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Iran's largest naval ship was on fire for 20 hours before it finally went down in the Gulf of Oman, Deutsche Welle writes. The cause of the fire, which according to a navy broke out in "one of the systems" of the vessel, was not immediately known. Photos of the fire on social media showed Iranian sailors evacuating on speedboats as smoke was seen coming from the vessel.

Unable to convince EU states to lift internal border controls, the European Commission announced a new strategy - leaning heavily on security.

"The overall message is that we should continue to support the economy, so fiscal policy should be supportive both this year and next, and we should avoid premature withdrawal of the fiscal support," EU Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said.

Violent far-right extremists share the same profile as foreign fighters in Syria. They dreamed of becoming important, but they failed. What they are looking for is a shortcut from zero to hero.

It's not uncommon to hear accusations of Catalan financial greed as a motivation for independence. But in reality, the economic relationship between Spain and Catalonia is a nuanced one, which many Catalans believe is historically, and now, based on domination.

EU states should first donate vaccines to poor countries with vulnerable people, instead of vaccinating their teenagers, who were less at risk of getting sick from Covid-19, the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control, an EU agency in Stockholm, recommended on Tuesday. "The wider context of a global vaccine supply shortage should be taken into account," it said. Africa had had just 1% of total world vaccinations by mid-May.

Germany and 10 other EU states are pushing for the EU to end funding for cross-border natural gas projects over climate change. "TEN-E must not facilitate investments in fossil fuel infrastructure nor blending of hydrogen with fossil fuels," the group, also including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Sweden, said in an informal paper seen by Reuters, referring to 'TEN-E' rules on cross-border funding.

Western allies reiterated plans to punish Belarus for a recent air hijack after Nato foreign ministers held video-talks on Tuesday

The World Health Organization (WHO) approved on Tuesday China's Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, Reuters reported. This is the second Chinese-developed shot to get its approval, after the endorsement of Sinopharm. The WHO's expert group previously said vaccine efficacy in the last phase of clinical trials in multiple countries ranged from 51 percent to 84 percent. Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey, among others, are using Sinovac in their vaccination campaigns.

Opposition mayors in Budapest have renamed streets after the Dalai Lama, "Free Hong Kong", "Uyghur Martyrs" and a Chinese bishop around a site where prime minister Viktor Orbán's government plans to build a campus for China's Fudan University, local media reported. The snub came as the controversial project - which is opposed by the mayors - has added to deepening concerns over Hungary's close ties to Beijing.

The Financial Times newspaper reports the European Commission on Wednesday is set to unveil a proposal for a 'digital wallet'. The aim is to allow EU citizens to access public and private services online with a single online ID. It will also store payment details and passwords, says the paper. The wallet should be ready in about a year.

Poland will start offering Covid-19 vaccines to children from next week, Reuters reported. "Due to the decisions of the European Medicines Agency and the recommendation of the [Polish] Medical Council, we have made a decision that from June 7, vaccinations of children aged 12 to 15 will begin. This is 2.5 million students," Michał Dworczyk, the minister responsible for the country's vaccination campaign, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has ranked Cyprus with the cleanest bathing water in the EU, receiving a perfect 100 percent score at over 100 swimming spots on the island. Austria, Greece and Malta followed close behind. "The quality of European bathing waters remains high after four decades of action," said the head of EEA, Hans Bruyninckx. An interactive map of EU state quality can be found here.

A new study suggests the EU could collect some €170bn in corporate taxes annually, pending such an international agreement. "We find that such a 25 percent minimum tax would increase corporate income tax revenues in the European Union by about €170bn in 2021," notes the report, published Tuesday (1 June) by the Brussels-based EU Tax Observatory. The tax rate is currently being discussed by the OECD.

With 22 participating EU countries, the EU chief prosecutor's office begins its operations by keeping a close eye on the €800bn recovery fund - considered to be a "high risk" in terms of corruption and fraud.

The European Investment Bank identified an annual investment shortfall of up to €10bn in artificial intelligence and blockchain in the EU - a gap that may hinder the bloc's attempts to catch China and the United States in these sectors.

We must recognise that subversive acts like the Ryanair hijack are acts of war, just like poisonings or the spread of fake news.

"Can you send a female moderator, because all our speakers are men?" As collective of conference moderators focussed on 'the Brussels bubble', we get this request a lot.

Russia will defend Belarus and help it if the European Union imposes economic sanctions on Minsk over the grounding of a plane and arrest of a dissident blogger, the RIA news agency cited a Russian foreign ministry official as saying, Reuters reports. Many European nations have imposed flight bans on Belarusian aviation over the forced landing of a Ryanair flight on May 23. The EU is weighing further sanctions.

The EU will launch its pandemic-recovery fund this year with an initial €10bn offer of joint European bonds, French EU affairs minister Clement Beaune told Les Echos Monday. "The market appetite should be very major and the interest rates very favourable," he said. The full €750bn recovery package, once created, would be an embryonic EU treasury, he added. France was also pushing for a minimum EU-wide corporate tax, Beaune said.