Europe

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: No new confirmed cases of monkeypox have been detected in Russia and the situation is being closely controlled by the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, the agency’s press service told journalists on Saturday.

Earlier, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

KHERSON, July 23. /TASS/: A seven-member election committee to conduct a referendum on acceding to Russia is being created in the Kherson Region, the press service of the region’s military-civilian administration said on Saturday.

ATHENS, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Greece on July 26 to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek foreign ministry said, in his first visit to an EU country since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The ministry said the pair were due to sign bilateral deals, without giving details. A Greek diplomatic source said the deals were in the fields of energy, military cooperation, and an undersea data cable, among others.

BERLIN, July 23 (Reuters) - Germany should contribute towards the costs of France's nuclear arsenal as the threat of nuclear war with Russia looms over Europe, German political veteran Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview published on Saturday.

"Now that Putin's accomplices are threatening a nuclear strike every day, one thing is clear to me: we need nuclear deterrence at the European level as well," Schaeuble, a former finance minister who has served as a member of the German parliament for five decades, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

July 22 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a ceasefire with Russia without reclaiming lost territories would only prolong the war, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

He warned that a ceasefire that allows Russia to keep Ukrainian territories seized since the invasion in February would only encourage an even wider conflict, giving Moscow an opportunity to replenish and rearm for the next round.

GRANTHAM, England, July 23 (Reuters) - Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday described himself as the underdog in the contest to become Britain's next prime minister.

Sunak's resignation helped trigger a revolt that saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson agree to step down after a series of scandals. Members of the ruling Conservative Party will vote for a successor over the summer, with an announcement due on Sept. 5.

Sunak led all rounds of the voting among party lawmakers to reduce the field to two candidates.

July 23 (Reuters) - Heavy fighting has been taking place in the last 48 hours as Ukrainian forces continued their offensive against Russia in Kherson province, west of the Dnipro River, British military intelligence said on Saturday.

Russian forces are using artillery fire along the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro, the UK's Ministry of Defence said.

"Supply lines of the Russian forces west of the river are increasingly at risk," the ministry said in an intelligence update.

BUDAPEST, July 23 (Reuters) - The European Union needs a new strategy on the war in Ukraine as sanctions against Moscow have not worked, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.

"A new strategy is needed which should focus peace talks and drafting a good peace proposal...instead of winning the war," Orban said in a speech in Romania.

Orban, reelected for a fourth consecutive term in April, reiterated that Hungary - a NATO member - would stay out of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

GENEVA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. politicians today are no longer in a position to work out pragmatic solutions and find a consensus, and constitutional crises and political violence could soon become the norm in the country, reported Switzerland's leading newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ).

In the United States, the white rural population feels robbed of their homeland, while the cosmopolitan city dwellers feel bullied by the conservative minority, said the report.

LONDON (AP) — The expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that qualifies as a global emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Saturday, a declaration that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.