About 1,500 people demonstrating against Slovakia's coronavirus policies blocked traffic in Bratislava on Thursday, demanding the government to withdraw a new law on vaccination rules, news wires reported. Police said the protesters were blocking one of the most important thoroughfares in central Bratislava. Some of the protesters said they planned to stay through the night and into the days beyond.

Germany's annual consumer price inflation accelerated by more than expected to hit a 13-year-high in July, rising further above the European Central Bank's target of close to but below 2%, the Federal Statistics Office said on Thursday.

Mario Draghi is struggling to hold together his coalition government due to divisions over a proposed justice reform which is contested by the 5-Star Movement, the largest ruling party, and by many Italian prosecutors, Reuters reports.

Spain's prime minister on Thursday announced that existing measures to protect the most vulnerable from the pandemic’s economic fallout will be prolonged until the end of October, AP reports.

The European Commission publishes on Thursday the reports by Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Microsoft and Google on measures taken in June to combat coronavirus disinformation. The current signatories and the Commission are also calling on new companies to join the Code of Practice on disinformation as it will help broaden its impact and make it more effective. EC Press service reported.

Rescue teams in western Germany searched for five missing workers Wednesday at an industrial park for chemical companies a day after an explosion killed at least two people and injured 31 others.

All EU Member States have committed to work together, along with the European Commission and the European Space Agency, to build the EuroQCI, a secure quantum communication infrastructure that will span the whole EU. Such high-performing, secure communications networks will be essential to meeting Europe's cybersecurity needs in the years to come, the EC announced.

The European Commission on Tuesday signed a joint procurement framework contract with the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Smith Kline for the supply of sotrovimab (VIR-7831), an investigational monoclonal antibody therapy, developed in collaboration with VIR biotechnology, EC Press service reported on Wednesday. It is part of the first portfolio of five promising therapeutics announced by the Commission in June 2021, and is currently under rolling review by the European Medicines Agency.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Paris owed “a debt” to French Polynesia over nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific territory between 1966 and 1996, but stopped short of apologising, news wires reported. “This debt is from having conducted these tests, in particular those between 1966 and 1974,” Macron said in a speech to Polynesian officials during his first official trip to the territory, adding that there should be better compensation for victims of the tests.

The European Commission published an interactive map showcasing Covid-19 vaccine production capacities in the EU, along the entire supply chain. The mapping tool is based on data gained through the work of the Task Force for Industrial Scale-up of Covid-19 vaccine production, on data collected during the matchmaking event organised by the Commission in March, as well as publicly available information and information shared by Member States.