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From small businesses to commercial giants, many have been affected by the US and EU sanctions imposed after Crimea's annexation by Russia in 2014. But some locals have found ways around them.

The European Court of Human Rights said on Tuesday that Belgium's ban of clothing that conceals the face does not infringe on the Convention of human rights. The court said that the ban, adopted in 2008 in three municipalities, "could be regarded as proportionate to the aim pursued, namely the preservation of the conditions of 'living together'." It added that it could be regarded as "necessary" in a democratic society.

EU countries Tuesday definitively adopted the Association Agreement with Ukraine, a day before a summit in Kiev. The agreement has been provisionally applied since 1 September 2014, but its final ratification was delayed after Dutch voters rejected it in a 2016 referendum. The Netherlands ratified in May 2017 after getting assurances that it wouldn't guarantee EU membership, or imply military assistance to Ukraine. It enters into force on 1 September.

Ukraine asked Nato to start talks on a "membership action plan" despite Russia’s ongoing aggression in the east of the country.

German chancellor Angela Merkel called on China to allow the ailing activist and Nobel-laureate, Liu Xiaobo, to leave the country and get treatment elsewhere. Merkel urged China's leaders to show "humanity" and found their refusal to allow Liu to leave the country "depressing", according to her spokesman. Liu was diagnosed with late-stage cancer in May while serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Finance ministers at a Eurogroup meeting endorsed Italy's rescue of some of its banks, but said that European rules on banking resolution should be strengthened.

Lawyers at the European Parliament and the Council of the EU are finding ways to work around renewed transparency initiatives. The lack of leadership and political will makes the task for greater transparency even more difficult.

Labour's shadow Brexit minister, Keir Starmer, has urged the UK government to keep Britain in the Euratom treaty that governs the movement of nuclear materials, and argued for the European Court of Justice to continue having its say. Labour wants to work with rebelling Tory MPs in a vote later this year to stop Britain's exit from Euratom. "Brexatom" could impact the supply of radioactive isotopes used in cancer treatment.

Israel's foreign ministry defended Hungary's campaign against George Soros in a statement Monday, denouncing the Hungarian-US billionaire as someone who "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments" by supporting NGOs. Israel's Budapest envoy and Jewish groups said Hungary's recent billboard campaign against Soros was a proxy for anti-Semitism. The Israeli foreign ministry, however, said that criticism of Soros is legitimate. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit Hungary next week.

The founder of Italy's Northern League, Umberto Bossi, has been jailed for fraud after an Italian court sentenced him to two and a half years in prison on Monday, for embezzlement while he led the anti-immigration party that campaigned for the secession of Northern Italy. His son, Renzo, and the former party treasurer were also convicted and jailed. Bossi was once an ally of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

In a speech on Tuesday, the UK prime minister is expected to urge Labour and other opposition parties to “come forward with your own views and ideas” on what post-Brexit Britain should look like.

Massimo D'Alema, a social-democratic prime minister in the 1990s, said that Matteo Renzi's term was "not so brilliant" and that the Five Star Movement is "unable" to run the country.

“It is possible that a crime has been committed,” car type-approval authority RDW said about the emissions strategy used in a Suzuki Vitara.

Tens of thousands demonstrated on Sunday against president Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a rally of Turkey's main opposition party in Istanbul. The Republican People's Party's leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, had launched a 450-kilometre march after a parliamentarian from his party was imprisoned in June. The march grew into a protest over Erdogan's crackdown on people with alleged links to terror groups, launched after last summer's failed coup attempt.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker agreed at the G20 summit in Hamburg to start the provisional application of the EU-Canada free trade deal (Ceta) on 21 September this year. Some chapters, for instance on the investor court system, will not be applied. The accord will enter fully into force once all EU member states ratify it.

Despite the EU's protests, the Hungarian government has managed to turn the country's media into a propaganda machine. Now the theme that dominates the airways, cables and billboards is: Soros using the EU to transport migrants.

