Europe

15 May 2020; MEMO: UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly said Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank are “contrary to international law”.

When asked by Scottish National Party MP Tommy Sheppard if the UK government would consider the move “illegal under international law”, Cleverly said that attempting to annex the West Bank would make a two-state solution difficult to achieve, in a break with UK support of US foreign policy.

15 May 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International yesterday condemned the United States’ support for Israel’s plans to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank.

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/: The production of instruments for the Luna-26 orbital station will begin at the end of 2020, Director of the Space Research Institute within the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Petrukovich told TASS on Friday.

"The production of the final types of instruments will begin somewhere at the end of this year," he said.

In February, work was completed to test the electric interfaces of devices for switching on/off, selecting and issuing commands and obtaining data, he said.

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/: The Russian Navy’s oceanographic research vessel Admiral Vladimirsky has left behind the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and continues on its voyage in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Russian Navy Spokesman Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said on Friday.

"The oceanographic research vessel Admiral Vladimirsky has passed the Cape of Good Hope and the traverse of Cape Town, rounded the southern cap of Africa and continues on its voyage in the Atlantic Ocean," Dygalo said.

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/: The newly elected Prime Minister of Iraq Mustafa al-Kadhimi handed over an invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Baghdad through Russian Ambassador to Iraq Maksim Maksimov, Iraq’s INA news agency announced Thursday, citing the Prime Minister’s office.

"Al-Kadhimi hosted the Russian Ambassador to Iraq Maksim Maksimov, and the Ambassador handed over written congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, which also included an invitation to visit Moscow," the PM’s office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: Washington’s unwillingness to support the idea of a protocol to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons in order to create a verification mechanism makes one wonder what goals the US seeks to achieve through its overseas biolabs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday.

BERLIN, May 15. /TASS/: The Federal Network Agency of Germany refused Nord Stream 2 AG in withdrawing the Nord Stream 2 project from the rules of the updated EU Gas Directive, the regulator said on Friday.

"The Bundesnetzagentur has today rejected the application of Nord Stream 2 AG for derogation from regulation for the section of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline located in German territory," the statement said.

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/: Moscow has no intention of hiding information about the country’s coronavirus death rate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RBC on Friday.

"As for the coronavirus statistics, I can assure you that the Russian authorities would be the last to try to hide the truth," he pointed out. "This is no joke, it is about human lives and I think that it is outrageous to play with them. Just like it is outrageous to try to take advantage of the situation in order to tarnish a country’s image," Lavrov added.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s economy slumped in the first quarter at its steepest rate since 2009 with worse expected by mid-year, but it is weathering fallout from the coronavirus better than other EU states where outbreaks have been more disruptive.

The 2.2% drop in quarter-on-quarter output was the widest since the financial crisis of a decade ago and the second biggest since German reunification in 1990, Friday’s federal statistics office data showed.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A ruling by the German Constitutional Court last week that targeted the European Central Bank’s flagship stimulus programme is not an assessment of any policy measures under discussion now, the court’s president told broadcaster SWR.

The Karlsruhe court last week gave the ECB three months to justify bond buys under its flagship stimulus programme or lose the Bundesbank - Germany’s national central bank, and a member of the ECB - as a participant. It also called on the German parliament and government to challenge the ECB on the matter.