Europe

11 August 2023; AA: The British economy saw a 0.2% growth in the second quarter of the year, beating economists' expectations of zero growth, official figures showed on Friday.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), gross domestic product grew 0.5% in June, helped by the manufacturing sector, and 0.2% from April to June as a whole.

10 August 2023; MEMO: Ukraine has said that Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can bring the Black Sea grain deal "back on track", Anadolu Agency reports.

"Yes, I think he can. We know that Turkish diplomacy is working with the Russian one," Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in an interview with Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, on Wednesday.

10 August 2023; MEMO: Russia's embassy in Cyprus is extending its Consulate to the Turkish-controlled north of the island in an effort to serve Russian citizens in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

According to the Russian news agency, TASS, an anonymous source from the Russian diplomatic mission in Cyprus stated that "We will begin providing Consular services in the northern part of the city of Nicosia in the near future. We will be working on a regular basis."

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: Russian assault teams improved their forward edge positions in the Kupyansk area and repelled seven Ukrainian counter-attacks over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: Manufacturers will present Su-57 and Su-35 fighter jets with the latest guided missiles, artillery ammunition and Raptor sniper system at the Army-2023 forum, Rosoboronexport has told the media.

At the Army 2023 show manufacturers will show the latest selections available from the Russian defense industry: armored vehicle 3-STS Akhmat, fighters Su-57 and Su-35 with the latest guided weapons, artillery ammunition and sniper complex Raptor," the company said.

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/: The EU obsessively attempts to sow discord in Russia's relations with other CIS countries, but Moscow is confident in its neighbors and that the EU's efforts will not affect cooperation with them, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in an interview with TASS.

BERLIN, August 10. /TASS/: Russia has won a partial victory in its economic confrontation with the West, having achieved growth in revenues from energy exports, despite Western sanctions. This is according to observers of the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

The publication cites calculations by the Bloomberg agency, according to which Russia's revenues in July 2023 increased by 5.3% year-on-year and amounted to $8.66 billion.

ROME, Aug 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – Over 41 migrants are feared dead, in the latest shipwreck on the treacherous route across the central Mediterranean, it emerged this week.

The deaths were reported by four survivors of the tragedy, who were brought to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday.

According to media reports, the four survivors were rescued by the Rimona, a Maltese cargo ship. The victims were taken to the Italian coast guard, which brought them to Lampedusa for treatment yesterday.

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (NNN-TASS) – The Luna-25 lunar lander mission, set to be launched tomorrow, will film its landing on the moon, so as to enable scientists to model the terrain and study lunar structure through regolith movement, Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) said, yesterday.

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - In Vladimir Putin's Russia, the Kremlin even writes the history textbooks.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky has published four history textbooks for 16- to 18-year-old schoolchildren giving a completely revised interpretation of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Putin era and the causes of the Ukraine war.