Europe

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/: The situation in Ukraine may prompt millions of its citizens to seek a home in other countries, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview to weekly Argumenty i Fakty.

"By essentially establishing a protectorate in Ukraine, the West crippled the country’s economy, took away people’s civil rights, and sent some strata of the population into poverty,’’ Patrushev said. ‘’At any moment, there’s potential in Ukraine for an outburst of tensions so strong that millions of Ukrainians will flee to seek refuge in other places.’’

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/: Russia has registered 33,996 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest number since October 19, with the total number of infections reaching 9,400,835 cases, according to data of the anti-coronavirus crisis center published on Tuesday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.36%.

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/: Russia sees US strategic bombers’ intensified activity in close proximity to its borders, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday. 

"We are witnessing a considerable increase in the US strategic bombers' activity near the Russian borders. Over the past month, they conducted about 30 flights to the borders of the Russian Federation, or 2.5 times more compared to the same period of last year," Russia’s defense chief said during talks with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe.

SOCHI, November 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday that he deemed it important to exchange opinions on the situation on the Palestinian track and in the Middle East.

"Respected Mr. President, I am very glad to see you," the head of the Russian state said, addressing the Palestinian leader at talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"We, undoubtedly, must meet regularly and maintain our relations," Putin stressed.

PARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Michel Barnier, the former European Union Brexit negotiator and now a challenger for the French presidency, said France had lost control of immigration and that a sense of impunity prevailed.

Barnier, who is locked in a five-way race for the centre-right Les Republicains party's nomination, lamented France's 'big decline' and said President Emmanuel Macron's leadership style was too arrogant and single-minded to heal divides.

BERLIN, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats, who are negotiating to form a new government, have agreed to commit to a coal phase-out by 2030 in a coalition deal, sources involved in the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.

The three parties are in the final stages of clinching a coalition agreement and hope to present the deal on Wednesday, one source close to the talks said.

Climate policy is one of the closest-watched areas for the new government as Europe's biggest economy shifts towards carbon neutrality.

STRASBOURG, France, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The thousands of migrants on the European Union's eastern borders with Belarus is an attempt by the Minsk regime to destabilise the EU, rather than a migration crisis, the head of the executive European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said.

Speaking at the European Parliament, von der Leyen said the 27-nation bloc was standing in solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia which bear the brunt of the policy of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to fly migrants from various world hotspots into Belarus and then push them across EU borders.

MOSCOW, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- It is "unacceptable" that some foreign lawmakers have called to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said Tuesday.

"It is especially sad to hear the rhetoric of confrontation from colleagues in the parliamentary community," said Matviyenko, head of the upper house of Russia's parliament.

"Such statements contradict the spirit of parliamentarism and the Olympic principles," she stressed.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities say they have helped more than 100 migrants leave the country on Monday and more are prepared to leave Tuesday, a statement that comes after almost two weeks of tensions at Belarus’ border with Poland, where hundreds of people remain stuck.

Belarus’ Interior Ministry officials said Tuesday that 118 migrants flew out of the capital, Minsk, on Monday to their home countries after the ex-Soviet country’s authorities “assisted them with paperwork and passing through the state border.”

PARIS (AP) — The prime minister of France, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, is being singled out on social media and beyond as an example of what not to do in the pandemic.

Multiple videos are being circulated of a maskless Prime Minister Jean Castex vigorously shaking hands with elected officials in an enclosed space at a Paris mayoral congress on Nov. 16. Many people are pointing out that goes against France’s official stance that everyone should keep taking preventative measures against the spread of COVID-19.