South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will not resign despite a scandal over money stolen from his farm, his spokesman says.
The row centres on claims he kept large sums of cash on his property then covered up its theft.
A panel of legal experts concluded that he has a case to answer.
But Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman suggested he would fight on, and rather than quit would seek a second term as leader of his African National Congress party.
"President Ramaphosa is not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside," Vincent Magwenya said.
"It may be in the long-term interest and sustainability of our constitutional democracy, well beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a clearly flawed report is challenged," he added.
The scandal erupted in June, when a former South African spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with police accusing the president of hiding a theft of $4m (£3.25m) in cash from his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.
Mr Ramaphosa admitted that money had been stolen, but said it was $580,000, not $4m.
The president said the $580,000 had come from the sale of buffalo, but the panel, headed by a former chief justice, said it had "substantial doubt" about whether a sale took place.
The panel's findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.
Mr Ramaphosa is also under pressure from the opposition, as well as rivals from his governing ANC, to resign.
He is due to meet the ANC's top leadership bodies on Sunday and Monday after failing to turn up at an earlier meeting.
The scandal is especially damaging for Mr Ramaphosa because he came to power vowing to clear up the corruption which had dogged the country under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.
The ANC remains deeply divided between supporters of Mr Zuma and those who back Mr Ramaphosa.
Mr Ramaphosa will be challenged for the ANC's leadership by his former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who has also been accused of corruption. He denies the allegations.
Russia has rejected a $60 price cap on its oil set by Ukraine’s Western allies and warned of a response as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “quite comfortable” for Moscow amid a push from Kyiv for a lower cap.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Russia would not accept the price ceiling, adding that it needed to analyse the situation before deciding on a specific response.
The EU, G7 and Australia on Saturday approved the $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil. It will come into force on December 5.
“The G7 and all EU Member States have taken a decision that will hit Russia’s revenues even harder and reduce its ability to wage war in Ukraine,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
“It will also help us to stabilise global energy prices, benefitting countries across the world who are currently confronted with high oil prices,” she said.
But Russia’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, warned that the cap’s European backers would come to rue their decision.
“From this year, Europe will live without Russian oil,” Ulyanov tweeted. “Moscow has already made it clear that it will not supply oil to those countries that support anti-market price caps. Wait, very soon the EU will accuse Russia of using oil as a weapon.”
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Moscow, said that Russia had been preparing for this decision in advance. “Russia knows that it has to use some alternative infrastructure to export its oil to the countries who will not accept to sign this decision,” Vall said.
Russia’s biggest oil buyers – China and India – have, however, not committed to the oil cap.
Under Friday’s agreements, insurance companies and other firms needed to ship oil would only be able to deal with Russian crude if the oil is priced at or below the cap. Most insurers are located in the EU and the United Kingdom and could be required to observe the ceiling.
Russia’s crude has already been selling for about $60 a barrel, a deep discount from international benchmark Brent, which closed Friday at $85.42 per barrel.
The EU will also stop any imports of Russian petroleum products from February 5. A G7 price cap on petroleum products will also be set at a later date, using exactly the same mechanism as for crude oil, the Commission said.
The price cap aims to put an economic squeeze on Russia and further crimp its ability to finance a war that has killed an untold number of civilians and fighters, driven millions of Ukrainians from their homes and weighed on the world economy for more than nine months.
Not ‘serious’
The Ukrainian president said that the $60 price cap is not “serious”.
“Russia has already caused huge losses to all countries of the world by deliberately destabilising the energy market,” he argued in his nightly address, describing the decision on the price cap as “a weak position”.
It is “only a matter of time when stronger tools will have to be used anyway”, Zelenskyy added. “It is a pity that this time will be lost.”
Kyiv said it had suggested a lower cap of $30 in order to “destroy the enemy’s economy faster”.
Speaking from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said that Ukraine has called for a lower price cap and has said the one adopted by the EU and the Group of Seven leading economies did not go far enough.
“Ukraine has been calling since the beginning of the Russian invasion for a complete embargo on all Russia’s energy products,” Challands said.
“A price cap on Russian seaborne oil, from the Ukrainian perspective – it doesn’t go far enough.”
Shelling continues
Meanwhile, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that since Friday Russia’s forces had fired five missiles, carried out 27 air raids and launched 44 shelling attacks against Ukraine’s military positions and civilian infrastructure.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, said the attacks killed one civilian and wounded four others in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
In southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, whose capital city of the same name was liberated by Ukrainian forces three weeks ago following a Russian retreat, Governor Yaroslav Yanushkevich said evacuations of civilians stuck in Russian-held territory across the Dnieper River would resume temporarily.
Russian forces pulled back to the river’s eastern bank last month. Yanushkevich said a ban on crossing the waterway would be lifted during daylight hours for three days for Ukrainian citizens who “did not have time to leave the temporarily occupied territory”.
