Eurotopics.net

Alexei Navalny's health has apparently deteriorated rapidly since he began his prison term in Russia. He complains of acute back pain and numbness in his right leg but has received hardly any medical care. Because he has been classified as "at risk of escaping", he is woken up by prison guards once every hour at night. Observers accuse the Russian state of torture and seek to clarify the motives.

The Slovak government looks set to end its current crisis with an exchange of posts: Prime Minister Igor Matovič is vacating his seat for the former Finance Minister Eduard Heger and taking over the latter's portfolio. Matovič triggered the crisis when he purchased the Russian Covid vaccine Sputnik V without consulting his coalition partners, who then demanded his resignation. Now they have agreed to the exchange of posts instead.

The Ever Given, which had been blocking the Suez Canal since last Tuesday, has been refloated. The 400-metre-long container ship was dislodged by tugboats and dredgers, with help from an unusually high tide on Sunday night due to the full moon. For around 370 waiting ships the wait to pass through the waterway connecting Europe and Asia will soon be over.

Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has announced that he plans to run in the Scottish parliamentary elections on 6 May with his own independence party, the Alba Party. Commentators disagree whether he is weakening Nicola Sturgeon's ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) or strengthening the independence movement as a whole.

Ship traffic has come to a standstill on the Suez Canal, where the 400-meter-long container ship Ever Given has been stuck since Tuesday, with its bow dug into the canal bank. More than 200 ships are now waiting to the north and south of the site, but according to recovery teams it could be weeks before the waterway - which is a vital route for the international shipping industry - is navigable again. Once again, the world is being confronted with its own vulnerability, commentators note.

The Covid crisis has increased poverty, unemployment and social inequality across Europe and in the rest of the world. Young people, the culture and hospitality sectors and tourism are the worst affected, as well as groups that were already structurally disadvantaged before the pandemic. Commentators paint a bleak picture and call for urgent and effective action.