Eurotopics.net

The Israel-Palestine conflict has taken on new levels of violence in recent days, and yet much of what is happening appears to follow a familiar pattern. The radical Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities; Israel's army responds with counterattacks on Gaza, invoking the right to self-defence. Europe's press takes stock of the deadlock.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has triggered extreme price fluctuations in the cryptocurrency bitcoin. In February he invested in bitcoin and began to accept it as a new means of payment, after which the price rose significantly. Then last week he suspended payments with the currency, pointing to bitcoin's poor environmental record, and triggered speculation that he may sell his bitcoin holdings - which has caused its price to plummet.

Michel Barnier, until recently the EU's chief Brexit negotiator and a former minister in France, has made headlines with a migration policy proposal. He wants to suspend all immigration to France from outside the EU for several years - including family reunions. There are commentators who say the proposal crosses a red line and there are others who say it shows courage.

On Saturday, International Day of Families, around 10,000 people took part in the Family Defence March in Vilnius to protest against current developments that they perceive as a threat to traditional family values, such as the Istanbul Convention and LGBT+ rights. A video speech delivered by President Gitanas Nausėda on the same day was interpreted by the organisers as a sign of support.

On June 13 the Swiss are to vote on three hotly debated environmental policy proposals. The CO2 Act aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, while two popular initiatives focus on the use of pesticides. The first wants to link farmers' subsidies to measures to protect drinking water and the second aims to ban synthetic pesticides altogether.