UKRAINE BATTLE EXPANDS AS KYIV LAUNCHES A COUNTEROFFENSIVE; RUSSIA STORMS KEY CITY IN EASTERN UKRAINE

Ukrainian soldiers, seeking to spread Russian forces thin, launched a counteroffensive on Sunday in Kherson, the key southern city that Moscow considered so securely under its thumb that it had introduced the ruble.

Ukraine’s push in Kherson came as its forces were desperately battling to hold off Russia’s efforts to conquer and cut off a strategic strip of Eastern Ukraine that is central to Moscow’s struggling war effort, and it had the effect of expanding the battlefield.

Russian and Ukrainian troops engaged in close-quarter combat in an eastern Ukraine city on Sunday as Moscow’s soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain strategic footholds for conquering the region in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Ukrainian regional officials reported Russian forces “storming” Sievierodonetsk after trying unsuccessfully to encircle the city. The fighting knocked out power and mobile phone service, and a humanitarian relief centre could not operate because of the danger, the Mayor said.

Sievierodonetsk, located about 143 kilometres south of the Russian border, has emerged in recent days as the epicentre of Moscow’s quest to capture all of Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region. Russia also stepped up its efforts to take nearby Lysychansk, where civilians rushed to escape persistent shelling.

The two eastern cities span the strategically-important Siverskiy Donetsk river. They are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, which makes up the Donbas together with neighbouring Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a rare frontline visit to the city of Kharkiv as he sought to assert the strength of Ukraine’s position there. Ukrainian fighters pushed Russian forces back from positions near the city, Ukraine’s second-largest, several weeks ago.

In the wider Kharkiv region, Russian troops still held about 30% of the territory, while Kyiv’s troops had recaptured another 5%, the Governor said. However, Mr. Zelensky acknowledged that the battle for the east is “indescribably difficult”.

ISRAELI PREZ SAYS HE RECENTLY MET ADELEGATION OF PAK-AMERICANS

Israel President Isaac Herzog has said that he recently received a delegation of Pakistani-Americans, calling it an "amazing experience" and referring to it as an example that showed him "great change" vis-a-vis Israel's ties with the Muslim world.

Herzog delivered these remarks during a special address at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on May 26 in Davos, Switzerland, while talking about the Abraham Accords — a deal brokered by the United States in 2020 which saw normalisation of relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

"I'll tell you, you know, we are seeing it in all levels of life. Not speaking about just mere visits. We are seeing interest on all economic, scientific, innovation levels but I will tell you more about the personal feelings," the president replied.

Herzog said that he had received two delegations last week which showed "the great change".

"One was a delegation of young opinion-makers from Morocco who have aligned on Facebook with an Israeli [group].

The next day, Herzog said, he received a delegation of Pakistani expats who lived in the US "together with other members of other countries in their region".

"And I must say this was an amazing experience. We haven't had a group of Pakistani leaders in Israel in such scope.

Sharaka — an Israeli non-government organisation (NGO) — had organised a visit of a Pakistan-American delegation to "promote peace in the Middle East".

Meanwhile, PTI leader Shireen Mazari construed the Israeli leader's comments as "another commitment made to US under regime change conspiracy by imported government and other co-conspirators fulfilled!"

"Shameful subservience!" she said on Twitter.

PTI's Imran Ismail said that all those who had called party chairman Imran Khan a "Jewish agent" their entire lives were now proven to be "certified Jewish agents and slaves".

The pride of the nation is being auctioned off due to this shameful slavery, he said.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office "categorically rejected" the notion of any delegation from Pakistan visiting Israel.

FLIGHT WITH 22 PASSENGERS GOES MISSING AFTER TAKE-OFF IN NEPAL

The fate of 22 people, including four members of an Indian family, on board a Nepali airlines flight remained unclear as bad weather and blankets of clouds made it difficult to locate the aircraft that went missing on Sunday in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara, officials said.

The condition of the plane belonging to Tara Air that took off at 10.15 a.m. from Pokhara, 200 km east of Kathmandu, is unknown till now, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said in a statement.

The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane had four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepalese passengers, besides a three-member Nepalese crew, said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson at the airlines.

The plane was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal.

SRI LANKA POLICE TEAR-GAS STUDENTS IN FRESH CLASHES

The police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of students trying to storm the Sri Lankan President’s home on Sunday as the government offered an olive branch to demonstrators demanding his resignation.

