Europe

30 June 2023; MEMO: The US rejoined UNESCO on Friday, after withdrawing in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Trump administration, after accusing of harbouring anti-Israel bias, withdrew from the UN's specialised agency aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Helsinki has been mindlessly parroting NATO policy views ever since it joined the North Atlantic Alliance in April, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on Friday.

VIENNA, June 30. /TASS/: Russia's pullout from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) automatically terminates its participation in the Budapest agreement of November 3, 1990 on the maximum levels of conventional weapons and equipment of the six former Warsaw Treaty Organization member-states, Konstantin Gavrilov, Russia’s chief delegate to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said on Friday.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Iran's full-scale admission to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the signing of a memorandum of commitment by Belarus to join the SCO is scheduled for July 4 at the Council of Heads of State of the organization, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces intercepted seven rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and shot down ten Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Friday.

"Air defense capabilities intercepted seven rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed their countries’ cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (CSO) and the Group of Twenty, the Kremlin press service said on Friday after their telephone call.

"Special attention was focused on cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Group of Twenty, where India now holds the presidency, as well as within the BRICS format," it said.

GENEVA, June 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Some 64 flights were cancelled at Geneva’s international airport on Friday, it said, after operations were halted for four hours because of a strike by workers at the start of the busy summer travel season.

“Because of the social action… the direction decided a temporary halt of operations from 6:00 am to 10:00 am,” the airport said in a tweet early on Friday. “64 flights — arrivals and departures — cancelled.”

KYIV, June 30 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered top military commanders on Friday to strengthen Ukraine's northern military sector following the arrival of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Belarus.

He said Ukrainian intelligence and security forces had reported on the situation in Belarus, Ukraine's northern neighbour, at a meeting of top military and political leaders.

MALAKASA/KALAMATA, Greece, June 30 (Reuters) - Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near Greece have given accounts of traffickers in North Africa cramming them into a clapped-out fishing trawler. They recounted hellish conditions above and below deck, with no food or water.

Some also said the tragic end, when it came, was precipitated by the actions of the Greek coastguard. They have told judicial authorities of a doomed attempt to tow the overloaded trawler that caused the vessel to capsize in the early hours of June 14.

KYIV, June 30 (Reuters) - Russia is gradually reducing the number of personnel at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said on Friday.

It did not say why some people had left and Reuters could not independently verify the information. Russia, which has occupied the plant since March 2022, did not immediately comment on the assertion.

Kyiv accused Russia this month of planning a "terrorist" attack at the nuclear plant involving the release of radiation. Moscow denied the accusation.