Europe

PARIS (AP) — The French president is heading to the South Pacific to make France’s voice heard in a region shaping up as a prime geopolitical battleground for China and the U.S.

President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia comes as French forces take part in massive U.S.-Australian-led military exercises in the region. With French troops, citizens and resources spread across its Pacific territories, France wants to protect its own interests and project its power alongside like-minded democracies worried about China’s growing assertiveness.

MADRID (AP) — Spaniards woke up Monday to find their country in political disarray after a general election a day earlier left no party with a clear path to forming a government.

The uncertainty deepened as both of Spain’s two main parties indicated that they hope to take power. The only sure thing seems to be that the country faces weeks, perhaps months, of political negotiations and possibly a new election to sort out the mess.

Here’s a look at what happened and what might unfold in the next few months.

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ROME (AP) — The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures.

The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he didn’t appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early Monday that saw one of the aircraft fall near the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, while the Russian military unleashed new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two nonresidential buildings in Moscow. Separately, a Ukrainian drone struck an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea, forcing a halt in traffic on a major highway, Russian authorities said.

Tehran, IRNA – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani says setting books and thoughts on fire is not freedom but sheer barbarism as he calls on the Swedish and Danish governments to stop acts of insults against religious sanctities.

Bagheri Kani made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran on Sunday with Qatar’s Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Khulaifi, where the two officials discussed bilateral issues, as well as the latest regional and international developments. 

23 July 2023; AA: Former Russian military commander Igor Girkin, who served as a commander in Russian-controlled areas of Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014, has been arrested in Moscow on charges of extremism.

Girkin, who uses the pseudonym Strelkov on social media platforms, was detained on Friday, according to his lawyer Aleksandr Molokhov and wife Miroslava Reginskaya.

23 July 2023; AA: Some 33,700 more Ukrainians have crossed into Poland in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people fleeing war in their country to over 13 million, Polish authorities said on Sunday.

More than 13.8 million people have crossed into Poland from Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia launched its war against Ukraine, according to Polish Border Guard figures.

23 July 2023; MEMO: A century ago, on July 24, countries around the world acknowledged Turkiye as an independent and sovereign nation with the historic signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty at the Rumine Palace in the lakeside Swiss city, Anadolu Agency reports.

Months of intense negotiations had led up to the momentous event under the Lausanne Peace Conference, held at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, situated on the picturesque shores of Lake Leman in Lausanne.

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko who is currently on a working visit to Russia.

The Belarusian head of state arrived in Russia on Saturday evening.

The Kremlin press service said earlier that the two leaders would discuss "pressing issues related to the further development of Russian-Belarusian relations of strategic partnership and alliance, as well as integration within the Union State."

ST. PETERSBURG, July 23. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that he is "starting to get tense with the Wagner group because they want to march on Warsaw".

"Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will. The Wagner group has started to stress us: ‘We want to go to the West. Let us go.’ I said, why do you want to go to the West? ‘Well, to go on a tour to Warsaw, to Rzeszow'," Lukashenko said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.