Europe

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union could pay more than $10 billion to secure hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine candidates being developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and CureVac, an EU official involved in the talks told Reuters.

The bloc has agreed to pay 15.50 euros ($18.34) per dose for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, according to the official.

20 Nov 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International called on Thursday for the G20 leaders to put pressure on the Saudi Arabian authorities to release "brave activists" who are imprisoned in the Kingdom.

"Instead of keeping pace with the Saudi government in its glamorous phrases about empowering women," said Amnesty, "the G20 leaders should seize the occasion of the summit to defend the brave activists, the real change makers behind bars."

LONDON, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Thursday the country's largest military investment in 30 years -- an extra 16.5 billion pounds (about 21.9 billion U.S. dollars) in defence spending over next four years.

In his speech to the House of Commons (lower house of the British Parliament), Johnson said Britain needs to "upgrade capabilities across the board" to end "the era of retreat" by transforming its armed forces.

STEPANAKERT, November 19. /TASS/: Russia’s peacekeepers have escorted the first convoy of Azerbaijan’s army from Shusha to the Nagorno-Karabakh village of Krasny Bazar, a TASS correspondent reported on Thursday.

A convoy of Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces consisted of three Kamaz trucks with personnel. According to the peacekeepers, the vehicles did not carry any weapons. Two Tigr armored vehicles escorted the convoy.

ST. PETERSBURG, November 19. /TASS/: Biocad company plans to start producing 1 mln doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in December 2020, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian pharmaceutical company Dmitry Morozov said on Thursday at the 13th St. Petersburg International Innovation Forum.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: Russia has laid the scientific groundwork for a new weapon to replace the Iskander tactical missile system, Russia’s Missile Forces and Artillery Chief Lieutenant-General Mikhail Matveyevsky said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper on Thursday.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: Russia saw a new high of 23,610 coronavirus cases over the past day and the total case tally rose to 2,015,608, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

The average growth rate increased to 1.2%.

Moscow confirmed 6,438 coronavirus cases in the past day versus 4,174 a day earlier. This is the highest growth rate since November 9. A total of 533,068 people have contracted the virus in the capital, according to the crisis center.

19 Nov 2020; MEMO: Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned Israel's decision to build 1,257 new settlement units in the illegal settlement of Givat HaMatos, which divides occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank.

LONDON (Reuters) - Billionaire financier George Soros said the European Union must stand up to Hungary and Poland and cannot afford to compromise on the rule-of-law provisions it applies to the funds it allocates to member states.

Hungary and Poland on Monday blocked the adoption of the 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund by European Union governments because the budget law included a clause which makes access to money conditional on respecting the rule of law.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank could “neither go bankrupt nor run out of money” even if it were to suffer losses on the multi-trillion-euro pile of bonds it has bought under its stimulus programmes, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

“As the sole issuer of euro-denominated central bank money, the Eurosystem will always be able to generate additional liquidity as needed,” Lagarde said in response to a question by an Italian member of the European Parliament.