European Union

European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday (27 October) urged member states to adopt the quicker antigen coronavirus testing method, common rules on virus management and to avoid vaccine "chaos".

Slovakia’s government announced on Tuesday details regarding the country’s plan to test the entire population for coronavirus which is now set to take place from early to late Saturday, meaning it will not last for three days as was originally...

Hospitals currently treating coronavirus patients may have reached 80% capacity in the country’s capital, as second-tier health institutions designated for treatment will start accepting infected patients, hvg.hu reported. The building of the Semmelweis University’s psychiatry clinic will start treating COVID-19...

The Polish government signed a US-sponsored anti-abortion declaration on Tuesday (27 October), joining a group of over 30 other conservative governments. The Geneva Consensus Declaration on “Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family” was adopted by 32 countries, including Uganda,...

After the fallout between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori had a spat over who takes responsibility for ordering coronavirus restrictions and guiding the population through...

The Department of International Trade has made little progress in supporting economic recovery following the first wave of the pandemic, or in advancing the UK’s future trading relationships, according to a report by UK lawmakers on the Public Accounts Committee....

A record number of COVID-19 patients (689) admitted to hospital was reported in Belgium in the last 24 hours. The previous record was on 28 March with 629 admissions, virologist Steven Van Gucht said on Tuesday, based on the daily...

The alarming spike in COVID-19 cases in Germany and France forces the two countries to take new restrictive measures to slow down the pandemic. In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel eyes a “short and clear break” while in Paris, the government...

The European Space Agency signed an agreement with US counterpart NASA on Tuesday (27 October) that confirms Europe’s involvement in building a space station in orbit around the Moon and clears the way for 'Euronauts' to set foot on the lunar surface for the first time.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Bangladesh capital on Tuesday (27 October) in the biggest anti-France rally since President Emmanuel Macron defended cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

US presidential hopeful Joe Biden voiced support Tuesday (27 October) for the Belarus opposition in its general strike against President Alexander Lukashenko, saying the strongman was illegitimate.

Poland's ruling party chairman, Jarosław Kaczyński, has said protests against his draconian anti-abortion laws would lead to deaths and that the feminist movement behind them wanted to destroy Poland. "These protests will inevitably end up costing many lives," he said in a video posted Tuesday. "This attack is aimed at destroying Poland, leading to the triumph of forces which ... [would] end the history of the Polish nation," he said.

A senior US official has verbally mauled the EU's new farm policy, over its focus on environmentalism and its anti-GMO stance. "Europe is choosing to export this philosophy and dictate to other countries around the world ... What do we say to our kids and our grandkids when famine and starvation sets in, and it will, it will," Ted McKinney, the under-secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, said Tuesday.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Europe rose 40 percent last week, in a sign hospitals are struggling to cope, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday. "We're seeing an intense and indeed alarming increase in cases and deaths," a WHO spokeswoman told the BBC, highlighting figures in France, Spain, The Netherlands, and Russia. "Intensive care units in hospitals are now beginning to fill with very ill people," she said.

The Turkish president's recent call for a boycott of French produce over alleged Islamophobia was "contrary to the spirit" of EU-Turkey trade accords and would "take Turkey even further away from the European Union", a European Commission spokesman said Tuesday. The Turkish lira tanked in markets due to the dispute. But the Saudi foreign ministry echoed Turkey, saying it "denounced" France's "offensive" decision to defend the publication of Mohammed cartoons.

It has been 81 days since the first police cosh hit the first skull in Belarus and president Alexander Lukashenko has still not paid any EU price.

A report from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre on Tuesday found that 48 percent of Europeans use social media daily or almost every day. However, it identifies four challenges that emerge when citizens interact politically on these platforms without public oversight: "attention economy" that benefits advertisers, "choice architectures" based on behavioural techniques that encourages constant engagement, "algorithmic content curation" which can result in a polarised discourse and "misinformation/disinformation".

The dispute over control of the film and theatre school has generated global support with dozens of internationally recognised artists - including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren and author Salman Rushdie - supporting the school and its autonomy.

Despite the coronavirus crisis, the European Commission wants member states to attract more than €20bn of investment in artificial intelligence (AI) annually over the next decade to make Europe a leader of so-called 'trustworthy artificial intelligence'.

In a quick U-turn, EU border agency Frontex says it has now launched an inquiry into allegations it may have blocked potential asylum seekers from reaching the Greek coast, in so-called 'pushbacks'. What form that inquiry will take is unclear.