Europe

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Moscow and Baghdad at the moment are not in talks over the possibility of Iraq's purchasing Russia’s air defense systems S-400 Triumf, Iraqi ambassador in Moscow Haidar Mansour Hadi told a news conference on the platform of the international discussion club Valdai on Thursday.

"We are not holding such talks. Not a single hint at that," Hadi said, adding that he has been asked this question at each public event.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Crews of the Chinese Air Force flying Shenyang J-11 air superiority fighter jets, Xi'an JH-7 fighter-bombers and Xian H-6 strategic bombers will practice an attack on ground targets at a military testing range near the southern Urals city of Orenburg as part of the Tsentr-2019 exercis, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Russia’s Roscosmos state corporation said in a presentation revealed on Wednesday it estimated the production costs of a methane-powered rocket at about 900 million rubles (about $14 million at the current exchange rate).

The presentation, unveiled by the corporation’s Director General Dmitry Rogozin while visiting the D.F. Ustinov Baltic State Technical University "Voenmeh" in St. Petersburg, puts production costs of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket currently used for space launches at about 1.3 billion rubles ($20.2 million).

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: The refusal of Ukrainian representatives in the Contact Group to sign the Steinmeier formula runs counter to the previous agreements and confirms once again that proper preparations must be made before a summit of the Normandy Quartet (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) may take place, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Thursday.

19 September 2019; AFP: Teen activist Greta Thunberg took her climate change fight to the US Congress Wednesday, imploring the nation's lawmakers -- several of whom are global warming skeptics -- to "take real action" to avert environmental disaster.

The 16-year-old Swede was joined by other campaigners who said looming uncertainty caused by inaction over climate change has led younger generations to question the intentions of today's political leaders.

MUNICH (Reuters) - Huawei’s [HWT.UL] new Mate 30 smartphone range will run on an open-source version of Google’s Android operating system, a source familiar with the matter said ahead of a major launch event in Germany on Thursday.

The world’s No.2 smartphone maker has not been able to license the latest version of Android from Google, the Alphabet unit, because of an export ban imposed by the U.S. government in May.

LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to Brexit will come under attack in Britain’s Supreme Court on Thursday from one of his predecessors as prime minister and Conservative Party leader, John Major.

The court began hearing a third and final day of legal arguments on whether the suspension, or prorogation, was unlawful. A lawyer representing Major was due to speak against Johnson later in the morning.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Thursday that the United Kingdom had failed to supply credible Brexit proposals, adding that there had been no breakthrough at talks last night with the Northern Irish party which props up Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said there was growing frustration in the European Union that London had not yet tabled proposals on an alternative to the Irish border backstop.

MADRID, Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain will hold its fourth election in four years in November after last-minute initiatives to break a months-long impasse failed to achieve a breakthrough.

“Spain is bound to hold new elections on November 10,” acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference late on Tuesday, after King Felipe VI met party leaders and concluded there was no candidate with enough support in the country’s deeply fragmented legislature to form a coalition.

PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Time to agree a Brexit deal is running out and it will be too late for European leaders to iron out a deal at a European Council meeting in Brussels in mid-October, a French diplomatic source said on Thursday.

The French warning comes after President Emmanuel Macron met the Finnish prime minister in Paris on Wednesday.

“The idea was to say that time is running out and that we won’t be negotiating directly at the European Council in mid-October,” the source said.