Legislatures

The total number of people killed by the novel coronavirus around the world passed 750,000 on Aug. 13, with some countries toughening control measures as caseloads once again creep up.    

Latin America and the Caribbean region remains the global epicenter, accounting for almost one-third of all deaths and housing two of the worst-affected countries - Mexico and Brazil.    

Hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Greece had attacked the seismic survey vessel Oruc Reis, the Greek Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will inform his European counterparts about "real events" and "operational incidents" of recent days in the Eastern Mediterranean on Friday.

Turkey has both a government and an opposition problem and needs to exit this current political stalemate, Muharrem İnce, a former main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) presidential candidate and a party dissident, has said, announcing the launch of his "Motherland Movement in 1,000 days" as an alternative to existing political parties.

Muharrem Ince, a senior name in Turkey's main opposition social democratic Republican People's Party, CHP, did well as his party's presidential candidate in 2018 against Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He lost the election in the first round but created a new energy in the opposition ranks after polling a respectable 31 per cent of the votes.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council meeting Friday afternoon.
"We will discuss urgent issues and address the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Belarus Presidential elections, as well as developments in Lebanon," he said in a tweet Wednesday.

Turkey's opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on June 15 started the "March for Democracy against Coup" in the northwestern province of Edirne and the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The march, which aimed to end in the capital Ankara on June 20, has faced restrictions including bans on entry and exit to some provinces due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A top-ranking European Commission official on Friday condemned as "unacceptable" the actions of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, noting that the issue would be broached by the European Union's High Representative Josep Borrell to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who is to join a teleconference of the EU foreign affairs council on Monday.  

The fugitive Moldovan tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc, who is now in the US, has filed a lawsuit against the US State Department and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after being banned from the US on January 13 "due to his involvement in significant corruption".

Date set for Polish presidential elections

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) will submit a motion of censure if the Government modifies the pension law by emergency ordinance, announced, on Thursday, the Social Democrat deputy Lia Olguta Vasilescu, following the meeting of the party's leadership.