Eurotopics.net

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet for a first bilateral summit on July 16 in Helsinki. On the agenda are arms control and the situation in Syria and Ukraine, among other topics. In the run-up to the Nato summit Trump commented that the meeting with Putin might be easier than that with his Nato allies. Journalists ask what to expect from the encounter.

Eight months after the elections, Czech members of parliament have given their approval to a minority government headed by billionaire Andrej Babiš. The cabinet comprising members of the populist Ano party and the Social Democrats will be supported by the Communists, giving them a hand in government for the first time since 1989. What does their comeback in the Czech Republic portend?

Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is discussing restricting access for media representatives following inappropriate behaviour on the part of two journalists, with one of them making an obscene gesture to a photographer. The Rada has long been looking for an excuse to hamper the activities of the press in the parliament, commentators criticise.

Beate Zschäpe, the main defendant in the trial of the German neo-Nazi terrorist group the NSU, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in ten murders. The four other accused were given sentences ranging from two and a half to ten years in prison. Commentators observe the advance of a far right movement in Germany and call for the focus on Islamist terror to be revised.

At the start of the Nato summit US President Trump has levelled serious accusations at Germany, saying it is controlled by and hostage to Russia. In the view of some commentators the president is simply voicing an unpleasant truth. Others see his comments as an strategy of humiliation aimed at weakening Europe.