European Union

A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday (9 October) instructed the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions at a faster rate than planned, meaning they will have to be 25% below 1990 levels by the end of this decade.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned in its Special Report on Global Warming that the world is heating up faster than previously believed and with more drastic consequences. But the panel claims it is still "technically and economically possible" to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Commentators look at what needs to be done to achieve that goal.

Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova was found raped and murdered in the city of Ruse in Bulgaria on the weekend. She was a presenter for the local television station TVN and had been investigating alleged corruption involving EU funds. The motive for the murder remains unclear. Commentators doubt that the Bulgarian courts will bring the culprits to justice and point to a lack of press freedom in Central Eastern Europe.

The Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been missing in Turkey for several days. The Turkish police suspects that he has been murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh has denied this. Khashoggi's disappearance is indicative of the Saudi royal family's policy of silencing its critics, commentators say.

Brazil is facing a political earthquake. The far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) only narrowly missed winning the presidential election in its first round. In three weeks time he will run against the ex-mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT), in the second round. For commentators his success is the result of a failed political system.