Forgejo is server software to host code projects. It is a popular alternative to GitHub and GitLab. A popular instance is Codeberg.

Forgejo is on mastodon too! @forgejo@floss.social

The scientific publication: A Sovereign, Open-Source Foundation Model for German and English

Soofi S 30B-A3B is a sovereign, open-source Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) hybrid Mamba–Transformer foundation model for German and English. Its hybrid design activates only 3B of 30B parameters per token and keeps the inference cache near-constant as context grows, giving it a decisive throughput advantage over dense models for long-context, high-concurrency deployment.

Pretrained on roughly 27 trillion tokens with deliberately up-weighted German, Soofi S matches dense 14–27B models on aggregate English and German benchmarks, achieves the best code aggregates in both languages among 17 open base models, and outperforms every European sovereign baseline in our comparison — including ones far larger in active parameters. Among fully open models, it obtains the highest English and German evaluation scores, ahead of Olmo 3 32B and Apertus 70B. Soofi S was built end-to-end on the German Industrial AI Cloud, a sovereign HPC-scale AI infrastructure operated by Deutsche Telekom in Munich.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/56505692

Archived

The European Union's latest anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese-made tires are poised to accelerate a strategic realignment across Korea's tire industry, prompting local manufacturers to curb their production reliance on China as geopolitical risks increasingly reshape global supply chains.

Under the latest regulatory measure, Hankook Tire received an anti-dumping duty of 4.3 percent, while Kumho Tire and Nexen Tire were each hit with a 24.4 percent levy. The effective tariff burden rises to 8.8 percent for Hankook and 28.9 percent for its domestic rivals, after calculating the EU’s existing 4.5 percent import tariff.

The disparity reflects years of divergent manufacturing strategies rather than differences in product competitiveness.

[...]

The tariff decision is widely viewed as a catalyst for broader restructuring across the Korean tire industry, with manufacturers increasingly shifting production closer to major end markets in Europe and North America, as geopolitical uncertainties surrounding China continue to mount.

[...]

Here is the report in Polish (pdf) and the report in English (pdf).

How does TikTok show China to Polish users?

Experts from the Polish NASK Disinformation Analysis Centre examined nearly 10,000 pieces of material on six topics considered particularly sensitive by Beijing (Xinjiang, Tibet, Tiananmen Square massacre, Taiwan, human rights, re-education camps). They show that the way content is recommended may be conducive to building a favourable image of China.

Some key points:

• Many of the materials classified as „pro-China” based on the adopted criteria contained statements fully consistent with messages approved by the Publicity Department and other bodies directly subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

• There are at least several English-language accounts on the Tiktok app responsible for spreading pro-Chinese propaganda messages. A few characteristics indicate their direct links to the Chinese propaganda mechanism, including they exclusively discuss topics important to Chinese propaganda message, promote an extremely pro-Chinese message, attempt to discredit individuals criticizing the CCP’s actions, and publish large amounts of professionally prepared content despite posing as, for example, ordinary tourists in China.

• The Tiktok app does not designate state-owned channels as “state-controlled media as Facebook does. This means that it is impossible to determine which channels on the platform operate directly under government control.

• The examined material raises legitimate doubts about the impartiality of the TikTok app. It is impossible to definitively answer the question whether this is solely the result of the algorithm itself or the presence of a significant number of propaganda channels on the platform, whose activities are not moderated or labeled in any way.

• This raises doubts, especially considering the platform’s subordination to a Chinese entity (ByteDance) operating within the Chinese legal system. Therefore, the app has significant potential to become a tool for shaping audience attitudes and views in the event of large scale influence operations.

• Given the scale of Sino-Russian cooperation in information exchange, the TikTok app may pose a potential threat to the security of Polish users. Therefore, it is recommended not only to approach content appearing on the platform critically, but also to refrain from publishing sensitive data on the platform – this is particularly relevant for government entities and individuals associated with the state apparatus.

[...]

The analysis showed that the way content was presented on TikTok differed significantly depending on the topic. The highest percentage of pro-Chinese content was recorded for Xinjiang (58.7%) and Tibet (44.5%). This also applied to the issue of human rights in China (35%).

In turn, the results that referred to the Tiananmen Square massacre were dominated by content critical of the Chinese authorities (76.6%). "We treat such actions as a so-called "safety valve" – a strategy to create the impression of freedom of speech," the analysts write.

In the case of Taiwan, neutral materials predominated (92%). The most unusual results were obtained for the topic of re-education camps – as much as 89% of the displayed materials were not related to the searched topic. "The conclusions of the study clearly show that TikTok uses different content selection strategies for different topics.

"However, we should not focus solely on the operation of one algorithm. This is a question about who shapes the image of the world that millions of users see every day, and how they do it," says Antoni Mazek, an analyst at the NASK Disinformation Analysis Centre and co-author of the report.

[...]

In the flood of information, it is easier to give up further searches In the case of the topic concerning re-education camps, OAD analysts observed a large number of random videos. Unrelated content accounted for as much as 89%. In response to this specific query, several dozen materials appeared praising miraculous methods for weight loss (34% of content on the topic of health/weight loss), and even recordings of Chinese women doing the hula hoop.

