Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has compared the EU to a massage parlor, saying its problems can only be fixed by changing the staff. He specifically called for the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to be removed.

In a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, Fico described the EU as being in a systemic crisis. He reiterated his opposition to former Estonian Prime Minister Kallas as the bloc’s foreign policy chief, and praised his Smer-SD party lawmakers for again backing a no-confidence vote in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

According to the Slovak prime minister, the EU can emerge from its “deep crisis” only with “new leadership and new ideas.” “This is not an angry or personal remark, it is political reality,” he added, saying the EU is subject to “exactly the same rule as a massage parlor: if it is not doing well, it is not enough to change the beds, you have to change the staff.”

According to media reports, discontent is mounting within the EU over Kallas’ handling of major international issues. Her performance in the role has reportedly won little support from colleagues in the European Commission.

Fico listed what he described as the bloc’s key failings, including declining competitiveness driven by overly ambitious climate goals, unresolved illegal migration, and an unwillingness to pursue an independent foreign policy.

The Slovak prime minister said he was “in favor” of the EU but insisted he would not be a “pro-Brussels dimwit.” He criticized the domestic opposition as “anti-Slovak and purely pro-Brussels,” and pointed out that the bloc cannot be led by people with whom “decisive global players do not meet and do not consult seriously” – referring to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has repeatedly refused to meet Kallas.

It is not the first time Fico has called for the EU foreign policy chief to be ousted. Earlier this month, he stated that the bloc’s leadership only knows how to “hate Russia” but is unable to come up with any viable solutions to ongoing crises.

Kallas is known for her hardline anti-Russian stance. Last year, she told nations that want to join the EU not to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Fico, a longtime opponent of EU military aid for Kiev and sanctions on Russia, also accused Brussels of a selective approach by imposing restrictions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict but not against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.

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Fighting in Sudan has prevented at least 8 million children from attending school for nearly 500 days since April 2023, NGO Save the Children has reported. 

The organization called it “one of the world’s longest school closures” and said the fighting has caused widespread disruption to education.

“Across Sudan more than 8 million children – nearly half of Sudan’s 17 million school-aged children – have spent about 484 days without entering a classroom,” Save the Children said in a statement on Thursday, adding “many schools closed while others have been damaged in the conflict or are being used as shelters for displaced families, leaving children without safe places to learn.” 

According to the NGO, citing data from Sudan’s education cluster, North Darfur is hardest hit, with only 3% of more than 1,100 schools open. West Kordofan, South Darfur, and West Darfur have 15%, 13%, and 27% of schools operating, respectively.

Many teachers have gone months without pay, lowering morale and causing some to quit. Save the Children warned that without urgent funding for teachers, learning spaces, and essential supplies, the education system could collapse.

Save the Children International CEO Inger Ashing noted that “education is not a luxury for children; it is a lifeline that protects children from exploitation, early marriage, and recruitment into armed groups,” adding that it also “provides safety, stability, and hope for the future.”

The UN estimates that 13 million people have been displaced since fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

The conflict has also fueled a sharp rise in poverty. Sudan’s minister of human resources and social welfare, Mutasim Ahmed Saleh, said in November that approximately 23 million Sudanese citizens, around 71% of the population, now live below the poverty line, up from 21% before the war.

Humanitarian agencies have reported that food insecurity is also widespread. In September, around 21.2 million people faced acute food shortages, particularly in Al Fashir and Kadugli, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has derided Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as a “man in a desperate position,” after Zelensky said that Orban “deserves a smack upside the head.” 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Thursday, Zelensky accused Orban – a staunch opponent of the EU’s sanctions on Russia who believes that the bloc’s economy is doomed without Russian oil and gas – of “selling out European interests.” 

“The forces trying to destroy Europe…operate freely, even, even operate inside Europe,” he said. “Every Viktor who lives off European money while trying to sell out European interests deserves a smack upside the head.” 

