Euobserver.com

Musicians from California rock band Eagles of Death Metal testified Tuesday in a Paris court about the night Islamic State group extremists stormed their concert at the Bataclan theatre, killing scores. The sole surviving member of the attack team, Salah Abdeslam, is the key defendant. The other attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police. The trial began in September and is expected to end next month, AP reported.

German prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison sentence for a 101-year-old man, who went on trial Tuesday for his alleged role as a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. The defendant is charged with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder. The defendant has told the court that he didn't know the Sachsenhausen camp. A verdict is expected on 2 June.

The UN human rights office's spokesperson on Tuesday urged Iran to halt the imminent execution of Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali and overturn his death sentence, Reuters reported. Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency has reported that Djalali, sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel, would be executed by 21 May. Amnesty International called his trial "manifestly unfair." Djalali was forced to confess under psychological torture.

The full-scale war Russia has launched in Ukraine simply reinforced the Ukrainisation and Europeanisation of Ukrainian society.

Would you pick up a gun and fight for Ukraine? The injustice of the Russian invasion has led white-collar professionals like Florent and Thomas to trade suits and ties for camouflage and Kalashnikovs.

The EU Commission said on Tuesday that opening accounts in roubles at a Russian bank to pay for gas would breach the bloc's sanctions against Moscow. Russia has demanded foreign buyers start to pay for gas in roubles. The commission said EU sanctions do not prevent companies from opening an account at a designated bank so long as they do so in the currency agreed in their existing contracts.

Hungary is continuing to block an EU oil embargo on Russia, but there is optimism its objections can soon be overcome — perhaps within a few days to "a week or two", according to some EU foreign ministers.

EU plans to quit Russian gas and replace it, in part, by importing overseas liquified natural gas has lead to a flurry of new gas projects — which threaten to lock in unnecessary gas use for decades.

Iconic Western fast-food chain McDonald's on Monday set out detailed plans for exiting Russia due to its war on Ukraine, saying it will sell all its restaurants there and not allow franchises to use its brand or logo. "It is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine," CEO Chris Kempczinski said, while voicing sympathy for former Russian employees who will lose their jobs.

Norway, Denmark and Iceland pledged on Monday to support Finland and Sweden, which have both announced their bids to join Nato, in case the two Nordic countries come under attack, Reuters reported. "Together with Denmark and Iceland, Norway stands ready to assist its Nordic neighbours by all means necessary should they be the victim of aggression on their territory before obtaining Nato membership," said Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

Germany will oppose EU plans to include nuclear energy as a sustainable investment in its "taxonomy" policy for labelling green investments, Reuters reported on Monday. The commission has support from MEPs and EU countries to temporarily label them as climate-friendly. Germany's red/green/liberal coalition government has now said it would vote no in the council of member states next week. MEPs will vote on the issue in July.

MEPs have raised concerns over the level of contamination of some hazardous chemicals in Europe, prompting calls to speed up the restrictions on the so-called "forever chemicals".

People from Afghanistan and Syria are among the nationalities using the Western Balkans route to enter the European Union. Frontex, the EU's border agency, says they detected some 27,172 irregular entries into the EU on this route in the first four months of 2022, a 130-percent increase from last year. The agency says the route represents almost half of the all the irregular border crossings into the EU.

The impact of Russia's war in Ukraine is being felt throughout the EU and the eurozone. The European Commission has downgraded its economic forecast to 2.7-percent growth this year.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday warned that his country would respond if Nato began to bolster military infrastructure of Sweden and Finland, which have decided to join the military alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to the leaders of a Russian-dominated alliance of ex-Soviet states, Putin claimed Nato enlargement was used by the US in an "aggressive" way to aggravate an already difficult global security situation, Reuters reported.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Monday visited Northern Ireland to encourage the return of the devolved government. The Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to enter the assembly, after nationalist Sinn Fein emerged as the strongest party, citing issues around the Northern Ireland protocol which governs post-Brexit trade. London had been expected to scrap parts of the protocol unilaterally after rejecting the EU's proposals for a compromise.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a threat to all Europe, particularly the Baltic. Sweden and Finland must join Nato to secure peace in the Baltic Sea, write the leaders of the EPP Nordic and Baltic delegations in European Parliament.

The EU and the US pledged on Monday to facilitate trade and investment in Ukraine in order to rebuild its economy. After a two-day summit in Paris, they also committed to securing global supply chains and countering Russian disinformation. "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has demonstrated the dangerous impact foreign information manipulation and interference…can have, in particular, on transparent and accessible information," they said in a joint statement.

EU greenhouse-gas emissions in the fourth quarter of 2021 increased by eight percent compared with the same period of 2020, due to the economic rebound after the Covid-19 crisis, the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, reported on Monday. Emissions increased in all EU member states and all economic sectors. But households were responsible for most emissions of greenhouse gases, followed by manufacturing and electricity supply, agriculture, and transportation.

Germany's Social Democratic Party lost a regional North Rhine-Westphalia election on Sunday. The party, headed by German chancellor Olaf Scholz, scored it worst ever performance with 27.4 percent, according to projections from public broadcaster ARD. The main opposition headed by the christian democrats took 35.3 percent. It is the regional second loss for Scholz's party since he took office.