Top Stories of the Week: July 12-16

                                   A roundup of this week's top stories

• The EU's answer to China's Belt and Road Initiative

  European Union foreign ministers have agreed to set up a global infrastructure plan connecting Europe to the rest of the world in a move that many are seeing as a response to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)...

• Using mushrooms to make packaging materials

  In an age of environmental consciousness, how many people have received a delivery package lined with foam and thought, “what a waste”?

• Dutch court compensates VW cars rigged for dieselgate scandal

  A Dutch court has awarded compensation for owners of Volkswagen cars equipped with emission-rigging technology which allowed the cars to lie about the number of emissions they produced...

• Intel offers $20bn chip investment for EU

  US tech giant Intel has revealed its planned $20 billion (€16.9 billion) investment in a new semiconductor gigafactory could be shared among a number of EU member states...

• Virgin Galactic completes its first fully-manned spaceflight

  Virgin CEO and billionaire Richard Branson, alongside his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, has successfully completed its first fully-crewed test flight, travelling to the edge of space and ushering in a world of commercial spaceflight...

• Amazon deforestation rises for fourth straight month

  Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has risen for the fourth year straight, according to new data from the nation's national space research institute INPE...

• Google fined €500m by French antitrust regulators

  French antitrust authorities have fined Google €500 million saying the tech giant had not negotiated "in good faith" with news outlets and other publishing firms over the use of their content...