Europe

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - The British Foreign Office said on Sunday Russia is using a troll factory to spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine on social media and target politicians across a number of countries including Britain and South Africa.

Britain cited UK-funded expert research, which it did not publish. It said the research exposed how the Kremlin's disinformation campaign was designed to manipulate international public opinion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, boost support for it and recruit new sympathisers.

KYIV, April 30 (Reuters) - Never mind forging swords into ploughshares; a Ukrainian businessman is turning scraps of wreckage from a downed Russian fighter plane into souvenir key fobs and selling them abroad to support the war effort.

"Many of my friends tell me '$1,000 - nobody will give you this for this piece of metal, it's crazy," said Iurii Vysoven, founder of "Drones for Ukraine".

ROME, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Protection of the environment was not Andrea Zatti's first big public passion, but it is the one he has been focused on the longest.

Zatti, 52, is an environmental advocate and a professor of public finance with a focus on environmental issues at the University of Pavia in Italy. He first came into the public eye during a ten-year career as a professional basketball player, much of it in Serie A, Italy's top division.

PARIS (AP) — Citizens and trade unions in cities around Europe were taking to the streets on Sunday for May Day marches, and to put out protest messages to their governments, notably in France where the holiday to honor workers was being used as a rallying cry against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — A long-awaited effort to evacuate people from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was underway Sunday, the United Nations said, while U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed she visited Ukraine’s president to show unflinching American support for the country’s defense against Russian aggression.

30 April 2022; MEMO: Authorities in the German capital Berlin have banned all pro-Palestine protests until 2 May, alleging that some protesters have made antisemitic remarks.

A protest in support of Palestinians was scheduled to take place in Berlin yesterday – titled 'protest against Israeli aggression in Jerusalem' – but was cancelled by the city's police over "unacceptable antisemitism" at another protest last week, in which several of the protesters made alleged antisemitic statements.

MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/: Russia calls on other states to abide by the logic sealed in documents for preventing a nuclear war and strictly follows the principle that such a conflict is inadmissible, Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Vladimir Yermakov told TASS on Saturday.

MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/: The Krupets checkpoint in the Kursk Region has come under mortar fire from Ukraine, there are no casualties or destruction, Governor Roman Starovoit wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Several mortars have been fired on the Krupets checkpoint in the Rylsk district from Ukraine. No one was killed or injured. There is no destruction," he wrote.

MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/: Confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 7,363 in the past day, totaling 18,182,354, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday. The coronavirus growth rate equaled 0.04%, the crisis center said.

PARIS, April 30. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky have focused on the prospects of the negotiations seeking to resolve the Ukraine conflict in the long term, the Elysee Palace said in a statement on Saturday after the two president’s phone conversation.

The two presidents "touched upon the prospects for the talks meant to ensure a lasting settlement of the conflict and the restoration of security" in Europe, the statement says.