Europe

MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/: The researchers of the Gamaleya center have developed new structures for the Sputnik V vaccine based on emerging new strains of the coronavirus, but so far there is no need to update it, Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya center, told TASS.

"We have created structures based on mutant strains. If the regulator decides that it is time to do this (to change the vaccine - TASS), we are ready for this. But now Sputnik V is protecting against all those strains that have emerged recently," he said.

MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 20,564 COVID-19 cases over the past day, which is the lowest figure since June 27, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

In relative terms, the number of cases grew by 0.31%.

Since the start of the pandemic, the total case tally has reached 6,747,087 people.

St. Petersburg reported 1, 481 daily coronavirus cases and the Moscow region registered 1,184 cases. The Sverdlovsk region reported 522 cases, the Nizhny Novgorod region - 498, the Rostov region - 487.

MOSCOW, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted into space carrying 34 new satellites from British operator Oneweb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world.

  The rocket operated by Europe’s Arianespace took off successfully at 2213 GMT Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Roscosmos space agency said in a statement.

  It was the fifth launch of OneWeb satellites this year, with the last one on July 1.

22 Aug 2021; MEMO: US President Joe Biden and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed two military bases in southern Spain can be used to receive Afghans who have worked for the US government, the Spanish government said on Sunday, reports Reuters.

In a 25-minute telephone conversation on Saturday night, Biden and Sanchez agreed Moron de la Frontera near Seville and Rota near Cadiz can be used for refugees from Afghanistan until their travel to other countries is arranged.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats party said unexpectedly on Sunday he would resign later this year ahead of general elections in September 2022.

"I have informed the party's executive committee and the nomination committee's chairman that I want to leave the role as party leader at the party congress in November and thereafter also retire as prime minister," Lofven said in an annual summer speech.

KYIV, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian military plane evacuated 83 people from Kabul on Sunday, including journalists, activists, and Afghan women and children, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Thousands of people wanting to escape Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers have gathered at the airport as the United States and other nations attempt to evacuate thousands of their diplomats and civilians as well Afghans. 

MOSCOW, Aug 22 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Sunday rejected the idea of sending people evacuation from Afghanistan to countries near Russia, saying he did not want "militants showing up here under cover of refugees", Russian news agencies reported.

Putin criticised an idea of some Western countries to relocate refugees from Afghanistan to neighbouring Central Asian countries while their visas to the United States and Europe are being processed.

MOSCOW, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- New U.S. sanctions against Russia showed the Biden administration's "lack of political will and unwillingness" to build Moscow-Washington relations on a partnership basis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova made the comments in a statement after the United States on Friday announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and entities over the alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

BUCHAREST, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Romanian military plane returned here on Saturday from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, bringing back 15 Romanian nationals and four Bulgarian citizens.

In a press statement, President Klaus Iohannis stressed that the authorities will continue the efforts to evacuate Romanian citizens who are still in Afghanistan and who want to be repatriated.

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, an iconic modern art museum designed by Bauhaus pioneer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, reopened to the public Sunday after a six-year refurbishment of the glass-fronted building.

Germany’s culture minister, Monika Gruetters, said during a celebration ceremony held Saturday that the occasion marked the museum’s “brilliant comeback as a pilgrimage site for lovers of modern art and as a stage for contemporary artists.”