Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s failure to impose a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus sooner has cost many lives, one of the government’s scientific advisers said on Sunday.

Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, with a death toll of more than 50,000 from COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally this week based on official sources.

PRAGUE, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two Russian diplomats are being expelled by the Czech government amid a hoax poison plot against three Prague politicians.

The government in Prague says infighting between Russian embassy staff resulted in one of them sending details of the fictitious plot to Czech intelligence.

In response, the three mayors were initially given police protection.

Russia condemned the expulsions as an “unfriendly act”.

LONDON, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three opinion polls released in Britain showed support falling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, as public confidence in the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic declines.

However, the figures are unlikely to be an immediate concern for Johnson, who does not need to hold an election until 2024 after winning a comfortable parliamentary majority in December.

BERLIN (AP) — Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday in cities far from the United States to express anger over the death of George Floyd, a sign that the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality is resonating with wider calls to address racism from Australia to Europe.

In Berlin, where police said 15,000 people rallied on the German capital’s Alexander Square, protesters chanted Floyd’s name and held up placards with slogans such as “Stop police brutality” and “I can’t breath.”

06 June 2020; MEMO: Greek Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos has confirmed that his country is ready for all eventualities, including military confrontation with Turkey if it continued to provoke Athens, news agencies reported on Friday.

In a television interview, Panagiotopoulos revealed that his ministry had noted increasing Turkish provocations.

GENEVA, June 6. /TASS/: Nearly 120,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection were registered worldwide in the past day, with the overall number of such cases exceeding 6.5 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin published on Friday night.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: The G20 member states agreed to allocate more than $21 billion in funding for efforts to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement posted on the organization’s official website on Saturday.

"The G20, with invited countries, has coordinated the global efforts to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, G20 members and invited countries have pledged over US$21 billion to support funding in global health," the statement says.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: The Czech authorities’ decision to expel two Russian diplomats is a provocation that won’t go unanswered, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin told reporters on Saturday.

"Retaliatory measures will be taken but generally speaking, it was a vile and heinous provocation on the part of the Czech authorities," he said.

NORILSK, June 6. /TASS/: Over 324 tonnes of diesel fuel that spilled out of a power station in Russia’s Norilsk have been cleaned up, a source in the regional crisis center told TASS on Saturday.

"Over 324 tonnes of spilled fuel were cleaned up as of the morning on June 6. In particular, 96 tonnes of fuel were pumped out of the river Ambarnaya," he said.

In addition, response teams used sorbents to dispose of over 14,000 square meters of fuel-contaminated soil. "Efforts continue to collect oil products," the source said.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus reproduction rate has dropped to 0.97, according to a TASS analysis based on data from the national anti-coronavirus crisis center.

Moscow’s coronavirus reproduction rate has fallen to 0.81. On Friday, the rate was 0.98 in Russia and 0.83 in Moscow.

Russia’s regions with a large number of coronavirus patients and the coronavirus reproduction rate below also 1 include Dagestan (0.98) and the Kaluga region (0.97). The rate stands at 1 in St. Petersburg, as well as in the Tula and Rostov regions.