Euobserver.com

"Together with the European Union, we believe that annexation would not be compatible with international law," German foreign minister Heiko Maas told press in Jerusalem on Wednesday, amid Israeli plans to seize one third of the West Bank. He added he was not "enthusiastic" about EU sanctions on Israel if it went ahead, however. "The [annexation] plan will be pursued responsibly, in full coordination with the United States", Israel said.

Zoom Video Communications temporarily shut the account of US-based Chinese activists after they held an event to commemorate the 31st anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown, the activists said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Zoom confirmed accounts had been suspended but had now been reactivated, saying: "When a meeting is held across different countries, the participants within those countries are required to comply with their respective local laws."

The US has surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases, with the number of infections rising in 21 different states, Deutsche Welle reports. The new case count comes as many states ease lockdown measures and move towards a return to normal life. The death toll in the US is now almost 113,000. Meanwhile, experts at Harvard's Global Health Institute say the US could see as many as 200,000 virus-related deaths by September.

"There is no doubt that Europe as a whole has been doing better than the United States in issues of race, also because we have better systems for social inclusion, protection, universal health care," the Greek EU commissioner in charge of migration, Margaritis Schinas, said Wednesday in a video-briefing by Greek group the Delphi Economic Forum. "There's ... a European tradition for protecting minorities," he added, amid US race riots.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, as well as Italy's health and interior ministers, are to be interrogated by prosecutors in Bergamo, an Italian region ravaged by coronavirus, after relatives of victims submitted 50 allegations of criminal negligence by the government earlier this week. "We spoke to the prosecutor and explained that our main objective is to find out the truth," Luca Fusco, the president of activist group NOI Denunceremo, said.

MEPs are threatening to veto a future EU and UK trade deal if it lags on environmental standards and workers' rights, according to a draft European Parliament resolution, seen by British newspaper The Guardian, to be put to a vote Friday. A level playing field for commerce and "robust" rights and standards were the "necessary condition for the European Parliament to give its consent to a trade agreement", it said.

Kosovo's president and the White House are refusing to speak to the EU's new Western Balkans envoy, in what the EU sees as "lame ... misguided" tactics.

Belarus' incidence of the disease is currently higher than in Italy. Ukraine and Azerbaijan have counts comparable to Poland and the Czech Republic, where the outbreak had an average intensity. Whereas, Georgia compares well with Greece and Slovakia.

More than 50 scientists on Thursday called on the European Commission, European Parliament and EU member states to end overfishing "as an urgent and necessary response to biodiversity and climate crises". The scientists urge the EU to set fishing limits based on scientific advice. EU fisheries ministers will meet after the summer to agree on annual fishing limits for 2021. The EU committed in 2014 to ending overfishing by 2020.

A new report published by Eurobarometer on Wednesday revealed that over seven in 10 Europeans believed that corruption was widespread in their country, although the proportion varied among member states - over nine in 10 respondents shared this opinion in Croatia, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Lithuania, while only a minority held that view in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

The EU has shamed Russia and China as the main perpetrators of online misinformation about Covid-19, urging social media platforms like Facebook to step up anti-fake news action.

Ahead of EU leaders' first online discussion on the EU recovery and budget plans, EU countries remain divided on the key issues in the economic package. They will need to hammer them out in person in July.

The European Commission has described a question in a Hungarian government poll as a lie meant to mislead the public. Another question in a similar Hungarian poll in 2017 forced the government to pay a fine and issue an apology.

Online classes didn't create but rather highlighted Lithuania's existing, ongoing issue with bullying.

Jacek Krawczyk, slated to become the next president of the European Economic and Social Committee in October, was told to resign as the head of the institution's employers group on Tuesday (9 June). Krawczyk was also asked to withdraw from the upcoming presidency post. The decision, made by the EESC hierarchy, follows psychological harassment allegations against him. Krawczyk maintains his innocence.

Easo, the EU's asylum support asylum office, told Reuters that the number of asylum applications in the Union have dropped to levels not seen for over a decade. It said the number of asylum applications declined to 8,730 during April, an 86 percent drop from 61,421 in February. The decline is due, in part, to the pandemic caused by Covid-19.

Swedish prosecutors concluded on Wednesday that Stig Engstrom, a graphic designer, was the man who shot dead Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986, Reuters reported. Prosecutors closed the investigation because Engstrom died in 2000. Palme was shot in central Stockholm in 1986 after a visit to the cinema with his wife and son. He was prime minister of Sweden between 1969 and 1976 and from 1982 to his murder.

The Belgian city of Antwerp has removed a statue of King Leopold II after it was burned and daubed with paint during "Black Lives Matter" protests during the weekend. King Leopold II was the personal owner of Congo until 1908 and is seen as responsible for a genocide of Congolese people. Statues of Leopold II have been attacked in several cities around Belgium in the past few years.

The EU's top powers have foreign forces to get out of Libya to restart UN-sponsored "5+5" peace talks. "We urge all Libyan and international parties to effectively and immediately stop all military operations and engage constructively," the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Italy said in a statement Tuesday. They also called for the "withdrawal of all foreign forces, mercenaries and military equipment" in the war-torn country.

China "wants to be present in the world and to play a global role but they don't have military ambitions and they don't want to use force to participate in military conflicts," EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday after video-talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Wang told him China also did not like being called a "systemic rival" in EU documents, Borrell noted. "Words matter," he said.