Eurotopics.net

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented its latest report on Monday. According to the findings, the current global warming is undoubtedly due to human activities and is progressing even faster than many had feared. The report concludes that some consequences, including higher temperatures, droughts and a rise in sea levels are irreversible even if emissions are drastically cut. But humankind still has the power to prevent the worst, the report stresses.

Firefighters and inhabitants in Greece, Turkey and Italy continue to battle countless wildfires. Numerous towns and villages have had to be evacuated, and some of the most valuable forests and agricultural land in the Mediterranean region have been destroyed. And there is no sign of the situation improving because the next heat wave with temperatures above 40 degrees is imminent.

In its dispute with the EU, the Polish government has announced plans to reform the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court. According to PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, initial proposals for changes to the country's controversial judicial reform are to be presented in September. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in July that Poland is violating European law with its system for disciplining judges.

The Beneš Decrees with which the then Czechoslovakia expropriated and expelled Hungarians and others from its territory after the Second World War have led to another diplomatic crisis between Budapest and Bratislava. At a memorial for displaced persons in the Slovakian town of Šamorín, the Hungarian parliamentary speaker László Kövér demanded an apology from Slovakia. Slovakian Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok has rejected any foreign interference.