March 31, 2022 LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and its allies have agreed to send more lethal military aid to Ukraine to help defend it against Russia’s invasion, British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday. “There’ll be more lethal aid going into Ukraine as a result of today. A number of countries have come forward either with new ideas or indeed more pledges of money,” Wallace told reporters after hosting over 35 international partners at the second International Defence Donor Conference for Ukraine (IDDCU). The aid will include the provision of air and coastal defence systems, longer ..read more

March 31, 2022 RABAT (Reuters) – The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on Thursday opened a consulate in Western Sahara, joining African and Arab countries that have established diplomatic missions there in a sign of support for Morocco’s claim to the disputed territory. The Dominican Republic’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he opened the consulate in Dakhla on behalf of Eastern Caribbean member states, a joint statement from the Dominican Republic and Morroco said. The Algeria-backed Polisario front seeks to establish an independent state in the vast and sparsely popula ..read more

March 31, 2022 PARIS (Reuters) – France’s veteran far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is the second most-liked politician in the country, according to a poll on Thursday which came 10 days ahead of the first round of voting. According to the Elabe poll for Les Echos newspaper and Radio Classique, 35% of those polled said they had a “good image” of Le Pen. In 2017, when she lost to Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election’s runoff, the figure stood at 32%. Le Pen has overtaken former President Nicolas Sarkozy in the poll, who came in third with 33% of positive opinions. She stil ..read more

March 31, 2022 (Reuters) – All foreign leased aircraft still in Russia after the termination of Western leasing contracts have been entered into the Russian aircraft register and will remain in Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Thursday. The imposition of sanctions by Western powers in response to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine forced Western leasing firms to terminate leasing contracts with Russian airlines for more than 500 aircraft. More than 400 of these are still in Russia. (Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Mark Trevelyan ..read more

March 31, 2022 By Daphne Psaledakis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting the technology sector, a sanctions evasion network and what it called “malicious cyber actors” while paving the way to act against additional sectors in response to President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. “We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 21 entities and 13 people, inc ..read more

March 31, 2022 BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian former Justice Minister and federal judge Sergio Moro is likely to drop out of the country’s presidential race as he leaves the Podemos party to join Uniao Brasil, a congressman said on Thursday. According to representative Alexandre Leite, who is a member of Uniao Brasil, Moro is now expected to run for the lower house in an October voting. Moro appeared in third place in recent opinion polls for the presidential race, statistically tied with former Ceara Governor Ciro Gomes and behind former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Jair ..read more

March 31, 2022 By Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) – Italy will only hit the NATO goal of spending 2% of GDP on defence in 2028, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday, confirming it will miss an original target of 2024 after opposition from within his ruling coalition. The government currently earmarks around 1.4% of economic output for military spending and would have had to increase its defence budget by 12 billion euros ($13.4 billion) over the next two years to reach a goal established by members of the Atlantic alliance in 2014. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, no on ..read more

March 31, 2022 LONDON (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings. “The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the European Union, including a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military structures, as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who promote anti-Russian policies,” Russia’s foreign ministry said. The EU, the United States and numerous other West ..read more

March 31, 2022 By Lisandra Paraguassu BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday relieved nine ministers in a formality that will pave the way for them to run in the country’s Oct. 2 general elections and possibly bolster the far-right leader’s struggling re-election campaign. The list of names, released in the official government gazette on Thursday, includes heavy-hitters such as Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias, Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Freitas and Labor Minister Onyx Lorenzoni. Bolsonaro is betting the ex-ministers, who are running for seats in Co ..read more

March 31, 2022 BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany plans to end mandatory quarantine for most people who catch COVID-19, the health ministry proposed on Thursday, as numbers isolating with the infection top four million. Under the existing rules, people with COVID must quarantine for at least seven days. But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to change that to a voluntary five days of self-isolation with the recommendation of a COVID test at the end of that period, proposals seen by Reuters showed. Under the plans, drawn up by his ministry and the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, heal ..read more