Eurotopics.net

The Swedish police has issued a ban on demonstrations at which copies of the Koran are burned, according to the country's largest daily Dagens Nyheter. The ban does not apply to other sacred scriptures. Koran burnings led to riots in 2022 and recently to outraged reactions in Turkey, which is blocking Sweden's accession to Nato. Now the courts are to examine whether the directive is legal.

Shortly before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden met with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and pledged his continuing support and further arms deliveries. Afterwards, Biden travelled on to Warsaw. Europe's press deciphers the signals this surprise visit to Kyiv has sent.

Speaking in Munich on Friday, China's highest ranking diplomat Wang Yi announced that a peace initiative for Ukraine would be presented on February 24, one year after the Russian invasion began. But at the same time Beijing is considering supplying weapons to Moscow, according to US Secretary of State Blinken. Commentators discuss whether China could act as a mediator - and what it hopes to gain from such a role.

British publisher Puffin Books has altered and eliminated words deemed inappropriate in over a hundred passages in two works by children's author Roald Dahl. For example, in the new edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the gluttonous Augustus Gloop is no longer described as "enormously fat" but merely as "enormous". Critics speak of censorship. Europe's press joins in the fray.

Just over three years after Brexit a solution to the Northern Ireland question is emerging. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presented the outlines of a new deal with the EU on Northern Ireland's status to the leaders of all the major parties in Northern Ireland on Friday. Commentators are anxious for the issue to be resolved.