Europe

"Almost 6,700 American nationals had applied for a visa to work, be with family or study in the Netherlands by the end of November this year, according to immigration service figures, and that is by far the highest number in the past 10 years.

The total is likely to be higher once December, traditionally a busy month, is taken into account, current affairs programme Nieuwsuur reported at the weekend. (...)

Asylum requests submitted via the IND are also rising, with over 60 since the beginning of this year, compared with around 20 in the whole of 2024. Most are from members of the LGBTQ+ community fleeing repression under Trump."

NOS NL

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• Deutsche Bahn’s recent bulk order of electric buses from BYD sparks a heated labor dispute.
• Critics label the purchase decision a “bad joke,” citing concerns over domestic industry and worker loyalty.
• Despite political pressure for local sourcing, Deutsche Bahn opts heavily for Chinese manufacturers through European subsidiaries.
• BYD, a major player in electric buses, operates a U.S. plant but still faces challenges assimilating into Western markets.
• Union leaders vow to bring the controversy before Deutsche Bahn’s supervisory board, escalating tensions.

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The recent announcement of Deutsche Bahn’s considerable electric bus procurement from BYD, a Chinese manufacturer, has sparked outrage from EVG [stands for Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft, the Railway and Transport Union in Germany], the key labor union representing railway workers. The main gripe? A perceived threat to domestic employment and a failure to uphold the government’s call for economic nationalism.

EVG’s leader, Martin Burkert, wasted no time declaring the purchase a “bad joke”. This blunt criticism encapsulates growing concerns about multinational supply chains overrunning local industry. Burkert highlighted the dissonance between the government’s recent exhortation for “location patriotism” and Deutsche Bahn’s decision to pursue cheaper, foreign-made buses.

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The union’s forceful objection serves as a reminder that procurement practices in public transportation are not merely transactions—they are also political statements with social consequences.

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Behind the headline tension lies a complex web of procurement rules, subsidiary dynamics, and geopolitical considerations. Deutsche Bahn’s decision to engage BYD does not equate to a direct Chinese purchase. Instead, contracts are funneled through BYD’s European subsidiaries, enabling them to compete under EU regulations ... Crucially, this procurement channeling is what allows these Chinese-origin companies to bypass outright exclusion, despite increasing political skepticism about Chinese industrial influence.

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Yet this arrangement spots scrutinizers in the union and political spheres who emphasize that true “local sourcing” must go beyond legal technicalities. Public sentiment often equates such purchases with foreign imports, especially given media narratives about economic competition with China. This perception puts public pressure on political leaders to reassess procurement guidelines and possible protections for domestic manufacturers.

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BYD’s journey shows the complexities of confronting skepticism around foreign ownership and geopolitical concerns. In the U.S., the company has faced investigations around national security concerns tied to Chinese Communist Party links and came under scrutiny as the Senate debated legislation to restrict federal funds from supporting Chinese-owned manufacturing firms.

These hurdles underscore the broader challenges non-Western companies face when trying to embed themselves in Western infrastructure projects, especially in sectors as sensitive as public transportation. BYD’s efforts to comply with “buy American” rules by employing hundreds of American union workers and sourcing components locally demonstrate a bid to mitigate these concerns.

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This [union's] approach combines hard-hitting rhetoric, such as labeling the BYD purchase a “bad joke,” with detailed advocacy for increased domestic procurement to protect European workers. They also seek to forge alliances with political leaders to introduce stricter guidelines favoring local manufacturers in future tenders.

Key elements of this strategy include pushing for:

• Clearer definitions of ‘local content’ in public contracts to exclude loopholes exploited by subsidiaries of foreign firms.
• Increased transparency requirements for manufacturers bidding on sensitive infrastructure orders.
• Strengthening labor protections and safeguarding union jobs within evolving green transport industries.

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Addition: To provide a broader picture: DB will be ordering around 3,300 busses over the next years with the main supplier being Germany's MAN. China's BYD is supposed to deliver a few hundreds.

