World News Roundup: Prince Harry fails to show up for court, will give evidence on Tuesday; Shelling, looting in Sudan's capital as military factions battle for eighth week and more

Sunak, who is expected to lead his governing Conservative Party into a national election next year, has promised to "stop the boats" from crossing the English Channel as one of his five pledges after he was propelled to power in October last year. Analysis-Crowded 2024 Republican race helps clear way for Trump's nomination A growing number of contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination could clear the way for a Donald Trump victory while throwing up roadblocks for his main rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, party members and strategists said.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Prince Harry fails to show up for court, will give evidence on Tuesday

Prince Harry failed to appear on Monday at the High Court in London where he is suing a British tabloid publisher, with the judge saying he was surprised by his absence and a lawyer for the papers calling his no-show "extraordinary". Harry, King Charles' younger son, will face hours of questioning in the witness box on Tuesday, becoming the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for 130 years.

Shelling, looting in Sudan's capital as military factions battle for eighth week

Shelling hit western areas of Sudan's capital on Monday morning after rival military factions fought through the night, residents said, with reports of deepening lawlessness in Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been battling each other for more than seven weeks, intensified after the expiry late on Saturday of a ceasefire deal brokered by Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

Iran to reopen diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia this week -official

Iran will reopen its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia this week, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday, several months after Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end years of antagonism under a Chinese-brokered deal. In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-establish relations between the regional rivals whose hostility had threatened stability and security in the Middle East and helped fuel regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria.

US Navy shows Chinese warship's 'unsafe interaction' near Taiwan

The U.S. Navy has released a video of what it called an "unsafe interaction" in the Taiwan Strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a U.S. destroyer in the sensitive waterway, a risky incident amid deteriorating Sino-U.S. ties. The encounter comes as both countries trade blame for not holding military talks - with disagreements between the two over everything from trade and Taiwan to Russia's invasion of Ukraine - and raises the spectre of future face-offs that could spiral out of control.

Russia says it thwarts big attack in Ukraine but Russian mercenary leader says some ground lost

Moscow said on Monday it had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in the south of Ukraine's Donetsk region but Russia's main mercenary leader said Russian forces had lost ground around Bakhmut further north. Asked whether the attacks represented the start of Ukraine's long-heralded counter-offensive against Russia's invasion, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's Security and Defence Council, told Reuters: "The war continues. Until complete victory."

Explainer-Blood, treasure and chaos: the cost of Russia's war in Ukraine

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and sown economic turmoil across the world. Here are some details of the impact:

UK's Sunak says his immigration plan is working, reducing numbers

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday his plan to stop migrants arriving in small boats had reduced crossings by 20%, an update he hopes will ease criticism from his party and in the country over immigration policy. Sunak, who is expected to lead his governing Conservative Party into a national election next year, has promised to "stop the boats" from crossing the English Channel as one of his five pledges after he was propelled to power in October last year.

Analysis-Crowded 2024 Republican race helps clear way for Trump's nomination

A growing number of contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination could clear the way for a Donald Trump victory while throwing up roadblocks for his main rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, party members and strategists said. Republicans who fear Trump is too polarizing a figure to beat Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024 worry that if too many candidates jump into the party's contest, they will splinter the anti-Trump vote. That would allow the former president to clinch the nomination, just as he did in similar circumstances in 2016.

Explainer-What would it mean if Ukraine joined NATO?

Ukraine, fighting a devastating Russian invasion since February 2022, seeks to join NATO as quickly as possible but members of the Western military alliance are divided over how fast that step should be taken. While eastern European countries want some sort of a road map to be offered to Kyiv at a NATO summit in Vilnius in mid-July, Western members such as the United States, France and Germany are wary of any move that might take the alliance closer to war with Russia.

India investigates rail disaster as trains crawl through crash site

The official investigation into India's deadliest rail crash in over two decades began on Monday after preliminary findings pointed to signal failure as the likely cause for a collision that killed at least 275 people and injured 1,200. The disaster struck on Friday, when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha.