EU agrees future human rights sanctions

A European citizens' initiative — signed by 1.4 million people — saw the EU Commission promise to ban cages for 300 million farmed animals. Then the farming lobby got involved.

This week, EU and Chinese leaders will meet in Beijing to discuss how to cooperate in the international area despite their rivalry. Meanwhile, a marathon trilogue on the five migration files takes place on Thursday.

Closing the gap between what's needed and what's actually distributed is one of the main topics at the COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai on Monday. One problem is that no one knows how much is actually being spent.

The optics of a nine-fold increase of annual funding for Israel, in the middle of its devastating military campaign in Gaza, stands in contrast with the attempted suspension, delaying and constraining of EU development aid for the Palestinians.

Palestinians in south Gaza will have to flee to new safe zones, Israel's EU and Nato envoy tells EUobserver, as the war enters its next phase.

The Spanish government remains secretive about its negotiations with pro-independence Catalans, but claims the EU Commission has "zero concerns" about their proposed amnesty law for Catalan separatists. The EU executive denies that.