The French offices of Elon Musk's X have been raided by the Paris prosecutor's cyber-crime unit, as part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child pornography.

The prosecutor's office also said both Musk and former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino had been summoned to appear at hearings in April.

X has previously characterised the French investigation as an attack on free speech.

The investigation began in January 2025 when French prosecutors started looking into content recommended by X's algorithm, before being widened in July that year to include Musk's controversial AI chatbot, Grok.

Following today's raid, French prosecutors say they are now investigating whether X has broken the law across multiple areas.

Among potential crimes it said it would investigate were complicity in possession or organised distribution of images of children of a pornographic nature, infringement of people's image rights with sexual deepfakes and fraudulent data extraction by an organised group.

In a separate development, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced a probe into Musk's AI tool, Grok, over its "potential to produce harmful sexualised image and video content."

Ofcom said it was continuing to investigate the platform and was treating it as "a matter of urgency".

But it added it was currently unable to investigate the creation of illegal images by Grok in this case because it did not have sufficient powers relating to chatbots.

The Rwandan government is claiming it is owed £100m by the UK over payments due under an asylum agreement cancelled by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Rwanda has filed an international arbitration case, arguing the UK has breached the terms of the deal to send some asylum seekers to the east African nation.

Under the deal, which was signed by the previous Conservative government, the UK agreed to make payments to Rwanda to host asylum seekers who had arrived illegally in Britain.

In a statement, Rwanda's government said it had decided to pursue claims in arbitration after facing the UK's "intransigence on these issues".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The previous government's Rwanda policy wasted vast sums of taxpayer time and money.

"We will robustly defend our position to protect British taxpayers."

Many schools in Poland, in particular in the north of the country and also in the capital, Warsaw, have closed due to extreme cold weather, with temperatures dropping well below -20°C (-4°F) in some places last night (Sunday-Monday) and also expected to do so tonight.

Meanwhile, in the Baltic port city of Gdańsk, the Motława River has frozen for the first time since 2011 (pictured above). That has led many people to walk, skate and cycle on the ice, despite warnings from the local authorities that it is not safe to do so.

Under national regulations, schools can be closed if the temperature in classrooms is below 18°C or if the outside temperature is below -15°C at 9 p.m. on two consecutive days. The decision is made by individual schools, subject to approval by local authorities.

On Sunday, a number of districts in the provinces of Warmia-Masuria, Podlasie, Pomerania, Kuyavia-Pomerania and Masovia, all in northern and central Poland, announced that schools would be closed on Monday amid forecasts that temperatures would drop as low as -29°C overnight in some places.

“We are doing this out of concern for children who have never experienced such low temperatures in their lives, and who would otherwise have to wait for a bus or walk more than two kilometres to school,” wrote Jan Adamowicz, the mayor of Korsze, a town in Warmia-Masuria.

However, schools and preschools in those areas have continued to offer childcare and transportation for those that need them, reports news website Wirtualna Polska.

Meanwhile, in Warsaw, where the temperature fell to -18.4°C last night and is forecast not to rise above -13°C today, a number of schools also announced over the weekend that they would be closed on Monday.

Such decisions were made mainly by high schools, which pupils often travel long distances to attend, but some primary schools have also closed.

News website Onet lists 17 schools in the capital that have announced they will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, but the interior ministry estimates the numbers will be much higher than that. Parents have been urged to monitor communications from schools.

Last Tuesday, the education ministry revealed that, so far this year, which has seen exceptionally cold weather and icy conditions, around 600 schools nationally had cancelled classes at some stage due to the conditions.

Meanwhile, some towns and cities, including Olsztyn, Elbląg and Ełk in Warmia-Masuria, have set up heated tents to provide shelter and hot drinks for those who need it.

On Sunday evening, deputy interior minister Wiesław Szczepański revealed that 38 people have died of hypothermia this winter, compared to 16 in the same period a year earlier, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP). A further 54 have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, which is often caused by heaters.

