SRI LANKA DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER PROTESTS ERUPT OVER PRESIDENT GOTABAYA'S ESCAPE TO MALDIVES

Lankan President Rajapaksa on Wednesday fled to the Maldives from where he issued a Gazette Extraordinary, appointing Wickremesinghe as the acting president to exercise, perform and discharge the powers, duties and functions of the Office of President with effect from July 13, 2022.

Sri Lanka's Acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday asked Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a Prime Minister who is acceptable to both the government and the Opposition.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe held a meeting with the Members of the Cabinet at his office on Monday.

All the ministers who participated in this meeting were of the opinion that the ruling party and the opposition must form an all-party government.

Wickremesinghe is under pressure to quit before the expected resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is said to be flying from the Maldives to Singapore.

The protesters who stormed Wickremesinghe's office on Wednesday are attempting to enter the parliament compound at the time of reporting. The police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters near the official residence of the speaker, police said.

A 26-year-old protester had died of breathing difficulties after being admitted to hospital. He was part of the group that stormed the prime minister's office this morning where 35 others had also been injured.

Speaker Abeywardena has said that President Rajapaksa has informed him over telephone that he will resign later today as promised. He said the vote for the new president will take place on July 20.

Wickremesinghe, who is now Acting President, has declared a state of emergency in the country and a curfew in the Western province has been imposed as protesters gathered near his office at Flower Road in Colombo.

RISHI SUNAK WINS FIRST ROUND OF TORY LEADERSHIP VOTE

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has won the first round of voting by MPs to choose the next Conservative leader and prime minister.

He got 88 votes, with Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt in second place on 67 and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss third on 50.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt were eliminated from the race.

Those still in the contest face another round of voting on Thursday.

The field is expected to be narrowed to two by the end of next week, and then around 160,000 Tory members decide which candidate they want to become the next party leader and prime minister.

The result will be announced on 5 September.

The remaining six hopefuls are now scrambling for support from the MPs who backed Mr Hunt and Mr Zahawi.

Mr Hunt told the BBC he would be supporting Mr Sunak in the race.

EU TO URGE COUNTRIES TO CURB GAS USE; HUNGARY DECLARES ‘ENERGY EMERGENCY’

The EU will encourage member countries to cut gas demand by incentivising industries to use less, as it prepares for possible further cuts to Russian supply, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters. Brussels is bracing for further drops in Russian gas deliveries, a scenario the IMF chief on Wednesday warned could plunge economies into recession. The European Commission plan, due to be published on July 20, will suggest countries launch financial incentives for companies to cut gas use, use state aid to encourage industries and power plants to switch to other fuels, and roll out information campaigns to nudge consumers to use less heating and cooling. By acting now, the EU aims to push as much gas as possible into storage and build up a supply buffer for winter, when heating demand peaks. EU gas storage is currently 62% full, far short of the bloc’s goal of 80% of capacity by November. Earlier, the EU relied on Russia for 40% of its gas. That share has plummeted, and flows from Russia are now below 30%, the draft said.

Meanwhile, Hungary’s government has declared an “energy emergency” in response to supply disruptions and skyrocketing energy prices in Europe. There is “unlikely to be enough gas in Europe for the autumn and winter heating season,” said Gergely Gulyas, PM Viktor Orban’s chief of staff.

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE DISCUSS UN PLAN TO FREE UP GRAIN EXPORTS

Military delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their governments’ first face-to-face talks in months on Wednesday as they tried to reach an agreement on a UN plan to export blocked Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea. Turkish military officials and UN envoys also took part in the meeting in Istanbul. which focused on finding a way to get millions of tons of grain sitting in silos amid the war in Ukraine shipped out of the country’s ports toward the Mediterranean. The war has trapped about 22 million tonnes of grain inside Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Turkey’s defence ministry announced the talks had ended, but did not provide details. More talks are likely next week.

