Europe

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: The situation in Afghanistan has demonstrated that neither the United States nor NATO are capable of coordinating their actions, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT, September 4. /TASS/: The next launch of British OneWeb communications satellites from the Vostochny spaceport is scheduled for October 14, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin reported to President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Twenty-one out of twenty-four missiles fired by Israeli fighter jets at targets in Syria were downed by Syria’s air-defense forces, Vadim Kulit, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, said on Friday.

"At about 01:30 on September 3, four Israeli F-15 tactical fighter jets fired 24 guided missiles at targets on Syrian territory from Lebanon’s airspace," he said. "Russian-made Buk-M2E and Pantsyr-S systems on duty in the Syrian air defense units downed 21 missiles."

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia increased by 18,780 per day to 6,993,954, the federal operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus told reporters on Saturday.

In relative terms, the number of cases increased by 0.27%.

In particular, 1,494 cases were detected per day in St. Petersburg, 756 - in the Moscow region, 512 - in the Sverdlovsk region, 479 - in the Rostov region, 462 - in the Perm region and the Voronezh region.

Currently, 552,072 people are continuing treatment in Russia.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter are facing fines totaling 72 mln rubles ($988,605) for refusing to remove prohibited content, the corresponding court hearing will be held on September 14, the world court No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, which will consider the relevant protocols on an administrative offense, told TASS.

ZURICH, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The United Nations will convene an international aid conference in Geneva on Sept. 13 to help avert what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called a "looming humanitarian catastrophe".

"We need the international community to stand together and support the Afghan people," Guterres said in a post on Twitter announcing the conference that he said would seek a swift scale-up in funding for humanitarian relief.

CERNOBBIO, Italy, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Europe will miss a key climate target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20 years unless it picks up the pace on energy transition measures and improves governance, a study involving Europe’s biggest utility Enel (ENEI.MI) said.

At the current pace, Europe will only reach its 2030 target for a 55% reduction in greenhouse gases in 2051, a study by Enel Foundation and the European House-Ambrosetti said.

LONDON (AP) — One of the U.K.’s largest suppliers of seasonal influenza vaccines warned Saturday that there could be delivery delays of up to two weeks as a result of a shortage of truck drivers.

In a statement that has accentuated concerns about the potential scale of this winter’s flu outbreak, vaccine company Seqirus blamed “unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays” for the disruption to deliveries in England and Wales.

The company said it “is working hard to resolve the delay to allow customers to reschedule their influenza vaccination clinics.”

VLADIVOSTOK, September 3. /TASS/: Russia welcomes the interest of other countries in using the Northern Sea Route and is not going to impose any restrictions on them, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Ukraine and Western countries did not show the relevant level of respect to deploying a group of OSCE observers at the Russian initiative on the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints located on the Russian-Ukrainian border, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said in a statement issued on Friday after this group stopped operating.