Past threats former president – and present Russian ones – have spurred Europe to invest in self-defence, but as conflicts rise the alliance still looks vital

Politeness and convention dictate that European leaders try to sound noncommittal when asked whether a Donald Trump presidency would hurt Nato. But despite the rhetoric about “Trump-proofing”, Nato cohesion will be at risk from a hostile or isolationist Republican president, who has previously threatened to leave the alliance if European defence spending did not increase.

“The truth is that the US is Nato and Nato is the US; the dependence on America is essentially as big as ever,” said Jamie Shea, a former Nato official who teaches at the University of Exeter. “Take the new Nato command centre to coordinate assistance for Ukraine in Wiesbaden, Germany. It is inside a US army barracks, relying on US logistics and software.”

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A state parliament debate about the design movement shows how fear of ‘un-German’ ideas is being revived for the 21st century

• Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and journalist

The far right generally isn’t fond of modern art. There is nothing new in its fear of the rejection of tradition. What is new is that today’s far-right parties seem to see this threat not just in contemporary culture, but also in modern art created a century ago.

In 1933, the Nazis brutally crushed the Bauhaus school, one of Germany’s most important contributions to modern art and architecture. They saw its internationalist outlook and its many foreign and Jewish members as “un-German”; leftwingers were particularly attracted to the movement’s radical rejection of local tradition in favour of universal styles. But the Nazis failed to stop the design revolution it had unleashed. The minimalist and functional principles of Bauhaus have found their way into our lives, inspiring everything from Ikea furniture to prefabricated housebuilding. A recent development in Germany, though, has revealed that the underlying culture war is far from over.

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and journalist

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Importers also facing rising costs, delays and damage to orders, letter from representatives tells government

New Brexit border checks are reducing consumer choice and compromising Britain’s food security, according to fresh produce sellers and plant growers.

A joint letter from the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) has called for an urgent meeting with the government over the continued problems their members face when importing plants and cut flowers under the current border system.

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Following the example of the United States, the EU began publishing its very own piracy watchlist a few years ago.

The ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List’ is compiled by the European Commission. Like its U.S equivalent, it relies on stakeholder groups to nominate problematic sites and services for inclusion.

New EU Piracy Watch List

The most recent version of the report was published in late 2022 and the EU is currently soliciting comments from stakeholders for the next release. As in previous years, the focus is on sites and services that are presumably operated from outside the European territory.

“The European Commission services request written contributions from stakeholders identifying online services and physical marketplaces that may fulfil the criteria to be included in the ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List’,” the Commission writes .

Based on previous reports, we can expect that torrent sites, stream-rippers, and pirate streaming sites will make an appearance. The same applies to IPTV services, piracy apps, and bulletproof hosting providers.

Not All ‘Pirates’ are Equal

An overview of all sites and services listed in the latest ‘watchlist’ is available below . Many of these are classic pirate sites with anonymous operators. However, the list also includes companies that categorically deny the ‘piracy’ label and any bad intent often associated with it.

For example, tucked in between pirate portals such as Fmovies and The Pirate Bay, we find the Russian social media platform VK.com and the file-hosting service Mega. These services are run by corporations. They typically cooperate with rightsholders, unlike traditional ‘pirate’ sites.

To add more balance, the EU now specifically invites companies and services that appeared on the previous list, to share their views on the matter.

“Online service providers and physical marketplace operators appearing in the Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List of 2022 are also invited to submit written contributions in which they present the actions they have taken to address IP infringements on their services or while providing their services,” the Commission notes.

Mega Nuance

While The Pirate Bay is unlikely to submit a serious comment, Mega almost certainly will. When the New Zealand-based company was added to the watchlist in 2022, it wasn’t pleased at all.

At the time, Mega’s executive chairman Stephen Hall said he was disappointed the European Commission didn’t reach out to the company beforehand. If it did, Mega would’ve been happy to explain the measures they take to accommodate copyright holders.

“The inclusion of Mega on the watchlist lacks legitimacy and we refute their findings,” Hall informed TorrentFreak in 2022.

“Unfortunately, the Commission never contacted Mega for clarification or comment so they misunderstand Mega and misrepresent our operations. Mega had no opportunity to correct their misunderstandings,” he added.

Mega undeniably faces copyright challenges, as some users abuse the service to share pirated content. However, the company’s transparency report indicates that it isn’t sitting still; it removes millions of files in response to takedown notices, and has thrown out thousands of repeat infringers.

The company now has the chance to share these nuances with the European Commission, as the consultation is now live.

Mega and other stakeholders have until the 15th of August to submit their comments. The new edition of the ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List’ is scheduled to be published in the second quarter of next year.

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Below is an overview of all the sites and services that were listed in the 2022 Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List.

