United Kingdom

LONDON (AP) — Russia has suspended a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

LONDON (AP) — British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Sunday he plans to resign at the next Cabinet reshuffle after four years in the job.

Wallace has served as defense secretary under three prime ministers and played a key role in the U.K.'s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He told The Sunday Times his departure was due to the strain his job had put on his family. He also said he would stand down as a lawmaker at the next general election.

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - British defence minister Ben Wallace will not stand as a member of parliament (MP) in the next UK national election, and will leave government when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carries out his next cabinet reshuffle, he told The Sunday Times newspaper.

Wallace, a member of the ruling Conservative party, has been MP for Wyre and Preston North and its predecessor constituency in northwest England since 2005.

He has been defence secretary for four years, helping lead Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

14 July 2023; MEMO: Unite the Union, which represents 1.2 million workers in the UK, has today passed three crucial motions reaffirming its ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian people's struggle for liberation, affirming support for the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel ends its violation of Palestinian rights, and condemning the government's anti-boycott bill which is currently at committee stage in the House of Commons.

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Workers at Britain's No.2 airport Gatwick will strike for eight days at the end of July and in early August, potentially causing cancellations and travel misery for thousands of passengers at the busiest time of year for summer holidays.

European travellers are already on high alert over worries about air traffic control problems arising from both the reduced air space available due to the Ukraine war, plus staffing issues and industrial action at some locations.

LONDON (AP) — Google said Thursday that it’s rolling out its AI-powered chatbot Bard across Europe and in Brazil, expanding its availability to hundreds of millions more users.

The company also said it’s adding more features to Bard as it scrambles to keep up with rival Microsoft — which uses OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT service in its Bing search engine — in the race to capitalize on generative artificial intelligence technology that has captured worldwide attention.

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - Chinese state-linked hackers have secretly accessed email accounts at around 25 organisations including government agencies in a sweeping cyberespionage campaign, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

In an interview with ABC television, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States had detected a breach of federal government accounts "fairly rapidly" and had managed to prevent further breaches.

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - It started as a local dispute over China's plans to build a new embassy next to the Tower of London - pitting the world's second biggest superpower against an inner-city borough that blocked the project.

Just over seven months later, it is escalating into a diplomatic standoff that, officials from both countries told Reuters, is undermining efforts to repair their badly damaged relations.

LONDON (AP) — Concerns are growing that Russia will not extend a United Nations-brokered deal that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to parts of the world struggling with hunger, with ships no longer heading to the war-torn country’s Black Sea ports and food exports dwindling.

Turkey and the U.N. negotiated the breakthrough accord last summer to ease a global food crisis, along with a separate agreement with Russia to facilitate shipments of its food and fertilizer. Moscow insists it’s still facing hurdles, though data shows it has been exporting record amounts of wheat.

11 July 2023; MEMO: A new bill introduced by the UK government, which is designed to shield Israel from boycotts, will have damaging consequences for the UK if the legislation went ahead in its current form, Number 10 was warned in a special legal advice.

Britain will not only find itself in breach of its international commitments, the advice warned, efforts to grant Israel special protection will also give Russia "ammunition" to accuse the UK of hypocrisy.