"The European Union should urge Greece to act with common sense, rather than pampering the country."

Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, does not have much sympathy for Greek and French military exercises this week, as the oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean by both Greece and Turkey continues to add pressure to a tense region. 

It was one of many things on the agenda at the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels today. For more on that story, make sure you log on to our Europe website. 

The eurozone was focused on new data, which revealed a double-digit GDP drop (though notably the currency union's production did not fall as far as the UK's) and unemployment rises. 

And in Asia, Thai Airways is the latest airline to suffer a cliff-edge drop off in passenger numbers during the pandemic. Accounting firm Deloitte has refused to sign off on its accounts and the company is expected in court on Monday (though it has taken out bankruptcy protection). 

Finally, our video today was chosen because it's Friday and not everything is glum. We have profiled the Chief Mouser to the UK Cabinet Office. He's called Larry and he's about 50 centimeters tall, he has a tail… and he's actually notorious for being pretty rubbish at catching mice. 

Luckily, he's very cute. 

Happy reading, 
Patrick Atack

Digital business correspondent 

P.S. Did you know we send this briefing by email, too? Sign up here

Fresh data show that China's economy continued to recover in July, as the National Bureau of Statistics reported industrial output grew 4.8 percent last month compared with a year ago. That was the fifth consecutive month of positive growth since April. Retail sales dropped 1.1 percent in July year-on-year. The decline was an improvement from June's 1.8 percent drop, but still shows consumer demand lagging. 

According to mobile marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower, more mobile users in the U.S. downloaded WeChat following President Donald Trump's announcement that he would ban U.S. firms from cooperating with the Tencent-owned business. Sales rose 41 percent following the announcement.

A row between digital giants Apple and Epic Games has erupted, after the creator of the world-leading Fortnite game sued the iPhone creator for removing the game from its App Store. Apple accused Epic of braking its rules on in-app purchases, while Epic responded by calling Apple a "behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation."

The eurozone has experienced its sharpest decline in employment since records began 25 years ago, new figures showed a drop of 2.8 percent in the second quarter of this year – with GDP in the currency union crashing 12.1 percent over the same period. 

EU ministers are discussing the increasing tensions between Turkey and Greece over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean. Ankara launched a surveying ship into disputed waters between Crete and Cyprus earlier this week. Athens responded by conducting joint military drills with France.

Finland and Denmark posted better economic performance in the second quarter than Sweden despite their lockdowns, raising further questions about their neighboring country's light-touch approach to the coronavirus. Finland's gross domestic product fell by 3.2 percent in Q2, while Denmark's dropped by a record 7.4 percent. But the Nordic countries fared better than Sweden, which had no formal lockdown – it's economy contracted 8.6 percent in the second quarter.

Beleaguered office-rental firm WeWork has sought to reassure its staff and remaining clients, saying in an internal email its cash burn rate has been halved from its dire state at the end of 2019. It has also brought in a new cash injection of $1.1 billion from Japanese investment fund SoftBank. The office space provider lost at least 81,000 clients in the last quarter. 

German car maker Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, said it reached a near-$3 billion civil lawsuit in the U.S. over accusations from local authorities that the firm had cheated its carbon emissions tests. The case followed the infamous "Dieselgate" furore, which engulfed Volkswagen and gave the Environmental Protection Agency reason to investigate.  

Shares in Thai Airways were suspended after auditors declined to sign off on its financial statements for the six months to 30 June. Auditor Deloitte Thailand said it could not reach a conclusion on the statements due to issues including a lack of liquidity and debt defaults, which created "material uncertainty" and may affect the value of assets and liabilities. Thai Airways is under bankruptcy protection and is due to submit its rehabilitation plan to the bankruptcy court on Monday.

A California judge has struck down a challenge from ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft to a ruling which forces them to register drivers in the state as employees. San Francisco Superior Court judge, Ethan Schulman, said he saw no reason to extend the 20 August deadline, despite protestations from the companies claiming the ruling means they have to restructure their companies and the deadline is too tight for that. 

The world's largest meat-packing firm, Brazil's JBS, has posted second-quarter profits, which outstripped expectations by almost double. Despite the pandemic – which has severely affected Brazil – the firm made $629 million in Q2. 

In the U.S., Larry Kudlow, the White House's chief economic adviser, has suggested the China-U.S. Phase One trade agreement will survive its first review, slated for this weekend. Despite increasing tensions between Beijing and Washington, the first part of what both sides hope will be a comprehensive trade deal is surviving. 

The UK leisure sector is set for a return to live performances and sports with real crowds after several months of empty seats and synthetic crowd noises. Bowling alleys, skating rinks and casinos will be allowed to open tomorrow, while sports fans will look forward to October, when a review of sporting venues is slated. For more on this story, tune in to The Agenda with Stephen Cole on Saturday at 16:30 GMT. 

Watch: It's nearly 10 years since Larry (the cat) became Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office at Number 10 Downing Street (where the UK Prime Minister lives). In that time, he's entertained journalists, out-stayed two leaders, disrupted President Trump's cavalcade and even fought pitched battles with Palmerston, the former Foreign Office cat. 

So let's take a look at this often overlooked position in the British political system: 

Bárður á Steig Nielsen is the prime minister of the Faroe Islands, the self-governing archipelago, which forms part of the Kingdom of Denmark and lies about 700 kilometers north of Edinburgh, Scotland. He gave CGTN Europe an exclusive interview after the territory reported a spike in COVID-19 cases. 

You have a high percentage of infections in your population of just over 50,000 people. What are you doing to combat the spread? 

[At] the beginning of next week, we will have up to 150 percent of the Faroese population tested. That means 75,000 tests. We are only about 50,000 people. So you could say that we have a huge world record of the number of tests made in the Faroes. But also, we have a high number of positive COVID-19 infected people at the present time. 

You could say that the strength of our small community, where we know each other quite well and come together… in this case, it's also our weakness against the spread of COVID-19 infection. But with the full understanding from the Faroese people and their willingness to make a fast change in their way of living, we won the fight against COVID-19 in the spring and we will do it again this time, hopefully. 

And what capacity did the islands have to purchase the medical equipment and expertise needed to fight the virus?

We have a very strong economy in the Faroe Islands [for] the last almost 10 years now. So I would say the economy in the Faroes is in good shape. 

And we have so far been able to get the needed equipment for the test and so on. And also with close collaboration between the public and private, we have been able to get enough of all the equipment.

And what impact is the situation having on the economy, trade, and tourism? 

For the tourism industry in the Faroes, the growing new, upcoming tourism industry, with two brand new hotels, the expectations for 2020 were better than ever. 

And we can see that they are hit quite hard in this time with empty hotels and a lack of tourists coming to the islands. 

In the long run, I would say that we probably will see some decline in the trade with the exports, the fishery prices and the salmon price and so on. But it depends on a lot of things that are unknown so far.