Europe

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: Cooperation between Russia and member countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), does not seek to hurt anyone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"Today’s meeting confirmed that we always lay bare our positions honestly and no one of us is seeking to cooperate against anyone else," he said after the sixth ministerial meeting of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue in Moscow.

GENEVA, July 10 (Reuters) - Antarctic sea ice levels reached record lows last month, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday, a development climate change experts described as worrisome.

WMO said that Antarctic sea ice levels last month - the hottest June ever recorded -- were at their lowest since satellite observations began, at 17% below average.

KYIV, July 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Monday its troops were advancing in the east and south of the country, and signalled they were tightening the noose around Russian troops occupying the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv's troops had taken back 10.2 square km (3.9 sq miles) of territory in the south and four sq km in the east in the past week of a counteroffensive against Russian forces.

OSLO, July 10 (Reuters) - A volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, near the capital Reykjavik, following intense earthquake activity in the area, the country's Meteorological Office (IMO) said on Monday.

"At the moment, it's a very small eruption," said Matthew Roberts of the service and research division at the IMO. He added there was no direct imminent hazard to people in the region.

Traffic at Reykjavik's international Keflavik airport was not disrupted, the airport said on its website.

LONDON (AP) — The European Union signed off Monday on a new agreement over the privacy of people’s personal information that gets pinged across the Atlantic, aiming to ease European concerns about electronic spying by American intelligence agencies.

The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework has an adequate level of protection for personal data, the EU’s executive commission said. That means it’s comparable to the 27-nation’s own stringent data protection standards, so companies can use it to move information from Europe to the United States without adding extra security.

(AP) --- Just five days after staging a short-lived rebellion, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘s commanders met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged loyalty to the government, a senior government spokesman said Monday, the latest twist in a baffling episode that has raised questions about the power and influence both men wield.

WINDSOR, England (AP) — President Joe Biden and King Charles III, two leaders who waited decades to reach the pinnacle of their careers, used their first meeting in those roles Monday to zero in on the generational challenge of climate change, prodding private companies to do more to bolster clean energy in developing countries.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to send Sweden’s NATO accession protocol to the Turkish Parliament “as soon as possible.”

Stoltenberg made the announcement after talks with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the eve of a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Sweden’s NATO accession has been held up by objections from Turkey since last year.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, is expected to visit China on July 9-12, the country’s Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Federation Council Speaker Matviyenko is expected to lead the Russian delegation to the 8th meeting of the China-Russia committee for parliamentary cooperation, the agency reported.

The visit will be held at the invitation of Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China.

The report gives no further details of the visit.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: A delegation of the Federal Assembly headed by Speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber Valentina Matviyenko is heading to China with a visit, the press service of the Federation Council said in a statement on Sunday.

"A delegation of the Federal Assembly headed by Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko is heading to the People’s Republic of China with a visit at the invitation of the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China Zhao Leji," the statement reads.