KYIV: Ukraine’s head of military intelligence has brushed aside claims that China is considering furnishing arms to Russia, telling US media that he saw no “signs that such things are even being discussed.”
Senior US officials have said as recently as Sunday that they were “confident” China was considering the supply of lethal equipment to Moscow, with a diplomatic pressure campaign underway to discourage it from doing so.
But when asked about the possibility in a lengthy interview with Voice of America published on Monday, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said: “I do not share this opinion.”
“As of now, I do not think that China will agree to the transfer of weapons to Russia,” he said. “I do not see any signs that such things are even being discussed.”
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken aired Washington’s concerns about potential arms shipments in a tense meeting with his Chinese counterpart, and the director of the CIA said in an interview on Sunday that he believed Beijing was still weighing the possibility.
During a visit to Kazakhstan, Blinken again said that China should know the “implications and consequences” of assisting Russia on the military front.
“China can’t have it both ways when it comes to the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Blinken told reporters.
“It can’t be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started,” he said, referring to a recent proposal by Beijing for negotiations.
Blinken said the United States told China that it would impose sanctions on companies or people who support the Russian war effort.
Media reports have cited unidentified US officials as saying China was deciding whether to provide drones and certain munitions to Russia.
Asked specifically about the US assessment, Budanov said: “I am the head of intelligence and I rely, with all due respect, not on the opinions of individual people, but only on facts. I do not see such facts.”
As to where Russia could still procure arms, Budanov said that apart from unconfirmed reports of shipments from North Korea, “almost the only country that actually transfers more or less serious weapons is Iran.”
Ukraine intel chief sees no signs China plans to arm Russia
https://arab.news/2ashz
Ukraine intel chief sees no signs China plans to arm Russia
- Senior US officials have said as recently as Sunday that they were "confident" China was considering the supply of lethal equipment to Moscow
- Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said: "I do not share this opinion"
Rescuers search for missing girls as Texas flood death toll hits 50
- Multiple flash flood warnings remain in place across central Texas after water surged through communities
- The flooding began Friday as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours
HUNT, United States: Rescuers searched Saturday for 27 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating floods that killed 50 people in the US state.
Multiple flash flood warnings remained in place across central Texas after water surged through communities, with the Guadalupe River rise by 26 feet (eight meters) in just 45 minutes.
The Kerr County summer camp where hundreds were staying was left in disarray, with blankets, teddy bears and other belongings caked in mud.
“We have recovered 43 deceased individuals in Kerr County. Among these who are deceased we have 28 adults and 15 children,” said Larry Leitha, the sheriff of the flood-ravaged region.
Multiple victims were also found in other counties, bringing the death toll to 50.
Texas Department of Emergency Management chief Nim Kidd said air, ground and water-based crews were scouring the length of the Guadalupe River for survivors and the bodies of the dead.
“We will continue the search until all those who are missing are found,” he said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was expanding a state disaster declaration and was requesting additional federal resources from President Donald Trump.
The flooding began Friday — the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend — as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that more rain was forecast, and that “excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations.”
In Kerrville on Saturday, the usually calm Guadalupe was flowing fast, its murky waters filled with debris.
“The water reached the top of the trees. About 10 meters or so,” said resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. “Cars, whole houses were going down the river.”
Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual.
But scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves more frequent and more intense.
On Saturday, Sheriff Leitha said 27 children from Camp Mystic in flooded Kerr County were still missing. Around 750 girls were attending the camp along the banks of the Guadalupe.
US media reported that four of the missing girls were dead, citing their families.
The windows of camp cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.
Michael, who only gave AFP his first name, was searching the camp for his eight-year-old daughter.
“I was in Austin and drove down yesterday morning, once we heard about it,” he said, adding that he was hoping for a “miracle.”
The obituary section of the Kerrville community news site was dotted with tributes to victims, including Camp Mystic’s owner and director Dick Eastland.
The director of Heart O’ The Hills summer camp located about a mile from Camp Mystic, Jane Ragsdale, was also confirmed dead.
Elsewhere in Texas, four people were confirmed dead in Travis County, northeast of Kerr, and 13 people were missing, public information office director Hector Nieto said.
A 62-year-old woman’s body was found in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County, along the Concho River, police said.
Two more people died in Burnet County, the area’s emergency management coordinator Derek Marchio said, bringing the state-wide death toll to 50.
Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem said Trump wanted to “upgrade the technologies” at the weather service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“We need to renew this ancient system,” Noem told a press conference.
Scientists and disaster management agencies have criticized Trump for cutting funding and staffing at the NOAA, in charge of weather forecasts and preparedness, and the NWS.
When asked about claims that residents were given insufficient warning of the floods, Noem said she would “carry your concerns back to the federal government.”
Officials and residents alike were shocked by the speed and intensity of the flooding.
“We didn’t know this flood was coming,” Kerr County official Rob Kelly said Friday.
“The predictions were definitely off,” and the rain was “double of what was anticipated,” Kerrville city official Dalton Rice said.
