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Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said Wednesday that he had a telephone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to request credit support to import fuel for the island nation that is facing its worst economic crisis in memory, Associated Press reported.

“Had a very productive telecon with the Russia President Vladimir Putin. While thanking him for all the support extended by his govt to overcome the challenges of the past, I requested an offer of credit support to import fuel to #lka in defeating the current econ challenges,” Rajapaksa said in a tweet.

Western nations largely have cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over its war on Ukraine. Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said earlier that the government would look for other sources first but it has not been successful. 

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, global oil prices have skyrocketed, prompting a number of countries to seek out Russian crude, which is being offered at steep discounts.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has led to a dire fuel shortage forcing the government to shut schools and ask employees other than those in essential services to work from home to cut down on consuming the limited stocks. The government said earlier that no entity is willing to supply oil to Sri Lanka even for cash because its petroleum corporation owes a heavy debt.

Sri Lanka’s foreign currency crunch led to its suspending repayment of foreign debt in April pending outcome of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package. However, Wickremesinghe told Parliament on Tuesday that discussions with the IMF have been complex and difficult because Sri Lanka is now a bankrupt nation, according to Associated Press. 

Unlike in the past, when Sri Lanka entered negotiations as a developing country, this time it has to produce a debt sustainability report to the IMF for approval before any agreement could be reached.

Sri Lanka’s foreign debt stands at $ 51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027. It means a payment of an average of $5 billion for the next five years.

Sri Lankans for the past months have been forced to stand in long lines to buy the limited stocks of fuel, cooking gas and foods. The crisi has led to monthslong street protests and scuffles with police at gas stations, Associated Press reported.

Boris Johnson is defying calls to resign, as he attempts to face down a growing mutiny among his cabinet, BBC reported.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, a former close ally, has joined a group of rebel ministers who are urging the PM to stand down.

But he has defied the growing calls for him to quit, saying it would not be "responsible" for him to go.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has been fired from his cabinet, after he urged the PM to resign.

Mr Johnson earlier told senior MPs it would not be right for him to "walk away" amid economic pressures and the war in Ukraine.

Under repeated questioning by the Commons Liaison Committee, he ruled out calling a snap general election, saying the earliest date he can see for one is 2024.

A Downing Street source rejected speculation the PM would announce his resignation in Downing Street later.

"There is no lectern outside No 10 tonight. The PM fights on," the source told BBC News.

The ministers urging him to quit also include Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, according to BBC.

Mr Gove told him to go earlier, and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip the PM should resign.

Mr Johnson rang Mr Gove on Wednesday evening to tell him he was sacked.

A No 10 source said: "You can't have a snake who is not with you on any of the big arguments who then gleefully tells the press the leader has to go."

Mr Hart later resigned from his post, saying he wanted to help Mr Johnson "turn the ship around" but "we have passed the point where this is possible".

BBC political editor Chris Mason said the rebel group was joined in Downing Street by another set of ministers arguing he should stay.

The BBC has also been told Mr Johnson has been stressing that "millions" voted for him, and questioning whether any of his would-be successors would be able to "replicate his electoral success at the next election".

Meanwhile, Tory party bosses on the executive of the backbench 1922 committee have postponed a decision on whether to change the rules governing a vote of confidence.

However, elections to replace the committee have been pulled forward and will now take place next week.

Mr Johnson survived such a vote last month, and under the rules as they currently stand he would be immune from another challenge for a year.

The crisis engulfing Mr Johnson's premiership began on Tuesday, following the dramatic resignations of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, BBC reported.

They quit within minutes of each other following a row over Mr Johnson's decision to appoint Chris Pincher deputy chief whip earlier this year.

Their departures have triggered a wave of further resignations, with one in five MPs in government roles quitting their posts. 

A senior ally of the prime minister told the BBC: "It's now a question of how he exits," adding the situation was "not sustainable".

The heads of UK and US security services have made an unprecedented joint appearance to warn of the threat from China, BBC reported.

FBI director Christopher Wray said China was the "biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security" and had interfered in politics, including recent elections. 

MI5 head Ken McCallum said his service had more than doubled its work against Chinese activity in the last three years and would be doubling it again. 

MI5 is now running seven times as many investigations related to activities of the Chinese Communist Party compared to 2018, he added. 

The FBI's Wray warned that if China was to forcibly take Taiwan it would "represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen".

The first ever joint public appearance by the two directors came at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London. 

McCallum also said the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party was "game-changing", while Wray called it "immense" and "breath-taking".

Wray warned the audience - which included chief executives of businesses and senior figures from universities - that the Chinese government was "set on stealing your technology" using a range of tools, according to BBC.

He said it posed "an even more serious threat to western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realised". He cited cases in which people linked to Chinese companies out in rural America had been digging up genetically modified seeds which would have cost them billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop themselves. 

He also said China deployed cyber espionage to "cheat and steal on a massive scale", with a hacking programme larger than that of every other major country combined.

The MI5 head said intelligence about cyber threats had been shared with 37 countries and that in May a sophisticated threat against aerospace had been disrupted. 

McCallum also pointed to a series of examples linked to China. These included a British aviation expert who had received an approach online and had been offered an attractive employment opportunity. He travelled to China twice to be "wined and dined" before being asked for technical information on military aircraft by a company which was actually a front for Chinese intelligence officers. 

"That's where we stepped in," said McCallum. He also said one engineering firm had been approached by a Chinese company which led to its technology being taken before the deal was then called off, forcing the company, Smith's Harlow, to go into administration in 2020.

And he pointed to the interference alert issued by Parliament in January about the activities of Christine Lee. He said these types of operations aimed to amplify pro-Chinese communist party voices and silence those that questioned its authority. "It needs to be challenged," the MI5 head said. 

In the US, the FBI director said the Chinese government had directly interfered in a congressional election in New York this spring because they did not want a candidate who was a critic and former protester at Tiananmen Square to be elected, BBC reported.

They had done so, he said, by hiring a private investigator to dig up derogatory information. When they could not find anything, he said there had been an effort to manufacture a controversy using a sex worker before even suggesting staging a car accident.

Wray said China was drawing "all sorts of lessons" from the conflict in Ukraine. This included trying to insulate themselves from any future sanctions of the type that have hit Russia. If China did invade Taiwan, the economic disruption would be much greater than that seen this year, he said, with western investments in China becoming "hostages" and supply chains disrupted. 

"I don't have any reason to think their interest in Taiwan has abated in any fashion," the FBI director told journalists after the speech.

The MI5 head said new legislation would help to deal with the threat but the UK also needed to become a "harder target" by ensuring that all parts of society were more aware of the risks. He said that reform of the visa system had seen over 50 students linked to the Chinese military leaving the UK, according to BBC.

"China has for far too long counted on being everybody's second-highest priority," Wray said, adding: "They are not flying under the radar anymore."

The CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Barsha Man Pun claimed that Janardan Sharma would become the finance minister if the parliamentary committee could not prove him guilty.

Saying that Sharma just paved the way for the Investigation, Pun said that he would return to the post of finance minister if the allegations are not proved.

Talking to journalists at the Parliament building, he said that the CPN (Maoist Centre) would not send a new finance minister until the investigation is completed.

Following widespread criticism and public outcry, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma resigned from his post today.

Sharma was embroiled in controversy after he invited two unauthorized persons to tweak taxes a day before he presented the budget in the Parliament on May 29.