RUSSIA: Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained on espionage charges, lost an appeal today against his arrest, Russian state news agencies reported. 

That means he will stay in jail until the end of March.

Mr Gershkovich, a US citizen, was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March 2023. 

He and his employer deny the allegations.

BRAZIL: Brazil’s federal police are investigating the country’s former intelligence chief as part of a wider probe into alleged spying on political opponents under former President Jair Bolsonaro, court records showed on Thursday.

The former intelligence chief, Alexandre Ramagem, was among those targeted by the 21 search warrants that the Supreme Court authorised and that were carried out by police early on Thursday morning.

FRANCE: Protesting farmers shut down long stretches of some of France’s major highways again today, using tractors to block and slow traffic and to push the government to give in to their demands that growing and rearing food be made easier and more lucrative.

Their spreading movement for better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and lower costs, and protection against cheap imports is increasingly becoming a major crisis for the government.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech parliament's lower house today approved an amendment to the country’s gun law that tightens requirements for owning a weapon, a month after the worst mass killing in the nation’s history. 

On December 22, a lone shooter killed 14 people and wounded dozens before killing himself at a Charles University building in central Prague.