Eurotopics.net

The leaders of North and South Korea greeted each other warmly at the start of their summit on the border between their two countries. By attending the summit Kim Jong-un has become the first North Korean leader to enter South Korea since the armistice put an end to hostilities in 1953. Commentators discuss how this symbolic gesture can help to resolve the permanent crisis on the peninsula.

After French President Macron's state visit, US President Trump will receive Angela Merkel on Friday. Should the German chancellor maintain the cool stance of her first visit one year ago, or would she do better to follow Macron's example and combine criticism with chuminess?

The editor-in-chief, its chief executive and 13 other staff at the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet were handed prison sentences ranging from two to seven years on Wednesday. They were convicted of spreading terrorist propaganda for the Gülen movement and the PKK. For some commentators the ruling does not bode well for the future of Cumhuriyet and Turkey. Others refuse to give up hope.

Nowhere in the world has press freedom deteriorated as drastically in the last year as in Europe, according to the index published by Reporters Without Borders. As the key causes for this negative trend the organisation cites attacks against the media by politicians, murders of journalists and stringent libel laws. Europe's media take stock of the rankings list.

Thirty-two years after the explosion of the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl and the world's worst nuclear disaster, work on the New Safe Confinement building meant to cover the ruins and contain nuclear emissions is progressing slowly. For Europe's media this is not the only indication that the nuclear disaster is far from over.