⊂ EUROPE ⊃

EU investigates possible Russian involvement in refugee conflict with Belarus: Brussels has Moscow „on its radar“ because of flights of refugees to Minsk, EU Commission spokesman Peter Stano said on Tuesday. Press reports had said that Russian airline Aeroflot was transporting refugees to Belarus, who were then taken to the EU’s external borders. The EU Commission is „investigating flights from Russia and the possible involvement of Russia in general“, Stano said. He accused Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of a „gangster-style approach“. Russia, meanwhile, blamed the West for the situation.
faz.net, france24.com, orf.at

• Two large groups of illegal migrants have managed to break through the Polish border from the territory of Belarus, according to a Polish media reports welt.de
• The EU is preparing to hit Belarus with fresh sanctions as early as Monday politico.eu
• Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki: „Today the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake.“ dw.com
• EU Council President Michel meets Morawiecki this Wednesday rnd.de
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko „exchanged views on the situation with refugees“ at Belarus‘ borders, according to a Kremlin statement Tuesday cnn.com
• Lithuania’s parliament on Tuesday declared a state of emergency at the country’s border with Belarus reuters.com

Fleeing the Taliban: US Department of Homeland Security announces fee exemptions, streamlined processing for Afghan nationals as they resettle in the United States. dhs.gov

Illegal immigration: Spanish judge jails 12 passengers who fled plane after emergency medical landing. english.elpais.com

Climate Change Performance Index: Scandinavia is role model for ambitious climate protection: The top three spots on the index remained empty again this year as not a single country is on a pathway to keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius – the Paris Agreement threshold for warming. Denmark, Sweden and Norway were top of the class, placing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively thanks to the strides made in green energy expansion and climate policy. France, Luxembourg and Germany have moved into the „green zone“ on the index’s rating table thanks to improvements in their performance. Despite countries‘ new and updated climate pledges, the world is on track for 2.4 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, if not more, according to a new analysis.
dw.com, cnn.com

• Germany joins initiative to phase out financing of fossil energies abroad by end of 2022 zeit.de
• At least six major automakers — including Ford, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors and Volvo — and 31 national governments pledged on Wednesday to work toward phasing out sales of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 worldwide, and by 2035 in “leading markets” nytimes.com
• A first draft of the final declaration of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow will be discussed this Wednesday zdf.de
• Arrests during protests on sidelines of climate conference orf.at
• Mali: Conflict and drought drive hundreds of thousands to flee rnd.de

Energy supplies: French President Emmanuel Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors. reuters.com

Russia’s Gazprom says gas to flow into EU storage this month. bloomberg.com

Booster shots will be required for health pass in France: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that those aged 65 and older will need to present proof of a COVID-19 booster shot from mid-December for health passes.
cnbc.com

• France advises against Moderna for under-30s over rare heart risk france24.com
• Moderna files coronavirus vaccine for kids aged 6-11 in EU politico.eu
• Dutch hospitals sound alarm as eastern Europe reports record daily Covid deaths euronews.com
• Ukraine hits another record for daily coronavirus deaths washingtonpost.com
• Denmark wants to reintroduce phased-out coronavirus pass abcnews.go.com
• Latvia’s lockdown to end in mid-November handelsblatt.com
• Italy to relocate protests against Covid pass nau.ch

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Covid has led to re-kindling of antisemitism across Europe: COVID-19 has led to a „re-kindling“ of antisemitism across Europe as conspiracy theories circulate online that blame Jews for the pandemic, the European Agency for Fundamental Rights warned on Tuesday. The agency collates data from civil society groups across the continent. It warned that Germany and France had seen the biggest increases. In other countries a lack of data could be masking increases.
euronews.com

