Eurotopics.net

The lockdowns and partial lockdowns imposed by most European governments amid the second wave of the pandemic threaten to leave companies and individuals on the brink of financial collapse. This has reignited the discussion about what measures should be taken to help them. The press debates who needs support most urgently and whether state aid is at all the right approach.

In Minsk, a 31-year-old demonstrator has died of head injuries inflicted during his brutal arrest. He had tried to stop a snatch squad dressed in civilian clothing from removing the red and white ribbons residents had placed on a fence in the courtyard of an apartment building in the Square of Change. He is not the first casualty of the protests against the regime, which have not subsided despite the government's harsh crackdown.

Many crisis-hit states are waiting for payments from the EU's coronavirus recovery fund, which the EU Parliament and member states agreed on Tuesday, together with the bloc's seven-year budget. But Hungary's Viktor Orbán is still threatening to use his power of veto over the rule of law mechanism. The same threat came from Warsaw last week, however since then nothing more has been heard from that quarter. How much weight do these declarations of war carry?

Boris Johnson's director of communications Lee Cain announced his resignation on Thursday, and according to media reports chief advisor Dominic Cummings also plans to leave. In the middle of the coronavirus crisis and just a few weeks before the end of the Brexit transition phase, two long-time allies are leaving the British PM's team. What's behind these departures?

At least 74 people have drowned in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast. According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, 120 migrants were on board. In an accident the day before, the Open Arms aid organization was able to save 110 people, but one baby died shortly after being rescued from the sea. Italian journalists deplore the lack of interest in the fate of migrants.