Strictly speaking, Marco Goecke was not fired for smearing dog poo on a critical journalist's face after a bad review, rather he and Hanover's State Opera mutually agreed to dissolve his contract with immediate effect.

Choreographer Marco Goecke issued his apology three days after the incident, which occurred in the foyer of Hanover's opera house. Attacking the journalist with dog feces was "an overreaction," he said.

Exiled Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in an interview with FRANCE 24 from London that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is political "suicide" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who "cannot win in Ukraine, even if he manages to take Kyiv or Kharkiv". This war is the result of an "emotional decision" by Putin, the former oligarch said.

The fresh probe comes after Navalny's allies were already banned as "extremist" earlier this year ahead of Russia's elections.

Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been hit with a new charge. The jailed critic must now answer to starting an organization that allegedly incites breaking laws.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is serving his two and a half years sentence for violating parole at penal colony no.2 in the provincial town of Pokrov, 100 kilometres east of Moscow. It is part of a sprawling network of some 684 work colonies that today holds some 393,000 prisoners. The system requires inmates to carry out menial labour for a meagre salary and is routinely flagged by Russian advocacy groups for imposing long working hours and overlooking harsh conditions.

Joe Abah may not be your favourite person on Twitter, but his over 200,000 followers on Twitter know that Ezemmuo is not one to run away from the gbas gbos of social media. Being a former employee of the Nigerian government, Abah was, and is still, an easy target of anti-government critics, especially when he speaks well of certain government policies.