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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a partnership agreement on Wednesday in Pyongyang, further solidifying their strategic cooperation in opposition to Western leaders.

Their signed agreement included a pact for “mutual help” in the event of “aggression” against either country, Russian media reported. Putin in an opening statement had thanked Kim for his “unwavering support” for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two heads of state met for about two hours in Pyongyang on Wednesday as part of Putin’s official state visit, his first trip to Pyongyang in 24 years. The negotiations are the latest in a series of discussions about trade and economic relations between the two countries, both of which are subject to Western sanctions.

The two heads of state held face-to-face talks in eastern Russia in September, which were followed by rounds of lower-level talks in both Pyongyang and Moscow.

“As a result of your visit to Russia last year, we made much headway in developing contemporary interstate relations,” Putin said in his opening statement, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency. “A new fundamental document has been drafted to lay a long-term foundation for our relations.”

North Korean state media on Wednesday said Kim’s government was hoping the meetings would lead to “deepening economic and trade relations” with Russia.

The U.S. State Department has said North Korea has shipped arms — including dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of munitions — to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. U.S. officials said it was likely that Putin would ask for further military aid while in Pyongyang.

“We have seen him get incredibly desperate over the past few months and look to Iran to rebolster the military that he’s — military equipment that he has lost in Ukraine, to look to North Korea to rearm himself,” Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said during a briefing on Tuesday. “And so I’m quite certain that that is what he’s up to.”

Putin called their new agreement, which was signed prior to Wednesday’s negotiations, a “fundamental document,” promising it would be the cornerstone of a long-term relationship between the two countries, according to Interfax, the Russian news agency.

Both sought to position their two-hour meeting as an affront to the United States and its Western allies. As Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support for his invasion of Ukraine, he said the war was a “fight against the imperialist hegemonistic policies of the U.S. and its satellites against the Russian Federation.”

North Korea on Wednesday hosted a welcome ceremony for Putin, who had arrived late Tuesday and stayed at a state guest house overnight.

Kim had greeted Putin as he stepped off his plane at Pyongyang International Airport. The two traveled in Putin’s private vehicle, passing “through charmingly lit streets” to the guest house where Putin stayed, North Korean state media reported. The two “exchanged the inmost thoughts” as they drove, the report said.

The pair on Wednesday morning strolled through Kim Il Sung Square along a red carpet. They were greeted by throngs of North Koreans waving flowers, balloons and flags.

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(LONDON) — Environmental protesters sprayed what appeared to be orange powder paint across part of Britain’s Stonehenge on Wednesday.

British environmental activist group Just Stop Oil posted video of the incident on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, showing two of its campaigners spraying three of the stones within the prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in England’s Wiltshire county.

Story developing…

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(LONDON) — Environmental protesters sprayed an orange substance across part of Britain’s Stonehenge on Wednesday afternoon.

British environmental activist group Just Stop Oil posted video of the incident on X, the social media platform, showing two of its supporters spraying three of the stones within the prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in England’s Wiltshire county. Both people were subsequently arrested, according to the group, which also posted video of police taking the two campaigners into custody.

Just Stop Oil wrote in a post on X that the sprayed substance is “orange powder paint” and “is made of cornstarch, which will wash away in the rain.”

“But the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not,” the group added.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that the action at Stonehenge came as the group demands the British government commits “to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”

A spokesperson for English Heritage, the charity that cares for Stonehenge and hundreds of other historic sites in England, confirmed to ABC News that “orange powdered paint has been thrown at a number of the stones at Stonehenge.”

“Obviously, this is extremely upsetting and our curators are investigating the extent of the damage,” the spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “Stonehenge remains open to the public.”

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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a partnership agreement on Wednesday in Pyongyang, further solidifying their strategic cooperation in opposition to Western leaders.

Putin in an opening statement prior to the talks thanked Kim for his “unwavering support” for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Their two-hour meeting came on the first full day of Putin’s official state visit, his first trip to Pyongyang in 24 years.

The negotiations in North Korea are the latest in a series of discussions about trade and economic relations between the two countries, both of which are subject to Western sanctions.

The two heads of state held face-to-face talks in eastern Russia in September, which were followed by rounds of lower-level talks in both Pyongyang and Moscow.

“As a result of your visit to Russia last year, we made much headway in developing contemporary interstate relations,” Putin said in his opening statement, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency. “A new fundamental document has been drafted to lay a long-term foundation for our relations.”

North Korean state media on Wednesday said Kim’s government was hoping the meetings would lead to “deepening economic and trade relations” with Russia.

The U.S. State Department has said North Korea has shipped arms — including dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of munitions — to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. U.S. officials said it was likely that Putin would ask for further military aid while in Pyongyang.

