Europe

29 July 2020; MEMO: German clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company CureVac said Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has taken an undisclosed stake in the firm as part of a $126 million financing round, the latest high-profile investor to come onboard ahead of a potential stock market listing, Reuters reports.

The State Fund of the Emirate of Qatar is the third major investor to enter CureVac within weeks of GSK and the German government agreeing to participate in mid-June.

ATHENS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha Gonzalez Laya expressed Spain's support for Greece in stability in the Mediterranean region during her visit to Athens on Tuesday when meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and her Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.

According to government sources, Turkey's recent conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque was also discussed.

BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The rapid rise in Germany's COVID-19 cases is very worrying, the country's public health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Tuesday.

"We had all managed to keep the number of cases stable over several weeks" in Germany, said RKI President Lothar Wieler during a press conference in Berlin. Around four weeks ago, only 300 to 500 new cases had been recorded by the RKI daily. At some point, the figures had been even lower.

This development was a "great success" which showed "that we can contain the virus," said Wieler.

MURMANSK, July 28. /TASS/: A naval group of Russia’s Northern Fleet practiced anti-sabotage measures in a roadstead off Kildin Island in the Barents Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"Today, during the anchorage in an unsafe roadstead near Kildin Island in the Barents Sea, the ships’ crews practiced anti-submarine and anti-saboteur defense measures and grenade throwing," the press office said in a statement.

SEVASTOPOL, July 28. /TASS/: The crews of fighter jets of the Southern Military District’s composite air formation practiced an aerial battle and aerobatic maneuvers during drills, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/: An investigator offered former advisor to Roscosmos CEO and journalist Ivan Safronov, who is charged with high treason, to sign a plea bargain, but the defendant rejected the proposal, his lawyer Ivan Pavlov told TASS on Tuesday.

"The investigator offered him a deal under which he would plead guilty and get no more than two-thirds of the maximum sentence or 10 years. This was said back on July 13. Safronov rejected this offer," Pavlov said.

BRUSSELS, July 28. /TASS/: Russia will not be on the updated list of countries the EU can open borders with, a source in the delegation of one of the EU countries in the EU Council told TASS. Brussels will make the updated "white list" public in the coming days, next time it will be revised in mid-August, the source said.

"No, Russia will not be included in this list yet. Unfortunately, statistics say that it is too early," the source said.

NANTES (France), July 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Rwandan refugee who volunteered as a warden at France’s 15th-century Nantes cathedral has confessed to setting the blaze that gutted its interior a week ago, his lawyer said.

The suspect, whose name has not been made public, was taken into custody on Saturday following his confession. He had been arrested and released earlier in the investigation.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were steady on Tuesday, with demand worries due to a rise in coronavirus cases worldwide undermining support coming from hopes for additional U.S. economic stimulus measures.

Brent crude was up 7 cents, or 0.2%, at $43.48 a barrel at 1052 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude fell 19 cents, or 0.5%, to $41.41 a barrel.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways faces strike action over its plans to cut jobs, pay and conditions, the BBC reported on Tuesday, piling more pressure on the airline which has been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis and faced more disruption this week from new UK quarantine rules on Spain.

Trade union Unite, which represents BA cabin crew, said that the airline is planning to fire and rehire thousands of its workers and that it planned to defend its members by immediately moving towards industrial action, the BBC reported.