Europe

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/: The Trump administration only harms bilateral relations with Russia by making statements about Moscow’s involvement in cyberattacks, preventing new White House occupant Joe Biden from establishing cooperation with Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday.

BERLIN/BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday denied that talks on an investment pact between the European Union and China had run into complications due to Chinese demands on nuclear power investment.

Negotiations have stalled at the last stretch because China is raising additional demands on nuclear energy, German magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported on Wednesday.

“As I understand, talks are goings smoothly,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news briefing on Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage said on Thursday that he suspected the United Kingdom would remain far too closely aligned to the European Union’s rules after Prime Minister Boris Johnson clinches a trade deal.

“Winning a war is one thing, winning peace is another: I suspect we are going to find ourselves far too closely aligned to EU rules in the years to come,” Farage told Talk Radio.

He said he hoped “this is the beginning of the end of the European Union,” according to a Talk Radio transcript.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Britain and the European Union were on the cusp of striking a narrow trade deal on Thursday, swerving away from a chaotic finale to a Brexit split that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.

While a last-minute deal would avoid the most acrimonious ending to the divorce on Jan. 1, the United Kingdom is set for a much more distant relationship with its biggest trade partner than almost anyone expected at the time of the 2016 referendum.

MOSCOW, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the situation will not get worse for Russia during the Biden administration.

"With regard to the statement that the leadership in the United States is changing and it will be more difficult for us, I don't think this will be the case. Things will remain the same," Putin said at a joint meeting of the country's State Council and the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

LONDON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Wednesday announced that more areas of the East and South East of England will be put into Tier Four restrictions, the highest level, while revealing that two cases of another new variant of the novel coronavirus have been identified in Britain.

24 Dec 2020; MEMO: The French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) has launched a preliminary investigation into possible "embezzlement" and "illegal gains" by the family of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, French Libération newspaper reported.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union and British negotiators inched their way to within touching distance of a trade deal early Thursday, raising hopes a chaotic economic break between the two sides on New Year’s Day could be averted, officials said.

After resolving a few remaining fair-competition issues, negotiators tussled over EU fishing rights in U.K. waters as they worked right into Christmas Eve to secure a provisional deal for a post-Brexit relationship after nine months of talks.

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: The number of carriers for long-range cruise missiles in Russia grew by 13 times between 2012 and 2020, according to a bulletin, headlined ‘Main results of the Russian Armed Forces’ activities in 2012-2020,’ obtained by TASS.

"[The number of] carriers for long-range cruise missiles [increased] by 13 times," the document says.

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: Moscow will draw conclusions on the entire range of relations with the US following Washington’s new sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday.

"The United States has long been pursuing a hostile policy towards our country. A response will certainly follow, not only in terms of reciprocation, but we will also draw additional conclusions on the entire range of Russia-US relations," he pointed out.