Eurotopics.net

Following fierce criticism of his statements during a press conference with Vladimir Putin the US president has backpedalled, saying that he hadn't mean to say that there had been no Russian interference in the US election campaign. Will this "slip-up" in Helsinki have fateful consequences for Trump and his party?

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have reiterated that their summit in Helsinki was just the first in a series of meetings. Commentators see the US president's Europe tour, tarnished by an éclat at the Nato summit and what many see as Trump's uncritical attitude towards the Kremlin chief, as a wake-up call for Europe.

The EU has signed its most comprehensive free trade agreement to date - with Japan. The deal, which has been in preparation since 2013 and is known as the Jefta, is to come into effect next year and removes 99 percent of all the tariffs between the two economic areas. Journalists warn that we should not put too much faith in the arguments of either the apologists or the critics of free trade.

Many players in the new football world champion team France and other teams that participated in the Fifa World Cup have migration backgrounds. Commentators discuss whether football can have a positive, long-term impact on integration.

The jail sentences handed down to members of the activist group Pussy Riot after they criticised Putin in their "punk prayer" at a church in Moscow contravene human rights, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has ruled, and ordered Russia to pay the women compensation. Commentators take stock of the ruling.