RUSSIAN MISSILE STRIKE HITS CROWDED SHOPPING MALL IN UKRAINE

Russian long-range bombers struck a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk with a missile on Monday, raising fears of what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an “unimaginable” number of victims in “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.”

Zelenskky said that many of the more than 1,000 afternoon shoppers and staff inside the mall managed to escape. Giant plumes of black smoke, dust and orange flames emanated from the wreckage, with emergency crews rushing in to search broken metal and concrete for victims and put out fires. Onlookers watched in distress at the sight of how an everyday activity such as shopping could turn into a horror.

The casualty figures were changing as rescuers searched the smoldering rubble into early Tuesday. Ukraine’s emergency services reported late Monday that at least 16 people were dead and about 60 wounded.

Soldiers worked into the night to lug sheets of twisted metal and broken concrete, as one drilled into what remained of the shopping center’s roof. Drones whirred above, clouds of dark smoke still emanating from the ruins several hours after the fire had been put out.

At Ukraine’s request, the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss the attack.

The missile strike unfolded as Western leaders pledged continued support for Ukraine, and the world’s major economies prepared new sanctions against Russia, including a price cap on oil and higher tariffs on goods. Meanwhile, the U.S. appeared ready to respond to Zelenskyy’s call for more air defense systems, and NATO planned to increase the size of its rapid-reaction forces nearly eightfold — to 300,000 troops.

Zelenskyy said the mall presented “no threat to the Russian army” and had “no strategic value.” He accused Russia of sabotaging “people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry.”

INDIA JOINS G7, 4 OTHERS TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH, ‘ONLINE AND OFFLINE’

India, along with G7 countries and four invited countries, Monday signed the ‘2022 Resilient Democracies Statement’ in which they committed to “guarding the freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors” and “protecting the freedom of expression and opinion online and offline”.

A four-page statement, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the G-7 summit in Germany, said, “We, the Leaders of Germany, Argentina, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Senegal, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union, affirm our commitment to strengthening the resilience of our democracies.”

“We hail all courageous defenders of democratic systems that stand against oppression and violence, and will step up international cooperation to improve the resilience of democratic societies globally,” it stated.

The signatories said that democracies enable “open public debate, independent and pluralistic media” and the “free flow of information online and offline”, fostering legitimacy, transparency, responsibility and accountability for citizens and elected representatives alike.

RUSSIA DEFAULTS FOR 1ST TIME IN A CENTURY; CLAIMS PAYMENT DONE, BLOCKED BY SANCTIONS

Russia defaulted on its international bonds for the first time in more than a century, the White House said, as sweeping sanctions have effectively cut the country off from the global financial system, rendering its assets untouchable. The Kremlin, which has the money to make payments thanks to oil and gas revenues, swiftly rejected the claims, and has accused the West of driving it into an artificial default. Earlier, some bondholders said they had not received overdue interest on Monday following the expiry of a key payment deadline on Sunday. Russia has struggled to keep up payments on $40 billion of outstanding bonds since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

“This morning’s news around the finding of Russia’s default, for the first time in more than a century, situates just how strong the actions are that the US, along with allies and partners have taken, as well as how dramatic the impact has been on Russia’s economy,” the US official said on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Germany.

Russia’s efforts to avoid what would be its first major default on international bonds since the Bolshevik revolution more than a century ago hit a roadblock in late May when the US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) effectively blocked Moscow from making payments.

Aformal default would be largely symbolic given Russia cannot borrow internationally at the moment and doesn’t need to thanks to plentiful oil and gas export revenues. But the stigma would probably raise its borrowing costs in future. The payments in question are $100 million in interest on two bonds, one denominated in US dollars and another in euros, that Russia was due to pay on May 27. The payments had a grace period of 30 days, which expired on Sunday. Russia’s finance ministry said it made the payments to its onshore National Settlement Depository in euros and dollars, adding it had fulfilled obligations. In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the fact that payments had been blocked by Euroclear because of Western sanctions on Russia was “not our problem”. Clearing house Euroclear did not immediately comment. Some Taiwanese holders of the bonds had not received payments on Monday, sourcessaid.

LANKA TO OPERATE ONLY ESSENTIAL SERVICES TILL JULY 10 AMID FUEL CRISIS

The Sri Lankan Government on Monday announced that only essential services would operate from midnight till July 10 and all other operations would be temporarily suspended as the crisis-hit nation faces acute fuel shortage.

The move came days after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday said the debt-laden economy of the island nation had “collapsed” after months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity, and cannot even purchase imported oil.

Sri Lanka's Cabinet of Minister decided that only essential services would operate from Monday midnight to July 10.

The state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) will issue diesel and petrol only for essential services with effect from midnight, it said.

These services include ports, airports, health, food distribution and agriculture, the report said, quoting transport minister Gunawardena. “All other sectors must prepare for work from home,” he said, urging the public to support the government's move to limit the consumption of fuel.

U.K. PRESSES ON WITH BREXIT RULES REWRITE

Britain is ramping up a feud with the European Union by pressing on with a plan to rip up parts of the post-Brexit trade deal it signed with the bloc.

Legislation that rewrites trade rules for Northern Ireland is scheduled to get its first major House of Commons debate on Monday, the first step on what could be a rocky journey through Parliament.

The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, would remove checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., thereby scrapping parts of a trade treaty that Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed before Britain left the EU in 2020.

Mr. Johnson said he thought the plan could be approved “fairly rapidly” if Parliament cooperates, and that the measures could become law by the end of the year.

“What we are trying to do is fix something that I think is very important to our country, which is the balance of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement,” Mr. Johnson told reporters at the Group of Seven summit in Germany.

46 MIGRANTS FOUND DEAD IN TRUCK IN US

Authorities found 46 migrants dead inside a tractor-trailer on Monday in San Antonio, Texas, the city's fire department said, in what appears to be one of the most deadly recent incidents of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border.

The San Antonio Fire Department said 16 other people found inside the trailer were transported to the hospital for heat stroke and exhaustion, including four minors. Officials also said three people were in custody following the incident.

The truck was found next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city's southern outskirts.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard called the suffocation of the migrants in the truck the "tragedy in Texas" on Twitter and said the local consulate was en route to the scene, though the nationalities of the victims had not been confirmed.

There have been a record number of migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border in recent months, which has sparked criticisms of the immigration policies of US President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Temperatures in San Antonio, which is about 160 miles (250 km) from the Mexican border, swelled to a high of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) on Monday with high humidity.

TOKYO WARNED OF POWER CRUNCH AS JAPAN ENDURES HEATWAVE

The Japanese government warned of possible power shortages on Monday in the Tokyo region, asking people to conserve energy as the country endures an unusually intense heatwave.

Weather officials have announced the earliest end to the annual summer rainy season since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1951. The rains usually temper summer heat, often well into July.

The economy and industry ministry urged people living in the region serviced by the Tokyo Electric Power Company to conserve power in the afternoon, especially when demand peaks at 4-5 p.m.

Kaname Ogawa, director of electricity supply policy at the ministry, said electricity demand on Monday was bigger than expected because the temperature is higher than Sunday's forecast.

The Japanese archipelago has seen record high temperatures for June in some areas. In Isezaki, north of Tokyo, the temperature rose to 40.2 Centigrade (104.4 Fahrenheit) on Saturday, the highest ever for June.

Power supply is relatively tight after Japan idled most of its nuclear reactors after 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima. It also has been closing down old coal plants to meet promises for reducing carbon emissions.

Japan also faces a potential shortage of fossil fuel imports amid sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.