"This is intended to discourage users from further searches – explains Dr Agnieszka Lipińska, head of OAD. "It simply causes frustration in the recipient. The search for information on an important topic collides with content that is less intellectually engaging," she adds.

Western influencers reinforce manipulation The analysed content rarely took the form of official messages. It often took the form of travel advertisements or lifestyle content. There was also material featuring Western influencers who constructed their narratives according to a similar pattern: they presented themselves as people "discovering the truth" about China and criticised Western media coverage. It was their materials that were most often recommended to Polish users. Prolonged exposure to such content may affect the perception of China by the audience, according to the researchers.

[...]

I have just been tossed off Reddit. No bad behaviour but Reddit suspects I am not old enough. I have been an adult for quite a few years. Note that age verification is not (yet) required under EU law.

The age verification on Reddit runs through a third party which is associated with Palantir. I will not do this, and there's enough data associated with my account to show I'm an adult.
In general I am extremely sceptical of giving this level of personal information to any third party but especially a company that just cannot be trusted and has proven itself to be a destructive force in the world. I would not recommend anyone to use this, even if it may lose you access to platforms.

On Reddit there have been concerns among the various European subs and its community. I have encouraged various mods to collectively search for a solution. A move to Lemmy seems the obvious one - also just for the sake of supporting European tech and platforms. Alas, none have acted. The best I got was 'good idea, we'll look into it'.

My guess is I am far from the only one to lose access, if not already than soon the same will happen to other users. It may destroy the community that exists there, and my guess is that it's the largest online truly pan-European community.

Anyway, I've signed up for Lemmy / europe.pub a while ago and am eager to use it instead of Reddit. I just hope this place becomes a little more lively.

Colour me fucking shocked. The EU commission bend over yet again to US big tech. I mean, why have rules or regulations at all if they aren't going to agree with them.. 🙄

Pervert glasses get the green light to expand in Europe.

Commission exempts smart glasses like Meta’s from batteries regulation, clearing a major hurdle to European expansion.

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The European Commission on Tuesday exempted wearable tech from rules requiring removable batteries, clearing a major hurdle for Meta’s smart glasses to take on the EU market following pressure from the United States.

Smart glasses are in European regulators' and lawmakers' crosshairs over privacy and surveillance concerns. But the bloc's batteries regulation also held up the EU rollout of Meta’s latest model in recent months because the glasses' built-in batteries cannot be easily removed and replaced.

U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder came to Meta's defense at an event in March, where he called the EU's rules "so broad and so restrictive that it prevents the sale of this wonderful, jointly developed, U.S.-European product from being sold in the European Union" and praised the smart glasses as being "very stylish" and "very wonderful."

"You have to focus on allowing businesses to grow and allowing businesses to innovate," Puzder then said about the European hurdles to Meta's product.

The Commission on Tuesday presented a legislative tweak known as a delegated act that exempts connected products including smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness trackers and electric toys from the batteries regulation.

A Commission spokesperson said in a statement that it "has not given in to anyone’s pressure," adding that its proposals "follow a broad public consultation with consumer associations, industry stakeholders and the Member States." The spokesperson added that the proposal for the exemption "is not about regulating one specific product" but "to ensure safer consumer and industrial products in cases where opening a device could create safety risks or where technical limits make consumer access unrealistic."

The European Parliament and national governments have two months in which to object to the tweak. If there are no objections, the delegated act will then be published in the Official Journal of the EU and after 20 more days the bill should enter into force.

The change is a major boon for Meta, which has bet big on the new spectacle technology but felt held back in reaching European consumers with its eye-catching product. The battery rule exemption may also benefit other companies like Samsung and Google, and Apple which are planning their own smart glasses launches.

Earlier financial results from the French-Italian eyewear company EssilorLuxottica that owns the RayBan brand noted that Meta smart glasses sales are ramping up "exponentially" in the U.S.

While Meta has launched its AI glasses in the EU, the financial results said the distribution rollout is still slow in the EMEA region, with "more than half" of sales points still not served. More than 7 million pairs of Meta smart glasses were sold worldwide in 2025.

The smart glasses still face fierce privacy pushback, regardless of the change in batteries rules.

Cláudio Texeira, the head of digital policy at Europe's largest consumer protection group BEUC, said: "Europe should not dilute consumer protections. Smart glasses are already raising important concerns about privacy, security and consumer choice. Exemptions from EU battery removability rules should remain exactly that: genuine exceptions based on clear technical and safety evidence, not industry pressure. Exempting these devices … risks setting a dangerous precedent."

When Meta launched the first iteration of its RayBan smart glasses in Europe in 2021, the product immediately sparked concerns with Irish and Italian privacy watchdogs over whether the specs made it obvious enough to people that they are being filmed.

And earlier this year, concerns peaked again when Swedish media reported that subcontractors for Meta in Kenya were reviewing “deeply private” footage captured by the firm's smart glasses to help annotate the content to train artificial intelligence models. It included recordings of people's bathroom visits, banking details, or even them having sex.

The European Data Protection Board, which gathers privacy regulators across Europe, has ordered a report into smart glasses which should be finalized this summer, chair Anu Talus told POLITICO earlier. She added that the board will look at actions from there.

