Europe

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software.

The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them.

LONDON, Dec 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Union members on one of Britain’s busiest railway networks walked out on Monday, on the first day of a planned 27-day strike that could affect hundreds of thousands of commuters.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) stopped work on lines run by South Western Railway, which operates lines in and around London, and to towns and cities in southwest England.

Passengers have been warned to face disruption in the run-up to Christmas, as only half of services will run, including to and from Britain’s busiest railway station Waterloo.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had no deadline for reaching a trade agreement with China and it might be better to wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November 2020.

“I have no deadline, no. In some ways I think I think it’s better to wait until after the election with China,” Trump told reporters in London where he was due to attend a meeting of NATO leaders.

“But they want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right, it’s got to be right.”

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has unwittingly become embroiled in a political battle in Washington between U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats who could announce formal impeachment charges against him within weeks.

Democrats launched an inquiry in September into allegations Trump abused his power to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic possible rival in the 2020 presidential race.

MADRID (Reuters) - The past decade is almost certain to be the hottest on record, weather experts warned on Tuesday, painting a bleak picture of vanishing sea ice, devastating heatwaves and encroaching seas in a report launched at a climate summit in Spain.

An annual assessment of the Earth’s climate by the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO) underscored the stakes at two weeks of talks aimed at shoring up the 2015 Paris Agreement to avert catastrophic global warming.

PARIS (Reuters) - France and the European Union are ready to fight back over the latest U.S. tariff threats on French products, French government ministers said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the U.S. government said it may impose punitive duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of imports from France, including champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France’s new digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies.

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares opened higher on Tuesday, attempting to claw their way back from three days of falls though the mood remained gloomy after U.S. President Donald Trump showed he was ready to open new trade war fronts despite signs of economic damage.

The United States has threatened duties of up to 100% on French goods while Trump tweeted he would slap tariffs on Brazil and Argentina attacking what he saw as both countries’ “massive devaluation of their currencies.”

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland’s Centre Party, part of the five-party coalition government, said on Tuesday it had lost confidence in Social Democrat Prime Minister Antti Rinne, a move that looks likely to force him to resign.

Finnish broadcaster YLE, citing unnamed sources, said Rinne would resign later in the day. The tabloid Iltalehti, also citing unnamed sources, said Rinne would hand in his resignation before a debate in parliament due to begin at 1200 GMT.

LONDON (Reuters) - British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday if his party won an election in just over a week his government would not put any public services on the table in trade talks with the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Britain to attend a meeting of the NATO military alliance and Corbyn has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of putting the country’s public health service up for grabs in preliminary trade talks. Johnson denies the accusations.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German public broadcaster ARD reported on Tuesday that federal prosecutors want to take over a probe into the killing in August of a Georgian citizen in Berlin and that they believe Russian intelligence was involved.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who had previously fought alongside anti-Moscow separatists in the province of Chechnya, was shot dead in Berlin in August.