Month: April 2024

washington — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has suggested that the U.S.-U.K.-Australia trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS may soon be expanded to include other Indo-Pacific nations. AUKUS was established in 2021 in the face of China’s increasingly assertive presence in the Indo-Pacific. Talks about other countries joining the group or participating in what …

Read more “US official talks AUKUS expansion ahead of summit with Japan”

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NATO members pledged to boost Ukraine’s air defenses against Russian attacks as the alliance marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, following a two-day summit of foreign ministers in Brussels. Members, however, did not agree on any specific military aid deal for Kyiv, as Henry Ridgwell reports. …

state department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that more aid is urgently needed for Ukraine following meetings with NATO foreign ministers, amid growing concerns that Russia is building up its defense industrial base with support from China, North Korea and Iran. “Based on what I heard today … everyone, including the …

Read more “Blinken urges more aid for Ukraine as NATO increases resourcing efforts”

Madrid — Spain’s announcement this week that it will recognize a Palestinian sovereign state by July could mark a major turning point with other European states poised to follow Madrid’s lead, analysts say. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Spanish media Tuesday Spain would recognize Palestine diplomatically by July. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares …

Read more “Spain’s decision to recognize Palestinian state marks potential turning point for Europe”

White House — President Joe Biden welcomed NATO’s 75th anniversary Thursday, as the security alliance hosted new member Sweden for the first time at a major meeting – and as Ukraine eagerly hopes for an invitation to join at an upcoming Washington summit.  Biden, in a statement, welcomed the recent addition of new members Finland and …

Read more “Biden heralds 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding”

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron believes France and its Western and African allies “could have stopped” Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but did not have the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, the presidency said Thursday. In a video message to be published Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the …

Read more “Macron believes France, allies ‘could have stopped’ 1994 Rwanda genocide”

Moscow — Russia’s FSB security service said Thursday it had arrested three more people suspected of helping plot last month’s deadly terror attack on a Moscow concert hall, state media reported. The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, in which more than 140 were killed when gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall …

Read more “Russia arrests 3 more over Moscow concert hall attack “

Thirty-year-old American and ех-Marine from California Wolfgang Hagarty volunteered to join Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the summer of 2022. He participated in the liberation of the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions in 2022 and is currently fighting as a member of an air reconnaissance unit in Donbas. Anna Kosstutschenko met with him. VOA footage and video …

Read more “Ex-US Marine explains what drove him to join Ukraine’s fight”

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Britain has called for an immediate investigation into an Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers in the Gaza strip, amid mounting global anger over Monday’s attack. Three of the dead were British citizens, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

From the start of the war in Ukraine, drones have played an important role in carrying out surveillance missions and long-range attacks. Since last year, a new type of drone has come into the picture and is changing how war is waged on the front lines. They are called First Person View drones and, as …

Read more “First Person View drones in Ukraine usher in a new era of warfare”

London — Britain has called for an immediate investigation into an Israeli airstrike Monday on an aid convoy that killed seven aid workers, including three British citizens, in Gaza. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rejected calls to suspend arms shipments to Israel amid mounting global anger over the attack. The bodies of six of the seven …

Read more “Britain demands investigation into Israeli airstrike that killed aid workers”

New York — Children are being denied access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance in conflict zones around the world in a blatant disregard for international law, a senior U.N. official said Wednesday. “Let me be very clear: The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain key provisions requiring the facilitation of humanitarian …

Read more “UN says children denied access to aid in world’s war zones”

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Helsinki — A 12-year-old suspected of shooting and killing a classmate and wounding two girls at a school in Finland said he had been motivated by bullying, police said Wednesday. Flags flew at half-staff as the northern European country observed a day of mourning a day after the boy opened fire in a classroom in Vantaa. …

Read more “Police say bullying motivated Finnish school shooting”

Turkey’s nationwide local elections this week dealt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party its worst electoral defeat, signaling what analysts say is a momentous change in Turkey’s political direction. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

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Taipei, Taiwan — Specious theories designed to implicate Ukraine and the United States in connection with the late March terror attack in Russia are spreading on China’s state media outlets and on its heavily censored social media platform Weibo. False claims that paint Kyiv and Washington as masterminds of the attack have fueled debate in Russia …

Read more “Chinese state, social media echo Russian propaganda on concert hall attack”

STATE DEPARTMENT — NATO foreign ministers meeting Wednesday in Brussels are expected to discuss a proposal to create a $100 billion fund for supporting Ukraine’s military. The plan, put forward by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, also includes making NATO more directly involved in coordinating military assistance being provided by member countries, a role that has been …

Read more “NATO foreign ministers to discuss proposed military fund for Ukraine”

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LONDON — The suspects who allegedly stabbed a journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London last week fled the country after the attack, police said on Tuesday. Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter for Persian-language Iran International, was stabbed in his leg last Friday afternoon outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London. He was treated …

Read more “UK police: Suspects in attack on Iranian journalist fled country”