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Latvia announced it was revoking the license for exiled Russian independent channel Dozhd, or TV Rain, for multiple violations that included showing the annexed Crimean peninsula as part of Russia. The channel, which moved to Latvia after Russian authorities blocked its broadcasts for critical coverage of the war in Ukraine, dismissed the accusations as "unfair and absurd."

Source: VOA

The European Commission proposed new rules to make sure parentage links established in one EU member state are recognised anywhere across the Union. The proposal aims to ensure children’s rights when they move across the EU and is expected to create controversy in some member states due to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ parented families.

Source: Euractiv

In a nationwide raid, 25 suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organisation in Germany were arrested. Officials said the network, part of a wider right-wing movement, was already well established with a concrete plan to overthrow the German state by force and install a new government.

Source: DW

One of Russia's most prominent opposition figures, Ilya Yashin, has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for spreading "fake news" about the country's military. He was arrested after he condemned suspected Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Source: BBC

More than half of registered trafficking victims are EU nationals, with most sold off for sex, according to the European Commission. In absolute numbers, Romanian nationals were the worst-affected, with some 2,315 registered as trafficked in 2019 to 2020.

Source: EUobserver

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the Netherlands’ “slavery past,” which he said continues to have “negative effects.” Rutte’s comments were part of the Dutch government’s wider acknowledgment of the country’s colonial past, and an official response to a report entitled “Chains of the Past” by the Slavery History Dialogue Group, published in July 2021.

Source: CNN

On 16 December 2022, MEPs in the European Parliament recognised the Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine as a genocide, with the resolution passing by 507 votes in favour, 12 against with 17 abstentions. 'This is one of the most profound tragedies of the 20th century," said European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides during the plenary session.

Source: The Brussels Times

Moscow libraries have received a government-issued list of books that must be written off and “recycled,” due to content that runs against the grain of Russia’s new law against “LGBT propaganda.” It lists 53 titles, all to be written off and deleted from electronic library catalogs — including books by John Boyne, Michael Cunningham, Stephen Fry, Jean Genet, Haruki Murakami, Sarah Waters.

Source: Meduza

EU negotiators reached an agreement between the European Parliament and EU member states on a directive to make salaries more transparent in an effort to narrow the gender pay gap across the EU. Despite the principle of equal pay for equal work being enshrined in the EU treaties, its enforcement remains limited: European women earn on average 13% less than men per hour.

Source: Euractiv