UK'S RISHI SUNAK, HEALTH MINISTER QUIT IN HUGE CRISIS FOR BORIS JOHNSON

Two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet ministers resigned on Tuesday, a move that could spell the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership after months of scandals.

Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned within minutes of each other after a day in which the prime minister was forced to acknowledge he had to change his story on the way he handled allegations of sexual misconduct by a senior member of his government.

“It is with enormous regret that I must tell you that I can no longer, in good conscience, continue serving in this government," Mr. Javid said in his resignation letter. “I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their government."

Mr. Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously.”

“I recognize this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

Mr. Johnson has been hit by allegations he failed to come clean about a lawmaker who was appointed to a senior position despite claims of sexual misconduct.

Mr. Johnson has faced pressure to explain what he knew about previous misconduct allegations against lawmaker Chris Pincher, who resigned as deputy chief whip Thursday amid complaints that he groped two men at a private club.

Minutes before the resignations of Javid and Sunak were announced, Mr. Johnson said Mr. Pincher should have been fired from the government after a previous 2019 incident.

Asked if it was an error to appoint Mr. Pincher to the government, Mr. Johnson: “I think it was a mistake and I apologize for it. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do."

Neither Mr Javid or Mr Sunak have publicly spoken since standing down, but their resignation letters on Tuesday were highly critical of the PM.

Opposition party leaders urged cabinet ministers to join the pair and resign, and Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was ready for a snap general election.

Mr Johnson - who is facing the most serious leadership crisis of his premiership so far - will come under further pressure later on Wednesday as he faces MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.

EURO HITS 20-YEAR LOW AGAINST DOLLAR AMID RECESSION FEARS

European stocks sank Tuesday along with oil prices, while the euro slumped towards parity with the dollar on deepening recession fears as central banks contend with soaring inflation.

European stock markets fell nearly three percent, weighing on Wall Street early in the day before US stocks staged a turnaround.

"Fears about the health of the world economy are circulating and that is why we are seeing major declines in stocks, energies, and industrial metals," said market analyst David Madden at Equiti Capital.

The euro sank to a 20-year dollar low of $1.0238 as investors eyed aggressive interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve in its fight against inflation, in contrast with the European Central Bank, seen as planning more modest increases.

The main international crude oil contract, Brent North Sea, fell nearly 10 percent, while the main US contract WTI, fell more than eight percent to finish under $100 per barrel for the first time in around two months.

"There are increasing worries the elevated energy prices will chip away at demand, hence the fall in the oil contracts," said Madden.

UKRAINIAN 2ND WOMAN TO WIN FIELDS MEDAL, ‘NOBEL PRIZE’ FOR MATHS

Helsinki : Ukraine’s Maryna Viazovska paid tribute to those suffering in her war-torn country on Tuesday as she became the second woman to be awarded the Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize for mathematics. Viazovska, a 37-yearold Kyiv-born math professor, received the prestigious award alongside three other winners at a ceremony in Helsinki. “My life changed forever” when Moscow invaded Ukraine in February, she said in a video displayed at the ceremony, adding that her sisters had been evacuated from Kyiv. “Right now Ukrainians are really paying highest price for our beliefs and our freedom,” she said.

The International Congress of Mathematicianswas initially scheduled to be held in Russian city Saint Petersburg — and opened by President Putin. Hundreds of mathematicians signed an open letter protesting the choice, and after Moscow invaded Ukraine the event was moved to the Finnish capital. The other Fields winners were France’s Hugo Duminil-Copin of the University of Geneva, Britain’s James Maynard of Oxford University and June Huh of Princeton in the US. The medal, along with $11,600, is awarded every four years to between two to four candidates under the age of 40 for “outstanding mathematical achievement”. Of the 60 mathematicians who won Fields Medals before this year, 59 were men. The only previous female laureate in the prize’s more than 80-year history was Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, who won it in 2014. “I feel sad that I’m only the second woman,” Viazovska said. “I hope it will change in the future. ”

In a decision made before the war in Ukraine began, Viazovska was awarded for her work in sphere packing — a problem first posed by German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler nearly 400 years ago.

SWEDEN, FINLAND SIGN PROTOCOL TO JOIN NATO, AWAIT RATIFICATION

NATO’s 30 allies signed an accession protocol for Finland and Sweden on Tuesday to allow them to join the nuclear-armed alliance once allied Parliaments ratify the decision, the most significant expansion of the alliance since the mid-1990s. Separately, the bloc’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said that NATO has no current plans to send troops to Sweden and Finland.

“We don’t plan to have an additional presence in either country, they have formidable national forces. They’re capable of defending themselves,” Mr. Geoana said in a telephone interview.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, alongside the Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden, said: “This is truly an historic moment”. “With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger,” he added.

The protocol means Helsinki and Stockholm can participate in NATO meetings and have greater access to intelligence but will not be protected by the NATO defence clause that an attack on one ally is an attack against all until ratification. That is likely to take up to a year.

“Thank you for your support! Now the process of ratification by each of the allies begins,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Twitter. “Look forward to working together in ensuring our collective security.”

SLOVIANSK IN DONBAS SEES ‘MASSIVE SHELLING’

Russian forces are pounding Sloviansk with “massive” shelling, its mayor said on Tuesday, as the eastern Ukrainian city becomes Moscow’s next target in its campaign in the Donbas region.

“Sloviansk! Massive shelling of the city. The centre, the north. Everyone, take shelter,” Vadim Lyakh wrote on Facebook.