AFTER RUSSIA & SYRIA, NKOREA RECOGNISES UKRAINE BREAKAWAYS

North Korea on Wednesday recognised two Russian-backed breakaway “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, a separatist leader and a Russian state news agency said. The move makes North Korea only the third country after Russia and Syria to recognise the two breakaway entities, the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republics (LPR), in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Ukraine severed relations with North Korea on Wednesday after the move. “We consider this decision as an attempt by Pyongyang to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. In a post on his Telegram channel, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said he hoped for “fruitful cooperation” and increased trade with North Korea. The DPR’s embassy in Moscow posted a photo on its Telegram channel of a ceremony in which North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow Sin Hong-chol handed a certificate of recognition to DPR envoy Olga Makeyeva. North Korea’s embassy in Moscow confirmed it had recognised the independence of both entities on Wednesday, Russia’s TASS news agency later reported.

CHINA ‘DRIVES AWAY’ U.S. SHIP THAT SAILED NEAR DISPUTED ISLES

A U.S. destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday, drawing an angry reaction from Beijing, which said its military had “driven away” the ship.

The U.S. regularly carries out what it calls Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea challenging what it says are restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.

The U.S. Navy said the destroyer USS Benfold “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law”.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command said the U.S. ship’s actions seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security by illegally entering China’s territorial waters around the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. “The PLA’s Southern Theatre Command organised sea and air forces to follow, monitor, warn and drive away” the ship, it added, showing pictures of the Benfold taken from the deck of the frigate the Xianning.

JOE BIDEN KICKS OFF WEST ASIA TOUR IN ISRAEL

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday kicked off a West Asia tour in Israel where both sides vowed to deepen the Jewish state’s integration in the region as they face their common foe Iran.

Mr. Biden — whose first regional visit since taking office will also take him to Saudi Arabia — pledged strong backing for Israel, which has forged ties with several Arab states in recent years and hopes to do so with Riyadh as well.

“We’ll continue to advance Israel’s integration into the region,” Mr. Biden said after Air Force One touched down at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv to a red-carpet welcome, while underscoring Washington’s “bone deep” connection to the Jewish state.

“I’m proud to say that our relationship with the state of Israel is deeper and stronger in my view than it’s ever been. With this visit, we’re strengthening our connections even further,” the President said.

Israel’s caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that “we will discuss building a new security and economy architecture” with the nations of West Asia, following U.S.-brokered accords in 2020 with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.

“And we will discuss the need to renew a strong global coalition that will stop the Iranian nuclear programme,” he added, amid ongoing efforts by world powers to salvage Iran’s frayed 2015 nuclear deal.

Mr. Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday will be the major focus of the tour, after he slammed the oil-rich kingdom over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

‘TRUMP’S TWEET & AN UNHINGED WH MEET LED TO CAPITOL RIOT’

Washington : In a heated, “unhinged” dispute, Donald Trump fought objections from his White House lawyers to a plan, eventually discarded, to seize states’ voting machines and then, in a last ditch bid to salvage his presidency, summoned supporters to march on the Capitol for what turned into deadly riots, the House January 6 panel revealed on Tuesday.

During its seventh televised public hearing, the committee examined the impact of atweet that Trump sent on December 19 urging his supporters to descend on Washington on January 6 for a rally he promised would be “wild”. The tweet was sent a little more than an hour after Trump met at the White House with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former general Mike Flynn, and Sidney Powell, another attorney, for a meeting which one White House aide described as “unhinged”. “Trump’s tweet electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially the dangerous extremists in Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups,” said a committee member, adding that two of Trump’s closest backers, Flynn and political consultant Roger Stone, had connections to Oath Keepers. The panel said the march to the Capitol was planned in advance but Trump decided not to announce it until a speech on January 6 morning.

POPE NAMES THREE WOMEN TO ALL-MEN BISHOPS ADVISORY PANEL

Pope Francis has named three women, two nuns and a laywoman, to a previously all-male committee that advises him in selecting the world’s bishops, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

The three women are sister Raffaella Petrini, currently deputy governor of the Vatican City, French nun Yvonne Reungoat and laywoman Maria Lia Zervino, head of association of women’s catholic organisations UMOFC.

The pope still makes the final call but the addition of women comes as Francis seeks to usher in more gender equality within the Church’s positions of government and responsibility.