Europe

LONDON, May 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Another 215 COVID-19 patients died in Britain, as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total death toll in the country to 38,376, Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said Saturday.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

Chairing Saturday’s Downing Street daily briefing, Dowden said, Britons will be able to exercise outside with up to five others from different households from Monday, provided that strict social distancing guidelines are followed.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany is working on a stimulus package worth 75 billion-80 billion euros ($83 billion-$89 billion) to support economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, weekly Bild am Sonntag reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition would stump up more than 60 billion euros, while the country’s regional states would shoulder the rest, the paper reported.

The government was not immediately available for comment.

LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Dominic Raab defended on Sunday the government’s “careful” loosening of the coronavirus lockdown, saying it was the “right step to be taking at this moment in time”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire from some scientists for easing a lockdown put in place 10 weeks ago, with some saying it was a premature and risky move in the absence of a fully functioning system to track new outbreaks.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday that people are more important than the economy, as countries decide how quickly to reopen their countries from coronavirus lockdowns.

Francis made his comments, departing from a prepared script, at the first noon address from his window overlooking St. Peter’s Square in three months as Italy’s lockdown drew to an end.

“Healing people, not saving (money) to help the economy (is important), healing people, who are more important than the economy,” Francis said.

BERLIN, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) should assume more global responsibility in the coronavirus crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

In a speech outlining Germany's policy during its rotating EU presidency starting in July, Merkel said the pandemic has posed enormous challenges and changed a lot from the ground up, including the plans for the EU Council Presidency, said Merkel.

BRUSSELS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The European Union(EU)'s chief executive and top diplomat said in a statement on Saturday that the bloc continues to support the World Health Organization (WHO) and urges the U.S. to reconsider its termination of ties with the WHO.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is "terminating" its relationship with the WHO and redirecting the funds elsewhere.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Childhood actor. Pro-democracy activist. Avid supporter of the European Union and LGBT rights.

Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski made a late entry in Poland’s presidential election and has quickly emerged as the main challenger to the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda. He has injected competition and suspense into a race that Duda had previously seemed certain to win.

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: More than 107,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection were registered worldwide on May 29, with the overall number of such cases exceeding 5.7 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin on Friday.

As of 11:00 Moscow time on May 29, as many as 5,701,337 novel coronavirus cases and 357,688 coronavirus-associated deaths were registered across the globe. The number of confirmed cases grew by 107,740 in the past 24 hours and the number of fatalities increased by 4,354.

BERLIN, May 30. /TASS/: Political differences between the European Union and Russia can only be resolved through dialogue, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

"Federal Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and the Russian president hold conversations on a regular basis," said Schroeder, who served as German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005.

MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/: The Russian ruble strengthened 6.1% against the US dollar and 4.5% against the euro in May, according to Moscow Stock Exchange (MSE) data.

Dollar traded at 70.14 rubles on MSE, euro - at 77.93 rubles.

This is the second consecutive month of the Russian national currency’s growth following the losses, caused by the economic downturn in March. However, in January-May, the Russian ruble weakened 8.8% against the US dollar and 9% against euro.