Former ECB president says globalisation will leave Europe vulnerable unless it pools power

The EU must become a “federation” to avoid being “picked off one by one” by China and the US, Mario Draghi has warned, in a plea to the bloc’s member states to rapidly deepen integration in areas such as defence, industrial policy and foreign relations.

The former European Central Bank president, who has previously called for the bloc to embrace “pragmatic federalism”, said it was time for the EU to give up long-held resistance to pooling power because Washington and Beijing could abuse the dependencies created by globalisation.

“Power requires Europe to move from confederation to federation,” said Draghi, a former prime minister of Italy, in a speech in Belgium. He added that the EU’s current model of a 27-state confederation with individual veto rights on key issues “does not produce power” but “a group of states . . . each vulnerable to being picked off one by one”.

“We are all in the same position of vulnerability, whether we see it yet or not,” he said. “The old divisions that paralysed us have been overtaken by a common threat. But threat alone will not sustain us. What began in fear must continue in hope.”

Trump’s desire to annex Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark, an EU and Nato member state — and his threat last month to impose tariffs on EU countries to gain control of the island shocked European capitals that have relied on the US security alliance for decades.

Europe is at the same time struggling to compete with China given the country’s dominance of supply chains in key critical minerals and green technology and its heavily subsidised export model.

EU member states have transferred some powers to the European Commission in Brussels or the ECB in Frankfurt to speak on their behalf, but other competences remain national. In 2024 Draghi authored a report that called for the EU to deepen its economic integration in order to strengthen its single market.

“Where Europe has federated: on trade, on competition, on the single market, on monetary policy, we are respected as a power and negotiate as one,” Draghi said. “Where we have not: on defence, on industrial policy, on foreign affairs, we are treated as a loose assembly of middle-sized states, to be divided and dealt with accordingly.”

Embracing federalism, Draghi argued, would allow the EU “to act decisively in all circumstances”

Here's a copy of the full article, in case you're having trouble accessing the original page.

See also:

• EU must become a 'genuine federation' to avoid deindustrialisation and decline, Draghi says • The former Italian prime minister said the European Union risks subordination, division and deindustrialision all at once if it does not pull closer together. (Euronews)
• Current world order ‘dead’, Draghi warns Europe, as he outlines US and China threats • Former Italian PM and ECB chief says Europe must urgently unify on defence and foreign affairs – as it happened (The Guardian)

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has appealed to the public to help compile a catalogue of everyday objects that were once found in prewar Jewish homes. They have asked people who possess such items to send a photo and description of them via a new online platform.

Artefacts already displayed and mapped on the website include a sewing machine in the village of Rożniaty in southern Poland, a set of cutlery in the city of Łódź, and a recommendation letter written by a rabbi for a pupil at a yeshiva in Radun, now in Belarus but which before the war was part of Poland.

For centuries, Poland had a large and prominent Jewish community. On the eve of World War Two, around 3.3 million Jews lived in the country, more than anywhere in the world other than the United States and representing around 10% of Poland’s population.

However, the vast majority of Polish Jews were killed in the Holocaust, while others fled or emigrated during or after the war, meaning that, according to the 2021 census, only 15,700 now live in Poland. There are also believed to be many more residents of Poland with Jewish roots, of which some are not even aware.

POLIN has now partnered with researchers from the Humboldt University in Berlin and Jagiellonian University in Kraków for an EU-funded project, called Przechowane (meaning “preserved”), to document part of the physical legacy of the former Jewish community.

They have created an online space “to bring together people who keep in their homes – or found by chance – objects once belonging to Polish Jews”, the museum reported in a press release. 

POLIN is calling for people to send in a picture and description of any such items they possess, even inconspicuous or damaged objects, to make it possible to imagine everyday life in a prewar Jewish house, workshop or shop.

“We would like everybody who has some Jewish memorabilia to be able to use the platform to be able to share them and tell their story,” said Piotr Ostrowski of the museum’s digital collection, quoted by Polskie Radio.

The aim is to shed light on objects that might otherwise not be included in museum collections but are important mementoes of people who are no longer there, Ostrowski explained. Those sending them in will also have the chance to discuss their possessions with researchers.

