In Poland, top judges are refusing to step down after the right-wing Polish government ordered a third of the Supreme Court to retire in what the European Union and other critics say is part of an authoritarian takeover of the judiciary. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court in Warsaw Wednesday to support the court’s president, who went to work in defiance of a new law lowering the retirement age of the Supreme Court from 70 to 65. This is former Polish President Lech Walesa, who joined Wednesday’s protests.

Lech Walesa: “It is getting serious when they ruin our courts. Sooner or later, this may lead to a civil war.”