A Meta spokesperson told POLITICO last month that its glasses include built-in privacy safeguards and that the company has "teams dedicated to evolving these measures so that we can continue to deliver safe, secure products that enhance people’s lives."

“Unlike smartphones, our glasses have an LED light that activates when someone prompts the glasses to take a photo or video that will be saved to their gallery. The glasses feature tamper detection technology to prevent people from covering that light. Unless users choose to share media they've captured with Meta, that media also stays on the device," they said.

The U.S. Mission to the EU declined to comment.

Meta didn't respond to POLITICO's request for a comment.

[Op-ed by Chu Meng-hsiang, former deputy secretary-general of the Lee Teng-hui Foundation.]

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Taipei-based Indo-Pacific Strategy Thinktank CEO Akio Yaita, a political commentator and former Taipei bureau chief of the [Japanese daily newspaper] Sankei Shimbun, was allegedly assaulted by a Chinese national in a hotel lobby in Taichung on Monday last week, in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) latest attempt at transnational repression in Taiwan. Yet politicians from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party offered no condemnation of the attack, while some of their supporters even cheered it.

A similarly alarming incident occurred at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle International Airport in March 2024, when French border police intervened to stop the abduction of 26-year-old Chinese dissident Ling Huazhan (凌華湛) by Chinese agents. Ling had publicly voiced anti-CCP views and support for democracy in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The group was attempting to force Ling onto a flight bound for China when police and journalists at the scene intervened.

The incident struck a nerve within the French government, sparking concerns about violations of national sovereignty, human rights and freedom, prompting counterintelligence authorities to launch a year-long covert investigation and adopt strong countermeasures aimed directly at China’s secret repression networks. Earlier this year,

...

France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI dismantled nine clandestine Chinese “police stations,” also known as “110 overseas police service centers.” The “police service stations” were disguised as local Fujian associations, business federations and Chinese restaurants. The outposts, which claimed to provide administrative services for overseas Chinese, were allegedly used to monitor 600,000 Chinese residents in France and gather intelligence on dissidents. The French Ministry of the Interior expelled three Chinese nationals believed to be behind the operation, including Fujian Association of Industrialists and Merchants president Ni Chaowen (倪超文).

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France has shown it will not tolerate foreign powers illegally enforcing their laws on French soil. Taiwan should look to France and ask what lessons it can learn from the incident.

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Web Archive link

• Former Member of the European Parliament, Stelios Kouloglou, was repeatedly hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware while on the committee investigating Pegasus spyware abuses.
• Kouloglou was infected during key periods of PEGA committee activity, and the spyware would have likely captured non-public information about committee activities, possibly breaching EU parliamentary confidentiality and privilege frameworks.
• We are not attributing these infections to a particular government at this time, and found no indications that the Greek Government is responsible. Instead, we note an overlap between the first infection and a previously identified Pegasus campaign targeting Russian and Belarusian-speaking exiled journalists and activists in Europe, suggesting a Pegasus customer with authorization to spy in multiple European countries is responsible.

...

Whichever entity is responsible for the hacking, the infection could have exposed strictly confidential exchanges among PEGA Committee members and their staff, and other sensitive and confidential parliamentary proceedings, including to parties under investigation by the Committee itself.

The finding that a PEGA Committee member was targeted with Pegasus spyware during the Committee’s work highlights the serious threat that mercenary spyware poses to the integrity of democratic processes.

As outlined above, this case is not the first that a Member of the European Parliament has had their devices either targeted or hacked with mercenary spyware, which illustrates the corrosive nature of unregulated mercenary hacking.

...

Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/54275021

When people talk about foreign influence operations, Russia is usually the first country that comes to mind. We picture troll factories, aggressive TV shows or conspiracy theories spreading on social media.

But a study published this June by Viginum, France’s national agency for countering foreign digital interference, describes a very different approach. At its centre is not loud propaganda, but an entire network of news portals that look like ordinary media outlets and focus mainly on how successful, innovative and essential to the world China supposedly is.

According to Viginum, the network consisted of 13 websites operated by China’s state broadcaster CGTN, or China Global Television Network. The portals published articles in English, French, Spanish and Vietnamese, presenting themselves as independent media outlets. In reality, they were part of a coordinated influence operation, which French authorities named Fawn Mianju.

...

One of the best-known portals in the network was called Actu Méridien. It was a French-language website that looked just like an ordinary news outlet. The same network also included the Spanish-language Amigo News, English-language sites and Vietnamese-language publications.

The content of these sites did not focus on criticising the West. Quite the opposite. Readers were told about China’s achievements in aviation and artificial intelligence, Beijing’s leading role in the Global South, and how European countries could benefit from closer cooperation with China. One article, for example, attacked a programme by the French TV channel France 2 that covered the situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

This is exactly what sets Chinese influence operations apart from Russia’s. While Russian propaganda is often dominated by conflict, threat perception and confrontation, China’s goal is to build a positive image of itself. Freedom House describes this as a long-term strategy aimed at “telling China’s story well”. At its core is the image of China as a successful, trustworthy and indispensable partner.

Freedom House notes that in France, Chinese state media has for years tried to influence public opinion not only through its own channels, but also through partnerships, paid content and social media influencers. These have included both Facebook influencers and traditional media outlets that have published paid supplements from Chinese state media.

