Europe

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The London Metropolitan Police used batons to disperse peaceful protestors and arrested dozens of demonstrators calling on the UK government to reverse its decision to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist group.

Hundreds had gathered in Westminster's Parliament Square on Saturday, holding cardboard placards reading "I support Palestine Action" and flags in support of Palestine.

One protestor was seen with blood streaming down his face after they were arrested at the rally. While another protestor could be heard screaming that the police had hurt his back during their arrest.

Among the group of people detained by the police included scores of elderly protestors and families of Holocaust survivors who sat silently on the green in Parliament Square.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36980362

France’s neoliberal government is expected to lose a confidence vote on Monday. For its opponents, the aim isn’t just to topple the current cabinet but to kill off President Emmanuel Macron’s whole austerity agenda.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/27121919

A grassroots protest movement that began on social media is gathering steam with its rallying cry to "Block everything" ("Bloquons tout”) in France on September 10. Organisers hope to bring the country to a standstill to protest against Prime Minister François Bayrou’s national budget plan

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Across social media in France, three words have been proliferating since Bayrou announced his national budget plan on July 15: “Boycott, disobedience and solidarity” ("Boycott, désobéissance et solidarité").

Behind the slogan is the burgeoning national protest movement "Block everything" (Bloquons tout) calling for a day of national protest on September 10 in a bid to paralyze the country.

[...]

The trigger for such widespread discontent is Bayrou’s 2026 financial plan aiming to slash €43.8 million from the national budget and reduce France’s spiralling deficit. Among the most controversial austerity measures are plans to remove two national holidays, a freeze on pensions and €5 billion in health cuts.

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On a website created for the movement, which has since been removed, the collective listed a wide range of demands including massive reinvestment in public services, an end to job cuts, and for all public holidays to be maintained.

But the government is not the only target for the organisers’ discontent.

Recommended forms of protest include boycotting major retailers such as Carrefour, Amazon and Auchan, withdrawing money from major banks and the “peaceful occupation of symbolic locations” such as local government administrative buildings and town halls.

A social media post linked to the movement viewed more than 1.5 million times calls on supporters to help “stop the machine” that is crushing “worn out, invisible” citizens.

On September 10, they write, “we won’t pay anymore, we won’t consume anymore, we won’t work anymore, and we will keep our children at home. Our only power is a total boycott”.

Other forms of suggested action call for solidarity such as creating strike funds, organising neighbourhood assemblies, and supporting protestors who engage in acts of civil disobedience.

archived (Wayback Machine)

He said he was repeatedly warned by colleagues against documenting his concerns in writing, as he worked on a report assessing whether the government is legally compliant in exporting arms to certain countries.

“I was routinely asked to go to senior directors’ offices and told to, quote, ‘make the situation look less bad,” said Smith, who was a diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. “Sections that I’ve written which talked about civilian casualties, for example, I was asked to kind of play them down, make them smaller.”

He described the office’s working culture as “very strange” and “different to anything I’ve ever experienced in the civil service”. “Everyone wanted to make it look as though we were on the right side of the law, and any kind of suggestion [otherwise] tended to be met with panic and a kind of extreme pressure, to not talk about that.”

He said it is “fully understood in the department” that conversations about the UK’s conduct and relationship with Israel should take place “in person and not in writing”. “The reason for that is that we didn’t want those conversations to be requested by a court,” he claimed.

Archive: https://archive.ph/2025.09.05-180212/https://www.reuters.com/technology/russia-lists-local-apps-that-will-survive-its-internet-blackouts-2025-09-05/

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36929877

Google abused its power by favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of its competitors, online advertisers and publishers.

As a result of Google's illegal practices, advertisers faced higher marketing costs which they likely passed on to European consumers in the form of higher prices for products and services. Google's tactics also reduced revenues for publishers, which may have led to lower service quality and higher subscription costs for consumers.

Google's abusive behaviour therefore had a negative impact on all European citizens in their day-to-day use of the web.

This is illegal under EU competition rules and therefore our decision orders Google to pay a fine of €2.95 billion.

In line with our usual practice, we increased Google's fine since this is the third time Google breaks the rules of the game. But a mere fine in this case is not enough to deliver real and tangible solutions for the market and to protect our consumers.

