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Hi, I'm VOA's Alexis Strope with your worldwide news update.
The U.S. says about 8,000 North Korean troops now at Ukraine's border are expected in combat soon. AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russians have been training North Korean troops with the intention of fully using them in front-line operations. Blinken also said Vladimir Putin's troops are suffering. "It's desperate. Putin has been throwing more and more Russians into a meat grinder of his own making in Ukraine. Now, he's turning to North Korean troops, and that is a clear sign of weakness." Kremlin forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion into Kursk. The Russian representative at the U.N. Security Council did not respond. I'm Ed Donahue. Israel's Channel 12 said on Thursday a Hezbollah attack on northern Israel killed five people, while Beirut said Israeli strikes had killed six health workers in southern Lebanon. Zachary Goelman from Reuters reports. An Israeli helicopter carrying wounded landed at a hospital in Haifa after Israeli TV reported a Hezbollah rocket attack on the northern town of Metula had killed five people on Thursday. The dead included an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers. Lebanese TV showed plumes of smoke following Israeli strikes in the cities of Tyre and Baalbek. Beirut said the strikes had killed six health workers in southern Lebanon. The continued fighting and rising death toll in the conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters comes as U.S. envoys Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel to press for a truce in Lebanon and in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the envoys that Israel's ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north had to be key elements of any cease-fire. Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in an interview Wednesday he'd spoken to Hochstein and that he hoped for a cease-fire in coming hours or days. That was Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman. This is VOA News. The death toll from devastating flash floods in eastern Spain rose to at least 158 on Thursday. Reuters correspondent ??? reports. A Spanish government minister said dozens and dozens of people were still unaccounted for after a year's worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of the Valencia region on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people in flooded areas to stay at home due to the threat of more stormy weather. He said the government will keep providing resources to search for missing people as long as necessary. Opposition politicians accused the central government of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams. That prompted the Interior Ministry to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection measures. Spain's transport minister said about 50 miles of roads in the eastern region were seriously damaged or impassable. Some blocked by cars containing dead bodies. That was Reuters correspondent ???. Hundreds of Ecuadorians marched on the streets of Quito on Thursday for an anti-government protest blaming President Daniel Noboa for an energy crisis that has seen power outages of up to 14 hours daily. Ecuador's worst drought in over 60 years has plunged the hydropower-dependent country into an energy crisis as diminished reservoirs leave hydroelectric dams offline, pushing the government to impose power cuts to limit the strain on electricity supplies. The European Union Thursday announced a formal investigation into Chinese-founded e-commerce platform Temu on suspicion the site is doing too little to stop the sale of illegal products in a probe that could lead to large fines. VOA's Jeff Caster reports. Temu is extremely popular in the EU despite having entered the continent's market only last year. The platform has on average around 92 million monthly active users in the bloc. At a news conference in Brussels, EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said the probe was being launched because they believe Temu could be in violation of the Digital Services Act, a massive law designed to protect European online consumers. Regnier said Temu could face stiff consequences if it is found to be in violation of the law. "If these suspicions are proven correct, the commission could decide to impose a fine going up to 6 percent of Temu's global annual turnover. The commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation and we invite Temu to cooperate during the process." Jeff Caster, VOA News. Canadian police dismantled what they say is the largest, most sophisticated illicit drug "super lab" in the country. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police believe organized crime ran the operation where there was mass-production and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada and internationally. Officers served search warrants last week on the drug lab in Falkland, British Columbia and associated locations in Surrey, in Metro Vancouver. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website. I'm Alexis Strope, VOA News. |