Europe

BRUSSELS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.

PARIS -- France's new COVID-19 infections slowed to 13,563 on Thursday, while hospital admissions continued to fall as the government is unwinding restrictions and planning the vaccination campaign, official data showed.

Thursday's count took France's total number of infections since the outbreak to 2,183,660. The daily tally was down by 2,719 from a day before. Another 339 people died from the coronavirus, bringing the toll to 50,957.

PARIS (AP) — France is resuming collection of a special tax on Big Tech companies like Amazon and Facebook despite the threat of U.S. retaliatory tariffs on French Champagne, cheese, handbags and other goods.

The tax brought about 400 million euros to the French budget last year, but the government agreed to suspend it in 2020, in exchange for an American promise to drop the tariff threat pending talks on an international deal on taxing online companies.

LONDON (AP) — Britain plans to create a new watchdog to police big tech companies including Google and Facebook to counter their market dominance and prevent them from exploiting consumers and small businesses.

The U.K. government said Friday that it’s setting up a “Digital Markets Unit” next year to enforce a new code of conduct governing the behavior of tech giants that dominate the online advertising market.

The Digital Markets Unit, scheduled to launch in April, will oversee a new regulatory regime for tech companies that’s aimed at spurring more competition.

PARIS (AP) — A Black man beaten up by several French police officers said he is seeking justice after the publication of videos showing officers repeatedly punching him, using a truncheon and tear gas against him for no apparent reason.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the officers involved in the case suspended.

MINSK, November 26. /TASS/: Belarus is ready to overcome problems existing in the modern world together with Russia, including the coronavirus pandemic and the US ambitions for "the ultimate world domination," Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Thursday.

The Belarusian leader met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Minsk.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Russia’s aerospace forces conducted another successful tests of a new ballistic missile of the Russian missile defense system at the Sary-Shagan firing range in Kazakhstan, the Russian defense ministry said on Thursday.

"An operational crew of the air and missile defense troops of the Russian aerospace forces successfully test launched a new missile of the Russian missile defense system at the Sary-Shagan firing range in Kazakhstan," the ministry said.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Moscow’s authorities have extended self-isolation for people over the age of 65 and chronic patients, as well as remote work for companies’ personnel to January 15, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his blog on Thursday.

PARIS, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 60 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been detected worldwide, according to a tally from official sources.

In total 60,014,291 infections, including 1,415,258 million deaths, have been recorded around the world since the pandemic emerged in China late last year.

The tallies, using data collected from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries test only symptomatic cases or the most serious ones.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union can clinch a Brexit trade deal and the shape of one is clear, but London will not sign up to an accord at any cost, Britain’s finance minister said on Thursday.

With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit, both sides are trying to reach a trade deal that would avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis.

“With a constructive attitude and goodwill on all sides we can get there,” finance minister Rishi Sunak told Sky. “It’s clear what the shape of the deal looks like.”

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will probably have to stick with measures to dampen the coronavirus pandemic into January, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, while her chief of staff suggested that restrictions might be needed until March.

“Given the high number of infections, we assume that the restrictions which are in place before Christmas will continue to be valid until the start of January, certainly for most parts of Germany,” Merkel told parliament.