Brexit: Ireland starts making contingency plans for UK trade war with EU theguardian.com
Street protests against abortion law: European Parliament set to condemn Poland’s abortion rules politico.eu
European People’s Party (EPP): Vice-President of the European Parliament, Othmar Karas, wants to become EU Parliament President orf.at
EU court: Child entitled to refugee status of his parents zdf.de
Amazon seeking to settle EU antitrust investigations, sources say reuters.com
EPI initiative: Seven EU countries are pushing for a uniform European payment system wiwo.de

⊂ QUOTE OF THE DAY ⊃

„We need to avoid having the review as just another chapter of an old story, in which old statements are repeated.“
Monday’s meeting of the eurozone finance ministers was the first opportunity to discuss the review of the EU’s economic governance framework. EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said he hoped for a fresh start in the debate.
euractiv.com

⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃

Police shoot dead man in Norway who threatened passers-by with a knife : Norwegian police say they have shot and killed an armed man who was threatening passers-by in Oslo. Police said they were alerted to a „serious“ incident in the north of the capital on Tuesday morning. Norwegian media published footage of the alleged attacker, naked from the waist up and wielding a knife. Police initially suggested that passers-by had been wounded, but later said that only one police officer was slightly hurt. „We have so far no information that this is terror-related,” Senior Police Chief Egil Joergen Brekke told a news conference.
euronews.com

French police arrest three suspects in Cannes stabbing case: Three people thought to be linked to the suspect who stabbed a police officer in Cannes on Monday have also been arrested and taken into custody, according to French police. “They are relatives, one of the people worked for him and another housed him,” a police source told Le Parisien, adding that the assailant owned “a small masonry company.” The 37-year-old suspect, named as Lakhdar B., an Algerian national according to his passport and holding an Italian permit, attacked police officers in a vehicle Monday outside Cannes police station.
politico.eu

German president remembers anti-Jewish pogrom 83 years ago: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday marked the 83rd anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom that was labelled “Kristallnacht” — the “Night of Broken Glass” — when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorised Jews throughout Germany and Austria. Steinmeier also pointed out that other significant events also happened on 9 November: in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, sending East Germans flooding west and setting in motion events that soon led to the country’s reunification. And in 1918, when Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed Germany a republic at the end of World War I. “November 9th is an ambivalent day, a bright and a dark day,” Steinmeier said. “It makes our hearts pound and brings tears to our eyes. It makes us hope for the good that is in our country, and it makes us despair in the face of its abysses.”
apnews.com

Czech president taps Fiala to lead new government: Ailing Czech President Milos Zeman on Tuesday asked the head of the SPOLU (Together) Coalition, Petr Fiala, to form a new government. The mandate, made public via a press release from Zeman’s office, marked the beginning of the end of the controversial reign of outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
politico.eu

France’s Macron delays pension reform till after 2022 election: President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that given the COVID-19 epidemic, conditions were not right to press ahead with a planned overhaul of France’s costly pensions system. The controversial reform was a key plank of Macron’s 2017 election platform but was interrupted by the pandemic.
reuters.com

Serbia: Police detain activist over war crimes protest reuters.com
Czechia meets Poland at EU Court after bilateral talks failed euractiv.com
France officially signs over artworks taken from ex-colony Benin reuters.com
Athens and Rome ratify agreement on maritime border – sending a signal above all to Turkey, which is in dispute with Greece over natural gas reserves sueddeutsche.de
Georgia: Tens of thousands demand release of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili de.euronews.com

⊂ POLITJOBS ⊃

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⊂ LAST BUT NOT LEAST ⊃

Czech Republic wants to convince vaccination opponents with shock campaign: The Czech Republic wants to use a new shock campaign to convince Covid vaccine opponents to rethink their decision. One picture, for example, shows a dead man being placed in a blue body bag in an intensive care unit. This is accompanied by the text: „He had many excuses.“ Another photo shows a coffin, next to it the sentence: „She kept putting off vaccination“. Outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babis spoke in advance of a „brutal campaign“ inspired by the chilling images and warnings on cigarette packets.
orf.at