Eurotopics.net

The Liège Court of Appeal has handed down suspended sentences to 17 trade unionists from the Fédération générale du travail de Belgique (FGBT) for willfully obstructing traffic. In 2015, the strikers blocked a section of the E40 motorway, preventing any vehicles, including emergency services, from passing. FGBT leader Thierry Bodson now plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The independent politician Péter Márki-Zay will run against Viktor Orbán in the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections as the candidate of the united opposition. Six parties, from left-liberal to conservative, held a joint primary election. Márki-Zay already won one such race in 2018, and became mayor of Hódmezővásárhely. Can he repeat this success at the national level?

The Netflix series Squid Game by South Korean director Hwang Dong-hyuk is topping the charts in over 90 countries and has become the streaming giant's most successful series to date. It focuses on a game controlled by a group of super-rich people who pit poor people against each other. The winner stands to win millions in prize money but the losers are executed. Europe's press discusses the success of the series with an eye to child safety issues.

Covid infection rates have risen to their highest level ever in Russia, with close to 1,000 people dying of Covid-19 every day. This is also the highest per capita mortality rate in the world. Despite initial success with the Sputnik V vaccine, only about 30 percent of the population has been vaccinated so far. At the same time there are hardly any restrictions in public life. The crisis is taking on threatening proportions, commentators warn.