Europe

SOCHI/MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West doesn’t need a large Russia.

"In principle, the West does not need such a large and multinational country as Russia," he said in a speech to the Worldwide Russian People's Assembly via video link. "Our diversity and unity of cultures, traditions, languages, ethnicities simply does not fit into the logic of Western racists and colonizers, into their cruel scheme of total depersonalization, disunity, suppression and exploitation."

WARSAW, Nov 28 (NNN-XINHUA) – Poland’s new government, led by Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was sworn in yesterday. Morawiecki’s cabinet is now subject to approval by the country’s lower house of parliament (Sejm), within the next two weeks.

In the afternoon, Morawiecki submitted a proposal to President Andrzej Duda, for the formation of a new Council of Ministers. According to a government spokesperson, the cabinet includes experts who have not previously held political positions, as well as, politicians specialising in specific areas.

BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The top European Union court ruled on Tuesday that public authorities in member states can prohibit employees from wearing signs of religious belief, such as an Islamic head scarf, in the latest decision on an issue that has divided Europe for years.

The case came to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after an employee of the eastern Belgian municipality of Ans was told she could not wear an Islamic head scarf at work.

PARIS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Italy, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are battling it out in Paris on Tuesday for the right to host the Expo 2030 world fair, a five-yearly event that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment.

The three countries' delegations have been in horse-trading overdrive over the past few months to win votes from the 182 member states of the Bureau International des Expositions, holding splashy lobbying events in the French capital.

MADRID, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Spain is ready to sign a deal on the post-Brexit status of Gibraltar as early as Wednesday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said, before setting off to meet newly appointed British Foreign Minister David Cameron in Brussels.

Albares said he spoken with Cameron on Monday on the telephone and both men agreed to meet in Brussels to further discuss the status of Gibraltar there.

"Spain put on the table, several months ago, a balanced and generous agreement," Albares said in a Tuesday interview with Spanish TV station Telecinco.

KYIV, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The wife of Ukraine's military spy chief has been poisoned with heavy metals and is undergoing treatment in a hospital, a spokesperson for the agency said on Tuesday.

Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, which has been prominently involved in clandestine operations against Russian forces since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Any new United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members should come from developing countries, Russian media reported Monday, citing Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Primakov Readings International Forum in Moscow.

"It is important to redress the historical injustices that emerged following the end of the decolonization process and since the emergence of many dozens of young sovereign states," Lavrov said, noting that the composition of the UNSC should reflect the current reality.

HELSINKI (AP) — Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says Finland will close its entire border with Russia due to concerns over migration.

Orpo made the announcement during a news conference on Tuesday. Finland had only one remaining border checkpoint open, located in the Arcticm after the government closed seven others because of a surge in arrivals of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

Finland accuses Moscow of ushering the migrants toward the Finnish border.

(AP) --- Tornadoes were forecast for the Black Sea region on Tuesday, a day after a storm that left more than 2 million people without electricity in Crimea, Russia and Ukraine. A think tank said that the weather also impacted Russian military operations.

The storm killed at least 14 people in Russia and Ukraine officials said as it toppled trees, tore down power lines and flooded coastal areas.

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return this week to the Middle East as the U.S. hopes to find a way to extend a cease-fire in Gaza and get more hostages released, the State Department said Monday. It will be his third trip to the region since Israel’s war with Hamas began last month.

Blinken will travel to Israel and the West Bank after attending Ukraine-focused meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels and Skopje, North Macedonia, where foreign ministers from NATO and the Organization for Peace and Security in Europe are gathering.