Eurotopics.net

The debate over how to tackle organised crime has reignited in Belgium and the Netherlands: the Dutch ex-minister of justice, Ferdinand Grapperhaus, is under heavy protection due to murder threats, and an eleven-year-old girl died in Antwerp last week after shots were fired at a flat in a violent altercation between drug gangs. Commentators call for a crackdown.

Britain has decided to provide Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Spain have announced they want to send German Leopard battle tanks, and Sweden is also considering doing so. So the pressure on Germany to give its stamp of approval for such deliveries and join the alliance is growing. Europe's press remains focussed on the question of whether Ukraine will receive full support.

At least 30 people have been killed in a Russian missile attack on a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro near Zaporizhzhia. Rescue workers are still searching for victims under the rubble, but the chances of finding any survivors at this stage are minimal, the city's mayor has said.

Former prime minister Andrej Babiš and the former Nato general Petr Pavel are heading into the second round of the Czech presidential election after each received around 35 percent of the vote in the first round. In third place, with just under 14 percent, was economics professor Danuše Nerudová, who will back Pavel in the second round on 27 and 28 January.