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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — By the time Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi boarded his window seat on a helicopter ferrying him, the foreign minister and six others, thick clouds already had begun forming around the mountaintops along the Azerbaijan-Iran border. Despite the worsening weather, the helicopter lifted off for a trip about 145 kilometers southwest to a new oil pipeline near Tabriz. Within an hour, the Bell 212 helicopter had crashed into a cloud-covered mountainside. While the cause of the May 19 crash remains unknown, the sudden death of the hard-line protégé of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exposed the contradictions and challenges facing the country's Shiite theocracy. The Iranian military investigators probing the crash have previously faced international criticism over their report on troops shooting down a Ukrainian airliner in 2020. The hourslong desperate rescue attempt after the helicopter crash saw Tehran even reach out to the United States for help, just weeks after launching an unprecedented attack on Israel and as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Even the type of helicopter that crashed links back to Iranian history, both before and after the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. "Iran is a culture of dualities," said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who studies Iran's military. "Some aspects, they seem so good and well-managed, well-oiled and very capable. ... In many levels, it's quite lacking." Iranian military investigators have released two statements on the crash, largely ruling out possibilities rather than offering a suspected cause. They've rejected the possibility of an onboard "explosion caused by sabotage" or a "cyberattack" targeting the Bell 212, a two-blade, twin-engine helicopter more widely known as the Huey for its use by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War.  "The recorded conversations between the flight crew show that the last contact with the pilots up to the time of the incident and when they stopped responding lasted 69 seconds," the investigators said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. "No emergency declaration was recorded during that time." In conspiracy-minded Iran, some officials still insist foul play could have caused the crash. However, some other officials have begun to ask why the helicopter took off from the site of the new Giz Galasi Dam when the weather had started to turn. Mostafa Mirsalim, a member of the country's Expediency Council, wrote on the social platform X that he had asked prosecutors to "address the mistakes that led to the loss of the president and his delegation," without elaborating. Abbas Abdi, a prominent journalist, also wrote on X that the flight path taken by Raisi's helicopter suggested the pilot didn't follow a standard Iranian practice of shadowing main roads in rural areas. That can both help navigation and provide a safe landing area in an emergency. Former Iranian Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Abolhassan Banisadr both survived helicopter crashes while in office. The helicopter involved in the crash, nearly 30 years old, came directly from a Bell manufacturing plant in Montreal, Canada, to the Iranian air force, according to data from the firm Cirium. It counts 12 Bell 212 aircraft registered in Iran that are still in service. Bell Textron Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas, said it "does not conduct any business in Iran or support their helicopter fleet, and we do not have knowledge about the active state of the helicopter involved in this accident." But despite being decades old, the Bell 212 and its military counterpart the Huey still are flown around the world. In the United States, Hueys still fly as part of America's nuclear forces to support its silos and for some VIP missions, said Roger D. Connor, an aeronautics curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Over 440 still fly worldwide, according to Cirium. "It's a simple aircraft to fly by medium helicopter standards. It doesn't typically have much automation which can have both positive and negative implications for operators," Connor said. "More automation means more opportunities for pilot confusion in certain circumstances, but also better capabilities in low-visibility conditions." Iran's use of the Bell 212 remains pervasive, in part due to the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who struck deals to purchase hundreds of the helicopters and had plans to build a local variant, Nadimi said. Those already in the country at the time of the Islamic Revolution ended up being a key component of Iran's bloody war against Iraq in the 1980s. But as Western sanctions dried up the supply of parts, fewer of the aircraft were airworthy, despite efforts to locally overhaul them. That saw Iran engage in covert means to secure parts, sparking several U.S. criminal cases for those involved, who sought everything from safety equipment to full engines and night-vision goggles for the aircraft. Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame sanctions for the crash. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded by saying America was "not going to apologize for our sanctions regime at all" as Iran has used aircraft to "transport equipment to support terrorism." "Ultimately, it's the Iranian government that is responsible for the decision to fly a ... helicopter in what was described as poor weather conditions, not any other actor," Miller said. Meanwhile, questions remain over why Iran couldn't find the helicopter for hours, even though one of the victims reportedly talked by cellphone with officials. Such calls, in theory, can be triangulated by security services. Also, it remains unclear if the helicopter had any emergency tracker, which are common on aircraft. While the investigation continues, Nadimi said he believed that the Bell 212 that flew Raisi did not have advanced avionics that could have been useful for low-visibility flight. However, he stressed that the major issue in the crash likely involves who allowed the flight to take off as the weather turned poor and whether the pilot faced pressure from his VIP passengers to make the journey no matter what. "Pilot error, human error might be to blame, but there was a chain of events that caused this crash, not just pilot error," Nadimi said. "That helicopter should have been able to clear that terrain and fly safely to its destination. They should not have been dispatched for flying."