Rice added that rescuers were facing “very difficult” conditions, and declined to give an overall figure for how many were missing.
Soila Reyna, 55, a Kerrville resident who works at a church helping people who lost their belongings, witnessed the devastation unfold.
“It has been years since we had a flood, but nothing like this,” Reyna said.
“Nothing like as catastrophic as this, where it involved children, people and just the loss of people’s houses... It’s just crazy,” she added.
Leaders of growing BRICS group gather for Rio summit
- Expansion of the BRICS opens new space for diplomatic coordination
- Over 30 nations have expressed interest in participating in the BRICS
RIO DE JANEIRO: Leaders of the growing BRICS group of developing nations were set to gather in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, calling for reform of traditional Western institutions while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism in an increasingly fractured world.
With forums such as the G7 and G20 groups of major economies hamstrung by divisions and the disruptive “America First” approach of US President Donald Trump, expansion of the BRICS has opened new space for diplomatic coordination.
“In the face of the resurgence of protectionism, it is up to emerging nations to defend the multilateral trade regime and reform the international financial architecture,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a BRICS business forum on Saturday.
BRICS nations now represent over half the world’s population and 40 percent of its economic output, Lula noted.
The BRICS group gathered leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China at its first summit in 2009. The bloc later added South Africa and last year included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as full members. This is the first leaders’ summit to include Indonesia.
“The vacuum left by others ends up being filled almost instantly by the BRICS,” said a Brazilian diplomat who asked not to be named. Although the G7 still concentrates vast power, the source added, “it doesn’t have the predominance it once did.”
However, there are questions about the shared goals of an increasingly heterogenous BRICS group, which has grown to include regional rivals along with major emerging economies.
Stealing some thunder from this year’s summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to send his prime minister in his place. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending online due to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Still, many heads of state will gather for discussions at Rio’s Museum of Modern Art on Sunday and Monday, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Over 30 nations have expressed interest in participating in the BRICS, either as full members or partners.
Growing clout, complexity
Brazil, which also hosts the United Nations climate summit in November, has seized on both gatherings to highlight how seriously developing nations are tackling climate change, while Trump has slammed the brakes on US climate initiatives.
Both China and the UAE signaled in meetings with Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad in Rio that they plan to invest in a proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility, according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions about funding conservation of endangered forests around the world.
Expansion of the BRICS has added diplomatic weight to the gathering, which aspires to speak for developing nations across the Global South, strengthening calls for reforming global institutions such as the United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund.
The growth of the bloc has also increased the challenges to reaching consensus on contentious geopolitical issues.
Ahead of the summit, negotiators struggled to find shared language for a joint statement about the bombardment of Gaza, the Israel-Iran conflict and a proposed reform of the Security Council, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to speak openly.
To overcome differences among African nations regarding the continent’s proposed representative to a reformed Security Council, the group agreed to endorse seats for Brazil and India while leaving open which country should represent Africa’s interests, a person familiar with the talks said.
The BRICS will also continue their thinly veiled criticism of Trump’s US tariff policy. At an April ministerial meeting, the bloc expressed concern about “unjustified unilateral protectionist measures, including the indiscriminate increase of reciprocal tariffs.”
Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues
- US projected to face a physician shortage in the next 11 years, and foreign medical residents fill critical gaps in the health care system
- More than 6,600 foreign-born international medical residents matched into US programs in 2025 — the highest on record
Some hospitals in the US are without essential staff because international doctors who were set to start their medical training this week were delayed by the Trump administration’s travel and visa restrictions.
It’s unclear exactly how many foreign medical residents were unable to start their assignments, but six medical residents interviewed by The Associated Press say they’ve undergone years of training and work only to be stopped at the finish line by what is usually a procedural step.
“I don’t want to give up,” said a permanent Canadian resident who matched to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Harrisburg but had her visa denied because she is a citizen of Afghanistan. She requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “But the situation also seems so helpless.”
Initially, the medical community was worried that hundreds of positions — many in hospitals in low-income or rural areas of the US — could be affected. The pause on interviews for J-1 visas for approved work or study-related programs was lifted in mid-June.
The national nonprofit that facilitates the residency match process said the visa situation is resolving, but it will take weeks to know with confidence how many medical residents have had the start of their careers derailed because they got their visa too late or were blocked by President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries, according to people who coordinate the residents’ training.
Four foreign medical residents told the AP that US embassies have been slow to open up interview slots — and some have not opened any.
“You lose out on the time you could have used to treat patients,” said one resident from Pakistan, who matched to an internal medicine program in Massachusetts and requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.
Thousands of foreign medical residents fill gaps in US hospitals
The US is projected to face a physician shortage in the next 11 years, per the Association of American Medical Colleges, and foreign medical residents fill critical gaps in the health care system. More than 6,600 foreign-born international medical residents matched into US programs in 2025 — the highest on record — and another 300 filled positions that were vacant after the match process was complete.
Not all of those residents were affected by visa issues or the travel ban on foreign nationals from countries including Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan.
