Europe

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4179008

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In a move that defies warnings from its own intelligence agencies and the European Union, Spain awarded a €12.3 million ($14 million) contract to the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The deal involves the provision of high-performance Huawei OceanStor 6800 V5 servers and support services for Spain’s Integrated Telecommunications Interception System (SITEL), the central repository for lawful wiretap recordings in investigations of grave crimes, including terrorism and organized crime.

This decision is particularly jarring, given that the European Commission formally identified Huawei as a “high-risk vendor,” citing the potential for interference by non-EU state actors and concluding that the company represents “materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers.”

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The Spanish case is not an isolated incident, paralleled by a contentious contract awarded to Hikvision, another Chinese technology firm, for surveillance cameras at the highly sensitive southern European border enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, crucial for managing migration and counter-terrorism.

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China’s legal mandate and hardware vulnerabilities

The designation of Huawei as a “high-risk” vendor is rooted in a specific and interlocking set of legal, geopolitical, and technical realities. The primary non-technical risk factor is China’s legal framework: Article 7 of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law explicitly states that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work in accordance with the law,” with a subsequent article compelling secrecy about such cooperation.

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This means any Chinese company, regardless of its corporate structure, can be legally compelled to serve Beijing’s intelligence apparatus, rendering contractual assurances of data privacy subordinate to its obligations to the Chinese state. Furthermore, the threat landscape includes the inherent vulnerabilities of the global ICT supply chain.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has identified supply chain attacks as the top emerging cybersecurity threat for the next decade. A prime example is the 2021 Kaseya VSA ransomware attack, in which attackers injected malicious code into a software patch, resulting in devastating effects for thousands of downstream customers.

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An organization’s security, therefore, is only as strong as the weakest link in its supply chain

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It emphasizes the necessity of the “Zero Trust” security philosophy, a core premise of the EU’s cybersecurity approach, which mandates that no component, internal or external, can be implicitly trusted.

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The European Commission later clarified that decisions to restrict or exclude Huawei and ZTE from 5G networks were “justified and compliant with the 5G Toolbox”.

The NIS 2 Directive, which entered into force in January 2023, is legally binding and mandates that member states transpose its provisions into national law by October 2024. It imposes stricter cybersecurity obligations, including those related to supply chain security, and embodies the “Zero Trust” philosophy.

Similarly, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) targets the security of products themselves, mandating “security-by-design” for all “products with digital elements” sold in the EU, requiring manufacturers to integrate cybersecurity throughout a product’s lifecycle.

Despite this robust framework, a “critical flaw” exists: the 5G Toolbox remains a non-binding recommendation, while NIS 2 and CRA, though binding, are broader and do not explicitly ban specific vendors.

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The Spanish government’s decision, despite widespread warnings and the clear policy direction of its allies, underscores the critical “implementation gap” within the EU.

As the NIS 2 Directive awaits full transposition into Spanish law, the incident serves as a stark reminder that short-term budgetary considerations, if unchecked, can override long-term strategic security, potentially undermining the integrity of essential alliances and the collective digital sovereignty of the European Union.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4176333

The British government on Friday extended the deadline until October to decide on whether to approve China's plans to build the largest embassy in Europe in London after Beijing refused to fully explain why the plans contained blacked out areas.

China's plans to build a new embassy on the site of a two-century-old building near the Tower of London have stalled for the past three years because of opposition from local residents, lawmakers, and Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain.

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DP9, the planning consultancy working for the Chinese government, said its client felt it would be inappropriate to provide full internal layout plans, saying additional drawings provided an acceptable level of detail, after the government asked why several areas were blacked out in drawings.

"The Applicant considers the level of detail shown on the unredacted plans is sufficient to identify the main uses," DP9 said in a letter to the government.

"In these circumstances, we consider it is neither necessary nor appropriate to provide additional more detailed internal layout plans or details."

The British government's department of housing said in reply it would now rule on whether the project can go ahead by October 21 rather than by September 9 because it needed more time to consider the responses.

Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group with ties to an international network of politicians critical of China which revealed the letter, said: "These explanations are far from satisfactory."

De Pulford, a long-standing critic of plans for the embassy, said the "assurances amount to 'trust me bro'".

