WORLD NEWS June 8: Japan and the US conduct air force drills; Russia hands over soldiers’ bodies to Kiev

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – Photo: REUTERS

* June 7, The U.S. Treasury Department prohibits its money managers from buying any debt or shares of the U.S. Treasury Russia on secondary markets, in the latest sanctions against Moscow. Previously, the US banned these transactions in the primary market.

On the same day, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US is closely monitoring any attempt to circumvent US sanctions on Russia through the use of gold. According to Yellen, such transactions are punishable under an executive order issued by President Joe Biden to sanction Russia.

* Ukraine’s military says Russia has handed over the bodies of 210 soldiers to Kievmost of them died defending the city of Mariupol.

According to Reuters news agency, many Ukrainian civilians and soldiers of the Azov Battalion have been besieged in the underground tunnels of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant for weeks, as Russia tried to capture the city. The Ukrainian soldiers finally surrendered last month and were captured by Russia.

Volunteers from a Danish NGO carry out a search for explosives with an Ebinger metal detector outside the town of Ichnia, in the Chernihiv region, Ukraine, June 7 – Photo: REUTERS

* Lugansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian forces are having a hard time stopping Russian attacks in the city center of Sievierodonestk, but Moscow’s forces have not yet taken control of the city.

In a statement on social media, Mr. Gaidai also said that the Russian army continuously shelled the city of Lysychansk, located across the River Siverskiy Donets.

* KCNA news agency said, on June 8, North Korea recorded more than 54,610 new people with fever symptoms amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

* June 7, Japan and the US practiced fighter jets over the Sea of ​​Japan 2nd time in 2 weeks. The operation comes just days after North Korea’s latest missile launches and there are growing fears the North will conduct a nuclear test.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said the drills were intended to demonstrate the “strong will of Japan and the United States to respond to all situations” and “close cooperation” between the two countries, as well as to increase strengthen the alliance between the two sides.

The ministry’s press release said that four F-15 fighter jets from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Chitose base in Hokkaido and two F-16 fighters from the US Air Force base in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture participated in “a series of tactical training exercises”.

Three F-15 fighters (front) of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and two F-16s of the US Air Force during a joint exercise on June 7 – Photo: KYODO

* June 7, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has begun a two-day visit to Turkey to negotiate on Ukraine’s grain exports. Ukraine’s grain exports have been halted by the ongoing “special military operation”.

The plane carrying Lavrov landed at the airport in the Turkish capital Ankara.

At the request of the United Nations (UN), Turkey accepted to escort ships from Ukrainian ports despite the discovery of several mines near the Turkish coast.

* According to the sheet The Hill recent issue, Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress are increasingly at odds on the issue of gun control whenever there are mass shootings in this country.

Democrats say there should be “fewer guns and fewer people using them” for the benefit and safety of citizens from violence they deem preventable. Republicans, meanwhile, favor the view that gun ownership is sacrosanct and that any attempt to restrict it is unconstitutional.

This deadlock in the US Congress means that the legislature has barely reacted to the thousands of mass shootings that have occurred in recent years in the US.