HUNGARY: The EU will begin proceedings to suspend payments to Hungary for breaching rule-of-law standards, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said today.

A new conditionality mechanism allowing the EU to withhold budget payments if it deems countries in breach was cleared for use by the courts in February, and this would be its first use, though Brussels has outstanding disputes with Poland on the question too.

The announcement comes two days after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban listed Brussels among his defeated opponents on re-election.

SUDAN: The trial of an alleged militia leader accused of atrocities in Darfur nearly 20 years ago began in The Hague today.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman pleaded innocent on 31 charges of war crimes.

He is accused of leading a dreaded janjaweed unit known as “the devils on horseback.”

Sudan’s then president Omar al-Bashir, currently jailed in Khartoum, is also wanted by the court.

He was overthrown in 2018 amid a popular uprising, but military chiefs have since refused to relinquish power to democratic forces.

PERU: President Pedro Castillo imposed a day-long curfew today, saying opposition protests were liable to spread violence and looting across Lima.

The left-wing schoolteacher turned president has faced repeated constitutional and street attempts to unseat him since beating Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed dictator Alberto Fujimori, in 2021. 

PAKISTAN: Hearings on whether Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dissolution of parliament was legal will continue on Wendesday.

Two days of hearings have not decided the matter, sparked by the PM’s bid to avoid a no-confidence vote he says has been orchestrated by hostile foreign powers. Mr Khan says he wants snap elections.