Europe

LONDON (AP) — More than 6 million European Union citizens applied to settle in the U.K. before the end-June deadline that the British government had imposed as part of the country’s departure from the bloc.

In a statement Friday, Britain’s Home Office said of the 6.02 million people who had applied, 400,000 applications were made in the final month before the end of the EU Settlement Scheme.

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/: Moscow has no wish to see the Russian flag hoisted in Ukrainian territory, because it respects the country's sovereignty, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

"No, we have no wish to see our flag hoisted in Ukraine," the Kremlin official said in reply to a corresponding question.

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/: Washington’s actions regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are an example of unfair competition, any gains of which would be lost sooner or later, and the tenacity of US lawmakers is worthy of a better cause, Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs Chairman Leonid Slutsky opined in his Telegram channel Friday. 

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/: Russia’s higher education institutions plan to admit foreign students, who have received any available vaccine against COVID-19, Pavel Shevtsov, deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, said at an online conference on Friday.

"As for the vaccines. Universities will have a common policy in this issue. I think we will accept any vaccine," he said.

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/: The Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia) terrorist organization is swallowing up territories in Afghanistan amid NATO’s withdrawal from the region and an irresponsible approach by a number of officials in Kabul, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - Twitter has suspended the accounts of a group of exile opposition groups that call themselves the "Belarusian People's Embassies" after they were accused of identity theft by Belarusian authorities.

The people's embassy movement sprang up after last year's presidential election, in which long-serving strongman Alexander Lukashenko claimed a resounding victory despite a widespread belief that the vote was fraudulent.

MOSCOW, July 2 (Reuters) - Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has held off from booking additional capacity for gas supplies via Ukraine to meet surging demand in recent months, sending a clear sign it is waiting for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be commissioned, analysts said.

Nord Stream 2, which runs on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, has faced criticism from the United States, which says it will increase European reliance on Russian gas. Washington imposed sanctions on the project in 2019, slowing its progress.

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled a relaxation of quarantine rules for fully-vaccinated Britons on Friday following a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson aimed at shoring up post-Brexit relations.

COVID-19 travel restrictions were high on the agenda of what is due to be Merkel's last trip to Britain as chancellor as cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant surge in the country.

WARSAW, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Polish government retains the position that the issue of potential war reparations from Germany is still on the table, the country's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said Thursday during the visit to Warsaw of his German counterpart Heiko Maas.

Rau said at a joint press conference that the destruction and loss of life caused by German actions during World War II is beyond doubt. "The issue is still not settled," Rau said.

LONDON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Britain's main opposition Labour Party retained a House of Commons (the lower house of the British Parliament) seat in the West Yorkshire constituency after winning the by-election in Batley and Spen by a narrow margin on Friday.

Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater received 13,296 votes, a majority of just 323 votes over Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson. George Galloway, leader of the British Workers Party, came third with 8,264 votes.