Europe

Poland is the last national hole to plug when it comes assigning Digital Services Coordinators.

France and the European Union have condemned US President Donald Trump's new 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, vowing immediate retaliation and warning of escalating trade tensions.

Archived

TLDR

• Umeå in northern Sweden is one of Europe's fastest-growing cities, offering a high quality of life despite the long winter's dark and cold.
• In surveys, 99% of residents say they feel safe during the day, and 90% of women say they are unafraid to walk alone at night.
• Following the trauma of a serial rapist active in the city, authorities have worked hard to eliminate spaces of fear, listening closely to women's needs and concerns in the sphere of public safety.

A look at the statistics casts light into this subarctic darkness: Umeå turns out to be more than just an education hub. The city also occupies top relative positions in terms of its infrastructure, the equality of opportunity, and sustainability. In October 2024, it was named the location in Sweden with the best quality of life. According to the crime statistics, it is the only significant urban center in this country afflicted by gang wars that does not have a neighborhood classified as «vulnerable» by the police.

Within the EU, it is considered a model of sustainable and inclusive urban planning. Fully 99% of residents say they feel safe during the day, regardless of their gender or age. And even at night, almost nine out of 10 women say they are unafraid to walk the streets alone. For comparison: According to the December 2024 survey, about 50% of women in Bern report feeling unsafe at night. In Zurich, 70% of women avoid certain streets and locations after dark.

Something must be different in Umeå. How is it possible to create such a pervasive sense of security in a place where it is constantly dark?

Lapland tourism campaigns will be forced to abandon exaggerated sustainability claims with a new EU greenwashing directive coming into effect.

Archived

Moldova's Kremlin-Backed Breakaway Region Transnistria Rejects EU Energy Aid Over ‘Russian Blackmail,’ Moldova's Prime Minister Says

Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria rejected 60 million euros ($61 million) in conditional aid from the European Union due to pressure from Russia, Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said Monday.

Moldova began supplying EU-funded gas to Transnistria on Feb. 1 as part of an initial emergency aid package worth 30 million euros ($31 million). Those supplies were set to expire on Monday.

The EU had pledged an additional 60 million euros, contingent on Transnistria making “steps on fundamental freedoms and human rights.” Recean said the region also needed to “gradually increase” utility costs for consumers to receive the funds.

“Tiraspol refused this solution. Russia does not allow them to accept European aid for fear of losing control over the region,” Recean says.

[...]

Russia’s state-owned Gazprom halted gas supplies to Transnistria on Jan. 1 over an outstanding debt, while Ukraine refused to renew a Russian gas transit agreement.

Pro-Russian authorities in Transnistria have not publicly commented on the reported EU aid rejection. Earlier, the region extended its economic state of emergency over the gas crisis until March 10.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1920168

Sir Sadiq Khan has been urged to ban all advertising from fast-fashion giant Shein on Transport for London's (TfL) network, amid concerns over the firm's human rights record.

The retailer, founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore, has been criticised over its environmental impact and working practices, which include allegations of forced labour in supply chains.

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The mayor's office referred the BBC to TfL, which said it would issue a response to London Assembly Green group leader Caroline Russell, who says TfL's acceptance of advertising revenue puts "profits before human rights and dignity".

The assembly member's concerns were raised in the same week that the campaign group Stop Uyghur Genocide launched a judicial review to prevent Shein's Initial Public Offering (IPO) listing on the London Stock Exchange.

"As you will be aware, Shein was one of the companies questioned on labour standards in their supply chain by parliament's business and trade committee in early January," Russell told Sir Sadiq in a letter released on Thursday.

She said Shein representatives failed to answer the committee's question over the use of cotton sourced from China's Xinjiang region "which is notorious for the forced labour of the minority Muslim Uyghur people".

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Mirror: https://archive.is/2025.02.10-050702/https://www.ft.com/content/2bb87769-805a-4270-bab2-2382e0b84cec

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have successfully synchronized their electricity grids with the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA) on 09 February 2025 at 14:05 EET, marking a historic milestone in their journey towards strengthened energy system resilience and integration with the Continental Europe electricity grid.

This synchronization enables the Baltic States to manage their electricity grids in close cooperation with all other Continental European countries, with stable and reliable frequency control, significantly enhancing regional energy security. Previously relying on the Russian and Belarussian systems for frequency management, the Baltic states have now joined the synchronous grid of Continental Europe, serving over 400 million customers. All electricity interconnections with Russia and Belarus have been permanently disconnected.

