Europe

MOSCOW, June 6. / TASS /: Russia's COVID-19 weekly cases reached a record high since mid-March, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

TASS has collected key statistics on the pandemic for this week.

Spread rate

From May 31 to June 6, the crisis center reported 62,995 COVID-19 cases versus 61,937 in the previous seven days (a 1.7% increase). The last record high was registered more than two months ago - from March 15 to 21.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: Russia and Nord Stream 2’s operator are ready for problems, which the West could create for the pipeline’s work, Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told Rossiya-1 TV channel on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"I think that we and the company-operator - this is an international company registered in Switzerland, by the way - are ready for this," Chizhov said, commenting on possible problems during Nord Stream 2’s operation.

KIEV, Jun 6 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran is ready to pay 150,000 U.S. dollars in compensation, to the Ukrainian families for each victim killed in a passenger airplane, downed near Tehran, the Iranian Embassy in Ukraine said Friday.

(Reuters) --- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday called for leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations to make a commitment to vaccinate the entire world against COVID-19 by the end of 2022 when they meet in Britain next week.

Johnson will host the first in-person summit in almost two years of G7 leaders - which follows a meeting of the group's finance ministers which wrapped up earlier in the day - and said he would seek a pledge to hit the global vaccination goal. 

(Reuters) --- British health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday it was too early to say whether the government would stick to its plan to fully lift COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England on June 21.

Hancock said there had been a "very significant" impact from the delta variant of COVID-19 first detected in India over the last month, which is now the dominant strain in England, according to official estimates.

(Reuters) --- Italy's co-ruling 5-Star Movement has resolved a long-running internal legal battle, paving the way for former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to take over as leader of the divided party and try to revive its fortunes.

Conte agreed to take the reins of 5-Star after his coalition government collapsed in February, but his plans to relaunch the struggling group have been delayed by a bitter dispute with the firm that provided its internet platform.

(Reuters) --- The European Union's ambassador to the United Kingdom said on Sunday that levels of trust between the two powers was low ahead of Brexit talks on the Northern Ireland protocol this week, but added that he was confident it would improve.

"The levels of trust are low right now," Joao Vale de Almeida told Times Radio.

"We ultimately need to re-establish a minimum level of trust that allows us to find solutions, but this being said...I remain confident that we can get there."

(Reuters) --- The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt started votingon Sunday in the last test of public opinion before September’s national election, one which could deal a blow to conservative Armin Laschet’s hopes of succeeding Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Surveys in the state show a small lead for the Christian Democrats (CDU) of Laschet and Merkel, but the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was running just one percentage point behind in the final poll published on Friday.

05 June 2021; MEMO: More than 180 French MPs and city council members have signed a letter calling for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to immediately release prominent human rights defender Ramy Shaath, Arab48 reported on Friday.

MINSK, June 5. /TASS/: Sanctions against Belavia should be viewed as an attempt to strangle the Belarusian air carrier and to take over the air travel market, Artem Sikorsky, head of the Belarusian Transport Ministry’s aviation department, said in a televised interview on ONT channel on Saturday.

"A strangulation process is underway. To put it bluntly, those sanctions are a hostile takeover of the market and the business of the carrier that did not take any part in those events (the emergency landing of the Ryanair flight - TASS)," the official said.