Europe

LONDON (AP) — The easing of lockdown restrictions in April helped the British economy grow at its fastest rate since July 2020 and recoup further ground lost during the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed Friday.

The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 2.3% during April, which saw the reopening of shops selling non-essential items and a number of other service providers, such as hairdressers, resuming work. Students also went back to classrooms during April after months of remote learning, while pubs and restaurants could serve customers outdoors.

LONDON (AP) — Imagine trying to make an impression on someone who’s met, well, almost everyone.

Such is the challenge for President Joe Biden, who is set to sip tea with Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday at Windsor Castle after a Group of Seven leaders’ summit in southwestern England.

Biden will be the 13th president to sit with the now-95-year-old monarch. The White House said he previously met the queen in 1982, when he was a U.S. senator.

CARBIS BAY, England (AP) — World leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to share at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K.

Vaccine sharing commitments from President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday set the stage for the G-7 leaders’ meeting in England, where leaders will pivot Friday from opening greetings and a “family photo” directly into a session on “Building Back Better From COVID-19.”

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/: Russia’s economy is actively recovering after the coronavirus pandemic-related crisis, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday.

"The economy and industry are actively recovering now," he said, adding that "amid this background, the pharmaceutical and medical industries demonstrated growth of over 23% last year and over 40% in the first quarter of this year."

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin discussed with Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini the current situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and issues of providing urgent assistance to the affected Palestinians.

MINSK, June 10. /TASS/: Russian Ambassador to Belarus Yevgeny Lukyanov is surprised that Belarus, along with Russia, has been added to the list of the countries that pose a threat to the West.

"NATO’s secretary-general is actually talking about the threat to the collective West and the world coming from Russia. Now Belarus has been added to that list, this is something new," he told reporters on Thursday.

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 11,699 COVID-19 cases over the past day, a new high since February 24, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

Since the start of the pandemic in the country the total case tally hit 5,167,949. The number of cases grew by 0.23% in relative terms.

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/: Russia is interested in the reduction of the list of unfriendly countries, and not its expansion, the director of Russia's foreign intelligence service SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, told TASS on Thursday.

"I would like to tell you quite definitely that Russia is interested to see this list get shorter, and not longer," Naryshkin said, when asked if the list of unfriendly countries might be expanded in the near future.

GENEVA, June 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) –– The world has marked the first rise in child labour in two decades and the coronavirus crisis threatens to push millions more youngsters toward the same fate, the United Nations said Thursday.

In a joint report, the International Labour Organization and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said the number in child labour stood at 160 million at the start of 2020 — an increase of 8.4 million in four years.

MOSCOW, June 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) –An improvised explosive device killed one Russian soldier and wounded three more on patrol in northern Syria, the Russian defence ministry reported.

“On June 9, during a patrol by the Russian military police in the province of Hassakeh in the Syrian Arab Republic, an armoured car was hit in the explosion of an unidentified device,” said a ministry statement carried by news agencies.

“One Russian serviceman died as a result of the explosion,” it added.