Europe

LONDON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Grant Shapps, who has been serving as Britain's energy secretary, has replaced Ben Wallace as Britain's new defense secretary, the office of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday.

It is the fifth cabinet job for Shapps, 54, in a year. His previous roles were energy secretary, transport secretary and home secretary.

"I'd like to pay tribute to the enormous contribution Ben Wallace has made to UK defense & global security over the last 4 years," Shapps wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, following the appointment.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Moscow considers threats by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell to take medical supplies away from the Russian people as inadmissible and neo-Nazist, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

BUDAPEST, August 30. /TASS/: Hungary has refused to discuss EU funding for military aid to Ukraine as the government of that country still lists Hungary’s OTP bank as an "international sponsor of war," said Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky.

He made the remarks in a video posted to Facebook (banned in Russia as it’s owned by Meta Corporation, which is designated as extremist in Russia) following an informal meeting with his EU counterparts that took place in the Spanish city of Toledo.

BERLIN, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition government on Wednesday listed Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin in a bid to cut asylum applications from those nations, which are almost always rejected.

The cabinet passed a draft law by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser as part of a series of measures agreed at a two-day cabinet retreat at Schloss Meseberg, a castle outside Berlin.

The move means asylum applications from those countries could be processed more quickly and lead to faster deportations for failed applicants.

TOLEDO, Spain, Aug 30 (Reuters) - European Union defence ministers are to discuss the situation in Gabon, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday, adding that a coup, if confirmed, would heap more instability on the region.

A group of senior Gabonese military officers appeared on national television in the early hours of Wednesday and said they had taken power, after the state election body announced President Ali Bongo had won a third term.

Aug 30 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the broadest volleys yet of Kyiv's campaign to turn the tables on Moscow.

Russian officials described attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks would "not go unpunished" and the drones could not have reached so far into Russian territory without Western help.

KIEV/MOSCOW, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine said Wednesday that four Il-76 transport aircraft were destroyed during an overnight drone attack at Pskov airport in western Russia.

"Four Il-76 have been destroyed and cannot be restored. A few more (aircraft) units were damaged," Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence, told the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency.

He did not specify whether Ukraine was responsible for the attack.

MOSCOW (AP) — “Deliberate wrongdoing” is among the possible causes of the plane crash that killed Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last week, the Kremlin’s spokesperson said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters during his daily conference call, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that “different versions” of what happened exist and “are being considered” by Russian investigators, including, “let’s put this way, deliberate wrongdoing.”

29 August 2023; MEMO: The Humans for Rights Network has identified an increasing number of cases in which child refugees who have arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats are being held in adult prisons alongside sex offenders. Several of these minors, particularly those from Sudan and South Sudan, appear to have been victims of trafficking or exploitation.

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will head the Russian delegation at the Group of 20 summit in India at the request of President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.

"At the request of the Russian president, the delegation will be headed by Lavrov," the diplomat said.

Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would not travel to the G20 meeting in India.