Boris Johnson, frontrunner to be Britain's next prime minister,
denied he was responsible for the resignation of the ambassador
to Washington but admitted his comments had been a factor
in the shock departure of one of the country's most senior diplomats.
Gibraltar police said on Friday that all four crew members of the Iranian Grace
1 tanker have been released on bail without charge after it was detained
last week on suspicion of breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.
The leader of Hezbollah said on Friday that Washington was seeking to open channels
of communication despite ramping up sanctions against the Iran-backed movement's officials.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged U.S. President Donald Trump last month to show flexibility
in dealings with North Korea and ease sanctions on the country
"in due course," China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Panama will withdraw its flag from more vessels that violate sanctions and international legislation,
the country's maritime authority told Reuters, following the removal of about
60 ships linked to Iran and Syria from the Panamanian registry in recent months.
Turkey began taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system on Friday,
a move expected to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into
the heart of the Western military alliance.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday that the United States had not changed its position
on Turkey's role in the F-35 program if they accepted a Russian missile defense system and he would be
speaking with his Turkish counterpart later in the day.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and 35 other states have written to the United Nations supporting China's policies
in its western region of Xinjiang, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters on Friday,
in contrast to strong Western criticism.
Hundreds of undocumented migrants calling themselves "black vests" stormed the Pantheon monument
in central Paris on Friday demanding the right to remain in France.
Iran called on Britain on Friday to immediately release an oil tanker that British Royal Marines
seized last week on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria,
a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency IRNA.
The leader of the Spanish region of Catalonia, Quim Torra, will be tried for disobedience after he failed
to obey an order to remove separatist propaganda from public offices during election campaigning,
the regional court said on Friday.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has reduced its forces in Syria as fighting died down though it still has
fighters all over the country, its leader said on Friday.
An Italian court ruled on Friday that an Eritrean man extradited from Sudan in 2016
was the victim of mistaken identity and dismissed allegations that he was a ruthless, human-trafficking kingpin.
Colombia is working to halt scores of slayings of community leaders by criminal groups and remnant
bands of rebels following the country's historic 2016 peace deal, President Ivan Duque said on Friday,
during a visit from the UN Security Council.
More bodies were found from a ship packed with migrants that sank off the Tunisian coast last week,
bringing the official death toll to 72 in a disaster feared to have killed more than 80 people,
the Tunisian Red Crescent said on Friday.
A car bomb went off on Friday at a hotel in Somalia's port city of Kismayu where local elders and
lawmakers had been discussing an upcoming regional election and was followed by gunfire, police said,
adding that the death toll could be high.
China's top representative in Hong Kong said on Thursday the central government in Beijing
maintained its support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who is grappling with the city's greatest
political crisis since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Thousands of people in Hong Kong laid sunflowers and white lilies at a memorial site on
Thursday for a man who fell to his death during protests against an extradition bill
that has plunged the former British colony into turmoil.
Air strikes targeted rebel-held cities in northwest Syria on Friday, a war monitor reported,
widening bombardment of the last major insurgent enclave to areas that had mostly escaped it.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday offered good wishes to Britain's former ambassador to Washington,
Kim Darroch, who resigned this week after stinging criticism from the Republican president
following leaked diplomatic cables.
Portugal's ruling Socialists extended their lead over the opposition in an opinion poll released on Friday
three months before a parliamentary vote, putting them closer to winning a majority after years of solid,
if slowing, economic growth.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said she will leave her job this month with a mixture of pride
and disappointment after failing in her central pledge to lead the country out of the European Union
and heal its divisions.
A senior adviser to Brazilian Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias is being investigated over his management
of a public contract five years ago, according to two people familiar with the matter and documents from an internal
ministry probe seen by Reuters.
Does Merkel travel too much?" asked mass-selling daily Bild on Friday as Germans fret about the health
of their chancellor, who sat rather than stood at a ceremony on Thursday after shaking for the third
time in as many weeks when standing a day earlier.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that the nomination of his son Eduardo to be ambassador
to the United States was not an act of nepotism and that he would not make the appointment if it were.
