Europe

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1104166

Last Tuesday, the European Commission proposed to partially suspend Israel from its €80bn Horizon science research programme, citing the “severe” humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But this proposal comes late, after years of funding military-linked research with minimal transparency or accountability. As the death toll mounts and Gazans face man-made famine, the EU’s role in bankrolling violence is under scrutiny.

Slovenia has banned the import, export and transit of weapons to and from Israel, becoming the first European Union member state to do so in a bid to pressure the Israeli government over its war in Gaza.

Palestinians are “dying because humanitarian aid is systematically denied them,” Slovenian Premier Robert Golob said when announcing the move late Thursday, saying that Israel’s actions constitute serious violations of international law.

“It is the duty of every responsible state to take action, even if it means taking a step before others,” said Golob, who has repeatedly called for concrete EU-wide measures against Israel. Those efforts have faltered due to “internal disagreements and disunity,” on the issue in Brussels, he said.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3825031

Op-ed by Nataliya Gumenyuk, an Ukrainian journalist and founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab. The text is based on Ms. Gumenyuk's intervention at the Helsinki Debate on Europe in May 2025.

Archived version

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Ukrainian human rights defenders and journalists have spent over a decade documenting Russia's political violence.

Initially, their work echoed the moral legacy of the Helsinki Accords, pressing authoritarian regimes to acknowledge human dignity.

But meanwhile, they increasingly believe there is only one way to protect people in occupied territories: liberation by force. After Russian troops were pushed out of Bucha, Kherson and Izyum, the persecutions of the local population stopped.

Many Ukrainians have come to a painful conclusion: international law cannot stop atrocities. It cannot save lives.

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For us Ukrainians, who live in an aggravated reality, everything around us automatically undergoes a reality check, particularly our values and ideals.

But we also need to consider another recent shift in political reality. Before, the fight against hypocrisy used to belong to idealists. There was a time when autocrats pretended to follow international rules. Today, they boast about breaking them. Instead of hiding their wrongdoings, they commit so many that it's hard not to be overwhelmed, learning about the scale of atrocities, resulting in a feeling of powerlessness.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3819931

Helsinki has not recorded a single traffic fatality in the past 12 months, city and police officials confirmed this week.

The city's most recent fatal accident occurred in early July 2024 on Keinulaudantie in the city's Kontula district.

Authorities are calling the situation exceptional.

"A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important," said Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city's Urban Environment Division.

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According to Utriainen, more than half of Helsinki's streets now have a speed limit of 30 km/h. Fifty years ago, that proportion featured 50 km/h limits.

Earlier this summer, Helsinki decided to lower speed limits near schools to 30 km/h, a measure that is set to take effect as the academic year begins.

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Archive: https://archive.ph/2025.07.31-102513/https://www.ft.com/content/0289c26c-ce11-48d3-9dd3-3bb9a857fa05

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3805594

Archived version

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles against Kyiv overnight on July 31, killing at least six people and injuring 52, local authorities reported.

The attack killed four people in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and two in Solomianskyi, including a six-year-old boy.

Three police officers were among the injured. Overall, 29 people required hospitalization as of approximately 7:00 a.m. local time. First responders have been working at the scenes of the attacks.

"There are nine children among the injured. This is the highest number of injured children during a single night in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3803492

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Fears of Russian meddling have been looming large as Sandu has been steering Moldova toward official EU accession talks that started in June 2024.

"The Russian Federation wants to control Moldova from the fall and is preparing an unprecedented interference in the September elections," including by vote buying and illicit financing through cryptocurrencies for which "100 million euros" have been earmarked, [Moldova's pro-European President Maia] Sandu told a press conference on Wednesday.

The head of state, who won last year's re-election, detailed the plans Moscow has allegedly put in place ahead of the vote.

Sandu said the Kremlin was planning to launch "information manipulation campaigns" and cyber attacks, and organise paid "violent" protests, while also looking to exploit traditional religious structures.

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She accused the two main opposition forces of taking advantage of Moscow's plans to deprive her centre-right Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) of its parliamentary majority.

Sandu was referring to people affiliated to fugitive pro-Russian politician Ilan Shor, who she said was leading a "criminal group" that was aiming to destabilise the country by protests and "creating networks of vote buying".

