UK Brexit treaty breach & collision course with EU; Belarus repression

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, with the view from Europe:

What's really going on between the EU and the UK with the UK government threatening to change the so-called Withdrawal Agreement?

Yup, it's really bad. Because what Boris Johnson has proposed is for the UK government to defect and break international law by going away from a substantially important part of the Withdrawal Agreement that has to do with the Northern Ireland peace process. This is a break of trust between the EU and the UK, if it goes ahead. It will have very serious ramifications. And I think if it happens, I think sorry to say, that we are headed for a crash between the European Union and the UK with bad ramifications all across the board. We'll see. Not good.

What's the update in Belarus?

Well, bad, bad, bad. Repression, repression, repression. Picking up the one after one of the opposition leaders and threatening them with expulsion, sometimes expelling them, sometimes torturing them in prison. He has thrown himself at the mercy of President Putin, the Kremlin. We'll see what that leads to. But let's also see the coming Sunday, if there will be as massive demonstrations in Minsk as we've seen before. The crisis is by no means over, including not over for Mr. Lukashenko.