International medical graduates often take jobs in places where US medical trainees tend not to go, said Donna Lamb, president of the National Resident Matching Program.
“It’s not just that they’re coming in and they want to work in big, flashy centers on the coast,” Lamb said. “They’re truly providing health care for all of America.”
Foreign medical residents work in specialties that US applicants aren’t as eager to apply to. For example, international candidates make up almost 40 percent of residents in internal medicine, which specializes in the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
“The residents are the backbone of the entire hospital,” said Dr. Zaid Alrashid from Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in New York, which has medical residents from almost every continent. Most received their visas prior to the pause but a few were caught up in delays.
Two residents from India who spoke on condition of anonymity have not been able to get an appointment at any US embassies there despite the J-1 visa pause being lifted.
Another resident from Egypt just secured a visa appointment for mid-August but is worried her program may not be willing to wait for her. She’s already paid her security deposit for an apartment in Texas to live during her residency.
“I don’t know when this situation will be resolved,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding she hasn’t been eating or sleeping well.
Hospitals waiting for residents to arrive
In California, leaders at two graduate medical education programs said they have a small number of residents caught up in J-1 visa delays. Both spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns for the doctors who are still trying to get visas.
A residency leader at one large health care system said two doctors in its 150-resident program are delayed, adding they could start late or defer to next year. A 135-person program at a California public health system told the AP that one resident has yet to arrive, though he was finally scheduled for a visa interview.
“We are not going to breathe easy until he’s here in our hospital,” the second leader said.
As of Wednesday, Lamb’s matching program had received fewer than 20 requests to defer or cancel residency contracts.
Worried about losing their spots if they defer, many foreign medical residents may keep trying to get to the US and start their residencies late, said Dr. Sabesan Karuppiah, a past member of the American Medical Association’s International Medical Graduates Governing Council and former director of a large residency program.
Some hospitals may struggle at this point to replace the residents who don’t make it, leaving fewer people to care for the same number of patients, said Kimberly Pierce Burke, executive director of the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers.
Foreign medical trainees who’ve made it into the US remain on edge about their situations, Karuppiah said.
“I can tell you the word on the street is: ‘Do not leave the country,’” he said, adding that people are missing out on important events, seeing sick parents or even getting married. “Everybody’s scared to just leave, not knowing what’s going to happen.”
Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
- The Anti-Defamation League said Trump’s use of the word “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he didn’t know the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders.
Trump told reporters early Friday after returning from an event in Iowa that he had “never heard it that way” and “never heard that” the term was considered an offensive stereotype about Jews.
Shylock refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor.
The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, said in a statement that the term “evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous. President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible.”
Democrat Joe Biden, while vice president, said in 2014 that he had made a “poor choice” of words a day after he used the term in remarks to a legal aid group.
Trump’s administration has made cracking down on antisemitism a priority. His administration said it is screening for antisemitic activity when granting immigration benefits and its fight with Harvard University has centered on allegations from the White House that the school has tolerated antisemitism.
But the Republican president has also had a history of playing on stereotypes about Jewish people.
He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that “you want to control your politicians” and suggested the audience used money to exert control.
Before he kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump drew widespread criticism for dining at his Florida club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist.
Last year, Trump made repeated comments accusing Jewish Americans who identify as Democrats of disloyalty because of the Democratic leaders’ criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critics said it perpetuated an antisemitic trope about Jews having divided loyalties and there being only one right way to be Jewish.
On Thursday night in his speech in Iowa, Trump used the term while talking about his signature legislation that was passed by Congress earlier in the day.
“No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing some from, in some cases, a fine banker and in some cases shylocks and bad people,” he said.
When a reporter later asked about the word’s antisemitic association and his intent, Trump said; “No, I’ve never heard it that way. To me, a shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates. I’ve never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”
The Anti-Defamation League said Trump’s use of the word “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States.”
US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling
- “This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday
WASHINGTON: Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have now reached the Trump administration’s intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State Department advises against travel to due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”
The immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan arrived in South Sudan on Friday after a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to relocate them in a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the US Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the US
“This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday announcing the men’s arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war.
The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the transfer of the men who had been put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan. That meant that the South Sudan transfer could be completed after the flight was detoured to a base in Djibouti, where they men were held in a converted shipping container. The flight was detoured after a federal judge found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow the men a chance to challenge the removal.
The court’s conservative majority had ruled in June that immigration officials could quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger.
A flurry of court hearings on Independence Day resulted a temporary hold on the deportations while a judge evaluated a last-ditch appeal by the men’s before the judge decided he was powerless to halt their removals and that the person best positioned to rule on the request was a Boston judge whose rulings led to the initial halt of the administration’s effort to begin deportations to South Sudan.
By Friday evening, that judge had issued a brief ruling concluding the Supreme Court had tied his hands.
The men had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said. Authorities have reached agreements with other countries to house immigrants if authorities cannot quickly send them back to their homelands.