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Nearly five decades after Uruguayan security forces seized Amelia Sanjurjo from the street, disappearing the newly pregnant woman into the maw of the military's prison system, she received a proper burial Thursday in her hometown of Montevideo. The bone fragments of Sanjurjo — described as a kind, patient and disheveled-looking employee at a publishing house and member of Uruguay's Communist party — were exhumed exactly a year ago from a military base in a small southern town in Uruguay. She was finally identified last week after investigators took DNA samples from her maternal aunt and nephews in Uruguay, Spain and Italy in hopes of finding a match. The revelation was as thrilling as it was grim. Forensic teams have only recovered the remains of five other disappeared people in Uruguay since excavations began in 2005. The vast majority of the nearly 200 people kidnapped and killed during the country's dictatorship remain unidentified. The search for bone fragments, teeth and shreds of clothing, investigators say, is the hardest part, given that members of the dictatorship deliberately destroyed DNA in an effort to deny that detainees were tortured and killed. "Each new identification is a joy. It's a recognition of a great task that is carried out quietly by a whole group of professionals, archaeologists, anthropologists, geneticists, historians," said Carlos Vullo, the genetic lab director of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which assisted with Sanjurjo's identification. In downtown Montevideo on Thursday, somber crowds thronged the small wooden box that held Sanjurjo's remains outside Uruguay's Republic University, home to the forensic investigators that identified her using genetic testing. Some hugged. Others wept. Representatives of the relatives of Uruguay's disappeared paid tribute to Sanjurjo's late father and sister, who they said devoted their lives to searching for Sanjurjo and died without getting answers. "Today means we have found Amelia and are able to say goodbye to her, which was the right thing to do for many years," said Ignacio Errandonea, a member of the group whose relatives were disappeared. Sanjurjo's surviving relatives, today scattered around Europe, sent a message to be read aloud at her wake, where supporters placed red and yellow roses on her box. From the building's facade, Sanjurjo's smiling face stared down at the sea of people. Mikaela Mall, a representative of the relatives, delivered the family statement, saying Sanjurjo's loved ones were "excited to receive this news." "The dictatorship was cruel to her as it was to so many others, making her pay dearly for the simple and brave act of dreaming of a more just and supportive world," the statement read. "She dedicated her entire life to her activism, and was consistent until the very end." Sanjurjo was 41 years old and pregnant when she was abducted from the streets of Montevideo on November 2, 1977. Prosecutors said that she died after being beaten and tortured at a military detention center six days after her arrest. The identification of victims is part of a broader effort to deliver justice and accountability 40 years after the end of the dictatorship in Uruguay, a traumatic chapter of history as violent authoritarian rule swept through South America. From 1973 to 1985, Uruguay's military unleashed a campaign of repression after having largely defeated a guerrilla uprising, disappearing 197 people, according to the government's count. An untold number of Uruguayans abducted by the military dictatorship ended up detained in Argentina as a result of Operation Condor, a secret plan carried out by several South American dictatorships to eliminate their left-wing opponents. Forensic teams have so far identified 31 disappeared Uruguayans based on remains recovered elsewhere in the region, including Argentina's clandestine detention centers. Argentina's reckoning with its particularly brutal past has been far more extensive than that of Uruguay and other neighboring countries. After power returned to civilians in Uruguay, the government enacted an amnesty covering the crimes of the dictators as well as their guerrilla opponents, delaying the judicial process. In Argentina, where human rights groups estimate 30,000 people were disappeared, courts have handed down over 300 verdicts and delivered sentences to thousands of military officials over dictatorship-era crimes. In Uruguay, less than 30 trials have occurred. Recent legal changes seek to speed the justice process along. Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou said Sanjurjo's identification shows "the government's commitment to the search for the disappeared."

