Europe

DONETSK, July 7. /TASS/: The Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) Ambassador to Russia OIga Makeyeva and other embassy staff have already begun their work in Moscow, DPR Foreign Minister Natalya Nikonorova said in an interview with TASS.

"The ambassador and other embassy staff are already in Moscow, they have begun their work on the political track, as well as on consular, administrative and other issues," she pointed out. According to Nikonorova, the embassy will open on July 12.

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/: No meeting is planned between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of a G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Indonesia, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, said on Thursday.

"Nothing is being planned," the senior Russian diplomat said, when asked a question about the possibility of a meeting.

"Given the circumstances, existing contacts via embassies and sporadic telephone calls are quite enough for us to work in detail on current issues" with the United States, Ryabkov said.

ROME, July 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The number of people affected by hunger rose to 828 million in 2021, an increase of 46 million from the previous year, the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report on Wednesday.

The 2022 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report — drafted by the FAO and four other UN agencies — carries fresh figures on nutrition and food accessibility at the global level, including the latest estimates of the costs and affordability of a healthy diet.

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - British defence minister Ben Wallace was the favourite among Conservative party members to be the next party leader, the results of a YouGov poll showed on Thursday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to resign.

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - The opposition Labour Party will call a parliamentary no confidence vote in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government if his Conservative Party don't get rid of him immediately, Labour Party chief Keir Starmer said in a statement on Thursday.

"His own party have finally concluded that he's unfit to be prime minister," Starmer said. "If they don't get rid of him, then Labour will step up in the national interest and bring a vote of no confidence because we can't go on with this prime minister clinging on for months and months to come."

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Britain's new finance minister Nadhim Zahawi told Boris Johnson to resign on Thursday, less than 48 hours after the prime minister promoted him to the job, saying the crisis engulfing the government would only get worse.

"This is not sustainable and it will only get worse, for you, for the Conservative Party and most importantly of all the country," Zahawi said on Twitter after more than 50 ministers and aides resigned from the government.

"You must do the right thing and go now."

KYIV/BAKHMUT, Ukraine, July 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces raised their national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island on Thursday in a defiant act against Moscow, but Kyiv lost a main international supporter after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would step down.

Russian forces also shelled potential conquests in eastern Ukraine ahead of an expected new offensive.

Moscow did not conceal its delight at the political demise of Johnson, a leader whom it has long criticised for arming Kyiv so energetically. 

MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to a Russian court Thursday to face her trial on drug charges as a senior Russian diplomat warned that U.S. criticism of how Russia’s handling the case wouldn’t help her release prospects.

Griner’s trial began last week amid a growing chorus of calls for Washington to do more to secure her freedom nearly five months after her arrest.

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Viktor Lazar shares his war-side balcony with a pair of opera glasses and a tiny orange snake, his only companion in an apartment that seems to sit at the edge of the world.

The opera glasses, more of a joke, are hardly needed — the front line is visible without them. The rumbling of Russian and Ukrainian shelling is audible even now, although Lazar claims not to notice. Below his balcony is a crater, one of many. On the nearby street, a Grad rocket launcher rolls by.

Lazar estimates the Russians are just 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

LONDON (AP) — Boris Johnson wanted to be like his hero Winston Churchill: a larger-than-life character who led Britain through a time of crisis. He was felled by crises of his own making, as a trickle of ethics allegations became a flood that engulfed his government and turned his own party against him.

Johnson agreed to resign Thursday after the chorus of disapproval from within his own party became too much for him to withstand.