S. troop strength in Europe, warming relations with Vladimir Putin, and castigation of Europe’s commitment to its own defense have also created a new ambiguity about America’s commitment to European security.

These [European] security concerns are spilling over into the tech sector. In early March the Dutch parliament passed eight resolutions with broad support urging the government to replace American-made software and hardware. If there is no stability in our security and trade relationships with the United States, the argument goes, is it still possible to rely on American companies for essential digital services?

The threat of Vladimir Putin and the unpredictability of Donald Trump have converged to redefine European security. “Naturally, Russia’s neighbors are most concerned by Russia,” European Council president Antonio Costa recently explained, “But what is essential is for everyone to understand that this is a collective threat.”

To provide some related points not contained in the linked article:

The full potential of the European (Digital) Single Market remains largely untapped: intra-EU trade in digital services represent a mere 8% of the bloc’s GDP, which is in stark contrast to the intra-EU trade of manufactured goods that is beyond 25%.

Currently, 80% of the technologies and digital services within the EU are designed and manufactured in third countries, according to CERRE, the Centre on Regulation in Europe (link opens pdf).

At the same time, European digital companies struggle to capture a significant share of the global market value, with a percentage share somewhere in low or mid-single digits. Measured by market capitalization, just two European companies make it to the top-20 ICT firms in the world (Germany’s SAP and Dutch ASML), and only 10 European digital champions make it to the global top-100.

The European Union’s Digital Decade policy programme 2030 has made some progress, but so far fell short, as the Commission itself admitted referring to its 2024 State of the Digital Decade report:

Over the last 5 years, the EU has strategically pivoted toward a more assertive digital policy framework, recognising the urgent need to shape the digital space with targeted investments and robust regulatory mechanisms when necessary. This approach marks a significant disruption, propelling the EU to the forefront of global digital governance and policy innovation.

But says that past experience

reveals two significant concerns: insufficient progress in reaching the objectives and targets and significant fragmentation across Member States. This highlights the need for more significant efforts by Member States to ensure the EU’s control over its future.

The question is now whether Mr. Donald Trump could push EU members to a better coordination of their policies, thus helping indeed to make European tech great again?

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2821089

After 2,5 years of intensive research and programming efforts, the entire Openwebsearch.eu project team is excited to grant access to its pilot of the first-ever federated pan-European Open Web Index (OWI).

From June onward, commercial and scientific development teams of any size as well as interested individuals are welcome to access and make use of almost a petabyte (and growing) of open web data under a general research license or – upon request – under a designated commercial license as well.

Given that the European Commission has launched the InvestAI initiative to mobilize €200 billion of investment in artificial intelligence, the Open Web Index comes with perfect timing.

The OpenWebSearch.eu consortium actively calls early adopters to pioneer innovative projects surrounding vertical web search, argumentative search, LLM applications including RAG and more.

“The OWI symbolizes a first step towards true European digital sovereignty and is a fundamental step in paving the way for a comprehensive open European AI landscape.“ says Community Manager Ursula Gmelch and further:

“Our goal behind this initial pilot phase is to onboard a range of projects from diverse domains to get early feedback in. We look forward to users confirming the quality and value in current functionalities and/or helping us pivot in such ways that real market demands can be met and further expanded upon.“

An official kick-off event will be hosted on 6 June from 10 am to 12 am CEST via Zoom.

Registration to the event is open under the following link:

https://cscfi.zoom.us/meeting/register/eATIpDQ5TZidh4Jzkim6FQ#/registration

[,,,]

After 2,5 years of intensive research and programming efforts, the entire Openwebsearch.eu project team is excited to grant access to its pilot of the first-ever federated pan-European Open Web Index (OWI).

From June onward, commercial and scientific development teams of any size as well as interested individuals are welcome to access and make use of almost a petabyte (and growing) of open web data under a general research license or – upon request – under a designated commercial license as well.

