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This is VOA News. I'm Joe Ramsey.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken used a guitar to help boost spirits during an unannounced trip to Ukraine, which is facing a renewed Russian offensive. AP correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. In a Kyiv bar downstage with a local band, played rhythm guitar and sang to a Neil Young classic, the performance came amid what analysts have called one of the most dangerous moments for Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion started. Blinken said billions of dollars in American military aid is on the way. "And that's going to make a real difference." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with Blinken for more Patriot air defense systems. Sagar Meghani, Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday in Kyiv said Russia needs to rebuild Ukraine. "What Putin destroyed, Russia should and must pay to rebuild. It's what international law demands. It's what the Ukrainian people deserve." Blinken also said the U.S. intends to use its power to seize Russian assets. On May 8, ambassadors from European Union countries agreed to use windfall profits from Russian central bank assets frozen in the [E] EU for Ukraine's defense, the Belgian government said. Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a foreign influence bill that sparked weeks of mass protest. Critics see it as a Russian style threat to free speech in the country's aspirations to join the European Union. The bill requires media and non-governmental organizations and other nonprofits to [res...] register as, quote, "pursuing the interests of a foreign power." This is VOA News. Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Rafah on Tuesday, reaching some residential areas of the southern Gazan border city where more than a million people had sought shelter and its forces pounded the enclave's north in some of the fiercest attacks in months. Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against the ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Palestinian aid hauliers said on Tuesday they feared for the security of convoys to Gaza a day after Israeli protesters wrecked trucks carrying humanitarian supplies bound for the enclave, which is facing a severe hunger crisis. Reuters correspondent Christy Kilburn has more. Video circulating on social media on Monday showed protesters throwing supplies from the trucks at the Tarqumiya checkpoint. The head of the Hebron Food Trade Association said Israeli soldiers stood by as the attack took place. A group calling itself Order 9 has claimed Monday's attack and says it acted to stop supplies reaching Hamas, accusing the Israeli government of giving gifts to the Islamist group. The violent protests drew condemnation from the U.S., which has urged Israel to step up deliveries of aid into Gaza. Reuters correspondent Christy Kilburn. Former U.S. President Donald Trump's limited gag order in his hush money case was held up by a higher court on Tuesday. AP Correspondent Julie Walker reports. A New York appellate court denies and dismisses Donald Trump's appeal of his gag order in his hush money criminal trial, finding that Judge Juan Merchan properly determined that Trump's public statements posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses. Lawyers argued the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on the presumptive Republican nominee's free speech rights. In its ruling, a five-judge panel of the intermediate appeals court noted Trump wasn't claiming that the gag order had infringed on his right to a fair trial. At court in Manhattan, Julie Walker. The U.S. Justice Department said late on Tuesday that Boeing had breached its obligations in a 2021 agreement that shielded the plane maker from criminal prosecution over the fatal 737 Max crashes in [28] 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The Justice Department said in a court filing in Texas, Boeing had failed to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics programs to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations. I'm Joe Ramsey, VO... |