Eurotopics.net

Two weeks after his election victory Turkey's President Erdoğan was sworn in on Monday and the country's parliamentary democracy was replaced by a presidential republic. On the weekend once again more than 18,000 state employees were dismissed on the grounds that they had ties with terrorist organisations. Where is this "new Turkey" heading?

Last week the US imposed billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on Chinese goods and China retaliated with similar measures. No one will emerge victorious from this war, commentators predict, and call for an overhaul of the entire global trade system.

The British cabinet has agreed on a plan for the Brexit negotiations. Prime Minister Theresa May may achieve her goal of pushing through a free trade zone with the EU. Brexit secretary David Davis, a proponent of a hard Brexit, has resigned. Some journalists find the government's soft Brexit approach outrageous. Others believe the final word hasn't been spoken yet.

Rainbow colours, imaginative costumes, music and hundreds of thousands of people on the streets: gay pride parades organised by the LGBT movement were held in many European cities on the past weekend. The press review presents voices from the events in Budapest, Madrid and the Polish pilgrimage site Częstochowa.

Commentators are thrilled but not surprised that with Belgium, England, France and Croatia, four European teams have reached the Fifa World Cup semi-finals. They are more surprised, however, by the extraordinary success of the Croatian team, which with its win over Russia has put itself on a par with the legendary "bronze generation" team that placed third in 1998.