Europe

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Russia's GDP growth rate has accelerated from month to month this year, and there is every reason to assume that growth will fully offset last year's decline in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday

"For the entire 2022, GDP decreased by 2.1% and in January-May of 2023 it grew by 0.6$, and from month to month the pace accelerated: in May - up to 5.4%," he said.

"We expect GDP to grow by more than 2% by the end of the year," Putin said, adding that "this growth will completely offset last year's decline."

RHODES, Greece, July 25 (Reuters) - A plane fighting wildfires in Greece crashed on Tuesday and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of tough days ahead with blazes destroying homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of tourists from the island of Rhodes.

State broadcaster ERT showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire and then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames.

The Greek air force said there were two airmen aboard the amphibious Canadair CL-215 plane when it crashed over the island of Evia, east of Athens.

MILAN, July 25 (Reuters) - Two women were killed and a 16-year-old boy seriously injured as severe storms battered northern Italy overnight, while a wild fire in Sicily forced the temporary closure of Palermo airport.

With much of southern Italy still baking in a heatwave, the overnight storm in Milan tore off roofs and uprooted hundreds of trees, blocking roads, smashing parked cars and disrupting overground transportation in the Italian financial capital.

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley cut Israel sovereign credit to a "dislike stance" on Tuesday after the country's parliament passed the first in a series of laws sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the power of the Supreme Court

"We see increased uncertainty about the economic outlook in the coming months and risks becoming skewed to our adverse scenario," Morgan Stanley's analysts said in a research note.

"Markets are now likely to extrapolate the future policy path and we move Israel sovereign credit to a 'dislike stance'."

PARIS (AP) — U.S. first lady Jill Biden visited Paris on Tuesday to attend a flag-raising ceremony at UNESCO, marking Washington’s official reentry into the U.N. agency after a five-year hiatus.

Before the Stars and Stripes is hoisted up outside UNESCO’s headquarters, Biden will make remarks about the importance of American leadership in preserving cultural heritage and empowering education and science across the globe.

RHODES, Greece (AP) — A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40 C (104 F) across parts of the country Tuesday following more nighttime evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days.

The latest evacuations orders were issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia, while a blaze on the island of Rhodes continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including part of a nature reserve.

ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Tetiana Khlapova’s hand trembled as she recorded the wreckage of Odesa’s devastated Transfiguration Cathedral on her cellphone and cursed Russia, her native land.

Khlapova was raised in Ukraine and had always dreamed of living in the seaside city. But not as the war refugee that she has become.

25 July 2023; MEMO: A group of migrants travelling on a train in Germany experienced a distressing and racist attack on Monday, perpetrated by supporters of the football club, Hansa Rostock, according to police, Anadolu Agency reports.

Around 20 Hansa Rostock supporters launched racial insults and physically attacked nine migrants, aged between 10 to 18 years old, during their journey from Rostock to Gustrow in northern Germany.

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces intercepted a rocket of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and downed 35 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/: Even economically strong and developed Western countries have turned into colonies, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.

"Western countries, even strong and developed economies, have become colonies," the diplomat noted, addressing a Russian-African women’s forum.