European Union

Denmark said it would buy 280,000 doses of Novavax's potential Covid-19 vaccine for a total price of 37 million Danish crowns (€4.97m), or roughly €17.8 per dose as part of a European Union agreement with the US company, Reuters reports. The European Commission had approved a supply contract with Novavax to buy up to 200 million doses, which is yet to be approved by the EU's drugs regulator.

Poland has caused fresh harm to its international image by voting to dismantle a US media firm and, separately, to block property claims by Holocaust survivors.

Latvian border guards turned back dozens of migrants into Belarus overnight under a new state of emergency designed to stem a flow of arrivals the European Union says is orchestrated by Minsk, Reuters reports. The pushback, witnessed by Reuters, occurred just hours after Latvia declared an emergency to prevent illegal migrants, mostly from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, from crossing into the EU state from Belarus.

Three new conditions reported by a small number of people after vaccination with Covid-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna are being studied to assess if they may be possible side-effects, Europe's drugs regulator said, Reuters reports. A form of allergic skin reaction; a kidney inflammation; and a renal disorder characterised by heavy urinary protein losses, are being studied by the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency.

A British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia, the BBC writes. German federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin. He allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence "at least once" in exchange for an "unknown amount" of money. The German foreign ministry said it is taking the case "very seriously".

What we can learn from the history of the Baltics states is that the reimposition of an older constitution would serve as societal 'glue', enabling Libyans to finally put the memories of a most tumultuous decade behind them.

Last week, six EU countries, including Germany, and the Netherlands, said forced returns must continue despite violence in Afghanistan. Now they have changed their mind. Belgian Greens are also criticising the decision.

Polish lawmakers advanced a bill on Wednesday (11 August) that the opposition says aims to silence a US-owned news channel critical of the government, leading to a swift denunciation from the United States, one of Warsaw's most important allies.

Lithuania's ambassador to China says she has been asked to leave the country, one day after Beijing demanded that Vilnius recall its envoy over allowing Taiwan to set up an office under its own name in the EU member state.

Iraq has repatriated 370 of its nationals from the Belarus border with Lithuania, a government source said Wednesday (11 August), after accusations that Minsk has been encouraging unauthorised arrivals of migrants to the EU.

Latvian border guards turned back dozens of migrants into Belarus overnight under a new state of emergency designed to stem a flow of arrivals the European Union says is orchestrated by Minsk.

The European Union is not in a position to deal with a repeat of the migration crisis in 2015 and must try to keep people from fleeing the growing conflict in Afghanistan, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said.

Belarus has told the United States to reduce its embassy staff in Minsk and revoked its consent to the appointment of Julie Fisher as the ambassador in response to the latest sanctions by Washington, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Netherlands and Germany on Wednesday abruptly reversed course and said they would not for the time being deport Afghan citizens who are seeking asylum, given the rapidly escalating conflict in their homeland.

Spain's medicines agency has authorized the first round of clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Spanish company Hipra, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.

The European Union on Wednesday decried the jailing of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years in China for spying, saying he had been denied a "fair trial".

Latvia has declared a state of emergency along its border and Lithuania decided to erect a fence in new measures to deter migrants they say Belarus is encouraging to cross illegally in order to pressure European states, Reuters reports. Rising numbers of migrants have reached Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, which accuse Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the campaign to press the EU to reverse sanctions.

Authorities in Germany have appealed to thousands of people to get another shot of Covid vaccine after a police investigation found that a Red Cross nurse may have injected them with a saline solution instead, The Guardian writes. The nurse is suspected of injecting salt solution into people's arms instead of genuine doses at a vaccination centre in Friesland, a rural district near the North Sea coast.

A BBC investigation has revealed the scale of operations by a shadowy Russian mercenary group in Libya's civil war, which includes links to war crimes and the Russian military. A Samsung tablet left by a fighter for the Wagner group exposed its key role - as well as traceable fighter codenames. Wagner's fighters appeared in Libya in April 2019 when they joined the forces of a rebel general, Khalifa Haftar.

Ethiopian and Eritrean troops raped hundreds of women and girls during the Tigray war, Amnesty International said. "Rape and sexual violence have been used as a weapon of war to inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on women and girls in Tigray," said Amnesty's secretary-general Agnes Callamard, adding that "the severity and scale of the sexual crimes committed are particularly shocking, amounting to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."