In the Avignon rape trial, the main defendant Dominique Pelicot has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Over a period of 10 years he drugged his former wife Gisèle Pelicot on a regular basis and offered her for rape to strangers on the Internet. Through video recordings 50 of these men were identified and tried, almost all of whom were also given harsh sentences. A glance at Europe's opinion pages shows why the case cannot be forgotten now.
At his annual press conference, question and answer session and public phone-in, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again presented a positive picture of the situation in his country: the economy is doing well and the Russian army is continuing to 'liberate' territory in the Ukraine war, he said. Commentators shake their heads in dismay.
The transit contract that regulates the supply of Russian natural gas through Ukraine expires on 1 January. Russia's state-owned company Gazprom uses this route to supply pro-Russian Transnistria with energy free of charge - but also to deliver gas to a large power plant in Tiraspol which then sells electricity in the Republic of Moldova. Both parts of the country have now declared a state of emergency.
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte and several European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday evening. According to Rutte, the meeting focused on how to put Kyiv 'in a position of strength'. Commentators question how this can be achieved.
The Assad regime is history, but the HTS militia that overthrew it is an Islamist group that, although it promises to uphold the rule of law, is classified as a terrorist organisation by many Western states. This week the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, met with the new rulers in Damascus and called for the lifting of sanctions against Syria and the HTS. Europe's press is divided.
The Polish government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk has added the country's two largest private media companies, Polsat and TVN, to the list of strategic companies, which enjoy special protection. The move is intended to protect these companies from takeovers that contravene the rule of law. Commentators point out that threats to press freedom don't only come from the private sector.
Every year on St Lucia's Day, celebrated on 13 December, a young woman chosen by public vote carries a wreath of candles on her head at a ceremony in Helsinki Cathedral and performs charitable tasks during the Christmas season. In 2024 Daniela Owusu was chosen as the first Black Lucia - and was promptly targeted by racists, especially on the social media.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed on Tuesday in an explosion outside his residence in Moscow. The day before, the Ukrainian secret service SBU had charged Kirrilov, who is responsible for Russia's radiation, biological and chemical defence forces, with war crimes and formally opened an investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Europe's press assesses the situation.
On Monday the majority of the members of the German parliament withdrew its confidence in Chancellor Olaf Scholz, officially clearing the way for new elections on 23 February. Scholz will be running again as the top candidate of the SPD, but the leader of the opposition Friedrich Merz (CDU) is ahead in the polls. Europe's press takes stock.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, the gates of Syria's prisons and torture chambers have been opened and mass graves all over Syria discovered. At Saydnaya Prison, where tens of thousands of people have disappeared or been tortured and killed, the vicious cruelty of the regime has been revealed. Commentators discuss the next steps after these discoveries.
Cyclone Chido has wreaked havoc in the French overseas department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. The cyclone swept across the archipelago bringing gusts of up to 240 kilometres per hour. A large proportion of the island's population live in huts with corrugated iron roofs, a factor which it is feared will push up the death toll. Things cannot go on like this, commentators agree.