Eurotopics.net

The ECB has raised the key interest rate again by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25 percent. The goal of this ninth increase within a year is to reduce inflation in the Eurozone - which currently stands at 5.5 percent - to 2 percent. Commentators voice understanding for the move but also concern about a recession.

An elite military unit in Niger has deposed the country's president, Mohamed Bazoum. The military leadership then sided with coup plotters. Under Bazoum's rule Niger was considered a key partner of the US and Europe in the region, as a glance at the reactions in the commentary columns of the press confirms.

After a highly contentious court decision in which two defendants were acquitted of rape charges, Estonia is debating a reform of its sexual offence laws. One option under consideration is to stipulate in law, as in Spain for example, that sex is only legal when all parties involved have given their clear consent. The national press examines the pros and cons of such an approach.

During a meeting at the beginning of the week, the presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenka, repeated a narrative often used in Kremlin and Minsk propaganda since the beginning of the war which casts Poland as an aggressive state that wants to gain control over the Ukrainian and Belarusian territories which belonged to Poland before the Second World War. What is behind this?

The two-day Russia-Africa Summit kicks off in St. Petersburg today. Delegations from 49 countries are expected to participate, including around twenty heads of state and government, significantly fewer than at the first summit of this kind in Sochi five years ago. This time the focus will likely to be on the grain agreement with Ukraine that Moscow has refused to extend. What does President Putin have to offer?