Europe

PABRADE, Lithuania (Reuters) - A new contingent of U.S. troops and armour will be deployed in Lithuania in November but their presence is not linked to the situation in neighbouring Belarus, Lithuania’s defence minister said on Tuesday.

Belarus has undergone six weeks of protests since a contested Aug. 9 election which President Alexander Lukashenko said he won.

Since then, Lukashenko has accused NATO of a buildup near its borders, begun military drills near the borders with Lithuania and Poland, and put half his army on the highest state of readiness.

PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus will do its best to cut costs without resorting to compulsory redundancies, but it cannot guarantee they won’t happen, CEO Guillaume Faury told French radio station RTL on Tuesday.

With air travel at a fraction of its normal level due to restrictions and travellers’ fears related to the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines have slowed deliveries of new aircraft.

Airbus has said it needs to shed 15,000 posts worldwide.

LONDON (Reuters) - EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is due in London on Wednesday for informal Brexit talks, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said on Twitter, citing EU sources.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday parliament would be able to consider and debate the new measures put in place to tackle an increase in COVID-19 cases early next week.

Trying to head off criticism from lawmakers, including some in his Conservative Party, that the government is introducing restrictions without consultation, Johnson told them: “Parliament should and will debate these issues and ... will make time early next week ... for a full debate on these measures.”

LONDON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Britain's chief medical officers (CMOs) have recommended moving the country's COVID-19 alert level from level 3 to level 4, according to a joint statement released on Monday from the CMOs.

"The CMOs for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have reviewed the evidence and recommend all 4 nations of the UK should move to level 4," said the statement.

Level 4 means COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation, transmission is high or rising exponentially.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The new chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should be "capable of managing profound reforms of the organization," said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, on Monday.

The trade ministers of the European Union (EU) strongly support this principle, said Dombrovskis following the ministers' informal meeting in Berlin.

MADRID, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday met the leader of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, in an attempt to find a way to contain the spread of COVID-19 in and around the Spanish capital.

22 Sep 2020; MEMO: A group of 61 French members of parliament said the ‘peace deals’ signed between Gulf states the UAE and Bahrain and Israel “undermine potential comprehensive peace” between the occupation state and the Palestinians, Arab48 reported yesterday.

MINSK, September 21. /TASS/: Belarus will not carry out any across-the-board privatization campaigns just to please ‘swindlers’ from overseas, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday, as quoted by the BelTA news agency.

According to the report, the president "claimed that Belarus will not privatize anything and everything just to ‘satisfy swindlers from abroad’."

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: The growth of identified coronavirus cases in Russia is linked to the beginning of an epidemiological season in autumn and winter, head of Russia’s consumer watchdog Anna Popova told reporters Monday, adding that the situation is stable in general and no new restrictions will be required.