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The Chinese government has been seeking to turn the former Royal Mint in London and into a new mega-embassy in London, replacing the far smaller premises it has occupied since 1877. But the move has sparked concerns China would use this the 'mega-embassy' covering some 20,000 square metres as an Chinese espionage hub.

Carmen Lau, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist who fled to the UK and is now one of dozens id exiled dissidents for whom Beijing offered bounties, argues that the UK should not allow China's "authoritarian regime" to have its new embassy in such a symbolic location. One of her fears is that China, with such a huge embassy, could harass political opponents and could even hold them in the building.

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After a two-day, very heated debate in the Dutch Parliament, Caspar Veldkamp – the acting foreign minister – decided to resign.

He was increasingly getting frustrated by the fact that he wanted to push for more sanctions against Israel … but the other ministers, his colleagues, were against it. He also came under increasing pressure from lawmakers, especially from the opposition in Parliament, who have been really requesting stricter sanctions against Israel.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/26448045

Data shows more than 1m hectares torched so far this year, with records also broken for CO2 and other air pollutants

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4164934

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out the chance that China could serve as a security guarantor in the event of a future peace deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president’s remarks follow discussions this week between United States and European leaders about how to establish a future peacekeeping force in Ukraine should the war end.

“Why is China not in the guarantees? First, China did not help us stop this war from the beginning,” Zelenskyy told reporters, according to a report by The Kyiv Post media outlet on Thursday.

“Secondly, China helped Russia by opening the drone market,” Zelenskyy said.

Beijing has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war, but its ongoing economic support for Russia has undermined its neutral image with Zelenskyy and Western leaders.

Despite Beijing’s ambitions of playing a greater role in mediating international conflicts, the Ukrainian leader’s remarks suggest that China will have no role in a Russia-Ukraine peace process.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4164353

Here is the original (and technical) article published by company. ...

The system, named the RU1, was unveiled today by Swedish startup TERASi. It’s billed as the world’s smallest and lightest mm-Wave radio, a form of communications that offers blazing-fast speeds and huge bandwidth.

James Campion, the CEO and co-founder of TERASi, describes the portable device as “the GoPro of backhaul radios.”

“RU1 can be deployed in minutes to keep units connected in fast-changing environments,” Campion told TNW. The devices, he continued, can be installed on tripods or drones. Multiple RU1s can then link into a resilient mesh, providing bandwidth for mission-critical applications such as live drone video, autonomous fleet control, and sensor data fusion.

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Protesters at the next mass demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action will withhold their details from officers to force en-masse processing at police stations in an effort to make it “practically impossible” to arrest everyone.

On Friday, Defend Our Juries, the pressure group behind the protests, will open sign-ups for its next demonstration to be held in London on 6 September. The group said it would only go ahead if 1,000 people agreed to take part, making it the largest protest opposing the proscription of Palestine Action since it was banned in June. More than 2,500 people have already expressed interest in taking part.

Earlier this month, 532 people were arrested at the largest demonstration so far relating to Palestine Action since it was proscribed. The Met said 212 of those arrested were transported to police stations after either refusing to provide their details or having been found to already be on bail.

The UK is reportedly poised to sign a £2bn ($2.69bn) contract with Israel's largest arms manufacturer that would see it train 60,000 British soldiers a year.

Elbit Systems provides around 85 percent of Israel’s drones and land-based military equipment, and has played a major role in supplying Israel with weaponry for its genocide in Gaza.

Private Eye reported this week that the company's British arm, Elbit Systems UK, is close to winning a major contract that would make it a "strategic partner" of Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD).

A German court has ruled that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia on Wednesday rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.

“It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site,” the court said.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/36401278

Euro zone businesses saw new orders increase in August for the first time since May 2024, helping overall activity expand at the fastest pace in 15 months despite persistent weakness in exports.

The HCOB Eurozone Composite PMI [Purchasing Manager Index] rose to 51.1 in August of 2025 from 50.9 in the previous month, beating market expectations of a slowdown to 50.7 to mark the sharpest pace of expansion in the bloc's private sector output since May of the previous year, according to a flash estimate.

[A PMI is diffusion index that summarizes whether market conditions are expanding, which is indicated by a number >50 - or contracting, suggested by a PMI <50.]