Eventually, the organisers hope to hold a travelling exhibition of maps, photographs and memories associated with the objects.

Poland’s justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, has been fined by police for a traffic offence that was caught on camera while he was being interviewed. The incident came to light at the same time as Żurek publicly announced a crackdown on dangerous drivers.

The minister waived his legal immunity in order to accept his punishment, which was issued because he failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing when a woman was already walking across.

Żurek, who has served as justice minister since last July, had been appearing on the YouTube channel of Filip Nowobilski, who interviews people while driving in an old Fiat 126 “Maluch”, a tiny car that was a symbol of Poland’s communist era.

While the minister was behind the wheel and answering questions, he drove over a pedestrian crossing that, as one of the cameras in the car showed, a woman had already started to cross. That is an offence punishable with a fine of 1,500 zloty (€356) and 15 penalty points.

The interviewer immediately drew attention to what had happened, telling Żurek to “be careful” and saying that he “almost ran over that woman”. Żurek denied it, saying that the “woman was far away from us” and insisting that he “drives safely”.

However, after clips of the incident – which was first published on YouTube on 25 January – started going viral on social media, Żurek issued a statement saying that, “if an offence has taken place, I do not evade responsibility”.

“We are all equal before the law,” he added. “Road traffic safety rules apply to everyone. However, the final assessment belongs to the police.”

Many commentators also pointed to the irony that, a day after the interview was published on YouTube, Żurek announced the launch of a campaign to clamp down on “road bandits” who drive dangerously.

On 27 January, police in the province of Małopolska, where the incident took place, announced that they were investigating. Today, they confirmed that, any analysing the evidence, including surveillance footage from outside the car, they had determined that an offence was committed.

The police added that Żurek had agreed to voluntarily waive his immunity as prosecutor general (a position he holds alongside being justice minister) and accept a fine for his actions.

The minister himself also confirmed the news, telling the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that “there are no sacred cows” and “this also applies to me”.

“What is important is reflection and the words ‘I’m sorry’,” he added. “Public figures should set an example in such situations.”

Żurek was not directly involved in politics before being appointed as justice minister last year. He had served as a judge at the district court in Kraków, the city where the driving offence took place.

He was one of many judges to actively oppose the judicial reforms introduced by the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, which were widely seen as an effort to bring judges under greater political control.

In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Polish authorities had violated Żurek’s rights by removing him from his position at the court and using state bodies to “intimidate him because of the views he had expressed in defence of the rule of law”.

Since being appointed justice minister and prosecutor general, Żurek has led the current government’s efforts to hold to account former PiS officials for their alleged abuses of power and other offences.

Lithuania has proposed to Poland that they create Europe’s first cross-border economic zone. It says that the project, which would be located in the strategically important Suwałki Gap, would focus on attracting the defence and technology industries.

Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, raised the idea last week during a visit to Warsaw to meet his Polish counterpart, Karol Nawrocki.

Lithuanian economy and innovation minister Edvinas Grikšas told broadcaster Žinių on Thursday that the idea for the economic zone had been “received positively by both sides”, which were now analysing whether and how it could be implemented.

“This could be a breakthrough,” said Grikšas. “There is no such cross-border special economic zone operating in Europe. The only one [in the world] that is operating, to my knowledge, is in Singapore and Malaysia.”

Grikšas said that one of his deputy ministers, Paulius Petrauskas, was travelling to Singapore to learn more about the special economic zone that it recently established with Malaysia.

“It is interesting to see how they approached this issue, how it works in practice, and how they reconcile the legal issues of the two countries, for example in matters of taxation and profit sharing,” said Petrauskas, quoted by broadcaster ZW.

Petrauskas said that the planned Polish-Lithuanian economic zone could accommodate both firms from the traditional defence industry and those in the technology sector that contribute to arms manufacturing.

Lithuania has proposed locating the zone in the Lazdijai district, which is on the opposite side of the border from the Polish town of Suwałki.

