Europe

30 Mar 2021; MEMO: UCL's Students for Justice for Palestine Society (SJP) has welcomed the London university's Academic Board's rejection of the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will on Wednesday push G7 allies to get tough on China over “pernicious practices” that undermine the international trading system, calling for an overhaul of outdated and ineffective World Trade Organization rules.

Trade minister Liz Truss will host her G7 counterparts and the new head of the WTO, using Britain’s platform as current president of the group of rich countries to promote post-Brexit Britain as a leading free trade advocate.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was worried by the situation in eastern Ukraine, fearing the Ukrainian side could do something that would restart a civil war there.

President Vladimir Putin late on Tuesday accused Ukraine of provoking armed confrontation with pro-Russian separatists and failing to honour earlier agreements over its wartorn east, during a telephone call with France and Germany’s leaders.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The economies of the six countries in the Western Balkans could grow by 4.4% in 2021, up from a 4.8% contraction in 2020, if the region successfully emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

In a macroeconomic update for Europe and Central Asia, the lender estimated that the economies of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania could grow 3.7% in 2022.

“Despite this improvement, per capita income is anticipated to remain 6.5% below pre-pandemic projections by 2022,” the report said.

ROME (Reuters) -Italy expelled two Russian diplomats on Wednesday after police said they had arrested an Italian navy captain caught passing documents to a Russian official in return for money at a clandestine meeting.

The Italian, a captain of a frigate, and the Russian, a military official accredited at the embassy, were accused of “serious crimes tied to spying and state security” after their meeting on Tuesday night, Italian Carabinieri police said.

The suspects were not identified.

(Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it continues to monitor safety evidence reviews of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine but that the shot’s benefit-risk profile “weighs heavily in favour of its use” amid reports of rare brain blood clots.

Alejandro Cravioto, chair of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, told a briefing the panel was “comfortable” with the vaccine’s use, since many of the countries using it have safety warning signal systems in place and are not reporting problems.

KIEV, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's Health Ministry received 689 reports of side effects after vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine during the first month of the vaccination program, authorities said on Tuesday.

From Feb. 24 to March 28, nearly 200,000 vaccinations were made against the coronavirus and 689 people reported adverse reactions, the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health said on Facebook.

LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that the British economy ended 2020 on a stronger footing than previously thought but that it suffered a bigger than anticipated fall in output in the immediate aftermath of the first coronavirus lockdown.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron scheduled a televised address to the nation for Wednesday night, a possible harbinger of tighter restrictions to combat surging coronavirus hospitalizations.

Previous nationwide lockdowns in March and October of 2020 were announced by Macron in televised speeches. His office said Wednesday that Macron will address the nation at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), without saying what he will announce.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — More than two dozen Hungarian media outlets on Wednesday sent an open letter to the government demanding greater transparency and access to hospitals for journalists covering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only Hungary’s state media have been allowed inside COVID wards, and journalists have complained that a government order prohibiting medical staff from speaking to reporters has made it impossible to report on worsening conditions inside hospitals, creating a false picture of the situation’s severity.