Coronavirus Vaccine: EU poised to secure Sanofi deal for coronavirus vaccine

The European Union's executive on Friday wrapped up preliminary talks with French drugmaker Sanofi aimed at securing its COVID-19 vaccine for the 27-country EU bloc, the latest deal with vaccine producers.

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EU poised to secure Sanofi deal for coronavirus vaccine - Reuters:

EU sanctions Russian, Chinese hackers over alleged cyberattacks

The European Union on Thursday imposed its first ever sanctions for alleged cyberattacks. The measures involve financial and travelrestrictions against officials from Russian military intelligence, as well as firms from North Korea and China, member states said in a statement.

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EU sanctions Russian, Chinese hackers over alleged cyberattacks | News | DW | 30.07.2020

The Netherlands: Up to twice as many coronavirus deaths in the Netherlands as registered - by Victoria Séveno

In a report published by CBS on coronavirus mortalities in the Netherlands, the statistics office reported that the number of people who died of coronavirus is likely 50 to 100 percent higher than the number recorded and previously reported by the RIVM. While it has been known since the initial outbreak of the virus that more people have died than has been reported, this report gives a true indication of the excess mortality

Excess mortality is an epidemiological term to refer to the number of “extra” deaths in a period of time in comparison to what is expected under “normal” conditions. It is used to measure the number of deaths in a period of crisis (like a pandemic) when not all deaths have been officially recorded.

The report reveals that, between March 9 and May 24, the excess mortality was between 8.593 and 11.691, with these numbers revealing the minimum and maximum number of people who died from coronavirus in this time period. However, the number of recorded coronavirus deaths in that 11-week period was 5.900. CBS therefore calculates that, for every 10 registered deaths, between five and ten more people actually died of coronavirus, saying this conclusion can be drawn with 95 percent certainty.

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Up to twice as many coronavirus deaths in the Netherlands as registered

EU: Facebook cries foul on EU request for internal documents - by Andrew Rettman

Facebook, a US tech giant known for abusing its users' private information, has said the European Commission was now attempting to do the same to Facebook employees' data.

The firm filed its complaints at the EU court in Luxembourg, after the commission asked to see internal documents containing any of 2,500 search phrases as part of an anti-trust enquiry.

Brussels-based news agency MLex first revealed Facebook's legal counter-strike in a story on Monday (27 July), citing anonymous sources.

US congressmen were also due to cross-examine Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday in a separate investigation into alleged abuse of the firm's online "dominance", but the hearing was postponed due to a clash with a memorial service for a US civil rights leader.

Zuckerberg founded the California-based firm in 2004 initially as a platform for US students to talk to each other.

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Facebook cries foul on EU request for internal documents

EU: Black lives matter in Europe too – Khaled Diab

No one should be smug about racism in Europe. Here too there is a toxic interaction between ethnicity, equality and the environment.

As we Europeans gaze in dismay across the Atlantic at the generations of racism and discrimination that brought the United States to this sorry impasse, we must not, tempting as it seems, believe we are somehow superior when it comes to tolerance and multiculturalism.

The European Commission member for equality, Helena Dalli, made just this point in an interview. ‘It’s ironic that we are celebrating the 20 years of the racial equality directive, and we still have structural problems. Racism has not been eradicated. There is a wide gap between legislation and how effective that legislation is on people’s lives,’ she said.

‘We will focus on what is underneath the tip of the iceberg, the structural racism which is more difficult to address,’ she added, referring to an action plan on combating racism which the commission will put forward later this year.

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Black lives matter in Europe too – Khaled Diab

The Netherlands: Five things the Netherlands does best

The Netherlands is such a small yet varied country. There’s so much going on, all the time - some of it good, some of it less so. It’s easy to compare the Netherlands to other countries around the world, especially as expats, but there are some things that the Dutch have just managed to hone down to an art. So, to shed some positive light on some of the elements of this wonderful country, let’s take a look at five things that the Netherlands undeniably does best.

 1. Bike parking
2. Work-life balance
3. Broodjes
4. Openness and honesty
5. Symphonic metal

his is only a small handful of some of the things the Netherlands has to offer, and some of the aspects of Dutch life that you can enjoy living here. What are some other things you love about the Netherlands? Are there any key things missing from this list? Let us know in the comments!

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Five things the Netherlands does best

The Netherlands: Alarm in Netherlands as Covid-19 cases and reproduction rate climb

European neighbours, the Netherlandscould now be facing a crisis – with the level of infection almost doubling in one week, combined with a worrying increase in the
reproduction rate of the virus.

Latest figures from the public health institute – now issued weekly rather than daily – show
that 987 new cases were recorded during the week July 15th-21st, compared with 534 the previous week, a rise than cannot be accounted for statistically by increased mass testing.

At the same time, the healthinstitute says the reproduction rate rose during that week to 1.29, thefirst time since March that it’s been higher than 1. A reproduction rateof more than one means that, on average, every patient is infectingmore than one other person – and so the number of cases is rising.

Worrying too – as hugenumbers leave this weekend for stay-at-home holidays in rural parts of the country – is that young adults in their 20s are now almost as likely to be infected as those over 50, an extraordinary turn around in the behaviour of the disease.

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Alarm in Netherlands as Covid-19 cases and reproduction rate climb