United Kingdom

LONDON, July 21. /TASS/: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday came out against the direct involvement of British troops in the Ukrainian conflict.

The politician, who reached the final round of the race for the post of the Conservative Party leader and the prime minister, told the BBC: "We are doing all we can to support Ukraine. We've led the international coalition on sending weapons, we're putting the sanctions in place, but I do not support the direct involvement of UK troops."

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Thursday and underlined the importance of further cooperation within the OPEC+ group of oil producers, the Kremlin said.

The conversation took place six days after U.S. President Joe Biden visited the prince in Saudi Arabia - highlighting the kingdom's importance to both Washington and Moscow at a time when Russia's war in Ukraine is roiling global energy markets.

LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bowed out of his final showpiece parliamentary appearance with a round of applause from his party, jeers from opponents and an enigmatic exit line: "Mission largely accomplished ... hasta la vista, baby."

Johnson was forced to announce his resignation earlier this month after a mass rebellion against the latest in a string of scandals that his party decided had undermined his ability to lead the country any longer after three turbulent years in charge.

LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow's military "tasks" in Ukraine now went beyond the eastern Donbas region, in the clearest acknowledgment yet that it has expanded its war goals.

In an interview with state media nearly five months after Russia's invasion, the foreign minister also said peace talks made no sense at the moment because Western governments were leaning on Ukraine to fight rather than negotiate.

Ukraine's foreign minister retorted that Russia wanted "blood, not talks".

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative Party chose former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss — a fiscal moderate and a low-tax crusader — as the two finalists in an election to replace departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The result came on the day the divisive, unrepentant Johnson ended his final appearance in Parliament as prime minister with the words “Hasta la vista, baby.”

Sunak and Truss came first and second respectively in a secret vote by Conservative lawmakers. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt came in third and was eliminated.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s record-breaking heatwave has spurred calls for the government to speed up efforts to adapt to a changing climate, especially after wildfires created the busiest day for London firefighters since bombs rained down on the city during World War II.

LONDON/DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin had talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran on Tuesday, the Kremlin leader's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

In Tehran, Putin also held his first face-to-face meeting since the invasion with a NATO leader, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a deal that would resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports as well as the conflict in northern Syria.

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary" circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

LONDON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The fourth round of the Tory leadership ballot concluded here on Tuesday with former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak still in the lead.

Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch was knocked out of the race, reducing the number of candidates to three, according to the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers.

LONDON (AP) — British has bought another 100,000 doses of vaccine to stop monkeypox as the number of cases across the country has risen to more than 2,130, the majority of them in London, officials said Tuesday.

Britain’s Health Security Agency said while the epidemic is expanding, the majority of cases “continue to be in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, with the infection being passed on mainly through close contact between people in interconnected sexual networks.”