Europe

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that his country is close to allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children.

“What we will legislate is marriage equality. That is, the elimination of any discrimination based on sexual orientation in the matter of entering into a marriage,” Mitsotakis said Wednesday in an interview with state-run ERT television. Current discussions on the framework of the legislation “won’t take long,” and the draft law will be presented in more detail in the coming days, he said.

Archive link: https://archive.is/7me3a

..I thought of the thousands of residents of Gaza killed in retaliation for the lives of Jews killed by Hamas. Then I thought that, if I were to state this publicly in Germany, I might get in trouble.

In 2008, when then Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke before the Knesset, on the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel (…) This, she went on, was part of Germany’s Staatsräson—the reason for the existence of the state.

But the statistics mix what Germans call Israelbezogener Antisemitismus—Israel-related antisemitism, such as instances of criticism of Israeli government policies—with violent attacks,

The Holocaust memory wars in Poland have run in parallel with Germany’s. The ideas being battled out in the two countries are different, but one consistent feature is the involvement of right-wing politicians in conjunction with the state of Israel.

Still, both before and after the October 7th attack, the phrase I heard in Ukraine possibly more than any other was “We need to be like Israel.”

For the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in compound where only a small fraction of the population had the right to leave for even a short amount of time—in other words, a ghetto. Not like the Jewish ghetto in Venice or an inner-city ghetto in America but like a Jewish ghetto in an Eastern European country occupied by Nazi Germany.

The Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov is suspected of money laundering and violating sanctions law. But the chances of this being proven in court seem slim.

Hungary vetoed the funding just hours after EU leaders agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine. There are still a range of thorny issues on the agenda before the summit wraps up.

Hungary's Viktor Orban was quick to get on the airwaves at home on Friday, telling Hungarians how he vetoed financial aid to Ukraine and could block its path to EU membership any time even though he had let other leaders grant Kyiv accession talks.

The Royal Society of Arts claims it was not made aware of the event’s ‘geopolitically sensitive’ nature

The on-board weapons system will deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning to "maximise the effect" its arsenal can deliver, the MOD said.

Johan Floderus has been held for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel

A record number of Germans are dissatisfied with the performance of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the worst assessment of the chancellor since the survey was conducted in 1997, Tagesschau reports

European far-right parties met in Italy on Sunday vowing to reshape the European Union after next year’s European Parliament elections, toughening the bloc’s approach on immigration and softening its climate policies to protect jobs and industry.

“Our objective is for [us] to become at least the third-largest [group in the EU parliament], after the centre-right and the socialists, and to be decisive,” said Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who hosted the meeting.

Addressing the Florence rally via video link, Mr Wilders said he hoped his success, “a political earthquake in the Netherlands and Europe”, could be “the start of a wave of national election wins” for like-minded allies.

Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, won applause saying Europe cannot become a “five-star hostel for Africa”, and linking mass immigration to violence and crime.

Death of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, allegedly at hands of ex-boyfriend, casts spotlight on violence against women

Knife-edge election set to shake up Dutch politics after Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s record 13-year stint in power.

Yesterday, the traditionally highly conservative legal affairs committee voted to end geo-blocking of films and series in some limited contexts. It's a tectonic shift from the previous position of the legal affairs committee, and comes ahead of today's vote in the more progressive Internal Market & Consumer protection, where MEPs will call for a gradual abolition of geo-blocking.

We want a European wealth tax to finance the social and climate transition and help countries hit by climate change.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/5772041

An investigation uncovers a web of influence in the powerful coalition aligned behind the European Commission’s proposal to scan for child sexual abuse material online, a proposal leading experts say puts rights at risk and will introduce new vulnerabilities by undermining encryption.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4746269

Big Tech spends 113 million euros per year on lobbying in Brussels

Digital Markets Act aims to allow more competition and let consumers delete preloaded phone apps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2beTUPh7k14

The long read: The EU likes to celebrate itself as a place where borders are soft and ‘regionalism’ creates diversity and openness. But just as much as any powerful nation, Europe defines itself against the rest of the world

An interesting, if long, article about European identity. I don't agree with all of it, or in fact a lot of it, but I found it an interesting read and it's always useful to read thought provoking points of view you disagree with from time to time. Also, I'm interested in hearing your views on the article!

Train travel is often more expensive than flying. Could taxing aviation to invest in the rail industry help change that?

The appointment of the American economist, who consults for companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Pfizer, had been the subject of much criticism.

Submarine cables account for the majority of the world's internet traffic, but as concerns over malicious actors moving to cripple or interfere with internet infrastructure increase, the European Union has a number of its own projects underway, underpinned by hidden political dynamics.