The leaders of five political groups said that the UK's offer on citizens' rights was a “damp squib” that risks “creating second-class citizenship”.

The US president will be back in Europe for France's Bastille Day, while the EU and Ukraine will hold a summit in Kiev, and MEPs will discuss migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

J.J. JABBOUR, La Turquie. L’invention d’une diplomatie émergente (préface de Bertrand badie), CNRS Editions, 2017
Cet ouvrage de Jana Jabbour en français sur la politique étrangère de la Turquie était d’autant plus attendu que l’exercice est trop rare. Jana Jabbour décrit et décrypte, à travers l’ascension de l’AKP et d’Erdogan, les évolutions d’une stratégie internationale turque jadis formulée par Ahmet Davutoglu, aujourd’hui en disgrâce. De cette diplomatie émergente qui s’était promis une relation à « zéro problème avec le voisinage », que reste-t-il après des printemps arabes qui ont laissé zéro voisin sans problèmes ? D’abord l’élaboration d’une nouvelle conception de la puissance, qui réhabilite l’empire et en appelle à la grandeur civilisationnelle derrière un leader qui se veut charismatique. Ensuite des vecteurs de puissance originaux, à commencer par l’AKP en tant que parti, mais aussi l’utilisation d’acteurs non étatiques, ONG, acteurs religieux transnationaux, minorités, mais aussi think tanks (l’une des parties les plus réussies de l’ouvrage). Le Moyen-Orient – arabe – est l’espace d’exercice de cette puissance réinventée, la cible des entreprises diplomatiques turques. En dépit des drames politiques, ce sont les populations qui font l’objet d’une entreprise de séduction et d’un soft power « à la turque », fait de séries télévisées (un autre passage fort intéressant), mais aussi de politiques d’éducation. Rien n’est gagné bien sûr pour la Turquie, dans cet environnement proche-oriental si complexe, qui rappelle à toute puissance ses limites. Mais Ankara compte bien revenir en force dans ce grand jeu, fort de son passé et d’instruments d’avenir. Les contradictions, les paradoxes, les principaux traits originaux de cette politique nous sont dépeints ici avec précision, snas polémique inutile en dépit d’un contexte passionnel, et dès lors ce travail fait référence sur le sujet en langue française.

D. KEROUEDAN, J. BRUNET-JAILLY (dirs.), Santé mondiale, enjeu stratégique, jeux diplomatiques, Presses de Sciences Po, 2016
Cette somme de presque 500 pages s’attaque à un thème trop peu exploré des relations internationales : la santé, comme enjeu de sécurité humaine au cœur de bien des rapports de force. Dominique Kerouedan est docteur en médecine et elle a été titulaire de la chaire « Savoirs contre pauvreté » du Collège de France. Joseph Brunet-Jailly enseigne à Sciences Po. A travers des exemples précis et concrets (MSF au Nigéria contre les épidémies, la lutte contre la mortalité maternelle au Mali, l'organisation des soins en Syrie sans l'Etat, la diplomatie de la santé au Brésil), et des thématiques plus transversale et problématisées (accès aux médicaments et propriété intellectuelle, géopolitique du médicament, justice et éthique médicale…) c’est un tour d’horizon dense qui nous est proposé. Les auteurs vont des chercheurs pointus aux politiques (Laurent Fabius, Bernard Kouchner), avec une dominante critique, qui souligne les apories d’un rapport Nord-Sud toujours vivant sur ces sujets, et plus encore les dégâts du tout libéral. Des « politiques de croissances à haut risque sanitaire », un contexte institutionnel contraint, font partie des constats de cette approche politique de la santé mondiale. On saluera également les bibliographies précieuses qui suivent chacun des 18 chapitres, pour proposer au final sinon un manuel du moins un ouvrage de référence sur cette question. A compléter par d’autres lectures utiles, par exemple sur les enjeux de santé tels que traités dans les organisations internationales ou les partenariats public-privé (voir notamment les travaux d’Auriane Guilbaud).