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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
Military sources said Russian and Syrian jets struck the rebel-held city of Idlib in northern Syria on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad vowed to crush the insurgents who had swept into the city of Aleppo. Reuters correspondent Alex Cohen has more. Videos released by the Syrian volunteer group, the White Helmets, on Sunday showed blown-out buildings and vehicles in a residential area of Idlib and injured people being moved into ambulances. Military sources say Russian and Syrian jets struck the rebel-held city in the north of the country on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad vowed to crush insurgents who had swept into the city of Aleppo. Idlib province has fallen completely under rebel control in the boldest rebel assault for years in a civil war where the front lines had largely been frozen since 2020. Insurgents swept into the city of Aleppo on Friday night, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to Assad in years. Army sources said Syrian troops who had withdrawn from the city were now regrouping, and reinforcements were also being sent to help in the counterattack. Reuters correspondent Alex Cohen. U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members. The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges. This is VOA News. The White House says negotiations continue to free Israeli hostages, including an American-Israeli man just shown in a video. AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says even though the progress is being kept under wraps, negotiations to free the remaining Israeli hostages are still taking place. "President Biden pledged, coming off the announcement of the Lebanon cease-fire, that we would be working round the clock to produce a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza. We are working to do that." He was on NBC's "Meet the Press." Sullivan says he's spoken with hostages' relatives, including the family of 20-year-old Israeli-American Idan Alexander, who was just shown in a Hamas video. "That video was a cruel reminder of Hamas's brutality and of the fact that they are holding so many hostages from so many countries." I'm Jackie Quinn. Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te visited Hawaii over the weekend, [a two-day trip in the] a two-day trip to the U.S. state while in transit to the South Pacific. AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports. The stopover in Hawaii and one planned for the territory of Guam have drawn fierce criticism from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory. China objects to official exchanges between the self-ruled democracy of Taiwan and the U.S., the island's biggest backer and military provider. There were no high-ranking U.S. or Hawaii state officials to greet Lai at the Honolulu hotel where supporters cheered in Mandarin, some waving Taiwanese flags. He visited Hawaii's leading museum of natural history and native Hawaiian culture, Bishop Museum. Lai is on a week-long trip to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau. I'm Karen Chammas. U.N. plastic talks collapsed Monday as countries failed to agree to targets to curb plastic pollution. VOA's Christina Menenti reports. Countries negotiating a global treaty to curb plastic pollution failed to reach an agreement on Monday with over 100 nations wanting to cap production, while a handful of oil producers were prepared only to target plastic waste. The fifth U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting to yield a legally binding global treaty in Busan, South Korea, was meant to be the final one. However, countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions to a future meeting. The most divisive issues included capping plastic production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty. Christina Menenti, VOA News. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |