Reuters World News Summary

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said Ukraine will not be voted into NATO membership at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, but he encouraged Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to attend to discuss the matter. UN aid chief to Russia: Don't 'chuck away' Black Sea grain deal If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely Western states will continue cooperating with U.N. officials helping Moscow with its exports, the United Nations aid chief said on Friday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Explainer-What's on the table for NATO at Vilnius summit?

NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius on July 11-12 to tackle a wide range of topics, from divisions over Ukraine's membership bid and Sweden's accession to boosting ammunitions stockpiles and reviewing the first defence plans in decades. It will be the fourth NATO summit since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the first held virtually on Feb. 25, 2022, just one day after the assault, followed by meetings in Brussels and in Madrid.

Yellen to meet women economists in Beijing

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with female economists in Beijing on Saturday, an effort to spotlight gender diversity following meetings with China's largely male government leaders. Yellen, the first woman to head the U.S. Treasury, has made women's contributions and importance to economies a focal point of her tenure, often meeting with women economists and entrepreneurs during her travels, and hailing the benefits of boosting women's participation in the workforce and leadership.

'Alarming' rise in rape and abduction from Sudan war - aid agencies

The conflict between military factions in Sudan has caused a surge in cases of rape and the abduction of women and girls, some as young as 12, aid agencies and officials said. Teenage girls are being sexually assaulted and raped by armed combatants in "alarming numbers", Save the Children said in a statement on Friday, while the United Nations reported a "marked increase" in gender-based violence.

Dutch government collapses over immigration policy

The Dutch government collapsed on Friday after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, which will trigger new elections in the fall. The crisis was triggered by a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands, which two of his four-party government coalition refused to support.

New hazards of war enclose Belarusian town with turbulent past

A Belarusian town with a turbulent past may hold some haunting new secrets: an empty camp that mutinous Russian mercenaries have yet to use and perhaps even a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons Russia says it has deployed in Belarus. In a former military camp surrounded by fir and birch forest just north of Osipovichi, more than 300 large tents have been put up by the Belarusian army but Wagner mercenaries have yet to say if they want to use it.

Syria brought Wagner Group fighters to heel as mutiny unfolded in Russia

As Wagner mercenaries advanced on Moscow in an attempted mutiny in late June, authorities in Syria and Russian military commanders there took a series of swift measures against local Wagner operatives to prevent the uprising spreading, according to six sources familiar with the matter. The previously unreported crackdown included blocking phone lines, summoning around a dozen Wagner commanders to a Russian military base, and ordering mercenary fighters to sign new contracts with the Russian defence ministry or promptly leave Syria, according to the sources, who include Syrian security officials, sources based near deployed Russian forces, and regional officials.

Ukraine, Sweden top Biden's agenda at NATO summit

The White House on Friday said President Joe Biden and fellow NATO leaders will discuss at next week's summit what steps Ukraine must complete to join NATO and that Kyiv has additional reforms to make, as it fights Russian invaders. Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said Ukraine will not be voted into NATO membership at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, but he encouraged Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to attend to discuss the matter.

UN aid chief to Russia: Don't 'chuck away' Black Sea grain deal

If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely Western states will continue cooperating with U.N. officials helping Moscow with its exports, the United Nations aid chief said on Friday. Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on July 17, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertilizer have not been met. The last three ships traveling under the deal are loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa and are likely to depart on Monday.

US to send Ukraine cluster munitions, NATO makes membership pledge

The United States announced on Friday that it would supply Ukraine with widely banned cluster munitions for its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, and NATO's leader said the military alliance would unite at a summit next week on how to bring Ukraine closer to joining. Rights groups and the United Nations secretary-general questioned Washington's decision on the munitions, part of an $800 million security package that brings total U.S. military aid to more than $40 billion since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's counter-offensive slower than expected, but too soon to judge -Pentagon

Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russian forces is going more slowly than some expected but it remains too early to draw conclusions about Kyiv's prospects for battlefield gains, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday. The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a so-called "mountain of steel" of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defenses during its counter-offensive.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)