Euobserver.com

The coronavirus epidemiological curve is rising fast among young people in Spain and the country's regions are accelerating the implementation of new measures to contain the infections among adolescents and the 20-30 group, El Pais writes. Catalonia announced that it would be closing nightlife venues once more. Other regions are pushing for mass testing among young people. Castilla y León has opted to slow down its deescalation of anti-coronavirus measures.

Ethiopia's EU embassy has complained about EU Commissioner Janez Lenarčič's recent statement to MEPs, in which he said Ethiopia was laying "siege" to its rebellious Tigray region and using "starvation as a weapon". Lenarčič's "regrettable" comments "ignore the facts on the ground," the embassy told EUobserver in a letter Wednesday. Similar recent comments by EU envoy and Finnish minister Pekka Haavisto would also "not help alleviate the crisis", it said.

Belarus has expelled the head of mission at the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk and the consul general in the town of Grodno, prompting Lithuania to take similar action, and leaving just one consular official from each country in place. "Regretfully [Belarus president Aleksander] Lukashenko chooses to close the door of diplomatic relations with Lithuania," Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. The EU ambassador in Minsk was also recently expelled.

The EU is planning to create a new anti-money laundering watchdog in the wake of several bank scandals before the pandemic.

Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven on Wednesday returned to office - one week after he resigned - on the back of a parliament vote-of-confidence, in which 176 out of 349 MPs supported his leadership. The centre-left Löfven has held power since 2014 in a coalition with the Greens. He resigned after a clash with his political allies over housing policy and faces general elections next year.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that the EU economy is set to expand by 4.8 percent this year - around half a percentage point higher than provisions under the spring forecast. Growth is predicted to reach 4.5 percent in 2022. However, inflation is now forecast at 2.2 percent this year and 1.6 percent in 2022. From 2022, pressures on consumer prices should moderate gradually, the commission said.

Some 2,087 people died between January and June this year trying to reach Spain from Africa by sea, compared to 2,170 for all of last year, Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras has said, in what makes 2021 the deadliest year in the NGO's 14-year records. The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands was the most lethal, with 1,922 fatalities in 57 shipwrecks. The Alborán sea route also claimed 93 lives.

"This is a crime against journalism and an attack on our values of democracy and rule of law," EU Council president Charles Michel said Wednesday on the shooting, Tuesday in Amsterdam, of Dutch investigative reporter Peter R de Vries. EU Parliament president David Sassoli and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen echoed Michel. "Journalists must be able to do their important work freely," the Dutch royal family also said.

EU member states spent €273bn last year on environmental protection, according to new statistics on Wednesday from Eurostat. Such national expenditure by EU countries has been rising on average by over two-percent each year, but overall has increased by 40 percent since 2006. As percentage of GDP, however, environmental protection has remained relatively stable over the last 50 years (between 1.8 and 2.0 percent of GDP).

The EU Commission and most MEPs have called on Hungary on Wednesday (7 July) to repeal discriminatory new laws against LGBTIQ people or face legal consequences. Meanwhile, the commission is assessing Budapest's Covid-19 pandemic recovery plan.

The European Institute for Gender Equality has estimated that the annual cost of gender-based violence against women in the EU at €290bn. One-in-three women in the EU aged 15 or over has experienced physical and/or sexual violence.

In the countries worst hit by Covid-19, hydrogen and renewable gases are set to receive more money than much-needed intensive care units and new medical equipment (Italy) or the entire national health system (Spain).

The final round of food distribution will be on Friday, possibly leaving the 572 people rescued by the Ocean Viking without sustenance, as tensions begin to rise. Of those rescued, 183 are minors, including 41 aged 15 or younger.

Dutch police have detained three suspects in the attempted murder of well-known organised-crime reporter Peter de Vries, who was shot in Amsterdam on Tuesday and who is in hospital, fighting for his life, according to Dutch media. "He is a national hero to us all. A rare, courageous journalist who tirelessly sought justice," Amsterdam's mayor, Femke Halsema, said. De Vries was shot five times, including once in the head.

Ethiopia's "siege" on its restive Tigray region is creating a "man-made famine", the European Commission has warned.

A French court has ordered Twitter to explain within the next two months what the company is doing to tackle hate-speech on its platform, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Lobby groups, including UEJF French Jewish students association, SOS Racisme and SOS Homophobie, have put pressure on Twitter to do more. A UK bill, announced in May, would fine 10 percent of companies' turnover if they failed to prevent online abuse.

EU states should renovate three percent of public buildings a year to make them "nearly zero-energy buildings" by adding insulation and installing greener heating systems, the European Commission is planning to propose, Reuters reports. The EU construction industry will also have to cut energy consumption from the sector by 1.5 percent a year. The draft figures are double the current EU targets for renovation and consumption.

Germany has arrested a 75-year old politics expert on charges of spying for China. Klaus L., from the centre-right affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation, gave China information on "current affairs" from 2010 to 2019, prosecutors said. He was also an informant for 50 years for Germany's homeland security service, the BND, German media said. He traveled widely in Asia and Russia and had reportedly been recruited at a conference in Shanghai.

Last month was the second-hottest June on record for Europe, and the hottest on record for North America - where heatwaves conditions persisted, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. Arctic Siberia recorded high temperatures, while Antarctic temperatures were colder than usual. After 2016, 2019 and 2020, June 2021 joins June 2018 as the fourth-warmest on record globally.

Austria's far-right former deputy chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache went on trial Tuesday on charges of offering to change the law to secure financial favours for a party donor. He faces five years in prison. The charges came after police seized his phone and other materials when he also solicited money from a woman posing as a wealthy Russian in a sting in Ibiza, which triggered the collapse of Austria's then coalition.