Europe

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell yesterday announced that the EU is concerned about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Tunisia and fears it may collapse.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. /TASS/: A fallen drone without identifying signs has been found in Tula region, the regional security committee said on Sunday.

"On March 19, a fallen unmanned aerial vehicle without identification signs was found in a field far from dwelling houses between the settlements of Petrovskoye and Malovel in the Odoyevsky district," it said, adding that there is no threat to people and infrastructure.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has requested providing the legal assessment of German Justice Minister’s statements on arrest of Russian citizens on German territory, the press service of the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Russia does not use hypersonic weapons in fact now, though it has them, same as other cutting-edge systems, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel published by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Moscow intends to set up its own leasing company on Africa’s territory, Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Osmakov said on Sunday.

"A specialized Russian leasing company will most probably be created in Africa. We are currently choosing the location for this leasing company as the African market has its specifics," he said.

"Gazprombank Leasing will most probably by the backbone company," Osmakov added.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: Russia’s Investigative Committee thoroughly records all Kiev’s crimes, with those files to potentially provide a basis for tribunal in the future, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday.

"We know that the Investigative Committee is involved in this work. All crimes committed by the Kiev regime are thoroughly recorded. <…> The files will obviously be able to provide a basis for such a tribunal," he said when asked how the Kremlin takes the idea of a tribunal on Kiev’s regime.

BELGRADE, March 19 (Reuters) - Serbia wants normal relations with Kosovo but still won't sign any agreement with it, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday, a day after he verbally agreed to implement a Western-backed plan for the normalisation of ties.

Serbia wants to join the European Union, and a condition of membership is that it normalise relations with ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 but which Belgrade still considers a Serbian province.

LONDON (AP) — The Scottish National Party is finding Nicola Sturgeon a hard act to follow.

Scotland’s governing party is holding an acrimonious contest to replace Sturgeon, a leader who came to dominate Scottish politics, but hit an impasse in her fight for independence from the United Kingdom, and divided the party with a transgender rights law.

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Voters in Montenegro are casting ballots Sunday in a presidential election marked by political turmoil and uncertainty over whether the small NATO member state in the Balkans will unblock its bid to join the European Union or instead seek to improve ties with Serbia and Russia.

PARIS (AP) — A parody photo appearing on protest signs and online in France shows President Emmanuel Macron sitting on piles of garbage. The image references the trash going uncollected with sanitation workers on strike, but also what many French people think about their leader.

Macron, 45, had hoped his push to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 would cement his legacy as the president who transformed France’s economy for the 21st century. Instead, he finds his leadership contested, both in parliament and on the streets of major cities.