Eurotopics.net

Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut was sentenced to eight years of hard labour in a penal colony on Wednesday by a court in Minsk. He has been in pre-trial detention since March 2021. The Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent was convicted on charges of endangering national security through his anti-government reporting. Poland's press is shaken.

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand occupy top slots in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by NGO Transparency International. Somalia, Syria and South Sudan were ranked as the most apparently corrupt countries, while Turkey and Hungary dropped several notches. The index is compiled with the help of expert assessments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to mark the Orthodox Christmas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has refused to give the order for his troops to stop firing, saying that the Russians just want to use Christmas as a pretext to stop the Ukrainian advance in Donbass. The press is also suspicious.

France has agreed to supply Ukraine with AMX-10 RC light battle tanks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced the deployment of Marder infantry fighting vehicles and the US plans to send Bradley tanks. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky sees these moves as a new level of support in the country's struggle against Russia. Commentators welcome these decisions but also call for more.

After eleven rounds of voting, the US House of Representatives is still without a speaker because of a blockade by 20 Republicans who view their party's candidate Kevin McCarthy as too moderate. Even a call by former President Donald Trump to vote for McCarthy failed to convince the "Never Kevins".