Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-161854/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/10/the-uk-s-labour-government-is-at-odds-with-its-left-wing_6740071_23.html

Is the British Labour Party still a left-wing party? This question has taken on new weight after Keir Starmer's government announced a series of highly controversial measures, including cuts to support the most vulnerable to fund defense efforts and adhere to budgetary rules that seem outdated in the face of rising geopolitical threats and the global trade war initiated by Donald Trump.

On March 18, the prime minister, whose party ended 14 years of Conservative rule in July 2024, confirmed a £5 billion (over €5.8 billion) cut in aid to people with disabilities or long-term illnesses. The eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), an allowance granted to people with health issues affecting their daily lives or ability to work, will be tightened.

Indeed, the current situation appears untenable: As of January 31, nearly 3.7 million people were receiving PIP, according to the Ministry of Labor – almost 60% more than in 2020, before the pandemic. "One in 10 people of working age now claiming a sickness or disability benefit. Almost one million young people not in education, employment or training – that's one in eight of all our young people," highlighted Minister of Labor Liz Kendall. Without reforms, the cost of health and disability aid will rise from £65 billion to £100 billion by

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-003553/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/in-pokrovsk-ukraine-the-underground-war_6740043_4.html

Photographer Adrien Vautier accompanied combat units for Le Monde on the front line surrounding Pokrovsk. The city is a major logistical hub for the entire Donbas region. The battle, which began nine months ago, has been violent; Russian assaults have intensified and Ukrainian counterattacks are swift and fierce.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-035217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/polish-nationalists-striking-contradictions-over-trump-s-policies_6740048_4.html

(…) As international political expert Witold Jurasz from the site Onet pointed out, "In terms of values, the PiS is as anti-Western as it is anti-Russian. The fact that the United States distances itself from Western values doesn't bother them, as long as they can keep American power on their side." According to Jurasz, the PiS's attitude is explained above all by its dogmatism: "They think that a Republican president in the White House cannot harm us and a Democratic president cannot do us any good. That's the logic."

In the eyes of public opinion, this attitude does not wash. The "Trump effect," which was supposed to bolster the PiS candidate, did not occur, and the party is still significantly trailing in the polls behind its liberal rival Rafal Trzaskowski. An editorial in the daily Gazeta Prawna aptly summed up this sentiment: "The far right is closing its eyes, continuing to sleep and afraid of waking up to this new reality. The cult of an American leader who might bring the Russians closer to the Polish border can hardly be defended."

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.09-095416/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-far-right-afd-tops-poll-first-time-blow-chancellor-in-waiting-merz-2025-04-09/

BERLIN, April 9 - Germany's far-right AfD party topped a major poll for the first time on Wednesday in a sign of growing dissatisfaction with mainstream parties as chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz seeks to seal a coalition government deal.

Support for Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc, which won the February 23 election, fell by five percentage points to 24% while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained three points to land on 25%, according to the Ipsos institute's poll.

The AfD came second in the election, the best performance by a far-right party since World War Two.

Archive: https://archive.is/wgkWW

Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party has condemned a court ruling overturning the granting of a terrestrial broadcasting licence to two conservative TV news stations. Its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, says that the decision is further proof of how the government is “destroying democracy”.

However, he provided no evidence of government influence on the court’s decision. The ruling is also almost certain to be appealed, meaning the case could drag on for years, during which time the stations can continue using the licences they were granted.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-162944/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/germany-s-merz-unveils-his-coalition-deal-on-illegal-immigration-taxes-and-bureaucracy_6740072_4.html

(…) Bitterly negotiated by parties with opposing positions, the coalition agreement presented Wednesday ultimately contains few surprises. It consists of a combination of measures restricting illegal immigration, some tax cuts and a reduction in "bureaucracy," a term that appears about 50 times in the document.

In reality, the most significant reform of Merz's term has already been voted on: On March 18, a nearly €1 trillion spending package to finance defense efforts and modernize the country was approved. This already stands as the future coalition's main achievement and the one most likely to transform the German model being challenged from all sides.

