The Peruvian-Spanish winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa has died aged 89. A controversial figure, not only for his literary work, Vargas Llosa was also politically active and against dictatorships in South America. In 1990 he ran for the Peruvian presidency on a liberal economic programme but lost the runoff to Alberto Fujimori. From 1990 to 2023 he wrote regularly for the Spanish newspaper El País.

The British parliament on Sunday passed emergency legislation paving the way for manufacturer British Steel to be rescued after its Chinese operator Jingye announced plans to shut down the Scunthorpe steelworks, the only plant in the country that not only recycles steel but can produce it from ore and coke. While Jingye formally remains the owner, the state will take control in a move that will incur enormous losses. Controversy in the press.

The face-off in the tariff war between the US and China continues. First US President Donald Trump progressively increased the additional tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent. Then he announced temporary exemptions for the large electronic goods sector. Beijing has retaliated with counter-tariffs which are currently at 125 percent, and is also seeking economic alliances in other countries.

Israel has expanded its military offensive and declared almost all of Gaza a "combat zone". Its army hit a hospital in Gaza City again during air strikes. According to the UN, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are being forced into an ever smaller area because Israel wants to establish so-called security zones. Europe's press is increasingly critical of the Israeli offensive that began after the Hamas terrorist attack.

Just under a month before the early parliamentary elections on 18 May, the conservative Portuguese minority government has presented new figures pointing to a significant increase in immigration, with immigrants currently making up around 15 percent of the population. Commentators caution against an instrumentalisation of the issue.

In reaction to the Russian Orthodox Church's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the Estonian parliament has passed a law stipulating the separation of the Orthodox Church of Estonia from the Moscow Patriarchate and making the right to vote in municipal elections a prerequisite for membership of the clergy. This right to vote was recently withdrawn from residents with Russian citizenship.