Europe

14 Aug 2021; MEMO: Spain began deporting hundreds of Moroccan youths on Friday who crossed into the Madrid-controlled city of Ceuta in May, after reaching an agreement with Rabat. This comes as an indication of easing tensions between the two sides following heated disputes.

Spanish local radio station La Serre quoted sources in Ceuta stating that the minors are already being transported to Morocco in small groups.

LONDON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace on Friday said the U.S. decision to pull its troops out of Afghanistan was a "mistake," which has handed the Taliban "momentum" in the country.

Speaking to Sky News, Wallace said the withdrawal agreement negotiated in Doha, Qatar, by the Trump administration was a "rotten deal."

"At the time of the Trump deal with, obviously the Taliban, I felt that was a mistake to have done it that way. We will all, in the international community probably pay the consequences of that," Wallace said.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s police watchdog says it has launched an investigation into why a 22-year-old man who fatally shot five people in southwestern England on Thursday was given back his confiscated gun and gun license last month.

Police have said Jake Davison killed his mother and four other people, including a 3-year-old girl, before taking his own life in the port city of Plymouth. It was Britain’s first mass shooting in over a decade. Firearm crimes are rare in Britain, which has strict gun control laws and regulations.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — An influx of migrants from Iraq and elsewhere into Lithuania allegedly abetted by neighboring Belarus appears to have stopped, but with a pile of asylum applications to process and local communities angry about nearby migrant camps, the Lithuanian government faces an unfamiliar challenge.

LONDON (AP) — An international system to share coronavirus vaccines was supposed to guarantee that low and middle-income countries could get doses without being last in line and at the mercy of unreliable donations.

It hasn’t worked out that way. In late June alone, the initiative known as COVAX sent some 530,000 doses to Britain – more than double the amount sent that month to the entire continent of Africa.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, August 13. /TASS/: Defense and global security were the focus of another meeting with permanent members of Russia’s Security Council that President Vladimir Putin chaired on Friday via videoconference.

"Today we are scheduled to discuss international cooperation in defense and security," he said when opening the meeting.

The president pointed out that "it is impossible to effectively solve a number of issues in this area all on one’s own."

"We should join efforts with our partners so as to ensure our own security as well," he stressed.

BERLIN, August 13. /TASS/: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Moscow on August 20, the details of the visit have not yet been announced, German Government Spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a briefing in Berlin on Friday.

"On Friday, August 20, the federal chancellor will travel to Moscow, at the beginning of next week we will tell about the content of the program," he said. "It is quite obvious that she will meet with the [Russian] President [Vladimir Putin]," he added.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: Aeroflot may open flights to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Mauritius and Jordan, Chief Executive Officer Mikhail Poluboyarinov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"We also plan to open flights to Mexico, which is quite an interesting travel destination. We are planning and considering flights to the Dominical Republic, and we are considering Mauritius and Jordan as well," he said.

SAMBEK SETTLEMENT /Rostov region/, August 13. /TASS/: Moscow will continue to pursue a foreign policy aimed at creating external conditions for domestic development after September’s election to the State Duma (the lower house of parliament), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a meeting with civil society members at the Sambek Heights Museum Complex dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.

BERLIN, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Support for Germany's governing Christian Democrats fell further in an opinion poll published on Friday, as a weak performance on the campaign trail by party leader Armin Laschet increasingly weighs on his chances of becoming chancellor.

The poll, by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, showed support for the CDU slipping to 26% - down two points on the previous poll and four from a month ago - while the Social Democrats (SPD), led by popular Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, gained three points to draw level on 19% with the opposition Greens.