Europe

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Russia does not seek to create an alternative to the current system of international relations, which is no longer western-centric, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media after a video conference with the foreign ministers of India and China, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Wang Yi.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: The supersonic business jet (SBJ) under development can fly to the distance up to 8,000 km, Tupolev Company, an affiliate of the United Aircraft Corporation, said in its annual report.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Russia doesn’t exclude any steps on its part during the upcoming conference of the signatories to the Treaty on Open Skies due to take place on July 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: The Russian-US working group on strategic stability issues will hold its first consultations in mid-July, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Tuesday.

He noted that representatives had agreed on setting up several expert groups, including on space, at the consultations held in Vienna. "There are other areas that experts will work in," he went on to say. "These are both conceptual approaches to nuclear affairs and arms control and more mundane issues, which are quite numerous."

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Paul Whelan, convicted for espionage in Russia decided not to appeal his sentence, his lawyer Olga Karlova told TASS.

"We have just visited Paul in the Lefortovo detention facility, where he made his decision not to appeal his sentence and filed a corresponding statement. After the sentence comes in effect, our client and us, we will decide whether to file a pardon plea," she said.

According to Karlova, her client does not believe in successful outcome of the appeal and does not trust the Russian justice.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: In the past 24 hours, 7,425 new COVID-19 cases were registered in Russia, bringing the total case count to 599,705, coronavirus prevention operational headquarters told journalists Tuesday.

According to the HQ’s statistics, the daily increase rate is 1,25%, a slight decrease from 1.3% one day ago. The number of newly registered cases has stayed under 8,000 for a week now.

BRUSSELS, June 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU warned China it would face “very negative consequences” if it presses ahead with a new security law for Hong Kong, stepping up pressure on Beijing over the controversial legislation.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Charles Michel told China’s top leaders of their “grave concern” over the new law, which critics say will curb the financial hub’s autonomy and freedoms.

PARIS, June 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Global coronavirus infections topped nine million on Monday as the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic was accelerating and Saudi Arabia said it would allow a “very limited” number of pilgrims to the hajj next month.

France took its biggest step yet back to normality by allowing millions of children to return to school.

But despite Europe further easing lockdowns, cases are still rising around the world, especially in Latin America with Brazil now registering more than 50,000 deaths.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s private sector recession eased further in June but coronavirus-related disruptions and uncertainty continued to weigh on demand, a survey showed on Tuesday, suggesting that Europe’s largest economy is set for a slow recovery.

IHS Markit’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors that together account for more than two-thirds of the economy, improved to 45.8 from 32.3 in May.

LONDON (Reuters) - Japan has given the UK just six weeks to strike a post-Brexit deal, putting Boris Johnson’s government under pressure to agree one of the fastest trade negotiations in history, the Financial Times reported.

“To avoid a gap in January, we must pass this in the autumn session of the Diet [the Japanese parliament],” Hiroshi Matsuura, Tokyo’s chief negotiator, told the Financial Times. “That means we must complete negotiations by the end of July.”

Source link: on.ft.com/3doOrMs