LUSAKA, Zambia — A Zambian court on Friday sentenced 22 Chinese nationals to long prison terms for cybercrimes that included internet fraud and online scams targeting Zambians and other people from Singapore, Peru and the United Arab Emirates. The Magistrates Court in the capital, Lusaka, sentenced them for terms ranging from seven to 11 years. The court also fined them between $1,500 and $3,000 after they pleaded guilty to charges of computer-related misrepresentation, identity fraud and illegally operating a network or service on Wednesday. A man from Cameroon also was sentenced and fined on the same changes. They were part of a group of 77 people, the majority of them Zambians, arrested in April over what police described as a "sophisticated internet fraud syndicate." Director-general of the drug enforcement commission, Nason Banda, said investigations began after authorities noticed a spike in the number of cyber-related fraud cases and many people complained about inexplicably losing money from their mobile phones or bank accounts. Officers from the commission, police, the immigration department and the anti-terrorism unit in April swooped on a Chinese-run business in an upmarket suburb of Lusaka, arresting the 77, including those sentenced Friday. Authorities recovered over 13,000 local and foreign mobile phone SIM cards, two firearms and 78 rounds of ammunition during the raid. The business, named Golden Top Support Services, had employed "unsuspecting" Zambians aged between 20 and 25 to use the SIM cards to engage "in deceptive conversations with unsuspecting mobile users across various platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, chat rooms and others, using scripted dialogues," Banda said in April after the raid. The locals were freed on bail.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Leaders of the United Methodist Church expressed regret over last week's decision by the branch in Ivory Coast to leave the union following the church's decision to repeal a long-standing ban on LGBTQ+ clergy but pledged to accept it. The developments were the latest in a series of ripple effects in conservative Africa, which is home to the vast majority of United Methodists outside the United States, amid disputes on sexuality and theology that have shaken the Methodist churches. In early May, delegates at the church's first legislative gathering in five years voted overwhelmingly to remove a rule forbidding "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as ministers. It was a sharp contrast to past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church, which had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests. The change doesn't mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ+ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. But each member church was free to decide for itself — and while some bishops favored staying on, others pushed to disaffiliate. On May 28, Ivory Coast's church voted to split from the United Methodists. With over 1.2 million members, the West African country's church has one of the denomination's largest overseas followers. The United Methodist Church has about 5.4 million members in the United States, and about 4.6 million in Africa, Europe and the Philippines, according to church figures. In its first reaction following last week's vote, the church's Council of Bishops said on Wednesday that "while we grieve" Ivory Coast's decision, "we commit to work with them through the process of becoming an Autonomous Methodist Church." "While we are not all of one mind in all things, the strength of our connection is love, respect, compassion and a shared commitment to faith in Jesus Christ," the council said in a statement. Elsewhere in Africa, hundreds of United Methodist Church members gathered at the church's local headquarters in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, last Thursday to protests the church's move to welcome LGBTQ+ members. They sang religious songs, held placards with messages saying homosexuality is a sin and an abomination. "Africa is not for sale. No to homosexuality," read one placard held by an elderly woman. Church member James Kawaza reminded the gathering that "homosexuality is unlawful in Zimbabwe." "The church has aligned with the Rainbow Movement, and this is also a threat to our African traditions and human existence at large," read a petition by church members, calling on their Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa to act. Nhiwatiwa was not available for comment. Zimbabwe's Christian denominations — and others in Africa — have been vocal against any moves to welcome gays into the church. In January, Catholic bishops in Africa and Madagascar issued a unified statement refusing to follow a declaration by Pope Francis allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, asserting that such unions are "contrary to the will of God." Chester Samba, director of GALZ, which represents the LGBTQ+ community in Zimbabwe, said he was not so hopeful for Zimbabwe and much of the continent to change their conservative stand. "It is my hope that platforms for dialogue are created and supported to enhance understanding so that all may be welcome in the house of worship regardless of sexual orientation," said Samba, whose members have over the years been targets of harassment and stigmatization.