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Ukraine

WORLD leaders will seek to close ranks at back-to-back summits from today on offering emphatic support to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders as the relentless war puts international unity to the test.

In the face-to-face talks, the allies will take stock of the effectiveness of sanctions imposed against Russia, consider possible new military and financial aid for Ukraine, and look to longer-term reconstruction plans. But they will also be struggling to maintain a united front as the fallout from the war – from soaring inflation to looming food shortages to fears over energy supplies – tug at their resolve.

Ahead of the G7 summit, most industrialised nations will be hosted from today at the Bavarian mountain resort of Elmau Castle. After the G7 summit closes on Tuesday, the leaders will head to a gathering of Nato powers in Madrid.

| AFP

United Kingdom

BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservatives suffered two crushing parliamentary by-election defeats on Friday, including in a southwest English seat previously held by the party for more than a century.

The Tories lost the Tiverton and Honiton seat to the centrist Liberal Democrats while the main opposition Labour party took back the Wakefield constituency in northern England, in stunning twin results set to pile new pressure on Johnson.

The Conservatives had been tipped to lose both by-elections and Johnson vowed on Thursday – while in Rwanda for a Commonwealth summit – not to resign if that happened. |

Afghanistan

THE European Commission has announced €1 million (about R17m) in humanitarian funding to address the most urgent needs of affected Afghans in response to the earthquake that struck southern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Afghanistan does not have enough medical supplies to treat the injured from an earthquake that killed at least 1 000 people, a senior official said on Friday, as authorities ended the search for survivors in remote south-eastern mountains.

About 2 000 people were injured and at least 10 000 houses were partially or completely destroyed, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, a spokesperson for the disaster ministry, told Reuters.

The 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck about 160km south-east of Kabul near the Pakistani border. | ANI and Reuters

Hong Kong

MYSTERY over the fate of Hong Kong’s Jumbo Floating Restaurant has deepened after confusion over whether the tourist attraction had actually sunk after being towed away from the city.

Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises said the vessel had capsized on Sunday near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea after it “encountered adverse conditions” and began to take on water during a salvage operation.

While it maintained that the vessel had capsized, the company has not disputed media reports that it had sunk.

The restaurant closed in March 2020, citing the Covid-19 as the final straw after almost a decade of financial woes. |

IOL.CO.ZA