Europe

20 July 2021; MEMO: The Paris prosecutor's office opened a probe on Tuesday into allegations by investigative news website Mediapart and two of its journalists that they had been spied on by Morocco using the Pegasus spyware at the heart of a global scandal, reports Reuters.

LONDON (AP) — A disgruntled former top aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the British leader was dismissive of the threat posed by surging coronavirus cases last year, saying he did not want to impose a new lockdown because the disease was only killing the elderly.

Dominic Cummings left his job as an adviser in November and has since launched a series of excoriating attacks on his former boss.

In an interview with the BBC, Cummings said Johnson resisted locking down the country in the fall of 2020 because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80.”

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refused to confirm or deny media reports that Moscow offered the use of its military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Washington in order to jointly control the situation in Afghanistan.

"I can neither confirm nor deny this," Peskov told reporters on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 19. / TASS /: Moscow is exploring the possibility of launching the production of a Russian COVID-19 vaccine in Nicaragua following the country’s request, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Monday at a press conference after talks with his Nicaraguan counterpart Denis Moncada Colindres.

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/: The Admiral Gorshkov frigate has successfully test-fired the Tsirkon hypersonic missile against a surface target at the range of over 350 km and the flight speed reached 7 Mach, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

"According to live monitoring data, the Tsirkon missile successfully hit a target directly at a range of over 350 km. During the test, the tactical and technical characteristics were confirmed. The flight speed reached nearly 7 Mach," the statement said.

MOSCOW, July 19. / TASS /: The pipe-laying vessel Academic Chersky will lay a 2.6 km section of the second string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in German waters, Nord Stream 2 AG told TASS on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/: Russia has consistently delivered development goals despite difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, President Vladimir Putin said by a video link at the meeting of the Council on Strategic Development and National Projects.

"Despite great trials and the need to mobilize resources to combat the coronavirus, we consistently progressed because we always, even in the most difficult time, kept the focus on our common national goals that are close and clear for every citizen of the country," Putin said.

PARIS, July 19 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France and South Pacific nations would launch a South Pacific coastguard network to counter "predatory" behaviour, which an adviser said was aimed at illegal fishing, as China expands its maritime reach.

The United States and allies including France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, are actively expanding their activity in the Pacific to counter China's influence.

BRUSSELS/LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Britain will threaten this week to deviate from the Brexit deal unless the European Union shows more flexibility over Northern Ireland, one UK and three EU sources told Reuters, a move that could thrust the five-year Brexit divorce into tumult.

Deviating from the deal's so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is a risky step: its aim was to prevent Brexit from disrupting the delicate peace brought to Northern Ireland by the U.S.-brokered 1998 agreement that ended three decades of sectarian conflict.

19 July 2021; MEMO: The EU border agency Frontex has failed to protect the human rights of asylum seekers, according to a European Parliament report, according to the Guardian.

The report's author, Tineke Strik told the Guardian that Frontex "did not fulfil its human rights obligations and therefore did not prevent future violations."

Strik, a Dutch Green MEP, wants the agency's Director Fabrice Leggeri to resign or be fired.