European Union

The move, affecting about 400 flights per day, is a reaction to the shocking arrest of a journalist last month after Belarusian officials forced his plane Greece-to-Lithuania flight to land in Minsk.

The new policy is expected to allow EU members to admit travelers from the U.S. and other countries where people have received vaccines that are authorized in the EU.

The European Commission has said the online giant got a sweetheart deal from Luxembourg that amounted to "illegal state aid" worth $303 million.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is formally recommending that nonresident travelers who are vaccinated against COVID-19 be allowed to travel to the EU.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview "We don't want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we have to be ready for that. If you want peace then prepare for war,"

The European Union concluded the deal with China after seven years of negotiations. Last week, the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden had urged the EU to wait.

The agreement comes a week before the Brexit transition period ends. The pact averts a worst-case divorce that would have hurt the EU economy but damaged the British economy even more.

Hours after the EU's drug agency signed off on the vaccine, the European Commission approved its use, clearing the way for inoculations to begin across Europe.

The two sides have been trying to hammer out the details of a post-Brexit world for most of the year. Talks will continue ahead of a fast-approaching deadline, leaders announced on Sunday.

Poland and Hungary had blocked the EU budget over a provision requiring each member nation to uphold the bloc's rule-of-law principles. The two nations are under investigation for not doing so.