Europe

LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Two British pilots set off Monday on a pioneering quest to circumnavigate the globe in an original WWII fighter aircraft.

The two intrepid aviators -- Matt Jones and Steve Brooks -- have left Goodwood Aerodrome in order to attempt to fly a Silver Spitfire around the world to cover a distance of 27,000 miles (about 43,500 km), taking in some of the most famous landmarks on the planet from the Grand Canyon in the West to the snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji in the East.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Moscow will take into account the deployment of US missile launchers to Japan, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a briefing on Monday.

"The MK-41 launching systems that are likely to be deployed to Japan sooner or later can also be used for launching intermediate-range cruise missiles," he noted. "This is why once such systems are deployed to Japan, we will take them into consideration," the senior Russian diplomat added.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Moscow’s Tverskoy court on Monday arrested in absentia a businessman and ex-leader of Moldova’s ruling-turned-opposition Democratic Party, Vladimir Plahotniuc, on charges of setting up and participating in a criminal group, a TASS correspondent has reported from the courtroom.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: The crews of Su-25SM3 close air support aircraft from the air regiment of the Southern Military District based in the Stavropol Region in south Russia have switched to practicing the skills of piloting at ultra-low altitudes for covert movements using terrain features, the District’s press office reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Armed formations have shelled the area of the Hmeymim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia, where Russian Aerospace Forces are based, the SANA agency informed citing Syrian military sources.

"The terrorists opened fire at 15:30 Moscow time, several munitions exploded in the area of the air base," the message informs. "There are casualties in the wake of the attack, and significant material damage has been caused."

The agency does not provide any additional details regarding the attack.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: A batch of generation 4++ Su-30SM fighter jets with the upgraded turbojet engine will arrive for the air regiment stationed in the Tver Region in west Russia in 2021, the press office of Russia’s Western Military District reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Washington’s endeavors to dismantle the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)

Treaty can result in an unrestrained arms race.

"In our opinion, the United States’ actions, which led to the termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, will inevitably entail the weakening and

undermining of the entire global security architecture, including the strategic offensive arms treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," the

05 August 2019; AFP: July 2019 was the hottest month across the globe ever recorded, according to data released Monday by the European Union's satellite-based Earth observation network.

"While July is usually the warmest month of the year for the globe, according to our data it also was the warmest month recorded globally, by a very small margin," Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.

05 August 2019; DW: Moscow authorities arrested more than 800 people for participating in an unauthorized rally. But some residents said they "had no option left but to protest" in the face of a growing crackdown on independent candidates.

The German Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged Russia to immediately release protesters detained during a Moscow rally against the exclusion of independent candidates from city elections.

05 August 2019; DW: New reports place the EU border agency Frontex at scenes of brutality against migrants. The border guards of Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary have been found to be especially brutal.

German and British media published reports on Monday that place the European Union border agency Frontex at the scene of illegal activities by national border guards that may have constituted human rights violations.