Europe

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia will hold Europe’s first national election on Sunday since the continent went into coronavirus lockdown three months ago, with protective masks made available to voters at polling stations to guard against the spread of COVID-19.

President Aleksandar Vucic’s conservative ruling Serbian Progressive Party is tipped to win more than 50% of votes, opinion polls show, buoyed by voters’ perception that the government has handled the pandemic effectively and by state handouts to soften its economic impact.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s chief warned EU leaders on Friday that their economies were heading for a “dramatic fall” due to the coronavirus crisis and urged them to agree quickly on a massive stimulus plan that has divided the bloc.

Christine Lagarde told a video-conference summit that the full effects of Europe’s worst recession since World War Two had yet to appear in the labour market and unemployment in the 19-country euro zone could jump to 10% from 7.3% now.

19 June 2020; MEMO: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday refuted an Israeli media report claiming that in 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin saved Israel from a potential UN Security Council resolution spearheaded by the administration of former US President Barack Obama that would have forced Israel to setup a Palestinian state based on the 1948 borders, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

BERLIN, June 19 (NNN-XINHUA) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday presented a basic outline and goals of Germany’s presidency of the EU Council starting in July, setting tackling COVID-19 as the “leitmotif” for its term.

“Europe needs us as much as we need Europe,” said Merkel in a speech to the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament. “Europe is something that we can and must create. It is a dynamic order of peace and freedom.”

PARIS, June 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The novel coronavirus has killed at least 450,386 people since the outbreak began in China last December.

At least 8,410,400 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 3,866,200 are considered recovered.

The tallies probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

LONDON, June 18 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron held talks Thursday at 10 Downing Street, the first meeting between heads of state in Britain since the coronavirus pandemic started.

The two spent around 45 minutes in private talks, after which they watched a flypast over London by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Red Arrows and its French counterpart team, La Patrouille de France.

The two did not face the media after their talks, and instead Downing Street issued a statement about the meeting.

BRUSSELS (AP) — As they brace for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, leaders of the European Union’s 27 member states are to discuss the bloc’s future long-term budget and a multibillion-euro post-coronavirus recovery plan during a video summit Friday that is aimed at paving the way for a compromise later this summer.

MOSCOW, June 18./TASS/: Talks between Palestine and Israel are possible only if Israel freezes the process to annex parts of the West Bank, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told an online conference on Thursday.

BELGRADE, June 18. /TASS/: High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell expressed no complaints against Russia and China over the coronavirus pandemic during the recent video call, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.

"The day before yesterday, I had a lengthy videoconference with Josep Borrell. He expressed no complaints either against [Russia] or the People’s Republic of China over the coronavirus fight," he said.

MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/: The Russian embassy in London has been receiving threats for the past several weeks, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin said on Thursday in an open interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.