Euobserver.com

After the mob attack on Washington's Capitol Hill, we have to ask ourselves if it would be possible to see such a march on Brussels? The answer is: Yes. Europe is dealing with the same dark forces.

US Democrats unexpectedly won both Senate-seat races in the state of Georgia, a former Republican stronghold, giving them a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Victories by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock give president-elect Joe Biden more power for possible reform. However, the victories were overshadowed by violence from supporters of outgoing president Donald Trump in Washington the same day.

Portugal's interior minister Eduardo Cabrita has held talks with Greece on a new EU migrant-sharing accord, prior to holding similar discussions with Malta, Italy, and Spain, where most asylum seekers arrive, as well as with fellow EU states Poland and Hungary, who refused to help take care of them in the past, Reuters reports. EU "solidarity cannot be voluntary", Portugal, which took over the EU presidency on 1 January, said.

Leaders from all over Europe expressed disbelief and serious concern over events unfolding in the continent's main political, economic, and military ally.

Some 1,041 people infected with Covid died in the UK on Tuesday and 62,322 new cases were reported, the British government said on Wednesday. The daily death toll was the highest since 8 April, when 1,445 people died in 24 hours. The numbers made Britain Europe's worst corona-hotspot, ahead of Italy. The British government recently imposed a new lockdown, but its handling of the pandemic has faced severe criticism.

France, Germany, and the UK have said Iran's recent decision to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade, "risks compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US administration". The US abandoned an EU-brokered nuclear non-proliferation deal on Iran in 2018, but the incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden has signalled interest in rejoining the pact. Experts saw Iran's move as a "reversible" negotiating tactic with Biden's team.

Europe should share corona-vaccines with former Soviet countries on its eastern flank, for health and "strategic" reasons, according to 13 EU foreign ministers.

The EU has demanded China cooperate with the international community to understand better the pandemic, after Chinese officials blocked the arrival of a group of World Health Organization (WHO) researchers investigating the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan.

Belarus started this week a coronavirus vaccination drive using the Sputnik V jab, becoming the first country outside Russia to use the vaccine developed by Moscow, the Moscow Times writes. Belarus, with a population of around 9.5 million, has registered more than 188,000 cases of coronavirus infections and nearly 1,400 deaths. Belarus' health minister said health workers and teachers would be among the first to be vaccinated.

Turkey and Russia have pledged to develop military cooperation despite US sanctions, in a move that risks destabilising Nato.

The United States has registered its first official case of the highly-infectious Covid-19 variant from the UK on Tuesday. Authorities say a man in his 20s from the state of Colorado has been infected. The variant has so far been found in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.

The European Commission has announced it intends to purchase an extra 100 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine. "We will therefore have 300 million doses of this vaccine, which was assessed as safe and effective," said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in a Tweet on Tuesday. EU officials told Reuters in November that a single dose was priced at €15.5.

Germany registered 1,129 deaths in a span of 24 hours, according to figures provided by the Robert Koch-Institut on Wednesday. It is the highest number of deaths from the disease in Germany since the start of the pandemic. Germany had also detected, over the same 24 hour period, 22,459 new infections. Altogether, some 32,107 people in Germany have died from the disease so far.

Here are some of the key points in the over 1,000-page long agreement on future relations between the UK and the EU.

The NGO Caminando Fronteras said close to 2,200 people died trying to reach Spain throughout 2020, with most deaths taking place on trips to the Canary Islands, reported the AFP new agency. Spain's interior ministry said 19,566 attempted to reach the islands between the first of January and 30 November, compared to 1,993 in 2019. It noted at least 8,000 made the attempt in the month of November alone.

The UK medicines regulator has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 on Wednesday, which is geared towards helping the elderly. The UK has ordered 100m doses. Oxford/AstraZeneca had a 62 percent efficacy in their largest trial, of 11,636 people, but 90 percent efficacy in a small additional sub-group in the UK numbering 2,741. The vaccine is easier to transport and store than the one produced by Pfizer/BioNTech.

State weather forecaster Météo-France said France had its hottest year in 2020 since recording keeping started in 1900. It added that the average temperature across the country in 2020 was 14 degrees Celsius, surpassing the 2018 record of 13.9 degrees Celsius. "The cooler weather we are seeing at the end of this year will not change anything. It is official... 2020 was the hottest year ever recorded", it said.

Trump picked fights with everybody - except Russia and North Korea - in the past four years. But he lost, including his fight with reality, US journalist and historian Anne Applebaum said.

Over one million people seeking refuge arrived in the European Union in 2015 - among them a Malian political activist and poet, who has since been granted asylum in Italy.

In 2016, Britain became the first member state to leave the EU. The referendum sent shockwaves through Europe and changed UK politics. As the first casualties, EU and British citizens have been caught in limbo.