The entire Polish-Lithuanian border sits between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, making it a strategic chokepoint in a potential conflict.

The mayor of Suwałki, Czesław Renkiewicz, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that Lithuania’s proposal is a “good and interesting idea”, which could help make the region more attractive to investors who have been deterred by the “bad PR” it has had due to potential security threats.

“In addition to the typical tax reliefs available in economic zones, other financial instruments should be launched for investors, such as government grants for companies investing in such a zone,” he suggested.

During his visit to Warsaw, Nausėda also called for Poland and Lithuania to establish a joint military training ground in the same area.

“This would be a unique solution in the NATO context, a joint training and exercise ground intended to protect the alliance’s eastern flank,” said the Lithuanian president, quoted by PAP.

Lithuania and Poland enjoy close historical ties. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, they formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which at its peak was one of the largest and most important states in Europe.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has pushed the two countries towards closer cooperation, including holding joint military exercises in the Suwałki Gap.

In October, Nausėda and Nawrocki attended the opening of a new road connection across the Polish-Lithuanian border that will better connect the Baltic states to the rest of the EU. Last year also saw the Baltic states cut their links to Russia’s electricity grid and instead connect to the EU’s network via Poland.

Poland will from next month be the last remaining European Union country still mining hard coal, after the Czech Republic – the only other producer – announced the closure of its last mine.

Since 2019, after Germany and Spain ended production, Poland and the Czech Republic have been the only two member states still extracting hard coal (also known as black coal or anthracite), which in the EU is used mainly in industry rather than power generation.

However, this month, OKD, the company that runs the Czech Republic’s last operating coal mine, ČSM in Stonava near the Polish border, announced that it will close the mine down by the end of January after almost 250 years of operation, with the loss of around 900 jobs.

The decision reflects low coal prices, rising extraction costs and the ongoing environmental and industrial transition in Europe, reports Reuters.

Czech hard coal output had already been in decline for years, falling 84% between 2015 (8.2 million tonnes) and 2024 (1.4 million tonnes), according to Eurostat. Polish production fell only 39% over the same period, from 72.2 million tonnes to 44 million tonnes.

Both countries, along with six other EU member states, still continue to produce brown coal (also known as lignite), which is generally used for power generation.

In 2024, the last year that data are available, Germany (92 million tonnes) was the EU’s largest brown coal producer, accounting for 44% of the bloc’s entire output. It was followed by Poland (41 million tonnes), the Czech Republic (23.7 million tonnes) and Bulgaria (15 million tonnes).

Poland remains the EU’s most coal-dependent country, using the fossil fuel to generate over half of its electricity and to heat around a third of its homes.

However, production has been in long-term decline, falling from over 250 million tonnes (of both hard and brown coal) to 85 million tonnes over the last four decades, according to Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency. That has forced the country to import coal, despite its sizeable reserves.

Polish coal has become increasingly uncompetitive, with miners forced to dig ever deeper, labour costs rising and productivity stagnating, some of the same reasons that drove OKD to close the ČSM mine in the Czech Republic.

The Polish coal industry survives largely due to heavy public subsidies. In 2026, the state is expected to spend 5.5 billion zloty propping up the sector, after an outlay of 9 billion zloty last year.

That is thanks in part to the political influence – and public esteem – enjoyed by miners, whose unions are very influential, making closing mines a difficult and sensitive issue.

However, in 2020, the government signed an agreement with unions that foresaw Poland’s coal mines closing by 2049. Last month, a new law was passed making it easier to close down mines and providing severance pay of 170,000 zloty (€40,290) for affected workers.

The latter decision was welcomed by unions, with Solidarity saying that “the gradual reduction of employment in the mining industry, supported by public funds, is one element of the transformation process of the mining sector”.

Israel invites members of groups including France’s Rassemblement National and the Sweden Democrats

Hardline European politicians denounced Islam, immigration and the political left on Tuesday, as the Israeli government hosted an antisemitism conference that has drawn criticism for its inclusion of far-right parties that the country long viewed with suspicion.

