Putin thanks North Korea for joining war with Ukraine, U.S. military deploys anti-ship missile launcher for first time on Batan Island near Taiwan, and the ongoing battle with Agent Orange.
1. Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea Monday for fighting alongside his troops against Ukrainian forces and promised not to forget their sacrifices, hours after North Korea confirmed its deployment for the first time. The back-to-back Russian and North Korean statements — which illustrate their expanding military partnerships — came two days after Russia said its troops have fully reclaimed the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last year. Ukrainian officials have denied the claim, insisting that the operation in certain areas of Kursk is continuing. In a statement posted on the website of the Kremlin, Putin praised North Korean soldiers who he said “shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our Motherland as their own.”
2. The U.S. military has deployed an anti-ship missile launcher for the first time on Batan Island in the Philippines, as Marines unloaded the high-precision weapon on the northern tip of the archipelago, just a sea border away from Taiwan. U.S. and Philippine forces separately unleashed a barrage of missile and artillery fire that shot down several drones acting as hostile aircraft in live-fire drills on Sunday in Zambales province facing the disputed South China Sea. The mock battle scenarios over the weekend in the annual Balikatan exercises between the U.S. and its oldest treaty ally in Asia, the Philippines, not only simulated real-life war. They were also staged near major geopolitical hotspots, which have become delicate frontlines in the regional rivalry between China and the U.S. under former President Joe Biden and now Donald Trump.
3. The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces. But millions of people still face daily battles with its chemical legacy. Nguyen Thanh Hai, 34, is one of millions with disabilities linked to Agent Orange. Born with severe developmental challenges, it’s a struggle for him to complete tasks others take for granted: buttoning the blue shirt he wears to a special school in Da Nang, practicing the alphabet, drawing shapes or forming simple sentences. Hai grew up in Da Nang, the site of a U.S. air base where departing troops left behind huge amounts of Agent Orange that have lingered for decades, leeching into food and water supplies in areas like Hai’s village and affecting generations of residents.
4. A Palestinian diplomat has told the United Nations’ top court that Israel is killing and displacing civilians and targeting aid workers in Gaza in a “man-made catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.” Ambassador Ammar Hijazi was speaking Monday at the opening of a week of hearings at the International Court of Justice into Israel’s legal obligations to facilitate aid in the occupied territories. Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff.
5. House Armed Services Committee members are expected to mark up their section of the congressional reconciliation package this week, potentially adding $150 billion in military spending in coming years. The reconciliation package — the broad framework of which has already been adopted by the Republican-led House and Senate — is expected to be up for chamber votes sometime next month. Committee work on individual sections of the spending plan are scheduled for the next two weeks, following lawmakers’ return from a two-week spring recess. While many agencies are expected to see sharp spending decreases under the plan, Republican lawmakers have backed funding increases for military programs.
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