On the politically sensitive issue of immigration – strategic for the conservatives – the two parties reached a compromise that allows each to claim victory. Merz, who had promised drastic measures "from day one" of his mandate, asserted that the document would "largely end" ilegal immigration and that asylum seekers would be turned away at the border "in consultation with European partners" – a somewhat vague phrase already employed in the wake of the elections. Klingbeil, for his part, maintained that it had "always been clear that the fundamental right to asylum remains intangible." "Germany remains a country of immigration," he stressed.

The CDU secured the repeal of expedited regularization procedures introduced by the previous government but, in return, gave up its push to revoke dual nationality from offenders – a measure advocated by Merz. Family reunification will also be restricted for some refugees, and the Bürgergeld (a welfare benefit for people with few resources) will be transformed into unemployment benefits with stricter conditions.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.09-043630/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2025/04/08/in-salzburg-the-porsche-family-s-private-tunnel-project-faces-unexpected-resistance_6739981_19.html

Is the peaceful and prosperous Salzburg losing its reputation as a haven of tranquility for Austria's upper bourgeoisie? Wolfgang Porsche's project to construct a private tunnel has indeed caused an unusual political stir in Mozart's birthplace, also known for its highly exclusive classical music festival.

At 81, Wolfgang Porsche, who remains the chairman of the supervisory board of Porsche AG, wants to build a tunnel and an underground garage beneath the Kapuzinerberg, one of the lovely green hills overlooking the city center. The goal is to facilitate access to the Paschinger Schlössl, the grand manor he purchased in 2020 for €8.4 million.

Conservative and centre-left parties in Germany have reached a deal to form a new government after weeks of negotiations, paving the way for new leadership in Europe's biggest economy after months of political drift.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is expected to become Germany's next chancellor under the agreement, replacing the outgoing Olaf Scholz. 

The parties involved in the coalition have said they will hold a press conference on the deal at 3 pm CET. 

Merz's two-party Union bloc emerged as the strongest force from Germany's February federal elections. 

Merz turned to the Social Democrats, Scholz's centre-left party, to put together a coalition with a parliamentary majority.

This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.

Archive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_fire-bellied_toad

The European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) is a species of fire-bellied toad native to eastern parts of mainland Europe, where it can be found near waterbodies such as ponds and marshes.[2][3] It is known for its red colored belly used to ward off predators, an example of aposematism, and its distinctive "whoop" call.[4][5]

It is Wednesday my dudes, dudettes and people of other dudeist identity.

Edamaruku, founder of the Rationalist International, became known in his homeland for travelling around villages in an effort to prove that alleged miracles proclaimed by various holy men were actually scams.

In 2012, he was charged with blasphemy following complaints from Catholic organisations after he showed that an alleged miracle of water dripping from a crucifix in a Mumbai church was actually the result of a leak from a nearby sewage pipe.

Edamaruku has since 2020 been subject to an Interpol red notice, which seeks his detention and extradition back to India.

However, that warrant relates not to the blasphemy charge but to separate accusations – made by an Indian government employee, according to the Times of India – that Edamaruku cheated a woman out of money by making false promises that he could provide a Finnish visa.

"The Albanian mafia would call me and say: 'We want to send 500kg of drugs.' If you don't accept, they kill you."

César (not his real name) is a member of the Latin Kings, a criminal drug gang in Ecuador. He was recruited by a corrupt counternarcotics police officer to work for the Albanian mafia, one of Europe's most prolific cocaine trafficking networks.

The Albanian mafia has expanded its presence in Ecuador in recent years, drawn by key trafficking routes through the country, and it now controls much of the cocaine flow from South America to Europe.

Despite Ecuador not producing the drug, 70% of the world's cocaine now flows through its ports, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa says.

It is smuggled into the country from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world's two largest producers of cocaine.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.08-053057/https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-says-eu-must-buy-350b-of-us-energy-to-get-tariff-relief/

The European Union will have to commit to buying $350 billion of American energy to get a reprieve from Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, the U.S. president said late Monday, dismissing Brussels' offer of "zero-for-zero" tariffson cars and industrial goods. 

Trump's comments at a White House press conference were in response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying earlier Monday that the EU had offered to drop the bloc's tariffs to zero on cars and industrial goods imported from the U.S. if Trump reciprocated.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.07-165531/https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-strike-ukraine-children-killed-kryviy-rih-e7ad20c3

Russia’s killing of nine children in a missile strike has shaken even Ukrainians who are hardened to such attacks after three years of war and brought into focus the failure of President Trump to fulfill his campaign pledge of a swift end to the war.

