Europe Pub

309 readers
15 users here now

Welcome to Europe Pub! 🇪🇺

A social network dedicated to everything European. From culture and traditions to current events and daily life across our diverse continent. Share your experiences, discuss news, and connect with fellow Europeans and friends of Europe.

Whether you're interested in EU politics, travel tips, local cuisine, or simply want to learn more about different European countries and regions, you'll find your place here.

You can participate in more than 29,000 communities around the world, thanks to the Fediverse.

Join our community and help build bridges across Europe! 🌉

Choose your experience:

You can install them directly from within your browser. No app download needed.

Support us on tipeee

Hosting costs are about 30€ per month.

Guidelines:

Links:

Uptime Badge

Find your communities:

General

Society

Tech

Culture

Countries

founded 8 months ago
ADMINS

European Reddit Alternative 🇪🇺 New here? Get started

Support us on tipeee

1
2
3
4
5
6
 
 
7
8
9
 
 

I'm looking to get a something to plug in to my TV for streaming jellyfin and streaming games. Criteria:

  1. can play 1080p h264 from jellyfin without transcoding
  2. can stream 1080p 60hz games via steam link / moonlight
  3. low power consumption so it's not a big deal if I leave it on
  4. runs an open OS (raspian etc)
  5. wifi and bluetooth
  6. hdmi output
  7. less than ~150 AUD (100 USD)

Thanks in advance! Any tips around remote control and/or home assistant integration for it would also be welcome.

10
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46626951

Archived

Uncomfortable questions are being raised over who is to blame for Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades.

As the territory mourns over the high-rise apartment fire that killed at least 156 people, anger and frustration are mounting over building safety lapses, suspected construction corruption and lax government oversight.

But bigger issues are at play. Some political analysts and observers say the tragedy could be the “tip of an iceberg” in Hong Kong, a city whose skyline is built on high-rise buildings. Suspicions of bid-rigging and use of hazardous construction materials in renovation projects across other housing estates have left many worried the disaster could be repeated.

[...]

Seven of 20 additional samples collected later from the site failed to meet safety standards [...] Some fire alarms failed to sound when the fire started, residents and officials said.

[...]

“It did open a Pandora’s box,” said John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.

“You’ve got all of these issues which have been swept under the table,” Burns said. “Because of all that we now know -- or believe we know -- about bid-rigging, collusion, corruption, no fire alarms, government negligence, all of these things have come out.”

[...]

The Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong warned that the city’s tough national security law would be imposed against “anti-China” forces who use the fire to “incite hatred against authorities.”

The disaster may overshadow an election Sunday for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council if angry voters stay away, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a locally based political scientist and a senior research fellow at Paris’ Asia Centre think tank. Turnout for such votes is scrutinized by Beijing as an indicator of approval of the semi-autonomous territory’s “patriots-only” governance system.

“The question for the Hong Kong government is: do they care about what the people think?” Burns said. “They absolutely should. (And) if they ignore public opinion, I think, on this issue, this is a huge mistake.”

11
12
13
14
15
 
 

Source (Bluesky)

16
 
 

A draft legislation informally agreed with the Council seeks to protect the EU’s interests from the weaponisation of energy supplies by the Russian Federation.

  • Pipeline gas imports from Russia in to the EU under long-term deals must halt by Sept. 30, 2027, with a possibility of an extension to Nov. 1, 2027, depending on fulfillment of gas storage targets set by the EU. That compares with an end-2027 ban on those contracts originally put forward by the commission.

  • Short-term contracts for LNG concluded before June 17, 2025 will be prohibited as of April 25, 2026. Pipeline gas brought into the EU under short-term deals will be banned as of June 17, 2026.

  • To phase-out Russian energy, the deal obliges member states to prepare plans to diversify their supplies. The commission also plans to put forward a legislative proposal on phasing out Russian oil imports no later than the end of 2027.

17
 
 

Artist: Zukululuu | twitter | danbooru

18
19
 
 

Artist: Flippy | bluesky | pixiv | twitter | danbooru

Full quality: .png 5 MB (1480 × 2400)

20
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46627203

Archived

[...]

Lai, who turns 78 next Monday, has been behind bars since late 2020 as China clamps down on the financial hub to which it promised a separate system when Britain handed it over in 1997.

Lai, a diabetic, has been kept in solitary confinement without air conditioning in a jail where summer temperatures rise to 44 Celsius, his children said.

"He has lost a very significant amount of weight, visibly, and he is a lot weaker than he was before," said his daughter Claire Lai, who left Hong Kong after seeing her father several months ago.

"His nails turn almost purple, gray and greenish before they fall off, and his teeth are getting rotten," she said while on a visit to Washington, where the family is seeking to rally support for her father.

[...]

After learning he enjoyed curry sauce, "instead of having extra curry sauce, he has no curry sauce at all," she said.

"It's little things like that that are extremely petty," she said.

[...]

He faces at least 15 years in prison — effectively a death sentence — on charges of foreign collusion related to mass protests in Hong Kong in 2019 against Beijing's encroaching power.

[...]

His son Sebastien Lai voiced hope that both U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would keep raising with China the issue of his father, who is a British national.

"It will take two hours to put my father on a plane and send him away," Sebastien Lai said.

"It'll be the humane thing to do; it'll be the right thing to do," he said. "They've already put him through this hell."

21
 
 

Yangon (Myanmar) (AFP) – Myanmar's opium poppy cultivation has hit a decade-record level, the United Nations warned Wednesday, with early indications its heroin output is now being trafficked to Western markets.

