EMBATTLED U.K. PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON RESIGNS, BLAMES PARTY'S HERD INSTINCT

UK prime minister Boris Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday following a torrid week in which more than 50 members of his government, including five cabinet ministers, quit in the past three days, all calling for him to step down. He will remain as interim prime minister until a new leader is chosen by his party.

Appearing before the world’s press in front of No. 10 to loud cheers at lunch time, Johnson, looking surprisingly jovial, said: “It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister, and I have agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.”

He blamed the “herd instinct of Westminster” for being forced out, saying he tried to persuade colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when his government was delivering so much, has such a vast mandate, is only a handful of points behind in the polls, and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.

“The reason I have fought so hard for the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019. It is painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself but, as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves, and in politics no one is remotely indispensable.”

He has appointed an interim cabinet to serve until the new party leader is chosen.

US OLYMPIAN PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUGS CHARGES IN RUSSIAN COURT

US basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to a drugs charge in a Russian court on Thursday but denied she had intentionally broken the law. Griner was speaking at the second hearing of her trial on the narcotics charge that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, days after she urged US President Joe Biden to secure her release.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist was detained in February at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia, and has been kept in custody since.

In a handwritten note, she appealed to Biden directly earlier this week to step up US efforts to bring her home. "I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don't forget about me and the other American detainees..." Griner wrote.

US officials and many athletes have called for the release of Griner -- or "BG" as she is known to basketball fans -- who they say has been wrongfully detained.

Her case has also prompted concerns that Moscow could use it as leverage to negotiate the release of a high-profile Russian citizen in US custody.

Russian authorities say there is no basis to consider Griner's detention illegal and that the case against her is not political despite Moscow's fraught relations with United States over the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.

RUSSIA REJOICES OVER BORIS JOHNSON’S DOWNFALL: THE ‘STUPID CLOWN’ HAS GONE

Russian politicians lined up to celebrate the downfall of Boris Johnson on Thursday, casting the British leader as a “stupid clown” who had finally got his just reward for arming Ukraine against Russia. Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit campaign who won a resounding electoral victory in 2019 before leading the United Kingdom out of the European Union, announced he was quitting on Thursday after he was abandoned by ministers and most of his Conservative lawmakers over a series of scandals. The Kremlin said it didn’t like Johnson either. “He doesn’t like us, we don’t like him either,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said shortly before Johnson stood in Downing Street to announce his resignation. In his speech announcing he was stepping down as Conservative Party leader but planned to stay on as prime minister until a replacement was picked, Johnson addressed the people of Ukraine, pledging that Britain would “continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes”.

JAPAN EX-PM ABE SHOT DURING CAMPAIGN EVENT

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has collapsed after he was shot at an event in the city of Nara.

Mr Abe was shot from the back and collapsed halfway during his speech, and appeared to be bleeding, broadcaster NHK reported. His attacker is in custody, it added.

Ex-Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe said in a tweet that Mr Abe was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.

The term is often used before a death is officially confirmed in Japan.

Mr Abe, who was Japan's longest-serving prime minister, stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons. He later revealed that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease.

He was succeeded by his close party ally Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida.

Incidents of gun violence are rare in Japan, where handguns are banned.

UKRAINIAN TROOPS KILLED ON SNAKE ISLAND: RUSSIA

Russia’s Defence Ministry said a Russian warplane struck and killed an unspecified number of Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in the Black Sea on Thursday after they landed there to raise the Ukrainian flag.

“At about 5 a.m., several Ukrainian servicemen landed on the island from a motor boat and took pictures with the flag. An aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces immediately launched a strike with high-precision missiles on Snake Island, as a result of which part of the Ukrainian military personnel was destroyed,” Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, earlier posted a video on Telegram of three soldiers raising a Ukrainian flag on the island, from which Russian forces withdrew on June 30 after coming under heavy bombardment from Ukrainian artillery.

U.K. SAYS ITS WARSHIP SEIZED IRANIAN MISSILES BOUND FOR YEMEN

A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials said on Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country.

The British government statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf.

The U.K. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure of surface-to-air-missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran”.

The tiny island, captured by Russia from Ukraine at the start of the war in February, is strategically important because of its proximity to sea lanes close to Ukraine’s port of Odessa.

AUS SIKH SOLDIERS AT PRO-KHALISTAN EVENT, MEA RAISES CONCERN

Amid reports that an Australian army Sikh delegation was spotted at a pro-Khalistan event in that country, the ministry of external affairs on Thursday said it has taken up the matter with the Australian government. According to media reports, the Australian army Sikh delegation was spotted at the event in New South Wales. Asked about the matter and other instances of support to Khalistani elements in various countries, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We came to know that there had been an instance in Australia. We have taken up the matter with the government of Australia. Don’t have any more details. ”

TALIBAN SPIRITUAL CHIEF SEEKS GOOD TIES WITH US

Islamabad : Afghan Taliban spiritual chief Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada has expressed his country’s desire to have strong relations with the US, vowing that Afghanistan will not allow anyone to use its soil against any country.

This has been the first time that the Taliban supreme leader mentioned the US in a public statement issued on Wednesday. “Within the framework of mutual interaction and commitment, we want good diplomatic, economic and political relations with the world, including the US, and we consider this in the interest of all sides,” the Taliban chief said. He also assured neighbouring countries that the Taliban will not allow anyone to use Afghan territory to threaten the security of other countries.

SRI LANKA’S CENTRAL BANK RAISES KEY RATES

Sri Lanka’s central bank raised its key interest rates to their highest levels in more than 20 years to try to contain inflation that has added to the country’s econ- omic woes. The central bank said it had raised its Standing Deposit Facility Rate by 100 basis points to 14.50%.

EUROPE HEATING UP FASTER THAN OTHER HOT SPOTS

Western Europeans have experienced more than their share of heat waves in recent years, with frequent periods of blisteringly hot and potentially lethal weather almost every summer.

A new study confirms that western Europe has become what the researchers call a heat wave hot spot over the past four decades, with events increasing in frequency and cumulative intensity (defined as heat in excess of a certain threshold). What’s more, the study found, the changes in frequency and intensity are happening faster in Europe than in many other parts of the world — including another hot spot, the western US.

Global warming has helped to make heat waves worse everywhere, for the basic reason that they start from a higher-than-ever baseline temperature. Average global temperatures have increased by about 1. 1° C since the late 19th century

But the study, published this week in Nature Communications, found another mechanism, one involving atmospheric circulation, that contributed to the accelerating heat wave trend in western Europe.

The researchers found a link between heat waves and the state of the jet stream, the river of fast west-to-east winds in the upper atmosphere at middle latitudes. Sometimes the jet stream splits in two. Heat waves can develop in areas of weak winds and high-pressure air, known as blocking highs, between the northern and southern flanks of the jet stream. The study found that these instances of “double jets” have been increasing in frequency and lasting longer.