Ukrainian authorities also reported intense fighting in Luhansk and Russian shelling of northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, which Russia’s soldiers mostly withdrew from in September.
Around 10,000 troops have surrounded the city of Soyapango in El Salvador as part of a massive crackdown on gangs, President Nayib Bukele has announced.
All roads leading to the city have been blocked, and special forces have been searching houses for gang members.
Officers have also been stopping everyone attempting to leave the city and checking identity papers.
The operation is part of a massive crackdown on gangs after a surge in violence earlier this year.
Soyapango is one of El Salvador's largest cities and is home to more than 290,000 people. The city - which sits just 13 km (8 miles) west of the capital San Salvador - has long been known as a hub for gang activity.
"As of this moment, the municipality of Soyapango is totally surrounded," President Bukele wrote on Twitter. "Extraction teams from the police and the army are tasked with extricating all the gang members still there one by one."
He added that ordinary people "have nothing to fear" and said that the crackdown was part of "an operation against criminals, not against honest citizens".
Images released by the government showed heavily armed troops clad in body armour and carrying assault rifles outside the city.
A partir de estos momentos, el municipio de Soyapango está totalmente cercado.
8,500 soldados y 1,500 agentes han rodeado la ciudad, mientras los equipos de extracción de la policía y el ejército se encargan de sacar uno a uno a todos los pandilleros que aún se encuentran ahí. pic.twitter.com/9QIpj0ziwX
One resident, Guadalupe Perez, told the AFP news agency that the raid had come as a welcome surprise.
"They search you and ask for your identity papers to verify where you live, but that's fine - it's all for our safety," the 53-year-old said.
Since Mr Bukele announced a state of emergency in late March, more than 58,000 people have been jailed by authorities in the country of 6.5 million people.
Rights groups have criticised the heavy handed nature of the crackdown, saying the measures, which allow police to arrest suspects without warrants, have led to arbitrary detentions.
Police arrest a group of individuals who attempted to slice the mural off a war-damaged wall in the city of Hostomel.
A group of people have tried to take a mural by graffiti artist Banksy in Ukraine by cutting it off a battle-scarred wall where it was painted.
The group managed to slice off a section of board and plaster bearing the image of a woman in a gas mask and dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher on the side of a scorched building.
They were spotted at the scene in the city of Hostomel, near Kyiv, and the mural was retrieved, the governor of Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba said in a statement.
The image was still intact and police were protecting it, he added.
“These images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy … We’ll do everything to preserve these works of street art as a symbol of our victory,” he said.
The yellow wall appears sliced off after a group of people tried to steal Banksy’s mural in the town of Hostomel, Kyiv region [Andrii Nebytov via Telegram/Reuters]
Police published images of the yellow wall with a large patch cut all the way back to the brickwork. A number of people were arrested at the scene, they said.
Banksy, whose work can sell for millions of dollars on the art market, confirmed he had painted the mural and six others last month in places that were badly affected by heavy fighting after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.
One of the other murals shows a girl gymnast performing a handstand on a small pile of concrete rubble. Another shows an old man having a bath.
A third mural depicts a man resembling Russia’s President Vladimir Putin being flipped by a child during a judo match.
Graffiti of a child throwing a man on the floor in judo attire is seen on a wall amid damaged buildings in Borodyanka [File: Ed Ram/Getty Images]
Banksy rose to fame around the city of Bristol, in southwestern England, in the early 1990s.
The anonymous street artist has travelled to areas affected by war and conflict in the past, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The graffiti is undamaged and police are protecting it, the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram.
"These images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy," he said. "These are stories about the support and solidarity of the entire civilized world with Ukraine.
"We'll do everything to preserve these works of street art as a symbol of our victory."
Police published images of the yellow wall in Hostomel, with a large patch cut through to the brickwork.
PA Media
Banksy released video footage of his artwork in Ukraine last month, showing works that feature people doing daily tasks on buildings devastated by shelling in Ukraine.
The towns in which the artwork is featured were among the worst hit at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including Hostomel, Horenka and Borodyanka.
The footage also shows a man's hand creating the art - but in true Banksy style, his face is never shown.
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One mural shows a gymnast doing a handstand amid debris, in Borodyanka. Another depicts a Vladimir Putin lookalike being thrown to the floor by a child in a judo match.
Banksy is one of the world's most famous artists, who rose to fame with stencilled designs around Bristol in the early 1990s, but despite a worldwide following, the artist's identity remains unknown.
Often described as "elusive" and "secretive" by the press, the "guerrilla street artist" has a legion of fans that includes A-list celebrities.
EU member states have agreed to implement a $60 ceiling on global purchases of Russian oil after Poland dropped its objections to the long-debated deal aimed at denting the Kremlin’s fossil-fuel revenues.
