MOSCOW, 31 January 2022, (TON): Moscow’s campaign against Ukraine and fellow democracies is undermining the very foundation of European security. And so, it is vital we face down the clear and present threat posed by Russia.

The Prime Minister will spearhead diplomatic efforts by talking to President Putin and travelling to the region in the coming days.

Tomorrow, the UK will join talks at the UN Security Council to apply pressure on Russia to pursue the path of diplomacy.

I will be flying out to Moscow within the next fortnight.

The stakes are high. Over 100,000 troops are now massed on Ukraine’s border. Russia has attacked Ukraine before, illegally annexing Crimea in 2014 and bringing war to the Donbas region, so the danger is real.

This malign activity goes beyond the borders of Ukraine. Russia is using its influence to fan the flames of discord in the Western Balkans. Russian forces are continuing to arrive in Belarus for a so-called “joint exercise” close to NATO’s borders.

In recent days, Russia has intensified its brinkmanship by planning naval exercises off the Irish coast and increasing its naval presence in the Baltic Sea, prompting Sweden to send troops to reinforce one of its islands.

SEOUL, 31 January 2022, (TON): North Korea tested its most powerful missile since 2017, ramping up the firepower for its record-breaking seventh launch this month as Seoul warned nuclear and long-range tests could be next.

Pyongyang has never test-fired this many missiles in a calendar month before and last week threatened to abandon a nearly five-year-long self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range and nuclear weapons, blaming US hostile policy for forcing its hand.

With peace talks with Washington stalled, North Korea has doubled-down on leader Kim Jong Un’s vow to modernise the regime’s armed forces, flexing Pyongyang’s military muscles despite biting international sanctions.

South Korea said that North Korea appeared to be following a “similar pattern” to 2017 when tensions were last at breaking-point on the peninsula warning Pyongyang could soon restart nuclear and intercontinental missile tests.

North Korea “has come close to destroying the moratorium declaration”, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in a statement following an emergency meeting of Seoul’s National Security Council.

South Korea’s military said Sunday it had “detected an intermediate-range ballistic missile fired at a lofted angle eastward towards the East Sea.”

RIYADH, 31 January 2022, (TON): The Saudi Press Agency reported “the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center on Sunday signed a $8 million deal with the World Health Organization to improve children’s health in Yemen.”

The cooperation agreement aims to enhance services and basic nutritional intervention to reduce mortality rates in a sustainable way.

KSrelief supervisor general, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, and WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, signed the deal.

Under the agreement, healthcare will be enhanced to limit death rates among children under the age of five.

Al-Mandhari thanked KSrelief for its continuous support to serve humanity and alleviate the suffering of people.

WASHINGTON DC, 31 January 2022, (TON): Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said “the US administration sees signs of Russian interest in dialogue over Washington’s responses to its European security guarantee proposal.”

Nuland said on CBS “as you know, we sent our diplomatic proposals to Russia. NATO took a similar step this week. And we saw some signs that Russia is interested in contacts on these proposals.”

As a senior US diplomat noted, one sign of such interest from Moscow is the fact that “Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are likely to have a conversation in the coming week.”

At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security assurances.

Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further eastward expansion of NATO, joining the Ukrainian bloc, and establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries.

ATHENS, 31 January 2022, (TON): Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will travel to Ukraine to meet with representatives of the Greek diaspora, as well as the OSCE.

This is stated in a message released on Sunday by the press service of the Greek Foreign Ministry.

According to her “Dendias will come to the village of Sartana and the city of Mariupol to hold meetings with representatives of ethnic Greeks and local officials.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs during his stay in Sartana will lay a wreath at the monument to the fallen inhabitants of Sartana in 2014. He will visit the 8th school of special study of the modern Greek language. It is expected that the event will be attended, in particular, by the chairman of the military-political department and the Greeks from Sartana and [village] Chermalyk.

The message says “in addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will visit the Museum of the History and Ethnography of the Greeks of the Sea of Azov.”

CHICAGO, 31 January 2022, (TON): A US federal court has blocked the state of Texas from enforcing its anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions law against a Palestinian-American contractor who refused to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel.

Rasmy Hassouna, owner of A&R Engineering and Testing, filed the lawsuit in November challenging a Texas law that bars government entities from doing business with companies taking part in the so-called BDS movement against Israel.

US District Court judge Andrew Hanen on Friday issued an injunction prohibiting Texas from enforcing a law that punishes contractors who refuse to sign an affidavit saying that they will not boycott the government of Israel.

Hassouna’s refusal to sign the pledge put his engineering contracts with the city of Houston valued at $150,000 to $300,000 a year at risk.

However, Hanen concluded that Hassouna’s views are not calculated to undermine the economic interests of Texas or to pose a threat to its Jewish citizens.

Hassouna argued that he is not antisemitic but is focused only on the acts of the Israeli government.

PARIS, 31 January 2022, (TON): French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need to accelerate efforts to achieve progress in the Iranian nuclear talks, during a telephone call with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, aides said.

Macron’s call with Raisi came a day after the EU mediator said the latest negotiating round in Vienna had been put on pause while calling for political decisions to break the deadlock.

Diplomats have been meeting in the Austrian capital in the search for a breakthrough to revive the 2015 deal involving Iran, the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

The French presidency said in a statement “the president has reiterated his conviction that a diplomatic solution is possible and imperative and stressed that any agreement will require clear and sufficient commitment from all the parties.”

It said “several months after negotiations resumed in Vienna, (Macron) insisted on the need to accelerate in order to quickly achieve tangible progress in this context.”

LONDON, 31 January 2022, (TON): An MP has told media “British Home Secretary Priti Patel is misleading the British public by labeling migrant Channel crossings as illegal.”

In December last year, judges ruled that refugees who attempt to reach a British port or are rescued at sea have not committed a crime.

Lord Justice Edis said “as the law presently stands, an asylum seeker who merely attempts to arrive at the frontiers of the UK in order to make a claim is not entering or attempting to enter the country unlawfully.”

But following the case, Patel and other government figures have continued to describe the growing number of crossing attempts as illegal.

Scottish National Party MP Stuart McDonald, who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, said that Patel’s choice of words is “a misleading way of talking about the issue and totally mischaracterizes what is happening.”

He added “it is quite a deliberate attempt to dehumanize these people and make the public think worse of them.”

DHAKA, 31 January 2022, (TON): The Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh and the Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries.  

South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-Keun, during a recent meeting with Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman handed over the MoU cross-signed by his Korean counterpart, Minister Lim Heysook.

The South Korean Embassy in Dhaka said “upon agreement on the text, the MoU signed by Minister Yeafesh was sent to Korea in November last year through a diplomatic channel.”

It said “due to the pandemic situation, both sides could not hold a face-to-face signing ceremony.”

The MoU was concluded to strengthen the implementation of the agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the two governments signed in May 1995.

RIYADH, 31 January 2022, (TON): The United Arab Emirates said “it has intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Yemen's Houthi militia amid a first-ever visit by Israel’s president.”

The attack did not result in any losses as the shrapnel of the ballistic missile fell outside populated areas, the UAE Ministry of Defense said in a statement carried by WAM news agency.

The statement said “UAE air forces, together with the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, subsequently destroyed the missile launch site in Yemen's Al-Jawf governorate.”

The UAE defense ministry affirmed its "full readiness to deal with any threats."

Adding that it will "take all necessary measures to protect the UAE from any attacks."

The Houthi attack came hours after Israel’s President Isaac Herzog arrived in Abu Dhabi to seek stronger regional ties.