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The European Union is deeply concerned at the rapid deterioration of the political crisis in Lebanon, its ambassador to Beirut said, telling Lebanese leaders the time for action had run out and urging them to form a government, Reuters reports. It reflects growing worry about a sharp deterioration in Lebanon's stability, where a two-year-long financial meltdown hit a crunch point this month‮ ‬as fuel shortages paralysed much of the country.

The European Union will force Britain to stick to the Northern Ireland customs protocol and never abandon Dublin during tough talks over the Irish Sea border, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, warned, The Telegraph writes. On a visit to Dublin, Macron said the EU would stay united over the Northern Ireland protocol, which the UK wants to renegotiate, as well as post-Brexit fishing rights.

A study of nearly 30 million people in England who received either the Oxford/AstraZeneca or the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine indicates that the risk of blood clots after contracting coronavirus is many times larger than the risk presented by either vaccine, Politico reports. This effort is the largest study to look at this question, and was published in the British Medical Journal.

Michel Barnier, the EU's former Brexit negotiator, has said he wants to run in next year's French presidential elections.

The European Commission got its forest strategy wrong. Sweden has tried this model from 1920 to 1950 and the result was catastrophic.

Some MEPs described the commission chief's letter as a "provocation" and "hair-splitting" on a rule-of-law mechanism that was meant to stop democratic backsliding in EU states.

A number of countries say there is a high threat of a terrorist attack at Kabul airport and have warned their citizens not to travel there, the BBC reports. Australia, the US, and UK have issued alerts to their citizens. Those already outside the airport are advised to leave the area immediately. More than 82,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul, which fell to the Taliban 10 days ago.

Europe experienced its hottest year on record last year with the average temperature almost 2°C higher than the period from 1981 to 2010, The Times writes. The UK Meteorological Office said last year was about 0.5°C warmer than the continent's previous warmest year, 2015. Europe's five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2014. Many countries reported their highest annual average temperatures, including France, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The European Court of Human Rights has requested that Poland and Latvia provide aid for dozens of Afghan and Iraqi migrants stranded on the EU border with Belarus, Deutsche Welle writes. A group of migrants has been stuck on the borders of the two EU countries for around 14 days, with security forces preventing them from entering and making asylum claims.

Russia will have to split up ownership of its new gas pipeline to Germany under EU anti-trust rules, in a court ruling seen as a victory by Ukraine.

The former EU trade commissioner, now an economics professor, Cecilia Malmström, has warned Australia is becoming "more and more isolated" on climate action, The Guardian reports. Malmström told a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute that climate change was "the most urgent global crisis we are finding ourselves." "Australia is a big economy, a big emitter, you need to do more – we all need to do more," she added.

The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed a complaint by French firefighters against mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations, Euronews writes. More than 670 professional and volunteer firefighters had complained about compulsory vaccines and said the measures violated their privacy rights. The Court said that the complaint fell outside its scope, but did not rule out future cases on the matter if mandatory vaccinations cause "a real risk of irreparable damage."

Ukraine's future lies in the hands of its citizens - the vast majority of whom believe a stronger democracy and a better future are best ensured by greater EU integration.

The EU and the US have sounded the alarm over the recent deployment of troops from Eritrea to the Ethiopian region of Tigray, where nine months of war have killed thousands of people and unleashed an increasingly serious humanitarian crisis, Reuters reports. Forces from the Ethiopian Tigray rebels recaptured much of the territory in June. But the new Eritrean deployments raises the prospect of an escalation in fighting.

"Hungary is and will remain a member of the European Union," Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó told a news conference on Tuesday in response to a reporter's question, Reuters reports. The European Union can be strong if it is built on strong member states, Szijjártó also said after meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

British tourists face difficulties in proving their vaccine status in Europe following a delay in linking the British National Health Service's (NHS) Covid pass to the EU's system due to gaps in the British government's application to Brussels, The Guardian writes. While at least 19 EU countries, including France and Spain, have unilaterally accepted the NHS app as proof of vaccine status, difficulties remain due to lack of pan-EU recognition.

Europe's medicines regulator has approved additional manufacturing sites for mRNA-based coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to help boost production amid a resurgence in infections, Reuters reports. The European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam said on Tuesday its human medicines committee had approved a site at Saint Remy sur Avre in France for making the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Comirnaty.

Ukraine claims Germany did a deal with Russia on Afghan refugees to snub its recent Crimea summit, but EU diplomats find it hard to believe.

The world's biggest shipping company, Maersk, is investing €1.2 billion to speed up its switch to carbon-neutral operations, ordering eight container vessels that can be fuelled by green methanol as well as traditional bunker fuel, The Guardian writes. The Danish shipping business said the investment in new vessels would be saving more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a year by replacing older fossil fuel-driven ships.

Crises disproportionally affect girls and women because of their gender. Afghanistan is no different. The EU must ensure that feminism is at the core of its external policy.