Given that the European Commission has launched the InvestAI initiative to mobilize €200 billion of investment in artificial intelligence, the Open Web Index comes with perfect timing.

The OpenWebSearch.eu consortium actively calls early adopters to pioneer innovative projects surrounding vertical web search, argumentative search, LLM applications including RAG and more.

“The OWI symbolizes a first step towards true European digital sovereignty and is a fundamental step in paving the way for a comprehensive open European AI landscape.“ says Community Manager Ursula Gmelch and further:

“Our goal behind this initial pilot phase is to onboard a range of projects from diverse domains to get early feedback in. We look forward to users confirming the quality and value in current functionalities and/or helping us pivot in such ways that real market demands can be met and further expanded upon.“

An official kick-off event will be hosted on 6 June from 10 am to 12 am CEST via Zoom.

Registration to the event is open under the following link:

https://cscfi.zoom.us/meeting/register/eATIpDQ5TZidh4Jzkim6FQ#/registration

[,,,]

Archived version

• A widespread Russian-linked network, 'Pravda' and 'Portal Kombat' operates hundreds of websites globally, mimicking local news outlets to amplify pro-Kremlin narratives. Using certain domain naming conventions - e.g., pravda-fr. com, pravda-de. com, serbia.news-pravda. com - the network also includes a particularly large and coordinated subset referred to as 'Portal Kombat'.

• This network generates significant political and security risks by disseminating disinformation and potentially compromising open-source intelligence (OSINT) gathering and Artificial Intelligence (AI) training datasets.

• The network will likely persist and increasingly leverage AI, evolving into more sophisticated automated Information Operations (IO) tactics that will likely challenge global information integrity and AI safety in the long term.

• The Pravda ecosystem encompasses hundreds of news websites with over 3.7m published articles, meticulously designed to mimic the content of legitimate local news portals across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key European countries targeted by the Pravda network include France, Germany, Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia.

In addition to that, the UK Defence Journal reports of a new wave of Russian disinformation blogs. "Over the past year, there has been a marked rise in pro-Russian content proliferating on platforms such as Substack and personal blogs, predominantly authored by figures within the UK and Europe", a report says.

"This new wave of pro-Russian blogs is not a spontaneous movement. The consistent themes, high output frequency, AI-generated text, and strategic language switching all point to a coordinated effort. Whether motivated by ideology, financial incentives, or direct influence from pro-Kremlin networks, these bloggers are contributing to a broader strategy of information warfare."

Archived version

Kouvola [a small city in Finland] needs all the jobs it can get. Young Finns who have not already left a small city so drab it could be stuck in the Soviet Union struggle to find work.

So when an international company called Hyperco announced it would exploit the freezing north’s temperatures and ready access to cold water to build a data centre in the area, there was general acceptance of it being a pretty good thing.

...

All seemed well until last month, when the Finnish government learned what the first business to use the data centre would be.

TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media giant that is facing a global backlash over its control of users’ data and links to Beijing, announced it would invest €1 billion.

...

The outcry was swift, not least among Finnish politicians who had banned the use of TikTok on their employees’ official devices over privacy fears. They asked how ByteDance, the firm with links to the Chinese state, had secured a foothold in Europe — and how nobody noticed when TikTok came to town.

The middle man

Around the time the scandal over the data centre began to hit home with Finland’s political classes, Elon Musk and his partner Shivon Zilis were at a White House breakfast posing for a photograph with a moustachioed billionaire called Hussain Sajwani.

More often to be found in Dubai where he has amassed a fortune in property, Sajwani is a longstanding ally of President Trump and built the commander-in-chief’s first golf course in the Middle East. More recently, though, he has worked with the White House on rolling out data centres across the United States through his company, Edgnex, the ultimate owner of Hyperco.

...

Unlike President Biden, Trump has granted a reprieve to TikTok and delayed plans to force it to sell its US operation or face a ban in a country where it has 170 million users. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark’,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”

Sajwani, meanwhile, appears to be willing to work with nations otherwise shunned by the international community. His companies, for example, built infrastructure for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Sochi despite the international pariah status of President Putin.