...

The most interesting part of the story, however, is the role played by artificial intelligence. According to Viginum’s investigation, since late 2025 CGTN published nearly 3,000 articles, more than 2,300 of which were quickly adapted and republished on other websites in the network. This often happened less than an hour after the original story appeared.

The articles were not copied word for word. The texts were edited, shortened, adapted for different target audiences and rewritten so that they appeared to be original content. Investigators found that the texts showed unusually little natural variation in sentence length and punctuation. This is one of the signs associated with automatically generated or AI-assisted content.

...

One mistake led back to CGTN

The strongest evidence linking the network to China’s state broadcaster came from an unexpected place. The administrator of one portal, Actu Méridien, left behind a login trail that led Viginum investigators to a senior project manager at CGTN Digital.

In addition, investigators found a hidden webpage on Actu Méridien’s server that had been built to resemble CGTN’s official website.

An anonymous Viginum analyst told Le Monde that the portal’s technical setup pointed to “a well-resourced actor”. The website was not running on a single server, but used a distributed architecture, professional SEO tools and several different infrastructure components.

Still, it did not become successful propaganda

Perhaps the most surprising part is that, despite the scale of the effort, the operation was not particularly successful. The network was supported by Facebook and Threads accounts, and advertising campaigns were shown to users in as many as 89 countries. Yet individual articles usually received no more than around 15,000 views.

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Influence operations no longer have to look like propaganda.

There is no need for loud voices, militant slogans or obvious fake news. A website that resembles an ordinary news portal is enough. An article about China’s green transition or technological success is enough. And so is artificial intelligence that can adapt the same message for dozens of different target audiences within minutes.

The question is no longer only whether a news story is true or false. The question is who is telling stories about the world, what kinds of stories are being told, and whether the reader even notices that the “news” in front of them was not produced in an independent newsroom, but far away in Beijing.

Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/54135854

Great Britain, France and Germany on Wednesday issued a rare joint statement expressing alarm over Chinese activities east of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, where China earlier this month deployed coast guard patrols.

The de-facto embassies of the three European nations in the Taiwanese capital Taipei said the “novel Chinese activity,” which was not specifically identified, endangered regional stability.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to annex the island, called the maneuvers earlier this month a “maritime traffic enforcement and hydrographic survey operation.”

Chinese state media said the activities were “sending a pointed warning” to Japan and the Philippines over an announcement that the countries would discuss their maritime boundaries in waters that Beijing views as its own.

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“These actions ⁠threaten regional stability and the freedom of navigation and safety of international shipping. We reiterate our opposition to any unilateral change to the status quo, particularly by threat or use of force or coercion,” the [joint European] statement said.

The offices also called for navigational rights and freedoms and respect for the safety of all seafarers.

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Beijing’s tensions with Tokyo also have increased since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested the country’s military could get involved if China takes action against Taiwan.

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Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54977089

Archived

France is not only facing the threat of Russian or Iranian interference but China's growing influence on its territory. Following a year-long investigation, counterintelligence services shut down nine clandestine "police stations" in early 2026 that were operating in France on behalf of Beijing's interests.

According to the Interior Ministry, three "heads" of these shadow police stations, all Chinese nationals, faced expulsion measures. They were tasked with monitoring the Chinese diaspora and tracking down regime opponents to forcibly return them to China. Two have already been expelled. On June 9, before the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, the public rapporteur recommended that the third expulsion be confirmed.

Less spectacular than Russian destabilization operations but just as active, Beijing's clandestine activities abroad have largely relied on Chinese nationals without direct links to the Chinese state. A law passed on June 28, 2017, on intelligence, created legal obligations for Chinese citizens and companies to assist in collecting information as part of the "United Front," making every Chinese national a potential spy. On June 1, 2023, the European Parliament called on "member states and Union authorities to investigate the alleged existence of these police outposts and to take coordinated action against any illegal activity linked to the Chinese United Front Work Department in Europe."

[...]

For the Interior Ministry, these undeclared clandestine stations are extensions of Chinese police stations on French territory and operate under the orders of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), China's main police authority. Most of these structures that are active in France, especially in the Paris region, were set up within the Chinese community or cultural associations. In addition to hunting dissidents, they provide administrative services such as issuing passports and gathering intelligence to recruit informants, described as "talents." The Chinese community in France numbers around 600,000 people.

[...]

The case of Ni Chaowen, 57, head of a clandestine police station, was brought before the Council of State on June 9. According to the Interior Ministry, Ni served as president of the Fujian Association of Industrialists and Merchants (FAIM) since 2023, but behind this organization, he was actually running a clandestine police station linked to the Chinese MPS.

[...]

French authorities decided to take a tougher line against these clandestine Chinese police structures after cracking down in 2024 on the activities of intelligence agents officially listed at the Chinese Embassy in Paris. The station chief of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS, or Guoanbu, China's intelligence service) and his deputy were asked to leave France after orchestrating, in March 2024, an attempted forced repatriation of a political dissident.

[...]