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Here is the original poll in German.

German voters are overwhelmingly concerned about foreign election interference according to a new poll published by the Brussels-based digital industry association Bitkom.

Overall, the poll found that 88% of the more than 1,000 eligible voters surveyed expressed fear that outside forces, whether governments, groups or individuals, would actively attempt to sway the vote through social media campaigns.

Ranked highest among those suspected of nefarious activity was Russia (45%), followed by the US (42%) and China (26%). There was also concern voiced over East European actors (8%).

Those voters polled also provided insight into how they form their political opinions, with 82% citing conversations with friends and family, 76% television and 69% the internet.

Some 80% of respondents felt the next government should address the problem of potential internet and social media misinformation by prioritizing digital policy.

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Paywall? https://archive.is/9hAIw

Here is the original version in German.

English summary (aumotated translation with minimal edits).

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German consumer watchdogs have criticised the EU’s actions against Chinese low-cost suppliers such as Temu and Shein as insufficient. "The proposals are a missed opportunity," Stefanie Gru.ert, expert at Germany's Federal Consumer Association (vzbv) said according to the weekly "Spiegel". "We fear that products on the platforms will become more expensive without making them safer," she adds.

The EU Commission announced plans on Wednesday for tighter controls to ensure safe online trading. The new idea is to introduce a handling fee for parcels from Shein, Temu and Co.

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According to the EU Commission, consumers receive up to twelve million small items, such as toys, every day in the Schengen area, most of them from China. The number has doubled from 2023 to 2024.

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The vzbv calls for platforms to be more responsible, unsafe products should not even be allowed to be sold. Online marketplaces should check new offers with the EU database on dangerous products before they are released for sale.

The German Association for E-Commerce and Mail Order is calling on it to enforce existing rules better.

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Nitazenes were developed in the 1950s by a Swiss chemical company as a new type of painkiller, but the drug was so potent that it was never approved as a medicine. Even trace quantities can cause an overdose.

Decades later, nitazenes have re-emerged in the underground drug market: they have been detected in counterfeit prescription medicines, including fake oxycodone and benzodiazepines pills, and in street drugs, including cocaine, heroin and ketamine.

The UN drugs agency and countries around the world have warned of the major health risks posed by nitazenes. The super-strength opioid has already caused hundreds of deaths in Europe, the UK and North America.

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In April 2019, Estonia became the first country in Europe to identify isotonitazene in drug seizures. New types of the drug followed and, over the years, Estonia recorded a rise in the proportion of nitazene deaths: half of all drug-related deaths over the past two years were caused by nitazenes, according to the most recent official figures.

Estonia is no stranger to synthetic opioids: it faced one of the first fentanyl epidemics in the world in the early 2000s, lasting nearly two decades and causing almost 1,500 deaths. After Estonian police cracked down on fentanyl labs in 2017, the drugs largely disappeared. But they were soon replaced by an even deadlier substance.

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This investigation has linked a recent Estonian nitazene seizure case to China using publicly available documents. A court verdict from August 2024 shows a man was jailed after ordering two shipments of protonitazene. Postimees was granted permission to inspect court files related to the case, which showed one batch of drugs was ordered from a US phone number listed on a Chinese website which hosts online advertisements offering pharmaceuticals for sale.

Archived versions of the website, which say it is based in Nanjing city, show that it previously advertised three types of nitazenes, including protonitazene. These drugs have a “99 percent purity” level, according to the ads, and are transported in 1kg and 5kg bags or 25kg drums. Archived versions of the site say the pharmaceutical company is focussed on “serving foreign customers” and that its products have been sent to more than 30 countries. The court judgment said the drugs were shipped from a DHL distributor in Germany before arriving in Estonia.

Authorities in Norway have also seized nitazenes originating in China. Seven packages containing the drugs and totalling more than 150g were seized during 2023, according to public records requests to Norwegian Customs. The largest of the packages, 90.4g, was shipped via FedEx to Oslo’s main airport from Hong Kong.

Bellingcat and Postimees have uncovered another link between Chinese-made nitazenes and Europe. One package of yellow powder, which was labeled as “nail paste”, was intercepted in Stockholm in August 2019. The package, which testing showed contained almost 49g of isotonitazene, had been couriered from Shanghai, according to documents obtained through a public request to Swedish customs.

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