...

National security concerns are never far from the minds of people who live on the road that takes you from Finland’s capital, Helsinki, to the Russian border. Most people in the nation that has Europe’s longest border with Russia, and is on constant alert for aggression from Putin, never expected the most pressing threat to come from China.

It caught Wille Rydman, Finland’s minister for economic affairs, by surprise. The situation was “difficult”, he admitted last week, adding that “the customer does not necessarily need to be that particular company” without mentioning that company by name. Rydman, from the hard-right Finns Party, was less moderate this week, suggesting the facility might be used to circumvent sanctions designed to stop China procuring certain microchips.

...

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission recently imposed a €530 million fine on the company for “transfers of personal data of users of the TikTok platform … to the People’s Republic of China”.

...

Archived

Op-ed by Grzegorz Stec, Head of Brussels Office/Senior Analyst at Mercator Institute of China Studies with headquarters in Berlin, Germany.

European capitals are giving Beijing too much leeway to shape public perceptions of bilateral diplomatic exchanges. MERICS has analyzed readouts issued by governments after their leaders engaged with Chinese counterparts between 2019 and 2024: less than 40 percent of China’s official summaries in English were matched by an English-language communication from the European side – and even when they were, European readouts were on average 40 percent shorter and much less detailed. This shows that European Union (EU) member states are not taking the competition to shape the narrative of EU-China relations seriously enough.

Beijing is extremely adept at and forthright about controlling its image, promoting Chinese concepts, and (re)framing European positions to suit its own purposes in order to enhance its “international discourse power“ (国际话语权) and “tell China’s story well“ (讲好中国故事). Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the ensuing geopolitical turmoil have heightened transatlantic tensions and have made it easier for Beijing to project a benevolent stance towards the EU and its members in contrast to a more aggressive Washington.

...

Subsequent media coverage [often focuses] on a perceived EU-China rapprochement, ignoring the many thorny issues that still divide the two sides – most immediately, China’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. The fact that many European governments regularly forego the opportunity to use readouts to tell their story well is a stark illustration of how they leave China huge opportunities present its take on events as seemingly uncontested and therefore acceptable. They need to make use of readouts more rigorously to communicate their motivations and perspectives to the people, governments and other partners in and outside of Europe.

...

Why readouts matter – Information control at time of uncertainty

In the absence of timely or comprehensive European alternatives, the media often refer to Chinese readouts, presenting the European public with unchallenged Chinese narratives. This can create a disconnect, as Chinese-inspired upbeat coverage of high-level meetings clashed with the European media’s day-to-day reporting of policy debates about the strategic risks associated with China. This makes it harder for European leaders to explain the need for an assertive and not seldom costly China policy, as in the case of imposing additional import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles or blocking specific Chinese investments.

It also makes it more difficult for European leaders to talk to each other. As many member states do not regularly brief each other or the EU level on their exchanges with Chinese counterparts, other European governments use readouts as the first means of building a picture of another government’s bilateral exchanges. Moreover, unchallenged Chinese narratives leave room for Beijing to try to intensify competition among European countries for favorable relations. Ultimately, this supports China’s strategic efforts to weaken the European Union’s China policy by dividing member states in their approaches to dealing with Beijing.

...

At a time of great geopolitical uncertainty, European governments must coordinate their positions better than ever before, speak with one strong, credible voice to keep foreign partners in line, and convince the European public of the need to pay a security premium they have not had to shoulder since the end of the Cold War. (Without public readiness, leaders are constrained, as MERICS’ Europe-China Resilience Audit made clear.) Effective communication is a prerequisite for this – and readouts are just the tip of the iceberg. Three things currently limit Europe’s ability to win the “strategic communication game” with China.

...

