Euobserver.com

At least 46 people have died, most of them tourists from North Macedonia, after a bus caught fire on a highway in western Bulgaria on Tuesday, officials have said, The Guardian writes. Children were among the victims, and seven people with burns were taken to hospital in the capital, Sofia, the head of the fire safety department at the interior ministry, Nikolai Nikolov, told BTV television.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and German health minister Jens Spahn have used harsh words against people who have protested against vaccination and lockdown rules. "I will never accept ... that idiots use sheer violence" to make their point, Rutte said Monday, referring to the weekend's riots. All Germans will be "vaccinated, recovered, or dead" by the end of winter, Spahn also said, as infection rates almost doubled in Germany.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State Department advised against travel to Germany and Denmark because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases, Reuters writes. The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to "Level Four: Very High" for the two European countries. The CDC currently lists about 75 destinations at Level Four, including Austria, Britain, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Switzerland, Romania, Ireland, and the Czech Republic.

The Russian parliament is discussing banning films which include LGBTI love scenes from general release. "Whoever wants can have special access to such videos, as well as with pornography," Russian MP Vitaly Milonov said Monday. Its Human Rights Council is also in talks to add pro-LGBTI material to a new list of "toxic content" on the internet, along with "radical feminism", bestiality, violence, and neo-Nazi propaganda, Council-member Igor Ashmanov said.

Russia has threatened to cut off gas to Moldova and the US has imposed new sanctions on a Russian gas pipeline, amid spiralling tension in eastern Europe.

Three candidates from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), Austrian MEP Othmar Karras, Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola, Dutch MEP Esther de Lange have launched their bids to become the next president of the European Parliament. As part of a 2019 deal on the top EU jobs, Italian centre-left S&D MEP David Sassoli is expected to stand down on 17 January, and be replaced by a centre-right candidate.

The EU Commission has made a first move in the battle that could result in financial sanctions against Hungary and Poland over rule-of-law issues. However, this initial step has irritated those arguing for quicker action.

The spike in Covid-19 infections is prompting some EU governments to introduce lockdown measures and restrictions for the unvaccinated. Meanwhile, travel operators are calling for coordination and a common approach for booster doses and valid certificates.

Exiled Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya says current EU sanctions against the Minsk regime have not been effective, and is demanding tougher restrictions.

The European Central Bank said most of the 112 commercial banks it supervises do not have concrete plans to start preparing for climate change.

A new study by Globsec Policy Institute, a Bratislava-based think-thank, shows that Serbia is the most susceptible to Russian and Chinese influence, followed by Hungary.

Sitting justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro down on the same bench as Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga or Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir might seem like a longshot, if not overkill - but shows just how desperate the Polish people have become.

Participants will discuss the most important foreign policy challenges for a new German government and Europe. What should Europe expect from German foreign policy under a new government – continuity or change?

Bulgarian president Rumen Radev won a second term in office by a wide margin on Sunday as voters in the European Union's poorest country backed his strong anti-corruption message, exit polls showed, Reuters writes. The election comes amid widespread discontent against high-level graft that ended the decade-long rule of former premier Boyko Borissov in April and led a new anti-corruption party to victory in last week's parliamentary elections.

China has punished Lithuania for letting Taiwan open a quasi-embassy in Vilnius by withdrawing its ambassador. "The Chinese government had to lower diplomatic relations between the two countries … in order to safeguard its sovereignty and the basic norms of international relations," the Chinese foreign ministry said Sunday. Lithuania had "created a bad precedent in the international arena" and "must bear the consequences," it added.

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili agreed on Friday to end a 50-day hunger strike once authorities transferred him to a military hospital, his lawyers said, France24 reports. The transfer, proposed by Georgia's justice ministry earlier in the day, appeared to mark a breakthrough in a long stand-off that had prompted the United States and others to raise concerns for his health.

A group of 39 Palestinians flying from Egypt to Colombia and Ecuador used a stopover in the Spanish town of Barcelona to demand asylum, Spanish authorities said Friday. "They are in a special room and all their necessities are being taken care of," a Spanish spokeswoman said. The incident comes after 21 passengers from Morocco ran away after landing in the Spanish island of Mallorca earlier this month.

A boat carrying the bodies of 10 migrants who were believed to have suffocated in overcrowded conditions arrived in Sicily on Friday. Some 186 people were also rescued in three separate operations last week, including 61 minors. "We hope they will get all the assistance they need," charity group Médecins Sans Frontières said, while noting that this year has been deadlier than ever on the central Mediterranean migrant route.

The UK has proscribed any support for Palestinian militant group Hamas under its Terrorist Act, meaning that pro-Hamas protesters or fund raisers could face 10-year jail sentences. "Hamas is fundamentally and rabidly antisemitic ... an enduring evil which I will never tolerate," UK home secretary Pritti Patel said Friday. The US and EU had already blacklisted the group, but the UK had only designated its military wing in the past.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev, are to meet in Brussels in the margins of an 'Eastern Partnership' summit on 15 December to help defuse border tension, after clashes claimed at least 10 lives on Friday. "Leaders have agreed to ... discuss the regional situation and ways of overcoming tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus," the EU Council said.