Eurotopics.net

China's President Xi is due to travel to Moscow next week to meet directly with Ukrainian President Zelensky, media have reported citing unnamed sources. However, neither China nor Russia have confirmed this yet. Commentators assess the prospects of Chinese mediation being successful under the current circumstances.

The Dutch will elect their provincial parliaments and indirectly also the First Chamber of the national parliament today. New environmental regulations for agriculture which aim to slash nitrogen emissions and caused major protests last summer have emerged as the main topic in campaigns. But according to commentators this debate is just part of a much larger problem.

The influential Romanian president of Neamţ County Council, Ionel Arsene, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for abuse of power by the Court of Appeal in Brașov on Friday. However, he will not serve the prison sentence for the time being because he has absconded, presumably to Italy. Commentators see a dangerous trend.

For ten years now, the Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio has presided as Pope Francis over the Roman Catholic Church and its approximately 1.4 billion members worldwide. From the start, he presented himself as a pontiff whose priority is to help the poor. Europe's press takes stock of Bergoglio's achievements during his first decade.

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday took control of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which specialises in technology startups. This is the biggest bank failure since the financial crisis of 2008/2009. The Federal Reserve has set up a new lending programme to prop up other banks in response. Commentators worry not only about the direct consequences of the collapse but also about the potential reactions.