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NEW YORK — The mysterious death of a man in Mexico who had one kind of bird flu is unrelated to outbreaks of a different type at U.S. dairy farms, experts say. Here's a look at the case and the different types of bird flu. What happened in the Mexico bird flu case? A 59-year-old man in Mexico who had been bedridden because of chronic health problems developed a fever, shortness of breath and diarrhea in April. He died a week later, and the World Health Organization this week reported it. The WHO said it was the first time that version of bird flu — H5N2 — had been seen in a person. What's been happening in the U.S. with bird flu? A different version of bird flu — H5N1 — has been infecting poultry flocks over the last several years, leading to millions of birds being culled. It also has been spreading among all different kinds of animals around the world. This year, that flu was detected in U.S. dairy farms. Dozens of herds have seen infections, most recently in Iowa and Minnesota. The cow outbreak has been tied to three reported illnesses in farmworkers, one in Texas and two in Michigan. Each had only mild symptoms. What do the letters and numbers mean in bird flu names? So-called influenza A viruses are the only viruses tied to human flu pandemics, so their appearance in animals and people is a concern. These viruses are divided into subtypes based on what kinds of proteins they have on their surface — hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Scientists say there are 18 different "H" subtypes and 11 different "N" subtypes, and they appear in scores of combinations. H1N1 and H3N2 are common causes of seasonal flu among humans. There are many versions seen in animals as well. H5N1, the version that has worried some U.S. scientists lately, historically has been seen mainly in birds, but has in recent years has spread to a wide variety of mammals. What is H5N2? H5N2 has long been seen in Mexican poultry, and farms vaccinate against it. It's also no stranger to the United States. An H5N2 outbreak hit a flock of 7,000 chickens in south-central Texas in 2004, the first time in two decades a dangerous-to-poultry avian flu appeared in the U.S. H5N2 also was mainly responsible for a wave outbreaks at U.S. commercial poultry farms in 2014 and 2015. How dangerous is H5N2? Over the years, H5N2 has teetered between being considered a mild threat to birds and a severe threat, but it hasn't been considered much of a human threat at all. A decade ago, researchers used mice and ferrets to study the strain afflicting U.S. poultry at the time, and concluded it was less likely to spread and less lethal than H5N1. Officials also said there was no evidence it was spreading among people. Rare cases of animal infections are reported each year, so it's not unexpected that a person was diagnosed with H5N2. "If you're a glass half full kind of person, you'd say, 'This is the system doing exactly what it's supposed to do: detecting and documenting these rare human infections, where years ago we were stumbling in the dark,'" said Matthew Ferrari, director of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. Indeed, Mexico Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said kidney and respiratory failure — not the virus — actually caused the man's death. Some experts said it is noteworthy that it's not known how he caught the man caught H5N2. "The fact there was no reported contact (with an infected bird) does raise the possibility that he was infected by someone else who visited him, but it's premature to jump to those conclusions," said Richard Webby, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. What about other types of bird flu? At this point, H5N2 is still considered a minor threat compared to some of the other kinds of bird flu out there. Most human illnesses have been attributed to H7N9, H5N6 and H5N1 bird flu viruses. From early 2013 through October 2017, five outbreaks of H7N9 were blamed for killing more than 600 people in China. And at least 18 people in China died during an outbreak of H5N6 in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. H5N1 was first identified in 1959, but didn't really began to worry health officials until a Hong Kong outbreak in 1997 that involved severe human illnesses and deaths. H5N1 cases have continued since then, the vast majority of them involving direct contact between people and infected animals. Globally, more than 460 human deaths have been identified since 2003, according to WHO statistics that suggest it can kill as many as half of the people reported to be infected. Like other viruses, H5N1 as evolved over time, spawning newer versions of itself. In the last few years, the predominant version of the virus has spread quickly among a wide range of animals, but counts of human fatalities have slowed.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

seattle, washington — Retired Major General William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. His son, Greg Anders, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. "The family is devastated," Greg Anders said. "He was a great pilot, and we will miss him terribly." Anders said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program, given the ecological and philosophical impact it had, along with making sure the Apollo 8 command module and service module worked. A report came in around 11:40 a.m. local time that an older-model plane had crashed into the water and had sunk near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association. William Anders said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview that he didn't think the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free but there were important national, patriotic and exploration reasons for going ahead. He estimated there was about a one-in-three chance that the crew wouldn't make it back and the same chance the mission would be a success and the same chance that the mission wouldn't start to begin with. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus sailed with worse odds. He recounted how the Earth looked fragile and seemingly physically insignificant yet was home. "We'd been going backwards and upside down, didn't really see the Earth or the sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earthrise," he said. "That certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape really contrasted." The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating the crash.

President Joe Biden stressed the need for transatlantic unity during his speech at the monument overlooking the beach where, 80 years ago, Allied troops fought a battle that delivered a decisive blow to Nazi aggression. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports from Pointe du Hoc, France.

