Eurotopics.net

Approximately one million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction. With this figure the World Biodiversity Council underlined the urgency of its first global report on Monday in Paris. Human beings are destroying the very life they depend on, warned Robert Watson, chairman of the UN body. Commentators say they know what needs to be done - but not how to do it.

Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) has annulled the local elections in Istanbul at the request of the AKP. Opposition supporters took to the streets in protest and the new mayor elected in April, Ekrem İmamoğlu, urged them to win back their rights in the democratic process. The EU is calling for transparency about the decision-making process. What does this step mean for Turkey?

After a plane crash at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday evening that left forty-one dead, police are trying to reconstruct the events that led to the tragedy. About half an hour after taking off the Aeroflot plane, a Suchoi Superjet-100, turned around due to problems and crash landed, bursting into flames. Opinion pages probe the tragedy and its wider implications.

Following a weekend of missile strikes from the Gaza Strip and retaliation by the Israeli army that left more than twenty dead and hundreds wounded, the two sides have managed to agree to a ceasefire under Egyptian mediation. But none of the commentators interpret the ceasefire as a sign that there might be an end in sight to the conflict.

A Turkish ship has been drilling for gas in Cypriot waters since Friday. Cyprus has issued an international arrest warrant against the ship's crew, and the EU, the US and Israel have also criticised the operation. The gas reserves discovered off the Cypriot coast in 2011 are fuelling tensions between Ankara and Nicosia. Cypriot commentators voice their concern.