Europe

4 Nov 2019; AFP: The UK parliament selects a new speaker Monday, a once unremarkable event that is now charged with significance following the previous occupant's role in Brexit.

Seven MPs are running to replace John Bercow, who placed himself front and centre of the Brexit saga by choosing amendments and introducing procedures that Leave-supporting MPs claimed were designed to frustrate Britain's departure from the European Union.

MADRID (AP) — The parent company of British Airways and Iberia has agreed to buy Spanish rival Air Europa for 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

In a statement released Monday, the International Airlines Group, or IAG, says the purchase will be completed by the end of 2020 if competition regulators approve it.

IAG expects the purchase to turn its Madrid base into “a true rival” to Europe’s main air travel hubs in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris.

LONDON, Nov 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Two years ago, a peer called on the British government to apologise for the “suffering” of Palestinians, 100 years after the Balfour Declaration.

The UK government’s declaration was the first commitment by a world power to a “Jewish national home” in Palestine.

Lord Warner said, the UK had failed to protect the rights of non-Jewish people in the region and should apologise.

3 Nov 2019; MEMO: Italy is set to ban flights by Iran’s Mahan Air, an Iranian industry official said on Saturday, as the United States seeks action against the airline accused by the West of transporting military equipment and personnel to Middle East war zones, reports Reuters.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev considers joint naval exercises between Russia and ASEAN possible, he said in an interview with Bangkok Post on the eve of the ASEAN Business Investment Summit and the 14th East Asia Summit.

DONETSK, November 3. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) have violated the ceasefire 13 times during the past day, having launched more than 142 projectiles on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), head of the DPR group in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) Ruslan Yakubov said on Sunday.

"Over the past day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) violated the ceasefire 13 times," the Donetsk news agency quoted him as saying. "The total number of projectiles used by the UAF is 142."

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) does not look for new members to join the organization, forming a single economic and cultural space is much more important, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Bangkok Post on the eve of the ASEAN Business Investment Summit and the 14th East Asia Summit.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: The upgraded BMP-2M infantry fighting vehicle equipped with the Berezhok combat module will complete state tests by December 1, 2019, a source in the military-industrial complex told TASS.

"The BMP-2M with the Berezhok combat module is a deep modernization of the BMP-2 in service. Currently, state tests of the newest vehicle are underway, they should be completed by December 1," the source said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s Brexit Party, said he would not stand in the next month’s election, choosing instead to campaign countywide against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s EU divorce deal.

“I have thought very hard about this: How do I serve the cause of Brexit best?” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.

“Do I find a seat and try to get myself into parliament or do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom supporting 600 candidates, and I’ve decided the latter course is the right one.”

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s election campaign heated up Sunday even before it officially started, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying he would apologize to Conservatives for failing to take the U.K. out of the European Union by Oct. 31 and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage saying he won’t personally run for a seat in Parliament.

Johnson’s promise to have Britain leave the bloc by Oct. 31 had been his central platform in the party leadership competition that brought him to power in July.