Eurotopics.net

The airline industry has been hard hit in the coronavirus crisis. People have stopped flying, leaving airlines and aircraft manufacturers fighting for survival. Governments in many countries are now considering whether to bail out the industry. Commentators look at what's at stake in terms of jobs, passenger rights and climate protection.

North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public for more than two weeks. Particularly noticeable was his absence from the celebrations on April 15, the country's most important national holiday. Rumours are circulating that Kim is seriously ill, injured or even dead, and that his death is being hushed up to prevent a power struggle. Is something rotten in the state of North Korea?

Donald Tusk, the leader of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) and former EU Council President, has called for the presidential election in Poland to be boycotted, arguing that the vote is unconstitutional. The government in Warsaw has been under fire for weeks for going ahead with plans to hold the election on 10 May - albeit entirely by postal vote - despite the pandemic.

After the statute of limitations expired, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court has ended its Fifa fraud trial without passing sentence. Former German Football Association presidents Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach and two other former Fifa officials were on trial over huge payments they received before the 2006 World Cup was awarded to Germany. The official reason is that the restrictions imposed in the wake of the corona crisis made it impossible to carry out the trial. However questions have also been raised regarding the work of the criminal investigators.

The head of the Turkish state-funded religious authority Diyanet, Ali Erbaş, claimed in a sermon that homosexuality was partly responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. LGBTI organisations, bar associations and opposition politicians protested but President Erdoğan and other leading AKP politicians defended Erbaş. The topic has sparked a fierce debate in Turkey.