Eurotopics.net

Britain is realigning its foreign and defence policy after Brexit. Prime Minister Johnson presented the new strategy, called Global Britain, in the House of Commons on Tuesday. It places increased emphasis on nuclear weapons in response to new threats and aims to expand the country's influence in the Indo-Pacific region, which it says has become the world's "geopolitical and economic centre of gravity".

After the collapse of the regional government in Murcia following a corruption scandal, centre-right coalitions are now tottering in several other Spanish regions. The Community of Madrid is now holding a snap election in which the conservative incumbent Isabel Díaz Ayuso of the PP is the favourite and if elected may form a coalition with the far-right Vox party. Commentators sound the alarm.

What began as demonstrations for reforms in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring has ended in disaster: according to activists, at least 388,000 Syrians have died, tens of thousands have been imprisoned or disappeared and millions have fled the country since the start of the civil war. The media point the finger at external players in the conflict.

The government in Slovakia is in danger of collapsing after Prime Minister Igor Matovič purchased Russia's Sputnik vaccine without consulting his coalition partners. Two of the partners are now demanding that he quit - and commentators seem to agree. President Zuzana Čaputová summoned Matovič and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Sulík on Tuesday to resolve the crisis.

Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Monday to three years in prison, two of them suspended, for bribery and influence-peddling. The judges considered it proven that in 2014, after his time as French president, Sarkozy unlawfully gained access to judicial files about an inquiry being conducted against him. What are the implications of the verdict?