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Any peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine will only last if Moscow makes real concessions, including limiting the size of its armed forces and curbing its growing military budget, the EU’s top diplomat has said.

In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Friday, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, warned that without meaningful concessions from Moscow, Europe risks facing new conflicts elsewhere.

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The problem for peace is Russia,” Kallas said, adding: “Even if Ukraine received security guarantees, without concessions from the Russian side, we would have other wars, perhaps not in Ukraine but elsewhere.”

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Kallas said that Kyiv and its allies “certainly welcome the momentum toward peace that the U.S. administration is showing,” but cautioned that Russia lacks a “genuine will for peace.”

“It [Russia] is constantly bombing Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure,” she told Corriere della Sera, stressing that “first we need to see a ceasefire.”

She said that in order to achieve sustainable peace, it is necessary to ensure that “Russia does not attack again”, adding that this requires clear concessions from Moscow.

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"We need concessions from Russia, whether that means limiting its army or restraining its military budget,” said Kallas, who served as Estonia’s prime minister from 2016 to 2021.

Moscow has significantly increased its military budget in recent years, diverting vast resources toward the defense industry to sustain its war in Ukraine.

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Their names are Yelizaveta and Mykhailo. She was born 16 years ago in Simferopol (Crimea); he, 12 years ago in Makiivka (Donetsk). Both were born in a free Ukraine, but have lived for more than a decade in territory occupied by the Russian army. Last week, Ukrainian lawyer and international law expert Katerina Rashevska showed their photos before the United States Senate. She denounced that the organization she works for in Kyiv, the Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR), has documented 165 camps where Ukrainian children are subjected to a process of Russification. The case of Yelizaveta and Mykhailo is particularly noteworthy. Moscow temporarily sent the two children to the Songdowon camp in North Korea. They are the first identified Ukrainian minors to travel to the Kremlin’s major Asian ally as part of its campaign of child indoctrination.

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She [Yelizaveta] resided at the Songdowon camp, on the Sea of Japan, during July and August of 2024. She did so through the Russian youth organization Movement of the First, successor to the Soviet Young Pioneers. Yelizaveta traveled to Kim Jong-Un’s iron-fisted dictatorship as a participant in this nationalist movement. “Although she was born in Crimea, Ukraine, at first glance it appears that her identity has been completely erased and replaced with a Russian one,” the RCHR maintains.

Mykhailo visited the Songdowon facility from July 21 to August 1 last summer as part of a program between Moscow and Pyongyang. The boy is also a member of Movement of the First. Mykhailo was just a baby when the Russian army took over his hometown in the Donbas region. “He didn’t even have time to form his Ukrainian identity,” the RCHR stated.

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With due caution, the RCHR, which originated in Crimea but moved its offices to Kyiv after Russia’s conquest of the peninsula, acknowledges that in neither case would we be dealing with an “illegal deportation because the coercion consisted of 11 years of propaganda within the occupied education system.” We would, however, be at the final stage of a long process of “indoctrination and militarization” that could constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity. Last Thursday, a day after Rashevska’s testimony before the U.S. Senate, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets accused Russia of sending “abducted” Ukrainian children to North Korea.

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The RCHR has located 165 Russian indoctrination camps across occupied territory in Ukraine, Russia itself, its ally Belarus, and now North Korea, which in the last year has sent soldiers and weapons to Moscow to support the major offensive against Kyiv ... Behind this network allegedly is Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. She and Vladimir Putin are subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.

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Yelizaveta and Mykhailo learned at the Songdowon camp, among other things, how to “destroy Japanese soldiers.” They also met North Korean veterans who, in 1968, attacked and captured the U.S. spy ship Pueblo in the Sea of Japan. “The militarization and Russification cause severe trauma and violate the dignity of children,” [human rights lawyer] Rashevska stated ... “The ultimate goal,” the lawyer continued emotionally, “is for Ukrainians to kill each other.”

