Europe

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: A "light" vaccine against the coronavirus, that is, inoculation with only one of the two vaccine components, will protect against the infection for three or four months, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry Alexander Gintsburg told TASS.

"The immunity is expected to be formed in three weeks," he said. "It won’t last long, I think it will regretfully last three or, at best, four months."

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: Global gas demand will not decline in coming 25-30 years, it will only rise due to a small carbon footprint, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin told a forum on Friday.

"Due to the fact that gas has the smallest carbon footprint we do not expect a decline in gas consumption in coming 25-30 years. We project it only to rise," he said.

The demand is largely expected to be satisfied by liquified natural gas (LNG).

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Russia over the past 24 hours has increased by 28,552, bringing the total to 2,791,220, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Friday.

A day earlier, 28,214 infections were detected.

According to the crisis center, since the beginning of the pandemic 1.9% of Russia’s population have been infected.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil dipped towards $51 a barrel on Friday though still headed for a seventh weekly gain in a row as investors focused on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and looked past rising case numbers and tighter lockdowns in Europe.

Pfizer has applied for approval in Japan for its vaccine, which is being used in the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also working towards approving Moderna’s shot.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish telecoms regulator PTS will resume 5G spectrum auctions on Jan. 19, it said on Friday, after winning court approval to proceed even though China’s Huawei is taking legal action over its exclusion from 5G networks.

A Swedish court on Wednesday backed an appeal by PTS against a ruling to stop the auction, but also said telecoms equipment supplier Huawei could pursue a legal challenge over its exclusion from the country’s 5G rollout.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday trade talks with the European Union were “looking difficult” and there was a gap that needed to be bridged, but the door for further negotiations remained open.

“Obviously the UK’s position is always that we want to keeping talking if there’s any chance of a deal,” Johnson told reporters.

“But we’ve also got to recognise that the UK’s got to be able to control its own laws, it’s what people voted for, and we’ve also got to be able to control our waters and fishing rights.”

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights office called on Thailand on Friday to amend its lese majeste law which it said had been used against at least 35 activists - one as young as 16 - in recent weeks.

It said Thailand should stop using the law, which bans insulting the monarchy, and other serious criminal charges against protesters, saying that criminalising such acts violates freedom of expression.

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf has criticized the Swedish government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swedish Television reported on Thursday.

"I believe we have failed. We have a high number of deaths and that is terrible," the king said in an annual review known as "the year with the Swedish Royal Family," which will be broadcast on Swedish Television next week.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A host of European leaders are self-isolating after contact with French President Emmanuel Macron, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

Macron "will isolate himself for seven days" but "will continue to work and carry out his activities remotely," the French presidency said in a statement.

The 42-year-old French president attended a European Union summit in Brussels last week and an event organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris on Monday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The U.K. and the European Union provided sober updates Thursday on the state of post-Brexit trade discussions, with only two weeks to go before a potentially chaotic split.

While Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive commission, noted “substantial progress on many issues,” she voiced concerns about the discussions taking place around fishing rights. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that that a no-deal outcome seemed “very likely.”