An archaic energy treaty is being weaponized by big emitters to sue EU governments who are phasing out fossil fuels. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds could be redirected from climate action to corporate coffers.
Source: DW
Five officials from the inner circle of Chechnya’s autocratic leader are the subject of a criminal complaint in Germany for crimes against humanity, in a legal attempt to seek justice over the semi-autonomous Russian republic’s anti-gay purges.
Source: The Guardian
Russian prosecutors have filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court on declaring Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK), Citizens’ Rights Protection Foundation, and campaign offices “extremist.”
Source: Meduza
A lawsuit filed against the Greek state at the European court of human rights accuses Athens of a shocking level of violence in sophisticated inter-agency operations that form part of an illegal pushback strategy to stop the arrival of refugees and migrants.
Source: The Guardian
An escalation in verbal attacks by the Polish government, with the support of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the threat of physical violence on the streets of many cities, has triggered an exodus of gay people.
Source: NYT
The Czech Republic has called on fellow European Union and NATO members for "solidarity" action to support it amid a diplomatic spat between Prague and Moscow over Czech claims that Russian military agents were behind a deadly 2014 explosion at a Czech arms depot.
Source: RFE/RL
Despite having the second-lowest waste-recycling rates in the European Union, Romania has become overflowing with waste and garbage — most of it brought in illegally from abroad.
Source: EU Observer
The Russian government will prohibit lectures and teaching outside universities and schools to people without teaching experience, persons included in the list of "foreign agents", tax and fine debtors as well as people convicted under a number of the Criminal Code articles.
Source: Svoboda
The wolf is set to become a fully protected species in Slovakia after the country implemented a total ban on hunting. The country finally adopted new rules that bring it into line with EU guidelines. A European Commission infringement process was launched against Slovakia in 2013 for breaching a directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora.
Source: Emerging Europe