Eurotopics.net

US President Donald Trump has held out the prospect of a bilateral trade agreement during his state visit to Britain. As an EU member London cannot sign trade agreements independently, but Trump wrote on Twitter that once the UK rids itself of its shackles a major deal would be possible. Is his offer convincing or should it be taken with a pinch of salt?

A trio consisting of the two state premiers Manuela Schwesig and Malu Dreyer and the party leader in the state of Hesse, Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, are to lead the SPD on an interim basis. The SPD's leader Andrea Nahles resigned on Sunday after the party suffered a historic defeat in the EU elections. According to commentators the causes for Nahles's failure do not lie solely with the SPD.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the French party The Republicans, has resigned in the wake of its poor showing in the EU elections. The successor party to former president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP and France's biggest conservative party received just 8.48 percent of the vote. Commentators disagree as to what the resignation means for President Macron.

After the death of the comparatively liberal Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang in mid-April 1989 hundreds of thousands demonstrated on Tiananmen Square for political reforms. The peaceful protest ended at the start of June in a massacre carried out by the army that left hundreds dead. In China all discussion of the events is still taboo.