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Sales of vans between 2017 and 2020 showed no reduction in CO2 emissions because EU laws were so weak manufacturers could meet them without selling a single electric-powered vehicle, according to green NGO Transport & Environment. "With pathetic CO2 targets, the boom in e-commerce is becoming a nightmare for our planet," it said. Hybrid vehicles, which should stop being made, see owners rely almost exclusively on fossil-fuel engines, it added.

Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore urged the G7 countries and the EU to donate 150 million vaccines to the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme to bridge the gap in supplies caused by curbs imposed by Indian authorities, as the country battles one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks, Deutsche Welle reports. "Sharing immediately available excess doses is a minimum, essential and emergency stop-gap measure, and it is needed right now," Fore said.

Belgian politicians have raised security concerns over plans by state-owned Chinese firm Alibaba to build a €100m logistics centre at an airport in the town of Liège. "Chinese intelligence officers could have access to sensitive and secure areas of the airport … The future economic importance of Liège airport to China can't be underestimated," Belgian justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said at a parliamentary hearing last week.

The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia's Tigray region is worse than ever since the conflict began last November, with 5.2 million people needing "emergency food assistance" to "avoid starvation", the EU foreign service has said. Blocking "humanitarian aid as a weapon of war is a grave violation of international humanitarian law", it added, amid previous EU threats to hold Ethiopian officials accountable by putting them under EU visa-bans and asset-freezes.

The EU has "deplored" Russia's designation of the Czech Republic as an "unfriendly state" in April, saying the move went against the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and would cause "further deterioration" in relations. Russia's listing means it can ban the Czech embassy from posting diplomats and hiring local staff. It follows diplomatic expulsions by both sides over a lethal Russian bomb attack in the Czech Republic in 2014.

The British government has instructed border guards to stop locking up EU nationals who entered without a visa in migrant detention centres, following several cases of harsh treatment publicised in UK media. "We have updated our guidance to clarify that overseas nationals, including EU citizens, who have been refused entry to the UK and are awaiting removal, should be granted immigration bail, where appropriate," a Home Office spokesman said.

The UK has agreed to host Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić in a high-security prison for the rest of the 75-year old's life sentence, despite fears, voiced by his lawyer, that Muslim inmates in Britain would target him for revenge attacks. The deal between the international tribunal in The Hague and London is the sixth of its type. The UK did not say when or where he would be moved.

Impunity from international sanctions is allowing Israel to create "horror" in Gaza, Hanan Ashrawi, a former top Palestinian official has said.

An internal document from January outlines the divisions among EU states when it comes the European Commission's proposal on "return sponsorships". Although positions may have since shifted, the document provides a glimpse into the Council's thinking.

Negotiators from the European Parliament, the council of member states, and the EU Commission will push for an agreement this week on the Covid-19 travel certificate so that safe travel can pick up during the summer.

The European Parliament president David Sassoli has invited MEPs to reflect on the institution's future, opening a broad debate about the best way forward after the Covid-19 pandemic. What will the post-Covid-19 parliament be like?

Italian activists are collating a growing Instagram collection of racist, sexist and homophobic content in the media. But their battle to stop the use of the n-word, blackface and offensive content on Italian TV means standing up to ingrained racism.

The impact of the EU's e-privacy directive was not theoretical. Since the rule passed, there was a 58 percent decrease in EU-related reports of child sexual exploitation online.

The European Commission unveiled a plan to reduce pollution to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems by 2050 - including reducing the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution by 55 percent.

French police have arrested a former Luxembourg spy chief, who was suing EUobserver for libel, in an unrelated US fraud case.

Economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni warned that despite the economic rebound, the risk of worsening poverty, social exclusion, and inequality "is very real".

Slovenia was supposed to nominate a delegated prosecutor for the new European Public Prosecutor Office, in charge of cracking down on corruption of EU funds. Ljubljana finalised procedures in December but has yet to send nominations, causing headaches.

UN workers in Gaza feel at risk from airstrikes, as violence continues to spread across Israel and occupied territories.

The German privacy regulator banned Facebook on Tuesday from gathering data on WhatsApp users, citing an update to its privacy policy that breaches EU data protection rules by allowing access to a lot more information on the chat app's users, AP reported. WhatsApp users were confronted "with non-transparent conditions for far-reaching data transfer," the regulator said. WhatsApp denied the update is connected with any expansion of data-sharing with Facebook.

Italy's prime minister rebutted media reports of proposed plans to secure an EU deal with Libya to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian press claimed Mario Draghi wanted the EU to propose a deal with Libya similar to one it has with Turkey. "At the moment there is no initiative regarding creating a similar deal to what was done with Turkey," an official told Reuters.