The growth was supported by a third straight expansion in the services sector (50.7 vs 51) and an unexpected rebound for manufacturers (50.5 vs 49.8), their first in over three years. New orders at the aggregate level increased for the first time in 14 months, despite a reduction in new export orders.

The signal of new capacity demand drove firms to increase their headcounts for the sixth straight month.

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The UK S&P Global Composite PMI rose also to 53 in August of 2025 from 51.5 in the previous month, ahead of expectations that it would inch higher to 51.6 to set the sharpest growth rate in private-sector business activity in one year, according to a flash estimate. The expansion was carried by the services sector (53.6 vs 51.8 in July), which also rose to a one-year high, to offset a steeper contraction for service providers (47.3 vs 48).

The strong momentum for services in the UK drove new business volumes at the aggregate level to rise the most since October of last year, even though factories recorded the strongest decline ne new work since April, pressured by economic headwinds of higher input costs and a global protectionist swing to goods trade. Input inflation was at the highest since May, with firms citing the burden of higher National Insurance payments and their impact in labor costs.

Looking forward, business expectations for the upcoming year increased.

Archive: https://archive.ph/2025.08.21-052406/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-21/after-disposable-vape-ban-britons-throw-away-reusables-instead

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4141558

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Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov said Tuesday that sanctions and market saturation are beginning to slow the surge in trade with China, tempering years of rapid growth since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“We are recording a certain decline in mutual trade… In the medium term, we should expect more moderate growth rates than before,” Alikhanov said at a Russia-China business forum that took place in the city of Kazan this week.

Trade between the two countries boomed after scores of Western companies left Russia in 2022, with turnover hitting a record $245 billion last year — making Russia China’s seventh-largest trading partner. But bilateral trade dropped 8.1% between January and July compared to the same period in 2024, totaling $125.8 billion.

Alikhanov cited three main reasons for the slowdown: Western sanctions and broader economic pressure, volatility in global commodity prices and what he called the “expansion limit” of Chinese goods in Russia’s domestic market.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4131834

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In the text, 'The Baltics: Guarantees of Danger', Nikolai Mezhevich claims that Russia’s “adversaries” among the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Northern Europe (particularly Finland) are forming a so-called “gray zone” in the Baltic Sea. Mezhevich, a chief research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, writes regularly about the foreign policies of the Baltic countries and NATO’s military activities in the region. He has been publishing in International Affairs since 2016 and often appears in the Russian media with warnings about alleged plots by Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania against Minsk, Moscow, and ethnic Russians.

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[The author] concludes the article with a warning that “geographic location and a complex of historical narratives” force Russia and its adversaries alike to consider the eastern part of the Baltic Sea as a “potential theater of military operations, possibly in classic, possibly in ‘gray’ formats.”

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4126080

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The concerns have intensified since July, when reports surfaced of an alleged €12.3 million contract between 2021 and 2025 for Huawei to store sensitive judicial wiretap data for the interior ministry.

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While the political row has focused on the interior ministry, several public tenders made public in the past weeks reveal contracts for "repairing" or "expanding" existing Huawei storage equipment in other state departments.

Such is the €322.000 two-year contract signed last October by the national railway operator (ADIF) to "repair" Huawei technology already incorporated into the country's rail network communication systems.

Spain's national healthcare system also awarded a €477.000 contract to national telecom giant Telefónica to "maintain" over the next two years an existing Huawei storage hardware installed in its IT department.

“These are common practices to ensure the proper functioning of this equipment,” a healthcare system spokesperson said.

According to them, the hardware “does not store databases or information from social security system applications” but is “used to store server configuration information and analyse anomalies.” Euractiv could not verify this claim independently.

Other public tenders from the Spanish police, dating back to 2022, show Huawei backup systems used in the force's storage infrastructure for the "comprehensive border control storage system of the police."

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In Madrid, magistrates and law enforcement are particularly worried about the Chinese firm handling highly sensitive police wiretap data.

"We are neither blind nor deaf, and the fact that a company has its headquarters outside Spain causes us concern, " a magistrate told Euractiv.

"There may be delays or difficulties in gathering this information, or in the worst case, the request may even be denied due to their own regulations," they said, adding that there is also a risk of "sensitive data being leaked."

Law enforcement agencies share those concerns, especially over the potential exposure of sensitive information at a time when security forces are under intense scrutiny for prosecuting high-profile political figures.

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