War-ravaged Myanmar is a hive of black market activity ranging from illegal mining to internet scamming and the manufacture of illicit drugs like methamphetamine and heroin.

The nation has long ranked among the world's top opium poppy producers, claiming the top spot after a 2022 Taliban government crackdown crushed the trade in Afghanistan.

Analysts say illicit activities are key income sources funding the civil war which has racked Myanmar since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup.

This year, opium poppies were farmed on more than 53,000 hectares (131,000 acres) of Myanmar's soil, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report said, recording the largest territory since 2015.

The agency's yearly Myanmar Opium Survey said after the Afghanistan crackdown "there are emerging signs that heroin trafficked from Southeast Asia reaches markets traditionally not supplied from the region".

It cited a cumulative 60-kilogram (132-pound) haul of suspected Myanmar-origin heroin seized from airline passengers travelling from Thailand to the European Union in 2024 and early 2025.

While the scale is "not yet significant, the changed environment could encourage more cultivation and production of opium in Myanmar", it said.

Opium poppies were farmed extensively across Myanmar well before the civil war consumed the country.

But monitors say the conflict has supercharged black markets -- with a weak central government, industrial infrastructure destroyed by fighting, and soaring poverty spiking desperation.

Myanmar's junta has waged offensives this year ahead of an election slated to start on December 28 -- a vote dismissed by many observers as a ploy to disguise continuing military rule.

The UNODC report said while instability drives farmers towards tending opium poppy, "intensifying conflict and insecurity make it more difficult for them to care for their fields".

While opium poppy farms had expanded in size by 17 percent from 2024, it noted that this year's yield was largely static at around 1,000 tonnes.

22
23
 
 

Rome (AFP) – A series of investigations into exploitative work conditions within fashion subcontractors has roiled Italy's luxury industry, with the government decrying attacks on "Made in Italy".

Five fashion brands have been put under court administration since 2024 following probes by Milan prosecutors that uncovered worker abuses and a lack of oversight into the supply chains of some of Italy's most respected brands.

Most recently, lawyers for luxury leather company Tod's were due in a Milan court Wednesday, where prosecutors want to impose a temporary advertising ban and outside administrators in light of what they have called "malicious" actions by the company.

The investigations led by prosecutor Paolo Storari have cast a spotlight on the dark underside of the luxury industry.

At issue is the near-ubiquitous practice of brands subcontracting work to suppliers, who in turn contract to others, amid ever-tighter margins and scant oversight of labour conditions.

To date, investigations have targeted Loro Piana, Dior's Italian subsidiary Manufactures Dior, Giorgio Armani Operations and Alviero Martini -- and prosecutors have suggested more probes could come.

Italy's government has gone on the offensive, with Industry Minister Adolfo Urso saying the reputation of Italian brands was "under attack".

It has proposed a certificate for luxury companies to show they are in compliance with current law -- a measure critics have called toothless, in part because it is voluntary and would unduly shield brands from liability.

"We are taking concrete measures to firmly defend Italian fashion, to protect its reputation and the values that have made it synonymous with beauty, quality and authenticity," Urso said in October.


Prosecutors last month said Tod's -- whose leather loafers can reach over $1,000 -- and three of its executives had "full awareness" of the exploitation of Chinese subcontractors but failed to set up systems to prevent it.

Tod's allegedly ignored its own audits revealing working hours and wage violations -- with workers paid as little as 2.75 euros per hour -- breaches of safety measures and what prosecutors called "degrading" sleeping areas within the factory.

Under Italian law, companies can be held responsible for offences committed by representatives -- such as approved suppliers -- acting in their interest.

Advocates for fashion industry workers have for decades pointed to widespread abuses in the supply chain.

Suppliers "are at the mercy of big brands that impose commercial conditions, starting with prices that are too low to cover all costs", said Deborah Lucchetti, national coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign in Italy.

That, in turn, fuels a system in which first-tier suppliers turn to subcontractors, imposing ever more stringent terms, which leads to labour abuses, most often against migrants.

"It's a chain of exploitation," she told AFP.

Italy's fashion suppliers are predominately small- and medium-sized companies, tens of thousands of whom have shuttered in recent years, according to industry associations, amid a luxury downturn and higher production costs.

Unable to invest, due to lack of guaranteed work from the commissioning brands and hyper-thin margins, the suppliers stay small. When a big order arrives, they turn to subcontractors for quick help, a system that "effectively pushes players in the supply chain to engage in illegal conduct", said Lucchetti.

Prosecutors said both Tod's and Loro Piana could not have been unaware that one of their main suppliers was externalising all its production -- given that the supplier did not have any production equipment, such as sewing machines, in its facility.

The companies targeted thus far have variously responded by cutting ties with the suppliers, condemning their actions, or blaming them for concealing abuses.

Amid the reputational risk, some brands have sought to reassure consumers.

Last week, one of Italy's top luxury brands, Prada, invited journalists to its Scandicci factory outside Florence, showing the step-by-step transformation of supple leather into luxury handbags.

Asked about the investigations, Prada's Chief Marketing Officer Lorenzo Bertelli, who also heads social responsibility, said production had never been an afterthought for the company.

Other fashion executives, Bertelli said, don't view production "as an area of responsibility": "And this has led to many of things you have read in the newspapers."

Prada does not disclose how much of its production is in-house, but says it is the highest in the industry. Prada owns 25 factories, 23 of which are located in Italy.

Bertelli called it a "constant battle" to keep Prada's supply chain clean.

"We must constantly carry out inspections or checks on suppliers, this is the daily work we do."

24
25
 
 

Source (Pixiv)

view more: next ›