Europe

(Reuters) --- The World Health Organization on Thursday urged Europeans to travel responsibly during the summer holiday season and warned the continent was "by no means out of danger" in the battle against COVID-19 despite a steady decline of infection rates in recent weeks.

"With increasing social gatherings, greater population mobility, and large festivals and sports tournaments taking place in the coming days and weeks, WHO Europe calls for caution," the WHO's European head Hans Kluge told a press briefing.

9 June 2021; MEMO: Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday summoned the UAE Ambassador to Rome, Omar Al-Shamsi, following Abu Dhabi's recent refusal to allow an Italian Air Force plane to access Emirati airspace.

In an official statement, the ministry said that it had summoned the UAE ambassador to express its "surprise and great disappointment," following what it described as an "unexpected gesture that is hard to understand."

10 June 2021; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday warned the United States over backing Syrian separatists, saying it "may end badly".

Speaking at the Primakov Readings International Forum, Lavrov said: "We stress every time the illegality and illegitimacy of the American presence on Syrian territory, especially since this presence is accompanied by the looting of the natural resources of the Syrian Arab Republic."

PARIS (AP) — Bubbling beneath France’s political landscape is an assortment of ultra-right groups, a subculture that shot to the nation’s attention when a young man slapped President Emmanuel Macron and blurted out a centuries-old royalist cry.

Ultra-rightist groups are considered increasingly dangerous despite their small following and are on the radar of authorities. Numerous arrests have been made and several groups banned. Challenges to the French identity are often at the center of their ideologies.

MAWGAN PORTH, England (AP) — One year ago, the U.S. was the deadliest hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the cancellation of the Group of Seven summit it was due to host. Now, the U.S. is emerging as a model for how to successfully emerge from more than 15 months of global crisis.

For President Joe Biden, who is meeting with leaders of the wealthy G-7 democracies on his first overseas trip since taking office, it’s a personal vindication of his pledge to turn around the U.S. virus, but also a call to action to enlist other countries in the global fight.

PLYMOUTH, England (AP) — Their nations may have a famed “special relationship,” but President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet for the first time Thursday against a backdrop of differences both political and personal.

Biden hopes to use his first overseas trip as president to reassure European allies that the United States had shed the transactional tendencies of Donald Trump’s term and is a reliable partner again. But tensions may simmer beneath the surface of Biden’s meeting with Johnson.

(Reuters) --- When Dutch boat captain and engineer Ernst-Jan de Groot applied to continue working in Britain after Brexit, he became ensnared in a bureaucratic nightmare because of an online glitch and says he is now likely to lose his job.

Under new immigration rules coming into force, de Groot faces the prospect of losing the right to come to Britain to work unless he can successfully apply for a visa through a government website by the end of June.

(Reuters) --- Britain and the European Union failed on Wednesday to agree any solutions to ease post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland and exchanged threats in a standoff that could cloud a weekend international summit.

Since Britain completed a tortuous exit from the EU late last year, its relations with Brussels have soured further, with each side accusing the other of bad faith over a part of their Brexit deal that covers goods movements to Northern Ireland.

KIEV, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine is ready to promote its mutually beneficial cooperation with China to a new level, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a congratulatory letter to a high-level Ukrainian-Chinese forum held here on Tuesday.

In his letter, Shmyhal spoke highly of China's great achievements in various fields in recent years and pointed out that China is a good friend and strategic partner of Ukraine.

BERLIN (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday launched proceedings against Germany over a ruling by the top German court last year on a European Central Bank bond-buying program that broke with a verdict from the EU’s own top court.

Brussels says that “constitutes a serious precedent.”