US basketball star Griner appears in Russian court
More than four months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport for cannabis possession, a Russian court has set the start date of the criminal trial of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner for July 1. The Phoenix Mercury star was also ordered to remain in custody for the duration of her criminal trial. Griner had previously been ordered to remain in pretrial detention until July 2.
news.yahoo.comColombia picks 1st leftist president in tight runoff contest
Colombia will be governed by a leftist president for the first time after former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly defeated a real estate millionaire in a runoff election that underscored people’s disgust with the country’s traditional politicians.
US official says diplomatic push in Asia paying dividends
A top State Department official says the American diplomatic push aimed at countering China’s increasing influence in the Asia-Pacific region appears to be paying dividends, with many nations showing a willingness to partner with the United States.
Salvadoran leader rebuffs Blinken effort to bolster summit
It was the sort of diplomatic rebuff a small country like El Salvador generally can rarely afford to make. In the run-up to this week's Summit of Americas in Los Angeles, senior U.S. officials frantically worked the phones seeking to boost attendance amid threats of a boycott from Mexico's president and other leftist leaders over the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Among those efforts, the State Department sent a message that Secretary of State Antony Blinken wanted to speak with President Nayib Bukele last weekend, a rare show of comity from a Biden administration that for months had been blasting the Central American leader as a power-hungry populist.
news.yahoo.comThis week in photos: Destruction continues, U.S. to leverage Russia-Ukraine bloc against China as the war wages on
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is aiming to lead the international bloc opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China.
Blinken: US to leverage Russia-Ukraine bloc against China
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration is aiming to lead the international bloc opposed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China.
US accuses Russia of weaponizing food in Ukraine war
U_S_ Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accusing Russia of weaponizing food and holding grain for millions of people around the world hostage in order to help accomplish what its invasion of Ukraine has not -- “to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people.”
washingtonpost.comLive updates | UN Chief: War in Ukraine driving world hunger
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he's in “intense contacts” with Russia and other countries to stop escalating global hunger exacerbated by the war in Ukraine by allowing the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensuring Russian food and fertilizers have unrestricted access to world markets.
Mexico will take back more Cubans and Nicaraguans expelled by U.S.
The deal is potentially significant because the Mexican government has more latitude to carry out deportation flights to Cuba and Nicaragua, nations whose frosty relations with Washington severely limit the United States’ ability to return their citizens.
washingtonpost.comUkraine 'can win' the war 'if they have the right equipment': Pentagon chief
Ukraine can win the war against Russia "if they have the right equipment", Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin says as he returns from a trip to Kyiv with US State Secretary Antony Blinken. "The first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so they believe that we can win," Austin told a group of journalists after he and Blinken had both met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "We believe that we can win, they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support." ++ COMPLETES VIDI328W8PK_EN ++
news.yahoo.comPrettier in pink: the push to remake Japan's cherry blossoms
Japan's famed cherry blossom season blankets the country in the delicate white flowers of the prized "somei-yoshino" tree. The popular somei-yoshino strain accounts for more than 90 percent of the cherry trees planted in Japan but some want change as the strain is prone to disease and tends to grow too large to be well managed in urban settings.
news.yahoo.comU.S. to resume diplomatic operations in Ukraine
Diplomats will return to the western city of Lviv, where Ukrainians and foreigners have sought shelter from the violence raging elsewhere in the country, a first step to reopening the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s capital, U.S. officials said.
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