Germany is going to allow 21 coal plants to restart or work past planned closing dates for the next two winters, according to media reports.

France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have also announced plans to reactivate old coal power plants, however, the plans of Germany are most extensive, according to the Washington Post.

Russia central bank

The Russian economy will shrink year-on-year until mid-2023, and from the middle of next year and in 2024 it will grow at a recovery pace, according to the central bank's report on monetary policy.

"In general, by the end of 2022, according to the forecast of the Bank of Russia, GDP will contract by 4-6 per cent, which is somewhat better than the April estimates (8-10 per cent). In annualized terms, the reduction will continue until mid-2023, therefore, by the end of 2023, a decline in the range of 1-4 per cent is predicted," the regulator said.

Bilateral meeting with Finland and Sweden. Left to right: Pekka Haavisto (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finland) with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ann Linde (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sweden)

The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is a formal step, what will happen next with instructors and bases is important, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Moscow will monitor de facto the consequences of the accession of these countries to NATO.

Charles, Prince of Wales in Jersey on 18 July 2012. Photo: Dan Marsh

UK's Prince Charles, the longest-serving heir apparent to the throne in British history, accepted a donation of 1 million pounds (USD 1.21 million) from the family of Osama bin Laden in 2013.

As first reported by The Sunday Times of London, The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund received the donation in 2013 from the brothers Bakr and Shafiq bin Laden, half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda and architect of the September 11 attacks, quoted The New York Times (NYT).

An employee of the GGD Haaglanden prepares the equipment to dispense the monkeypox vaccination in a vaccination centre in Rijswijk on July 25, 2022. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

A high-level World Health Organization (WHO) official on Tuesday said the rapidly spreading Monkeypox outbreak can be stopped with the right strategies.

"We do at this moment still believe that this outbreak of Monkeypox can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups," said Dr Rosamund Lewis, WHO Technical Lead on Monkeypox at a press briefing in Geneva.

On 20 June 2022, the European Commission submitted a legislative proposal that would make it possible to recognise Ukrainian driving licences and certificates of professional competence for lorry, bus and coach drivers in the European Union.

The proposal was processed quickly in the EU, and the regulation entered into force as a matter of urgency on 27 July 2022.

Russia has decided to quit the International Space Station "after 2024", the newly-appointed chief of Moscow's space agency told President Vladimir Putin on July 26, 2022. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Russian state-run space agency Roscosmos has said that it will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 to focus on building its own orbital outpost, media reports said.

This comes in the wake of mounting tensions due to the Ukraine conflict, where despite the flare-up both Russia's space agency Roscosmos and US space agency NASA signed an agreement for astronauts and cosmonauts for cross flights to the ISS on Russian-made Soyuz ships.

The EU Regulation on social security is now nationally applied in a different way than before, and therefore the liability to pay the student healthcare fee changes. Following the change, students in higher education do not have to pay the healthcare fee if they have social security coverage from another EU/EEA country or from Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

LEHTIKUVA / AFP

The EU has imposed new sanctions on Russia. These sanctions extend and specify previously imposed sanctions and include new provisions on their implementation. The sanctions include a ban on imports of Russian gold to the EU.

On 21 July 2022, the European Union imposed new sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

A swab that tested positive for the Monkeypox virus is seen at the UW Medicine Virology Laboratory on July 12, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. LEHTIKUVA / Getty Images / AFP

Around 14,000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in over 70 countries this year and a total of 5 deaths have been reported in Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

The WHO chief assured that the organization will continue to do everything it can to support countries to stop transmission and save lives.