Johnson, who was forced to quit after losing the support of dozens of his ministers, bids farewell from Downing Street before jetting to northeast Scotland to see the 96-year-old monarch.

Soon after it invaded in February, Moscow largely took control of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern Ukraine and is now aiming to absorb them into Russia through referendums -- as it did with Crimea in 2014.

After weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that pitted Truss against Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, Monday's announcement at 1130 GMT will trigger the beginning of a handover from Boris Johnson.

The comments came as the 27-nation European Union prepares to roll out a booster campaign ahead of a feared wave of new coronavirus cases later this year.

Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with the late Soviet president for 37 years and was at his side at numerous US-Soviet summits, spoke to Gorbachev a few weeks ago by phone and said he and others had been struck by how traumatised he was by events in Ukraine.

"Today at 4:57 am (0157 GMT), due to another mortar shelling by the Russian occupying forces at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant site, the emergency protection was activated and operating power unit 5 was shut down," Energoatom said, referring to the reactor.   

World leaders were quick to pay tribute to the man who oversaw the collapse of the USSR, a pivotal turning point in world history.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union who played a major role in ending the Cold War, died in Moscow on Tuesday aged 91.

Zelensky said Russian shelling on Thursday sparked fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the reactor complex, Europe's largest such facility, from the power grid.

The picture circulated by Finnish media shows two women kissing, lifting their tops to bare their torsos and covering their breasts with a sign that says "Finland".

Britain said Russia had no moral right to sit at the G20 while it presses on with its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's intention to show up in person at the upcoming G20 Summit in Bali has stoked fears of renewed pushback from Western member states.

As Widuchowa's residents searched for tools to remove the lifeless bodies from the the river, the government began crisis response that many scientists say came too late.

"Russia has no moral right to sit at the G20 while its aggression in Ukraine persists," the spokesperson said.

A flare-up in fighting around Europe's largest nuclear facility in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine has sparked urgent warnings from world leaders, and UN chief Antonio Guterres cautioned during talks with Erdogan that any damage to the plant would be akin to "suicide".

The MV Brave Commander left the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi and will sail to Djibouti "for delivery to Ethiopia", the infrastructure ministry said on Telegram.

"The flat halting of Russian visas by all EU member states could be another very effective sanction," Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in a statement obtained by AFP.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

Overnight strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine killed 13 people and injured 11, with five reported to be in a serious condition, regional governor Valentin Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

"I think that, in the end, I will be present myself as a candidate for the Senate, so that all these people who asked me will finally be happy," the 85-year-old billionaire and media mogul told Rai radio.

Rescue divers overnight guided the whale into a net before a crane lifted it from the river in an operation which lasted six hours. It was then transported in a refrigerated truck to the Channel port of Ouistreham.

Commonly known as 'forever chemicals' because they disintegrate extremely slowly, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were initially found in packaging, shampoo or makeup but have spread to our entire environment, including water and air.

It is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and was occupied by Russia early in its invasion. Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for attacks on the plant last week.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeast Ukraine was occupied by Russia early in its invasion. Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the attacks on the plant last week.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the shelling of the plant was "extremely dangerous".

"Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing," Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's office has set up a crisis team to tackle a drought that has forced scores of villages to rely on water deliveries by truck, prompted state-run utility EDF to curb nuclear power output and stressed crops.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what President Vladimir Putin termed a "special military operation", the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought largely in Ukraine's east and south.

In an interview with SCMP, the Ukrainian leader urged China to use its outsize political and economic influence over Russia to bring an end to the fighting.

The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Turkey's coast on Tuesday and is due to be inspected on Wednesday.