US President Joe Biden will meet virtually on Friday with G7 leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's conflict with Ukraine and announce new sanctions against those aiding Russia's war effort, the White House said.
The same group came together last year hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, imposing the first round of a series of sanctions.
"The G7 has become an anchor of our strong and united response to Russia," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday. The leaders on Friday will discuss "how we continue supporting Ukraine" and ways to increase pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine a year ago, she said.
The sanctions will include Russian banks, technology and defense sectors, and will impact both people and companies involved in the conflict, according to Jean-Pierre.
The US will also announce a fresh Ukrainian aid package that will include economic, security and energy support, she added.
US President Donald Trump has abruptly stepped back on Wednesday from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, ruled out the use of force and suggested a deal was in sight to end a dispute over the Danish territory that risked the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades.
A commuter train has crashed into a construction crane in southeastern Spain, leaving an undetermined number of people lightly injured, regional emergency services said on Thursday.
Rescue workers combed rubble on Thursday at a campsite in New Zealand as they searched for the missing, children among them, following a landslide triggered by heavy rains that snapped power links to thousands and caused widespread damage.
Three people have been killed in a shooting in the Australian state of New South Wales, police said on Thursday, with reports a gunman remained at large.
Pakistani firefighters have retrieved the bodies of up to 25 people from the debris of a shopping mall fire in Karachi on Wednesday, taking the death toll to around 50.