Czech lawmakers give initial backing to $7 billion budget savings package

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech parliament’s lower house gave initial backing on Friday to the centre-right government’s package of spending cuts and tax hikes aimed at cutting the budget deficit in the next two years. The country’s public sector deficit has soared in recent years amid spending during the coronavirus pandemic, subsidies to shield the…

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Kevin Spacey tells London court sexual assault accusation is ‘absolute bollocks’

By Sam Tobin LONDON (Reuters) -Kevin Spacey described an allegation he grabbed a man’s crotch as “absolute bollocks” on Friday, in combative exchanges with prosecutors at the Oscar-winning actor’s sexual assault trial. Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty at London’s Southwark Crown Court to 12 charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against four men in…

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Cuba vows to take part ‘very constructively’ in EU summit with Latin America, Caribbean

By Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira LISBON (Reuters) – Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel promised on Friday his country would take part “very constructively” in a European Union summit next week with Latin America and the Caribbean, just days after the EU’s parliament called for sanctions against him. Diaz-Canel met his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de…

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Erdogan says he is in agreement with Putin that grain deal should be extended

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he is in agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain should be extended. Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that the deal will hopefully be extended from its current July 17 deadline as results of…

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Russia’s Putin snubs Prigozhin, Biden jokes about poison

By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Wagner mercenaries the opportunity to keep fighting at a meeting just days after their failed mutiny but suggested Yevgeny Prigozhin be moved aside in favour of a different commander, the Kommersant newspaper said. Putin initially said he would crush the June 23-24 mutiny, comparing it…

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Russia says West is sponsoring ‘nuclear terrorism’ after Ukrainian drone strike

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia accused the West on Friday of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the ill-fated Chernobyl plant is located. Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region which borders Ukraine, said…

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In rare UN appearance, North Korea defends missile launch

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was an exercise of its right to self-defense “to deter dangerous military moves of hostile forces and safeguard the security of our state,” the country’s U.N. envoy told the Security Council on Thursday during a rare appearance. The 15-member Security…

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World Court backs Colombia in maritime border dispute with Nicaragua

(This July 13 story has been refiled to change the pronoun used to quote the judge, to she, from he, in paragraph 3) AMSTERDAM/BOGOTA (Reuters) – The World Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by Nicaragua seeking to define and expand its deep sea economic rights beyond those previously established in a long-running maritime border…

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Pennsylvania next on Republican 2024 US Senate campaign wish-list

By David Morgan and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. Senate Republicans are moving to try to line up high-quality candidates for next year’s elections after untested candidates with fringe views cost them seats in 2022, with Pennsylvania next on their wish list. Senator Steve Daines, who chairs the Senate Republican campaign arm, already…

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