Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10632476

Russia has demanded that Ukraine extradite a number of people, including the head of the country’s SBU security service, over claims they are connected with “terrorist” acts.

The SBU immediately dismissed the Russian demand as “pointless” and said the Russian foreign ministry had “forgotten” that Vladimir Putin was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

The Russian statement referred to the mass shooting this month at a concert hall outside Moscow in which 144 people died, but only in an oblique sense.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and US officials said they had intelligence showing it was carried out by the network’s Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan Province, or Isis-K.

Russian investigators said last week they had found proof that the concert hall gunmen were linked to “Ukrainian nationalists”. Kyiv denies any connection with the attack.

Poland has launched an investigation into its previous government’s use of the controversial spyware Pegasus, with a parliamentary inquiry under way and the possibility of criminal charges being brought against former government officials in future.

Adam Bodnar, Poland’s new justice minister, said that in coming months the government would notify people who were targeted with Pegasus. Under Polish law, they would then have the possibility of seeking financial compensation, and becoming party to potential criminal proceedings.

“There is a decent chance that within a couple of months we’ll have quite extensive knowledge how this equipment was used and for what purpose,” said Bodnar.

Alicia Kearns, chairman of the UK foreign affairs select committee, said that with the US and EU both passing laws to ban solar products made by Uyghur slave labour, many will end up in the UK where an estimated 98pc of solar panels are already Chinese made.

The warning comes at a crucial time for the UK’s burgeoning solar industry. The Government is about to publish its long-awaited Solar Roadmap committing the UK to a massive expansion of solar farms and domestic rooftop installations, from 18 gigawatts now to about 70 gigawatts by 2035.

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/2578645

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/mapporn by /u/Autistic-Inquisitive on 2024-03-30 14:54:37.

21 countries, including Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the European Union, have expressed concern about dangerous maneuvers and the use of water cannons against Filipino ships by the China Coast Guard. They refer to the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UCLOS) and they call for upholding the rules, when managing the dispute in the South China Sea.

The statements follows weeks of tension between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, with both countries accusing each other of initiating aggressions.

The Embassy of Sweden in Manila wrote on social media, that damaging the Philippine vessels is “needlessly endangering lives”, and that the “disputes must be resolved peacefully in accordance with UNCLOS and the international rule of law.”

"War is no longer a concept from the past. It is real, and it started over two years ago. The most worrying thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. We haven't seen a situation like this since 1945," Tusk said in an interview with the European media grouping LENA on Friday.

"I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation, but we have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the pre-war era. I'm not exaggerating; it's becoming clearer every day."

The former European Council president's comments came soon after the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war upended an era of peace in Europe and pushed nations into ramping up weapons production.

Tusk further said that no one in Europe would feel safe if Kyiv lost the war.

Investigators claimed it used the popular Voice of Europe website as a vehicle to pay politicians.

The Czech Republic and Poland said the network aimed to influence European politics.

Czech media, citing intelligence sources, reported that politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary were paid by Voice of Europe in order to influence upcoming elections for the European Parliament.

Pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk is alleged by the Czech Republic to be behind the network.

Mr Medvedchuk was arrested in Ukraine soon after the Russian invasion, but later transferred to Russia with about 50 prisoners of war in exchange for 215 Ukrainians.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10480714

"It is abundantly clear that ISIS (Islamic State) was solely responsible for the horrific attack in Moscow last week," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

"In fact, the United States tried to help prevent this terrorist attack and the Kremlin knows this."

When Luigi Boitani, Italy’s leading wolf expert, captured a hybrid in 1975, he says he “was met with everything from gentle opposition to [people who] said, ‘this is bullshit’.”

Time has proven Boitani right. Today, a growing number of studies point to the presence of hybrids in nearly every European country with wolves, and in some areas their numbers are growing steadily. In Boitani’s native Tuscany, and other regions, they have become endemic, accounting for as much as 70% of the wolf population. The rise has been driven by the increasing destruction of wolf habitats and the expansion of human settlements, which bring people, their pets, and packs of stray dogs into more frequent contact with wolf packs.

In some regions “they are basically all hybrids,” Boitani says. “In this case, there is nothing you can do. You cannot send the army and kill everything.”

Hybrids trouble conservationists partly for their unpredictability. They may increase conflict with humans, crowd pure-blood wolves out of their habitat, or reduce the viability of future offspring, hampering efforts to revive Europe’s wolf population.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10466441

Ukraine has destroyed an ultra-rare Soviet-era armoured vehicle that was first field-tested by the Russians at Chernobyl.

Battlefield footage shared on social media appeared to show the Ladoga nuclear command vehicle being targeted by a Ukrainian drone.

The vehicle was designed in the seventies to move senior Kremlin staff around in the event of a nuclear attack.