Apparently displeased with the publicity surrounding these cases, Chinese authorities tried, both in the matter of secret agents assigned to the embassy and in the case of nationals implicated in the "shadow police stations" affair, to plead their case with the French Foreign Ministry. Questioned on the matter, a senior diplomat at the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that Chinese diplomats had come to defend their "good faith" and that of their compatriots. In return, they only obtained a pledge that France would act discreetly regarding the measures taken against them.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53878559

The Netherlands will not back down from regular military deployments to the Indo-Pacific despite a recent tense naval encounter with China, the country’s defense minister said, signaling that the incidents will not deter European engagement in the region.

“We are not here to seek a conflict, but we will keep coming back,” Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius told The Japan Times in an interview Monday following the arrival of Dutch frigate HNLMS De Ruyter in Tokyo for a three-day port call.

The guided-missile frigate was involved in an incident last month near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, where the Chinese Navy reportedly subjected it to electronic interference.

The frigate continued its planned mission, later transiting the sensitive Taiwan Strait before arriving in Japan, but the event highlighted ongoing tensions between Chinese forces and foreign militaries operating in waters Beijing claims as its own.

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Yeşilgöz-Zegerius was unequivocal that such incidents would not prompt the Netherlands to scale back its Indo-Pacific engagement, insisting that Dutch naval operations are conducted in accordance with international law and the principle of freedom of navigation — and that the deployments are far from symbolic.

“For the Netherlands, it’s very important to send a frigate through this region every two years because the safety, security and economy of the Indo-Pacific are closely interlinked with those of the Netherlands and the rest of Europe,” she said.

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“If something were to happen here [in the Indo-Pacific], the effects would be felt acutely in Europe — even more so than in the Strait of Hormuz,” referring to the crucial Middle Eastern waterway that has remained largely closed amid the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.

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The minister confirmed that Chinese officials had raised the naval encounter during bilateral and panel discussions at last month’s Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, where Dutch military officials reaffirmed the legal basis for the transit while keeping the door open to dialogue.

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While encounters between Chinese, U.S. and regional forces in the South China Sea occur regularly, publicly acknowledged incidents involving European warships remain comparatively uncommon, making the De Ruyter episode one of the most visible Chinese-European military interactions in the region so far this year.

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Archive Today link

This is the hottest pre-summer we've had - so far

The report was adopted on Tuesday by 434 votes in favour, 128 against and 104 abstentions, the parliamentary press service announced.

Transnational repression was described in the text as deliberate acts or threats by states and authoritarian regimes — or state-linked entities and proxies — to threaten, silence, coerce or harm people living abroad, as well as their support networks and family members.

MEPs said these actions pose a threat to democracy and the protection of human rights, and amount to foreign interference.

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Targets can include dissidents, journalists, activists, academics and members of diaspora communities, as well as their families, according to the European Parliament.

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They also called for measures to share best practice between member states and floated the appointment of an EU coordinator to help develop a wider strategy, including action against digital threats, abusive Interpol “red notices” — requests to locate and provisionally arrest people pending extradition — and “consular coercion”, which the report described as pressure from embassies and consulates.

“For many people living in exile in Europe, distance doesn't guarantee safety. Authoritarian regimes actively seek to silence critics beyond their own borders,” the report’s rapporteur, Hannah Neumann, said in the statement published by the European Parliament.

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The EU and four Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) States (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles) concluded negotiations on an enhanced Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

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This Agreement will set a new standard for EU-Africa economic relations by providing clear rules and opportunities on:

• Services and investment: the enhanced EPA improves legal certainty and conditions for companies supplying services in each other's market. It also provides greater predictability for investors and ensures fair and non-discriminatory treatment.

• Public procurement: businesses will have access to clear and transparent information on public procurement opportunities. This will make it easier for businesses on both sides to take part in public tendering and will support ESA States' expected economic growth and modernization plans.

• Intellectual property: the enhanced EPA establishes a modern and predictable framework covering all major categories of intellectual property and strengthens enforcement tools to support innovative and creative industries in ESA States. It will also protect 135 EU Geographical Indications (GIs) in Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles, after a transition period.

• Digital trade: the deal will make it easier to carry out digital transactions and trade using electronic means without applying customs duties on electronic transmissions. It will enhance online consumer protection and reduce unnecessary red tape. This allows the EU and the ESA States to promote and support digital trade more widely.

• Sustainability: the deal contains binding and enforceable commitments, as well as cooperation provisions, in a dedicated Trade and Sustainable Development chapter.

...

The EU is ESA4's largest trading partner, accounting for 24% of its total trade in goods and for 33% of its total trade in services.

In 2024, total trade in goods and services between the EU and the ESA4 States reached €9.7 billion, comprising €5.2 billion in EU imports and €4.5 billion in EU exports.

...

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The clandestine bank, whose logistical base was located in Prato, north-west of Florence, has been run since 2021 by a Chinese national, officials said.

The operation acted as a “global broker at the service of organised crime, offering secure channels for paying for huge drug consignments without any physical movement of cash and guaranteeing total anonymity of financial flows”, police said on Monday in a statement.

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Drug cartels, such as Albanian trafficking organisations active in Italy, and the Italian mafia, were clients, it said.

Under-the-radar money transfers run by the Chinese mafia, known as Fei Chien or “flying money”, are used by Italian criminal organisations for drug-related payments.

The hard-to-trace system allows someone to pay a broker in Italy who has an agent in another part of the world who will pay the same amount to the intended recipient.

