Europe

ST. PETERSBURG, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia will develop an international information exchange system to counter the legalization of illegal income, the government announced on Tuesday.

According to the government's press service, Russia will develop the system in cooperation with countries of Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, which will become one of the tools to fight money laundering.

LEEDS, Britain, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The China-Northern England Cooperation Forum was held here Monday, bringing together business representatives from China and Britain to explore new opportunities for cooperation in investment and trade.

At the forum themed "Partnership for a Prosperous Future," Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang noted that trade and investment relationship between China and Britain serves the fundamental interests of both sides.

He pointed out that thanks to the measures China has put in place more growth opportunities will be generated.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Missiles and drones launched by Russia in an intense series of nation-wide nightime air attacks have damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, including grain and oil terminals, and wounded at least 12 people, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/: US attempts to disassociate itself from Kiev’s terrorism attacks indicate that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky "has become somewhat toxic for the West," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces destroyed 43 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and intercepted three rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

"During the last 24-hour period, air defense capabilities intercepted three rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/: Russia no longer intends to trust any promises by Western countries and the UN regarding the Black Sea grain deal, and could consider returning to the deal only after seeing concrete results, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on air during a Channel One television broadcast.

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/: Russia’s production of weapons and military hardware has increased dramatically over the past year, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has characterized the position of European countries on the Black Sea grain deal as "unconscionable."

"In this case, [I think] it would be more fitting to call the position of European countries unconscionable," he said, responding to comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who termed Russia’s decision to pull out of the grain deal "unconscionable."

MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - In the run-up to Monday's attack on Russia's road and rail bridge to Crimea, state TV broadcast footage of long traffic jams in southern Russia as tourists waited in their cars for hours to cross over to start their summer holidays.

After explosions tore through the road bridge, killing a couple who had planned to holiday in Crimea and wounding their daughter, it broadcast traffic jams going in a different direction as tourists tried to drive home through Russian-controlled southern Ukraine, territory that Kyiv is fighting to take back.

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's highly contested plan to make it easier to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is set to become law after the government defeated attempts by parliament's upper house to make changes to the legislation.

The Illegal Migration Bill had been stuck in a battle between parliament's House of Commons and the House of Lords, Britain's unelected upper chamber, which had repeatedly made changes to the legislation to water it down.