President Emmanuel Macron will unveil on Friday France's latest nuclear-powered 'Barracuda' class submarine,
a 9 billion euro ($10.13 billion) stealth vessel program Paris says is key to maintaining its naval presence
for decades to come.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took a swipe at Iceland on Friday for spearheading a U.N.
resolution to investigate his bloody war on drugs, saying it was a nation made entirely of ice,
with no understanding of his country's problems.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted a wedding party in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday,
killing at least five people and injuring 40, local officials said.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in the United States on Thursday on a trip that has angered Beijing,
warning that democracy must be defended and that the island faced threats from "overseas forces,"
in a veiled reference to China.
Kim Jong Un has been formally named head of state of North Korea and commander-in-chief of
the military in a new constitution observers said was possibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty
with the United States.
Shipping companies sailing through the Middle East Gulf are being urged to avoid having private
armed security guards onboard as the risk of escalation in the region rises, industry associations say.
Britain said on Friday it would deploy the destroyer HMS Duncan warship to the Gulf to replace HMS Montrose,
maintaining a continuous presence there during a time of heightened tension in the region.
Singapore has cautioned wealth managers against aggressively marketing their services or making other
efforts to woo clients to the city state by capitalizing on rival Hong Kong's political turmoil, people with
knowledge of the matter said.
Greece will follow the European Union's line and recognize Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido,
the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in an about-face after the new conservative government took power.
Talks between Venezuela's government and the opposition will continue, the Norwegian and Venezuelan
governments said on Thursday, after a Socialist Party leader announced the end of a round
of Oslo-backed talks to end a political crisis.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales will travel to Washington next week to discuss migration,
while five former senior officials went to court to block an agreement Morales may sign declaring
the Central American country a safe destination for asylum seekers.
A comedian and entrepreneur, 29-year-old Roman Hryshchuk had only been in politics for a few weeks
when he found himself in front of a semicircle of voters in a park in western Kiev,
fielding questions from a testy audience.
Ukraine's comedian president invites citizens to run in July Poll.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted the importance of democratic institutions in the
Dominican Republic with President Danilo Medina, according to a statement released Thursday,
ahead of the Caribbean nation's 2020 election.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday he had invited his son Eduardo to become ambassador
to the United States, underscoring his family's influential role in the country's diplomacy and domestic politics.
Tourism to Cuba will likely drop 8.5% this year in the wake of tighter U.S. restrictions on travel
to the Caribbean island, the government said on Thursday, and the decline in arrivals will further
hurt Cuba's already ailing centrally planned economy.
U.S. President Donald Trump will welcome Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
to the White House on July 18, a White House spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The United States has decided not to impose sanctions on Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for now, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday,
in a sign Washington may be holding a door open for diplomacy.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera signed into law on Thursday a bill to remove the statute
of limitations on sex crimes involving children amid a sex abuse crisis that has rocked
the country's Catholic Church and claimed more than 200 victims.
Detectives investigating the double homicide of a pregnant woman and her baby arrested a 25-year old
male on suspicion of murder, Britain's Metropolitan police said on Thursday.
Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday he was not planning to call a new election
and would keep pursuing a deal to form government despite stalling inter-party talks ahead of a parliamentary
vote on his investiture on July 22-23.
Spain's socialist government has claimed ownership of Francisco Franco's summer palace in Galicia
in its latest clash with the former dictator's descendents, who have challenged a plan to exhume
his remains from a state mausoleum outside Madrid.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy held their first telephone
conversation on Thursday and discussed settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the return of prisoners,
the Kremlin said.
President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran on Wednesday,
the White House said, the same day the U.S. president threatened to "substantially" increase sanctions on
Tehran to curb its nuclear activities.
The German captain of a migrant rescue ship will ask magistrates to block Italian Interior Minister Matteo
Salvini's social media accounts because he has used them to spread hate, her lawyer said on Thursday.
Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot an operative of Islamist group Hamas on Thursday who had been trying t
o stop Palestinians approaching the Israel-Gaza border, the Israeli military said.
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