Families held funerals on Monday for children who perished in the Russian attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih on Friday, which also killed 11 adults. Mourners brought flowers and soft toys to the playground in the middle of a residential area that was struck by a ballistic missile.

The United Nations said it was the largest verified loss of children’s lives in a single incident since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

“We are not asking for pity,” Kryviy Rih’s top official, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on social media. “We are demanding the world’s outrage.”

A Belgian prince's attempt to claim social security benefits on top of his six-figure royal allowance has been rejected by a court.

Prince Laurent - the younger brother of King Philippe - received €388,000 (£295,850; $376,000) from state funds last year but said that his work entitles him and his family to social security.

He had argued that he was partly self-employed because of the duties he carries out as a royal, as well as running an animal welfare charity for the past decade.

Laurent, 61, said he was acting out of "principle" rather than for money. The court disagreed.

One of Telegram’s most popular anonymous news channels mysteriously disappeared overnight. “VChK-OGPU” (short for “All-Russian Extraordinary Commission Joint State Political Directorate”) had more than 1.1 million subscribers before it was deleted in the early morning hours of April 7. The channel wrote extensively about Russia’s law enforcement and intelligence communities.

It’s unclear why the channel was shut down. Telegram’s press service told the outlet Mediazona that VChK-OGPU “was deleted by its owner, possibly as a result of unauthorized access,” though the channel’s founder told journalists at Dossier Center that Telegram administrators blocked the account he used to create the channel and then deleted the channel itself. The source argued that Telegram has apparently started enforcing government takedown orders, referring to the Russian authorities demanding last December that Telegram delete VChK-OGPU and several other popular channels.

Meanwhile, another source linked to VChK-OGPU told BBC Russia that there was no unauthorized access to the channel, though the SIM card used in the account that registered the channel is now apparently blocked. Another BBC source suggested that the deletion may be related to an attack on a journalist affiliated with the channel, Alexander Shvarev, whom Latvian national police summoned and warned several months ago of a possible attempt on his life by Russian intelligence.

On 28 March, the state-owned energy company Naftogaz reported a further Russian attack on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure. This was reportedly the eighteenth large-scale strike since the outbreak of the full-scale war and the eighth since the beginning of the year. No specific details of the damage were disclosed, apart from confirmation that the targets were facilities related to gas extraction – most likely, as in previous weeks, compressor and gas treatment stations. The damage was so severe that, in mid-February, Ukraine was forced to increase gas imports nearly tenfold to meet immediate demand.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that current gas reserves in underground storage facilities are at their lowest in at least a decade. This constrains daily extraction capacity and necessitates costly fuel imports. According to the head of OGTSU (the transmission system operator), Ukraine intends to purchase at least 4 billion cubic metres of gas between April and October 2025. A significant portion of this will be American LNG, delivered via EU terminals, including the Świnoujście LNG terminal.

The latest attacks indicate that Moscow is using ceasefire talks with the United States solely as a means to its own ends. It continues to systematically destroy Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, which the Kremlin has exempted from the moratorium on targeting energy facilities (see ‘Negotiations in Riyadh: unclear agreements, slim prospects for implementation’). The principal challenge for Kyiv will be preparing for the forthcoming heating season – most notably, securing sufficient imported gas reserves amid strained public finances.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.06-100541/https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/the-embezzlement-scheme-that-led-to-le-pens-elections-ban-a857027a

PARIS—Marine Le Pen convened a meeting of her party’s European Parliament lawmakers in June 2014 to discuss a vital matter: how to spend the 6.5 million euros the European Union had earmarked for them to hire assistants.

The sum was significant, more than double the entire payroll of Le Pen’s far-right party, then known as the National Front. Le Pen, according to court documents, asked the lawmakers to sign off on a system that allowed the Le Pen family to hand out contracts and cut paychecks to members of her inner circle and other party officials.

