Eurotopics.net

This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine has gone to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. The US researchers played a key role in determining exactly how nerves in the skin convert external stimuli into electrical impulses, laying the foundation for the development of more effective drugs against chronic pain and other treatments. Europe's press takes a rather sceptical view of the choice.

In Greece, there have been violent clashes between students and right-wing extremist groups. Among other incidents, masked aggressors wielding batons, stones and smoke bombs attacked young people and demonstrators outside a vocational school in Stavroupoli. The conservative government under Prime Minister Mitsotakis now faces heavy criticism for being too tolerant towards the far right.

Italy's social democrats chalked up major successes in the big cities in local elections on Sunday and Monday. In Milan, the centre-left incumbent candidate Giuseppe Sala (Europa Verde) emerged as the clear winner, securing an absolute majority in the first round of voting. The Covid pandemic has apparently ushered in a new era, and not just in Italy, commentators believe.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks has died in a traffic accident along with two police officers. He first came into the public eye in the wake of the controversy over Muhammad cartoons, when he drew the Islamic prophet as a dog in 2007. Vilks was the target of several assassination attempts and lived under police protection. In Sweden's press, the debate about freedom of expression is revived in the obituaries.

More than 600 journalists spent months evaluating information from a huge data leak. The publication of explosive information on offshore deals began on Sunday evening. Politicians, oligarchs, celebrities and criminal organisations are all implicated. The revelations are even more extensive than those of the Panama Papers in 2016. But will they change anything?