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Latvia has declared a state of emergency along its border and Lithuania decided to erect a fence in new measures to deter migrants they say Belarus is encouraging to cross illegally in order to pressure European states, Reuters reports. Rising numbers of migrants have reached Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, which accuse Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the campaign to press the EU to reverse sanctions.

Authorities in Germany have appealed to thousands of people to get another shot of Covid vaccine after a police investigation found that a Red Cross nurse may have injected them with a saline solution instead, The Guardian writes. The nurse is suspected of injecting salt solution into people's arms instead of genuine doses at a vaccination centre in Friesland, a rural district near the North Sea coast.

A BBC investigation has revealed the scale of operations by a shadowy Russian mercenary group in Libya's civil war, which includes links to war crimes and the Russian military. A Samsung tablet left by a fighter for the Wagner group exposed its key role - as well as traceable fighter codenames. Wagner's fighters appeared in Libya in April 2019 when they joined the forces of a rebel general, Khalifa Haftar.

Ethiopian and Eritrean troops raped hundreds of women and girls during the Tigray war, Amnesty International said. "Rape and sexual violence have been used as a weapon of war to inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on women and girls in Tigray," said Amnesty's secretary-general Agnes Callamard, adding that "the severity and scale of the sexual crimes committed are particularly shocking, amounting to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."

Facebook said it has shut down a smear campaign that spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines made by BioNTech-Pfizer and AstraZeneca, Deutsche Welle writes. In recent months, anti-vaccine and coronavirus conspiracy theories have spread on social media sites, putting major tech firms under pressure from governments fighting the pandemic. Facebook said it traced hundreds of accounts back to Fazze, a UK-registered marketing firm operating out of Russia, which is now banned.

Poland's ruling coalition is aiming for a 'Putinisation' of Polish media and is therefore following three steps to silence journalists. Now not only the EU, but the US too is reacting saying this is incompatible with Nato membership.

Voting on a new media law in Poland on Wednesday will test if ruling party chief Jarosław Kaczyński still has a grip on power after six years of clashes with the EU.

Other EU countries have halted deportations of failed asylum seekers after the Afghan government asked for a suspension of returns. An EU official said the bloc was not facing an imminent surge in migrants.

A record number of migrants have crossed the Polish border from Belarus since Friday, the Polish Border Guard said, Reuters reports. Authorities in Poland and Lithuania have accused Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko of using migrants to put pressure on the EU to reverse recent sanctions and to hit back at Poland for giving refuge to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian athlete who refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics.

A Rwandan refugee suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year on Monday murdered a Catholic priest in western France, officials said to AFP. Father Olivier Maire, 60, was killed in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre at the Montfortains religious community where he lived and where the suspect had also been given shelter.

Belarus' president Alexander Lukashenko has denied claims that his security services were involved in the death of dissident Vitaly Shishov, who was found hanged in neighbouring Ukraine last week, the BBC reports. "Who was he for me and for Belarus? For us he was simply a nobody," Lukashenko told reporters. Vitaly Shishov was organising help for Belarusians who fled to Ukraine from Lukashenko's post-election crackdown.

Norway's centre-left opposition parties are expected to defeat the incumbent Conservative-led coalition government by a two-to-one margin in next month's election for parliament, a new opinion poll showed on Tuesday, Reuters writes. Widely praised last year for a swift coronavirus lockdown, giving Norway one of Europe's lowest Covid-19 mortality rates, prime minister Erna Solberg nevertheless faces a backlash over economic inequality and public sector reforms that have proven unpopular.

The Taliban seized a sixth Afghan provincial capital on Monday following a weekend blitz across the north that saw urban centres fall in quick succession and the government struggle to keep the militants at bay, France24 writes. Insurgents entered Aibak without a fight after community elders pleaded with officials to spare the city from more violence. A Taliban spokesman confirmed the city had been taken.

Big data and evidence-based decision-making provide immense opportunities to improve health and well-being and prepare for the next crisis, if this force is applied for the good.

Non-essential travel from the US to the EU can continue for now despite a surge in US infections and lack of reciprocity, according to the latest European recommendation.

The EU said that Around 1,000 firefighters, 9 planes, and 200 vehicles have been sent to Greece from other European countries to help with the wildfires.

Poland said it would introduce changes in September. Kaczyński said the move would test if the EU had a "semblance of goodwill".

Protesters took to the streets in France and Italy in opposition to Covid-19 measures that they say infringe on their civil liberties but which officials argue are needed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, Deutsche Welle reported. The protests come as European countries double down on efforts to get wide portions of their populations vaccinated in the face of the spreading Delta variant.

Officials on Greece's second-largest island of Evia have urged for more firefighting support as blazes prompt locals and tourists to flee, Deutsche Welle reported. The fires ripped through Evia's dense forests, cutting off escape routes on land and prompting rescues via sea. Air turbulence and surging wind from the fires on Evia are making it difficult for water-bombing planes and helicopters, said Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias.

Italy's former prime minister Giuseppe Conte has been officially elected leader of the 5-Star Movement, ending months of uncertainty and division since he was first asked to lead the troubled party in February, Reuters reports. 5-Star is the largest group in Italy's parliament following the 2018 elections when it took 32 percent of the vote. Its support has since ebbed due to infighting and policy U-turns.