US News

• The Senate Armed Services Committee has added $45 billion to President Joe Biden’s military spending plans in its annual defense policy bill. This week’s boost brings the bill’s topline budget figure to $847 billion. [Link]
• A major bill expanding health care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic military burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan passed the US Senate. [Link]
• The House Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee approved a budget of $2.9 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), $417 million higher than the White House’s original budget request for the agency and $334 million above its fiscal year 2022 allotment. [Link]
• The Department of State has imposed visa restrictions on five Cuban officials. [Link]

Russia

• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says Germany announced it will provide three Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and guided MLRS munitions to Ukraine and Slovakia will send Mi-series helicopters. [Link]
• Zelensky said “There is a direct correlation: the more powerful weapons we receive, the faster we can liberate our people, our land. Russian aggression against Ukraine is aggression against all of Europe, against all united Europe, against every one of us, against our values.” [Link]
• President Biden was not happy with the rhetoric from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken following their visit to Kiev in April. [Link]
• Rep. Tom Malinowski said the US has “one overriding goal today that is more important than anything else, and that is beating Putin.” [Link]
• National security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated that the US would not pressure Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia. [Link]
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley said Ukraine is losing approximately 100 soldiers in addition to up to 300 wounded per day due. Ukrainian officials have reported far higher numbers. [Link]
• The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and Romania visited Kiev on Thursday and pledged support for Ukraine. [Link]
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says “Ukraine at the end of March set out on paper a negotiating position that suited the Russian Federation as a basis for work” but since mid-April, complete silence has been established in negotiations with Ukraine, Kiev does not respond to proposals. [Link]
• Russian gas-seller Gazprom blamed a reduced output through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on a maintenance issue. Germany said, “The gas flows from the Nord Stream 1 were throttled yesterday from 11:00 p.m. to around 40% of the maximum capacity.” [Link]
• A third American who traveled to Ukraine during Russia’s military invasion appears to have gone missing, the State Department confirms. [Link]

China

• Chinese President Xi Jinping assured his Russian President Vladimir Putin of his support for Moscow on “sovereignty and security” during a call Wednesday. [Link]
• The US and China are considering a call between Biden and Xi as early as July. The leaders have not spoken since March 18. [Link]
• Senators Bob Menendez and Lindsey Graham introduced the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 to significantly enhance support for Taiwan, including threatening severe sanctions against China for any aggression against Taiwan, and would provide $4.5 billion in foreign military financing over the next four years, as well as designate Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally.” [Link]
• Taiwanese officials claim that Taiwan has the missile capabilities to strike Beijing. [Link]
• US lawmakers introduced a bill that would establish a program to train Royal Australian Navy officers in operating nuclear-powered submarines that the US promised to Australia in the AUKUS agreement. [Link]

Middle East

• Israeli police said they had concluded an internal investigation into violence at the funeral of slain Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh without releasing any findings. [Link]
• The US sanctioned three Iranian companies but focused on a company called Triliance Petrochemical, which was reported, with the help of other companies, to facilitate Iranian sales in East Asia. [Link]
• US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides ruled out any US move to delist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the terrorist blacklist. [Link]
• Iraqi cleric and influential political leader Moqtada al-Sadr said his movement would boycott the next election if those corrupt groups participate. [Link]
• According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Israel has been secretly coordinating with the US on many of its airstrikes in Syria, and senior officials at US Central Command have reviewed and approved many plans in recent years. [Link]
• A Kurdish, US-backed Syrian rebel group reports they were attacked with drone strikes overnight. The group could not identify the attacker. [Link]
• Syrian farmers have been struggling in the northeast province of al-Hasakah due to a drought and a ban on wheat sales to government-controlled areas of the territory imposed by US-backed Kurdish authorities. [Link]

Africa 

• Aid groups say hundreds of thousands of Somalis are at risk of starving to death, while hundreds of children are already dying of malnutrition. An estimated one-half of its 16 million people facing crisis-level food insecurity. [Link]
• French drone strikes have killed nearly 40 fighters earlier traveling on motorcycles near Niger’s border with Burkina Faso, France’s military said. [Link]
• A joint report by the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization said 15 million people face acute food insecurity, over 30% of the country’s population. [Link]