Britain’s energy watchdog gives go-ahead to initial £28bn of investment to upgrade UK energy infrastructure but reveals move will push up network charges

Nearly half of Europeans see Donald Trump as “an enemy of Europe”, rather more rate the risk of war with Russia as high and more than two-thirds believe their country would not be able to defend itself in the event of such a war, a survey has found.

The nine-country poll for the Paris-based European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent also found that nearly three-quarters of respondents wanted their country to stay in the EU, with almost as many saying leaving the union had harmed the UK.

Jean-Yves Dormagen, a political science professor and founder of the polling agency Cluster17, said: “Europe is not only facing growing risks, it is also undergoing a transformation of its historical, geopolitical and political environment. The overall picture [of the survey] portrays a Europe that is anxious, that is deeply aware of its vulnerabilities and that is struggling to project itself positively into the future.”

The polling found that an average of 48% of people across the nine countries see Trump as an outright foe – ranging from highs of 62% in Belgium and 57% in France to lows of 37% in Croatia and 19% in Poland.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46691137

Archived

• China will impose a 13% value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and devices, including condoms, for the first time in three decades.
• The revision to the Value-Added Tax Law also exempts child-care services, elder-care institutions, disability service providers, and marriage-related services from the tax.
• The changes are part of China's efforts to reverse plunging birth rates and encourage people to have more children, as the population has shrunk for three consecutive years.

[...]

China will impose a value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and devices — including condoms — for the first time in three decades, its latest bid to reverse plunging birth rates that threaten to further slow its economy.

Under the newly revised Value-Added Tax Law, consumers will pay a 13% levy on items that had been VAT-exempt since 1993, when China enforced a strict one-child policy and actively promoted birth control.

At the same time, the revision carves out new incentives for prospective parents by exempting child-care services — from nurseries to kindergartens — as well as elder-care institutions, disability service providers and marriage-related services. The changes take effect in January.

They reflect a broader policy pivot, as a rapidly aging China shifts from limiting births to encouraging people to have more children. The population has shrunk for three consecutive years, with just 9.54 million births in 2024 — barely half of the 18.8 million registered nearly a decade ago, when the one-child policy was lifted.

[...]

The murder of Imad al-Najjar is one of thousands committed by Assad's forces that are captured in a huge compilation of government files and photos known as the Damascus dossier.

The 134,000 Syrian security and intelligence records were obtained by German public broadcaster NDR, which shared them with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its global network of media partners, including CBC News.

The leaked records include 70,000 images — many of them gruesome photos of torture victims' bodies taken and catalogued by Syrian military police — as well as 64,000 files from Syrian intelligence agencies, including many death certificates and arrest reports.

Journalists who analyzed the photos were able to count 10,212 bodies of detainees. The images mostly range from 2015 through 2024. Until now, the Syrian public did not know about the existence of the photos.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39846093

Hi, I’m looking to set up a Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure with my homelab as I’m lacking additional processing power.

• Does Hetzner have concepts for VPC/VCN and subnets, similar to AWS, GCP, or Oracle? I’ve been browsing through the documentation (https://docs.hetzner.com/networking/networks) but couldn’t find anything related to it.
• Does anyone have a new referral code they can share? Thanks!

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42997414

Web archive link

The EU is considering legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China to insulate Europe from future hostile acts, the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, says.

He made his remarks as the European Commission unveiled a €3bn (£2.63bn) strategy to reduce its dependency on China for critical raw materials amid a global scramble caused by Beijing’s “weaponisation” of supplies of everything from chips to rare earths.

The ReSourceEU programme will seek to de-risk and diversify the bloc’s supply chains for key commodities with a funding initiative to support 25-30 strategic projects in the sector.

It will include new rules to stop scrap aluminium leaving the bloc, recycling of magnets used in car batteries and a new €2bn a year fund backed by the European Investment Bank to support industries diversifying away from cheap Chinese supplies.

Underlining the threats posed by over dependency on China, Séjourné said if industry did not respond, the commission reserved the right to introduce legislation.

