Europe

BERLIN (AP) — It’s not that politics bore him; quite the opposite. But Christoph Gillitzer is stumped by whom to vote for in Germany’s federal election next month.

The retired engineer says he usually backs the underdog, yet the choices on offer Sept. 26 don’t have him convinced.

“It’s really difficult this time,” he said on a dreary Berlin morning this week.

Like Gillitzer, a large chunk of the German electorate remains undecided going into a parliamentary election that will determine who succeeds Angela Merkel as chancellor after her 16 years in office.

LONDON (AP) — European nations offered stark warnings Thursday about the waning days of a massive airlift to bring people out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, with a British official saying an “imminent attack” could target Kabul’s international airport.

As U.S. President Joe Biden says he’ll stick with his deadline of Aug. 31 to totally withdraw troops from America’s longest war, other nations have landed flight after flight onto the single runway at Kabul’s international airport to help those fleeing.

VIENNA, August 25. /TASS/: Moscow is interested in developing regular professional dialogue between qualified Russian and Austrian specialists with priority given to science and technologies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with the leadership and participants of the Russian-Austrian Sochi Dialogue public forum on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Afghanistan’s former President Hamid Karzai, head of the country’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah and leader of the Islamic Party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will join a council to rule Afghanistan that the the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) leadership intends to establish, Afghanistan’s Ariana News TV channel reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Founder and CEO of the Russian e-commerce company Wildberries Tatiana Bakalchuk has become the new leader of Forbes’ annual rating of Russia’s richest women. The list was published on the magazine’s website on Wednesday.

According to Forbes, Bakalchuk’s fortune has skyrocketed by 1,200% over the year. Based on this indicator, she ranked second among all the world's billionaires from the Forbes 2021 ranking. Her fortune is estimated at $13 bln.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Nord Stream 2 is an exclusively commercial project designed to make a great contribution to the energy security of Europe, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, answering a question about how the Kremlin views the new decision of the German court on Nord Stream 2 and what measures will be taken in this regard. Nord Stream 2 AG on Wednesday lost in court a case to exempt the project from the requirements of the EU Gas Directive. 

VIENNA, August 25. /TASS/: The joint positions of the NATO and EU states at the Crimean Platform forum that took place in Kiev on August 23 reflect the false understanding of solidarity on the matter of Crimea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference in the wake of talks with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg Wednesday.

PARIS, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines will cost the global economy $2.3 trillion in lost output, a report released Wednesday found.

  The Economist Intelligence Unit’s study found that emerging and developing economies, whose vaccine rollouts are far behind those of wealthier countries, will bear the brunt of those losses.

  The report comes as advanced nations move towards providing booster shots to their populations while the international effort to provide vaccines for poorer nations remains inadequate.

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russia will deliver Pantsir missile defence systems to Myanmar on schedule as outlined in the relevant sales contract, the RIA news agency cited the head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation as saying on Wednesday.

The truck-mounted systems are used to shoot down aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.

Rights activists have accused Moscow of legitimising the junta, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, by continuing bilateral visits and arms deals. 

LONDON, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Described as the "Rome of Britain", the UNESCO World Heritage city Canterbury faces the risk of being recklessly destroyed, SAVE Britain's Heritage, one of the country's leading heritage groups, warned Wednesday.

As a major tourism city 107 km south east of London, Canterbury is in danger of losing its beauty and history by allowing an increasing number of ugly and outsized developments within, or adjacent to, the city's historic core, still enclosed within its circuit of medieval walls, said the heritage group in a report.