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Ukrainian law does not give the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, the authority to lift martial law, only the president can issue a decree to revoke it. But the law legally bars the president from lifting martial law while Ukraine is under attack that threatens its independence and territorial integrity.

As world leaders and aging veterans gathered Thursday for D-Day ceremonies on the beaches of Normandy, France, towns across the region held their own celebrations, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Allied landings. Lisa Bryant reports from the Normandy town of Carentan-les-Marais.

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.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces the prospect of prison time after a New York jury convicted him of falsifying business records. The legal process casts uncertainty on his campaign and future election chances. Tina Trinh reports from New York.

A small number of U.S. World War II veterans, all in their late 90s and early 100s, returned to Normandy, France, 80 years after the largest invasion in history. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports.

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.

Citizens of 27 European Union countries are choosing new representatives starting Thursday. The voting could shape the state of democracy within the EU and decide the bloc's global role, especially in Ukraine. Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Daniil Batushchak.

We cover the historic trial of former President, Donald Trump, found guilty of 34 counts in a NY court. Plus, Jury selection begins in the federal gun charge case against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Global Conflicts updates on Israel’s war on Hamas and the international effort to arm Ukraine against Russia. This week on the Inside Story: U.S. Justice and Global Conflicts.

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.

Dozens of people were killed in an Israeli strike on a UN school in Gaza. The Israeli military says that Hamas was using the school as a base. Israeli and Palestinian children are both looking at long term psychological ramifications, both from the October 7th attack and the ensuing war. Russian forces continue shelling Ukrainian energy infrastructure as President Zelenskyy is in France. The past 12 months have seen record high temperatures, and experts say it’s likely to get worse. Plus, a visit to Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

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.

A U.S.-backed Kurdish group says it has postponed controversial elections in northern Syria in the face of warnings from Ankara that the poll would be a step toward independence. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, in Normandy by troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other countries during World War II. The objective was to help liberate Western Europe from German occupation.

United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly approved five new members Thursday for two-year terms on the organization’s powerful 15-nation Security Council in a lackluster “election.”  Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia will start their terms on Jan. 1, 2025.  The annual election is often little more than a rubber stamp of candidates previously agreed within regional blocs. This year, all five candidates ran unchallenged in what is known as a “clean slate” but still needed to win a two-thirds majority of votes to succeed, which they easily did.  While it is the permanent five members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — who have veto wielding power, the 10 elected members help balance the council, and in recent years have banded together more to use their collective weight.  “At the moment, there’s a lot of pressure on the elected members to keep the body working in a period when the permanent members are fiercely divided and often at each other’s throats,” Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group and a long-time U.N. watcher, told VOA ahead of the vote.  Geopolitical divisions between Russia and China on one hand, and the United States, Britain and France on the other, have grown deeper since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow, Beijing and Washington have repeatedly vetoed the other’s draft resolutions in the council or brought competing ones on the same topic, eroding the council’s ability to take action to mitigate conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza.  “It’s very tough to be an elected member, because you are trapped between the U.S., Russia and China,” Gowan noted. “The big powers are willing to put a lot of pressure on the smaller countries when they want to.”  Of the incoming group of five, Gowan says expectations are especially high for Denmark.  “The Nordic countries have a long history of effective and skillful U.N. diplomacy,” he said, noting that Norway played an important role during its council tenure in 2022 in advancing humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan while the P5 were clashing over Ukraine.  “I think there’s an expectation that Denmark is going to take on a lot of responsibilities, a lot of difficult files, and there’s an assumption that just as a Scandinavian nation, it knows how to make the Security Council work,” he said.   Greece’s foreign minister said they hope to be a facilitator between nations.  “We aspire to provide bridges between South and North, East and West,” Giorgos Gerapetritis told reporters.  It is rare to have a country that has a U.N. political assistance mission and an African Union mission with troops and police in its country on the council. Somalia has been fighting al-Shabab militants, which the United Nations says still pose a serious threat to the country, and working to rebuild its government institutions after a decades-long civil war. Somalia is a regular item on the council’s agenda.  Somalia’s foreign minister sought to characterize their recent history as an asset to the council.  “We are fully prepared to bring our distinct perspectives, experiences and solutions to the global arena, making a meaningful contribution to the work of the U.N. Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security,” Ahmed Moallin Fiqi told reporters after the election.  Panama’s foreign minister said she appreciated the international community’s faith in her country, especially at a fraught time in the world.  “It’s a great challenge, especially in the face of the critical geopolitical moments we are living, in which this challenge is not only the survival of the constituted world order, but also the survival of the inhabitants of the planet,” said Janaina Tewaney.  Panama, which has seen its namesake canal dry up in recent years, has said the impact of climate change on peace and security will be one of its council priorities.  In exercising their responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, the 15 nations on the Security Council have the power to authorize the use of force, deploy peacekeeping missions and impose sanctions.  On January 1, the five new members will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms will end on December 31. They will join nonpermanent members Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea, who will remain on the council through 2025, along with the permanent members.   Later Thursday, the General Assembly will reconvene to approve Cameroon’s former prime minister, Philemon Yang, as president of the 79th session of the General Assembly, which will begin Sept. 10, 2024, and run for one year.

Washington — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted prosecutors' request to make Bannon begin serving his prison term after a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court last month upheld his contempt of Congress conviction. But Nichols also made clear in his ruling that Bannon could seek a stay of his order, which could delay his surrender date. Outside the courthouse, Bannon told reporters: "I've got great lawyers, and we're going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to." Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, a Republican, had initially allowed Bannon to remain free while he fought his conviction. But the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said all of Bannon's challenges lack merit. Bannon was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Bannon's lawyer at trial argued that the charges were politically motivated and that the former adviser didn't ignore the subpoena but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged. The defense has said Bannon had been acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, who told him that the subpoena was invalid because the committee would not allow a Trump lawyer in the room and that Bannon could not determine what documents or testimony he could provide because Trump has asserted executive privilege. Defense lawyer David Schoen told the judge the defense had planned to ask the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, if necessary, to review the matter. Schoen said it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he would have already completed his sentence before those rulings could be handed down. "That might serve a political agenda; but it would be a grave injustice," Schoen wrote in court papers. A second Trump aide, trade advisor Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt of Congress and reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence. Navarro had maintained that he couldn't cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. But courts have rejected that argument, finding Navarro couldn't prove Trump had actually invoked it. The House Jan. 6 committee's final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection two years ago.

The shooting attack against Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister last month has highlighted divisions in Central Europe, a region that’s become especially polarized in the wake of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Jon Spier narrates this story from Europe reporter Ricardo Marquina. (Camera: Ricardo Marquina)

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.