Eurotopics.net

Billionaire Elon Musk has sparked fierce criticism with his proposed solutions for ending Russia's war against Ukraine. The four-point plan he set out on Twitter on Monday includes a UN-supervised poll in the Russian-occupied territories. Commentators are outraged and warn that the entrepreneur's views send a dangerous signal.

Fierce protests and turmoil on the financial markets have forced the British government to back down on its recently announced tax plans. Several Conservative MPs had threatened to vote against a cut to the highest rate of income tax, prompting Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng to withdraw the plan. "We got it, we listened," he announced. Commentators remain sceptical.

In the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, men and women, Persians and minorities in Iran are uniting in the "hijab uprising" against the mullahs' rule and the country's morality laws, which are particularly restrictive for women. The regime has responded with a violent crackdown in which human rights activists report that at least 133 people have died so far. The violence escalated on the weekend at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology.

The liberal-conservative party Jaunā Vienotība (New Unity) under the former head of government Krišjānis Kariņš has won the parliamentary elections in Latvia and is now exploring coalition options. The largest opposition party for eight years, Harmony, which was supported by Latvians of Russian origin, emerged weakened, while the newly founded pro-Russian party For Stability! won eleven seats.