Europe

MINSK, July 31. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia have discussed the situation in Belarus and Russia and interfaith relations in a telephone conversation, the Belarusian leader’s press service said on Saturday.

"The focus was on the situation in Belarus and Russia, while an emphasis during the conversation was placed on issues of interfaith relations. And, of course, the interlocutors discussed the state of affairs in the Church as a whole," the report said.

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow will continue provide assistance to Ankara in extinguishing forest fires, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/: Moscow has sent a note to Kiev, demanding that Ukraine honor its commitments to protect war memorials due to plans to destroy a replica of the Order of the Patriotic War on the Field of Mars in Lvov, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

PARIS, July 31 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron called for the opening of talks to end hostilities in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray, the Elysee Palace said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement came after calls Macron held earlier in the day with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sudanese counterpart Abdalla Hamdok.

Macron also said all restrictions should be lifted to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid in Tigray, where thousands of children could suffer life-threatening malnutrition, according to the United Nations children's agency.

MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency said on Saturday that pressure in a Russian service module on the International Space Station had dropped as a result of an air leak.

Pressure had fallen over a two-week period before a Russian research module, the Nauka, threw the station out of control when its engines fired shortly after docking on Thursday, but Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said the two events were not linked.

BRUSSELS, July 31 (Reuters) - A group of mostly smaller countries submitted new, more ambitious climate pledges to the United Nations this week, raising pressure on big emitters including China to do the same ahead of a major U.N. climate summit in November.

U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa said that as of Saturday the United Nations had received new pledges from 110 countries, out of the nearly 200 that signed the 2015 Paris climate accord.

ROME, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Ministers from the Group of 20 countries on Friday concluded two days of talks on the role of culture in the world, saying that investing in cultural initiatives can be a driver of sustainable economic growth and that they should be a part of future G20 negotiations.

30 July 2021; MEMO: German NGO Sea-Watch said on Friday it had rescued nearly 100 migrants in the Mediterranean overnight, many of whom were injured, some with severe "fuel burns" – chemical burns caused by exposure to gasoline mixed with seawater, Reuters reported.

Migrant boat departures from Libya and Tunisia to Italy and other parts of Europe have increased in recent months with better weather.

31 July 2021; MEMO: Denmark could face legal action for its attempt to deport Syrian refugees from the country, a report has revealed.

In March, the Danish government declared that the Syrian capital Damascus and the territories under the control of President Bashar Al-Assad are "safe", enabling it to revoke the residency permits of hundreds of Syrian refugees in Denmark.

31 July 2021; MEMO: A German court sentenced a neo-Nazi woman to six years in prison on Friday for planning terror attacks against politicians, mosques, and pro-refugee NGOs in the country, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Higher Regional Court in Munich found Susanne G. guilty of attempting to disturb public peace and making preparations for serious acts of violence in the country by acquiring material to build bombs.