Euobserver.com

A group of 70 NGOs has urged the European Commission to ban the export to third countries of pesticides prohibited inside Europe - and stop the import of food produced with such pesticides from outside the bloc.

The European Council has not kept any text messages or another type of instant messaging from its president to heads of state. It says nothing qualified to have them registered for public access. Transparency campaigners disagree.

Today the temperature is rising 20 percent faster in the Mediterranean region than the rest of the world. This is one of challenges to be discussed by the Interreg MED conference on Friday (6 November).

An outcry from major European city governments - including Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and Budapest - has helped shelve an EU Commission power grab over municipalities' services industries, such as in affordable housing, energy supply and waste management.

Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi resigned Thursday following confirmation he was being charged with war crimes by an EU-sponsored special tribunal in The Hague, the AP news agency reports. He did it to protect the "integrity" of the presidential office, he said. "Kosovo was the victim and Serbia was the aggressor," he added, referring to Kosovo's war of independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, when he was a guerrilla leader.

Relations between France and Turkey risked further deterioration after the Turkish foreign ministry vowed to retaliate against a French decision to ban the activities, on its territory, of the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist group affiliated with Turkey's ruling AKP party. "We will respond in the firmest way possible to this decision," the Turkish ministry said Wednesday. The Grey Wolves "incites discrimination and hatred" French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Four Italian regions are being put under a "red-zone" lockdown, with severe limitations on people leaving their homes, the country's prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced Wednesday night. Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta in the north, and Calabria in the south will see strict measures for two weeks, aimed at slowing down a surge in Covid-19 infections, AP reported.

Strict measures against the spread of Covid-19 will have to remain in force in Belgium until there is a vaccine available, the country's prime minister Alexander De Croo warned on Wednesday. De Croo said that "we will have to be a lot stricter with [the measures] than during the summer until there is a vaccine." He added that strict measures will have to remain in force "for months to come."

The pro-European candidate, Joe Biden, is on the cusp of victory in US elections, with Germany leading attacks on Donald Trump's "awful" claims of voting fraud.

Denmark has found a new strain of Covid-19 after an outbreak in the country's mink population led to a mutation of the virus that might hamper an effective vaccine, the country's prime minister Mette Frederiksen warned Wednesday. She said "there is a risk that the effect of a future vaccine will be weakened or, in a worst case scenario, be undermined." Denmark plans to cull its 15 million mink population.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube and TikTok were fined by Turkish authoirties for failing to appoint a representative able to address complaints, as required by a new law.

Maia Sandu, Moldova's pro-EU former prime minister, won the first round of voting in Sunday's election, setting the stage for a run-off against pro-Russian incumbent Igor Dodon.

EU states' ambassadors agreed Wednesday to blacklist Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko and 14 officials, including his press spokesman, chief of staff, and the head of his security service, the KGB, AFP reports. The visa-bans and asset-freezes are to enter into force Friday, when all the names are published in the EU's legal gazette. Foreign ministers announced the Lukashenko ban some two weeks ago. The EU earlier listed 40 Belarusian officials.

Chinese president Xi Jinping said in a speech at a trade expo Wednesday he would "speed up" talks on an EU investment treaty and "turn the China market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all". Negotiations on the deal had stalled over EU accusations of Chinese protectionism, amid added clouds of concern on China's persecution of its Uighur Muslim minority.

Hospitals in Brussels have no more intensive care beds for patients suffering severe Covid-19 symptoms, local health chief Inge Neven said Wednesday. The capital-city region already started sending patients elsewhere in the country late last month, while Belgium as a whole also began driving and flying patients to Germany in recent days. The bad news came amid first signs that infection rates in Belgium's second wave have begun to fall.

Slovak authorities warned Austrian counterparts that the gunman involved in Monday's killings in Vienna had travelled across the border and tried to buy ammunition for an AK-47 assault rifle in July. He failed because he had no gun licence, but Austria did not act on the tip-off, even though he was a convicted jihadist. "Something obviously went wrong in communication," Austria's interior minister Karl Nehammer said Wednesday.

The US officially exited the Paris Agreement on climate change Wednesday, despite being the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, Reuters reported. However, the elections will determine the future of the US in the climate deal since president Donald Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the accord if elected. Trump announced for the first time its intention to withdraw the US from the pact in 2017.

The anti-European president Donald Trump won Florida, a historical predictor of the overall outcome, but many swing states still too close to call on Wednesday morning.

EU leaders will hold another videoconference, on 19 November, on better coordinating efforts against the rising Covid-19 infections across Europe. EU leaders last met in person in October, and agreed to hold regular videoconferences for the coronavirus response. They had their first such meeting last week, to better share data, and coordinate testing and quarantine rules.

The UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre on Tuesday changed Britain's terrorism threat-level from "substantial" to "severe", interior minister Priti Patel said. "This is a precautionary measure and is not based on any specific threat. The public should continue to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the police," Patel tweeted. The change comes after a gunman in Vienna identified as an Islamist terrorist killed four people on Monday.