The European Union began a vaccine rollout Saturday, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain.

France recorded its first case of the new variant of coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 mounted in the country, increasing concerns of a new wave of the virus hitting the euro zone’s second-biggest economy.

Britain clinched a Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson held the fate of a post-Brexit trade deal in their hands yesterday as talks hung in the balance.

Three French police officers were shot dead when a man opened fire on them when they arrived at a house in a remote village in response to a call about domestic violence against a woman, police said today.

Europe's medicines regulator on Monday approved the use of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, putting the EU on course to start inoculations within a week.

The EU’s chief negotiator yesterday said there had been good progress in trade talks with Britain that aim to prevent a turbulent finale to the Brexit crisis in two weeks’ time.

European Union states will start vaccinations against Covid-19 in 10 days as Europe tries to catch up with Britain and United States after what some have criticised as a slow EU approval process for the shots.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday said that Britain and the European Union remain far apart, as he prepares to head to Brussels to try to salvage a post-Brexit trade deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the UN Security Council no longer provides good solutions to global problems, in remarks published yesterday, and called for an overhaul of international cooperation mechanisms.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in self-isolation yesterday after a contact tested positive for the coronavirus while spiralling infections in the United States saw stay-at-home measures imposed on Chicago, its third-biggest city.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said his country is fighting “Islamist separatism, never Islam”, responding to a Financial Times article that he claimed misquoted him and has since been removed from the newspaper’s website.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the “terrorist attack that took place in the centre of the Austrian capital Vienna,” reports Al Arabiya quoting the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered their countries back into lockdown on Wednesday, as a massive second wave of coronavirus infections threatened to overwhelm Europe before the winter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday said it was now time to prepare for a no-trade deal Brexit unless the European Union fundamentally changed course, bluntly telling Brussels that there was no point in talking any more.

European leaders meet yesterday seemingly determined to resist pressure from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to give ground in post-Brexit trade negotiations.

France imposed curfews while other European nations are closing schools, canceling surgeries and enlisting student medics as overwhelmed authorities face the nightmare scenario of a Covid-19 resurgence at the onset of winter.

Earth’s surface was warmer last month than during any September on record, with temperatures since January tracking those of the hottest ever calendar year in 2016, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme said yesterday.

The German government said yesterday that laboratories in France and Sweden have confirmed its own findings that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

The European Union stepped up planning for a “no-deal” Brexit yesterday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government refused to revoke a plan to break the divorce treaty that Brussels says will sink four years of talks.