Yelizaveta and Mykhailo were sent to the camp as a reward for their “proactive” attitude, according to the RCHR. The investigation names other Ukrainian children, including some from the occupied Luhansk province, but it is unknown whether they were ultimately selected to participate in the program in North Korea. There is no evidence that the children who did travel were unable to return home after their stay in Songdowon ended.

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A demonstration in the Hungarian capital Budapest Saturday drew tens of thousands of protesters demanding that Prime Minister Viktor Orban resign due to perceived inaction over allegations of child abuse in state-run institutions.

Automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have urged the EU to weaken the policy, amid slower-than-expected electric car sales. Sweden's Volvo Cars and others say they have already heavily invested in the transition to electric, and any reversal on the ban would be a betrayal.

An interpreter broke down in tears at the European Parliament in Brussels while translating for an 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who was injured in a Russian missile strike on a hospital in central Ukraine in 2022.

Roman Oleksiv's mother was killed in the attack and he has undergone multiple surgeries since.

dw.com/en/romania-in-turmoil-o…

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The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will surely be held accountable by the International Criminal Tribunal, aoording to Errol Mendes, professor of law at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

"One should look at what happened to Milosevic to understand what fate awaits Putin in the end. He believes he is invulnerable and out of reach. He is convinced that he will never be held to account. Milosevic thought the same," says Mendes.

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According to the expert, Milosevic’s accountability became possible thanks to the West’s unwavering stance on punishing serious crimes.

"This may take 10, 20 years or even longer, but Ukraine and its allies need to start implementing the same strategy that allowed Milosevic to be brought before the International Criminal Tribunal. I am convinced Putin will end up there as well."

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"Switzerland must be able to defend itself as effectively as possible against an armed attack. In the event of an attack, it should be prepared to defend itself, if necessary in collaboration with its partners"

https://www.news.admin.ch/en/newnsb/BLkWfUbUsXtBFoSj-krgU

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The activist who heads the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties, which won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, warns that ending the invasion will only be possible if the Kremlin feels that ‘the price of continuing the war is higher than the price of stopping it’.

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Oleksandra Matviichuk: It’s not just about Ukraine. Russia is an empire. An empire has a center, but it has no borders. An empire is always trying to expand. These aren’t my words. They are Vladimir Putin’s, who claimed that the borders of the Russian Federation “never end.” And I’ve seen it even in my human rights work. When I interviewed people who survived Russian captivity, they told me that Russians see their future like this: first we will occupy Ukraine, and then, together with you, we will go on to conquer other countries. Putin sees Ukraine as a bridge to attack the next European country. His logic is historical. He dreams about his legacy. He wants to forcibly restore the Russian Empire because the collapse of the Soviet Union was, to quote him, “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the past century.” So he wants revenge. And this means that people in the European Union are safe only because the Ukrainians are still resisting and not allowing the Russian army to advance and attack the next country.

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The European Union leadership is behaving as if they have time. As if they have several years before Russia starts attacking. But Putin isn’t stupid. Why do they think he’ll give them several years to prepare and not attack now?

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The European Union must take decisive action. Such as creating a special tribunal on aggression, using frozen Russian assets for self-defense and the reconstruction of Ukraine. And also helping Ukraine close its airspace. I literally don’t understand what the problem is with shooting down a piece of metal that costs €1,000 [$1,160]. I’m referring to a Russian drone. It’s not an airplane with a pilot, just a piece of metal. Russia sends hundreds and hundreds of drones every day to destroy Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. And they succeed, because now we have lost the vast majority of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine, which poses a real threat to millions of people who could face winter without heating, without water, without energy, without electricity. It’s a vital problem because you can’t even warm milk for a newborn.

