SL risks full-blown humanitarian emergency: UN

GENEVA: Sri Lanka is at risk of tipping into a fullblown humanitarian crisis as itss economy suffers its biggest shock in decades, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday. In response to a request from the government, the UN on Thursday said it had begun a plan to provide $47.2mn of aid between June and September to 1.7mn people worst hit by the crisis. Unicef said 70% of households had already reduced food consumption and as many as one in two children required some form of emergency assistance.

New data shows population in Russia is declining MOSCOW: Russia’s population is declining even as it emerges from effects of Covid, underli -ning the difficulties in reversing the slump. Deaths exceeded births by 311,200 people in the first four months of this year, compared with 304,500 a year earlier, data published on Friday by the Federal Statistics Service show, adding to a decline in migration to Russia. President Vladimir Putin has warned for years of a threat to Russia’s economic and geopolitical future from the sliding population and sought to boost the birth rate.

UK govt can send asylum-seekers to Rwanda: Court LONDON: A British High Court judge on Friday declined to issue an emergency injuction stopping the govt from next week starting deportation flights of asylum seekers to Rwanda under an agreement with Kigali. While delivering the ruling, Judge Jonathan Swift said: “There is a material public interest in the Home Secretary (Priti Patel) being able to implement immigration decisions.”