Belgium

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Negotiators from the European Union are expected to travel to London on Thursday to resume talks with Britain, two EU sources said, a move, that if confirmed, would mark a new push to protect billions of dollars worth of trade.

Both the EU and Britain have spent days calling on the other side to offer more concessions in talks, which have been all but deadlocked since the summer, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson walked away from the negotiations last week.

20 Oct 2020; MEMO: The son of an Iraqi refugee who emigrated to Belgium in 1970 has become the country’s new minister for migration and asylum.

Sammy Mahdi, 32 of the Flemish Christian democrats has served as the leader of the Young Christian Democrats and nearly became Flemish Christian democrat leader last year.

Mr. Mahdi said in statements to local media that he intends to increase the number of deportations of asylum seekers whose files had been rejected by the Belgian authorities.

BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU’s diplomatic chief welcomed President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is ready to remove Sudan from a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

The move, a major boost for Sudan’s civilian-backed government after decades as an international pariah, came after Khartoum agreed to a $335 million compensation package for victims and relatives of past attacks, Trump wrote on Twitter.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain said on Monday the door was still open if the European Union wanted to make some small concessions to save Brexit trade talks, but that unless the bloc budged there would be a no-deal exit in 10 weeks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday there was no point in continuing talks and it was time to prepare for a no-deal departure when Britain’s informal EU membership - known as the transition period - ends on Dec. 31.

BRUSSELS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A pan-European telecoms association has warned against banning Chinese equipment vendors, saying that the consequences would be costs increase and delay of 5G networks deployment.

In a recent statement, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) said it "denounces any bans of Chinese 5G suppliers for geopolitical reasons and emphasizes that such decisions can only be justified on the basis of well-established facts."

BRUSSELS (AP) — Bars and restaurants across Belgium shut down for a month and a night-time curfew took effect Monday as health authorities warned of a possible “tsunami” of new virus cases in the hard-hit nation that host the European Union’s headquarters.

The new measures aim to limit social interactions to slow down the exponential growth of the pandemic in the nation of 11.5 million people. The new surge of coronavirus cases has already prompted several hospitals to delay non-essential operations to focus on treating COVID-19 cases.

BRUSSELS, October 17. /TASS/: Relations between Russia and the European Union have reached their lowest level in recent years after sanctions in connection with the incident with opposition blogger Alexey Navalny, Russia's Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told reporters on Saturday.

"This decision [of the Council of the EU] confirmed our worst fears that relations between Russia and the EU will be brought to their lowest level in recent years," he said, noting that currently there is "little left" of Russia’s trust in the EU.

17 Oct 2020; MEMO: Europe’s main powers on Friday condemned the Israeli intention to approve thousands of settlement units in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, a joint statement announced.

BRUSSELS, October 16. /TASS/: Reasoning behind the EU’s decisions on introducing anti-Russian sanctions over the incident with Russian blogger Alexey Navalny borders on the absurd, while the decisions themselves infringe on the UN functions, the statement of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union made public on Friday said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders have agreed to hold video conferences almost on a weekly basis to coordinate national measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, as the continent battles a spike in infections.

Video-conferences are less effective for reaching complex compromises, diplomats say, though they are more practical at present than in-person meetings that increase the risks of infection among leaders and their staff.