Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - The way the government made a decision to impose a quarantine on those people travelling from Spain to Britain was “shambolic”, the health policy chief for Britain’s main opposition Labour Party said on Sunday.

“I can understand why the government have made this decision ... but of course the way in which this decision has been made in the last 24 hours is frankly shambolic,” Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News, saying the government had given those Britons holidaying in Spain no time to plan for a quarantine by bringing in the new rule with little notice.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday the Russian Navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater nuclear drones, which the defence ministry said were in their final phase of testing.

Putin, who says he does not want an arms race, has often spoken of a new generation of Russian nuclear weapons that he says are unequalled and can hit almost anywhere in the world. Some Western experts have questioned how advanced they are.

LONDON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- International scholars said Saturday that aggressive statements and actions by the U.S. government towards China poses a threat to world peace and a potential new cold war on China is against the interests of humanity.

The comments came during a virtual meeting on the international campaign against a new Cold War on China, which gathered experts from a number of countries including the United States, China, Britain, India, Russia and Canada.

PARIS (AP) — French authorities detained and charged a repentant church volunteer Sunday after he told investigators that he was responsible for an arson attack that badly damaged a 15th-century Gothic cathedral.

The man had previously been questioned and then released after the July 18 blaze that destroyed the organ, shattered stained-glass windows, and blackened the insides of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of the western French city of Nantes.

ROME (AP) — The governor of Lombardy, Italy’s hardest-hit region in the pandemic, acknowledged Saturday that he is being investigated by Milan prosecutors over a lucrative contract to obtain protective medical gowns from his brother-in-law’s company.

The contract for 75,000 gowns reportedly was awarded without public bidding in April, when the coronavirus outbreak was devastating Italy, Italian news reports said.

LONDON (AP) — Britain is advising people not to travel to Spain and has removed the country from the list of safe places to visit following a surge of COVID-19 cases.

The Department for Transport issued a statement late Saturday warning that as of midnight, anyone returning from vacation in Spain would have to self-isolate.

BERLIN (AP) — A German cruise ship is gingerly testing the water amid the coronavirus pandemic, setting sail for the first time since the industry was shut down months ago and using strict precautions to keep passengers and crew as safe as possible.

The TUI cruise ship “Mein Schiff 2” — literally “My Ship 2” — set sail for a weekend cruise in the North Sea late Friday night, the dpa news agency reported.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: A slight increase in COVID-19 cases is possible in Russia this fall, but it won’t be comparable to this spring’s figures, said Vladimir Chulanov, the lead infectious diseases specialist of the Russian Health Ministry.

CHISINAU, July 25. /TASS/: Moldovan President Igor Dodon sees no grounds for mass riots, similar to the April 2009 events when pro-European party supporters stormed the country’s parliament.

"Any ‘revolution’ of this kind should have external support," Dodon said, answering to a TASS question during a news conference in his country residence of Condrita on Friday.

KERCH, July 24. /TASS/: The Zaliv Shipyard in Kerch on the Crimean Peninsula floated out the Project 22800 Karakurt-class cruise missile corvette Tsiklon, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene.

The launch ceremony was attended by Crimean Head Sergei Aksyonov, officials of the city and the Shipyard, shipbuilders and the public.