Reuters World News Summary

Sunak quit as finance minister last week, presaging the downfall of Boris Johnson who days later said he would step down amid a widespread rebellion by Conservative lawmakers. Biden will push for greater oil output on Mideast trip -Sullivan U.S. President Joe Biden will make the case for greater oil production from OPEC nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Mourners throng Abe's wake as his party secures sombre Japan election win

Mourners streamed into a temple in Tokyo to pay their respects to Japan's slain former premier Shinzo Abe on Monday, as his assassination overshadowed an election win for the ruling party he had dominated. Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has the chance to cement his own power following Sunday's election gains, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were among the hundreds at Abe's wake, three days after he was shot at an election rally.

New UK prime minister to be announced on Sept. 5 as tax dominates contest

Britain's new prime minister will be announced on Sept. 5, with the first votes to begin eliminating candidates in a crowded and increasingly unpredictable and divisive contest to replace Boris Johnson coming this week. So far 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and prime minister after he quit following a dramatic rebellion by his own lawmakers and ministers after a series of scandals.

France's Prime Minister survives no-confidence vote in parliament

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday comfortably survived a motion of no-confidence brought against her by a broad alliance of left-wing opponents. An official vote count showed 146 lawmakers voted in support of the motion. The motion required an absolute majority of 289 votes to precipitate the government's fall.

Ex-finance minister Sunak vows to tackle inflation in pitch to be UK PM

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak will set out his stall to be Britain's next prime minister on Tuesday, vowing to tackle soaring inflation before joining his Conservative Party rivals in promising tax cuts. Sunak quit as finance minister last week, presaging the downfall of Boris Johnson who days later said he would step down amid a widespread rebellion by Conservative lawmakers.

Biden will push for greater oil output on Mideast trip -Sullivan

U.S. President Joe Biden will make the case for greater oil production from OPEC nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. Biden leaves Tuesday night on his first visit to the Middle East as president, with stops in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia on his agenda.

How a band of activists helped bring down Sri Lanka's government

In June, a few dozen activists started meeting regularly at a seaside tented camp in Colombo for hours-long sessions to think up ways to revive Sri Lanka's flagging protest movement. The group, which included a Catholic priest, a digital strategist and a popular playwright, succeeded beyond their wildest hopes.

Expanding Israeli West Bank settlements test U.S. ahead of Biden visit

Steps away from a cluster of Palestinian tents and shacks in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, trucks worked in full force to prepare for the construction of a school for Israeli settlers. The settlement of Mehola is trying to expand, as demand has become very high, Zohar Zror, 32, a resident, told Reuters.

Rescuers pull survivors from ruined Ukrainian apartment building

Rescuers pulled survivors on Monday from an apartment block destroyed by a Russian missile strike that killed 31 people in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said while lamenting Moscow's firepower advantage despite billions in Western aid. The civilian deaths hammered home the human cost of Russia's invasion, now in its fifth month, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces push to capture all of Ukraine's industrial Donbas region after declaring victory in one of its two provinces this month.

U.N. aid to Syria from Turkey likely allowed until January, vote Tuesday

The U.N. Security Council appears set to allow U.N. deliveries of aid to some 4 million people in northwest Syria from Turkey until January, diplomats said on Monday, after days of wrangling with Russia over how long to let the huge operation continue. The mandate for the operation, which has been delivering food, medicine and shelter to the opposition-controlled area of Syria since 2014, expired on Sunday. Council authorization is needed because Syrian authorities did not agree to it.

Exclusive: U.S. weighs resumption of offensive arms sales to Saudis - sources

The Biden administration is discussing the possible lifting of its ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, but any final decision is expected to hinge on whether Riyadh makes progress toward ending the war in neighboring Yemen, according to four people familiar with the matter. Senior Saudi officials pressed their U.S. counterparts to scrap a policy of selling only defensive arms to its top Gulf partner in several meetings in Riyadh and Washington in recent months, three of the sources said ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to the kingdom this week.

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