This is why we have also ordered Google to stop its illegal practices and to put an end to its inherent conflict of interests in the Adtech industry.

Google has 60 days to inform the Commission on how it plans to do so, and if it fails to propose a viable plan, the Commission will not hesitate to impose an appropriate remedy.

At this stage, it appears that the only way for Google to end its conflict of interest effectively is with a structural remedy, such as selling some part of its Adtech business.

German giant takes aim at US hyperscaler dominance as some EU customers fret amid Trump 2.0 rhetoric

Police have ruled out any foul play in relation to the recent deaths of seven AfD candidates, but prominent public figures are sowing unfounded theories online.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4395004

Archived link

Russia’s sabotage efforts across Europe have skyrocketed over the last two years. According to a new report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Moscow’s use of unconventional warfare methods against Ukraine and NATO member states has become a priority and is aimed at destabilizing European governments. Targeting critical infrastructure like energy, transport, military, and even undersea assets has become Russia’s go-to war strategy. As these types of attacks are difficult to pinpoint and prevent, European nations are struggling to enact a unified response or coordinate action to deter further offenses.

In a comprehensive open-source database shared by IISS(opens pdf), a clear pattern depicting Moscow’s critical infrastructure targeting efforts is highlighted. As stated in the report, “The cumulative impact of Russian attacks on physical targets, on virtual targets and via informational operations has been to undermine Western resilience and divide European societies. The effect has also been to lower the threshold for future escalation and increase the risk of strategic miscalculation on both sides.” While the bulk of Russia’s barrages have targeted assets in Ukraine or are connected to European efforts to supply Kyiv, an overall uptick in this kind of sabotage across the continent is concerning.

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Moscow’s unconventional war tactics have extended beyond Ukraine over the last few years. Particularly, Russia’s sabotage of undersea cables has sparked concern across the hemisphere since 2022. Critical undersea communications infrastructure serves as the backbone for digital communication and trade throughout the globe and plays a key role in modern society. In fact, more than $10 trillion in daily worldwide financial transactions is facilitated by such cables, making this kind of sabotage disruptive to the global economy. Baltic Sea sabotage continues to skyrocket. Telecom, gas, and power links connecting European countries like Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, and Estonia are being targeted.

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Cross-border attacks targeting critical infrastructure above ground have also skyrocketed. In July, three men were convicted by a British court for setting fire to a London warehouse connected to Ukraine-bound military equipment. According to prosecutors in this case, operatives linked to the Russian mercenary company Wagner were behind the brazen attack.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4394432

Archived

A giant oil slick that leaked into the Black Sea near the port city of Novorossiysk in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region on Friday is nearing the shores of the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, according to Greenpeace.

Dmitry Markin, an expert at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, told Russian investigative news outlet IStories on Wednesday that the spill demonstrated that profiting from oil sales was “more important for the current Russian regime than the safety of nature and its citizens.”

The oil spill, which took place at a marine terminal belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near Novorossiysk on Friday, was the twelfth known leak off Russia’s Black Sea coast this year, according to independent news outlet Agentstvo.

The leak is also the largest since the wreck of the Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 tankers in December, each reportedly carrying over 4,000 tonnes of oil, Agentstvo added.

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“Another oil spill off the coast clearly shows that in Russia environmental safety is increasingly being sacrificed for the sake of the oil industry,” Markin told IStories, accusing the authorities of “turning a blind eye to violations and helping oil companies cover up incidents” and noting that environmental monitoring efforts had weakened sharply amid the increase in political oppression in the country.

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According to Greenpeace, the pollution forms a continuous film, which poses a great risk to living organisms, as the film instantly blocks contact with oxygen. Birds will be the first to suffer, as they will come into contact with petroleum products when landing on the water and diving (for example, in search of food). In addition to birds, marine mammals and other marine animals will also fall victim to the oil spill.

Thursday was the first day of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's highly publicised Gaza Tribunal, which aims to hold Britain accountable for its role in enabling Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza.

The independent MP, now a key figure in the establishment of a new left-wing party, put forward a bill earlier this year for a public Chilcot-style inquiry into Britain's military cooperation with Israel.

But the Labour government blocked the bill. This unofficial two-day inquest is taking place instead.

There was nothing trivial about the tribunal. Eyewitnesses, UN rapporteurs, journalists, medics and academics all gave evidence on Thursday.