Europe

26 August 2022; MEMO: Ukrainian separatists who support Russia yesterday released an Israeli citizen whom they had held captive in Ukraine's Luhansk region, the Times of Israel reported, citing Russian state media.

Vladimir Kozolevsky was transferred to the Russian border and is expected to be returned to Israel.

Kozolevsky lived for many years in Ukraine and was arrested at the end of June.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Communications Directorate, on Thursday, organised the sixth panel in a series on UN Security Council reforms in the Swedish capital city Stockholm, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The Council needs to be reformed in order to make the UN more democratic and better-functioning, political scientist, Hans Agne, said at the event, titled "United Nations Security Council Reform: A New Approach to Reconstruction of the International Order".

27 August 2022; MEMO: French President, Emmanuel Macron, said on Friday the ball was in Iran's court to revive a nuclear deal with world powers, and that the offer on the table, even if it would not resolve all differences, was better than no offer at all, Reuters reports.

Iran received Washington's response to an EU-drafted final offer for salvaging the 2015 deal, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran said on Wednesday, giving no firm indication of how close remaining gaps were to being narrowed.

27 August 2022; MEMO: The announcement of French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday that Algerian gas constitutes a small amount of French energy sources refutes reports that a large portion of Algerian gas goes to France, Algerian newspaper Echorouk reported.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: Air temperatures in Moscow reached 30.3 Celsius on Friday, beating a record from 53 years ago, Alexander Sinenkov, a leading expert at the Phobos weather service, told TASS.

"According to data for the past 11 hours, the temperatures hit 30.3 degrees Celsius, a new record," he said.

According to Sinenkov, the previous record of 28.9 degrees Celsius was registered on August 26, 1969.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: Guests from more than 60 countries are expected to attend the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), Presidential Aide and the EEF’s Executive Secretary of the Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov said on Friday.

BELGRADE, August 26. /TASS/: Not a single European country can cope with the current energy crisis, or today’s gas prices in particular, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday at the opening ceremony of a fair in Osecina.

MINSK, August 26. /TASS/: The overwhelming majority of Ukraine’s population do not hold extremist nationalist views, it's the leadership in Kiev that professes Nazism, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: The Russian government is working on a bill that would regulate entry, exit and residence of foreigners, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.

He said at a Security Council meeting on migration policy that some issues in this area are systemic in nature and an integrated approach is needed to address them.

"So, a new comprehensive bill is being prepared, which should regulate the conditions for the entry, exit and stay of foreigners in our country," he said.

GENEVA, Aug 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Monkeypox cases fell by a fifth last week as infections in Europe dropped but the outbreak is going through “intense transmission” in the Americas, the World Health Organization said.

The WHO sounded the alarm for Latin America in particular, pointing to a lack of awareness and public health measures to control the spread of the virus.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the African countries where it has long been endemic.