Europe

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers were preparing to deliver their verdict on Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal with the European Union on Tuesday after more than two years of political upheaval.

All signs point to it receiving a resounding thumbs-down from Parliament, a development that would throw British politics further into turmoil, just 10 weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29.

15 Jan 2019; AFP: Hundreds of flights will be cancelled at eight German airports Tuesday, including at the nation's busiest travel hub Frankfurt, as security staff walk off the job in a deepening row over pay.

Germany's powerful Verdi union said the strike would last from 02:00 am until 8:00 pm (0100-1900 GMT) at the airports of Frankfurt, Munich, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden and Erfurt.

14 Jan 2019; DW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kano, on Monday to discuss a plan to finally end World War II hostilities.

The talks revolved around four disputed islands, which Moscow calls the Kuril Islands and Tokyo dubs its Northern Territories.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Monday marked a "first round of Russian-Japanese talks on the problem of reaching a deal between the two countries."

15 Jan 2019; DW: Staff responsible for checking passengers and cargo have started an 18-hour warning strike at Germany's biggest airports. An estimated 220,000 passengers are affected.

German airport association ADV warned that the strike action would "paralyze" the German flight network all day Tuesday. Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport canceled half of its 1,200 flights.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. The Spektr-R space radio telescope’s transmission device failure may have been caused by cosmic radiation accumulated in the spacecraft’s electronics during the past eight years, a source in the Russian space industry informed TASS on Monday.

"The specialists cite the influence of the radiation dosage accumulated during the flight period in the satellite’s electronic component base as a possible cause for the failure of the Spektr-R receiving and transmitting device," the agency’s source informed.

KIEV, January 14. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Kherson Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal against the arrest of Chief Editor of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news outlet Kirill Vyshinsky until January 27, defense attorney Igor Mokin told TASS.

"The court upheld the decision made by a court of first instance, which arrested Vyshinsky until January 27," he said.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. The onboard systems of Russia’s radio telescope Spektr-R operate normally according to the United States’ research data reception station, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Monday.

"A research data reception station in the United States has managed to identify the carrier frequency of the separate research data transmitter of the space apparatus Spektr-R, which is indirect evidence the onboard systems operate in accordance with the built-in algorithm," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described as unacceptable the actions of US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell who earlier sent letters to German companies warning them of possible US sanctions over their participation in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

"Of course, this is unacceptable. This is not part of the ambassador's responsibilities, to say the least. In fact, it contradicts them," Zakharova told Rossiya-1 TV channel.

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. The United States has not handled well its role as an international arbiter and failed at ensuring global security, Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Zvezda TV channel on Monday.

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Washington cannot force Moscow to change its policy and Russia does not have tools either to influence the US political course, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty weekly newspaper published on Tuesday.

"Despite the fact that the United States is the world’s largest economy, it does not have tools that could force Russia to abandon its sovereign policy," Peskov said commenting on Washington’s sanctions.