Euobserver.com

Some 220,000 people gathered in central Minsk in opposition to rigged elections last Sunday, the BBC reported. "We are in the majority. We are power," Maria Kolesnikova, an opposition leader said. About 30,000 people also gathered at a rival rally in the city by president Aleksander Lukashenko, who called protesters "rats". Russia has offered to help impose security, with Russian propaganda comparing events to 'Western plots' Ukraine in 2014.

The EU must back pro-democracy protesters in Belarus, French president Emmanuel Macron has said Sunday: "The European Union must continue to be mobilised in support of the hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who are protesting peacefully for the respect of their rights, liberty, and sovereignty". Most Western leaders stayed quiet for now, amid Belarusian state propaganda that events were a Western plot linked to ongoing Nato drills in the region.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Sunday called on Turkey to halt its drilling activities in disputed Mediterranean waters off Cyprus. Turkey said its Yavuz energy drillship would extend operations there until mid-September, which Borrell said "fuels further tensions and insecurity". A standoff has intensified between Turkey and EU-member Greece over oil and gas exploration at sea. Turkey's new drilling plan covers a zone delineated by Cyprus and Egypt.

After almost one year and three months since the elections, it seems that Belgium is further away than ever from a new government. On Monday the leaders of the two biggest parties, Bart De Wever (NVA) and Paul Magnette (PS) are resigning as so-called pre-formateurs in what is thought to be a final push to find a new government. King Philippe will decide what the next step will be.

The EU agreed to buy at least 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential Covid-19 vaccine in its first such advance purchase deal, Reuters reported. The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the 27 member states, declined to disclose the terms of the accord with the British drugmaker. The move expands a preliminary agreement by a group of EU member states reached with the drug firm in June.

Chanting "freedom", hundreds of people rallied on Sunday in Madrid, while in Brussels, some 200 people gathered to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks, AFP reported. Madrid protesters held up placards featuring slogans saying: "The virus does not exist", "Masks kill", and "We are not afraid". Some Brussels placards said: "Corona circus" and "It's my body, it's my choice". Both demonstrations drew conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccination activists as well.

The Polish government might sue the European Commission at the EU courts in Luxembourg over its recent decision to withhold small grants from six Polish towns which had said they were "LGBTI ideology-free" zones. "Depending on the clarifications received [from Brussels], the government reserves the right to take further steps, including an appeal to the European Court of Justice," the office of Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday.

Last weekend, LGBTI activists in Poland were brutally beaten up by the police, but no one in the EU institutions had the guts to speak out about it.

From Bulgaria, to Serbia, Hungary, and up north to Poland and Belarus, the loosely defined area of eastern Europe is far from having a peaceful summer.

There is something perplexing these days. Wherever one goes, nationalist governments are attacking the LGBT+ community.

Belarus officials who ordered violence and faked elections are to face EU visas bans and asset freezes, foreign ministers agreed on Friday.

Some 24 member states signed a formal diplomatic complaint in Washington on Wednesday against US sanctions to stop Germany building a new gas pipeline to Russia, according to the Bloomberg news agency, citing diplomatic sources. Poland, the Baltic states, and Nordic countries had opposed the Nord stream 2 pipeline. But the long list of anti-US sanctions signatories show the group is becoming more fragmented.

The UK has added France, the Netherlands, and Malta to its list of EU countries requiring a 14-day quarantine for travellers upon arrival, prompting France to impose reciprocal measures on British nationals. France detected nearly 2,700 new cases in the past 24 hours. Spain still has the worst infection rate in Europe, with two Spanish regions banning smoking in public in case smoke particles carried coronavirus.

At least 3.5 million EU citizens are preparing to stay in the UK after Brexit, according to new government figures. Some 2 million had been granted "settled status", allowing permanent residency, the UK said Thursday. Another 1.5 million had gained "pre-settled status", allowing them to stay for another few years, before being eligible to apply for permanent residency. Just 4,600 applications had been refused.

If Britain sent its navy into French waters to stop migrants it would be "a declaration of maritime war", the mayor of the French port of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, told the AFP news agency Thursday, amid increasingly heated British debate on how to stop migrant dinghies. British prime minister Boris Johnson "urgently needs to calm down, and urgently needs to change [his] methods of … dealing with migrants," Bouchart added.

The US and Slovenia signed a declaration against using Chinese 5G data networks on security grounds, as US secretary of state began a five-day tour of central European countries Thursday. Pompeo will also visit Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. His visit comes after the US said it was pulling 12,000 soldiers from Germany and amid US opposition to a Russian-German gas pipeline, in which Austria is taking part.

More than the tangible destruction, the explosion in the port of Beirut meant the ultimate destruction of hope for many civilians.

More than the tangible destruction, the explosion in the port of Beirut meant the ultimate destruction of hope for many civilians.

An international charity worker on the ground in Minsk says protesters' will has not been broken despite days of violence.

The tragedy in Lebanon must spark a deeper European Union rethink of its engagement in the Mediterranean.