Hungary's Anti-LGBTQ+ Clampdown Handed Legal Setback by EU Court
'Disrespect and marginalization of a group in a society are the red lines imposed by the values of equality, human dignity and respect for human rights,' the European Court of Justice's Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta said in an advisory opinion on Thursday — backing the European Commission 's claim that Hungary's law infringes the bloc's rules.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ukrainian diplomat involved in 90s nuclear deal with Russia warns Trump about 'very big mistake' with Putin
Ukrainians have given a lukewarm reaction to this week's White House summit. There is bafflement and unease here after US President Donald Trump switched sides to support his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, dropping calls for a ceasefire and proposing that Ukraine surrender territory. While allies are talking up the prospects of progress, people here remain unconvinced. Ukraine war latest - Trump rules out using US troops The Trump administration's contradictory statements on possible security guarantees are causing concern here. MP Lesia Vasylenko told Sky News it is not at all clear what the allies have in mind. "Who is going to be there backing Ukraine in case Russia decides to revisit their imperialistic plans and strategies and in case they want to restart this war of aggression?" For many Ukrainians, there is a troubling sense of deja vu. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up not land but its nuclear arsenal, inherited from the Soviet Union, in return for security assurances from Russia and other powers. They know how that ended up to their enormous cost. Putin reneged on Russia's side of the bargain, with his invasion of Crimea in 2014 and once again with his full-scale attack three and a half years ago. We met veteran Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko, who helped lead those negotiations in the 90s. He said there is a danger the world makes the same mistake and trusts Vladimir Putin when he says he wants to stop the killing, something Mr Trump said he now believes. "It's not true, it's not true, Russia never, never, it's my practices in more than 30 years, Russia never stop their aggression plans to occupy all Ukraine and I think that Mr Trump, if he really believes Mr Putin, it will be a very big mistake, Mr Trump, a very big mistake." Before the Alaska summit, allies agreed the best path to peace was forcing Mr Putin to stop his invasion, hitting him where it hurts with severe sanctions on his oil trade. But Mr Trump has given up calls for a ceasefire and withdrawn threats to impose those tougher sanctions. Instead, he has led allies down a different and more uncertain path. Read more on Sky News:Putin wasn't there, but influenced summitPeace further away, not closer Ukrainians we met on the streets of Kyiv said they would love to believe in progress more than anything, but are not encouraged by what they are hearing. While the diplomacy moves on in an unclear direction, events on the ground and in the skies above Ukraine are depressingly predictable. Russia is continuing hundreds of drone attacks every night, and its forces are advancing on the front. If Vladimir Putin really wants this war to end, he's showing no sign of it, while Ukrainians fear Donald Trump is taking allies down a blind alley of fruitless diplomacy.
New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
African Union Wants World to Scrub 450-Year-Old Map
Africa is roughly three times as large as Europe, but you wouldn't know it looking at the world's most popular map, the 16th-century Mercator map. Last week, the African Union, a continental group of 55 countries, endorsed a campaign to have organizations around the world replace the Mercator map with alternatives such as the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which supporters say more accurately reflects the true size of Africa. In the Equal Earth map, Africa, shown in its true proportions, dwarfs Europe. 'It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,' Selma Malika Haddadi, the deputy chairwoman of the African Union's executive arm, said this week in an interview with Reuters. The Mercator projection fosters a false impression that Africa is 'marginal,' she said. That map, created by a German cartographer, Gerardus Mercator, has been under fire for decades. It was drafted to help European explorers navigate the seas more easily, but ended up warping landmasses as a result. In some versions of the map, Greenland, an island of less than a million square miles and fewer than 57,000 people, appears nearly as large as Africa, which has an area of 11.73 million square miles and a population of 1.5 billion. The inaccuracy was spoofed in a 2001 episode of 'The West Wing' where a nerdy group of cartographers campaigns for the United States to make the change. Now, campaigners with a similar mission hope to have your attention. A Correct the Map campaign, led by civil society organizations like Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, has pushed for the African Union to call for the switch. The African Union is expected to make an official decision to adopt the Equal Earth map in February, when the group's leaders meet in Ethiopia. In a petition circulating online, the campaign also asks the United Nations and the BBC to adopt the Equal Earth map as a way to 'set a new standard and encourage others to follow suit in ensuring Africa is represented accurately as a critical driver of global growth and development.' The African Union is the largest body to sign on to the campaign so far, a move campaigners described as a major milestone. 'It is more than geography, it's really about dignity and pride,' said Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa. 'Maps shape how we see the world, and also how power is perceived. So by correcting the map, we also correct the global narrative about Africa.' In an internal document shared with The New York Times, the African Union said the campaign aligned with its 2025 theme of 'Justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations,' adding that the campaign challenged false narratives about the continent and helped Africa reclaim its rightful place on the world stage. But as of Monday, several agencies associated with the African Union still had the Mercator map displayed on their websites.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
New pics of Trump holding court in Oval Office branded ‘embarrassing' as world leaders sit around his desk: ‘Like schoolchildren'
New pictures showing Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office in front of major world leaders has been criticized as an "embarrassing" power play by the president, in what should have been a display of global unity. Some on social media noted that the set up, with Trump behind the Resolute Desk and his European counterparts on chairs opposite him, presented the president as hosting a bunch of 'unruly schoolchildren.' The president was joined for the photo-op by leaders including British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, French president Emmanual Macron, German Chancellor Freidrich Merz, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish president Alexander Stubb. Also in attendance were European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Another photo showed a smiling Trump posing with a new golf club, gifted to him by Zelensky. However, the meeting of the circled leaders drew the ire of social media users, with some commenting that the staging and White House mantra of of 'peace through strength' was 'deeply disrespectful to U.S. history itself.' 'Permenant peace is never truly obtained through strength. It may hold for a while under pressure, but it won't last,' wrote one user. 'What a breathtakingly rude, narcissistic asshole,' another said. 'Instead of a conference table where everyone can meet equally, Chump lined them up like unruly school children in a row with himself as the authority figure. Chump can just f*** all the way off.' Others questioned how the leaders, who came to Washington D.C. as 'equals' had allowed such a belittling set up. 'Embarrassing,' wrote one user, with another going further, writing 'I cannot believe they let Trump seat them like a bunch of schoolchildren. 'Do none of these 'leaders' have any testosterone whatsoever or PR teams that can approve/reject seating arrangements. Most embarrassing thing I've ever seen for the EU.'
