UKRAINE RULES OUT CEASEFIRE OR ANY TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS TO RUSSIA

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate, Kyiv has refused to agree to a ceasefire deal with Moscow that involves giving up territory. As per the latest report from ground zero, Russia has increased the attacks in the eastern and southern parts of the country. It has been understood that Russia is pounding the Donbas and Mykolaiv regions with airstrikes and artillery fire.

Andriy Yermak, who is Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, said in a Twitter post on Sunday: "The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Recently, on Saturday, Mykhailo Podolyak who is Ukraine's lead negotiator and Zelensky adviser also ruled out any territorial concessions.

Rejecting immediate ceasefire calls, Podolyak said, "The (Russian) forces must leave the country and after that the resumption of the peace process will be possible."

In an interview with the news agency Reuters, Podolyak noted that the concessions would backfire because Russia would use the break in fighting to come back stronger.

On Sunday, Polish President Andrzej Duda told telling lawmakers in Kyiv that there should be global calls for Russia's complete withdrawal from Ukraine.

He noted that sacrificing any territory would be a "huge blow" to the entire West. "Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to (President Vladimir) Putin's demands," Duda said.

He added, "Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future." He was addressing the Ukrainian parliament, becoming the first foreign leader to do so in person since Russia's February 24 invasion.

Recently, immediate ceasefire calls were made by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

QUAD MEETING FACES CRITICISM FROM CHINA

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting of the India, U.S., Australia and Japan Quad grouping in Tokyo, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has hit out at the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and accused Washington of trying to sow discord in the region.

Speaking to reporters following talks on Sunday with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, Mr. Wang said the strategy was “concocted by the United States under the banner of ‘freedom and openness’” and Washington was “keen to gang up with ‘small circles’ and change China’s neighbourhood environment.”

Mr. Wang also took aim at the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) set to be unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden in Tokyo on Monday. Mr. Wang asked if the framework was “a political tool for the U.S. to maintain regional economic hegemony and deliberately exclude specific countries”. “Is the U.S. politicising, weaponising, and ideologising economic issues and using economic means to coerce regional countries to choose sides between China and the U.S.?” he said to reporters, adding that “attempts to create camps, a NATO or Cold War in the Asia-Pacific will not succeed.”

MONKEYPOX SPREADING IN UK THROUGH COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION, WITH NEW CASES IDENTIFIED 'DAILY', SAYS SENIOR DOCTOR

Monkeypox is spreading in the UK through community transmission and new cases are being detected on a daily basis, a senior doctor has warned.

Officials are expecting a "significant rise" in infections this week after it was confirmed the total had increased to 20 on Friday.

The cause of the outbreak is unknown and there is "no obvious connection" between those infected to a single event, according to Dr Susan Hopkins, from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Monkeypox is rarely identified outside of Africa, but 92 cases have now been confirmed across Europe, North America and Australia, with a further 28 suspected infections, according to the World Health Organization.

US President Joe Biden has said the outbreak is "a concern", with Israel and Switzerland recording their first cases this weekend and Austria registering its first suspected infection on Sunday.

Belgium has reportedly introduced a 21-day quarantine for those who contract monkeypox after four infections were recorded in the country.

The disease, which was first found in monkeys, can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact - including sexual intercourse - and is caused by the monkeypox virus.

Dr Hopkins, a chief medical adviser at the UKHSA, said there was community transmission of monkeypox "largely centred in urban areas", adding: "We are predominantly seeing it in individuals who self-identify as gay or bisexual, or other men who have sex with men.

The latest number of UK infections will be revealed on Monday.

AUSTRALIA'S NEW PM ANTHONY ALBANESE HEADS TO TOKYO WITH CLIMATE MESSAGE

Australia's new prime minister Anthony Albanese took office Monday, hours before flying to a Tokyo summit with a "message to the world" that his country is ready to engage on climate change.

The 59-year-old Labor Party leader told reporters he wants to "bring people with us on the journey of change" before he took the oath of office in a brief, publicly televised ceremony at Government House in Canberra.

In a hurried post-election schedule, he was flying out a few hours later to join a summit Tuesday with the US, Japanese and Indian leaders, known as the Quad.

