Reuters World News Summary

Marquez and Petro won https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombians-head-polls-tightest-election-recent-memory-2022-06-19 50.4% of the vote in Sunday's election. France risks gridlock after Macron handed hung parliament President Emmanuel Macron faced calls for his prime minister to resign on Monday and doubt hung over his ability to rule decisively after his camp lost its parliamentary majority.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

A Somali boy's mission to find food as climate change takes its toll

Each morning in this Somali border town, 11-year-old Bashir Nur Salat plots his day's mission behind a crooked wire fence. Armed with only a friend's yellow school shirt, a borrowed book and toothy grin, he eyes his prize through the mesh: lunch. Bashir lives where three crises converge - global warming, spiralling food prices and war. He, like millions of others in Somalia, are in the crosshairs of what some aid workers are calling the "The Three Cs": climate change, costs and conflict.

U.N. chief to Security Council: 'We cannot give up on people of Syria'

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council on Monday to extend its approval of aid deliveries from Turkey to millions of people in need in northwest Syria, telling the body: "We cannot give up on the people of Syria." The U.N. mandate, which has allowed deliveries from Turkey to Syria's opposition-controlled northwest, expires on July 10.

Gunmen kill eight, kidnap 38 in Nigeria church attacks -church officials

Gunmen killed eight people and kidnapped 38 others in an attack on two churches in the northern state of Kaduna on Sunday, an official from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Monday, weeks after a similar deadly attack in the south west. The attack occurred during the morning service of a Catholic and Baptist church on Sunday, Reverend Danlami Gajere, CAN chairman for Kasuwan Magani ward in Kaduna state, told Reuters by phone.

Zelenskiy defiant as Russia intensifies attacks on eastern cities, seizes territory

Ukraine on Monday acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country as Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river and intensified pressure on two key cities ahead of an EU summit expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to join the bloc. The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was "extremely difficult" along the entire front line there as of Monday evening and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.

From heart-throb to the hot seat: Lapid to become Israeli PM

As a TV star, Yair Lapid's weekly commentary was entitled "Being Israeli" - a rhapsody about the middle-class, politically centrist ranks that he saw holding together a fractious country, with him as their tribune. As interim prime minister, the still-chiseled but now gray-haired Lapid, who will welcome U.S. President Joe Biden on his visit to Israel next month, may have to reach out more widely to maintain a stable government.

Mexico foreign minister says has tested positive for COVID-19

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would carry out his duties at home. Ebrard said on Twitter that his symptoms were "nothing to worry about" and that he had not been in a regular cabinet meeting that morning.

Lapid to become new prime minister as Israel heads to election

Israeli lawmakers will vote next week to dissolve parliament, opening the way for the country's fifth election in three years, after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could not contain the rising pressure on his fragile ruling coalition. Bennett will step aside to be replaced by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, his partner in the unlikely coalition of opposites that ended former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year rule 12 months ago.

Colombia ELN rebel group open to peace talks with next president Gustavo Petro

Colombian leftist guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) is open to advancing peace talks with the incoming government of President-elect Gustavo Petro, it said on Monday, and called for reforms to tackle social exclusion and inequality. Leftist Petro and his vice president-elect, Francia Marquez, won 50.4% of the vote in Sunday's election.

Colombia elects first Black woman VP Francia Marquez, who vows to stand for 'nobodies'

Francia Marquez, a single mother and former housekeeper, will be Colombia's first Black woman vice president after a historic vote on Sunday https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-first-leftist-president-targets-inequality-leaves-investors-edge-2022-06-20 saw the Andean country pick its first leftist president, Gustavo Petro. Marquez and Petro won https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombians-head-polls-tightest-election-recent-memory-2022-06-19 50.4% of the vote in Sunday's election.

France risks gridlock after Macron handed hung parliament

President Emmanuel Macron faced calls for his prime minister to resign on Monday and doubt hung over his ability to rule decisively after his camp lost its parliamentary majority. Macron's centrist grouping is under pressure to secure support from rivals to salvage Macron's reform agenda after weekend elections delivered a hung parliament. If it fails, France could face a long spell of political paralysis.

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