Euobserver.com

Catalonia's leader Quim Torra on Monday outlined a set of new restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus cases in the Spanish region before students return to school in September. The measures include a ban on social gatherings of more than 10 people, except for work meetings and when traveling. The regional government in Murcia also introduced a ban on social gatherings of more than six people.

The American biotechnology company Moderna said Monday it had concluded advanced talks with the EU to supply 80 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which is currently in late-stage testing, Reuters reported. The potential agreement provides for an option for EU countries to buy an additional 80 million doses. Moderna is the fifth company with which the EU has concluded talks in an effort to secure a Covid-19 vaccine.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said she has returned to school after a year off campaigning to curb climate change, AFP reported. "My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!", the 17-year-old tweeted. While campaigning for action against climate change around the world, Thurberg did her lessons remotely.

A new report indicates that the EU's plan to reduce the bloc's greenhouse emissions by 55 percent by 2030 is "technically and economically feasible" - with a reform of EU carbon market and "adequate safeguards" for low-income EU countries.

Instead of taking sides, the EU can benefit the most from simultaneous engagement with China and India, as tensions between the Asian giants grow.

Turkey and Greece have announced they will both hold military exercises in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean, increasing tension between Nato allies.

The EU's anti-piracy military mission in the Indian Ocean, Atalanta, has exonerated Somalia's police force after reports police had hijacked a Panama-flagged cargo ship last Thursday. "There had been certain incidents on board the vessel" but these "cannot be classified as a maritime security incident," Atalanta said. Somali police boarded the ship because it was adrift due to hull-damage and a Spanish warship was monitoring the situation, the EU said.

German scientists held three music concerts in the city of Leipzig on Sunday to study how mass gatherings affect coronavirus infection, with each event using different rules on hygiene and social distancing. "We have good quality data," Halle University's lead researcher, Stefan Moritz, said, with results due in autumn. Infection rates were climbing in Germany in recent weeks, but the country still had one of the lowest figures in Europe.

The director-general of Belgium's federal police, André Desenfants, told a press conference he was temporarily stepping aside from his role after the emergence of a video showing a Slovak man being pinned down in a custody cell hours before his death and an officer apparently making a Hitler salute, the BBC reported. The Slovak man, Jozef Chovanec, was arrested at Charleroi airport in 2018.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, wearing body armour and holding a rifle as he landed at his residence amid ongoing protests, accused Nato of trying to interfere in Belarus, a claim the military alliance rejected.

"The EU warmly welcomes the announcements issued on 21 August 2020 by the president of the presidency council Fayez Al-Serraj and speaker of the house of representatives Aguila Saleh", EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a statement Saturday. However, on Sunday, general Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army rejected the ceasefire, calling it a "marketing stunt" and saying Sarraj was building up forces near Sirte instead.

French president Emmanuel Macron vowed Saturday that he would do everything to find out those who defaced the memorial to a Nazi massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane, France, The Guardian writes. Macron condemned the graffiti in which the word mémoire (memorial) was crossed out and replaced by menteur (liar) as an "unspeakable act". Oradour became the scene of a Nazi brutality in 1994 when 642 people were slaughtered by a German division.

The EU and the US on Friday announced a mini-deal that would eliminate EU tariffs on American lobster after years of trade tensions, Reuters reported. "We intend for this package of tariff reductions to mark just the beginning of a process that will lead to additional agreements that create more free, fair, and reciprocal transatlantic trade," said US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan.

With protesters showing their strength once again on Sunday in Minsk and beyond, Belarus may be entering a stalemate between the street and state institutions.

Dutch decision to start deporting Sudanese refugees despite atrocious violence in their home country disfigures the notion of the Netherlands being one of the more progressive societies on earth.

EU trade chief Phil Hogan has ignored his own government's appeal to resign for flouting anti-coronavirus rules.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia arrived in Berlin on Saturday for emergency treatment after he fell unconscious due to having drunk allegedly poisoned tea in Russia last week. "It's a question what kind of damage there is, if he will survive this and come back to normal fully," Jaka Bizilj, the head of a German NGO which paid for his flight, Cinema for Peace, said.

Some 76 percent of Germans think US-EU relations would improve if opposition candidate Joe Biden beat incumbent Donald Trump in upcoming American elections, according to a survey by pollster Forza for the Internationale Politik journal in Germany. Several recent polls showed similar results, with the Pew Research Center, another pollster saying in January that just 13 percent of Germans thought Trump was doing a good job in the White House.

Hungary has summoned Germany's ambassador to complain about German state minister Michale Roth after Roth, on Friday, told the t-online.de website that there "was rampant antisemitism in Hungary". Jewish people had nothing to fear in Hungary and Germany should "stop the unworthy attacks on the Hungarian people", Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said in a statement on Sunday. Roth also attacked Hungary and Poland for erosion of democratic values.

Cyprus has been selling EU passports to alleged criminals from around the world, according to leaked Cypriot documents obtained by the Al Jazeera news agency. Convicted Russian criminals who bought passports include Nikolay Gornovskiy and Ali Beglov. Alleged Iranian money launderers Maleksabet and Mehdi Ebrahimi, Chinese fraudsters Zhang Keqiang and Li Jiadong, and alleged Venezuelan money-launderer Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan also bought EU citizenship. The Cypriot government denied any wrongdoing.