Eurotopics.net

If re-elected, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to appoint an EU defence commissioner and better coordinate the defence policies of the member states in response to the threats posed by Russia's aggression and Donald Trump's possible return to the White House. The press asks whether the EU has what it takes to become a security alliance.

Potentially decisive hearings in the Julian Assange case are under way: the High Court in London is examining whether Assange can appeal against last June's decision to extradite him to the US. If his appeal is rejected, the legal process will be exhausted in the UK. Assange's supporters have announced that they would then take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

At least nine miners were trapped in a gold mine after a landslide near the eastern Anatolian town of Erzincan in Turkey last week, and have still not been rescued. Gold mined there is washed out of the rock using a cyanide solution, and there is now a risk of water contamination in the region. The incident has triggered outrage in the national press.

A debate over European defence capabilities has broken out after Donald Trump threatened to only grant alliance protection to those Nato states that meet the agreed target of two percent of GDP for defence spending. Commentators discuss what should be done in the event that the US really does cease to guarantee the continent's security.