Eurotopics.net

The Greek government has designated Turkey as a "safe third country" for people from Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh who enter Greece via the Turkish border. This means that, like the Syrians, they will now to be sent back to Turkey without any examination of their asylum applications. NGOs have denounced the move saying it means that almost all refugees arriving in Greece will be denied the right to asylum - regardless of the circumstances that prompted them to leave their countries of origin.

Coca-Cola's market value plummeted after Cristiano Ronaldo set aside two Coca-Cola bottles at a European Championship press conference and then held up a bottle of water bottle and declared "água". The next day French player Paul Pogba followed this up by removing a bottle of (non-alcoholic) Heineken beer.

Unlike in most European countries, there were hardly any coronavirus restrictions in Russia for months. However less than 10 percent of the population has been vaccinated so far, and now the number of cases is rapidly rising. This has prompted a debate about compulsory vaccination (in Moscow regulations have already been introduced obliging companies to ensure that 60 percent of their employees are vaccinated) - and above all about the reasons for the debacle.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met yesterday in Geneva. While they agreed on the return of diplomats to their respective embassies, in other respects their discussion went no further than staking out their interests. In view of the tense relations between the two countries expectations were already rather low in the run-up to the meeting, and commentators also give a mixed assessment of its results.

The EU and the US have agreed on a compromise in the dispute over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus: in an initial step they will suspend the mutual punitive tariffs for five years, thus defusing one of their MAIN trade conflicts. Some commentators see this as a major step forward. Others warn that nothing has been gained yet.