Europe

Outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede described the plan as aggressive, and said the duo had not been invited for meetings. Meanwhile, the island's likely next leader accused the US of showing a lack of respect.

[...]

It governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Denmark. The US has long held a security interest - and has had a military base on the island since World War Two.

It is also thought Trump is interested in the island's rare earth minerals. His son Donald Jr visited Greenland before Trump's inauguration in January.

[...]

Trump appeared to escalate his campaign to take over the island during a conversation with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte earlier this month.

[...]

According to recent polls, almost 80% of Greenlanders back independence from Denmark. But an opinion survey in January suggested an even greater number rejected the idea of becoming part of the US.

[...]

[...]

"I am very grateful to Russia's special services, which always support us in our fight against colour revolutions, primarily with information," Deputy Prime Minister Alexandar Vulin said in an interview with Russia's RIA state news agency.

[...]

Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic often describes protests as attempts to mount a "colour revolution", a reference to pro-Western protests that toppled governments in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan in recent decades.

[...]

Aleksandar Djokic, a Belgrade-based political scientist critical of the government, said Vulin's remarks "are echoing how much Russia's support is important for the regime".

"The only open support to the regime comes from Russia, all others are either neutral or are condemning it," he said.

[...]

The Commission has adopted, for the first time, a list of 47 Strategic Projects to boost domestic strategic raw material capacities, which will in turn strengthen the European raw materials value chain and diversify sources of supply.

The new Strategic Projects mark an important milestone in the implementation of the Critical Raw Material Act (CRMA), which aims to ensure European extraction, processing and recycling of strategic raw materials meet 10%, 40% and 25% of EU's demand by 2030, respectively. By helping Europe meet these targets, the new Strategic Projects contribute significantly to Europe's green and digital transitions, while supporting Europe's defence industry and aerospace industries.

• The 47 new Strategic Projects are located across 13 EU Member States: Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Estonia, Czechia, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Poland and Romania.

• They cover one or more segments of the raw material value chain, with 25 projects comprising extraction activities, 24 processing, 10 recycling and 2 substitution of raw materials.

• The Strategic Projects cover 14 of the 17 strategic raw materials listed in the Critical Raw Materials Act. This includes several projects covering lithium (22 projects), nickel (12 projects), cobalt (10 projects), manganese (7 projects) and graphite (11 projects) which will particularly benefit the EU battery raw material value chain.

These projects will ensure that the EU can fully meet its extraction, processing and recycling 2030 benchmarks for lithium and cobalt, while making substantial progress for graphite, nickel and manganese. Moreover, other strategic projects involving magnesium (1 project) and tungsten (3 projects) will contribute to the resilience of the EU's defence industry, which relies on the use of these materials.

[...]

The dream is becoming reality. At least for the media talking heads who take their orders at weekly meetings in the Kremlin. The US is aligning with Russia’s outlook, they say. Now, Russia can begin to imagine a just punishment for its old enemies in Europe’s democracies(..)

He [Sardaryan] urged Moscow to focus on fomenting “anti-war movements” that will block the roads and impede the functioning of freely elected parliaments across Europe, and “destabilize the situation in all the countries that dare to act against Russia’s interests.”

Note: this article by Center for European Policy Analysis is about what Russian (propaganda) media is saying, as a mean to analyse what's going on in Putin's head.

Also, in light of the implications of the content found in recent leaked US signal app group info, it reaffirms an anti-European sentiment ( Europhobia), which appears to be shared by Moscow.

Archived

[...]

“We have seen too many stories of citizens being pulled out of airport lines, and being fingerprinted and deported, as if they were criminals. Citizens being kidnapped to illegal detention by ICE…this is not the actions of a Democratic nation,” said Charlie Angus, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party.

While the exact number of travelers from Europe and Canada who have been detained or deported by U.S. immigration authorities remains unknown, several cases have made headlines. German tourist Lucas Sielaff was detained for 16 days after returning from a trip to Mexico. “Nobody is safe there anymore to come to America as a tourist,” said Sielaff, who was on a 90-day U.S. tourist permit and engaged to an American citizen.

[...]

Archive: none required, use reader mode if necessary

“They come highly motivated, much more so than the average recruit today,” says Valentyn about the former prisoners. There are hundreds of them, although he doesn’t reveal the exact number. In routine training, at least 50 huddle among the trees of a dense forest of bare branches on the outskirts of Kramatorsk. Some receive instructions to simulate an assault, others practice with their rifles, and others learn how to provide first aid to a wounded person.

