Russia wants more respect for its role in defeating the Nazis in World War 2, its EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, says in an op-ed.

70 years later, after decades of comparative peace, todays European Union - perhaps the world's greatest experiment in state integration - finds itself at a crossroads.

The EU's top court, the European Court of Justice, warned Friday the bloc's legal order could unravel if national courts started to question the primacy of EU law and ECJ decisions. In an unprecedented statement, after the German Constitutional Court's ruling on the European Central Bank diverging from an earlier ECJ decision, the ECJ said it alone has the right to rule on EU institutions and interpret EU law.

Estonia is marking 75 years since the end of WW2 on European soil on Friday at a vide-meeting of the UN Security Council, which it currently chairs. The event, which is public and live-streamed, will discuss "lessons learned to prevent future atrocities" and "the responsibility of the Security Council", which has failed to stop egregious war crimes in Syria in recent times. US historian Timothy Snyder will also take part.

Worldwide, there are now 3.86m people confirmed to be infected by the coronavirus, of which 1.22m have officially recovered, Reuters reports. The total number of deaths stands at 268,554. The United States counts for the highest number of cases - 1.26m. Per capita, Qatar has the highest number of cases: 667 cases per 100,000 people. Belgium has the highest number of deaths: 71.

Polish ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is trying to turn the country into a Roman Catholic dictatorship, Poland's former foreign minister has said.

A plan to relocate, from Greece, 1,600 unaccompanied minors seeking asylum to other member states have so far netted 59 transfers. Twelve minors have been sent to Luxembourg and 47 to Germany. The European Commission says Portugal and Slovenia are next to take some in. They hope to relocate the remaining minors over the next few months.

MEPs said the Czech PM should fully resolve the possible conflict of interest in a company that receives EU funds - or resign.

Such claims, based on internal reports four years ago, fall far from the truth, and are mainly based on conjectures and presumptions. The so-called 'Chinese espionage menace' is nothing new and has time and again been proven fictitious.

Support services for victims and witnesses, the police and other relevant authorities are stretched to the limits because of staff shortages, travel restrictions or other demands related to Covid-19.

The European Commission is floating plans to beef up the fight against money-laundering, including possibly giving a supervisor role to the European Banking Authority. Yet the authority's board refused to act on a €200bn money-laundering scandal involving Danske Bank.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called agreeing to Chinese censorship on the origins of coronavirus "misguided". Nevertheless, he said diplomacy works like that in China.

"The coronavirus has ending blowing up the model of global multilateral governance that has been functioning over the past few years," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a group of reporters on Thursday.

For the second time in a week, journalists in Berlin have been attacked by anti-lockdown protesters, Deutsche Welle reports. Each time a TV crew with camera were attacked when they approached a group of people protesting against measures to contain the coronavirus. Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas condemned the attacks, saying on Twitter "those who attack journalists also attack our democracy."

Prime minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday that France does not rule out of re-imposing a lockdown if coronavirus cases increase, Reuters reported. "We have always said that we would rather not have to, if possible, resort [to a new lockdown] but also that, in the event that there was no other option, we would not rule it out," Philippe said. French lockdown will be partially lifted on Monday.

Belgium's supermarkets have seen an increase in takings of more than €500m since the lockdown was installed mid-March, Le Soir writes. Compared to last year that is an increase of 10 percent. The uptick in sale was mainly for alcohol, food and cleaning products. At the beginning of the lockdown, people massively over-bought toilet paper and frozen foods, but those sales are today back to normal.

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told MEPs that "the demand for child sexual abuse material has increased by up to 30 percent in some member states." Her comments were among a number of examples of criminal behavoir that has erupted since the pandemic outbreak. She said criminals also tried to cheat authorities out of €50m by selling them non-existent face masks.

The Bank of England on Thursday warned that the UK economy is heading towards its deepest recession on record, as the British economy will shrink by 14 percent this year. The Covid-19 pandemic was "dramatically reducing jobs and incomes in the UK", it said. Bank governor Andrew Bailey told the BBC there would be no quick return to normality. The EU has forecast an eight-percent contraction for the UK.

Poland is now aiming to hold its presidential election on 12 July instead of 10 May, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party spokesman Radosław Fogiel said Thursday. The 10 May vote was to take place by post amid the coronavirus emergency. It also favoured PiS-loyalist and incumbent Andrzej Duda, the EU, civil society, and Polish opposition politicians feared. Polish MPs, also on Thursday, passed a new law allowing postal voting.

Doctors and nurses around the world are asking tech giants to correct the record on health misinformation and tweak their algorithms which decide what people get to see on social media platforms.

The app would need to be paired with more than 100,000 daily tests in order to have effect. And far more than 60 percent of the population will need to use the app in order for it to be effective.

The EU has restated its accession promises to Western Balkan aspirants, while tacitly warning them on Chinese and Russian influence.

The chief of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Wednesday that "the risk of returning to lockdown remains very real if countries do not manage the transition extremely carefully and in a phased approach" during a virtual briefing. Previously, the WHO established a list of conditions to lift restrictive measures in place to stop the spread of coronaviruses, such as surveillance control and healthcare preparedness.

Denmark is set to reopen shopping malls, cafes and restaurants from next Monday (11 May) when older children will also return to school as the country enters the second phase of easing its coronavirus lockdown, Reuters reported. Daycare centres and primary schools were allowed to open their doors two weeks ago, followed by other small businesses. Daily infections and hospital admission have been steadily decreasing.

Debt levels around Europe, especially in southern states, forecast to rise alarmingly, but EU commission remained confident countries can manage, despite fears of a second viral wave.

