Euobserver.com

While Covid-19 vaccines are readily and freely available in Romania, some refuse the jabs and pay for fake vaccination certificates instead in order to get the EU Digital Covid Certificate.

Scores of fearful Afghan families rushed to the airport on Sunday evening in the hope of catching a flight out as the Taliban entered the city while the country's president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Poland and Israel have all-but severed diplomatic ties after Poland ratified a new law banning Holocaust-era property restitutions.

The EU, for its part, warned the Taliban that it would face being cut off by the international community if it seized power through violence.

The number of migrants irregularly entering the European Union by crossing the Western Balkans has almost doubled this year, EU border agency Frontex said, with the majority coming from Syria and Afghanistan, Reuters reports. Frontex said 22,600 migrants were detected irregulalry entering the EU via the Western Balkan route from January to July, an increase of 90 percent compared with the same period in 2020.

US broadcast company Discovery is threatening to bring legal action against the government in Poland after lawmakers there passed a controversial media law that tightens rules for foreign companies, Politico writes. The legislation proposes only allowing companies majority-owned by entities from the European Economic Area to hold broadcast licenses. That would exclude US-based Discovery, owner of TVN, one of Poland's most popular TV stations, and its all-news subsidiary TVN24.

Belarusian authorities have detained more than 20 people in the latest wave of arrests, continuing their sweeping crackdown on dissent a year after a disputed presidential election, human rights activists say, The Guardian writes. Belarus was rocked by protests since the 9 August 2020 re-election of the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, to a sixth term in a vote that the opposition and the West rejected as a sham.

Prosecutors in Libya have issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, over suspected ties to Russian Wagner mercenaries, the BBC writes. A BBC World Service investigation has revealed links between the shadowy Wagner group's activities in Libya and war crimes committed against Libyan citizens.

The European Commission will present legislation to establish a common charger for mobile phones and other electronic devices within the 27-nation bloc in September, a person familiar with the matter said to Reuters. The move will affect iPhone maker Apple more than its rivals. IPhones and most of Apple's products are powered by its Lightning cable, whereas Android devices are powered by USB-C connectors.

On 30 August, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the White House. It's a unique opportunity to showcase why America should care about Ukraine.

France is preparing for a fifth weekend of anti-vaccine protests after previous rallies left a trail of vandalism and fear.

Six days after Italy made the Green Pass mandatory for many activities, people started protesting throughout the country, Il Corriere della Sera writes. The six largest trade unions also reacted to the fact teachers needed a Green Pass to teach at schools, calling it "a unilateral choice" and a "diktat". In Turin, 650 employees went on strike calling the need for a Green Pass for restaurants discriminatory.

The Italian island of Sicily may have registered the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe - 48.8°C (119.8°F), the BBC writes. Regional authorities reported the reading, which needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), near Syracuse on Wednesday. According to the WMO, the current official record in Europe is 48°C, registered in Athens, Greece, in 1977.

Denmark said it would buy 280,000 doses of Novavax's potential Covid-19 vaccine for a total price of 37 million Danish crowns (€4.97m), or roughly €17.8 per dose as part of a European Union agreement with the US company, Reuters reports. The European Commission had approved a supply contract with Novavax to buy up to 200 million doses, which is yet to be approved by the EU's drugs regulator.

Poland has caused fresh harm to its international image by voting to dismantle a US media firm and, separately, to block property claims by Holocaust survivors.

Latvian border guards turned back dozens of migrants into Belarus overnight under a new state of emergency designed to stem a flow of arrivals the European Union says is orchestrated by Minsk, Reuters reports. The pushback, witnessed by Reuters, occurred just hours after Latvia declared an emergency to prevent illegal migrants, mostly from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, from crossing into the EU state from Belarus.

Three new conditions reported by a small number of people after vaccination with Covid-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna are being studied to assess if they may be possible side-effects, Europe's drugs regulator said, Reuters reports. A form of allergic skin reaction; a kidney inflammation; and a renal disorder characterised by heavy urinary protein losses, are being studied by the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency.

A British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia, the BBC writes. German federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin. He allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence "at least once" in exchange for an "unknown amount" of money. The German foreign ministry said it is taking the case "very seriously".

What we can learn from the history of the Baltics states is that the reimposition of an older constitution would serve as societal 'glue', enabling Libyans to finally put the memories of a most tumultuous decade behind them.

Last week, six EU countries, including Germany, and the Netherlands, said forced returns must continue despite violence in Afghanistan. Now they have changed their mind. Belgian Greens are also criticising the decision.