“What Marine is asking us is equivalent to signing for fictitious jobs,” one of the lawmakers, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, wrote in an email at the time to the party’s then-treasurer, Wallerand de Saint-Just. “And it is the lawmaker who is criminally responsible for his or her own money, even if the party is the beneficiary of it.”

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.06-143722/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/le-pen-evokes-spirit-martin-luther-king-jr-supporters-rally-paris-2025-04-06/

(…) A Paris court convicted Le Pen and two dozen National Rally (RN) party members of embezzling EU funds last week and imposed a sentence that will prevent her from standing in France's 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned within 18 months.

"We will follow Martin Luther King as an example," Le Pen said in a video appearance for Italian Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration Lega party, which was holding a meeting in Florence.

"Our fight will be a peaceful fight, a democratic fight. We will follow Martin Luther King, who defended civil rights, as an example."

Le Pen supporters waved French flags and chanted "we will win" as they gathered in central Paris on Sunday afternoon for a peaceful protest, which could give an indication of how much popular backing there is for her accusations that prosecutors in the case sought her "political death".

(…)

An opinion poll by Elabe on Saturday showed Le Pen was still favourite to win the first round of the presidential vote with between 32% and 36% support, ahead of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who was polled at between 20.5% and 24%.

But attacks by Le Pen and her allies over the "tyranny of judges" have not gained traction, even among some of her supporters, particularly after the lead judge in her case was put under police protection following death threats. (…)

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.06-061130/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-04-06/trump-tariffs-online-safety-for-uk-kids-can-t-be-a-bargaining-chip

Will Keir Starmer’s government sell out the safety of UK teens in a deal to mitigate Donald Trump’s tariff apocalypse?

That’s the question parents’ groups are asking as the UK, along with every other country, searches for ways to persuade Washington to dial down its new aggressive tariff regime and avert a full-scale trade war.

Saddled with “only” the 10% baseline charge, Britain got off lighter than many, including its recent partners in the European Union, which must now cough up 20% levies on exports. But it’s still about to take a catastrophic hit — the UK economy is, of course, exposed to a general global downturn, and will feel the pinch of the additional US tariffs on its car and steel sectors. More concerning, Britain’s finances are in such a dire state that the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned the wafer thin headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves set aside to avoid breaching her fiscal rules will be blown out of the water by Trump’s tariffs.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.06-041655/https://www.ft.com/content/40f6e292-839c-4d1f-994e-59bed627b909

(…) That system is on the cusp of huge change, for both political and technological reasons. The weaponisation of the dollar-based financial system — note how the US has cut off access by adversaries to Swift messaging for bank transfers — has prompted quests for alternatives. Ideas include a currency and payments system run by and for Brics countries. Technologies such as stablecoins offer an instant, cheap and 24/7 alternative to the expensive, slow and cumbersome legacy of correspondent banking.

So the fight for domination of the future payments system is on — and the US wants to win. The broader European public may be blissfully unaware. But those in charge of the Eurozone are also determined that this battle for technological control over the economy is one that the EU must not lose. This is the fundamental motivation for the digital euro — a central bank-issued official digital currency that, if done well and fast enough, will rival or outperform the attractiveness of dollar stablecoins.

Without it, Europe faces dangers we have known about for some time — since Facebook’s ill-fated 2019 proposal for its “Libra” electronic currency. Even before that, Europe discovered that when Trump placed sanctions on Iran, Europe could not act autonomously because it was so hard to process trade payments without US-exposed banks.

The fact is that the Eurozone is already shockingly dependent on American payment mechanisms. Some two-thirds of card payments in the Eurozone are processed by non-European card providers, says the ECB; 13 of the 20 countries using the euro do not have national card-payment systems. In those cases, “when you go to buy milk, it’s either [physical] cash or Visa/Mastercard”, as one European central banker puts it. This dependence is replicated in the rapid spread of mobile apps. (…)

During the last UEFA European Football Championship, it wasn’t just the trains that were always running late or the fact that many stores only accepted cash that made Germany look bad. Criticism of the country’s terrible wi-fi connections was also shared with the rest of the world. Germans seem resigned to their spotty coverage, and the country has been trying to deal with the issue for years. At this point, some residents take the problem in stride. “Of course, it’s normal that there’s no signal here, there are a lot of us in the same place,” said a German journalist after leaving a screening at the Berlin Film Festival, upon hearing the complaints of her foreign peers about the lack of reception. Some of the writers from other countries jokingly pointed out that they had better wi-fi in any remote town on the island of Mallorca than they did right there. in the center of Berlin.