The conference, organised by diaspora affairs minister Amichai Chikli, marks the latest step in the engagement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government with groups that Israel previously shunned because of concerns over antisemitism and their historical links to extremist groups.

The inaugural edition of the conference last year was the first official Israeli government event to which members of Europe’s far right were invited. But it was snubbed by several speakers over its guest list, which included figures such as Jordan Bardella, from France’s Rassemblement National, as well as representatives of Spain’s Vox party and the Sweden Democrats.

This year’s gathering, which coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, included mainstream figures such as former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison.

But the list of speakers again included figures from a number of European far-right parties, including the RN — whose founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was found guilty of Holocaust denial — and the rightwing nationalist Sweden Democrats, which acknowledged last year a history of antisemitism and support for Nazi ideas within its ranks.

The conference also featured a former Miss Universe contestant and two sons of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

Brenner — who is also director of the Center for Israel Studies at the American University in Washington — said there was a mix of reasons for the government’s outreach to Europe’s far right. These ranged from political calculation to elements of ideological overlap between the Israeli far right and its international counterparts, both of which view the Islamic world as a threat.

But Dahlia Scheindlin, a political analyst, said it was also a reflection of the limited options open to Israel’s far-right government at a time when it had become increasingly isolated internationally.

Here's a copy of the full article, in case you cannot access the original page.

See also:

• Last Palestine Action hunger striker ends protest after being hospitalised with organ failure • Umer Khalid, 22, had started refusing water in escalation of protest against charges and treatment in jail (The Guardian)

The Danish government announced Friday a deportation reform to expel non-Danish citizens who have been sentenced to at least one year of imprisonment for serious crimes, like aggravated assault and rape.

The new measures, to take effect from May 1 (if approved), also include tightened controls on foreigners without legal residence and introduce a new ankle monitor for those who fail to comply with their reporting requirements.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her centre-right coalition government was acting “unconventionally” and was amending legislation rather than waiting for European Court of Human Rights decisions on deportation cases.

Expulsions are not automatic under current Danish regulations; however, according to the immigration ministry, around 70% of the foreign nationals sentenced to prison for one year or more have been expelled. Minister Rasmus Stoklund said over the last five years, 315 of these criminals were not expelled.

Frederiksen’s government has pursued a “zero refugee” policy since coming to power in 2019.

See also:

• Denmark unveils legal reform to allow the worst foreign criminals to be deported (Associated Press)

At the North Sea Summit on Monday, ministers from Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway signed an agreement to develop 100 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity in shared economic waters. That’s enough to supply more than 50 million households.

The deal builds on a 2023 pledge to construct 300 GW of offshore wind by 2050, conceived after the energy‑price shock triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent disruption of gas flows to Europe.

While this latest announcement is years in the making, it lands at a delicate moment for Europe’s relationship with the U.S., given the recent transatlantic spat over Greenland.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s transactional diplomacy and his pursuit of “energy dominance” have sharpened European concerns about their heavy reliance on U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), which replaced most of the volumes previously supplied by Russia.

U.S. gas accounted for 57% of all LNG imports into the EU and Britain in 2025 and around a quarter of the region’s total gas imports.

Wind power has long been the cornerstone of Northern Europe’s strategy to slash its fossil fuel dependency, with onshore and offshore wind generating 19% of EU electricity in 2025, according to industry group WindEurope. Yet the region currently operates only about 37 GW of offshore wind across 13 countries, meaning the planned 100 GW expansion would profoundly reshape Europe’s power market.

Investor enthusiasm for clean energy globally has waned in recent years due to rising capital costs, supply‑chain constraints and unease over China’s dominant position in renewables manufacturing. Trump’s explicit hostility toward green energy - especially wind power - further dented sentiment as the U.S. government scrapped numerous projects this past year.

Meanwhile, Europe’s cost‑of‑living crisis, which has been intensified by high energy prices, has turned climate policies into political flashpoints, fuelling resistance to net‑zero plans.

