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.
A preliminary report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India jetliner crashed, killing 260 people last month, after the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped, starving the engines of fuel.
US President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago.
Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles on Saturday, in the fourth major attack this month, targeting western cities and killing at least two people in Chernivtsi on the border with Romania.
Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long armed conflict against Turkey.