Eurotopics.net

This summer an area of the Amazon region almost four times as large as in the previous years has been deforested, satellite images show. The rainforest produces a fifth of the planet's oxygen and is therefore considered the 'lungs of the world'. Sixty percent of the forest is in Brazil - where President Jair Bolsanaro is pushing deforestation. Europe's press issue urgent calls to action.

In Italy Lega leader Matteo Salvini has called for a snap election on the grounds that his party's coalition with the Five Star Movement has failed. The latter's vote against a railway project which Lega backs triggered the most recent crisis in the coalition government's turbulent relationship. Commentators are not surprised to see this government on the verge of collapse.

Last summer the newly elected Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made headlines when he allowed the Aquarius to dock in Spain with hundreds of refugees on board. Now, with the rescue ship Open Arms trying in vain to find a safe port for 121 migrants, Sánchez is keeping very quiet. The press reaction in Spain is divided.

The allocation of university places in Denmark for the new semester testifies to a dwindling interest in the language of the country's southern neighbour: only 46 young people want to study German as their main subject this autumn. Danish commentators find this disinterest hard to understand.

With less than three months to go before Britain is due to leave the EU, hopes of averting a no-deal Brexit are dwindling. Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists that the backstop must be removed from the Brexit deal, but the Commission is digging in its heels. Commentators speculate about whether one side or the other will back down in the end.