Euobserver.com

Local authorities in Bournemouth, a coastal English town, declared a "major incident" Thursday, triggering special powers to disperse the thousands of people who had flocked to beaches due to a heatwave, breaking rules on social distancing. People's behaviour was "shocking" and "irresponsible", the Bournemouth authorities said. The UK had the highest number of infections (309,455) in Europe and the fifth highest in the world, according to latest figures on Friday.

Some "30 [European] countries have seen increases in new cumulative cases [of coronavirus] over the past two weeks", Hans Henri Kluge, a senior World Health Organisation official, said Thursday. "In 11 of these countries, accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence," he added, naming Armenia, Sweden, Moldova and North Macedonia. The warning came as EU states eased national lockdowns and reopened borders, despite concerns over a second wave.

Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe, Luxembough finance minister Pierre Gramegna and Spain's Nadia Calvino put their names forward on Thursday to become the next president of the Eurogroup - the meeting of the finance ministers of the 19 eurozone countries. The victor will be perceived as giving weight to either 'Northern' or 'Southern' economic attitudes. Ministers will vote on 9 July on the candidates.

US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday Washington agrees starting a US-EU dialogue on China, a proposal the EU's diplomacy chief Josep Borrell made last week. Pompeo was speaking during an event at the Brussels Forum, adding that he did not know yet how this dialogue would look, or its timeline. Pompeo also accused China of not following the world's rules-based order.

If EU citizens want to know the truth, then journalists need protection from malicious litigation, as EUobserver joined the list of targets, over an article about the late Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

EU commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson admitted on Thursday that the latest European asylum report reveals a need to better manage migration. In all, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta and Spain received more asylum applicants last year than in 2015.

The amendment to the education law, approved by the Romanian parliament, is pushing the country closer to the authoritarian policies found in neighbouring Hungary and Poland, critics say.

Remarkably, this means that the US now has stricter regulation for facial recognition software than the European Union.

The European Medicines Agency recommended on Thursday granting conditional marketing authorisation to Veklury (remdesivir) for the treatment of Covid-19 in people older than 12 years of age with pneumonia who require supplemental oxygen. "Remdesvir is the first medicine against Covid-19 to be recommended for authorisation in the EU," said the EU agency. A previous study showed that patients treated with remdesivir recovered after about 11 days.

Europe has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases since countries began easing lockdown measures, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The WHO's Europe director Hans Kluge said 30 European countries have seen increases in new cases over the past two weeks. He said in 11 countries, accelerated transmission has led to a very significant resurgence. Europe has close to 20,000 new cases and over 700 new deaths daily, Kluge added.

Hungary failed to fulfil its obligations arising from EU law on asylum procedures and the return of illegal migrants, an adviser at the European Court of Justice said Thursday. The EU Commission sued Hungary arguing that it unlawfully detained asylum applicants in transit zones and unlawfully removed foreigners staying in the country illegally. The advocate general in a non-binding opinion said the court should state that Hungary broke EU law.

This Thursday will kick off one week in which Russian citizens will be asked to cast their votes on far-reaching changes to the constitution, Deutsche Welle writes. According to the law as it stands today, Russia's president Vladimir Putin would have to step down in 2024, after the completion of his second six-year term. If Russians agree, Putin will be able to remain president until 2036.

Up to 20 Belgian far-right extremists have travelled to paramilitary training camps in former communist countries, as well as in Russia, in recent years, Belgium's justice ministry said Wednesday, replying to a parliamentary question. Paramilitary training was "not illegal per se", but could prompt people's names to be put on a watch-list, it added. The EU's police agency, Europol, recently warned that far-right radicals posed a threat in Europe.

Since October, Taiwan has quietly allowed dozens of protesters from Hong Kong to stay on the island, extending tourist visas, and it is now also offering support to move to there when Beijing imposes a new national security law, the Guardian writes. Activists estimate some 200 Hong Kong protesters were now in Taiwan, from where they continued their resistance.

China is targeting non-English speaking journalists across the globe to create a "China-friendly ... narrative", by inviting them on sponsored trips, sharing content, and making other media investments in a "strategic, long-term effort to reshape the global news landscape", the International Federation of Journalists, a US-based group, said in a report. Almost 30 out of 58 national journalists' trade unions in its survey said China had established a media presence.

"France considers it essential that the European Union extremely quickly opens a substantive discussion, with nothing ruled out, without being naive, about the prospects for the future relationship of the European Union with Ankara," French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told national MPs Tuesday, amid its clash with Turkey on who to back in Libya's civil war. The phrase "nothing ruled out" alluded to calls to end Turkey's EU-entry talks.

US president Donald Trump praised Polish president Andrzej Duda and his country's "vigilant efforts to uphold the rule of law" on Duda's White House trip on Wednesday. The visit came shortly before Duda fights for re-election on Sunday. Trump's comment also comes amid EU despair over Poland's attacks on independent courts since Duda's party, Law and Justice, won power in 2015. Pollsters see Duda winning by a long chalk Sunday.

EU countries have said Europe can be transformed without changing its treaties, paving the way for further talks with MEPs and the European Commission.

An EU war-crimes tribunal has publicly stigmatised Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi on alleged "murders" and "torture", wrecking US plans for a Western Balkans summit.

The commission's two-year review also indicates that the authorities based in Ireland and Luxembourg - European headquarters to Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon - need a substantial boost in resources.