Senior U.S. and Russian officials were formally launching special talks on strategic stability on Monday as part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week aimed at defusing tensions over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his delegation arrived under Swiss police escort at the U.S. diplomatic mission for face-to-face talks with Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, and her team. The meeting is part of "Strategic Security Dialogue" talks launched by Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin during a June summit in the Swiss city.

Iraq's new parliament has reelected its speaker for a second term, the first step toward forming a new government after a general election whose results have been contested by powerful Iran-backed factions.

In a reflection of tensions, the meeting was marked by disarray, with the eldest member of Parliament who was leading the session being evacuated to the hospital apparently due to the stress.

Egyptian-Palestinian human rights activist Ramy Shaath arrived in Paris and reunited with his wife on Saturday, after Egyptian authorities released him from prison and deported him.

An overjoyed Shaath, the son of a prominent Palestinian politician, walked out of the Charles de Gaulle airport smiling, holding hands with his wife, Céline Lebrun Shaath, a French national, and waving to a cheering crowd of supporters.

Hundreds of people have rallied in Beirut to protest measures imposed against the unvaccinated, saying individuals should have the right to decide whether to be inoculated or not.

Vaccination is not compulsory in Lebanon, but in recent days authorities have cracked down on people who are not inoculated or don't carry a negative PCR test.

South Korea dismissed North Korea's claim to have recently launched a hypersonic missile as an exaggeration on Friday, saying it was a normal ballistic missile that could be intercepted.

The assessment is certain to anger North Korea. South Korea has previously avoided publicly disputing North Korea's weapons tests, apparently so as not to aggravate relations.

Troops have been deployed to London hospitals. Health care workers infected with COVID-19 are treating patients in France. The Netherlands is under a lockdown, and tented field hospitals have gone up in Sicily.

Nations across Europe are scrambling to prop up health systems strained by staff shortages blamed on the new, highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is sending a wave of infections crashing over the continent.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday maintained on Friday his rude remarks about the country's minority of vaccine refusers, saying he cannot accept them infringing on others' freedom.

The 44-year-old outspoken president, who is expected to seek re-election later this year, made headlines earlier this week by using the word "emmerder" — rooted in the French word for "crap" and meaning to rile or to bug. He was talking about his strategy for pressuring vaccine refusers to get coronavirus jabs. His vulgar language dominated news broadcasts and provoked angry reactions from his political rivals.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Friday to boost Europe's strategic power and sovereignty, as France formally took the reins of the 27-nation bloc for the next six months with big ambitions.

A leitmotif of the French presidency over the next six months will be the need for greater autonomy for the region. Macron has been championing the idea since he took power five years ago and will use the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, which sets the political agenda of the region, to try to put it into practice.

Manchester City's Pep Guardiola was joined by the coach who beat him in the 2021 Champions League final, Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea, on the FIFA shortlist to be named best in the world.

Guardiola won his third Premier League title at Man City last season though the European title has eluded the club.

Paris Saint-Germain's reliance on Kylian Mbappe keeps growing as he keeps scoring.

That was illustrated again when he grabbed a hat trick in the French Cup on Monday night.