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The Chinese embassy in Paris on Sunday urged the French government not to discriminate against its tech giant Huawei in France's 5G roll-out, Reuters reported, after several reports that the company could face restrictions in the country. The Chinese embassy said in a statement that it was "shocked and worried" about such reports and ask the French government "to establish transparent criteria and treat all companies equally".

Switzerland on Sunday backed a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation, with jail terms of up to three years, DW reported. Some 63 percent voted in favour of the legislation. In 2018, the Swedish parliament approved expanding the country's discrimination laws, but it was forced to a referendum after claims said that it could hinder free speech. Only three of Switzerland's 26 cantons (states) had majorities against the plan.

The party leader of German chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, will not run for chancellor in next year's election, and is stepping down from her leadership post, German media reported on Monday. She will remain defence minister. The 57-year-old was handpicked by Merkel to run as her successor for chancellor, but AKK, as she is known, has struggled to consolidate her authority in the party.

Although the number of newly reported coronavirus cases on Sunday had fallen slightly from the day before, over 40,000 infections have been confirmed globally, Deutsche Welle reports. More than 900 people have died. A team of international experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has departed for Beijing to investigate the coronavirus outbreak, the UN health agency announced.

The former revolutionary party Sinn Féin (GUE/NGL) became the largest party in Ireland's general election on Saturday. The party won 24.5 percent of the votes, which is 10.7 percent more than in the previous election. Fianna Fail (Renew) came second with 22.2 percent while Fine Gael (EPP), the party of prime minister Leo Varadkar, came third with 20.9 percent. Sinn Féin will now try to form a coalition.

Anny Nganga, an asylum seeker from DR Congo, has been surviving for almost three years in Moria, a camp on Lesbos island that was recently described as the "single most worrying fundamental rights issue anywhere in the European Union".

Member states get ready for their first real negotiations on the next seven-year EU budget, while MEPs discuss the next Brexit phase, enlargement, and vote on a highly-controversial trade deal with Vietnam.

The outgoing president of the European Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, calls for a stronger influence of the local and regional dimension on European policy-making.

The EU Commission is pushing a wave of controversial gas infrastructure projects, in parallel to its much-touted Green Deal. One of those a flagship project of the Republic of Croatia, who currently chairs the EU presidency.

US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, was recalled by president Trump "effective immediately", the ambassador made public in a statement. Sondland had witnessed in the impeachment process against the will of the president. White House officials earlier talked about "payback" for those who played a role in the impeachment. Sondland is not a career diplomat but was appointed by the president in return for generous campaign donations.

The UN's special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, said on Friday that 26.1 percent of people in Spain, and 29.5 percent of children, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2018. "Although Spain is thriving economically, far too many people are struggling. The post-recession recovery has left many behind," he said, adding that Spain now needs innovative leadership at the national level.

In 2018, women aged over 65 received a pension that was on average 30 percent lower than that of men, according to statistics published by Eurostat on Friday. The gender pension-gap is slowly decreasing - but dropped only four percent since 2010. The largest difference was recorded in Luxembourg (43 percent), Malta (42 percent) and the Netherlands (40 percent), while the smallest difference was in Estonia, Denmark and Slovakia.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday referred to the "Greta syndrome" saying that young people across Europe should be aware of the cost of these policies, besides marching on the streets to urge climate action policies. "It is fine to demonstrate against climate change as long as nobody asks you to pay for it," he said, questioning if youngsters are willing to lower their living standards.

Laura Kovesi who heads the new European Public Prosecutor's Office, tasked to tackle fraud linked to VAT, money laundering, and corruption across the EU, warned she is dangerously understaffed and underfunded.

Europe's largest political alliance was once reformed to dominate EU politics and band together like-minded, but at times, very different parties. Now increasing political fragmentation in Europe seems to pull it apart.

The European Commission just missed an opportunity on managing EU enlargement. Instead of taking a hard look at why it's currently failing, the commission tried to appease the most vocal opponent of enlargement – France – with largely cosmetic changes.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday said "bombings and other attacks on civilians in northwest Syria must stop". In a joint statement with European crisis commissioner Janez Lenarčič, Borrell said more than 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes during the last two months alone, noting bombs are falling on densely-populated areas.

Around 500,000 EU citizens in the UK have yet to apply for a new immigration status, reports Reuters news agency. The UK government says some three million EU citizens and their family members have applied for "settled status." Some 3.5 million EU citizens are thought to be residing in the UK, which left the European Union on 31 January.

A French police official briefed on the case of last week's murder of anti-Putin blogger Imran Aliev told Business Insider that it was "politically-motivated". Aliev was found with his throat cut in a hotel room in Lille. Originally from Chechnya, Aliev had also spoken out against Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Bulgaria's parliament on Thursday amended its Central Bank law, allowing the country to join the ERM2 Exchange Rate Mechanism - also known as the "waiting room" to the eurozone. The plan is for it to join the euro by 2023. Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, last month said the Bulgarian move to join the euro by that date was "completely foreseeable".