Europe

Several hundred people gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Prague to mark the anniversary of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia and to express support for Ukraine; The event was titled “Go Home, Ivan!” and organized by four NGOs

Iconic Nazaré beach has been temporarily closed to swimmers after water quality tests detected unusually high levels of microbiological contamination; overall values indicate low levels of faecal contamination in water and on beaches across all Portugal

Committed to advancing the field of deafblindness for two decades, and the first country to enshrine the language of those affected in its Constitution, Slovenia now sees the Ljubljana Memorandum 2026 attracting global attention and pioneering the field

The Belarusian Union of Journalists reported to BelTA information service that is viewing lawsuits filed by U.S. states against Meta Corporation as the first sign of society taking distance from the digital corporations

According to Statistics Estonia, the proportion of Estonians in the country’s population remained relatively stable between 2018 and 2026, while the number of Russians declined and the number of Ukrainians increased

The main Bosnian Croat political party signed a contract with an American lobbying firm, consolidating political power for Croats in BiH and seeking to increase its weigh on the US-backed Southern Interconnection gas pipeline project

A wildfire in the High Fens nature reserve started on 14 August destroyed 3000 hectares out of 4500; 50 houses in Waimes and Bütgenbach, a vacation hot-spot, were evacuated

Salzburg will continue enforcing a summer ban on visitors driving into its historic centre until the end of August; restrictions began in July modeled after other cities with historic centers hit by overtourism and reduce vehicle entries by 1.000 a day

Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator submitted an investment request to authorities of Cyprus and Israel for the Great Sea Interconnector, an undersea power cable linking the three; French group Merriam acquired a 66% stake in the project

Economy remained in recession in the second quarter of 2026, with GDP stagnating compared with the previous three months but falling sharply from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics

A fire started in the hills around the Dalmatian seaside resort of Omis has been raging through the town destroying houses and cars and reportedly forcing around 2.000 to flee overnight; 14 people have been hospitalised, with ten in intensive care

Internal Security Agency ABW received over 20.000 application in two months for 71 vacancies posted online; recruiting more specialists to combat "the nature of contemporary threats" the agency is looking for IT, analysts, linguists, cybersecurity experts