International news brief: Ranil to take oath as Lankan President; US to send more rocket launchers to Ukraine

Colombo, July 21: Amid the country's ongoing economic and political turmoil, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will take oath as the acting President on Wednesday. While the US is sending four more rocket artillery launchers to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Ranil Wickremesinghe to take oath today

Ranil Wickremesinghe will take oath as the President of Sri Lanka at the parliament complex on Thursday after his victory in a parliament vote to choose a new president for the South Asian country.

Wickremesinghe will be sworn in on Thursday morning and will appoint a new prime minister within the course of the day, the officials from the President's office told Xinhua.

Sri Lanka made 'dumb bets' on heavy Chinese investment

Bill Burns, who is the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), on Wednesday (July 20) blamed the "dumb bets" made by the South Asian nation Sri Lanka on China for the ongoing economic crisis.
In the past few months, Sri Lanka suffered through food and fuel shortages, lengthy blackouts and galloping inflation as the nation ran out of foreign currency to import vital goods.

US plans to send more rocket launchers to Ukraine

The US is sending four more rocket artillery launchers to Ukraine as its defense against Russia in the eastern part of the country continues in what has become an increasingly brutal war of attrition, the U.S. military's top leaders said Wednesday.

The additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems will bring to 16 the number of long-range missile launchers provided to the Ukrainian military, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

US President Joe Biden plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping

The United States President Joe Biden is planning to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the next 10 days. Currently, the tensions between US and China are high, especially over Taiwan and trade. In case it happens, the talks would be the first one-on-one call between the two leaders since March.

After returning from a trip to Massachusetts, Biden told reporters: "I think I'll be talking to President Xi within the next 10 days." During his Massachusetts trip, Biden weighed in on climate change and its impact.

Joe Biden promises climate action as heatwave hits

US President Joe Biden unveiled a series of executive measures on Wednesday to combat climate change and pledged there was more to follow.

Biden is seeking to push ahead with his environmental agenda after a previous effort was stalled by unsupportive lawmakers and a conservative Supreme Court.

The move comes as rocketing summer temperatures mean that some 100 million people in the United States are living under excessive heat alerts. Europe is also struggling with unusually high temperatures.