Europe

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday that the U.K. is setting up a new science initiative to help develop flood-tolerant rice, disease-resistant wheat and other crops that are more resilient to climate change.

Sunak was joined by ministers, diplomats and philanthropists from about 20 countries at a one-day Global Food Security Summit in London, where he urged world leaders to harness artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology to end malnutrition around the globe.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday in a high-profile push to keep money and weapons flowing to Ukraine even as U.S. and international resources are stretched by the new global risks raised by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Austin, who traveled to Kyiv by train from Poland, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and was scheduled to meet with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Chief of Staff Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

LONDON (AP) — Microsoft snapped up Sam Altman and another architect of OpenAI for a new venture after their sudden departures shocked the artificial intelligence world, leaving the newly installed CEO of the ChatGPT maker to paper over tensions by vowing to investigate Altman’s firing.

The developments Monday come after a weekend of drama and speculation about how the power dynamics would shake out at OpenAI, whose chatbot kicked off the generative AI era by producing human-like text, images, video and music.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The Russian authorities were able to prevent the economic collapse that threatened the country after the introduction of unprecedented sanctions in 2022, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin TV program.

"There was a threat of a collapse, we really had to mobilize all resources and internal forces in order to prevent this collapse," said the Kremlin representative, noting that the Russian economy was then hit by the burden of unprecedented sanctions.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The Russian authorities were able to prevent the economic collapse that threatened the country after the introduction of unprecedented sanctions in 2022, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin TV program.

"There was a threat of a collapse, we really had to mobilize all resources and internal forces in order to prevent this collapse," said the Kremlin representative, noting that the Russian economy was then hit by the burden of unprecedented sanctions.

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/: The current situation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the focus of telephone talks between the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: Another group of Russian citizens, evacuated from the Gaza Strip earlier, has been delivered to Russia.

A Ministry of Emergency Situations Il-76 plane flying from Cairo landed in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. It delivered a group of 117 Russians, who previously evacuated through the Rafah checkpoint. During the flight, they were accompanied by Ministry medics and psychologists.

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) said on Sunday it is cancelling a phase III study program to investigate the efficacy and safety of asundexian, an oral Factor XIa (FXIa) inhibitor.

The decision to stop the study is based on the recommendation by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC). IDMC monitoring showed an inferior efficacy of asundexian compared to the control arm of the study.

Spain Nov 19 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday demanded rapid changes in the operations of Ukraine's military and announced the dismissal of the commander of the military's medical forces.

Zelenskiy's move was announced as he met Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, and coincided with debate over the conduct of the 20-month-old war against Russia, with questions over how quickly a counteroffensive in the east and south is proceeding.

VOORBURG, Netherlands (AP) — Cans of fish, jars of pasta sauce and bags of beans are stacked in blue crates. Meat, dairy and bread are kept cold in a huge freezer and a walk-in refrigerator in this affluent Dutch town. The supplies are on hand to feed the new poor in one of the richest nations in the world.

Needy families are lining up for free handouts at food banks across the Netherlands, underscoring how poverty is taking root even in lower middle-class families and why tackling it has become a major theme in next Wednesday’s parliamentary election.