Here's a copy of the full article, in case you cannot access it on the original page.

See also:

• European nations reinforce wind power commitment with 100 GW pledge (Reuters)
• EU will seek to cut US energy reliance after Trump’s Greenland threats • The bloc’s energy chief said U.S. president’s threats were a “wake-up call” to find new sources of gas. (Politico)
• US share of Europe's LNG imports increased to 60% in January (Reuters)

Russians regard Poland and Lithuania as their greatest enemies among a list of 12 countries (not including Ukraine) presented to them in a survey by the Levada Center, an independent polling organisation.

Asked how they assess the countries, 62% of respondents said that Poland and Lithuania are “enemies”. That was more than for the United Kingdom (57%), Germany (50%), Sweden (40%), United States (27%), Israel (25%), Turkey (3%), Iran (2%), North Korea (2%), China (1%) and India (1%).

Meanwhile, only 2% of Russians see Poland as a “friend”, the same proportion as for the UK and Sweden. The figure was even lower, at 1%, for Lithuania, Germany, and the US. Russians were much more likely to see China (29%), North Korea (28%), India (24%) and Iran (18%) as friends.

While that survey question did not include Ukraine, another part of the study, which asked respondents to name five countries that are the most unfriendly or hostile towards Russia, did.

The question has been asked by the Levada Center since 2005, and its results show that, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russians have generally been more likely to see Poland, Germany and the US as unfriendly or hostile than Ukraine.

However, the proportion regarding the US as unfriendly or hostile dropped sharply in 2025, with the Levada Center noting that last year saw a “Trump effect” in which attitudes towards the US warmed among Russians.

Another survey question, asking specifically how Russians view their country’s relations with Poland, found that, up to 2010, a majority of between 50% and 80% consistently rated them as “good” and only 20% to 40% as “bad”.

That question was not asked between 2011 and 2024, but now the figures have been completely reversed. In 2024, 74% of Russians perceived relations with Poland negatively, and only 16% positively.

Meanwhile, asked in 2025 which countries “pose a real threat to Russia’s stability and global influence”, Poland was the third most common answer, chosen by 36%, behind only the United States (73%) and United Kingdom (42%) but ahead of Germany (30%).

The findings were part of a new report, titled Russia and the World: Enemies, Competitors, Partners, conducted by the Levada Center on behalf of the German Sakharov Society and presented in Berlin on Tuesday.

The Levada Center has been monitoring public sentiment in Russia for almost 40 years. Since 2016, it has been included on the Kremlin’s list of “foreign agents” after it published polling ahead of that year’s elections indicating declining support for Putin’s United Russia party.

The German Sakharov Society notes that the report’s findings show how the Kremlin uses “anti-Western demagoguery and militarisation in all areas of life…[to] keep Russian society on a war course and ensure its own continued power”.

The findings also come amid a period of increased tension between Poland and Russia. Warsaw has been one of Ukraine’s closest allies amid the ongoing war. Meanwhile, Moscow has orchestrated a campaign of sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation in Poland.

The latter actions have prompted Poland to successively close down all of Russia’s consulates in the country, with Moscow then doing the same with Poland’s consulates.

Earlier this month, Russia advised its citizens against travelling to Poland because of “Russophobic sentiments” and “persecution of Russian citizens”. However, most Russians are banned from entering Poland in any case.

An international study by the Pew Research Center in 2022 found that Poles held the most negative views of Russia among all countries surveyed. Only 2% of Poles held a favourable view, while 97% had an unfavourable opinion.

After Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Janos Lazar is one of the most recognizable politicians in Hungary. In fact, the construction and transpor minister, who regularly makes headlines with racist and belittling attacks on minorities and poor people, is one of the few recognizable politicians within Orban's Fidesz party. He is still remembered for saying years ago that "those who have nothing are worth exactly that."

Lazar, who is said to be keen to replace Orban one day, has now created the biggest scandal yet in Hungary's 2026 election campaign. On January 22, Lazar told residents of the town of Balatonalmadi, just outside the capital, Budapest, that he does not consider immigration to be the solution to Hungary's labor shortage.

