Europe

PARIS (AP) — Even in normal times Emmanuel Macron needed allies’ help governing France.

To get some things done he worked with the traditional right. The center-left helped the French president accomplish others. The challenge was bigger than any a French leader had faced in more than two decades: He had to convince politicians across the country’s national assembly to support even a minor domestic project.

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/: Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian command post in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.

"In the area of the settlement of Dyleyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a command post of the Ukrainian army’s 28th mechanized brigade was destroyed," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/: Inflation in Russia began to slow down, now it reaches 3.2%, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday.

"After the growth in consumer prices in March-April last year, inflation began to slow down. Today, inflation reaches 3.2%," he said.

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/: The preconditions for Ukraine’s accession to NATO could only be defined after the armed conflict in the country is over, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview for Poland’s Rzeczpospolita.

PARIS, July 3. /TASS/: In the last 3 days, the French police have detained 3,200 people during the riots that engulfed the country after a police officer killed a 17-year-old in Nanterre, French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said during a briefing Monday.

"Law enforcement has been very active. A total of 3,200 people have been detained in three days, an unprecedented figure," he said, noting that the average age of the detainees is 17 years.

"Out of these 3,200 people, 60% have never had any problems with the law before," the minister underscored.

BUDAPEST, July 3. /TASS/: The Hungarian government is adamant that Ukraine’s NATO membership cannot be discussed as long as an armed conflict continues in the country, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.

When asked at a joint press conference with his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Wlachovsky if Ukraine could receive a NATO invitation at the alliance’s Vilnius summit on July 11-12, Szijjarto said that "it is out of the question."

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Britain's Orkney Islands, an archipelago about 10 miles off the north coast of Scotland, is considering "alternative forms of governance" which could include becoming part of Norway, its council leader said on Monday.

Orkney, made up of about 70 islands and with a population of 22,000 people, was considering its future after being financially neglected by the Scottish and British governments for years, council leader James Stockan said.

July 3 (Reuters) - Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, said late on Sunday.

"In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine," Karasin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

THE HAGUE, July 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent comments about payments to the Wagner group was "like direct evidence" that Wagner's mercenaries were an illegal arm of the Russian army in the war, Ukraine's top prosecutor told Reuters this week.

Putin said last week that Wagner and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year.

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president, has warned that Moscow's confrontation with the West will last decades and that its conflict with Ukraine could become permanent.

Medvedev, once seen in the West as a liberal moderniser, has emerged as one of Russia's most outspoken hawks since Moscow launched what it called a "special military operation" in Ukraine last year.

Now deputy head of the Security Council, his views reflect some of the thinking at the Kremlin's top level, according to Russian officials.