Europe

20 June 2023; MEMO: More than 1,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Friday, according to figures released by the UK Home Office.

So far this month, over 2,500 have crossed the English Channel from France and over 10,000 since the beginning of the year.

At the beginning of June, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his plan to cut the number of migrants arriving was working.

LONDON (AP) — Britain made a mistake in focusing too much on preparations for a flu pandemic rather than considering other types of pandemic in the years before the COVID-19 outbreak, former Prime Minister David Cameron told a public inquiry Monday.

Cameron, who led Britain’s Conservative government from 2010 to 2016, was the first politician to be questioned by the wide-ranging inquiry into the U.K.’s preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, how the government responded and what lessons can be learned for the future.

LONDON (AP) — Multinational companies including Amazon, Marriott and Hilton pledged Monday to hire more than 13,000 refugees, including Ukrainian women who have fled the war with Russia, over the next three years in Europe.

Just ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, more than 40 corporations say they will hire, connect to work or train a total of 250,000 refugees, with 13,680 of them getting jobs directly in those companies.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin’s spokesman said Monday that U.N. aid workers who want to visit areas ravaged by the recent Kakhovka dam collapse in southern Ukraine can’t go there because fighting in the war makes it unsafe.

The United Nations rebuked Moscow on Sunday for allegedly denying aid workers access to Russian-occupied areas where residents are stranded amid “devastating destruction.”

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s House of Commons is likely to endorse on Monday a report that found Boris Johnson lied to lawmakers about lockdown-flouting parties in his office, a humiliating censure that would strip the former prime minister of his lifetime access to Parliament.

Lawmakers debated the report by the Privileges Committee that found Johnson in contempt of Parliament, and were expected to approve its findings. It was unclear whether there would be a formal vote or whether the report would be approved by acclamation.

18 June 2023; MEMO: Switzerland's ambassador to Turkiye has confirmed that criminal investigations have been launched against demonstrators who burned an effigy and picture of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Swiss city of Zurich this week.

On Wednesday this week, a leftist group known as the Zurich Revolutionary Strike Collective set fire to the Turkish flag and an effigy and picture of Erdogan outside a bank in Zurich, prompting outrage by Turkiye.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18. /TASS/: Russia will continue developing relations with Arab states and Persian Gulf states in particular, including in energy area, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview for RT.

"Russia will continue its cooperation with many states of the Arab world - first and foremost, Persian Gulf states - in the efforts on ensuring fair prices for energy, mainly oil. I am talking about the OPEC+ format. And we are, in general, are very satisfied with how our relations develop, and we will continue doing that," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/: Russia’s special military operation started to defend the Donbass region and now it has virtually turned into a war with the collective West, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with RT commenting on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.

"In fact, the special military operation against Ukraine, against the Kiev regime, was launched to ensure the safety of the people of Donbass. This is correct. Now it is practically a war between Moscow and the collective West," the Kremlin spokesman said.

MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/: The decisions of the German authorities are not based on the logic and interests of the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday, commenting on Germany's new national security strategy, which states that Russia has become the number one threat.

MOSCOW, 18 June. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked servicemen - volunteers participating in the special military operation, he said in a closed part of the discussion with military correspondents. A fragment of the conversation was published as part of the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" TV program, published by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.

"We should thank them for this motivation and for their readiness to defend our great homeland," Putin said.