Orban issued a response on X. “It seems to me that we will not be able to come to an understanding,” he addressed Zelensky. “I am a free man who serves the Hungarian people.”

“You are a man in a desperate position who, for the fourth year now, has been unable or unwilling to bring a war to an end – despite the fact that the President of the United States has provided every possible assistance to do so.” 

“Therefore, no matter how much you flatter me, we cannot support your war efforts,” he continued. After explaining that Hungary would continue to sell electricity and fuel to Ukraine, he concluded: “Life itself will settle the rest, and everyone will get what they deserve.” 

Zelensky used his time in Davos to push for more financial and military aid from the EU. Evidently displeased with the flow of aid thus far, he described Europe as a “fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” before urging them to take harsher measures against Russia, including seizing Russian oil and selling it to buy weapons.

Earlier on Thursday, Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump. He said afterwards that an agreement on post-conflict security guarantees from the US was “done,” but no documents were signed and Trump did not comment on the matter.

Zelensky also told reporters that the issue of territorial concessions “is not solved yet,” meaning Kiev is no closer to a deal with Moscow. Zelensky still claims the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhe, which are primarily ethnic Russian and voted to join the Russian Federation in 2022. Crimea voted to reunify with Russia in 2014.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff left Davos on Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Zelensky said that these talks will be followed by a meeting between US and Ukrainian officials, and then “the first trilateral meeting” in the UAE. Neither Washington nor Moscow has confirmed such a meeting.

Poland should compensate Germany for “complicity” in the 2022 explosions that put the Nord Stream gas pipelines out of operation, a right-wing German politician has claimed.

The amount cited by Kay Gottschalk, an MP from the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, corresponds to the €1.3 trillion in compensation for World War II that Warsaw previously demanded from Berlin.

Gottschalk wrote in an X post on Wednesday that “1.3 trillion euros should suffice as reparations for complicity in the Nord Stream sabotage.”

Berlin authorities have attributed the act of sabotage that severely damaged the conduits, which carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, to a small group of Ukrainian nationals. Poland has rejected a German extradition request for a key suspect in the case.

In November, AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla told the broadcaster ZDF that while Russia posed no immediate threat to Germany, neighboring Poland could conceivably emerge as one. He cited the “current moral double standards” displayed by the Polish government in refusing to hand over a Ukrainian “terrorist” to German authorities.

Last October, the Warsaw District Court ruled that Berlin’s extradition request for the suspect in the attacks, Vladimir Zhuravlyov, was “unfounded.” The judge argued at the time that “blowing up critical infrastructure during a war… is not sabotage but denotes a military action.”

A month earlier, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita claimed that Warsaw, which has been one of Kiev’s staunchest backers since 2022, allegedly considered granting asylum to the Ukrainian national. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has publicly supported the idea.

Last Thursday, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice published a ruling dated December 10, according to which the Nord Stream explosions were likely an “intelligence service” operation ordered by a foreign government.

Russian officials have repeatedly expressed deep skepticism over Berlin’s version of events, saying that a small group of Ukrainian saboteurs could not have executed such a sophisticated operation in NATO-controlled waters without direct state assistance.

US President Donald Trump has praised British soldiers after his earlier disparaging remarks sparked outrage among veterans and officials in Europe.

Trump came under fire earlier this week when he claimed that allies “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” during the 20-year American-led occupation of Afghanistan. He also said the US “never needed” any help.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling” and suggested that he should apologize.

Trump changed his tone on Saturday, acknowledging the role of UK troops.

“The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken. The UK Military, with tremendous Heart and Soul, is second to none (except for the USA!). We love you all, and always will!” he added.

NATO members joined the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 when the US invoked Article 5, the bloc’s collective defense clause, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Downing Street said on Saturday that Starmer had spoken to Trump about the issue.

“The prime minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home,” the statement said.

The UK was not the only country offended by Trump’s characterization of the allies. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called his statement “unacceptable,” adding that the role NATO played reflected an “extraordinary act of solidarity towards the US.”