With just a month to go before local elections in France, the death of a suspected right-wing extremist student has sent shock waves through the country. According to French prosecutors, Quentin D. was beaten by several attackers and sustained lethal injuries on 12 February on the sidelines of a protest against Rima Hassan, MEP of the left-wing LFI. The French government holds the LFI-affiliated militant group Jeune Garde responsible for the attack.
Talks in Geneva between representatives of Ukraine and Russia, attended by the United States, have ended after two days. Russia's chief negotiator, Putin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, described the talks as "difficult, but business-like", while in an interview Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of progress on military issues. However no concrete results have been announced so far.
The election campaign in Hungary is becoming increasingly heated in the run-up to the parliamentary elections on 12 April. While opposition leader Péter Magyar has said that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is capable of nothing more than "incitement" and "threats", Orbán has described Magyar's conservative Tisza Party as a "creation of foreign powers". Orbán has been endorsed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told him: "Your success is our success."
A court case is underway in the US to determine whether social media platforms deliberately design their websites to be addictive. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in Los Angeles that there had been temporary shortcomings in the age verification process on his platforms, but opposed restrictions such as a ban on beauty filters.
The Board of Peace established by US President Donald Trump in January is scheduled to meet in Washington on Thursday to discuss the Gaza conflict. Trump has announced that its members have pledged around 4.2 billion euros for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged region and security forces. So far the board has 26 member states. Several countries plan to participate as observers.
The Czech Chamber of Deputies' Mandate and Immunity Committee has recommended that Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Tomio Okamura should not face criminal prosecution. The governing parliamentary majority is expected to confirm the immunity of the two top politicians in March.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a keynote speech at the start of the Munich Security Conference in which he emphasised that Europe must preserve its own values, actively protect its freedom and build on its strengths. "We must flip the switch in our minds," he said, outlining a sovereign Europe that breaks free from its excessive dependence on the US. Europe's media examine Merz's vision and point to potential flaws.
After his appearance at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid visits to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán spoke of a "golden age" in Hungarian-American relations, and Rubio assured him of the US government's support in the upcoming election, saying: "Your success is also our success."
Russian telecommunications authority Roskomnadzor has throttled data streams and further tightened restrictions on the country's most popular messaging service Telegram, causing major disruptions. Russian soldiers have protested the crackdown as they also use the service for coordinating military actions on the front lines. What is behind the move?
Several European countries which had been declared "measles-free" by the World Health Organisation (WHO), including Spain, the UK and Austria, have recently lost that status following major outbreaks in the last year. According to the WHO and UNICEF, a vaccination rate of 95 percent is needed to prevent the virus from spreading. Commentators in several countries look at vaccination rates and scepticism.
This year's Munich Security Conference was dominated by the tense transatlantic relations. To what extent can Europe count on the US as a Nato partner in the Trump era? Is the US still an ally, or is it now an adversary? Can the continent guarantee its own security? In the search for answers, all eyes were on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.