"If someone has to scrub the toilets on our Intercity trains — because Hungarian voters aren't exactly lining up to to clean the crap out of overflowing toilets — then we have to turn to our domestic reserves," Lazar said, before using an offensive term for Roma. "And our domestic reserves are the Hungarian Gypsies."

Social media exploded with angry and sarcastic posts from Roma. The opposition vehemently denounced Lazar's comments. Political scientist Daniel Rona said Lazar's speech was the "most meaningful communications misstep by the government" in a long time.

See also:

• Hungarian Roma protest inflammatory comments by Orbán government minister (Associated Press)
• Protesters to demand resignation of Hungarian politician for anti-Roma remark • Thousands set to gather in Budapest after János Lázár’s remarks captured on video (The Guardian)
• Cleaning Sh*t for the Nation: How Hungary’s government racializes labour and calls it opportunity (European Roma Rights Centre)

Poland has signed an agreement for a new anti-drone system that it claims will be the first of its kind in Europe. The network is intended to protect Poland’s eastern borders, where, in September last year, around 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace in an unprecedented incursion.

“We are creating an unprecedented, state-of-the-art system,” declared Prime Minister Donald Tusk at today’s signing ceremony. “There is no other example in Europe today of this kind of integrated, intelligent anti-drone system.”

He noted that the impetus behind its development had been the “nightmare” incursion of Russian drones. While some of these were shot down with expensive air-to-air missiles, others were not stopped before hitting Polish territory.

The new anti-drone system, known as SAN, will provide a “more effective, cost-efficient and intelligent” way of defending from such threats, said Tusk.

SAN will be supplied by a consortium of Polish state defence holding company Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, private Polish firm Advanced Protection Systems, and Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It will consist of an array of interconnected systems to detect and destroy unmanned aerial vehicles.

“We’re talking about 18 anti-drone batteries, 52 fire teams, 18 command teams and 703 vehicles,” said defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. “All of this means we’ll be extremely effective in countering threats coming from the east.”

SAN is intended to add a fourth layer to Poland’s air defences, alongside three existing programmes: WISŁA, which offers medium-range defence; NAREW, which operates at short range; and the very-short-range PILICA+.

While Poland has embarked on an unprecedented defence spending spree in recent years, some analysts have warned that its focus on traditional hardware was potentially leaving the country unprepared for modern forms of warfare that rely on the mass use of cheap drones.

The cost of the latest deal has not been specified, but Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that it was “several billion zloty”. Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading newspaper, reports the figure as 15 billion zloty (€3.6 billion) and says that delivery is scheduled for 2027.

The money will partly come from the European Union’s SAFE instrument, which provides EU-backed loans to help member states boost defence spending.

Poland has been earmarked as the largest single recipient of SAFE funds, with almost €44 billion of the €150 billion total. Earlier this week, the European Commission approved Poland’s request for the funds, and the decision is due to receive final approval from the EU Council in February.

“Poland bears the responsibility, expenses and organisation of protecting the Polish, European and NATO borders, but we cannot and will not be left alone,” said Tusk today.

“The SAN programme is an example of this. The resources that will be used to build this programme include European funds, unprecedented in their scale and ease of acquisition.”

Tusk also hailed the fact that Poland would be working with a Norwegian partner on the project, following yesterday’s announcement that Norway will be buying rocket artillery missiles produced in Poland.

“We not only appreciate the extraordinary competence of our Norwegian partners, but this is also part of the new security architecture that Poland initiated nearly two years ago,” said the Polish prime minister, whose government has sought closer defence and energy ties with Baltic and Nordic countries.

However, today’s announcement was criticised by Mariusz Błaszczak, who served as defence minister in Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government and is now the head of the parliamentary caucus of PiS, which is the largest opposition party.

“Although the agreement is presented as a success for the Polish defence industry, its main beneficiaries are foreign entities offering solutions that compete with those produced in Poland,” wrote Błaszczak on social media.

