Europe

01 June 2023; MEMO: Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said, on Thursday, it had uncovered a US National Security Agency (NSA) plot using previously unknown malware to access specially made so-called backdoor vulnerabilities in Apple phones, Reuters reports.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said several thousand Apple phones had been infected, including those of domestic Russian subscribers.

01 June 2023; MEMO: Italy has lifted its embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia after years of restriction, amid the recent peace initiatives to resolve the conflict in Yemen.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian air defenses shot down more than 30 Russian cruise missiles and drones in Moscow’s sixth air attack in six days on Kyiv, local officials said Friday.

The Ukrainian capital was simultaneously attacked from different directions by Iranian-made Shahed drones and cruise missiles from the Caspian region, senior Kyiv official Serhii Popko wrote on Telegram.

02 June 2023; MEMO: A confidential European Union report warned of what it described as "drastic acceleration" of Israeli pressure on the Palestinian population in Jerusalem in the past year, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.

The report, which was seen by El Pais, was delivered to the EU's External Action service (EUAA) by the diplomatic representatives in Jerusalem and Ramallah of nearly all EU member states in addition to the EU delegate.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: Moscow has formally denounced the Russian-Ukrainian treaty governing joint use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, based on the fact that Ukraine is no longer a littoral state as regards these bodies of water, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said at a plenary meeting of the State Duma, or lower house of Russia’s parliament, on Thursday.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: Ukrainian attacks on the Belgorod Region are unable to affect the course of the special military operation, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a question about whether strikes and attacks on that region by the Ukrainian army would affect the special military operation and its geographical aspect.

"Certainly, this is unable to have any effect on the course of the military operation. But I am not authorized to say anything about the nuances," he added.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, has described the Ukrainian regime’s actions as terrorism, pointing out that the only way to counteract terrorists is to destroy them.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has no doubt that Russia will win in Ukraine and become a guarantor of peace and security for all nations.

THE HAGUE, June 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has increased prison sentences on two top former Serbian security officials.

Jovica Stanišic and Franko Simatovic were convicted of training death squads accused of ethnic cleansing during the break-up of Yugoslavia.

They will serve 15 years instead of the 12 they were originally given in 2021.

The court’s final verdict on the former Yugoslavia is also the first to prove a direct link between the Serbian state and a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

MOSCOW, June 1 (Reuters) - Russia's most powerful mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his Wagner group would fight on in Ukraine if his men got a separate section of the front without having to depend on "clowns" who ran swathes of the Russian armed forces.

Celebrating his 62nd birthday on Thursday at a training camp, Prigozhin also confirmed that his men would finally leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on June 5 after handing it to the Russian army. The Wagner mercenaries captured the devastated city in late May after months of grinding warfare.