World News Roundup: Ukraine presses for weapons as U.S. and allies meet in Germany; Dominic Raab resigns as UK deputy PM over bullying complaints and more

Kara-Murza, a 41-year-old opposition politician who holds both Russian and British passports, spoke out against President Vladimir Putin for years and had successfully lobbied Western governments to impose sanctions on Moscow and individual Russians for purported human rights violations. Poland to give farmers $2.4 billion in aid as PM slams EU response European Union measures to help farmers affected by a glut of Ukrainian food imports are too little too late, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, after the government approved 10 billion zlotys ($2.4 billion) in aid for Polish agriculture.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ukraine presses for weapons as U.S. and allies meet in Germany

Ukraine pressed allies for long-range weapons, jets and ammunition as the United States hosted a meeting at the Ramstein air base in Germany on Friday to discuss stepped up support to repel the Russian invasion. U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting would focus on air defence and ammunition as he opened the latest in a series of arms-pledging conferences ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months.

Dominic Raab resigns as UK deputy PM over bullying complaints

British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab resigned from the government on Friday following an independent investigation into complaints that he bullied colleagues, the latest scandal to force out one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's top ministers.

The loss of the third senior minister over their personal conduct in the last six months will damage Sunak's efforts to revive the governing Conservative Party's fortunes and is a major embarrassment as he had entered Downing Street in October promising a government of integrity.

Strikes cripple German rail network, four airports

Rail workers went on strike across Germany on Friday, mostly bringing national operator Deutsche Bahn's services to a halt in the morning hours, as protests over pay in Europe's largest economy widened. Germany has witnessed some of its most disruptive strikes in decades since last year, when the war in Ukraine sent energy and food prices soaring, leading to union pressure for wages to rise in line with living costs.

Shootouts in Sudan capital on Eid holiday, army moves in on foot

Gunfire ripped through residential neighbourhoods of Sudan's capital Khartoum at the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr on Friday, after the army deployed on foot for the first time in its almost week-long fight with a paramilitary force. Soldiers and gunmen from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at each other in the north, west and centre of the city, including during the call for special early morning Eid prayers, witnesses said.

EU's top court halves daily fine on Poland in judiciary dispute

The European Union's top court has halved the daily fine imposed on Poland in a dispute over judicial reforms to 500,000 euros, it said on Friday, adding that Warsaw had largely implemented the reforms it required. Poland's nationalist government is embroiled in a long-running row with Brussels over judicial reforms that critics say undermine the independence of the courts. The dispute has blocked billions of euros in EU funds to Warsaw and also triggered the fines.

Russia watching for new Western sanctions, says they would hit world economy

The Kremlin said on Friday it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on exports to Russia by Western countries, and that new sanctions would damage the global economy. "We are carefully monitoring this, we are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Russia crosses new lines in crackdown on Putin's enemies

With virtually all the Kremlin's opponents already jailed or in exile, and liberal press outlets and human rights groups forced to shut down, it might have appeared that years of repression in Russia had achieved their objective. But in the space of just three weeks, Russia's security services and courts have crossed several new thresholds in their campaign to destroy perceived enemies, spies and traitors.

Explainer-Sudan's conflict and what worries neighbours, the U.S. and others

A conflict raging in Sudan is rattling neighbouring countries and worrying the United States and others for reasons ranging from concern about shared Nile waters and oil pipelines to the shape of a new government and a new humanitarian crisis in the making. Sudan, which relies heavily on foreign aid, is no stranger to conflict. But this time fighting is tearing apart the capital instead of a remote corner of a nation, which lies in an unstable region bordering the Red Sea, Sahel and Horn of Africa.

Britain sanctions Russian figures linked to jailing of Putin critic Kara-Murza

Britain on Friday sanctioned a Russian judge and four others linked to the arrest and alleged poisonings of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza who was jailed for 25 years this week for treason and other offences. Kara-Murza, a 41-year-old opposition politician who holds both Russian and British passports, spoke out against President Vladimir Putin for years and had successfully lobbied Western governments to impose sanctions on Moscow and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.

Poland to give farmers $2.4 billion in aid as PM slams EU response

European Union measures to help farmers affected by a glut of Ukrainian food imports are too little too late, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, after the government approved 10 billion zlotys ($2.4 billion) in aid for Polish agriculture. Central European countries are trying to thrash out a deal with Brussels on EU-wide measures to help agriculture after some of them unilaterally introduced import bans on Ukrainian food products.