Europe

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: Some 442 European lawmakers have signed a letter calling on European governments and leaders, as well as US President Joe Biden, to take action against "de facto" Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank.

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: A French senator has called on the government to allow Algerian access to colonial archives in France, but only if there is reciprocal access for French researchers to Algeria's colonial-era archive. The latter, insists Stéphane Le Rudulier, is not easy now, hence his call for the intervention of the government with its Algerian counterpart.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — After more than a decade in power and a year spent battling the virus, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s popularity — boosted by his handling of the pandemic — remains high two weeks before a general election.

But amid a tough COVID-19 lockdown, that support is showing signs of eroding as the Dutch grow weary of pandemic restrictions.

(AP) --- German unemployment held more or less steady in February despite the impact of lockdown measures, according to official data released Tuesday. Extensive use of a short-term salary support program is still keeping the figures in check.

The unadjusted jobless rate, the headline figure in Germany, was unchanged from January at 6.3%. Just over 2.9 million people were registered as unemployed in the nation of 83 million — 4,000 more than the previous month and 509,000 more than a year earlier.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The European Union’s top court ruled Tuesday that Poland’s new regulations for appointing judges to the Supreme Court could violate EU law.

The ruling obliges Poland’s right-wing government to discontinue these regulations and observe the principles of judicial independence and the right to judicial protection.

In a decision that could have a powerful effect on future court verdicts regarding judicial appointments, the ruling also allows Poland’s courts to refrain from applying the regulations introduced by the government in 2018 and 2019.

ROME, March 1. /TASS/: Two Italian specialists will travel to Russia to inspect the factories producing the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases Director Professor Francesco Vaia told Corriere Della Sera.

"We have just vaccinated two Italian inspectors in our hospital, who will travel to Moscow to oversee the standards of production of the Sputnik V vaccine," the expert said.

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/: The Russian military and industrial complex commenced the development of the new-generation Kedr strategic missile system, a source in the rocket and space industry told TASS Monday.

When asked what the Kedr research and development project is, the source said: "It aims to upgrade strategic missile weapons. It is part of the work to develop a new generation [of missile systems]."

According to the source, the project is currently undergoing the science and development phase.

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/: Russia anti-coronavirus vaccines are efficient against its new strains as well, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"According to the reports I receive, our vaccines also work against these strains, which have caused so much fear in Europe, and not only in Europe," he said at a meeting with Veronika Skvortsova, chief of Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency.

"Tests of these vaccines demonstrate that our vaccines are efficient against these strains," Putin stressed.

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/: Russia did not annex Crimea, the peninsula joined Russia legally, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on US President Joe Biden’s remark that Washington will never recognize Crimea as Russia.

"It is indeed impossible to recognize the annexation of Crimea, and nobody is talking about the annexation of Crimea, because it never happened," Peskov said, underscoring that "what happened was reunification of Crimea and Russia, in rather strict compliance with all norms of international law."

BRUSSELS, March 1. /TASS/: Ambassadors of 27 European Union nations have agreed further anti-Russian sanctions over the situation around Russian blogger Alexey Navalny, a source in one of the delegations told TASS on Monday.

"Permanent representatives imposed sanctions as part of the human rights sanctions regime against individuals responsible for the verdict to Alexey Navalny," the source said, adding that this decision will soon be endorsed by the European Council and will come into force after being published in the Official Journal.