Europe

MOSCOW, August 5./TASS/: The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has withdrawn from the monitoring of the upcoming elections to the State Duma lower house of parliament, and its further assessments concerning the September election will hardly deserve attention, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexander Bikantov told a briefing on Thursday. 

MOSCOW, August 5./TASS/: The offensive by the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) in Afghanistan is losing steam and it has no resources for seizing major cities, including Kabul, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexander Bikantov told a briefing on Thursday. 

"The Taliban has no resources to capture and hold the major cities, including the country’s capital city Kabul. Their offensive is gradually running out of steam," he said.

Government troops have managed to regain control over the lost districts in some provinces, the diplomat stressed.

MINSK, August 5. /TASS/: About 12,800 troops will participate in the Zapad-2021 strategic drills in Belarus, including 2,500 personnel from Russia and 50 servicemen from Kazakhstan, Chief of the Belarusian General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Gulevich said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the scale of wildfires and flash floods in the country by climate change.

The head of state promised during his meeting with the government to hold a separate meeting on combating wildfires and flash floods on August 6.

"All this is largely connected to the climate change - both global and in our country," Putin noted.

According to the President, during the last 44 years, the average yearly temperature in the country has been increasing 2.8 times faster "than in the global dimension."

MOSCOW, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Armenia's defence ministry said on Thursday that Russian border guards had been deployed in the Tavush region in the country's northeast, bordering Azerbaijan, Interfax news agency reported.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week proposed that Russian border forces be stationed along the length of the border with Azerbaijan amid rising tensions between Yerevan and Baku, the TASS news agency reported.

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Atlantic Ocean's current system, an engine of the Northern Hemsiphere's climate, could be weakening to such an extent that it could soon bring big changes to the world's weather, a scientific study said on Thursday.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a large system of ocean currents which transports warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic.

05 Aug 2021; MEMO: France on Wednesday pledged to send 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines to Lebanon, along with €100 million ($118.9 million) in emergency aid to rebuild Beirut a year after a massive explosion tore through the capital city, Anadolu Agency reported.

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization called Wednesday for a moratorium on administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines as a way to help ensure that doses are available in countries where few people have received their first shots.

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/: Experts from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have voiced no concerns about the effectiveness of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/: Russia is ready to share its achievements in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic with other countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily uploaded to the ministry’s website on Wednesday.