5 Stories from Europe You May Have Missed
1. More Than 100 Opposition Supporters Detained In Belarus After Lukashenka Says He Stopped 'Revolution'
MINSK -- Police in Belarus have detained more than 100 people at opposition rallies in the capital, Minsk, and elsewhere after President Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced his government had thwarted a "revolution" amid a widening crackdown on opposition leaders and activists, including the arrest of a potential presidential challenger.
People were urged to turn out on June 19, the last day to sign ballot petitions for those seeking to run in the Belarusian presidential election on August 9, when Lukashenka, 65, will be seeking a sixth term in office.
Lukashenka, in power since 1994, is facing what experts say is his biggest challenge yet as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus after the president ignored calls to institute any social distancing measures or restrictions.
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Elsewhere, police threatened protesters in the city of Mahilau with force, while in Homel demonstrators were told their gathering was illegal, according to local media.
https://www.rferl.org/a/more-than-100-oppositionists-detained-in-belarus-after-lukashenka-says-he-stopped-revolution-/30681302.html
2. Coronavirus: Applications for Hungarian army soar as youngsters seek stable job amid economic crisis
Young Hungarians are turning to the army to make a living amid the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.
Applications have "doubled" since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Major Tamas Durgo, in charge for the national recruitment, and the Defence Ministry said some 2,500 requests were submitted last week only.
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As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, it could now contract by 8% this year - or even 10%, in case of a second wave, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
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So far, Hungary, a country of nearly 10 million people, has recorded over 4,000 cases and more than 570 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/20/coronavirus-applications-for-hungarian-army-soar-as-youngsters-seek-stable-job-amid-econom
3. Rogue Russian Priest Seizes Convent With Cossack Brigade, Sparking Public Showdown With Church
MOSCOW -- The Russian Orthodox Church is struggling to wrest back control of a convent in the Urals after a cleric it suspended for disobeying its coronavirus-prevention policies occupied the compound with help from Cossack guards.
Father Sergiy Romanov, the abbot of a nearby men’s monastery who has praised Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and called the coronavirus a Western plot, commenced the standoff with church authorities on June 16 after he took over the Sredneuralsk Women’s Monastery and called on his followers to join him.
Local media reported that a group of Cossacks, members of a paramilitary group with deep historical roots in Russia, surrounded the convent until its abbess and nuns decided to vacate it.
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Romanov is a prominent figure among the faithful in and around Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, where some consider him a spiritual leader of the Tsarebozhniki, a breakaway sect of the Orthodox Church whose adherents worship Nicholas II, the last tsar, as a saint who suffered a martyr's death for them, and advocate a return to monarchy. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized the last tsar and his family in 2000, but not as martyrs killed for their faith.
https://www.rferl.org/a/rogue-russian-priest-seizes-convent-with-cossack-brigade-sparking-public-showdown-with-church/30678343.html
4. No breakthrough as EU divisions remain over €750bn COVID-19 recovery plan
European leaders are no closer to agreeing on a COVID-19 recovery package.
On the table is an ambitious plan of shared debt totalling €750bn, mostly through loans to help out those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
But Europe is divided on the issue.
On one side, the EU's four biggest economies — Germany, France, Italy and Spain — who back the European Commission's plan and four nations who don’t, the so-called "frugal four": Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/18/will-european-leaders-agree-a-covid-19-recovery-plan-on-friday
5. European Lawmakers Call For Eastern Partners' Greater Integration
European lawmakers are calling for the creation of a "common economic space" between the EU and the six former Soviet republics of its Eastern Partnership program as part of a process of "gradual integration" into the bloc.
The European Parliament made the call in a report supported on June 19 by 507 MEPs, with 119 voting against and 37 abstaining.
The document is supposed to serve as the chamber’s wish list about the future of the Eastern Partnership program, which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The program, launched in 2009, is meant to bring the six former Soviet republics closer to the EU without clearly offering future membership.
https://www.rferl.org/a/european-lawmakers-eastern-partners-greater-integration/30680511.html
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I would have missed this if you hadn't taken the time to post!
