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Russian prosecutors are investigating a facility meant to treat acid runoff from an abandoned Urals copper-sulphide mine after videos emerged of orange acid rivers, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The prosecutors' spokesperson said authorities would "take samples to establish whether the treatment of the acidic water from the mine complies with the rules". This follows a major spill of fuel into a river inside the Arctic Circle last month.

EU ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said that two organisations raised "well-founded concerns" over EU commission preisdent Ursula von der Leyen and the Croatian commissioner appearing in a Croatian campaign video, O'Reilly told von der Leyen in a letter on Wednesday. She gave the commission three months to take measures to clarify rules on how can commissioners take part in political campaigns. She also called for strengthened independent oversight.

US president Donald Trump said on a campaign rally on Tuesday that "European allies never treated the US well", Bloomberg reports. "The European Union was formed in order to take advantage of the United States," he said. "Formed to take advantage of the United States. I know that. They know I know that, but other presidents had no idea," he added.

There are now over 13.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and 582,743 deaths. These are the 10 most-affected countries: 1. US: 3,495,537 2. Brazil: 1,966,748 3. India: 936,181 4. Russia: 745,197 5. Peru: 337,751 6. Chile: 321,205 7. Mexico: 311,486 8. South Africa: 311,049 9. United Kingdom: 293,469 10. Iran: 264,561

Russian police detained over 140 people including a high-profile Moscow deputy, after Kremlin critics protested Wednesday against changes to the constitution, The Moscow Times reports. Earlier this month Vladimir Putin, 67, oversaw a deeply controversial seven-day vote that amended the constitution and allows him to serve two more six-year terms after his mandate expires in 2024. The amendments also included populist measures such as an effective ban on gay marriage.

Until now Britain has shown insufficient realism about what can be achieved in EU-UK talks on the future relationship, Germany's minister for Europe Michael Roth, whose country heads the EU's rotating presidency, said Wednesday. Roth added that talks on the future relationship will be a major topic for the bloc's agenda from September, as Britain leaves all of the bloc's structures and rules at the end of 2020.

The EU Commission unveiled on Wednesday a set of guidelines to strengthen the bloc's response to a potential future surge of coronavirus infections - and warned a simultaneous seasonal-flu plus Covid-19 outbreak would place a considerable strain on health systems.

China, Turkey and others seem to be copying from the Russian trolling playbook.

The General Court of the European Union on Wednesday annulled a decision by the European Commission regarding the Irish tax rulings in favour of Apple. The Commission argued Ireland had granted Apple €13bn in unlawful tax advantages. But the Court disagreed, saying the Commission was wrong to declare that Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe had been granted a selective economic advantage and, by extension, state aid.

The EU on Tuesday relaxed environmental restrictions to speed up research and development of Covid-19 vaccines. It means clinical trials can go ahead without prior environmental risk assessments when it comes to "the deliberate release in the environment and the contained use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)." The new rules will apply as of 18 July.

MEPs on the European Parliament's environment committee on Tuesday set more stringent limits on portable equipment used to determine compliance with EU limits on NOx emissions. MEPs want to close the gap between laboratory and real driving emission test conditions, since cars are a significant source of air pollution. The report is expected to be discussed at the plenary in September, after which negotiations can start with EU Council.

The European Union has decided to exclude Serbia and Montenegro from its safe list of countries from which non-essential travel is allowed, as coronavirus cases have increased in the region, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Member states also considered dropping Algeria and Morocco from the list due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, but most EU countries opposed the move, since the number of cases is still relatively low.

Media revelations in the British, Swiss and Spanish press about Spain's former King Juan Carlos have increased pressure on the royal family, The Guardian reports. In March, King Felipe renounced to his father's inheritance, following reports that he received millions of euros from Saudi Arabia. Spain's Supreme Court is currently investigating the former king's role in a consortium given €6.7bn to build a high-speed rail to Mecca.

The European Commission on Tuesday said public bailout money should not go to companies that are linked to its official list of tax havens, none of which are in the EU. "It is not acceptable that companies benefitting from public support engage in tax-avoidance practices involving tax havens," said executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager. The EU's blacklist covers less than 10 percent of the world's financial secrecy hotspots.

North Macedonia goes to the polls on Wednesday in an election viewed as crucial for the Balkan state's future, the Guardian writes. The vote, originally due to be held in April, will be the first since the country changed its name from Macedonia in a landmark deal with Greece two years ago, and the first since the EU's refusal to set a date for North Macedonia to start accession talks.

Protests have erupted in Belarus, with hundreds rallying against the barring of two leading opposition candidates in next month's presidential election, the BBC reports. Belarus's electoral commission rejected the applications of president Alexander Lukashenko's main rivals, Valery Tsepkalo and Viktor Babaryko. In power since 1994, Lukashenko is now virtually assured to win the poll. "We are categorically for honest and fair elections," one protester in the capital told Reuters.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces clashed Tuesday with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people dead on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years, AP reports. The two neighbours have been locked in a 'frozen conflict' over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia, since a war there ended in 1994.

Raising the stakes, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban uses the parliament in a show of unity to push for tough conditions going into the complex and tough budget negotiations.

Nurehmet Burhan is a Uighur refugee in Belgium who had to leave behind his family behind in China. "My new born baby has never seen his father, he doesn't know his father, he has never kissed his father," he says.

The UK reversed course and announced Huawei will be removed from the national 5G networks by the end of 2027 - and a total ban on the purchase of any new 5G kit from the company from next year.