Europe

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov opened a hatch of the Poisk docking compartment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to begin their spacewalk for integrating the Nauka multi-purpose laboratory module.

"The hatch is open and the time of the extravehicular activity begins," a Mission Control specialist said during talks broadcast on NASA’s website.

Cosmonaut Dubrov will be the first to go into space and will be followed by Novitsky.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 3. /TASS/: Despite developments in Afghanistan, the West is reluctant to stop imposing its standards on other countries, and developed countries aren’t providing enough assistance to others in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) on Friday.

TASS has put together the most important and striking statements from the president’s address.

GENEVA, Sept 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations warned that weather-related disasters have skyrocketed over the past half-century, causing far more damage even as better warning systems have meant fewer deaths.

A report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) examined mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes between 1970 and 2019.

It found that such disasters have increased fivefold during that period, driven largely by a warming planet, and warned the upward trend would continue.

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Britain has started shipping COVID-19 vaccines to delegates attending global climate talks it is hosting next month who cannot access them at home, with the first shots to be delivered next week.

The COP26 conference, postponed from last year, takes place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow.

BRUSSELS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday he supported European Union plans to build a common defence policy but he warned against any rapid reaction force that might duplicate allied operations.

EU defence ministers are considering creating a "first entry force" of 5,000 troops, saying the bloc needed to react to conflicts beyond its borders, spurred by the chaotic Western withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

03 Sep 2021; MEMO: The evacuation of people from Afghanistan revealed the European Union's incompetence in managing the migration issue, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said yesterday. Draghi told journalists in Rome that the problem lies "within the union itself."

Denouncing countries which have refused to accommodate Afghan refugees, Draghi warned that Afghanistan is witnessing a "terrible tragedy".

KIEV, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine is seeking to diversify its energy sources by importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, Ukraine's energy ministry said Thursday.

"LNG is one of the alternative directions of natural gas supplies to Ukraine, which can ensure the diversification of energy deliveries," Ukraine's Deputy Energy Minister Maksym Nemchynov said during the second meeting of the joint Ukrainian-Qatari intergovernmental commission on economic, trade and technical cooperation in Kiev.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- In a debate on Afghanistan on Thursday, foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) discussed how to engage with the Taliban, in particular humanitarian aid and a possible tide of Afghan refugees.

"The purpose of the meeting is to try to reach an agreement on coordinated engagement with the Taliban on the basis of certain conditions, and on the possibilities of cooperation with regional players," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists before the start of the informal meeting in Slovenia.

ROME, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Italy will start administering a third COVID-19 vaccine shot to people with the most fragile immune systems and plans to extend the use of the so-called Green Pass certificate, the country's leaders said here on Thursday.

The government might also consider making COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for everyone.

Following the first cabinet meeting after the summer break, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during a joint press conference with several ministers that 80 percent of the country's population would be fully immunized by the end of September.

BERLIN, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Less than a month before federal elections in Germany, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) is looking to become the strongest political party in the country.

After a much anticipated television debate of potential chancellor candidates on Sunday, the SPD was up 7 percentage points compared to one month ago and was polled at 25-percent support if the elections were held now, according to a survey of around 1,300 participants conducted by opinion research institute Infratest dimap.