“We would force European companies legally to diversify their sources of supply. That is not the case now, and it is not what is proposed in the plan [ReSourceEU] but this is a wake up call, a strong wake up call,” said Séjourné.

...

Senior EU officials said that “while the direction is clear” there was a need to “accelerate the process” as China continued to “weaponise” its hold on raw materials for “geopolitical purposes”.

To kickstart the implementation of the strategy, two projects, a molybdenum extraction in Greenland and a lithium mine in Germany will get immediate funding.

The EU will also look at financial support to enable companies to buy from more expensive sources than China and it will set up a “raw materials platform” that will pool company orders and build joint stockpiles.

New restrictions will be introduced on scrap exports in 2026 of the metal and of scrap copper if necessary.

...

The EU said the strategy was designed to reduce the impact of “market shocks” such as the disruption to the car industry caused by the recent, now lifted, ban on exports of chips by China in response to the Dutch government taking control of the Chinese-owned chip firm Nexperia.

...

Up to €3bn in funding will be mobilised within the next 12 months, with €2bn a year made available by the European Investment Bank in the form of loans, venture debt and private debt plus financing such as loans already issued to a Finnish lithium mine project Keliber.

...

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42997414

Web archive link

The EU is considering legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China to insulate Europe from future hostile acts, the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, says.

He made his remarks as the European Commission unveiled a €3bn (£2.63bn) strategy to reduce its dependency on China for critical raw materials amid a global scramble caused by Beijing’s “weaponisation” of supplies of everything from chips to rare earths.

The ReSourceEU programme will seek to de-risk and diversify the bloc’s supply chains for key commodities with a funding initiative to support 25-30 strategic projects in the sector.

It will include new rules to stop scrap aluminium leaving the bloc, recycling of magnets used in car batteries and a new €2bn a year fund backed by the European Investment Bank to support industries diversifying away from cheap Chinese supplies.

Underlining the threats posed by over dependency on China, Séjourné said if industry did not respond, the commission reserved the right to introduce legislation.

“We would force European companies legally to diversify their sources of supply. That is not the case now, and it is not what is proposed in the plan [ReSourceEU] but this is a wake up call, a strong wake up call,” said Séjourné.

...

Senior EU officials said that “while the direction is clear” there was a need to “accelerate the process” as China continued to “weaponise” its hold on raw materials for “geopolitical purposes”.

To kickstart the implementation of the strategy, two projects, a molybdenum extraction in Greenland and a lithium mine in Germany will get immediate funding.

The EU will also look at financial support to enable companies to buy from more expensive sources than China and it will set up a “raw materials platform” that will pool company orders and build joint stockpiles.

New restrictions will be introduced on scrap exports in 2026 of the metal and of scrap copper if necessary.

...

The EU said the strategy was designed to reduce the impact of “market shocks” such as the disruption to the car industry caused by the recent, now lifted, ban on exports of chips by China in response to the Dutch government taking control of the Chinese-owned chip firm Nexperia.

...

Up to €3bn in funding will be mobilised within the next 12 months, with €2bn a year made available by the European Investment Bank in the form of loans, venture debt and private debt plus financing such as loans already issued to a Finnish lithium mine project Keliber.

...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54309181

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42997092

Web archived link

The UK government and prosecutors have been heavily criticised over the collapse of a China spying case in an official report that described some of their actions as “shambolic”.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which has been reviewing the collapse of the case against two British men accused of spying on MPs for China, said its investigation had found that “systemic failures” contributed to the failure in bringing a prosecution.

The report found the process between the government and the Crown Prosecution Service was “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations”. It added: “Some aspects are best described as shambolic.”

The report said, however, that it “did not find evidence” of “a co-ordinated high-level effort to collapse the prosecution, nor of deliberate efforts to obstruct it.” This, in effect, cleared the government of the most serious charge laid by critics.