There are several steps European countries can take to make their messages clearer and more forceful. Each needs to:

• Define a long-term approach to China, with clear public messaging – in the form of fully-fledged government guidelines or major policy speeches, as demonstrated by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, James Cleverly when he was UK Foreign Secretary and Annalena Baerbock when she was German Foreign Minister.
• Inform national and international audiences about the objectives of upcoming high-level meetings with China – in the form of public statements or op-eds, as then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did ahead of a visit to China in 2022.
• Ensure timely and comprehensive readouts after meetings with Chinese officials to present national positions – ideally with reference to previously outlined objectives – and avoid Beijing’s version dominating public narratives about the exchange.
• Invest in China-related resources in government departments dealing with FIMI.
• Brief domestic experts and EU counterparts to share insights, communicate stances and coordinate responses. -Stick to the language used in European Council statements on China – for example, the June 2023 conclusions covered issues of the highest strategic importance: China’s role in Russia’s war against Ukraine and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

...

Archived

On April 4, 2025, a Russian missile strike on the city of Krivyi Rih killed nine children, most of whom were playing in a park. The U.N. Human Rights Office said the attack, which killed 20 people in total, was the deadliest single strike to claim children’s lives that it had verified since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The U.N. has recorded more than 2,500 child casualties but notes the actual toll is likely far higher, particularly when considering the scale of damage to children’s mental health and well-being. The psychological toll on Ukrainian children is even more widespread. To understand the war’s impact on children, Meduza spoke with Elina Bytyuk, a psychologist at the Dnipro-based nonprofit Children New Generation.

...

Ukrainian children and teenagers — exposed to death, destruction, displacement, and deprivation — are at heightened risk of mental health issues, including complex PTSD, which often requires more long-term, intensive treatment than post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a single event.

“If a child was [in a shelter] during bombardment, the memory of these events can haunt them for the rest of their life,” says Elina Bytyuk, a psychologist with Children New Generation, a Dnipro-based nonprofit organization that helps displaced families in eastern Ukraine.

Children who live farther away from the front are also affected, with regular air raid sirens and fears of the next Russian attack leaving them in a constant state of uncertainty. “When a person is in a prolonged state of uncertainty, the ‘fight, flee, or freeze’ defense mechanism is also activated. And if this mechanism is activated for a long time, it may subsequently lead to depression,” Bytyuk explains.

...

Like other psychologists working with Children New Generation, Bytyuk works with children and parents alike. “A child’s primary defense and basic foundation is family. This is his source of support,” she says. “And if dad’s gone to the front and mom got sick due to stress, then the child may develop a feeling of internal isolation from everything.”

According to Vasyl Lutsyk, the head of Ukraine’s National Social Service, Russia’s war had deprived more than 13,000 children in Ukraine of parental care as of last March. This figure included nearly 1,800 children left orphaned, as well as hundreds whose parents reside in the occupied territories and about a dozen whose parents are in Russian captivity, Lutsyk said.

Wartime immigration has also torn many families apart: some 6.9 million refugees have fled Ukraine since February 2022, most of whom are women and children. Another 3.7 million people are internally displaced. As Bytyuk explains, the grief that comes with family separation makes coping with traumatic events even more difficult. For children who have been displaced or lost loved ones, “This sense of loss and anxiety can develop into generalized anxiety disorder or depression,” she says.

...

According to Bytyuk, both children and teenagers may experience mood swings as a result of extreme stress. And like adults suffering from PTSD, children who have experienced traumatic events may struggle with intrusive memories. “There are children who wake up at night [...] because [they have] intrusive memories, like war veterans,” she says. “It's impossible to suppress them by willpower alone.”

...

Today, there are both local and international nonprofit groups providing psychological support for children in Ukraine, including through one-on-one sessions and group therapy. Psychologists can help children cope with both traumatic memories and ongoing threats — and teach them how to handle stress in the least destructive way possible. When it comes to treating trauma in children, Bytyuk says, “each child needs an individual approach.”

...