Europe

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.

PARIS (AP) — Widespread riots in France sparked by the police killing of a teenager with North African roots have revealed the depth of discontent roiling poor neighborhoods — and given a new platform to the increasingly emboldened far right.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday backed a major plan to protect nature and fight climate change in a cliffhanger vote that had the 27-nation bloc’s global green credentials at stake.

After weeks of intense lobbying against the plan, the legislature still supported the general outlines of a European Commission bill in a razor-thin 324-312 vote with 12 abstentions.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — NATO leaders gathered Wednesday to launch a highly symbolic new forum for ties with Ukraine, after committing to provide the country with more military assistance for fighting Russia but only vague assurances of future membership.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the new NATO-Ukraine Council, a permanent body where the 31 allies and Ukraine can hold consultations and call for meetings in emergency situations.

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.

11 July 2023; MEMO: A new investigation by the Guardian and others has found that attempts by the Greek coastguard in June to tow a boat carrying roughly 750 refugees which capsized leaving only 104 survivors may have caused the vessel to sink.

Most of the passengers were from Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Pakistan. Nine of the survivors have been arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and migrant smuggling and have denied the charges.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: Kiev hyped up its counteroffensive so much that many countries expected to see substantial results by the start of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"I think they have touted and hyped up this counteroffensive issue so much that practically, if not half the world, then a third of it for sure, was waiting for the 11th to take stock of some results such as what was achieved by this widely touted and anticipated thing they called a ‘strategic’ counteroffensive," he said.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: The supply of cluster munitions by the Americans to Kiev will prolong the conflict in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told reporters on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: The inflation level in Russia is currently among the lowest across the world, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday at the meeting on economic issues.

"Inflation remains moderate. It stood at 2.9% from January to early July, which is much lower than last-year values," Mishustin said. Inflation in annual terms is not above 3.5%, he noted.

"This is among the lowest indicators globally at present," the prime minister stressed.

VILNIUS, July 11. /TASS/: NATO countries have adopted a long-term program of military assistance to Ukraine and agreed to set up the Ukraine-NATO Council, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.

"Today, Allies have agreed a package of three elements to bring Ukraine closer to NATO," he told a news conference on the results of the summit’s first day.