Europe

LONDON (AP) — Britain announced plans Monday to develop and deploy a Europe-led “maritime protection mission” to safeguard shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz in light of Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged tanker in the waterway last week.

Briefing Parliament on the budding crisis, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt accused Iran of “an act of state piracy” that must be met with a coordinated international reaction.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/: The escalation of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz may threaten security of navigation in the region, KUNA news agency quoted Kuwait's Foreign Ministry as saying.

"Kuwait is following with concern the developments in the region after the detention of the British oil tanker and stresses that such actions may lead to escalation of tensions and create a direct threat to navigation," a source in the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said.

VIENNA, July 22. /TASS/: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has died aged 72, the organization’s press service reported on Monday.

"The Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency regrets to inform with deepest sadness of the passing away of Director General Yukiya Amano," the note reads.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/: Russia’s Defense Ministry has dismissed reports that the Russian air task force’s aircraft have allegedly delivered an air strike against a marketplace in Syria.

"The statements by the anonymous representatives of the UK- and US-funded White Helmets organization that the Russian air task force’s aircraft have allegedly delivered a strike against a marketplace in the town of Maaret al-Numan (the province of Idlib) are a fake news story," the defense ministry stressed.

KIEV, July 22. /TASS/: Sunday’s snap parliamentary election in Ukraine was neither fair nor democratic, Head of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Political Management Ruslan Bortnik told TASS on Monday, adding that the vote had been overshadowed by the earlier presidential election.

KIEV, July 22. /TASS/: Andrei Portnov, lawyer and former First Deputy Chief of Staff of the fourth Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's administration, reported Prosecutor General Yuri Lutskenko’s disappearance on Monday.

"Friends, I inform you that Prosecutor General Lutsenko has disappeared. [First Deputy Prosecutor General Dmitry] Storozhuk will serve as acting prosecutor general from now on," Portnov wrote on Facebook.

Later Yuri Lutsenko’s Press Secretary Larisa Sargan explained on Facebook that the prosecutor general did not disappear but "is on leave."

PARIS, July 22. /TASS/: The search group of France’s Ministry for the Armed Forces managed to spot the Minerve submarine that had gone missing on January 27, 1968, Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/: Four Russian Su-25SM ground attack aircraft took part in the Kyrgyz army’s Sary-Tash-2019 military exercises, the press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported on Monday.

"The Russian planes delivered a missile strike against targets simulating notional armor and the amassment of illegal armed formations. The pilots also practiced overcoming air defenses by performing anti-missile maneuvering. The flights were conducted at speeds of 700 to 750 km/h and at an altitude of 300 to 3,000 meters," the press office said.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The European Union describes wildfires as “a serious and increasing threat” across the continent.

Most alarmingly, forest blazes are growing in intensity, especially in southern countries such as Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal but also in Scandinavia.

Experts warn the continent needs to get ready for blazes that reach a massive new scale. These superfires, or mega-fires, are catastrophic events that kill and blacken broad areas and are hard to stop.

Here’s a look at Europe’s wildfire problem.

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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s next prime minister will govern a nation of 66 million people, but only 0.25% of them had a say in the choice.

Either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt will be announced Tuesday as the winner of a contest to lead the governing Conservative Party. After a formal handover of power, the victor will become prime minister the next day.

A look at how the process works:

WHO VOTES?