For the first time since the start of the war, protests have broken out in Ukraine, directed against a new law concerning the hitherto independent anti-corruption bodies. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office are to be put under the control of the Prosecutor General's Office. Observers criticise President Zelensky and see Ukraine on a dangerous path towards authoritarianism.
Portugal's conservative government has announced that sex education will be removed from the curriculum of the subject citizenship and development, leaving it unclear how the topic is to be taught at schools. Critics accuse the government of shifting to the right on socio-political issues and adopting the positions of right-wing populist party Chega.
According to a recent survey, two-thirds of Romanians have a positive image of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator who was overthrown in December 1989 after ruling the country with an iron fist for 24 years. With the help of the much-feared secret police, the Securitate, he systematically eliminated his political opponents. The national press looks at where this positive image hails from.
A petition initiated by a student against a new French agricultural law two weeks ago has already gathered 1.7 million signatures, upping the pressure on the government. The "Loi Duplomb" relaxes environmental regulations governing the use of pesticides, including acetamiprid. The product has been banned in France for several years, but not in any other EU country.
American influencer IShowSpeed has made appearances in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as part of a PR campaign for the Baltic states. In Riga he met with politicians and former president Raimonds Vējonis, with whom he jumped around on the platform of the country's Freedom Monument, before appearing with officials in Lithuania. Commentators who are not among his 40 million YouTube followers are baffled.
Every year, German public broadcaster ARD invites the German Chancellor and the leaders of the parties represented in the Bundestag to a summer interview on a terrace in Berlin's government district. This year the exchange with AfD leader Alice Weidel was disrupted by a group of loud demonstrators. Commentators criticise both the discourse on German television and the approach to countering the rise of the far-right party, which was classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in May.