Europe

MOSCOW, May 30 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin is working in the Kremlin and has been briefed about drone attacks on Moscow, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Dmitry Peskov also said Russian air defences and the defence ministry had worked well in dealing with the assault and added that there were currently no plans for Putin to comment on the drone attack, which Moscow has blamed on Ukraine.

Earlier, Russia's defence ministry said air defences had destroyed eight drones.

LONDON/SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar steadied after climbing to a two-month high and European stocks flattened on Tuesday as relief that a possible default by the U.S. government had been averted gave way to concern that the deal could face a rocky path through Congress.

The U.S. dollar index and longer-dated U.S. Treasuries rallied as traders welcomed the deal to suspend Washington's borrowing limit until January 2025 in exchange for caps on spending and cuts in government programmes.

LULEA, Sweden, May 30 (Reuters) - Top U.S. and European Union officials meet in Sweden on Tuesday to weigh how best to deal with China and cooperate on artificial intelligence and other future technology as well as EU complaints about Trump-era tariffs and U.S. green subsidies.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager will attend the fourth ministerial meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) for two days in Lulea, just below the Arctic Circle.

May 29 (Reuters) - China has declined a request from the United States for a meeting between their defense chiefs at an annual security forum in Singapore this weekend, media reported on Monday, a new sign of strain between the powers.

"Overnight, the PRC informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary (Lloyd) Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore," the Pentagon said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People's Republic of China.

ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Monday that 25 of its troops were injured in clashes with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo after they tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s snap general election call breaks apart the coalition he built with the far-left United We Can party, marking a line in the sand with a movement born from grassroots activism whose electoral fortunes have nosedived.

On Monday, Sánchez brought forward a national election expected in December to July 23 after the conservative Popular Party, or PP, and far-right Vox movement dramatically increased their vote share in Sunday’s local and regional elections.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, on Tuesday raised the number of its troops injured in fierce clashes with ethnic Serbs to 30.

The Serbs had tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities in northern Kosovo where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week.

29 May 2023; MEMO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday submitted a draft bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, for the introduction of sanctions against Iran, Anadolu news agency reported citing local media.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian air defenses stopped eight drones converging on Moscow, officials said Tuesday, in an attack that authorities blamed on Ukraine, while Russia continued a a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardment of Kyiv that began Monday.

The Russian defense ministry said five drones were shot down and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. It called the incident a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime.”

MINSK, May 29. /TASS/: President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated that Eurasian integration is a powerful factor of economic growth and stability in times of turbulence, the Belarusian leader's press service said on Monday.