International Edition - Voice of America VOA

South Korea says it will consider sending arms to Ukraine after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war. We talk to Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history at George Washington University. Donald Sutherland, one of Canada's most versatile and gifted actors, who charmed and enthralled audiences in films such as "M*A*S*H," "Klute," "Ordinary People" and the "Hunger Games,” has died at the age of 88.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam early on Thursday for talks with the country's communist leaders after concluding a defense pact with North Korea It is his final stop on a two-nation tour of Asia. The head of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said on Wednesday that the Israeli military is carrying out the "extermination" of Palestinians. From Mecca to Maryland global heat waves create dangerous conditions. And Naomi Campbell becomes the first model to be featured in an exhibition at the V&A museum in London.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in North Korea for his first visit in 24 years and pledged strong support. We talk to Naoko Aoki, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. June 19th is the U.S. holiday known as Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when slavery ended in the former Confederate states of the American Civil War. U.S. lawmakers grilled Boeing's chief executive Tuesday about the company's plans to fix its manufacturing problems. Nvidia passes Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, an Israeli official said on Monday, in a widely expected move that came after the departure from government of the centrist former military chief Benny Gantz. President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as a record number of NATO allies are expected to reach the alliance's recommended defense funding amid the war in Ukraine. In Namibia, German charity Skate-Aid has built a skate park on the National Institute for Special Education campus.

Scores of participants attending a two-day international summit in Switzerland on peace in Ukraine, signed a document saying that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” should be the basis for a peace agreement with Russia and that Kyiv should enter dialogue with Moscow on ending the war. Texas Christian University professor Ralph Carter provides analysis. Israel’s military announced a “tactical pause” Sunday in daytime fighting around a critical aid route in Gaza. The plan falls short of a total cease-fire outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden. VOA’s Ricki Rosen in Tel Aviv shares the details.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement on Thursday aimed at bolstering Ukraine's defense against Russian invaders and getting Ukraine closer to NATO membership. Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies agreed an outline of a deal on Thursday to provide $50 billion in loans for Ukraine using interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen after Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbor in 2022. We talk to Sergey Sanovich - a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. And Chinese scientists at a giant panda sanctuary in Ya’an say efforts to introduce the captive-bred bears back into the wild are “paying off” and that the wild giant panda population is growing.