Furthermore, she called out the Russian-financed "sovereignist" force that promotes Euroscepticism and the subordination of the country's interests to those of Moscow.

Lastly, "the moderate pro-European electorate" was being targeted in a bid to sow doubt among it, including by sabotaging the electoral process overseas.

"All these projects are coordinated from the same command point" in Moscow, she said. According to a recent poll, Sandu's PAS is currently leading with 39% support, followed by the pro-Russian opposition Socialist party at 14.9%.

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In the past, authorities have accused pro-Russian media and activists of disseminating disinformation in Moldova, with scores of outlets and Telegram channels being shut down. Sandu criticised Telegram for not responding to reports regarding voter corruption on its platform.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3803666

Three vessels laden with oil products from India's Nayara Energy have yet to discharge their cargoes, hindered by new EU sanctions on the Russia-backed refiner, according to shipping data and sources.

Nayara Energy, which runs India's third-biggest refinery, is majority-owned by Russian entities, including oil major Rosneft. It was hit with European Union sanctions on July 18 targeting Russia and its oil trade, causing shippers and traders to shun dealing with its cargoes.

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The Panamax-sized tanker Alora, chartered by Nayara Energy and carrying around 60,000 metric tons (472,800 barrels) of jet fuel loaded in early June, has been anchored off Portugal's Sines port since arriving there on July 18, Kpler and LSEG data showed.

The cargo has been paid for, said a person familiar with the matter. However, the vessel has been unable to discharge as some EU oil surveyors and other companies are reluctant to deal with products linked to a sanctioned entity, according to the person and a second source.

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It is unclear who the buyer is.

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[OP- Several tankers that had been scheduled to load Nayara Energy cargo at the Vadinar port in India reportedly changed their plans. The EU included Indian company Nayara Energy to its sanctions list mid-July due to the fact that Russian state oil giant Rosneft owns a 49% stake in it.]

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has signed Europe up to a humiliating, unequal trade deal with the United States. The terms dictated by Donald Trump reflect Europe’s vassal status as an increasingly junior partner to US empire.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3808299

Archived version

The Verkhovna Rada [the Ukrainian parliament] has restored the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO).

A total of 331 MPs voted for relevant presidential bill No. 13533 on strengthening the effectiveness of the NABU and SAPO at the plenary session of the parliament on Thursday.

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Archived version

Russia has carried out over 10,000 chemical weapons attacks against Ukrainian forces since the start of its full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on July 30.

The agency said Russian troops have repeatedly used prohibited chemical agents, including K-51, RGR, and RG-VO aerosol grenades loaded with CS (chlorobenzylidene malonitrile) and CN (chloroacetophenone), both banned irritants.

The use of such agents is prohibited under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia ratified.

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In a July 4 report, the Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) confirmed that Russia had escalated from deploying riot control agents to using chloropicrin — a chemical capable of killing in confined spaces.

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Archived

Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) has uncovered further evidence of Russia's mass abduction of Ukrainian children from occupied territories following a successful cyber operation, the agency reported on July 30.

As part of the operation, Ukrainian cyber specialists gained access to servers belonging to the Russian occupation administration of Crimea, HUR claims.

The files retrieved allegedly further confirm the organized deportation of children from Russian-occupied areas in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts.

The cache includes thousands of documents, according to HUR, such as personal profiles of abducted children, illegal guardianship appointments assigning Russian citizens as caretakers, relocation addresses, and records of children resettled throughout Russian-controlled areas.

HUR spokesperson Andrii Yusov said that the data will be used to strengthen criminal investigations and aid in returning the children to Ukraine.

"Thousands of files with invaluable information about one of the biggest war crimes of the Russian Federation — abduction of Ukrainian children — have already been transferred to law enforcement agencies," he added.

According to Ukraine's official Children of War database, at least 19,546 Ukrainian children have been confirmed to be forcibly removed since February 2022. Only 1,468 have been brought back home.

Ukrainian officials estimate the real figure could be far higher, with Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets putting the number at up to 150,000, while Children's Ombudsman Daria Herasymchuk has cited a range of 200,000–300,000.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, citing their personal roles in organizing the illegal transfers.

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