Eurotopics.net

The British government has started to prepare the population and local businesses for a hard Brexit without a deal with the EU. In 25 documents it describes the consequences of such a move for food and medicine supplies, nuclear security, air traffic and other areas. Is London resorting to scare tactics to force the EU to make concessions?

Many states in Europe are experiencing a shift to the right, while leftist and social democratic parties have increasingly lost votes in recent years. In Germany Sahra Wagenknecht, group leader of The Left party in the German Bundestag, has now founded a new leftist collective movement. Europe's commentators discuss her chances of success and the problems leftist movements face today.

Pope Francis will travel to Ireland on the weekend. Against the backdrop of a new scandal over years of hushed-up cases of sexual abuse in the US state of Pennsylvania and an open letter in which the pope asks for forgiveness for the errors of the Church, this will not be an easy visit. While some journalists hear the death knell for Irish Catholicism, others are irritated by the anti-Church discourse in Ireland.

On 24 August 1991 the parliament of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared its separation from the USSR and Ukraine's independence. Kiev is marking the anniversary with a big military parade and international guests such as US presidential advisor John Bolton. Just under five years after the start of the Ukraine war commentators paint a grim picture of the country.

Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen has incriminated the president while under oath, admitting that hush money was paid to two women who wanted to make their affairs with Trump public during the election campaign in 2016 - in violation of campaign financing laws. In a separate hearing, Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort was found guilty on various counts of fraud. Will Trump manage to stay in the White House?