Nearly 550,000 people have been infected globally and over 24,000 have died from the coronavirus pandemic as it continues to upend daily life and economic activity in 176 countries and territories.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says peace talks will begin this month after meeting with separatist president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, in Barcelona.
The National Electoral Board took the decision to strip regional Catalan President Quim Torra of his seat after a Catalan court barred him last month from public office during 18 months for disobedience.
Far-right party Vox became the third-largest party in Spain's parliament following a national election on Sunday, winning 52 seats, up from 24 at its debut in April.
"This cannot continue. Barcelona does not deserve it," Mayor Ada Colau told reporters, adding that Friday's violence was the worst so far.
Young people draped in Catalan flags congregated peacefully, tossing balls and skipping rope. Later the mood turned ugly, with protesters setting fire to cafe chairs on the fashionable Rambla de Catalunya street at the heart of the tourist district.
Pro-independence regional chief Quim Torra says a new vote would have to be held to decide on self-determination for Catalonia, as more than 100 protesters were injured in overnight clashes.
Pro-independence groups staged sit-ins outside Spanish government offices in a number of Catalan cities for a second day of protest against Spain's jailing of Catalan leaders.
More than 100 migrants stranded off the Italian coast cannot find a home, as Italy refuses to let them ashore until EU states offer them sanctuary.
Around 200,000 people march through Barcelona against the high-profile trial of Catalan separatist leaders that started this week, which they dismiss as a farce.
A dozen defendants are being tried on rebellion and other charges stemming from their roles in pushing ahead with a unilateral independence declaration of Catalonia in October 2017.
The weekly cabinet meeting usually takes place in Madrid but Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist government decided to hold it in the Catalan capital, igniting protests.
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