Europe

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s parliament dismissed an attempt by the far-right Vox party to topple the governing leftist coalition on Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly against a no-confidence motion brought against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government.

The motion only earned the support of Vox’s 52 lawmakers plus one rogue vote, for a total of 53. The government received 201 votes, while the 91 members of the conservative Popular Party, the chamber’s leading opposition party, abstained.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Metropolitan Police in the UK capital London have been found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic in a damning report led by Baroness Louise Casey.

In one of the incidents highlighted, a Muslim police officer said that he found bacon inside his boots in his locker but did not tell anyone at the time out of fear of reprisals.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on a $15.6 billion loan package aimed at shoring up government finances severely strained by Russia’s invasion and leveraging even more support by reassuring allies that Ukraine is pursuing strong economic policies and fighting corruption.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: A German court has overturned the decision made by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle to dismiss a Palestinian journalist who was accused of anti-Semitism in February.

Zahi Alawi returned to work on 20 March.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Japan’s prime minister pledged Wednesday to provide Poland with development support to help the European country assist neighboring Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion.

Polish Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Warsaw a day after Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

ULYANOVSK, March 21. /TASS/: The United States and its minions are trying to turn the world against Russia by sowing hatred against the country and attempting to discredit it, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Supplies of depleted-uranium shells to Kiev will force Moscow to ponder how it can respond, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"This leads us to seriously think about the further course of developments and about how we can respond to this," Shoigu said in an excerpt of an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 television that journalist Pavel Zarubin posted on his Telegram channel.

March 21 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday condemned British plans to send tank ammunition that contains depleted uranium to Ukraine, saying Moscow would be forced to respond accordingly.

Speaking in London on Monday, Minister of State for Defence Annabel Goldie said some of the ammunition for the Challenger 2 battle tanks that Britain is sending to Ukraine includes armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium.

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - Data from the early days of the COVID pandemic, briefly uploaded to a database by Chinese scientists, gives information on its origins, including suggesting a role for raccoon dogs in the coronavirus reaching humans, international researchers said.

The virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, with many suspecting a live animal market to be involved, before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people to date.

March 21 (Reuters) - Two Russian strategic bomber planes flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday in a statement released as Japan's prime minister was beginning a visit to Ukraine.

The Tupolev Tu-95MS planes are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and Moscow regularly flies them over international waters in the Arctic, North Atlantic and Pacific as a show of strength.