Eurotopics.net

The movement supporting jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been forced to discontinue its official activities. At the behest of a state prosecutor a court in Moscow ordered Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) to suspend its work, and the state prosecutors ordered Navalny's network of regional offices to do the same. According to a lawsuit the contents of which are largely unknown, the two organisations are to be classified as extremist and banned. Commentators are appalled, and not just in Russia.

"We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide," US President Joe Biden said on the 106th anniversary of the event, officially recognising the genocide, as previously announced. The Turkish foreign ministry promptly summoned the US ambassador in Ankara to convey its reaction: Biden's remarks had "opened a wound" in the countries' relations. Commentators discuss what comes next.

India has been hit by a massive surge in infection numbers. Its clinics are overcrowded, hospital beds and oxygen are lacking and the country is back in lockdown. Because of the double mutant B.1.617, among other factors, the number of virus-related deaths has reached an all-time high. Commentators question the government's actions in the world's second most populous country and fear international consequences.

The European Commission has presented the world's first legal framework governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In future, AI systems the use of which potentially pose a risk to the safety or rights of people will be subject to strict regulations. In the case of particularly clear risks, for example if free will is manipulated, a ban will apply. The initiative is aimed at boosting trust in AI.

The Czech Republic and Russia are locked in a diplomatic dispute following the revelation of a Russian intelligence operation that led to the explosion of a Czech ammunition depot in 2014. Both sides have expelled staff at each other's embassies. Now Czech President Miloš Zeman has broken his silence and voiced doubts about the investigators' findings. What is going on?