Police said they had arrested 41 individuals in Italy and Spain linked to the network, with charges ranging from criminal conspiracy and drug trafficking to money laundering and aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

A branch of the organisation managed a “lucrative illegal immigration network from China, which flew migrants to Belgrade before transporting them – or forcing them to march to the Hungarian border through mountainous terrain – to the European Union and the final destination of Italy, police said.

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[Chinese] migrants were charged up to €9,500 (£8,200) for the journey to Prato, Turin, or the province of Verona.

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The small city of Prato, the heart of Italy’s textile industry, is home to one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe – and in recent years has been a battleground for rival Chinese mafia groups warring to control the market for clothes hangers and freight transport.

The Chinese mafia, which is also engaged in illegal betting dens, prostitution and drugs, helps supply Prato’s textile industry – primarily the fast-fashion sector – with workers of various nationalities.

They are often exploited, paid about €3 an hour and working 13 hours a day, seven days a week, police investigations have shown.

...

Web Archive link

Archived

On June 16, between 18:00 and 21:00, the rights organization Safeguard Defenders (SD) releases its latest report: Behind Bars - A Survey on Detention Centre Conditions in China.

[...]

The event, at Grémio Literário in Chiado, Lisbon, features direct testimony from two former European detainees: Peter Dahlin (Sweden) and Peter Humphrey (United Kingdom). Joining them is Grace Chen (Canada), former legal adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

In recent days, there have been at least two attempts to cancel or disrupt the Lisbon event.

In a letter dated June 5, the Embassy urged the American Club of Lisbon to reconsider "offering a platform for actions that vilify China".

[...]

Days later, on June 12, one of the many X accounts impersonating Safeguard Defenders posted a doctored copy of the event poster. The fake changed the date, time, venue and location to mislead potential attendees. The same account pushed the false details to other users in the China human rights space by direct message.

[...]

The move against the Lisbon event is only the latest in a long line of PRC attempts - many of them successful - to suppress information that exposes widespread, systematic human rights abuse in China. Recent examples include pressure on German cities to drop their support for Tibet, and the cancellation of RightsCon in Zambia after sustained PRC pressure on the local government.

The CCP's "red line" on any public discussion of its rights record - anywhere - is the flip side of its propaganda and influence machine. To advance an increasingly aggressive agenda at home and abroad, the Party works to set and police every narrative about China. Anything that contradicts it must be silenced.

These efforts violate fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in international treaties, regional instruments, and democratic constitutions. When the PRC suppresses those rights on foreign soil, it commits transnational repression and an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.

[...]

The report

Behind Bars - A Survey on Detention Conditions in China draws on interviews with 84 former detainees. It finds that shocking abuses continue without relent across the country's 2,600-plus facilities, set for release June 16.

These include police beatings, the illegal denial of access to lawyers, and the use of inmate enforcers to keep order through intimidation and violence.

The report also compares domestic and international law and reviews legal commentary, tracing these abuses to the absence of clear protections for detention centers, exploitable legal loopholes, and weak oversight of detention-center police and practices.

As China's surveillance state shrinks the pool of public data and makes speaking out riskier, Behind Bars is a vital addition to the evidence on the systematic abuse of detainees - Chinese and foreign alike.

It is the first of two reports. A companion survey on prison conditions in China follows July 18.

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Ukraine and Moldova will take a decisive step towards joining the EU on Monday, as they embark on the first phase of membership negotiations.

The start of substantive negotiations, launched by senior EU officials and ministers from both countries in Luxembourg on Monday [June 15], will be a highly symbolic moment for the two countries that were both part of the former Soviet Union. It comes after Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities, while sustaining huge losses for little territorial gain.

Ukraine and Moldova were quickly accepted as EU candidate countries in 2022, having filed applications days after Russia’s full-scale invasion. But despite a symbolic decision to open talks in June 2024, substantive negotiations were blocked by Hungary’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Orbán.

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The election of a new Hungarian government in April paved the way for EU member states to agree unanimously last Friday to open “the first cluster”, the chapters of the EU rulebook covering rule of law and democracy. Launching this cluster opens the door to talks on other areas, such as the single market, the environment, economic and social policy.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada and France will deepen their defence and industrial co-operation through a new general security of information agreement.

Carney says the agreement will facilitate the exchange of classified intelligence related to the defence, space, artificial intelligence and aerospace sectors.

Carney made the comments in a joint statement alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais de l'Élysée in Paris on Friday.

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Dutch customs police at the Port of Rotterdam seized a cargo ship bound for Russia and arrested the captain on charges of evading Western sanctions.

The vessel regularly operated between Rotterdam and St. Petersburg and carried several containers filled with vehicle parts such as doors, air filters and windshields.

A customs officer said that the export of such cargo is banned under European sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

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Thirteen fake news websites launched in 2025 promoted China in a one-sided manner. An investigation by the French government agency Viginum has established that they were directly connected to CGTN, China's state-run television channel.

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On Thursday, June 4, Viginum – the French government watchdog against foreign digital interference – revealed the existence of a network of fake news sites in multiple languages, all linked to a state media outlet under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, China Global Television Network (CGTN). This discovery has unveiled a textbook case of a superpower attempting to manipulate public opinion in Western countries.

