Eurotopics.net

The judges of the UK's Supreme Court have ruled unanimously that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament was unlawful. A bitter blow for Johnson, who had argued that he needed the prorogation to have time to prepare a government policy statement, known as the Queen's Speech. Will the ruling bring clarity to the confused political situation?

The US Democrats have taken the first steps in impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. The background is a telephone call in which Trump reportedly asked the Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky to place the son of presidential hopeful Joe Biden, who is a member of the board of a Ukrainian gas company, under investigation. Commentators speculate on whether the proceedings have any chance of success.

Many of the roughly 600,000 tourists left stranded by the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, the world's oldest tour operator, are still waiting to return home. Some 22,000 employees lost their jobs overnight. Journalists in the Mediterranean region fear the tourism industry in their countries will also be badly hit.

The remains of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (1892 - 1975) are to be exhumed and moved from a state mausoleum to a different site, Spain's Supreme Court has ruled. With this ruling the court agreed to a request by the Socialist government and upheld a parliamentary decision taken in September 2018. The mausoleum where Franco current lies has become a shrine for right-wing extremists. Franco's relatives plan to appeal the decision.