Germany has a serious mobile and internet coverage problem, not just in isolated areas, but also in big cities like Berlin and Munich. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken about the issue, and what it means for businesses, on various occasions, and has mentioned Spain as an example of a country that has done well in the area of digitalization and high-speed internet.

Some Germans did note that the subject of artificial intelligence appeared to be absent from the last German elections. “How are we going to debate about AI if we don’t even have internet in downtown Munich?,” two young people seated in front of their laptops at a café in the capital complained, only half jokingly.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.05-080053/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sex-toys-exploding-cosmetics-anatomy-hybrid-war-west-2025-04-05/

WARSAW, April 5 (Reuters) - Fake cosmetics, massage pillows and sex toys. Crude homemade explosives. A Russian known as Warrior. A code word: Mary.

These are among the key elements of a suspected Russian-run sabotage plot that led to three parcels being detonatedat courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland last summer, a person with knowledge of the Polish investigation told Reuters.

The pillows, packed into the parcels with the cosmetics and sex toys, contained hidden homemade incendiary devices made of a cocktail of chemicals including highly reactive magnesium, according to the person familiar with the case who provided the most granular account yet of the alleged plot.

The chemicals were ignited by pre-timed detonators adapted from cheap Chinese electronic gadgets used to track items like lost keys, with the effect enhanced by the tubes of what looked like cosmetics but in fact contained a gel made of flammable compounds including nitromethane, according to the source.

"The proceedings in this case concern criminal activities inspired by Russia's GRU," this person said, referring to Moscow's foreign military intelligence agency.

Reuters is reporting the details of the investigation for the first time, drawing on the account provided by the source close to the Polish case as well as interviews with more than a dozen European security officials. The findings provide a rare insight into how sabotage campaigns play out on the ground.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.05-042610/https://www.ft.com/content/9f750cdc-b50d-4232-9bd5-21ca7408639c

(…) The Ukrainian officials said that lie detector tests had been administered on staff across several ministries, but declined to give further details or specify how many individuals had been questioned. 

The office of Ukraine’s president declined to comment. The security service said in a statement that it works within the law to protect Ukraine’s security and keeps certain details about its activities confidential.

Polygraph tests are controversial and the science behind them has been questioned, but Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies have frequently used them for purposes including criminal investigations and screening foreignerslooking to join the army.

The investigation follows the publication of details from the draft agreement on March 26 by opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who said he had obtained a copy. The Financial Times separately obtained the document and published its contents the following day.

Zelenskyy told the FT at a briefing on March 28 he found it “strange” the US document had leaked. “I wonder who is transmitting this information,” he said. (…)

Archive:

April 4 (Reuters) - Armenia's president on Friday signed into law a bill that sets a legal foundation for the South Caucasus country to move towards joining the European Union as it moves to diversify its international ties beyond traditional partner Russia.

(…)

Though Armenia has developed warm relations with the EU, joining will not be easy.

The landlocked, mountainous country of 2.7 million people shares no border with the EU, and its bitter rival Azerbaijan is a major gas supplier to EU countries.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.04-150426/https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/germany-funds-eutelsat-internet-ukraine-musk-tensions-rise-2025-04-04/

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) - Berlin has been paying for Ukraine's access to a satellite-internet network operated by France's Eutelsat (ETL.PA), opens new tab, as Europe seeks alternatives to Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Eutelsat’s chief executive Eva Berneke told Reuters the company has provided its high-speed satellite internet service to Ukraine for about a year via a German distributor.

Speaking at the company's headquarters in Paris on Thursday, she said it was funded by the German government, but declined to comment on the cost.

Bernese said there were fewer than a thousand terminals connecting users in Ukraine to Eutelsat’s network, which is a small fraction of the roughly 50,000 Starlink terminals Ukraine says it has, but she said she expected the figure would rise.

"Now we're looking to get between 5,000 and 10,000 there relatively fast," she said, adding it could be "within weeks".