Europe

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin remains open to any contact that would allow meeting the goals of the special military operation through peaceful means, but the West does not provide such a chance, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the ‘Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin’ program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

An excerpt from the TV program was posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.

PARIS, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first draft of a highly anticipated international treaty to combat plastic pollution should be finished by the end of November, 175 nations gathered in Paris decided Monday after five days of gruelling talks.

The assembly’s negotiating committee called for the preparation of “a zero-draft text” of a “legally binding instrument” ahead of a third round of talks in Nairobi, with the aim of finalising the treaty in 2024.

GENEVA, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Meteorological Organisation voted for Argentina’s Celeste Saulo to become its first woman leader and steer the WMO’s critical global role in tracking climate change.

Saulo, a WMO vice-president who has headed Argentina’s weather service since 2014, won a landslide vote at the UN climate and weather agency’s congress in Geneva.

The WMO’s role in climate change has become increasingly prominent and Saulo, 59, will likely become a well-known advocate on this pressing world issue.

MOSCOW, June 2 (Reuters) - Alexei Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, on Friday shared letters showing how he has poked fun at prison authorities for several months with a host of bizarre requests for a kimono, a balalaika, a beetle and even to keep a kangaroo.

The requests were turned down by the maximum security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 250 km (115 miles) east of Moscow, according to the Russian documents he posted online.

BERLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Saturday called on China to stop enlisting former German military pilots for the training of its own forces.

"I have made it clear that I expect this policy to be stopped immediately," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters after meeting his Chinese counterpart at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's most important security conference.

He added the Chinese defence minister had not denied the practice of hiring former German military pilots, but played down its significance.

MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from "unfriendly countries" would not be allowed into the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which President Vladimir Putin has used to showcase the Russian economy to global investors.

The forum in St Petersburg, the former imperial capital built by Tsar Peter the Great 300 years ago as a "window" to Europe, has been held since 1997 and is cast by many officials as Russia's answer to the World Economic Forum held in Davos.

KYIV, June 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine is ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Saturday.

"We strongly believe that we will succeed,” Zelenskiy told the Wall Street Journal.

"I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready."

MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.

That row had now been settled but infighting in the Kremlin had opened a Pandora's Box of rifts, he said.

Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former restauranteur who founded the Wagner mercenary group and is a member of President Vladimir Putin's wider circle, has gained widespread notoriety during the 15-month war in Ukraine.

PARIS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The French National Assembly and the French Senate have adopted a bill to regulate influencer marketing on social media, local media reported Friday.

The bill prohibits the influencers from promoting adulterated products, conducting scams or fraud on social media.

The influencers are also obliged to label content paid by brands when creating content to encourage their audience to purchase the products or services.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis warned the Vatican’s missionary fundraisers on Saturday not to allow financial corruption to creep into their work, insisting that spirituality and spreading the Gospel must drive their operations, not mere entrepreneurship.