Europe

178 Sep 2021; MEMO: A Dutch court will hear an appeal next week against Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and co-defendant Amir Eshel for their alleged role in the murder of a family during Israel's 2014 military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

18 Sep 2021; MEMO: The UK today removed Turkey from its red coronavirus travel list, allowing travel without compulsory hotel quarantine on arrival, and so easing travel and tourism between the two countries, Anadolu Agency reports.

With the latest update, Britain's traffic light system is now scraped and a simpler, "go" and "don't go" system was introduced.

PARIS (AP) — America’s oldest ally, France, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger that dwarfed decades of previous rifts.

The relationship conceived in 18th century revolutions appeared at a tipping point after the U.S., Australia and Britain shunned France in creating a new Indo-Pacific security arrangement.

It was the first time ever France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S., according to the French foreign ministry. Paris also recalled its envoy to Australia.

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/: Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has thanked Russian head of state Vladimir Putin for assistance in the evacuation of Finland's nationals from Kabul, Kremlin press service said in a statement on Friday following a telephone conversation between the two presidents.

"[The parties] touched upon the situation in Afghanistan. Sauli Niinisto expressed gratitude for Russia's assistance to Finland in the Kabul evacuation effort," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/: The military administrative bodies of Russia and Belarus have demonstrated full compatibility of the controls and a high level of interaction at the Zapad-2021 military exercises, Deputy Chief of General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces Sergey Istrakov said on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin is backing the opinion of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who earlier castigated the ‘progress’ on the Donbass peace talks as pitiable, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday.

"Absolutely," Peskov said in response to a question on whether the Kremlin agreed with this assessment.

Commenting on how this situation could be changed, the Kremlin spokesman noted that, perhaps, "one could influence Kiev, urging it to implement the Minsk agreements."

BERLIN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Call it the Angela Merkel effect. Less than two weeks before a national election many German voters still seem unable to get over the fact that the four-term chancellor is not running.

A survey by Allensbach institute for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper showed this week that a record 40% of those planning to vote on Sept. 26 have not yet decided how, with most saying they were just not drawn to any of the contenders.

GENEVA, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization's chief looks set to run unopposed for a second term at the helm as tries to guide the world through its biggest health crisis in a century, sources said.

However, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lacks the support of his native Ethiopia due to friction over the Tigray conflict, the sources told Reuters.

Exactly how he will be nominated ahead of the deadline for nominations next week is unclear amid opposition from the Addis Ababa government, they said.

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Global goals tackling poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change face a $100 trillion funding shortfall and are likely to be missed unless 10% of global economic output is directed to the U.N. targets every year to 2030, a report on Friday said.

The U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals set targets on everything from the environment to health and equality and have the support of all member states, yet the supply of finance from governments, investors, banks and companies to help meet them has consistently fallen short.

MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russian opposition activists accused Alphabet's Google and Apple of caving to Kremlin pressure on Friday after the U.S. tech giants removed an anti-government tactical voting app from their stores on the first day of a parliamentary election.

The app, devised by allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, gives people detailed recommendations on who to vote for in an effort to thwart the ruling United Russia party which supports President Vladimir Putin.