Ukrainian authorities have on several occasions urged Sloviansk residents to leave the region as the frontline approaches the city following Russia’s capture of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the neighbouring region of Lugansk.

Russian bombardment has killed at least six persons and injured another 19 since Sunday in the city with a pre-war population of around 1,00,000.

Sloviansk and regional administrative centre Kramatorsk remain under Ukrainian control and are Russia’s next goals in its campaign to conquer the eastern Donbas region.

In 2014, pro-Moscow separatists briefly took control of Sloviansk in their conflict with the authorities in Kyiv.

CHINA BACKS PAK. IN OPPOSING G20 MEETINGS IN KASHMIR

China’s state media and officials have lent support to Pakistan’s opposition to India hosting any G20-related meetings in Jammu and Kashmir next year.

Those statements came even as the Chinese government has hailed the completion of its first major hydropower project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on the Jhelum river on the border of Punjab and the western part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), what Pakistan calls “AJK”. The dam was built by China Three Gorges Corporation.

“India’s objective in doing so is clearly to force the international community to recognise India’s control and even ‘sovereignty’ over Jammu Kashmir.... Involving Jammu Kashmir in such an important international conference could also be claimed as a diplomatic victory for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India and is supposed to bring a boost to its domestic support,” said a commentary on Tuesday in the Communist Party-run Global Times, by Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Holding G20-related meetings there — the main summit in 2023 is expected to be held in New Delhi — as well as the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 were “operations aimed at highlighting the nationalist identity of the BJP, as a representative of Hindu interests”, he said.

The remarks also bring to the fore an increasingly close China-Pakistan tandem — coinciding with CPEC projects in PoK — on Kashmir, an issue that Beijing had largely been reluctant to wade into over the past two decades.

SRI LANKA BANKRUPT, CRISIS MAY LAST UNTIL 2023: PM

Sri Lanka is bankrupt and the acute pain of its unprecedented economic crisis will linger until at least the end of next year, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament on Tuesday.

The island nation’s 22 million people have endured months of galloping inflation and lengthy power cuts after the government ran out of foreign currency to import vital goods.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said the once-prosperous country will go into deep recession this year and acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine will continue.

He said Sri Lanka’s ongoing bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund depended on finalising a debt restructuring plan with creditors by August.

“We are now participating in the negotiations as a bankrupt country,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said the IMF expects Sri Lanka’s economy to shrink by 7% this year, even worse than the dire forecasts issued by the country’s central bank.

The Prime Minister also said that inflation could climb above 60%.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CLEARS TWO KEY DIGITAL LAWS TO TAME BIG TECH

In a historic move, the European Parliament on Tuesday approved two major pieces of digital regulation that will set out unprecedented standards on the accountability of online companies within an open and competitive digital market.

The Parliament held the final vote on the new Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), following an earlier deal reached between Parliament and Council.

The two bills aim to address the societal and economic effects of the tech industry by setting clear standards for how they operate and provide services in the EU, in line with the EU's fundamental rights and values.

The Digital Services Act was adopted with 539 votes in favour, 54 votes against and 30 abstentions. The Digital Markets Act was adopted with 588 in favour, 11 votes against and 31 abstentions.

"For too long, tech giants have benefited from an absence of rules. The digital world has developed into a Wild West, with the biggest and strongest setting the rules. But there is a new sheriff in town -- the DSA," said Christel Schaldemose, rapporteur for the Digital Services Act.

"Now rules and rights will be strengthened. We are opening up the black box of algorithms so that we can have a proper look at the moneymaking machines behind these social platforms," he added.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) sets clear obligations for digital service providers, such as social media or marketplaces, to tackle the spread of illegal content, online disinformation and other societal risks.

Very large online platforms and search engines (with 45 million or more monthly users), which present the highest risk, will have to comply with stricter obligations, enforced by the Commission.

‘MANILA-BEIJING TIES ARE ABOUT MORE THAN CONFLICT’

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said he wanted ties with Beijing to be about more than a South China Sea dispute, and stressed the need for multilateral engagement in dealing with conflicts.

“We have our relationship not only on one dimension,” Mr. Marcos told a news conference ahead of a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Mr. Marcos said he would try to “find ways to work to resolve the conflicts that we have,” so ties could normalise after years or maritime disputes.

Mr. Marcos has a balancing act in boosting business with China while maintaining close relations with defence ally the United States.

ARABS BELIEVE ECONOMY IS WEAK UNDER DEMOCRACY

Arabs are losing faith in democracy to deliver economic stability across the Middle East and North Africa, according to a major new survey.

Nearly 23,000 people were interviewed across nine countries and the Palestinian territories for BBC News Arabic by the Arab Barometer network.

Most agreed with the statement that an economy is weak under a democracy.

The findings come just over a decade after the so-called Arab Spring protests called for democratic change.

Less than two years after the protests, just one of those countries - Tunisia - remained a democracy, but a draft constitution published last week could push the country back towards authoritarianism, if approved.

Michael Robbins, director of Arab Barometer, a research network based at Princeton University which worked with universities and polling organisations in the Middle East and North Africa to conduct the survey between late 2021 and Spring 2022, says there has been a regional shift in views on democracy since the last survey in 2018/19.

"There's a growing realisation that democracy is not a perfect form of government, and it won't fix everything," he says.

"What we see across the region is people going hungry, people need bread, people are frustrated with the systems that they have."

Across most of the surveyed countries, more than half of respondents, on average, agree with the statement that the economy is weak under a democratic system.