In a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD party, voters backed the conservatives, CDU, in an election Germany's most populous state. The Greens meanwhile more than doubled the number of votes they received.

A phony account on Twitter, with at least four different identities since February, claims to be the brother of slain Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. In this edition of Truth or Fake, we explain how we uncovered this fake Twitter account with more than 35,000 followers.

South Ossetia's self-proclaimed government said it was time for the region to "unite once and for all" with Russia. The breakaway republic was at the center of Moscow's military intervention in Georgia in 2008.

Hungary's government is "holding European Union decision makers hostage" by refusing to join an EU-wide embargo on Russian oil, according to Lithuania's foreign minister. This comes as EU leaders continue their efforts to gather support for a sixth sanctions package on Russia from all 27 EU member states. The government of PM Viktor Orban has claimed that an import ban on Russian oil would ruin the Hungarian economy. Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tells FRANCE 24 that "Europe is weaker" as a result, and that he is "still hoping Budapest will be responsible in their decisions".

We take a look at how the press is covering Finland and Sweden saying they want to join NATO. We also discuss how the once-fringe, racist ideas of "replacement theory" have seeped through to the US Republican Party, and how they could be behind a shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Finally, we find out about a strange, canine bedfellow.

Rising energy and commodity prices resulting from Russia's war in Ukraine are slowing Europe's economic growth and increasing inflation.