Europe

KIEV, August 30. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has said that the next prisoner exchange between Kiev and Moscow would not take place on Friday, and its final date was not yet determined.

"Not today," SBU Spokesperson Yelena Gitlyanskaya told Ukraine’s Obozrevatel (Observer) edition.

Commenting on reports that the exchange could take place in Kiev’s Zhuliany airport any moment, she noted: "We do not give any specific dates. I can say, however, that it will not take place today. There is no final date yet."

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister John Major has asked to join legal action to try to block current Prime Minister Boris Johnson from suspending parliament before Brexit.

Major, prime minister from 1990 to 1997, said he would join anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller in pursuing a judicial review of the order to close parliament from mid September to mid October.

ATHENS (Reuters) - An Iranian tanker at the center of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran changed course again on Friday and was heading back to Turkey, shipping data showed.

The Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, was now headed for the southeastern Turkish port of Iskenderun, tracking site Marine Traffic showed.

It is the third time the ship has changed destination in 10 days. Iskenderun is roughly 200 km north of the Baniyas refinery in Syria - the suspected original destination of the tanker.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Germany expects Britain to crash out of the European Union on Oct. 31, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday.

“We cannot imagine reopening the Withdrawal Agreement,” Maas said in the Finnish capital. “We assume that Brexit will happen on Oct. 31. We will do everything to avoid a no-deal Brexit. But the British government has made it clear that if there is no agreement (on the Irish border) a no-deal Brexit will happen.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Legal campaigner Gina Miller’s attempt to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson from suspending Britain’s parliament for more than a month before Brexit will be heard by a court on Sept. 5.

Former Prime Minister John Major has also applied to be part of the case.

“Court hearing re @BorisJohnson proroguing Parliament will be heard next Thursday 5th September. I will be adjoined by Sir John Major,” Miller tweeted.

Miller successfully challenged the government in 2017 over its authority to leave the EU without a vote in parliament.

BERLIN, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Frankfurt public prosecutor's office has opened investigations into a police officer suspected of having sent pictures with right-wing extremist content in a WhatsApp chat, a spokesperson for the office said on Thursday.

According to hessenschau.de, which had first reported on the case, the suspect was a service group leader in the Muehlheim police force.

HELSINKI (AP) — British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is defending his government’s decision to suspend parliament and says the move has nothing to do with preventing lawmakers from debating the country’s exit from the European Union.

At a meeting Friday with his EU counterparts in Finland, Raab said that “the idea that this is some kind of constitutional outrage is nonsense. It’s actually lawful. It’s perfectly proper. There’s precedent for it.”

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

10:30 p.m.

Britain will be stepping up its technical meetings with European Union negotiators as the nation tries to secure a deal to leave the trading bloc.

Downing Street says in a statement its team of Brexit negotiators will meet with their EU counterparts twice a week throughout September, with the possibility of additional technical meetings. Two meetings are set to take place next week.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The office of the Ukrainian president on Friday denied reports saying that a much-anticipated prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia is underway.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement that negotiations with Russia to secure the release of the Ukrainian prisoners are ongoing but insisted that it has not happened yet. The Kremlin on Thursday refused to comment on the possible prisoner exchange.

KIEV, August 29. /TASS/: The Ukrainian government is resigning, Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman announced, addressing the newly elected Verkhonva Rada (parliament).

"In accordance with the Constitution, my government and I are resigning. Today, I am announcing the cabinet’s resignation," he said.

Groisman noted that his three years as prime minister had not been easy. He thanked the Ukrainian people and his cabinet members for cooperation and wished the new government success.