Europe

5 July 2019; DW: Motorcyclists must wear a helmet and cannot be exempted from the rule on religious grounds, one of Germany's top five courts has ruled.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig rejected a Sikh man's appeal, who had argued that the helmet would not fit over his turban.

BRUSSELS, July 5. /TASS/: The suspension of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty will dominate the NATO-Russia Council’s meeting due in Brussels on Friday.

The meeting will be held at the level of ambassadors and Russia will be represented by Acting Permanent Representative to NATO Yuri Gorlach.

"The sides are planning to outline each others’ positions on the INF Treaty, we do not expect any real agreements. They will also discuss military activity in Europe and may mention the situation in Ukraine as well," a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS.

ROME, July 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed with Pope Francis the issue of protecting the Christian population of the Middle East and humanitarian assistance for Syria, the Russian leader told a news conference after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

SEVASTOPOL, July 5. /TASS/: A task force of the Black Sea Fleet has started scheduled combat training amid NATO’s Sea Breeze-2019 drills, the Fleet’s press service said on Friday.

"While fulfilling the goals, the task force of Russian warships has started practicing a number of scheduled combat training events in the Black Sea waters," the statement said.

The Black Sea Fleet’s drills involve some 10 warships, including large amphibious ships Azov and Cezar Kunikov, small-size missile ships Orekhovo-Zuyevo and Mirazh, and some guided-missile boats.

PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers have approved a measure that is intended to force search engines and social networks to take hate speech off the internet.

The measure adopted Thursday by the lower house of the French parliament would require social networks to remove hate speech within 24 hours of a confirmed violation. Search engines would have to stop referencing the content as well.

LAVRIO, Greece (AP) — On an exhaustive tour of Greece’s blue collar towns and city suburbs, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has a spring in his step. It’s no wonder - he’s the overwhelming favorite to become the country’s next prime minister as the unlikely heir of a powerful political family.

LONDON (AP) — They smashed glass windows, sprayed rude graffiti and defaced Hong Kong’s official emblem with black paint. But of all the dramatic photos showing hundreds of young protesters storming the city’s legislative building this week, one image makes for particularly uncomfortable viewing in Beijing: The British colonial flag draped aloft a podium in the assembly’s chamber.

4 July 2019; DW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the defense minister had assured
him that the stricken submarine's nuclear reactor had been contained. 

"...The Nuclear reactor on the vessel is completely isolated and unmanned. All the necessary measures were taken by the crew to protect the reactor which is in complete working order," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin, according to a Kremlin transcript.

4 July 2019; DW: Lawmakers from across Germany's political spectrum on Wednesday slammed a proposal to make German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen the next European Commission president.

Von der Leyen's candidacy was endorsed by all EU leaders apart from German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a European Council vote on Tuesday. Merkel abstained because her domestic coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), refused to give their approval.

BUCHAREST, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The re-elected Romanian National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu said on Wednesday that preparing the country to enter the Eurozone is the main task of the new board of directors he leads.

"This is a board where continuity combines with novelty, experience blends with youth," said Isarescu after Parliament appointed in a joint session the members to the new board of directors.

According to him, this new board will make every effort, use its entire professional capability to fulfill the mandate that is entrusted to it.