Germany
— Die Zeit Online led with the news that Russia had opened fire on two Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat off the coast of annexed Crimea, noting that the Ukrainian parliament would decide whether to implement martial law in the country on Monday.
— Bild said Russia was “escalating the Ukraine war” by closing the Kerch Strait.
— “And now?” asked Peter Müller in a Spiegel Online op-ed about Brexit. He wrote that the “strategically important” question of how to deal with the U.K. in the future had not yet been answered.
— T-Online said former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will stand in the European election next year as a candidate in Germany for the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, which he launched in 2016 to “democratize” the Continent.
France
— FranceInfo said NATO’s Security Council would meet Monday to discuss the Kerch Strait crisis.
— In Le Figaro, Anne Rovan wrote that the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier had been “tenacious” and “flawless” in his handling of Brexit negotiations.
— Le Parisien said the ongoing “yellow jacket” protests against a rise in fuel tax revealed “tensions” at the top of the government about what approach to take. Some oppose any concessions, others call for “empathy.”
United Kingdom
— BBC news said Prime Minister Theresa May will tell MPs in a speech in the House of Commons to back her Brexit deal or risk “more division.”
— The Guardian reported that the PM would say rejecting the Brexit deal would put the U.K. “back to square one.”
— The BBC also said that research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research had shown the government’s Brexit deal would leave the U.K. £100 billion a year worse off than staying in the EU. The Times covered the same report.
Belgium
— Le Soir reported that the “yellow jacket” protests were coming to Brussels next month.
— On RTBF‘s website, former Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo defended the protesters and accused the current government of “accentuating impoverishment.”