German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Biden met at the White House Friday to discuss the allies' support for Ukraine against the ongoing Russian assault.
Why it matters: It was Scholz's first visit to the White House since the invasion began and comes shortly after Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to Ukraine on the war's one-year mark.
There is a "growing consensus" among European Union member states to designate the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization over its military support for Russia in the war in Ukraine, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told Axios.
Why it matters: Until recently, most of the EU focus was on Iran's nuclear program and not on the IRGC military activity abroad. But the bloc has been seriously alarmed by Iran's move to supply Russia with drones for its war in Ukraine, as Axios previously reported.
A Belarusian court found Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, the country's most prominent human rights activist, guilty of smuggling and financing protests and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Why it matters: Human rights organizations and several European nations criticized the case as politically motivated.
Two American men were arrested in Kansas City Thursday on suspicion of illegally exporting aviation technology to Russia, prosecutors announced.
Driving the news: Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 59, and Douglas Edward Robertson, 55, were arrested in an investigation involving the Department of Justice's KleptoCapture task force, an interagency group dedicated to enforcing sanctions in response to the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. abortion rights advocates this week met with their Latin American counterparts in Washington, D.C., to learn about the successful strategies they've used to dramatically increase access in several countries
The big picture: While U.S. courts and states have gutted or chipped away at abortion rights, a movement in Latin America known as the "Green Wave" (Marea Verde) has helped increase abortion access in several countries across the majority Catholic region through protests and legal action.
Children in Texas who live along the U.S.-Mexico border have a 30% higher risk of death within five years of being diagnosed with the most common type of childhood cancer compared to those living elsewhere in the state, a new study found.
The big picture: Childhood cancer is the second-leading cause of death for kids under 16 years of age, and people who live in Texas border communities — about 80% are Hispanic — have long had less access to health care.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken unexpectedly met his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi Thursday.
Why it matters: It was Blinken's first in-person conversation with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago.
SpaceX launched four new crewmembers on a journey to the International Space Station Thursday.
Why it matters: The mission marks SpaceX's seventh crewed trip to the space station for NASA, continuing to affirm the company as one of the space agency's most important partners.