Cyberlockers
– Mega.nz/.io
– Uptobox.com / Uptostream.com
– Rapidgator.net
– Uploaded.net (ul.to, uploaded.to)
– Dbree.org

Stream-Rippers
– Y2mate.com
– Savefrom.net /ssyoutube.com/sfrom.ne
– Flvto.biz and 2conv.com
– Snappea.com

Linking or referring websites
– Fmovies.to (and related domains)
– Seasonvar.ru
– Rlsbb.ru
– Rezka.ag

BitTorrent and P2P Sites
– ThePirateBay.org
– Rarbg.to
– Rutracker.org
– 1337x.to

Unlicensed download sites
– Music-Bazaar.com and Music-Bazaar.mobi
– Sci-hub.tw; sci-hub.cc; sci-hub.ac; sci-hub.bz and others
– Libgen.onl and mirror sites

Piracy Apps
– IPTV Smarters
– Ievpad.com
– Shabakaty

Hosting providers
– DDoS-Guard.net
– Private Layer
– “Amarutu”, also known as Koddos
– AS-Istqservers / Istqserverses (“Istq”)
– HostPalace Web Solution PVT LTD (“Host Palace”)

Unlicensed IPTV services
– BIPTV.best and BestBuyIPTV.store
– King365tv.com / Theking365tv.pro
– VolkaIPTV.com

Social media
– VK.com

Piracy Supporting Services
– 2embed.ru
– Fembed.com

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Anti-Muslim sentiment is so mainstreamed now that politicians like Suella Braverman barely bother disguising it

• Humza Yousaf is a former first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party

While many in the world rightly bemoan the rise of populism, few are willing to confront the fact that it is the hatred of Muslims that is driving populism in Europe and the west.

In 2024, almost half the world’s population will take part in elections. Many countries have already gone to the polls, and in a number of countries, particularly across Europe, the biggest gains have been made by those who make a living out of vilifying Muslims.

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Rescuers near Italy report 10 bodies found on wooden boat and 50 missing in a separate incident off Calabria

At least 10 people have died and dozens are missing after two separate shipwrecks close to the Italian coast, rescuers said.

Ten bodies were found on Monday in the lower deck of a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean by rescuers from Nadir, a ship operated by the German charity ResQship. The charity said it saved 51 people who were onboard the sinking vessel, which is believed to have departed from Tunisia.

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• Sports minister tells his country’s squad to keep a ‘cold head’
• ‘We consider Russian athletes to be agents of hybrid influence’

The acting sports minister of Ukraine, Matviy Bidnyi, has told his country’s athletes to keep a “cold head” and pay no attention to any provocation from their Russian counterparts at the Olympic Games this summer.

Speaking to the Guardian at the ministry of youth and sports in Kyiv, Bidnyi predicted that Russia will use its representatives in Paris as part of their propaganda operation and explained recommendations have been drawn up to help the Ukraine team avoid becoming embroiled in controversy.

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Director Quarxx’s underworld car-crash drama chances little humour as it dolorously teases out morals and metaphysics

This Stygian jolly, in which dumbstruck driver Nathan (Hugo Dillon) finds himself out of the mortal coil after colliding with a motorcycle, has some of the heavy-metal-album-cover energy of Bill and Ted gawping at hell’s gnarly sights. But French director and multimedia artist Quarxx’s metaphysical vista is so unredeemably bleak that you find yourself wishing for San Dimas’s finest’s “You’re dead, dude!” amazement, or at least the odd air-guitar riff.

Pandemonium squeezes out a little angry and disoriented humour at its start as Nathan, confronted with his shattered corpse, finds himself squabbling on a mountain road with Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj), the motorcyclist he killed instantly. But when two disembodied gateways – a celestial blue forcefield and gigantic red double-doors – appear next to them, it is only the self-righteous Daniel who hears singing. So Nathan, who admits to having killed his chronically ill wife as an act of mercy, starts to panic, especially when what he can hear is screaming.

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After 20 months of relative peace, the homes and lives my charity has been helping rebuild are on the frontline once more

The Russian offensive on the Kharkiv region this month has, after 20 months of relative peace, again placed many of the villages where my charity works, repairing homes destroyed by bombs, at the forefront of the war.

I began volunteering in Kharkiv two years ago, having dropped out of my master’s degree in Russian literature and set up the charity to support Ukrainians. After the region’s liberation in September 2022, hundreds of thousands of people had started to return to Kharkiv city and the wider region from other parts of Ukraine, and countries that had taken them in as refugees. The villages where I work were reawakening, the craters that lined the streets had been filled, shops were reopening, electricity was back on. People’s return was mostly driven by a desire to be at home.

Ada Wordsworth is the co-founder of KHARPP, a grassroots project repairing homes in eastern Ukraine

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