KINSHASA, Congo — Three Americans accused of being involved in last month's coup attempt in Congo appeared in a military court in the country's capital, Kinshasa, on Friday, along with dozens of other defendants who were lined up on plastic chairs before the judge on the first day of the hearing. The proceedings before the open-air military court were broadcast live on the local television channel. Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga last month that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot for resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said. The defendants face a number of charges, many punishable by death, including terrorism, murder and criminal association. The court said there were 53 names on the list, but the names of Malanga and one other person were removed after death certificates were produced. Malanga's 21-year-old son, Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans are on trial for their alleged roles in the attack. All three requested an interpreter to translate the proceedings from French to English. Malanga's son was the first to be questioned by the judge, who asked him to confirm his name and other personal details. The military official chosen to translate for him was apparently unable to understand English well. Eventually, a journalist was selected from the media to replace him, but he too had trouble translating numbers and the details of the proceedings. "He's not interpreting right. We need a different interpreter who understands English, please," Marcel Malanga said to the judge after the journalist incorrectly translated his zip code. But no other translator emerged, and the defendants had to make do with the journalist, who worked for national radio. Malanga appeared frustrated and defiant as the interview stumbled ahead. Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a vacation, with all expenses paid by the elder Malanga. The young men had played high school football together in the Salt Lake City suburbs. Other teammates accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to join him on a "security job" in Congo. Thompson appeared before the court with a shaved head and sores on his skin, looking nervous and lost as he confirmed his name and other personal details. His stepmother, Miranda Thompson, told The Associated Press that the family found out about the hearing too late to arrange travel to Congo but hoped to be present for future court dates. Before this week, the family had no proof he was still alive. "We're thrilled with the confirmation," she said. Miranda Thompson had worried that her stepson might not even be aware that his family knew he'd been arrested. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Congo told the AP it had yet to gain access to the American prisoners to provide consular services before the trial. The embassy didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. Thompson's family maintains he had no knowledge of the elder Malanga's intentions, no plans for political activism and didn't even plan to enter Congo. He and the Malangas were meant to travel only to South Africa and Eswatini, Thompson's stepmother said. Marcel Malanga's mother, Brittney Sawyer, has said her son is innocent and simply followed his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile. Sawyer and the Thompsons are independently crowdfunding legal expenses and travel funds to be present for the rest of the trial. Both families say they remain worried about their sons' health — Malanga has a liver disease, and Thompson contracted malaria earlier in the trip. "As a mother, my heart is crying each day," Sawyer wrote on her crowdfunding page. "My main goal each day is to bring him home." Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, is the third American on trial. He was seen seated in the back row and was the last to be interviewed. He told the court he wasn't married and had three children. The AP was unable to reach his family for comment. Zalman-Polun, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana, is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company that was set up in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official journal published by Mozambique's government and a report by the Africa Intelligence newsletter. A prominent Belgian-Congolese researcher on political and security issues, Jean-Jacques Wondo, also appeared in court on Friday. It was unclear what evidence was held against him. Human Rights Watch said it had consulted with Wondo for years on research, and his only link to Malanga appears to be an old photo. "Wondo and others detained should be credibly charged with a criminal offense or immediately released. An arrest based only on a 2016 photo is just not credible," Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday. The defendants will appear in court again next Friday to continue with the trial. 

Pointe du Hoc, France — Standing alone atop a concrete bunker dug into a 100-foot cliff overlooking the cold, choppy waters off Normandy's coast, U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday explained why he came to the French countryside to deliver a forceful speech drawing a straight line from the past to the present. "Where we stand was not sacred ground on June 5th, but that's what it became on June the 6th," he said, referring to the battle that Allied forces launched that day in 1944. "The Rangers who scaled this cliff didn't know they would change the world," he said of the U.S. unit that played a pivotal role in the D-Day invasion that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. "But they did. I've long said that history has shown that ordinary Americans can do extraordinary things when challenged. There's no better example of that in the entire world than right here at Pointe du Hoc." Biden thus capped his French tour of American wartime nostalgia, which included a dramatic day of events at the battle's main American cemetery, with this point: This tale of autocratic aggression can happen again. In fact, he argued, it is happening again, in Ukraine. That nation has spent the past two years, with substantial American military help, holding its ground against a fierce Russian assault. Biden has argued, repeatedly, that Russia will not stop at Ukraine's borders, and he has urged NATO members to show a strong front. As Biden spoke under a cloudless blue sky, he regularly met eyes with a man huddled in a wheelchair in the front row: 99-year-old John Wardell, one of the dwindling number of survivors of the Ranger battalion that scaled those rocky cliffs. "As we gather here today, it's not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944," Biden said. "It's to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. They