No Word from White House on Whether Biden to Meet Netanyahu in Washington

 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including one holding an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. (AFP)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including one holding an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. (AFP)
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No Word from White House on Whether Biden to Meet Netanyahu in Washington

 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including one holding an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. (AFP)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including one holding an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. (AFP)

The White House declined to say on Sunday whether President Joe Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister visits Washington next month to address the US Congress.

"I don't have anything to announce today," Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," adding the two men were in regular communication.

"He's coming to address the Congress. The president talks to him all the time," Sullivan said.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24. Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza, but there have been tensions between the two men over how Israel is conducting the war.

Biden, who is running for re-election in November, has faced criticism over his support for Israel from his left-leaning political base as the Palestinian death toll mounts from Israel's assault.

Sullivan said he hoped a ceasefire and hostage deal would be in place that by the time Netanyahu came to Washington. Hamas must simply say "yes" to the proposal on the table, he said.

Biden, who returns to the United States from France later on Sunday, has welcomed the rescue by Israeli forces of four hostages held by Hamas and vowed to keep working until all hostages were released and a ceasefire achieved.



Video Published by Ukraine Purports to Show North Korean Soldiers in Russia

A TV screen shows file images of North Korean soldiers during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows file images of North Korean soldiers during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP)
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Video Published by Ukraine Purports to Show North Korean Soldiers in Russia

A TV screen shows file images of North Korean soldiers during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows file images of North Korean soldiers during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP)

A video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian military fatigues and gear aims to intimidate Ukrainian forces and marks a new chapter in the 2 1/2-year war with the introduction of another country into the battlefield, Ukrainian officials said.

In the video, which was verified by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which operates under the Culture and Information Ministry, presumably North Korean soldiers stand in line to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen. The Associated Press could not verify the video independently.

“We received this video from our own sources. We cannot provide additional verification from the sources who provided it to us due to security concerns,” said Ihor Solovey, head of the center.

“The video clearly shows North Korean citizens being given Russian uniforms under the direction of the Russian military,” he said. “For Ukraine, this video is important because it is the first video evidence that shows North Korea participating in the war on the side of Russia. Now not only with weapons and shells but also with personnel.”

The center claims the footage was shot by a Russian soldier in recent days.

It comes after the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said in local media reports that about 11,000 North Korean infantrymen were currently training in eastern Russia. He predicted they would be ready to join fighting by November. At least 2,600 would be sent to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion in August, he was quoted as saying.

“The emergence of any number of new soldiers is a problem because we will simply need new, additional weapons to destroy them all,” Solovey told AP. “The dissemination of this video is important as a signal to the world community that with two countries officially at war against Ukraine, we will need more support to repel this aggression.”

The presence of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, if true, would be another proof of intensified military ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Last summer, they signed a strategic partnership treaty that commits both countries to provide military assistance. North Korean weapons have already been used in the Ukraine war.