Nicknamed "Fawn Mianju" by French authorities, the operation was first exposed in the summer of 2025 by the American cybersecurity company Graphika. At that time, Graphika identified 11 websites and 16 English-language social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads and X, all uncritically relaying CGTN articles and specifically targeting young people. Other sites shared this content in French ("Actu Méridien"), Spanish ("Amigo News") and Vietnamese.

Mainly published between March 2015 and February 2026, the fake articles posted on "Actu Méridien" promoted Chinese aerospace and artificial intelligence, China as the leader of the "Global South," and environmental initiatives, as well as the supposed benefits for France in aligning with Chinese interests. Another article, published in several languages, criticized a France 2 television report on the treatment of Uyghurs in China.

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After several months of online investigation, Viginum experts managed to establish that these sites, which were now numbering 13, were directly linked to the state-run CGTN channel, which is overseen by the Chinese Communist Party.

In addition to the fact that the domain name was registered in Beijing and purchased from Alibaba Cloud, a Chinese digital giant, the site used a distributed architecture – meaning it was simultaneously duplicated across several servers. This more expensive setup, along with the use of paid plug-ins to boost internet search rankings, "suggests an actor with significant resources," explained a Viginum analyst, who requested anonymity.

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These sites display two essential characteristics of a digital interference operation: secrecy and coordination. Despite several campaigns to purchase visibility on Facebook and Threads, targeting a total of 89 countries – mainly in French-speaking Africa – they never managed to break through beyond 15,000 views. The most "liked" posts received 39% of their likes from users located in Burundi, whose sole activity was to interact favorably with Chinese pages.

Given the limited visibility of these sites and their associated accounts, this operation can be considered an operational failure; in fact, "Actu Méridien" has been inactive for several months. Nevertheless, Viginum warns that these sites demonstrate China's determination to promote its narrative to populations in Western countries – including through clandestine means; its growing prowess in using LLMs to automate this kind of production; and, finally, its objective to target both young people and French-speaking Africa.

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At least 30 agents operating on Beijing’s behalf have been uncovered in the European area over the past two years.

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Chinese espionage in the European Union and neighboring countries reveals its full scope when certain pieces are connected. The May 20 arrest in Germany of a German couple of Chinese origin who were taking military-technology information from universities is a particularly notable case. But it is only one of many. The episode exposes a strategy of large-scale, coordinated infiltration when placed alongside other arrests in EU member states and neighboring countries. In total, around 30 agents and collaborators have been uncovered in Europe and its vicinity in just the past two years; some were arrested, several expelled, and others are awaiting trial.

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The Italian government expelled eight Chinese nationals in March on charges of surveilling and intimidating members of the diaspora. This pattern of harassment, known as China’s “clandestine police stations,” came to light in 2022 when the Dutch government acted against two covert offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The NGO that exposed the case, Safeguards Defenders, reported that Beijing had set up 102 unauthorized security offices in 53 countries, including Spain.

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The MEP Engin Eroglu [chair of the Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China in the European Parliament] provides several figures to illustrate Europe’s “structural vulnerability” to Beijing’s influence and espionage operations: “China’s security and intelligence workforce is estimated at between 100,000 and 800,000 personnel, according to various estimates. By comparison, the United States has about 30,000 intelligence officers, and EU member states collectively have approximately 35,000 to 40,000.”

The MEP believes Beijing is interested in future-facing sectors such as semiconductor technology and artificial intelligence. “And Germany, with its strong industrial and research base, remains a key target.”

It was precisely in the EU’s largest economy that, in April 2024, Jiang G., an assistant to far-right MEP Maximilian Krah of Alternative for Germany (AfD), was arrested for spying for China. Around that time, three German citizens identified as Thomas R., Ina R. (a married couple) and Herwig were accused of illegally transferring military and scientific technological know-how to Beijing. They used publicly funded research projects to gather information useful to China’s maritime combat capabilities.

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Cutting-edge technology is fertile ground for bribery. About 100 Belgian police officers raided the Brussels offices of Chinese tech giant Huawei in March 2025 and more than 20 lobbyists’ homes. At least eight people were charged in Belgium, including a senior European Huawei executive. All are alleged to have been involved in a scheme designed to prevent a ban on Chinese 5G technology in Europe. In addition, the Belgian public prosecutor asked the European Parliament to lift the immunity of five MEPs.

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Belgium already knew how far Beijing could influence local and European politics. In December 2023, an investigation by Le Monde, the Financial Times and Der Spiegel revealed that Frank Creyelman, a veteran politician from the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang (VB), had received payments for at least three years (between 2019 and 2022) from China to influence both Belgium and the EU on issues such as the situation of the Uyghur minority and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Creyelman was expelled from the party.

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Traditional espionage that targets scientists and military personnel continues to yield results in the age of artificial intelligence. In Greece, on February 5, Air Force Colonel Christos Flessas, 54, was arrested on accusations of passing information of high strategic interest to China. The officer held a top-level NATO security clearance that allowed him access to highly valuable information.

