Europe

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. weather agency says the world — and especially urban areas — experienced a brief, sharp drop in emissions of air pollutants last year amid lockdown measures and related travel restrictions put in place over the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Meteorological Organization, releasing its first ever Air Quality and Climate Bulletin on Friday, cautioned that the reductions in pollution were patchy — and many parts of the world showed levels that outpaced air quality guidelines. Some types of pollutants continued to emerge at regular or even higher levels.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and coronavirus vaccine-maker AstraZeneca said Friday that they have clinched an agreement to end a damaging legal battle over the slow pace of deliveries of the Anglo-Swedish company’s shots.

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, said AstraZeneca made a “firm commitment” to deliver a total of 300 million doses by March next year, as agreed under the advance purchasing agreement the two sides signed a year ago. About 100 million doses have already been supplied.

LONDON (AP) — English educator Richard Sheriff watched this week as a group of energetic 11-year-olds entered their new secondary school for the first time — finding their classrooms, eating in the cafeteria, racing around the halls.

02 Sep 2021; MEMO: Britain's Labour Party has become embroiled in another feud with its pro-Palestine members following reports that former leader Jeremy Corbyn and pressure group the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have been banned from speaking later this month at the annual party conference.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 2. /TASS/: Moscow will have to take counter-measures to ensure its security, if NATO moves its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia daily on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky insists on his country’s desire to join NATO, "which is not supported at least by half of Ukraine’s population, as social polls suggest," the Russian presidential spokesman noted.

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/: Russia has registered 18,985 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 6,956,318 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Thursday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.27%.

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/: Oil and gas reserves in the Russian Arctic may be sufficient for the country if necessary for decades and even centuries. However, those resources are too expensive so far, nevertheless, the government plans to encourage the production, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 2. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin launched four new investment projects in the country’s Far East on Thursday, which are in the field of agriculture and the automotive industry. The head of state familiarized himself with them via an interactive presentation on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"Let’s start!" the Russian leader said, marking the launch of the new investment endeavors.

Putin congratulated investors "on the right choice of location for these efforts and for capital investment."

GENEVA, Sept 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Over half of all people in the world have no social protections, the United Nations said, even after the pandemic spurred countries to offer more services to their populations.

In a Wednesday report on the state of social protection globally, the UN’s International Labour Organization said that 4.1 billion people were living without any social safety net of any kind.

BUCHAREST, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Romania's centrist ruling coalition faced possible collapse on Thursday as a junior party withdrew support for the prime minister in a row over the sacking of its justice minister, threatening economic recovery and prolonged instability.

The dismissal of Stelian Ion deepened rifts in the centrist coalition formed between Prime Minister Florin Citu's Liberals, the centrist USR-Plus and the ethnic Hungarian Party UDMR after the national election in December 2020.