Oxford University study says fiscal stimulus for green projects offer higher returns on government spending in the short and long term than traditional incentives on fossil fuels.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) have said that at least 90,000 healthcare workers worldwide are believed to have been infected with Covid-19, and possibly twice that, amid reports of continuing shortages of protective equipment, the Guardian reports. The disease has killed more than 260 nurses. The ICN urges authorities to keep more accurate records to help prevent the virus from spreading among staff and patients.

The Belgian National Security Council, where all governments are represented, has decided to reopen all shops from 11 May onward, prime minister Sophie Wilmès announced at a press conference, adding "only one customer for every 10 square metres is allowed, and this for maximum half an hour". Bars, restaurants, markets and museums will remain closed. People are also allowed to see four extra people, instead of the current one person.

Lockdowns in response to the coronavirus mean quieter cities, clearer skies and easier breathing. For many city dwellers the lack of cars has been a revelation amid the suffering and loss inflicted by Covid-19.

The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania plan to open their mutual borders on 15 May for their residents, prime ministers of the countries said on Wednesday. However, people arriving from any other country to the Baltic three will have to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine. Most member states within the EU's passport-free Schengen zone have closed their borders in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.

MEPs have voiced concern over the definition of "fossil fuel sectors" used by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) in their consultation paper on technical standards for environmental, social and governance disclosure for financial market participants. "ESA's definition is in striking contradiction with the disclosure and taxonomy regulations, climate science and commonly used definitions," MEPs said in a letter. ESA's paper defines "fossil fuels" as solid fossil fuels only.

The eurozone will contract by a record 7.75 percent in 2020 but grow by 6.25 percent in 2021, the EU Commission said in its economic forecast on Wednesday. The EU-wide economy is to contract by 7.5 percent this year and grow by around six percent in 2021. The sharpest drop is estimated in Greece with 9.7 percent, in Italy with 9.5 percent and in Spain by 9.4 percent.

Six Western-Balkans leaders will sit down with the 27 EU ones in a videoconference summit on Wednesday that was to have taken place in Zagreb as the centrepiece of the Croatian EU presidency. "The summit itself is the message, to say: we want you to join," an EU diplomat told Reuters, adding: "We will also say that you cannot pander to the Chinese and the Russians when it suits you".

Sicily's regional government is offering to subsidise holidays on the island for both domestic and international visitors in an effort to kickstart tourism after the coronavirus pandemic, the Guardian writes. Current plans include subsidising visitors' accommodation costs, as well as vouchers for cultural and heritage activities. It may also pay for up to half of the cost of flights, but this has not been confirmed yet.

Panama, the Bahamas, and Mauritius are to be added to an EU blacklist of countries on Thursday that "pose significant threats to the financial system of the [European] Union" on money-laundering grounds due to lax legislation at home, Reuters reports, citing a draft EU document. Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe are also on the list, meaning EU banks must do enhanced due diligence on transactions.

The US has elevated its ambassador to Belgium, former businessman Ronald J. Gidwitz, to the post of caretaker ambassador to the EU, it said Tuesday, adding he will "advance a strong US-EU partnership", help Europe in its economic recovery after the pandemic, and promote "our shared interests and values across the globe." The last US ambassador to the EU, businessman Gordon Sondland, left in disgrace over a Ukraine blackmail scandal.

The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK reached 29,427 Tuesday, surpassing Italy (29,029), to become Europe's worst-struck country and the second-worst globally after the US, while prompting calls for a public enquiry into government handling of the crisis. "I really don't like this league table of who's top and who's not, but there's no denying that these are really serious numbers," Cambridge University expert David Spiegelhalter told The Guardian.

Germans might be able to go abroad on holiday this summer, tourism minister Thomas Bareiss told Germany's Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on Tuesday. "I hope that, given the good numbers [on coronavirus infections], we will be able to relax the restrictions in the next four to eight weeks," he said. "I would not yet write off other regions in Europe, such as the Balearic islands or the Greek islands," Bareiss added.

France will not make a decision on holidays until early June - while Germany is warning against a "race to allow tourism first", and some smaller EU states, such as Greece, Denmark and Austria, are considering allowing foreign holidays.

The German Constitutional court ordered the European Central Bank to explain its 2015 bond-buying scheme that helped eurozone stay afloat - otherwise the German Bundesbank will not be allowed to take part.

Romania violated the rights of its former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi when they fired hire. The judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg follows a long catalogue of high-level corruption in Romania.

If the North-South divide is bridged by a significantly increased EU-budget for the next seven years, anti-democratic governments should not continue to benefit.

It is too soon to deliver a verdict on the Swedish 'non-lockdown'. However, should Stockholm succeed in containing the virus without bringing its economy to a standstill, Sweden will enter the looming economic recession in a much better shape.

Chinese spies have targeted Belgian biological warfare experts, vaccine-maker GSK, and other high-tech firms in the country, Belgium's intelligence service suspects.

The EU will insist on progress on fisheries and level-playing fields, in talks with Britain on their future relationship, parallel to the trade deal, Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said Monday after talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Negotiations have stalled as the UK pushes for sectorial, streamlined agreements, while the EU wants a comprehensive deal. June is the deadline for any extension to the December 2020 exit date.

A new report from the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) on the implementation of the EU Commission's 2018 code of practice on disinformation reveals "significant weaknesses" linked to the lack of transparency and voluntary approach. ERGA proposes shifting from the current flexible self-regulatory approach to co-regulatory. The code targeted companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.