Not every prisoner benefits from the new law. Those convicted of treason are excluded, as are drug traffickers, rapists, pedophiles, or those convicted of murder. The final say on release always rests with a judge. “There are mainly thieves and those convicted of assault,” Arey believes. Garik, a 28-year-old professional middleweight boxer, ended up in prison over a fight. He broke several bones in a man’s face, and because he was a federated athlete, the judge gave him a sentence equivalent to if he had committed assault with a knife, an aggravating circumstance that also exists in Spain. He received 13 years, but his lawyer managed to get his sentence reduced to eight. “I had been in my cell for two years, with nothing to do, when they asked me if I wanted to come. I didn’t think twice,” he says.

The administration officials gave Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic a front-row seat to the planning for the strike against the Houthis – a stunning intelligence leak that has caused anger against Republicans who called for criminal investigations against Hillary Clinton and others for playing fast and loose with sensitive information.

On the face of it, the strike against the Houthis had far more to do with the administration’s policies on protecting maritime trade and containing Iran than its concerns about Europe freeloading on US defense spending and military prowess.

But Vance appears determined to push that angle as a reason to postpone the strike.

“I think we are making a mistake,” wrote Vance, adding that while only 3% of US trade goes through the Suez canal, 40% of European trade does. “There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary,” he added. “The strongest reason to do this is, as [Trump] said, to send a message.”

Archive: none required, use reader mode

Almost complete secrecy surrounded the meeting between Russian and U.S. representatives held Monday in Riyadh to negotiate a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. The meeting concluded after more than 12 hours, and the only communication offered was that the text of the agreement would not be published until Tuesday. The Kyiv delegation will hold further talks with the Washington representatives after meeting last Sunday.

Before the delegates locked themselves in a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Saudi Arabian capital, few details had emerged about the content of these talks. Washington wanted to extract a truce from Moscow beyond the minimum guarantees proposed to protect critical infrastructure.

In the latest development, Moscow sought to revive the Black Sea grain export agreement, a new priority that wasn’t on the agenda when these rounds of negotiations were announced last week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Monday: “The issue of the Black Sea Initiative and all aspects related to the renewal of this initiative is on the agenda today.”

The laconicism regarding the progress of the talks also extended to Washington. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce provided few details on the progress of the negotiations in Riyadh, merely confirming that the situation in the Black Sea had been one of the major issues addressed in the diplomatic back-and-forth. “We’ve never been closer, a breath away, from a full ceasefire, and then a discussion about an enduring peace. It’s doable. Humanity has done it in the past, we can do it again [...] this is the time where there has to be new ideas, where this dynamic has to stop” she said.

Archive: none required, use reader mode please

The European Commission is finalizing the presentation of its first strategic projects to boost the mining of critical materials in the EU. In a volatile geopolitical environment, Europe’s monumental dependence on countries like China for essential raw materials poses a high risk that Brussels wants to control. The EU executive is thus seeking to increase long-term autonomy in the extraction and processing of essential minerals for sectors such as the automotive industry, renewable energy, and defense. In the short and medium term, it hopes to build up reserves to withstand requirements.

The European Union wants to guarantee access to these key resources. “We have identified 17 strategic raw materials for our green, digital, defense, and space transitions. For most of them, we are heavily dependent on external supplies,” explained European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Stéphane Séjourné last Tuesday in Brussels. “Our goal is to have reserves that can cover at least the needs of European industry for a period of one year.”

These are “materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, used to produce batteries; gallium for solar panels; raw boron for wind turbines; titanium and tungsten in the space and defense sectors,” Séjourné explained in a meeting with a group of journalists from Spanish newspapers, including EL PAÍS, invited by the Commission.

A team led by Rafał Brzoska, one of Poland’s richest people, and tasked by Prime Minister Donald Tusk with advising the government on how to cut bureaucracy, has submitted its first 111 proposals.

Among the suggestions – which Brzoska and Tusk want to begin implementing within 100 days – are reducing hurdles for people to obtain disability support, making it easier for businesses to collect debts, and eliminating requests from state offices for information that is already publicly available.

Countries including France are said to want to tie a new post-Brexit security deal to more beneficial access to British waters, potentially holding up military cooperation.

Archived

[The} first satellite of a planned joint Czechia-Ukraine constellation of orbiting surveillance platforms had successfully entered orbit in January, according to a report.

The project resulted from the October 2022 agreement between Prague and Kyiv to develop mutually desirable defense programs in the face of Russian aggresion.

This first orbiting platform designated “TROLL,” was manufactured by the Brno-based company TRL Space. Its key element is the onboard hyperspectral camera which is not only capable of producing ultra-high quality “conventional” visible images with a resolution of five meters per pixel but uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze other parts of the spectrum.

The system is able to differentiate between natural and artificial material, such as camouflaged vehicles and locations; to monitor the presence or use of chemical and biological materiel; uncover environmental anomalies caused by ground, vegetation and watercourse disturbance; monitor energy and heat sources linked to military and civilian infrastructure; use soil analysis to identify areas suitability for both friendly and enemy military defensive structures or heavy equipment movement.

