Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has rejected the EU Commission's criticism of the state of press freedom in her country. In a letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, she defended herself against the accusations and criticised certain media, describing them as "stakeholders" who had influenced the Commission. Commentators weigh in.
The Hungarian government has issued a decree extending its "national card" immigration programme, which had previously applied to citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine, to Russians and Belarusians. The national card allows holders to stay in Hungary, bring their family, extend their stay as often as they like - and potentially gain access to the Schengen Area. Europe's press calls for consequences.
On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier travelled to the Polish capital to ask the population for forgiveness. The rebellion of 1944 lasted 63 days and was brutally crushed by the Nazi occupying forces. Around 200,000 resistance fighters and civilians were killed and the city almost totally destroyed before the Russians moved in.
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has provoked harsh reactions and concerns about escalation. Iran has vowed to take revenge on Israel, which it blames for the deadly bombing. Russia, China and Turkey have also condemned the attack. Commentators analyse the events and potential consequences.
Over the past few days, lawyers and relatives of a number of well-known political prisoners in Russia have been informed that the prisoners are no longer in the jails where they had been held up to now. Their current location is unknown. The missing prisoners include 18-year-old German student Kevin Lick, the artist Sasha Skochilenko, the human rights activist Oleg Orlov and politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Two women boxers who were disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing the gender tests are being allowed to fight in the Olympics: Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting and Algeria's Imane Khelif, who will compete against the Italian Angela Carini today. Members of Italy's far-right conservative government are now calling it an unfair fight, claiming that Khelif is trans and male.
For years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has used the stage of the Summer University in the Romanian, but predominantly Hungarian-speaking Băile Tușnad to give highly provocative speeches. This year his vitriol was again directed at Brussels, Washington and Warsaw. But this time Poland's Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, did not beat about the bush in his response: Orbán should ask himself why he is still in the EU.
Three days after the deadly attack on the Golan Heights, Israel has attacked a suburb of Beirut. According to the Israeli army, a Hezbollah military commander - Fuad Shukr - was the target. It is not yet clear whether he survived. Hamas has also accused Israel of killing its political leader Ismail Haniya in an airstrike in Tehran.
Turkey's President Erdoğan has threatened to invade Israel if it attacks Lebanon. Since the Hamas attack on October 7 and the ensuing war relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated drastically and Erdoğan's rhetoric has become more aggressive: he now refers to Hamas as a liberation organisation and compares Netanyahu with Hitler. Should his threat to invade be taken seriously?
After the officially declared re-election of president Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, violent clashes have broken out between demonstrators and police. The opposition is claiming mass electoral fraud. The most promising opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, had already been disqualified before the elections on questionable grounds. Europe's press takes a look at what's at stake.
The Summer Olympics opened in Paris on Friday. Instead of walking into the stadium as in the past, the athletes travelled down the Seine in boats. They were welcomed by an array of spectacles on the banks and bridges, before finally disembarking at the Trocadéro opposite the Eiffel Tower. Commentators' opinions of the event differ widely.
The Orthodox Church in Romania wants to canonise three deceased theologians and clergymen - Dumitru Stăniloae, Ilarion Felea and Ilie Lăcătușu - who suffered under communism. Holocaust researchers are protesting that in the 1930s and 40s the clergymen openly campaigned for the Romanian fascists who carried out pogroms against Jews. There is no written evidence that any of them ever regretted their support.