Europe

BERLIN, August 6. /TASS/: The complaint filed by the German environmental protection organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) against the Stralsund Mining Authority regarding the permit to commission the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will hardly be successful, head of Bundestag [German diet] Economy and Energy Committee Klaus Ernst told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: A third plane of the Russian emergencies ministry has taken off for Beirut, rocked by a huge blast on Tuesday, after a stopover in Saratov, the ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

"At 04:53 Moscow time on August 6, an Il-76 plane took off from Saratov for Lebanon," it said, specifying that the plane was carrying 15 specialists from Russia’s sanitary watchdog and equipment for organizing a laboratory for conducting tests for the novel coronavirus infection.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: Aeroflot Airlines will extend until August 31 the cancellation of flights to more than 80 foreign cities due to the unfavorable epidemiological situation there, the airline said in a statement.

"Aeroflot announces the forced cancellation of some of its regular international flights for the period until August 31. The decision to adjust the program of international flights was made taking into account the current epidemiological restrictions in the countries of destination," the airline said.

MINSK, August 6. /TASS/: Individuals with US passports linked to the Department of State were detained in the run-up to the election in Belarus, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

MINSK (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that Belarus had detained a number of people who possessed U.S. passports and were married to U.S. women ahead of its Aug. 9 presidential elections, the Belta news agency reported.

Lukashenko provided no further details of the detainees and it was not clear who he was referring to.

The U.S. embassy did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels will require people to wear masks in public spaces and in private spaces accessible to the public if the uptick in coronavirus cases continues, the regional government said on Thursday.

The order will kick in when the daily average of cases per 100,000 inhabitants reaches 50 over seven days, Rudi Vervoort, the minister-president of the Brussels region, said. The daily average in the region was 38.4 last week.

Belgium imposed sharp curbs on social contacts on July 27 after coronavirus infections surged in recent weeks.

PARIS (AP) — As Lebanese rescuers counted the dead and combed rubble for signs of life a day after a huge explosion shattered swaths of Beirut, nations near and far pledged Wednesday that the country, already trapped in a deep economic crisis, would not be left alone.

The explosion at the capital’s port that killed at least 135 and injured thousands, with shock waves smashing deep into the city, stunned the world. From Australia to Indonesia to Europe and the United States, countries readied to send in aid and search teams.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When a right-wing populist party won the right to govern Poland five years ago, Piotr Grabarczyk feared “bad things” might happen to gay men like him and other LGBT people. He sometimes considered leaving the country, but waited.

Friends and a job bound Grabarczyk to Warsaw, the relatively liberal capital city. He trusted that Poland’s membership in the European Union would protect his community. Yet his dwindling faith finally fell away as President Andrzej Duda campaigned for reelection on an anti-LGBT platform - and won.

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England held off providing more monetary stimulus on Thursday as Britain reopens after the pandemic lockdowns, but it warned it would take time for the economy to heal and unemployment would keep rising this year.

While the central bank forecast that the economy would shrink less than previously expected this year, it said gross domestic product probably won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2021 as spending by consumers and businesses remains weak.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) won’t be extended and a new multilateral arms control system needs to be established in its place, Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Zolotarev said during an online conference dubbed US Nuclear Ambitions: from Truman to Trump.