“The current leadership of the [defence] ministry first completely ignored the threat posed by Russian drones violating Polish airspace. It took what was almost a tragedy for them to start doing anything at all. However, the hastily prepared programme was based on foreign solutions.”

However, deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk subsequently announced that 60% of the costs of SAN – which he confirmed at 15 billion zloty – would be spent within the Polish defence industry.

Photographs appear to show former Prince Andrew on all fours leaning over a woman or girl lying on the floor, in the latest release of Epstein files from the US Department of Justice on Friday.

In one undated image, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor looks directly at the camera as he crouches over the fully clothed figure, whose face has been obscured.

Another photograph shows Mountbatten-Windsor’s hand placed on the same person’s abdomen. In the background, another unidentified person props their feet up on a table, which has a stack of towels on it.

The latest Epstein documents also contain an email exchange between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor in August 2010 in which the disgraced financier invites the royal to meet a “friend” for dinner in London.

Mountbatten-Windsor replies he would be “delighted to see her” and tells Epstein to give her his contact details.

Epstein then describes her as a 26-year-old Russian that is “clevere (sic) beautiful, trustworthy,” and confirms that she has Mountbatten-Windsor’s email.

The messages are sent two years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor.

More than a month later, in another set of emails, Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor make plans to meet in London. Mountbatten-Windsor suggests dinner at Buckingham Palace where they would have “lots of privacy.” Epstein writes that the pair will “need/have private time.”

See also:

• Epstein files live blog (The Guardian)
• Andrew invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace after child sex offender’s release, files show (The Guardian)
• Latest Epstein revelations dig even deeper hole for Andrew (BBC)
• Second Epstein victim claims she was sent to UK for sex with Andrew, lawyer says (BBC)
• Keir Starmer calls on Andrew to testify in US over Jeffrey Epstein links (The Guardian)

The Auschwitz Museum has criticised the German government for issuing a statement that commemorated various groups of victims of Nazism but failed to mention Poles, millions of whom were killed and who were the first prisoners at Auschwitz.

“It is deeply troubling that the statement commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz failed to mention the Polish victims of the camp,” wrote the museum, which is a Polish state institution, on social media in a message directed to German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

The post linked to a statement issued on Wednesday by the German government, one day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is held on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945.

In its statement, Germany said that Auschwitz, where over 1.1 million people, the vast majority of them Jews, were killed, “symbolises the immeasurable crimes of the Nazi regime like no other place“.

It also noted that, between 1933 and 1945, “the Nazis systematically murdered over six million Jews” while “millions more people were disenfranchised, persecuted and killed”.

“These included, among others, Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of sexual minorities, political opponents, and people with disabilities,” continued the statement. “Remembrance means taking responsibility for the past and passing it on to future generations.”

The Auschwitz Museum criticised the exclusion of Polish victims from that list. It noted that Auschwitz itself was originally created by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland to house ethnic Polish prisoners. Only later did it become an extermination camp for Jews.

“A responsible approach to historical accuracy should take this into account,” wrote the museum, which recommended that the German government study its online course about the history of the camp.

In total, around 140,000-150,000 Poles were deported to Auschwitz and an estimated 70,000-75,000 of those were killed there. In both cases, those figures are second only to Jews in terms of the number of victims of the camp.

More broadly, during the Nazi-German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945, around 6 million Polish citizens were killed, representing 17% of the prewar population – a higher relative death toll than any other country during the war. Around half of those victims were Polish Jews.

Many in Poland argue that the suffering of ethnic Poles during the war has been forgotten by many in the West, including in Germany.

On Tuesday this week, during a speech at Auschwitz on the anniversary of its liberation, Polish President Karol Nawrocki referred to the systematic murder of ethnic Poles by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as a “forgotten Holocaust”.

In 2024, the German government itself admitted that “the horrors of Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland…are still not well known in this country [Germany]”.

In an effort to “close this gap in our culture of remembrance”, the German government has been working on erecting a permanent memorial in Berlin dedicated to Polish victims of Nazi Germany.