ask us, what will we do. They're not asking us to scale these cliffs. They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for." But the people Biden needs to convince are back in Washington, holding the American government's purse strings in Congress. It took six months for U.S. lawmakers to approve a package of about $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine, and some Republicans have warned that this was the last American handout to help Ukraine fend off Russia's two-year invasion. Biden referenced that fact when he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier in the day in Paris, as he announced another $225 million in funding. "You continue to fight in a way that is remarkable, just remarkable," Biden told Zelenskyy. "And I'm not going to walk away from you. I apologize for the first weeks of not knowing what's going [on] in terms of funding. Because we had trouble getting the bill, we had to pass, to have the money in. Some of our very conservative members who were holding it up. But we got it done, finally." 'You saved Europe' A day earlier, Zelenskyy attended D-Day commemorations and had emotional meetings with U.S. veterans of that 1944 battle. At one meeting, 99-year-old Melvin Hurwitz, speaking from his wheelchair, grabbed the Ukrainian leader's right hand and pulled him down, into a bear hug. "You're the savior of the people," Hurwitz said. "No, no, no," Zelenskyy replied. "You [are]. You saved Europe." A day later, Zelenskyy thanked Biden for American support. "It's very important that you stay with us," he told Biden. "This bipartisan support with the Congress, it's very important that in this unity, the United States of America, all American people, stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War II. How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support and standing with us shoulder to shoulder." But Europe, too, realizes it has a role to play here. "There is definitely a common belief in Europe that we need to step up for our own defense and security," said Leonie Allard, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center and a former French defense official. "But of course, European security and the future of the architecture in Europe cannot be without the U.S. So whatever steps are taken, I know that the U.S. is in the room and there is some form of coordination." Historians note that the diminishing number of World War II survivors means that the next American president will have even fewer ways to highlight the nation's well-regarded role in establishing peace. History professor Jeremi Suri said that for the undergraduates he teaches, World War II is "ancient, ancient history." "So it will mean we're more distant and the heroism, the defense of democracy, the Greatest Generation stories we've told ourselves for so long, those will be less compelling. They already are becoming less compelling," he said. But, said Suri, who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin — and who acknowledged that few conflicts pack the narrative punch of World War II — there are other stories to tell. "We do have many legitimate, honest stories of heroism from the Cold War, those who defended dissidents, those who participated in civil rights marches, those who stood up for solidarity workers who were striking in Poland and elsewhere," he said. "They're not the stories that have the same heroic varnish, and they don't have the same cinematography associated with them. But I do think they're compelling, and I think presidents will start to evoke those as much as they do the D-Day," he said. "It's a made-for-Hollywood moment," Suri said. That's a fact that Biden, who walked onstage accompanied by a piece of music from a popular TV series about World War II, "Band of Brothers," surely knows. Just seconds after Biden completed his speech, he made a beeline to the front row. Wardell, with help from his caretaker on one side and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the other, struggled to his feet. Atop that cliff that Wardell first scaled at the tender age of 18, he clasped hands with the president. VOA's Kim Lewis contributed to this report.

Poignant ceremonies on the beaches of Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day as President Biden gives an impassioned speech on fighting for freedom that Allies fought and died for. While paying tribute to veterans, Biden stressed the importance of international alliances, warning democracy is facing its greatest risk since World War II. David Greenberg, historian and professor of US history and media studies at Rutgers University about how current threats to democracy add significance to anniversary of turning point in World War Two. New data this week confirms last month was the hottest May ever, marking the 12th straight monthly record high. Experts say it is going to get worse.

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washington — American forces destroyed four drones and two anti-ship ballistic missiles in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the U.S. military said Friday.  The Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in attacks they say are conducted in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.  The attacks pose a significant security threat to a key international shipping lane, and the United States and Britain have carried out strikes since January aimed at degrading the Houthis' ability to target shipping.  "U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed four UASs and two ASBMs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen," the military command said in a social media post, using abbreviations for unmanned aircraft systems and anti-ship ballistic missiles.  "USCENTCOM forces also successfully destroyed one UAS launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen into the Bab al-Mandab Strait," CENTCOM said, adding that American forces also destroyed a Houthi patrol boat.  The Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles over the Red Sea within the past 24 hours, but "there were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or commercial ships," the military command said.  Houthi attacks have sent insurance costs spiraling for vessels transiting the Red Sea and have prompted many shipping firms to take the far longer passage around the southern tip of Africa instead.  Houthi television channel Al-Massirah, meanwhile, said there were airstrikes in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and elsewhere in the country on Friday, but the reports could not be independently confirmed, and it was unclear if they were related to the incidents described by CENTCOM. 

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