International Edition - Voice of America VOA

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday it was moving troops to new positions in the north of Kharkiv region in response to heavy Russian fire and advances. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Ukraine saying Russia should pay for rebuilding Ukraine. After his diplomatic duties he sang and played the guitar at a night club in Kyiv on Tuesday. U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicles. We talk to Kyle Handley, an economist who specializes in international trade at the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. And robots are taking to the seas – performing jobs that are dangerous and mundane.

Russia pummeled towns and villages in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday, days after launching a surprise ground offensive over the border that has forced thousands to evacuate. Russia is becoming more aggressive in the Arctic in and around a remote Norwegian community. Polls closed in India for the fourth phase of its massive general elections on Monday after voters turned out to cast their ballots across several regions. And the release of a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and able to interact across text and vision is a big step forward in Artificial Intelligence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a new defense minister, nominating civilian Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specializes in economics, for the job more than two years into the Ukraine war. Putin wants Sergei Shoigu, defense minister since 2012 and a long-standing ally, to become the secretary of Russia's Security Council replacing incumbent Nikolai Patrushev. We talk to Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities and Sergey Sanovich is a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant “a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians” but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency. Israeli forces pushed deeper into Rafah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a U.S. threat to withhold some arms would not prevent Israel from continuing its offensive in Gaza, indicating it might proceed with an invasion of the packed city of Rafah against the wishes of its closest ally. The United States warned on Thursday that Israel will be dealing a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for an all-out assault on Rafah. We talk to University of California San Diego professor Michael Provence who teaches modern Middle East history, focusing on the 20th century Arab East. Displaced Palestinians are fleeing Rafah, fearing an Israeli ground offensive is imminent. And a girl born deaf can hear after breakthrough gene-therapy.

In an interview with CNN, U.S. President Joe Biden said he will halt shipments of weapons to Israel if it invades Rafah. We talk to Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities about this. Washington, DC police began clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday morning. Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Budapest late on Wednesday marking the third stop on his first European tour in five years. And If taking out the trash isn't on your list of favorite things to do; AI robots may soon be able to help with that chore or any other mundane physical task you can think of.

Israeli troops seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation, as fears mount of a full-scale invasion of the southern city as talks with Hamas over a cease-fire and hostage release remain on a knife's edge. We talk to James Gelvin a professor in the department of history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has written extensively on the history of the modern Middle East. Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his two-day visit to France Tuesday — his first trip to Europe in five years. TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. And what is that sperm whale saying? Scientists say they may have found a path to understand their language.