G20 summit has started in Japan

The first day of the G20 summit has began in the city of Okasa — TASS reports. It is the 14th summit so far, and the 1st summit in Japan. The summit takes place in the international exhibition complex «INTEX Osaka», on the artificial island of Sakisima, in the Osaka Bay. There is a press center for the journalists. The Summit events are being covered by about 7,000 of mass media representatives.

The US Senate adopted a draft defense budget for the fiscal year of 2020, in the amount of $750 billions of dollars. The Pentagon’s base budget is $642 billions of dollars, $23 billions of dollars were allocated for the Department of Energy’s national security programs, another $76 billions of dollars will be spent on the foreign emergency situations. According to the draft budget — the allocation of budget funds is prohibited for the »implementation of any activities that recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea». The budget also demands the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and the head of the National Intelligence of the USA to present a report on the nuclear capabilities of China and Russia to Congress. They must also conduct a comparative assessment of the capabilities of the American weapons with the same weapons in Russia and China. The budget also provides military support to Ukraine for a total of $300 millions of dollars. Which is $50 millions of dollars more than the last year. In addition, the budget prohibits the transfer of F-35 fighters to Turkey if Ankara buys the Russian S-400 air defense systems.

1 civilian was killed, 19 were injured as a result of two explosions on Thursday in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, TASS reports with a reference to the Xinhua agency. The first bomb was attached to a vehicle that carried passengers in the central part of the city. As a result of that explosion — one woman died, one other passenger was injured. The detonation of the second explosive device, attached to a small bus in the parking lot, injured 18 people. None of the groups claimed the responsibility for the event so far.

Turkey attacked the positions in Syria from which the observation post in Idlib was fired upon — RIA NEWS reports with a reference to the Anadolu agency. Earlier it became known that during the attack on the Turkish forces in the province — one soldier was killed, three were injured. Ankara announced that it was a deliberate action by the Syrians. Due to the incident, the Russian attache was called to the General Staff of Turkey — Reuters reported on Thursday. However, the Russian Embassy in Ankara hasn’t yet commented on this information. Russia, Turkey and Iran are the guarantors of a truce in Syria, in which an armed conflict is still going on since 2011. Damascus believes that Ankara occupied a part of the country, so they demand to free the occupied territories. Especially the pieces of Idlib province, where the remnants of various terrorist groups are currently concentrated.

The decision of the EU Council to extend the economic sanctions against Russia for six months has officially entered into force. “This decision should be valid until 31st of January, 2020” — TASS quotes the text of the publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Yesterday, the EU has officially extended the economic sanctions against Russia for six months. Earlier, Russia also extended the food embargo on the Western goods until 2020.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine confirmed the beginning of the withdrawal of the military forces and equipment in the area near the village of Luhanskaya, as well as the start of the demining of the area — the press service of the OSCE special monitoring mission reported. The message from the mission noted that the observers observed the start of the withdrawal of the military forces near the village of Luganskaya. On 26th of June, the servicemen of Ukraine and the LPR started leaving their positions and the zone of withdrawal of the forces, and they took their weapons — TASS reports. The OSCE observers have promised to continue to monitor the situation. Yesterday, a representative of the LPR at the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime, Roman Ivanov, said that the withdrawal of the military forces, appointed by the Minsk Agreements, began on the contact line near the village of Luganskaya.

Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.