International Edition - Voice of America VOA

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.

While in Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Hamas’ response to the proposed cease-fire proposal includes “numerous” changes – some of which are “workable, some are not.” It comes on the same day that a United Nations inquiry finds that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes at the onset of the war. In this U.S. presidential campaign, guns continue to divide Americans. President Joe Biden wants a ban on assault weapons. His opponent, Donald Trump, says Biden is threatening the constitutional rights of gun owners. Inter-Korean relations have sunk to their lowest level in years, as both countries intensify cross-border psychological warfare. Australia’s national science agency warns a lack of scientists specialized in plant breeding could lead to "dire" food security implications around the world.

A 12-member jury in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court found Hunter Biden guilty on all three counts against him, making him the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. Hamas' response to a proposed Gaza cease-fire deal. The Humboldt penguin population has dramatically decreased in areas along the central coast of Chile, making them one of the most vulnerable of the world's 18 penguin species. And a private club in Los Angeles – where the dogs are the members, and the humans are the guests.