[...]

Archived

European Commission spokesperson Anita Hipper on March 24 reafirrmed the European Union's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and decried Russia's sham "referendums" in illegally occupied regions.

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff on March 21 suggested that Ukrainians living in occupied territories may want to live under Russia, citing so-called "referendums." The remarks, which echoed Kremlin propaganda, garnered backlash from Ukraine and its allies.

The EU does not recognize Russia's "completely fraudulent" referendums held "at gunpoint" in illegally annexed Ukrainian regions, Hipper said.

Hipper also condemned Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine and called for Moscow to demonstrate its willingness to end the war.

[...]

Witkoff's comments sparked outrage and fears that the U.S. might lend legitimacy to Russia's ongoing occupation of sovereign Ukrainian territory. Russia now partially occupies four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts.

In September 2022, Russia annexed the four regions, using sham referendums to justify the seizure of Ukrainian land.

[...]

The EU gas market faces a turbulent year in 2025. With the cessation of Russian gas transit through Ukraine from 1 January and a significant depletion of storage reserves during the winter season, concerns over rising prices in the next few months are mounting. Meanwhile, prices have temporarily been falling, partly due to reports that the new US administration is striving for a swift end to the war in Ukraine. As fundamental shifts in US foreign policy become evident and efforts to normalise relations with Russia gain traction, media speculation is growing over the potential increase in Russian gas supplies to the EU. This includes alleged interest on the part of the US in launching the sole remaining pipeline of Nord Stream 2. Additionally, Slovakia’s lobbying efforts have resulted in growing support within the EU for identifying a way to resume gas transit through Ukraine.

With the growing movement to boycott US goods, more people are choosing European alternatives. Let’s take a look at the best European products you can use.

"I just hate bailing out europe again" "I fully share your loathing of european free-loading" (screeneshots in the article)

if any of you were wondering what our "allies" think of us.

e: sorry link got deleted

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.25-034656/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/03/25/sweden-rebuilds-its-total-defense-model-in-which-every-inhabitant-must-be-prepared_6739488_4.html

It was 6 pm on Thursday, March 20. Twenty-five people had signed up for the course entitled "Sköt dig själv" ("Take care of yourself"), offered free of charge online by the women's organization Lotta. The two instructors in their thirties started by advising on how to recognize an emergency situation – the number to call, the radio frequency to listen to. Then, for more than two hours, they detailed the food and equipment to be stored at home, before encouraging people to cultivate a piece of garden or balcony, to increase the country's food self-sufficiency, 50% dependent on imports.

Civil defense organizations offer courses like this one every week in Sweden. Although the possibility of armed conflict is rarely mentioned, it is on everyone's mind. "Sweden is not at war. But it's not at peace either," summed up conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on January 12. None of the kingdom's 10 million inhabitants can ignore this. In November 2024, they all received in the post a new edition of the booklet "In case of crisis or war," distributed by the Civil Protection Agency, reminding them that they must stock at home enough to eat, drink, heat and look after themselves for one week, without any outside help.

Printed three times during the Cold War, the brochure had already been sent to 4.9 million households in 2018, following Sweden's decision in 2015 to resurrect its "total defense." Developed after the Second World War to cope with a "total war," this model, combining military and civil defense, was based on the principle that the army would not be enough to protect the country: Its population still had to hold out.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.25-052537/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/tesla-s-dismal-run-in-europe-continues-with-40-drop-in-february

Tesla Inc.’s sales have fallen in 10 of the last 12 months in Europe, with the carmaker struggling mightily at the beginning of this year.

The Elon Musk-led company registered 16,888 new cars in February, down 40% from a year ago, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Tesla’s sales plunged 43% in the first two months of the year, deviating from the 31% rise in industrywide EV registrations.

Under the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) transparency and copyright measures apply to all general-purpose AI models, irrespective of size. A code of practice (CoP) for the implementation of the AI Act is under preparation. A third draft, issued on 11 March, made progress on some issues but is still unnecessarily restrictive on copyright.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.25-082509/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/cash-no-longer-is-switzerland-s-top-payment-method-snb-says

Debit cards just overtook cash as the most widely used payment method in Switzerland.

Some 35% consumer transactions in stores were settled using debit cards last year, with physical money accounting for 30%, according to a Swiss National Bank survey published Tuesday. That compares with 21% and 70% respectively in 2017. Another 18% were settled using mobile payment apps and 14% via credit cards.

Cash is an emotive issue in Switzerland, where every inhabitant on average holds the equivalent of $10,481 in bills and coins. That’s the second-largest holding of all economies where the Bank for International Settlements collates data.