Europe

COPENHAGEN, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Efforts must be reinforced to prevent the transmission of the Delta variant of coronavirus as it has become the most dominant strain across much of Europe, top health authorities in Europe warned on Friday.

The SARS-COV-2 Delta variant is moving fast across Europe based on surveillance data collected between June 28 and July 11, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office in Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a joint statement.

ROME, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Energy and environment ministers of the G20 group closed a two-day meeting with a 58-article final communique on Friday, but without an agreement on a specific commitment related to global temperature target, the G20 Italian presidency said.

At the end of the summit held in the southern city of Naples, Italy's Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said the G20 group -- which represents the 20 countries with the largest economies in the world -- was unable to find a wording related to the climate change commitment that could satisfy everyone.

AHRWEILER, Germany (AP) — Like other residents of his town in Germany, Wolfgang Huste knew a flood was coming. What nobody told him, he says, was how bad it would be.

The 66-year-old antiquarian bookseller in Ahrweiler said the first serious warning to evacuate or move to higher floors of buildings close to the Ahr River came through loudspeaker announcements at around 8 p.m. on July 14. Huste then heard a short emergency siren blast and church bells ring, followed by silence.

“It was spooky, like in a horror film,” he said.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Supporting the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Christian Schmidt, who does not enjoy legitimacy, will have a negative effect on the road to a peace settlement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement Friday.

The diplomat expressed regrets that the Russian-Chinese draft resolution on Schmidt’s appointment was not adopted during the July 22 UN Security Council vote.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: The situation with Crimea’s ownership on the map posted on the official website of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics calls for a response by the Russian Embassy and Russian sports officials, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"I believe this is a reason for our embassy and our sports officials to take certain steps and ask respective questions," Peskov stressed.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Moscow expects that no one will dare embark on any sort of aggression against members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), taking advantage of the current situation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a webinar on Russia’s foreign policy on Friday.

ZHUKOVSKY, July 23. /TASS/: The Sukhoi Design Bureau has for the first time presented a flight simulator with virtual reality to train pilots for the expert version of the Su-57E fifth-generation aircraft, team leader with Sukhoi Yuri Zavgorodnev told TASS on Friday at the MAKS 2021 International Aviation and Space Salon.

"The concept has already made a step forward. We present the Su-57E interactive simulator," Zavgorodnev said.

The virtual simulator for the Su-35 aircraft was presented for the first time at the MAKS 2019 air show, he noted.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: The experience of Russia’s relations with the West in recent decades shows that any unilateral concessions made by Moscow will be seen as weakness, and new unacceptable demands will follow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

He recalled that in a difficult geopolitical situation, which "requires both steadfastness and wisdom" in developing one’s policy, certain voices that call for the need "to achieve reconciliation with the West on its terms" could be heard.

PARIS, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The novel coronavirus has killed at least 4,128,543 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled on Thursday.

At least 191,917,090 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.

GENEVA, July 22 (Reuters) - Former United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay will head an international commission of inquiry into alleged crimes committed during the latest conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council said in a statement on Thursday.

The council agreed in late May to open the investigation with a broad mandate to cover allegations not just in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but also in Israel during hostilities that were halted by a May 21 ceasefire.