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TOP HEADLINES

•Hungary has registered its highest daily rise of infections, with 365 new cases recorded on Wednesday as people return from summer holidays and the school year starts. The country’s total cases now stand at 6,622, with 619 deaths.

•The European Union has warned Hungary that it cannot close its borders to all foreigners and allow only its own citizens back in. Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, said foreigners now cannot enter the country, except in "justified cases."

**•Ukraine registered a record 2,495 new coronavirus cases **in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Wednesday.

•Russia reported 4,952 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, pushing its national tally to 1,005,000, the fourth largest in the world. However, daily increases are still below the five-figure peaks of early May.

**•More than four million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Europe, **according to a tally by news agency AFP using official data from across the continent.

•Scotland has banned indoor household gatherings in the country’s largest city Glasgow and two nearby areas of West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was apologetic: "I live in Glasgow, so these rules apply to me as they do to everyone else."

•Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche announced it will launch at the end of September a test that detects the novel coronavirus within 15 minutes. Roche will launch and distribute the product in partnership with biotech company SD Biosensor Inc.

•Greece recorded its first coronavirus case in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria , on the island of Lesbos, which hosts about 13,000 people.

•Scotland is to impose a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from Greece , starting on Thursday. The Welsh government has imposed quarantine on those returning from the island of Zante, while Britain's national government will decide later this week for those returning to England.

•**Sales of Lego jumped 14 percent in the first six months of the year **as families under coronavirus lockdowns spent more time playing together at home, the Danish toy maker said on Wednesday.

**•The UN Security Council will hold a high-level summit during its General Assembly **later this month to discuss security threats in the world after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

•Direct flights to Beijing will resume from eight countries including Greece, Denmark and Sweden from tomorrow, the Chinese aviation regulator has announced. Since March, authorities have diverted all Beijing-bound flights to other airports as their first port of entry.

Venice Film Festival MC Anna Foglietta holds her face mask as she poses during a photocall on the red carpet at the Venice Lido. /Tiziana Fabi/AFP

ACROSS EUROPE

Andrew Wilson in UK

The Scottish government has announced three local lockdowns affecting 800,000 people in three areas of the country including Glasgow after a sudden rise in infections. Scotland’s first minister said the principal concern was gatherings in people’s homes.

Westminster is considering extending quarantine measures on travelers to England from Portugal and Greece. Scotland has already instigated 14-day measures on flights from Greece and the Welsh government is considering the same unilateral action.

Figures from Scotland suggest that school attendance is only running at about 85 percent, which means about 100,000 pupils are absent. Some ministers are concerned this illustrates a trend that England may follow in a couple of weeks.

Toni Waterman in Paris

Months of lockdown have wiped more than a billion dollars off the balance sheet of the world's second largest spirits maker. French company Pernod Ricard said revenues fell 9.5 percent in its fiscal year, with a 36.2 percent drop in Q4 alone.

The owner of brands like Mumm champagne and Absolut vodka said it expects the coming year to be "volatile and uncertain" although resilience in supermarket sales in the U.S. and Europe could help buoy the balance sheet.

Meanwhile, new infections continue to spike in France. The country recorded 4,982 new cases in the past 24 hours –that's 1,900 more than the previous day.

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