The case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry collapsed in September after the government was unwilling or unable to define China as an “enemy” or “national security threat” in evidence for the CPS. Both men have always denied any wrongdoing.

The case was brought under the Official Secrets Act of 1911, which has since been superseded by the National Security Act due to inherent flaws in the old legislation, such as the need to define a country as an enemy that would enable a prosecution.

The case’s collapse led to allegations that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government had undermined the prosecution as it tried to build trade ties with Beijing, something Downing Street has always denied.

...

[The chair of the joint committee Matt] Western said the government “must show the public that it is confident in standing up to adversaries when required: failing to do so will corrode public trust in our institutions”.

The report said the “episode reflects poorly on the otherwise commendable efforts across public servants to keep this country safe.”

Web archived link

The UK government and prosecutors have been heavily criticised over the collapse of a China spying case in an official report that described some of their actions as “shambolic”.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which has been reviewing the collapse of the case against two British men accused of spying on MPs for China, said its investigation had found that “systemic failures” contributed to the failure in bringing a prosecution.

The report found the process between the government and the Crown Prosecution Service was “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations”. It added: “Some aspects are best described as shambolic.”

The report said, however, that it “did not find evidence” of “a co-ordinated high-level effort to collapse the prosecution, nor of deliberate efforts to obstruct it.” This, in effect, cleared the government of the most serious charge laid by critics.

The case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry collapsed in September after the government was unwilling or unable to define China as an “enemy” or “national security threat” in evidence for the CPS. Both men have always denied any wrongdoing.

The case was brought under the Official Secrets Act of 1911, which has since been superseded by the National Security Act due to inherent flaws in the old legislation, such as the need to define a country as an enemy that would enable a prosecution.

The case’s collapse led to allegations that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government had undermined the prosecution as it tried to build trade ties with Beijing, something Downing Street has always denied.

...

[The chair of the joint committee Matt] Western said the government “must show the public that it is confident in standing up to adversaries when required: failing to do so will corrode public trust in our institutions”.

The report said the “episode reflects poorly on the otherwise commendable efforts across public servants to keep this country safe.”

dude overreacted a bit ngl

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46689577

Archived

[...]

In a society where political plurality is crushed, pointing out the existing problems that may eventually put blame on the government and political establishment is dangerous.

[...]

Democracy is vital not only because our rights should be protected, but also because the mechanisms of checks and balances, and division of powers, builds resilience against those in power misbehaving. The collapse of political diversity and the rise of authoritarian governance come with consequences much more far-reaching than the imprisonment of political figures.

[...]

In the face of the tragedy [of the deadly Hong Kong fires], people demand answers about why so many safety procedures and warnings are being ignored. There should not only be arrests of advisors and contractors, but also a truly independent investigation, expanding the scope for civil actors to hold the government accountable.

A typical data centre now requires significant, concentrated power—sometimes equivalent to the needs of tens of thousands of homes. As the sector expands, these large, site-specific demands can add pressure to local parts of the grid and create challenges for connecting new developments. These pressures make it harder and more costly to bring forward new homes, with implications for London’s wider economic growth and its ability to meet housing targets.

A typical data centre now requires significant, concentrated power—sometimes equivalent to the needs of tens of thousands of homes. As the sector expands, these large, site-specific demands can add pressure to local parts of the grid and create challenges for connecting new developments. These pressures make it harder and more costly to bring forward new homes, with implications for London’s wider economic growth and its ability to meet housing targets.

As if usual content for children isn't bad enough.

Found from Bruce Shneier's blog. This model is free, ad-free, privacy respecting, and likely to stay that way. If you or folks you know are heavily using GPT, and likely to be hurt when it starts introducing ads (and otherwise enshittifying) soon, do make sure they know there are alternatives like this.

This particular chat model uses a system prompt chosen by the swiss government, with the intention of providing LLM access as a public utility (like a library). I believe models are intentionally trained on ethical datasets (see the details of Aptertus here), with an effort towards sustainable energy use.

Open source React executes malicious code with malformed HTML—no authentication needed.