Anti-riot squads used water cannon followed by tear gas, as protesters pulled down yellow iron barricades across a road leading to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence in Colombo.

Nearby, thousands of men and women demonstrated for the 51st straight day outside Mr. Rajapaksa’s seafront office on Sunday, demanding that he step down over the country’s worst economic crisis since Independence.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe went on national television on Sunday evening offering young protesters a greater say in how the country is administered.

“The youth are calling for a change in the existing system,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said, laying out plans for 15 committees that would work with Parliament to decide national policies.

“I propose to appoint four youth representatives to each of the 15 committees,” he said, adding that they could be drawn from the current protesters.

‘IMRAN REACHED OUT TO ZARDARI FOR PATCH UP AHEAD OF NO-TRUST VOTE’

Islamabad : Aleaked audio recording of an alleged phone conversation between former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain has surfaced, in which Riaz was heard as saying that ousted PM Imran Khan wanted to reach out to Zardari for a reconciliation, ahead of the no-trust vote last month, media reported. The 32-second recording comes days after Khan abruptly ended his antigovernment sit-in. In the purported conversation, the date of which can’t be ascertained, Riaz can be heard telling Zardari that Khan was sending him messages, Dawn reported on Sunday. “Today, he (Imran Khan) has sent too many messages,” the voice believed to be of Riaz told Zardari, who in response says: “It is impossible now. ” While PTI dismissed the audio as “fake,” members of Zardari’s party, Pakistan Peoples Party said it “seemed genuine,” the report said.

2 FROM INDIA AMONG 21 NEW CARDINALS NAMED BY POPE

Pope Francis announced on Sunday that he would appoint 21 new cardinals in August, including two from India, again putting his stamp on the future of Catholicism.

The two cardinals to be appointed from India are the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão, and the Archbishop of Hyderabad, Anthony Poola.

Of the 21, 16 are cardinal electors younger than 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect his successor. After the August 27 ceremony to officially install them, known as a consistory, Pope Francis will have appointed about 83 of the some 133 electors, increasing the possibility his successor will be a man reflecting his position on key issues.

The new electors include Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, an Italian who is currently the Catholic Church’s administrator in Mongolia. The country borders with China, where the Vatican is trying to improve the situation for Catholics. The other cardinal electors come from France, Nigeria, Brazil, India, the United States, East Timor, Italy, Ghana, Singapore, and Paraguay.

Once again, Pope Francis passed over archbishops of major cities, preferring to appoint men in far-flung places where the Church is small or growing

BRITAIN MAY BRING BACK IMPERIAL MEASUREMENTS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce a return to imperial measurements of pounds and ounces as a post-Brexit move away from the European metric system to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next week, according to media reports.

“As the British people have been happy to use both imperial and metric measurements in their daily life it is good for the government to reflect that now we are free to change our regulations accordingly,” The Mirror newspaper quoted a Cabinet source as saying.

At present, shopkeepers are legally obliged to use metric measurements such as kilograms and litres when selling packaged or loose goods in England, Scotland and Wales. While it is still legal to price goods in pounds and ounces, these have to be displayed alongside the price in metric units.

Under the post-Brexit move, metric units are not expected to be scrapped entirely, but shopkeepers are expected to be free to choose which they use.

UK COMPANIES ARE LATEST TO TRIAL 4-DAY WORK WEEK

Louis Bloomsfield inspects the kegs of beer at his brewery in London, eagerly awaiting June, when he will get an extra day off every week. The 36-year-old brewer plans to use the time to get involved in charity work, start a long-overdue course in particle physics, and spend more time with family.

He and colleagues at the Pressure Drop brewery are taking part in a six-month trial of afour-day working week, with 3,000 others from 60 UK companies. The pilot — touted as the

world’s biggest so far — aims to help firms shorten their working hours without cutting salaries or sacrificing revenues.

Similar trials have also taken place in Spain, Iceland, the US and Canada. Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to start theirs in August. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a programme manager at 4 Day Week Global, the campaign group behind the trial, said it’ll give firms “more time” to work through challenges, experiment with new practices and gather data. Pres- sure Dropis hoping the experiment will not only improve their staffers’ productivity but also their well-being. It will also reduce their carbon footprint. The Royal Society of Biology, another participant in the trial, says it wants to give employees “more autonomy over their time and working patterns”.

Both hope a shorter working week could help them retain employees, at a time when UK businesses are confronted with staff shortages, and job vacancies hitting a record 1. 3 million.