Europe

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: The Russian Aerospace Forces struck weapons and ammunition depots of Ukraine’s 28th brigade and the 123rd territorial defense brigade in Nikolayev, eliminating more than 50 people, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov reported on Sunday.

PARIS, July 23 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his disappointment to his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi at the lack of progress over talks on the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Elysee Palace said in a statement on Saturday.

In June, Iran began removing essentially all the agency's monitoring equipment, installed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The French leader urged Raisi to make a "clear choice" to reach a deal and go back to the implementation of Iran's commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Elysee Palace said.

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Britain's two contenders to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister promised on Sunday to tackle illegal immigration as a priority, with both backing the government's policy of sending migrants to Rwanda.

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss are battling to become Britain's next prime minister after a revolt over Johnson's scandal-ridden administration forced the prime minister to say he would stand down. 

MOSCOW, July 24 (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday that its cruise missiles had struck military infrastructure of Ukraine's Odesa port, destroying a military boat a day after Moscow reached a grain deal with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"Kalibr missiles destroyed Odesa port's military infrastructure, sending a Ukrainian military boat to the Kiev regime's favourite address in a precision strike," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

MILAN (AP) — Italian vessels have recovered five bodies and rescued 674 people packed on a fishing boat adrift in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, the Italian Coast Guard said Sunday, while European charities reported saving more than 500 more.

Some of the survivors had to be plucked from the sea in the Italian operation Saturday that was carried out 120 miles (190 kilometers) off the coast of Calabria by a Navy mercantile ship, three Coast Guard patrol boats and a financial police boat. All of those rescued were brought to ports in Calabria and Sicily.

VIENNA (AP) — Two apparent homophobic attacks were reported following Berlin’s annual pro-LGBTQ Christopher Street Day celebration on Saturday, police said Sunday.

In one incident, two girls, aged 16 and 17, and a 15-year-old boy were confronted by a group of nine people in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood on Saturday evening. The group approached the two girls and made anti-gay remarks to the two girls, police said, presumably because of their clothing.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian defense ministry officials on Sunday insisted that an airstrike on the port of Odesa — less than a day after Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on resuming grain shipments from there — had hit only military targets.

“In the seaport in the city of Odesa, on the territory of a shipyard, sea-based high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the U.S. to the Kyiv regime,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a daily briefing.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis began a fraught visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools, a key step in the Catholic Church’s efforts to reconcile with Native communities and help them heal from generations of trauma.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia increased by 6,953 in the past 24 hours and 38 patients died from the disease, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

A day before, Russia registered 6,659 new daily COVID-19 cases and 41 fatalities, totaling 18,524,732 and 382,118, correspondingly, since the start of the pandemic in the country.

Coronavirus recoveries in Russia grew by 4,803 in the past 24 hours compared to 4,687 a day before, totaling 17,933,862, the crisis center reported.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Russian artillery struck the combat positions of the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Donbass formation near Verkhnekamenskoye, eliminating over 60 militants, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.

"As a result of damage by firepower inflicted by Russian artillery on the combat positions of the Neo-Nazi Donbass formation near the settlement of Verkhnekamenskoye, over 60 militants were killed," the spokesman said.