Europe

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16949232

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that the three main centrist groups inthe European parliament had agreed on the top European Union posts. German conservative Ursula von der Leyen has been granted a second term as head of the EU's powerful executive body and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa will helm the European Council.

Hello everyone,

This community is only a few hours old, and already there is a meta post ha ha.

I was just thinking that the EU flag doesn't include non-EU countries such as Switzerland, the UK, Norway, Ukraine, Iceland, Albania, Georgia, etc.

Maybe a more "map-based" logo like this one could be considered too?

• Rivian and Volkswagen Group intend to enter a joint venture to create next generation software-defined vehicle (SDV) platforms to be used in both companies’ future electric vehicles.
• Volkswagen Group to invest an initial $1 billion in Rivian, with up to $4 billion in planned additional investment for a total expected deal size of $5 billion.
• Joint venture is expected to build on Rivian’s industry-leading software and electrical architecture to create best-in-class software-defined vehicle technology platform.
• The tie-up comes as competition intensifies between EV makers and Western countries move to impose tariffs on Chinese imports.

Archived link

• The Hungarian branch of anti-corruption organization Transparency International received a letter containing a total of 62 questions in their six-page official letter, giving them thirty days to respond.
• The letter of notification were signed by Hungary’s new sovereignty protection office (SPO), a controversial body set up with broad powers which has been condemned by rights groups as a means to investigate against citizens and stifle dissent.
• Transparency International Hungary says it believes that it is no accident that our organisation has been targeted by the SPO. As a non-governmental organization fighting corruption, the success of our investigative, analytical and legal work, and perhaps even our mere existence threatens the regime of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been leading the most corrupt government in the European Union.
• The Guardian reports that Átlátszó, one of the country’s best-known investigative outlets, received a similar notification that they were being investigated as organisations that, “using support from abroad, conduct activities aimed at influencing the will of the voters”.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday ordered the dissolution of extreme right and radical Islamist groups, four days before the June 30 first round of high-stakes legislative elections that could see the far-right National Rally (RN) come to power after a short, divisive campaign. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments for all the latest developments on the campaign trail.

Raphaël Glucksmann, co-founder of the centre-left Place Publique party, emerged from a surprisingly strong showing in the June 9 European elections to find himself a key member of a new leftist alliance in France – one hastily forged to battle the far-right party leading in polls ahead of snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron. But while the left might be demonstrating a newfound unity, Glucksmann has come under fire for striking a deal with a hard-left faction that has been accused of anti-Semitism and being soft on Russia.

• The NGO 'Stop Uyghur Genocide' is urging the financial regulator to refuse the application on legal grounds. The group said that minority Uyghur people in China are being used for forced labour in Shein’s Xingjiang-based cotton supply chain.
• A letter to the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said allowing the business to list would be “inconsistent with the UK’s obligations to the United Nations body, International Labour Organisation, which protects labour standards across organisations”.
• UK businesses have to publish a statement every year that lays out steps they have taken to ensure slavery and trafficking aren’t taking place within the organisation’s supply chain or operations, under the Modern Slavery Act.

• The ongoing EURO 2024 is a case in point with a significant portion of sponsors hailing from China, alongside Qatari state-owned entities like Qatar Airways and Visit Qatar. The European Football Federation UEFA's flagship event, therefore, appears less European on the sponsorship side and more entangled in the geopolitical interests of autocratic regimes.
• Some of these sponsorships raise serious concerns and call UEFA's credibility and ethical standards into doubt. The sponsors are linked to a wide range of contentious issues such as allegations of mass labour abuses of Uyghurs, pornographic content for minors to illegal subsidisation, political interference, and fundamental human rights violations.
• AliExpress came under fire over the platform's failure to enforce its own terms of service, posing risks to consumers’ health by selling fake medicine and food as well as dietary supplements. The European Commission also highlighted that AliExpress still allows pornographic material on the platform and that it is possible for minors to access the material. Already in 2022, the Biden Administration added AliExpress to an annual list of markets that the United States identifies as engaging in counterfeiting and copyright violations.
• Nevertheless, UEFA has chosen AliExpress as its sponsor for EURO 2024, and the platform received further backing when David Beckham, one of the most prominent figures in world sports marketing, was announced as their global ambassador in late May 2024.
• UEFA has also entered into partnerships with payment platform Alipay and blockchain company AntChain, run by an Alibaba affiliate company, Ant Group. In a 2024 financial statement, Alibaba disclosed that numerous entities within its business empire are partially owned by Chinese state-owned enterprises. This highlights Alibaba’s extensive ties to the Chinese government and is especially concerning in light of concerns that Alibaba is involved with offering facial recognition software solutions.
• Vivo, a Chinese multinational technology company and EURO 2024 sponsor, is among those who reportedly benefit directly or indirectly from using Uyghur workers.
• BYD, a leading Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer and EURO 2024 sponsor, has also been implicated in using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour, according to a February 2024 report by Human Rights Watch.

It was a confrontation that marked the culmination of a BBC investigation that had begun 51 days earlier - hours after five people, including a seven-year-old girl named Sara, had died in the sea off northern France. She had suffocated beneath a crush of bodies inside an inflatable boat.

That investigation had taken the reporters from the informal migrant camps around Calais and Boulogne, to a French police unit in Lille, to a market town in Essex, to the Belgian port of Antwerp, Berlin, and finally to Luxembourg and a three-day stakeout at the gates of the country’s migrant reception centre.

Eventually, a man was identified as a the smuggler who had been paid to organize Sara and her family’s dangerous voyage to England.

After the confrontation, the investigators informed the French and British police about their findings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a security agreement to be inked between Kyiv and the European Union on Thursday would advance "peace and prosperity" across the continent.

French tycoon Vincent Bolloré has put his sprawling media empire at the service of France’s nationalist right, precipitating a rightward shift in French politics. Pulling strings from behind the scenes in the manner of Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire corporate raider has orchestrated an alliance of bitter right-wing rivals in the run-up to Sunday’s legislative elections, bolstering the far-right National Rally’s chances of victory.

Marine Le Pen, former president of France's far-right party National Rally and currently a French presidential candidate, on Thursday raised the question in an interview with a French newspaper of who would be in charge of the military if her party takes over the government after snap parliamentary elections starting Sunday, June 30.