Europe

MOSCOW, June 12. /TASS/: People begin to return to their homes in Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson Region after a flood triggered by Ukraine’s rocket strike on the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP), the city’s Mayor Vladimir Leontyev said on Monday.

"In Novaya Kakhovka, people are returning to their homes," he said in an interview with the RBC television channel.

According to the mayor, water has been pumped from the basements in most of the flooded houses. The situation in the city, in his words, is better than in settlements located downstream along the Dnieper.

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday he had rejected a plea from Boris Johnson to overrule an independent body and allow some of the former leader's allies to join parliament's upper chamber because he didn't think it was right.

Responding to critics within his ruling Conservative Party, which has been rocked in recent days by Johnson's dramatic Friday night decision to quit parliament, Sunak added that he had no sympathy for those who did not like his decision.

VOLKEL AIR BASE, Netherlands June 12 (Reuters) - Ukrainian pilots could begin training to fly U.S.-manufacture F-16 fighter jets as soon as this summer, the Dutch defense minister has told Reuters, a first step toward supplying Kyiv with a powerful, long-term capability in its war with Russia.

June 12 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday it has signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after Russia's powerful mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to do so.

The signing followed an order that all "volunteer units" should sign contracts by July 1 bringing them under the control of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, as Moscow tries to assert its control over private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine.

KYIV, June 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Monday its troops had recaptured a fourth village in a cluster of settlements in the southeast, a day after reporting the first small gains of a counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Soldiers held up the Ukrainian flag in Storozheve in the Donetsk region in unverified video footage posted online and the defence minister thanked the 35th Separate Brigade of Marines for regaining control of the village.

BERLIN, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Monday started Air Defender 2023, its largest ever air force deployment exercise.

The German-led drill brings together 25 NATO nations with Germany's leadership. The maneuver had been in the planning since 2018.

Some 10,000 soldiers and 250 aircraft, including 70 from Germany and more than 100 from the United States, take part in the maneuver until June 23.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkey’s president said Monday that any deal resolving Cyprus’ nearly half-century ethnic division must be based on recognition of a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the island nation’s northern third.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks in the north during his first overseas visit after his reelection last month aren’t new, but suggest that Ankara’s policy line on Cyprus remains unwavering, despite international condemnation of the two-state deal proposal that runs contrary to U.N. resolutions calling for a single, federated Cyprus.

LONDON (AP) — A U.K. parliamentary committee is meeting Monday to conclude its inquiry into whether former Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled lawmakers over parties at his Downing Street office that breached COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

Members of Parliament’s Privileges Committee have pledged to continue with the investigation into Johnson’s conduct after he unexpectedly quit as a lawmaker on Friday and angrily accused political opponents of driving him out in a “witch hunt.”

PARIS (AP) — UNESCO announced Monday that the United States plans to rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency — and pay more than $600 million in back dues — after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organization’s move to include Palestine as a member.

U.S. officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by the U.S. in UNESCO policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world.

ROME (AP) — Adored, scorned, impossible to ignore in life, former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in death drew tributes even from his critics, and ever more lavish praise from admirers, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as prayers from Pope Francis.

Following word of Berlusconi’s death on Monday in a Milan hospital, where he was being treated for chronic leukemia, reaction poured in from around the world, from national leaders to announcers who burst into tears on one of his television networks, for the populist three-time premier and media mogul.