Europe

LONDON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Up to half a million British teachers, university staff, train drivers and civil servants went on strike on Wednesday in the largest coordinated action for years amid lengthy disputes over pay.

Teacher members of the National Education Union in England and Wales walked out in the first of several days, affecting 23,400 schools.

There is a crisis of recruitment and retention within the school system, and a decade of falling pay is a key reason for this move and needs to be addressed by the government, the union said.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travels to Rabat on Wednesday along with 12 ministers before a meeting with Moroccan government officials, as part of the European country’s strategy to improve historically complex relations with its neighbor across the Strait of Gibraltar.

PARIS (AP) — An estimated 1.27 million people took to the streets of French cities, towns and villages Tuesday, according to the Interior Ministry, in new massive protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age by two years.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — It used to be that visitors would browse through Bakhmut’s late 19th century buildings, enjoy walks in its rose-lined lakeside park and revel in the sparkling wines produced in historic underground caves. That was when this city in eastern Ukraine was a popular tourist destination.

No more. The longest battle of Russia’s war has turned this city of salt and gypsum mines into a ghost town. Despite bombing, shelling and attempts to encircle Bakhmut for six months, Russia’s forces have not conquered it.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish ruling party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, has paid 50,000 zlotys ($11,500) for the needs of the Ukrainian army to settle a defamation case with a political rival.

Kaczyński was ordered by a court in December to pay Radek Sikorski more than 700,000 zlotys ($162,000) to cover the costs of publishing an apology for calling him a “diplomatic traitor.”

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Moscow on Wednesday sentenced a Russian journalist in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of disparaging the military, the latest move in the authorities’ relentless crackdown on dissent.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, local officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive in the eastern area in coming weeks as the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches.

The Kremlin’s forces are expelling local residents from their homes near the Russian-held parts of the front line so that they can’t provide information about Russian troop deployments to Ukrainian artillery, Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai said.

Vienna, IRNA – Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov urged the necessity for all parties to resume negotiations on reviving a multilateral accord reached in 2015 with Iran known as JCPOA and a subsequent removal of all the sanctions on Tehran.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sputnik, Ulyanov referred to the stalemate in the talks since September, while noting that it is still premature to say that the JCPOA is dead.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday, held separate phone talks with Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the Kremlin said in a statement, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Putin and Tebboune "reaffirmed their readiness for further joint work on the global energy market, including within the OPEC plus and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum."

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s economy scraped out meager gains at the end of last year as galloping inflation fed by high energy prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine deterred people from spending in shops and restaurants.

Economic output crept 0.1% higher in the last three months of 2022, European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Tuesday, avoiding an outright downturn as warmer-than-usual winter weather shelved fears of energy rationing in Europe.