MEPs have called for further steps to prepare a court case against the European Commission over the unblocking of billions of EU funds for Hungary. In December, the Commission released funds to win Hungary’s support for Ukraine. The European Council is due to discuss the financial aid to Kyiv again at an extraordinary summit in February.
Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Kyiv for the sixth time since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Reason for her visit to the Ukrainian capital was the country’s reform progress and its bid for EU membership. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, denied a stalemate in the war with Russia. An enr pool journalist reported from Kyiv.
A photomontage claiming to be a recruitment poster for the Polish army has been circulating on social media in several languages, including in Polish. It says that “Poland is the shield of Europe” and uses an image of Yevgeny Prigozhin — the late leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner — to invite Poles to “protect Europe from Russia’s folly”. But AFP was able to locate the original photo, which in fact shows a bank advertisement on a tram stop in the southern Polish city of Krakow. Poland’s defence ministry, the city’s public transportation authority and the advertising company involved all denied the existence of a Prigozhin recruitment poster.
The most recent BRICS summit shows that weeks before world leaders will gather at the 78th United Nations General Assembly, new geopolitical blocs are emerging. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate crisis are the main drivers of change in the new geopolitical order. Which role does the Global South play in future politics?
A clip from an old Russian TV report has been shared by thousands of Slovak users with the claim that it shows a “fair for same-sex couples” in Belgium in which there were “legal auctions of children”. This is a false characterisation of the event.