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On the same day Colonel Flessas was arrested in Greece, France uncovered another case. Two technicians, aged 27 and 29, who entered France to perform legal work as engineers, were detained. Two other men of Chinese origin with residency in France provided the logistics: a house rented via Airbnb in the Gironde department (southwest France, near Bordeaux). The Paris prosecutor’s office said the aim was to intercept Starlink satellite communications and military data to transmit to China. The agents made the mistake of installing a two-meter satellite dish in the rented property’s garden, which caused interference and knocked out internet service in the area. Neighbors alerted the authorities and the two engineers face up to 15 years in prison.

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After Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Poland stepped up its counterespionage efforts. And they are paying off. In February, police arrested a 32-year-old Montenegrin citizen at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport who was the subject of a European arrest warrant. The suspect was accused of passing intelligence to China from neighboring Lithuania. That same February, Poland approved restrictions to prevent vehicles made in China from entering protected military facilities.

Henrietta Levin, senior fellow at Spain’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, says by videoconference that the EU’s priority should be to secure NATO-critical infrastructure such as ports, water systems, power grids, and communications. Beijing acquired 67% of the Piraeus port’s shares in 2016 — the main Greek port and one of eastern Europe’s largest distribution hubs.

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Meanwhile, Beijing has not neglected countries close to the European Union. In Norway, a Chinese woman was arrested on May 8 on the island of Andøya, where a space-launch base is located, on suspicion of complicity in a serious espionage attempt related to state secrets, Efe reported. And on May 17, a Chinese national was detained in the same country on the same charge.

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One of the most decisive and explicit counterespionage battles Beijing is fighting is in the United Kingdom, known for its powerful intelligence services. One of the most recent cases resurfaced this month with a jury verdict finding a former immigration officer and his contact guilty of working for Chinese intelligence. They were accused of using access to immigration databases to track dissidents and pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong who had sought refuge in the U.K. And in March, David Taylor, the husband of Labour MP Joani Reid, was arrested, also accused of spying for China.

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In that complex balance between security and economic benefit, the EU’s major challenge is no longer merely detecting spies but forging a common shield without weakening its considerable commercial muscle.

Russian Tundra-series satellites belonging to the EKS system are causing brief GPS signal disruptions across Europe, according to the findings of a recent study by scientists at the University of Texas and Spanish technology company GMV.

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Researchers have recorded at least 75 incidents since 2019 across a territory ranging from Iceland to Italy. In three cases, the scientists reliably identified Russian military satellites designed to give early warning of missile launches as the source of the interference. In the remaining cases, the collected data was insufficient for a definitive attribution, but the signal type was identical across all incidents. Each disruption lasted less than ten seconds and did not lead to serious consequences, as most devices normally switch to a backup signal or the last known location. Nevertheless, the interference has affected the GPS systems of the United States, China, and the European Union, while Russia’s GLONASS is unaffected.

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Satellite jamming is not the only threat vector. As study co-author Todd Humphreys, director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas, told The Insider, the scale of GPS interference depends significantly on its carrier. For a source installed on an aircraft, the effective range can reach 450 kilometers, while ground-based sources can affect a radius of no more than 50 kilometers. According to Humphreys, Russia can change its strategy from month to month, targeting individual aircraft with precision before switching over to block entire sectors of airspace or create broadband interference. Attributing the source is technically possible to within approximately 100 meters and is generally carried out from space.

Lithuania's telecommunications regulator previously recorded an increase from three spoofing antennas along the border of Kaliningrad Oblast to 36. It warns that Russia is now capable of falsifying GPS signals up to 450 kilometers deep into European territory.

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53107907

The European Union will provide more than €50mn in immediate financial assistance to Armenia and help find alternative markets for Armenian exports after Russia imposed new trade restrictions on the South Caucasus nation, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on June 4.

Following a phone call with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, von der Leyen accused Moscow of using economic pressure against Yerevan as Armenia continues to deepen ties with the European Union.

"Russia's recent restrictions targeting Armenia are nothing short of economic coercion, and it is unacceptable," von der Leyen said.

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"By extending export restrictions on Armenian products, Moscow is weaponising economic relations for political pressure. We know this playbook all too well. This is why Europe stands firmly with Armenia."

The support package will include immediate financial assistance worth more than €50mn, measures aimed at easing trade in certain Armenian products, particularly agri-food goods, and practical assistance for sectors affected by the Russian restrictions, the Commission said.

Among the measures announced is support for Armenia's flower industry after Russia recently restricted imports of Armenian flowers, citing what Armenian officials have described as questionable phytosanitary concerns. Von der Leyen said a shipment of 10,000 Armenian flowers was due to arrive in Latvia on June 5 and that further deliveries would follow.

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The EU has become one of Armenia's most important political and economic partners. Brussels launched a Resilience and Growth Plan for Armenia in 2024, and von der Leyen said EU support under the programme had already helped 7,000 businesses and contributed to the creation of more than 20,000 jobs.

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Looking ahead, the Commission president said the EU remained committed to implementing an ambitious Connectivity Partnership agreed with Armenia. She welcomed the recent reopening of regional trade routes involving Turkey, including railway links through Georgia and Turkey, describing them as "an excellent step forward".

"Armenia has the potential to become a strategic hub connecting Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia," she said.

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[Armenians are set to vote on the country's future geopolitical direction on June 7. The election will be a test of public opinion in the long-standing Russia ally, where the population is increasingly eyeing the EU.]

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