EU validates Ukraine's candidacy, struggling in the face of Russian pressure
The European Union, meeting at a summit in Brussels, endorsed Ukraine's candidacy, a highly symbolic step nearly four months after the invasion launched by the Russian army, which continues to advance in the east through destructive bombing. Today “today marks a crucial step on your path to the EU”, “we have a future together”, said the President of the European Council Charles Michel on Twitter, congratulating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In his videoconference address to the representatives of the Twenty-Seven, he welcomed a political “victory”, which, according to him, his people had been waiting for since independence from the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1991.

The US Senate passes the Arms Control Act
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill supported by elected officials from the two main parties that is supposed to fight the wave of gun violence in the United States, with restrictions on access to guns and billions of dollars to fund mental health and health School safety. The bill, passed by 65 votes to 33 in the upper house and has every chance of being approved in the House of Representatives on Friday, falls far short of the measures requested by President Joe Biden, but it is still the first since decades and a breakthrough for supporters of gun control. This vote comes just a few hours after the United States Supreme Court — whose majority of judges are conservative — overturned the “restrictions” on the carrying of arms set out in a New York State law.

Covid-19: vaccines avoided 20 million deaths in 2021, according to a model
Vaccination against Covid-19 has prevented 19.8 million deaths out of a potential of 31.4 million during the first year following the introduction of vaccines in December 2021, according to a first large modelling study, published on Friday. The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is based on data from 185 countries and territories, from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021. It is the first to attempt to assess the deaths avoided directly and indirectly as a result of vaccination against Covid-19.
IN SHORT
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party suffered two crushing defeats in by-elections on Friday, particularly in a constituency in south-west England that has been held by the Tories for more than a century.
France, which says it is in a more “favourable” situation than its neighbours, is counting on gas stocks full to the maximum and on a new LNG terminal as early as next year to cope with the decline in Russian gas supplies.
Eight men were sentenced in Paris to up to two years in prison for stealing or transporting to Italy a Bataclan door decorated with a work by Banksy in tribute to the victims of the attacks of November 13.
The fact that no political force obtained an absolute majority in these general elections is “quite a good thing”, because it reinforces the role of the parliament, according to Odoxa polls for Le Figaro, BVA for RTL-Orange and Ifo-Fiducial for Sud Radio.
After an epic duel, Maxime Grousset advanced to the 50m freestyle final at the Budapest Worlds, where 18-year-old Mollie O'Callaghan became the youngest queen in the women's 100m freestyle in over 30 years.