North Korea to skip the Olympics for the 1st time in 3 decades
CBSN
Tokyo — Citing concerns over the coronavirus, North Korea has announced that it will not join the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which start in late July. It would be the first time North Korea has declined to participate in an Olympics since it boycotted the Seoul Games in 1988.
Japan was apparently blindsided by the announcement from North Korea's Olympic Committee that it wouldn't be sending teams to the Tokyo Games. South Korea's government expressed disappointment over losing the chance to re-start contacts with Kim Jong Un's regime on the sidelines of the Games.Zhytomyr, Ukraine — Exactly 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry accused Ukrainian forces on Tuesday of firing six U.S.-made and -supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian region of Bryansk. If confirmed, it could be the first time Ukrainian troops had taken advantage of President Biden easing restrictions over the weekend on Ukraine's use of the U.S.-made missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russian territory.
President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-made and supplied missiles deeper into Russia — a major policy shift announced over the weekend after months of intense lobbying by Kyiv — has drawn a furious response from Moscow. While there was no immediate reaction directly from the man who launched the nearly three-year war on his neighboring nation, lawmakers aligned with President Vladimir Putin in Russia said Monday that the move was unacceptable and warned it could lead to a third world war.
Tel Aviv — After more than a year of bombing and homelessness, Gazans are looking to a new administration in Washington for help. President-elect Donald Trump's election victory has raised hopes and fears among the five million residents of the Palestinian territories — the warn-torn Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.