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I was furious [because of the recent anti-corruption investigation in Ukraine that forced the resignation of the president’s chief of staff]. Furious, like millions of people in Ukraine, for an obvious reason: we all donate a lot. We donate to the Ukrainian army, to the wounded, to people who lost everything in this war, to the victims of Russian war crimes. Ukrainian pensioners give the last of their pensions as donations.

But when we look at the situation from a pragmatic point of view, first, this corruption scandal has happened not because of a journalistic investigation, but because of an official investigation by state anti-corruption agencies, which shows that these official anti-corruption agencies are working effectively. Just 12 years ago, this was unthinkable.

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So yes, we are not perfect. We have a lot of problems that we take seriously. It is our responsibility. But we are still a democracy. A democracy in transition, and we are on the right track.

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The European Union is continuing to insist on Russia's full responsibility for crimes against Ukraine and, in particular, on the swift completion of the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.

The EU wants to finalise the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which concerns the order by Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine, as soon as possible.

"First of all, the position of the European Union will continue to be that there should be full accountability for Russian crimes in Ukraine. That is our position, and it will remain our position," Michael McGrath, EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, told European Pravda.

He said it is "vital" to ensure "that those who are the victims of the crime of aggression perpetrated by Russia have their rights vindicated and that they have justice served to them".

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A string of sex-related and political scandals affecting Spain’s governing Socialists has rocked the beleaguered administration of Pedro Sánchez and caused deep unease within a party which prides itself on promoting feminist causes.

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On Wednesday, José Tomé, the Socialist head of the provincial council of Lugo, in the northwest of the country, resigned after six women had made complaints about his behaviour. The women, who were current and former members of the party, claimed that Tomé had groped them, offered jobs in exchange for sex, and sent explicit photographs to their phones.

After a television programme had aired the anonymous complaints, Tomé insisted he was innocent. However, within hours he had stepped down, saying he would take the case to court to prove that it was “a set-up”.

Tomé’s case is extremely damaging for the Socialist Party in the Galicia region. Although he has resigned as president of the provincial council and requested that his party membership be suspended, he has not stepped down as mayor of the town of Monforte or given up his seat on the council.

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Lara Méndez, the party’s number three in the region, described the claims against Tomé as “repugnant”.

However, this is only the latest of several such cases to affect the party.

In July, Francisco Salazar, who had been a close ally of and senior advisor to prime minister Sánchez, was forced to step down after female colleagues had repeatedly complained about harassment by him. The allegations included that he had unzipped his trousers, made sexually explicit comments and mimicked sex acts in front of them.

It subsequently emerged that the party had failed to contact those who had made the complaints for several months.

... Salazar’s assistant in the prime minister’s office, Antonio Hernández, was sacked this week for allegedly enabling his boss’s actions and trying to protect him from being investigated.

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Meanwhile, the Socialist Party has suspended Antonio Navarro, its secretary general in the southern town of Torremolinos, after a woman filed a complaint of harassment before the local prosecutor for violence against women, which he denied.

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There are signs of unease within Socialist ranks at the cases, adding to the government’s many problems, which include the apparent collapse of its parliamentary majority. Two former secretaries of the Socialist Party and close allies of Sánchez, José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán [who has resigned from office], are due to go on trial accused of overseeing a massive kickback scheme.

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In an open letter published in El País newspaper, three high-profile female Socialist politicians, including the party’s spokeswoman for equality, Andrea Fernández, expressed deep concern ... They also said [the Socialist party] needed to introduce “greater control over processes against harassment and other types of violence” and to “introduce measures to help repair the damage caused” by such cases.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54907251

The Hungarian government has launched a residential energy storage program with a budget of HUF 100 billion. Under the initiative, households can install 10 kW battery energy storage systems, with a non-refundable subsidy of HUF 2.5 million to support the purchase.

Farmers in southwest France blocked major roads overnight from Friday to Saturday, setting fire to hay bales and clashing with police in protest at government‑ordered cattle culls linked to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.