KYIV, July 21 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukrainian food export facilities for a fourth day in a row on Friday and practised seizing ships in the Black Sea in an escalation of what Western leaders say is an attempt to wriggle out of sanctions by threatening a global food crisis.

The attacks on Ukraine's grain, a major part of the global food chain, followed a vow by Kyiv to defy Russia's naval blockade on its grain export ports following Moscow's withdrawal this week from a UN-brokered safe sea corridor agreement.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - AI companies including OpenAI, Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O) have made voluntary commitments to the White House to implement measures such as watermarking AI-generated content to help make the technology safer, the Biden administration said.

The companies - which also include Anthropic, Inflection, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and OpenAI partner Microsoft (MSFT.O) - pledged to thoroughly test systems before releasing them and share information about how to reduce risks and invest in cybersecurity.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ron DeSantis is taking his presidential campaign to Utah on Friday, prioritizing a state where rival Donald Trump has struggled in the past and that could be a beacon of strength for the Florida governor’s stalled bid.

DeSantis is set to appear at the state Capitol with about a dozen supportive state lawmakers, meet with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and attend a fundraiser.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration.

The White House said Friday that it has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of commercial AI systems, though they don’t detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court would have to abide by stronger ethics standards under legislation approved on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, a response to recent revelations about donor-funded trips by justices. The bill faced united opposition from Republicans, who said it could “destroy” the court.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A highly technical process began Thursday in Los Angeles to put NASA’s retired Space Shuttle Endeavour on permanent display in the vertical launch position complete with external tank and two solid rocket boosters.

Workers used a crane to hoist the bottom segments of the boosters into the California Science Center’s future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is currently under construction in Exposition Park.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department was investigating why Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) passengers remained on board a plane at the Las Vegas airport that sat on the tarmac in extreme heat on Monday, citing reports that the plane sat there for four hours.

"I want to know how it was possible for passengers to be left in triple-digit heat onboard an aircraft for that long," Buttigieg told Reuters on Thursday, calling the issue "infuriating" and "shocking."

(AP) --- By pulling out of a landmark deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a gamble that could badly damage Moscow’s relations with many of its partners that have stayed neutral or even been supportive of the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — It was a routine collision on a busy Fargo street. But after Mohamad Barakat drove past, armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, numerous firearms and a grenade, tragedy ensued.

After the shooting ended on July 14, one police officer was dead, and two other officers as well as a woman in the crash were wounded, leaving authorities wondering what further carnage Barakat might have been planning.

KYIV, July 21 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed Vadym Prystaiko as Ukraine's ambassador to Britain on Friday, days after the envoy publicly criticised the president.

A presidential order, which said Prystaiko had also been removed as Ukraine's representative to the International Maritime Organization, gave no reason for the dismissal.

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections after failed executions prompted the governor to order an internal review of procedures.

James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison.

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/: Russia’s Central Bank does not rule out the possibility of further increase of the key rate at the next meetings of its board of directors, the regulator’s Governor Elvira Nabiullina told a press conference following the board meeting on Friday.

"At the next meetings we admit further key rate’s increase," she said.

The rate of the possible increase of the key rate will be defined by the degree of influence of data received on assessment of development of the situation and the balance of risks for achieving the inflation target of 4% in 2024.