European Union

After two relatively stable months the Turkish lira has plummeted again, hitting a record low against the euro last week. To reverse the trend and avert a serious economic crisis that has been looming for years, far-reaching reforms in business and politics are needed, commentators warn.

The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 700,000 on Wednesday (5 August), according to a Reuters tally, with the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico leading the rise in fatalities.

The next nominated US ambassador to Germany, Douglas Macgregor, holds xenophobic and pro-Kremlin views, according to interview footage unearthed by US broadcaster CNN. Muslims wanted to "turn Europe into an Islamic state" and Germany had opened the gates to "Muslim invaders" he once said on Fox News, a right-wing TV channel in the US. Eastern Ukrainians under Russian occupation were "Russians", he also said on RT, a Russian propaganda outlet.

Germany is sending 250 soldiers on a frigate for a five-month mission to enforce the Libya arms embargo. The mission is part of the European Union efforts to enforce a United Nations embargo, also known as Operation Irini. Irini was launched in May to prevent the flow of weapons to Libya. The German frigate set sail on Tuesday.

The head of a German doctors union warned that the spike in covid-19 cases is a signal that the second wave of the virus is already hitting the country. "We are already in a second, shallow upswing," Susanne Johna, the president of Marburger Bund, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday. Germany has registered over 212,000 cases and more than 9,000 deaths.

Some 47 percent of Germans are happy the US is pulling 12,000 soldiers out of Germany, according to a survey by pollster YouGov for the DPA news agency. Some 25 percent would like all US soldiers to leave. Some 66 percent also wanted the US to remove nuclear weapons from Germany. The poll came after US president Donald Trump said he was pulling troops to punish Germany on defence spending.

A US decision to build new military bases in Poland is the "crowning glory" of the Polish government's foreign and defence policy, Polish defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak said Tuesday. The US intelligence, infantry, and aviation facilities are to be staffed by some 1,000 troops on a "rotational" basis, but Błaszczak said it meant an "enduring" US presence. The Russia-deterrent forces will join 4,500 US soldiers already on rotation in Poland.

Coronavirus infections have risen by 58 percent in Belgium in the past week to reach 535.4 per day, while the rate of infection per 100,000 inhabitants went up 200 percent in two weeks, according to Belgian public health body Sciensano. Belgium is a part-amber, part-red zone for coronavirus in Europe, along with Romania, Spain, and other isolated hotspots. Large parts of France, Poland, Sweden, and the UK are also amber.

The 33 men from Russia's Wagner mercenary firm recently detained in Belarus were planning a "massacre" to destabilise the country ahead of elections on Sunday, Belarus president Aleksander Lukashenko said Tuesday. "An attempt to organise a massacre in the centre of Minsk is already obvious," he said. He also accused Russia of having sent a second mercenary unit to south Belarus, amid mounting domestic opposition to his 26-year rule.

France, Italy, and the UK offered aid to Lebanon after an explosion in Beirut killed some 100 and injured 4,000 on Tuesday. The blast, initially blamed on chemical stockpiles in a port warehouse, was heard in Cyprus. "The EU stands ready to provide assistance and support," EU Council president Charles Michel said. It had also made available its "Copernicus" satellite observation system, EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarčič said.