Warsaw had delayed agreement on the cap after demanding a lower ceiling to further erode Moscow’s income. Its backing means the bloc will have the initiative in place before December 5, when a ban on imports of Russian seaborne oil into the EU comes into force.
The cap, which is set to be adopted by G7 countries and some allies, is designed to keep Russian oil flowing to countries such as India and China, but at a lower profit to Moscow.
It is intended to have global reach because Russian oil importers, who rely on insurance cover and shipping services from companies based in the EU and other G7 countries, would need to observe the price ceiling.
However, Russia has said it will not sell oil to any country participating in the cap, and India and China have so far not said they will implement it. Russia is expected to rely on tankers prepared to operate without western insurance, though traders have warned its exports may drop if it cannot access enough vessels.
Russia’s oil is already trading at a large discount to international benchmark Brent.
“We can formally agree to the decision,” said Andzrej Sadoś, Poland’s permanent representative to the EU, adding that the official publication of the legislation would probably take place over the weekend.
The agreement follows months of negotiations.
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, one of the forces behind the price cap plan this year, welcomed the agreement and commended Washington’s partners in the EU, saying it would “help us achieve our goal of restricting Putin’s primary source of revenue for his illegal war in Ukraine while simultaneously preserving the stability of global energy supplies”.
The cap is lower than the European Commission’s initial suggested price of as high as $70, following demands from Poland and other member states for it to be reduced. On Friday, benchmark Brent crude was trading at about $86.
Warsaw gave their approval after Brussels agreed to speed up work on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, which would include measures proposed by Poland. “We wanted to be absolutely sure . . . that we are working on a new, painful, expensive for Russia, package of sanctions,” Sadoś said.
The cap agreement also includes a provision that the ceiling be regularly reviewed to ensure it is “at least 5 per cent” below average market prices for Russian oil.
The price-capping initiative has been championed by the US, which is keen to ensure Russian oil continues to be exported to avoid a global shortage that would spark a surge in crude prices. The US hopes India and China will still be able to use the existence of the price cap to negotiate larger discounts.
Yellen said the new price cap would particularly benefit low- and medium-income countries that have “already borne the brunt” of energy and food price inflation caused by Russia’s invasion.
“Whether these countries purchase energy inside or outside of the cap, the cap will enable them to bargain for steeper discounts on Russian oil and benefit from greater stability in global energy markets,” she said in a statement.
Some EU states had initially demanded a price level of as little as $30, but Brussels officials feared this would see Moscow cut back exports.
A senior Treasury official also discounted the possibility that Russia could quickly system to evade the price cap, providing its own insurance and services to shippers.
“If Russia is spending money trying to build up its own [shipping and insurance] ecosystem that’s helping us . . . with our first goal, because they’ll have less money to fight their war in Ukraine,” said the official.
Oil and gas flows are likely to account for 42 per cent of Russia’s revenues this year, around Rbs11.7tn ($191bn), the country’s finance ministry has said.
Additional reporting by David Sheppard and Derek Brower
Finnish PM Sanna Marin has said Europe is "not strong enough" to stand up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on its own, and has had to rely on US support.
During a visit to Australia, the leader of the pending Nato member said Europe's defences must be strengthened.
"I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn't strong enough right now," she said. "We would be in trouble without the United States."
The US is by far the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine.
And with European countries' military stocks depleting as they supply Ukraine, Ms Marin said more needed to be done to bolster European defences.
Speaking at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney on Friday, Ms Marin said: "The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn't strong enough yet."
She added that Europe must make sure it is "building those capabilities when it comes to European defence, European defence industry, and making sure that we could cope in different kinds of situations".
While in office, US President Donald Trump regularly criticised European countries in Nato for not spending enough on defence.
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In 2020, it was estimated the US spent just over 3.7% of its GDP on defence - while the average for Nato's European members (and Canada) was 1.77%.
During her talk, Prime Minister Marin went on to criticise some European countries' attempts at building closer ties with Russia in recent decades.
"For a long time, Europe was building a strategy for Russia... to buy energy from Russia and to closen those economic ties, and we thought that this would prevent the war," she said.
But she said that mindset was "proven entirely wrong".
European countries should have listened to states like Poland and the Baltics, she said, who had warned that Russia does not "care about their economic ties, they don't care about the sanctions, they don't care about any of that" when it comes to invading Ukraine.
Wide-reaching sanctions have been introduced by the EU and the US, among others, with the aim of limiting the resources Russia has to continue the war.
Many European Union and Nato member countries have also pledged to increase their defence spending following the start of the war.
In February, Germany announced an extra $113bn (£84bn) for its army, and a constitutional commitment to Nato's military spending target of 2% of GDP.
In June, the UK - under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson - said its defence spending would hit 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.
Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, formally applied to join Nato in May. Accession protocols were signed in July, although they are yet to be ratified by all other members.
