Europe

28 July 2019; DW: Pressure is growing on the German government to lend its military weight to a potential European naval mission in the Persian Gulf. The UK government floated the idea of a joint European operation last Monday.

Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the US and now head of the Munich Security Conference, on Sunday added his voice to calls for more German military engagement in the Persian Gulf.

PARIS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- France hopes leaders of G7 would agree on a universal tax of digital activities at the bloc' summit next month in France, French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said Saturday.

"We hope between now and the end of August -- the G7 heads of state meeting in Biarritz -- will reach an agreement," Le Maire told a press conference.

"The challenge that we have to overcome is the digital economy which is not taxed at the same level as the other economic activities," he said.

PARIS (AP) — France is pushing ahead with a landmark tax on tech companies like Google and Facebook despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliatory tariffs on French wine.

That’s rattling French vintners, who sold 1.6 billion euros ($1.78 billion) worth of wine last year to American consumers. But neither Trump nor French President Emmanuel Macron appears ready to back down.

After Trump slammed the “foolishness” of the tax in a tweet Friday and promised reciprocal action, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said France will implement it anyway.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian police cracked down fiercely Saturday on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some people and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for Moscow city council. Police also stormed into a TV station broadcasting the protest.

Police wrestled with protesters around the mayor’s office, sometimes charging into the crowd with their batons raised. State news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protests, which lasted more than seven hours.

ROME (AP) — Two American teenagers who were classmates at a California high school spent a second night in a Rome jail Saturday after they were interrogated for hours about their alleged roles in the murder of an Italian policeman.

MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/: The draft law on limiting foreign participation in Russian IT-resources to 20% will negatively affects all IT companies operating in the country and as a results end users will also suffer from it, a spokesperson with the Yandex internet company told TASS.

27 July 2019; AFP: Electronic cigarettes are "undoubtedly harmful" and should be regulated, the WHO said Friday as it warned against the use of vaping products by smokers trying to quit their deadly habit.

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that enable users to inhale addictive nicotine liquids, has raised fears among policymakers worldwide of a new gateway addiction for young people.

27 July 2019; AFP: Russian opposition and ordinary Muscovites plan to take to the streets of Moscow Saturday to demand free and fair polls despite a police crackdown including the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

This week authorities jailed President Vladimir Putin's top opponent for 30 days and launched a probe targeting his allies but activists said they would not abandon plans to attend an unauthorised rally.

27 July 2019; DW: A newly discovered witness account by an ex-Nazi officer has cast fresh doubt on claims a Dutch communist was behind the 1993 Reichstag fire. The blaze was used by the Nazis to crack down on their opponents.

A recently uncovered witness testimony has cast further mystery over Nazi-era claims that a Dutch communist was behind the 1933 Reichstag fire in Berlin.

27 July 2019; DW: Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited the UK's new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to Berlin. No date has been set for the visit, which could include difficult talks on Johnson's Brexit plans.

Britain's new prime minister, Boris Johnson, held telephone talks on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Brexit and bilateral relations, with Merkel inviting Johnson to visit Berlin soon and wishing him luck in his new job, the spokeswoman for the chancellor said.