Albanese said at the weekend that the Tokyo summit was "an absolute priority" for Australia and an opportunity "to send a message to the world".

He said partners overseas can expect wholesale changes "particularly with regard to climate change and our engagement with the world on those issues".

The new leader says he wants to transform his country, too.

Shortly before being sworn in, "Albo" said he wanted to lead a government of "optimism and hope, that I think defines the Australian people".

IMF WARNS AGAINST GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRAGMENTATION FROM UKRAINE WAR

The International Monetary Fund warned against global economic fragmentation as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that undoing decades of integration will make the world poorer and more dangerous.

Nations should lower trade barriers to alleviate shortages and lower prices, after more than 30 countries restricted trade in food, energy and other key commodities, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

Georgieva made the comments in a blog post with Gita Gopinath, the fund’s first deputy managing director, and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the head of the strategy, policy and review department, ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

Countries should diversify imports to secure supply chains and reduce output losses from interruptions, they said. The Group of 20 biggest economies also should improve its common framework for dealing with debt restructuring to help deal with vulnerabilities, the officials wrote.

“The costs of further disintegration would be enormous across countries,” they said. “And people at every income level would be hurt -- from highly paid professionals and middle-income factory workers who export, to low-paid workers who depend on food imports to survive. More people will embark on perilous journeys to seek opportunity elsewhere.”

Cross-border payment systems should be modernized, with countries working together to create a public digital platform for handling remittances to reduce cost and improve safety, the IMF officials wrote. And nations must collaborate to confront climate change, they said.

COLONEL IN IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD ASSASSINATED

A colonel in the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been shot dead in a rare assassination in Tehran.

Two gunman on a motorbike are reported to have shot Colonel Sayad Khodai five times in a car outside his home.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, and a manhunt is under way for the gunmen.

It is the biggest security breach in Iran since 2020 when a leading nuclear scientist was killed, the BBC's Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher says.

Images from the scene show a bloodied man slumped over in a car with his seatbelt still on.

Colonel Khodai was a senior member of the elite Quds Force, a shadowy external arm of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that carries out operations abroad. The United States accuses the force of supporting terrorist organisations and being responsible for attacks across the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the colonel was assassinated by "sworn enemies" of Iran who are "the terrorist agents affiliated with the global arrogance" - a reference to the US and its allies - and said other countries that "claim to be fighting terrorism are regrettably silent and support it".

In 2020, Iran's most powerful military commander, Gen Qasem Soleimani, was killed by a US air strike in Iraq. He spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East as head of the Quds Force, and his death marked a major escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran.

WOMEN TV PRESENTERS COVER FACES IN KABUL

Women television presenters on Afghanistan’s leading news channels on Sunday vowed to speak up for their rights after being forced by Taliban authorities to cover their faces on air.

This month Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to cover up fully in public, including their faces, ideally with the traditional burqa.

The feared Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered women television presenters to follow suit.

After defying the order a day earlier, presenters on Sunday wore full hijabs and veils across leading channels including TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.

TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai said the channel had been compelled to follow the order. “I was called on the telephone yesterday and was told in strict words to do it. So, it is not by choice but by force,” Mr. Sapai said.

Women presenters were previously only required to wear a headscarf.

MILLIONS MAROONED IN BANGLADESH AFTER FLOODS

North-east Bangladesh’s worst floods in nearly 20 years began receding on Sunday, but rescue workers were struggling to help millions marooned by extreme weather across the region that has killed around 10 persons.

Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in low-lying Bangladesh, but many experts say that climate change is increasing the frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.

In the past week after heavy rains in India, floodwater breached a major embankment in Bangladesh’s Sylhet region, affecting around two million people, swamping dozens of villages and killing at least 10 persons.

Arifuzzman Bhuiyan, head of the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, told AFP that the floods had hit some 70% of Sylhet district and about 60% of neighbouring Sunamganj.

“It is one of the worst floods in the region,” he said.

But he said the situation would improve further in the next few days after heavy rains stopped.

The police said that a scuffle broke out in the rural town of Companiganj on Saturday as authorities stepped up relief operations for the roughly two million people hit.