Europe

PARIS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- High temperatures and drought have deepened the energy crisis in Europe this summer, affecting electricity production at a time when the European economies are already facing unprecedentedly high oil and gas prices.

In France, Europe's largest producer of nuclear power, several plants along the Rhone and Garonne were forced to reduce output because river temperatures were too high to cool the plants. This further reduced the power supply after the shutdown of a dozen of the country's 56 nuclear plants for planned maintenance.

NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which hits the half-year mark this week, has already killed some 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers, a general said, and the fighting Monday showed no signs that the war is abating.

At a veteran’s event, Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said Ukraine’s children need to be taken care of because “their father went to the front line and, perhaps, is one of those almost 9,000 heroes who died.”

LONDON (AP) — British health authorities will begin offering eligible people just a fraction of the normal monkeypox vaccine dose to stretch supplies by about five times, in line with similar decisions to extend available doses in Europe and the U.S.

In a statement Monday, Britain’s Health Security Agency said patients at clinics in Manchester and London would soon get just one fifth the regular monkeypox vaccine dose as part of ongoing research, citing earlier work suggesting the smaller dose provided as effective an immune response as a full dose.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy agencies have organized the killing of the daughter of a Russian nationalist ideologue.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency, said that the killing of Darya Dugina has been “prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services.”

Dugina was the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian nationalist ideologist who was described by some in the West as “Putin’s brain.”

PRAGUE, August 21. /TASS/: Pavel Fischer and Marek Zenisek, heads of foreign affairs committees of upper and lower houses of the Czech parliament, support the European Union’s ban on issue of Schengen visas to Russians, Cesky Rozhlas radio station said.

Such measures should be included into the list of EU sanctions against Russia, lawmakers said.

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 39,669 over the past day to 19,117,343, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

As many as 1,853 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 46.3% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients increased in 11 regions, while in 66 regions the figure decreased. The situation remained unchanged in eight regions. A day earlier, 3,450 people were rushed to hospitals.

TASS, August 21: The latest Su-57 fighters have shown themselves brilliantly in terms of weaponry during Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Sunday.

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/: The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed with Kalibr cruise missiles an ammunition depot in the Odessa Region, where missiles for US multiple rocket launchers HIMARS were stored, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Sunday.

"High-precision sea-based long-range Kalibr missiles near the village of Mayorskoye in the Odessa Region destroyed an ammunition depot with missiles for the American HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems and Western-made anti-aircraft systems," Konashenkov said.

SEVASTOPOL, August 21. /TASS/: Ukraine’s armed forces attempted to strike Belbek military airfield in Sevastopol on Sunday with air defense systems deflecting the attack, the city’s Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said on his Telegram channel.

"Our air defense systems took down new targets approaching Belbek from Yevpatoria. The request is the same - for everyone to remain calm," he wrote.

LONDON, Aug 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UK has announced £36 million (approx. US$ 42 million) in UK humanitarian funding to help people in Ukraine, East Africa, and Syria.

 People whose lives have been upended by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, drought and food shortages in East Africa, and conflict in Syria will be among those to benefit from £36 million in UK humanitarian funding announced Friday.