Euobserver.com

The Belgian federal and regional governments have decided to ease Covid-19 rules from 1 September on. Restrictions for bars and restaurants will disappear, as well as all restrictions for private meetings and parties, where dancing will be allowed again. Teleworking is no longer recommended. However, Brussels minister-president Rudi Vervoort (PS) said that the rules will not be eased in the capital as the vaccination level remains too low.

With just five weeks to go until Germany's parliamentary elections, the two parties in the current ruling coalition are set to win similar numbers of votes, according to a recent poll published by research institute INSA on Sunday, Deutsche Welle reports. The centre-right conservative bloc (CDU/CSU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) polled equally at 22 percent for the first time in an INSA poll since April 2017.

EU proposal to let Big Tech organise algorithms for the public sector is creating a dangerous but invisible injustice. Regardless, the EU proposal conceded to key industry demands on self-regulation and the promotion of AI in the public sector.

EU Commission chief said the EU executive was ready to provide funding for EU countries that helped resettle refugees and planned to raise the resettlement issue at a G7 meeting on Tuesday

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres described the humanitarian situation in parts of Ethiopia as "hellish" and said there is no military solution to the conflict in Tigray and neighbouring regions, Deutsche Welle reports. Guterres called for a ceasefire and the safe passage of humanitarian aid to devastated areas. He urged an Ethiopia-led political dialogue to find a solution to the conflict.

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described developments in Afghanistan as "a catastrophe" on Thursday and said there had been a failure of intelligence to anticipate the Taliban's rapid return to power. Speaking to MEPs, Borrell said that about 100 EU staff and 400 Afghans working with the EU and their families had been evacuated, but that 300 more Afghans were still trying to leave.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have shot and killed a relative of a Deutsche Welle journalist while hunting for him, the German public broadcaster said Thursday. The militants were conducting a house-to-house search for the journalist, who now works in Germany. A second relative was seriously wounded, but others were able to escape, AFP reports. The Taliban had raided the homes of at least three other DW journalists.

Poland's ruling party and the Roman Catholic church have put a Polish region at risk of losing €2.5bn by enforcing its anti-LGBTI "declaration".

UK poultry producers have warned that serious staff shortages caused by Brexit could mean there are not enough turkeys to go round this Christmas, The Guardian reported. The British Poultry Council said its members told them that one in six jobs were unfilled as a result of EU workers leaving the UK after Brexit, meaning the supply of turkeys could decline by 20 percent at Christmas.

The Greek government is seeking help from abroad to replace its ground firefighting teams which are at the brink of exhaustion after three weeks of battling against massive wildfires, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports. Greek firefighters had been helped by foreign teams. Athens has agreed with Poland to retain the firefighters who arrived in Greece on 9 August, and has been in contact with other countries for additional ground team assistance.

EU strategic autonomy matters to Beijing because in the latter's reading, the US is trying to use the EU to contain China.

An illegal rave in Italy lasted six days and turned into complete chaos, while the police was unable to end the party.

Malta's attorney general has called for a life sentence for businessman Yorgen Fenech for allegedly masterminding the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which rocked the country four years ago, The Guardian reports. The attorney general, Victoria Buttigieg, laid formal charges against Fenech, who was arrested in November 2019 trying to leave Malta on his yacht, and who is accused of complicity in the murder and related criminal conspiracy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Afghanistan will no longer be able to access the lender's resources, the BBC reports. An IMF spokesperson said it was due to "lack of clarity within the international community" over recognising a government in Afghanistan. Resources of over €314m from the IMF had been set to arrive on 23 August. These funds were part of a global IMF response to the economic crisis.

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi told his Russian and Chinese counterparts that Tehran was ready to cooperate with the two countries to establish "stability and peace" in Afghanistan, AFP writes. "Iran is ready to cooperate with China to establish security, stability, and peace in Afghanistan and strive for its people's development, progress, and prosperity," Raisi told China's president Xi Jinping by phone, giving a similar message to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Nearly 100 highly paid bankers left Britain ahead of its departure from the EU, the bloc's banking watchdog said, Reuters reports. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in its annual survey of bankers earning €1m euros or more a year that Britain saw a drop of 95 high earners in 2019. The country still accounted for 71 percent of the top-paid bankers across the bloc in 2019.

Migration from Afghanistan is likely to increase under Taliban rule, the European Union said on Wednesday, calling on member states to ramp up admission quotas for Afghans in need of protection, particularly for women and girls, Reuters writes. "The instability in Afghanistan is likely to lead to increased migratory pressure," Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who is responsible for migration and asylum in the EU's executive Commission, said in a statement.

The Taliban will collapse if its hardline ethos is undermined and rival factions start playing ball with other extremist groups.

EU ministers have condemned Belarus' use of refugees to "attack" Europe, as Lithuania called for sanctions against countries and companies helping Minsk to do it.

Counterfeiters face prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to €150,000. Those who use fake health passes could spend three years behind bars.