“We have seen him get incredibly desperate over the past few months and look to Iran to rebolster the military that he’s — military equipment that he has lost in Ukraine, to look to North Korea to rearm himself,” Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said during a briefing on Tuesday. “And so I’m quite certain that that is what he’s up to.”

Putin called their new agreement, which was signed prior to Wednesday’s negotiations, a “fundamental document,” promising it would be the cornerstone of a long-term relationship between the two countries, according to Interfax, the Russian news agency.

Both sought to position their two-hour meeting as an affront to the United States and its Western allies. As Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support for his invasion of Ukraine, he said the war was a “fight against the imperialist hegemonistic policies of the U.S. and its satellites against the Russian Federation.”

North Korea on Wednesday hosted a welcome ceremony for Putin, who had arrived late Tuesday and stayed at a state guest house overnight.

Kim had greeted Putin as he stepped off his plane at Pyongyang International Airport. The two traveled in Putin’s private vehicle, passing “through charmingly lit streets” to the guest house where Putin stayed, North Korean state media reported. The two “exchanged the inmost thoughts” as they drove, the report said.

The pair on Wednesday morning strolled through Kim Il Sung Square along a red carpet. They were greeted by throngs of North Koreans waving flowers, balloons and flags.

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(LONDON) — Gordon Black, the U.S. soldier arrested in Russia on theft charges, was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly four years in a Russian penal colony, a national news agency reported.

“The Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok sentences Black to almost four years in a penal colony,” an Interfax correspondent reported from inside the courtroom.

Black was arrested in May. His trial had started on Monday, with Black pleading partially guilty to charges of theft, but not admitting to the charges of assault or threat to kill, according to Russian media.

The staff sergeant was stationed in South Korea and was on temporary leave when he entered Russia, two U.S. officials told ABC News in May. Black had not been granted permission to travel to Russia, the officials said.

Black’s mother, Melody Jones, told ABC News that her son had been visiting his girlfriend.

He was accused of taking money from the woman and was detained in Vladivostok — near the borders North Korea and China — on charges of criminal misconduct.

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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived on a state visit to Pyongyang, and was met at the airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In the history of bilateral relations between Russia and North Korea, this is just the second visit by the head of the Russian state. Putin also made the first visit by a Russian leader to Pyongyang in 2000.

Putin will spend two days in North Korea before traveling to Vietnam, the Kremlin said. The diplomatic trip follows Kim’s visit to Russia in September 2023.

Kim, during that visit, had “cordially” invited Putin to visit North Korea at a “convenient time,” the Korean Central News Agency, a state-run media outlet, reported at the time.

Putin had accepted with “pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history” of friendship between the nations, the outlet said.

Negotiations are planned on Wednesday in various formats.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Almost 150 civilians have been killed since the beginning of June in the Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities announced.

It comes following a spike in attacks by the Islamic State group-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the east of the Central African nation.

At least 42 people were killed in the latest attack, in the village of Mayikengo in Lubero, east of North Kivu province, Africa Union Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement on Monday.

Mahamat said he learned with “dismay of the multiplication of massacres of innocent civilian population” in the Beni and Lubero regions, sending condolences to families of the victims.

The ADF rebel group is one of the “more than 100” armed groups operating in the DRC, and has been present in the country since the 1990s, long before it established ties with IS in 2018, according to the U.S. Sate Department.

The spate of attacks by the armed group has contributed to a new wave of escalating violence in the east of the DRC, according to Bruno Lemarquis, the U.N.’s local humanitarian coordinator. He expressed “grave concern” over the “alarming deterioration” of the situation.

“If this violence persists, it risks further worsening the already precarious humanitarian situation in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu, where more than 900,000 newly displaced people have been registered between January and April 2024, bringing the total number of displaced people in these three provinces to over 5.6 million, and a total of 7.3 million in the country,” Lemarquis said.

At least one U.N. agency worker was injured by fire after a patrol was “blocked and attacked several times,” according to Vivian van de Perre, deputy special representative of the secretary-general for protection and operations at the U.N. Peacekeeping agency.

Pope Francis appealed on Sunday for an end to the violence, calling on the international community to do “everything possible” to safeguard civilian lives.

That appeal echoed one made last week by Lemarquis, of the U.N.

“I call on all armed groups and their supporters to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights, by protecting civilians, ensuring unhindered humanitarian access, and allowing humanitarian operations to proceed so that organizations can provide vital assistance to people in need,” Lemarquis said.

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(SEOUL, South Korea) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is expected to arrive in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday evening, amid isolation from the international community resulting from Russia’s prolonged invasion into Ukraine.

He will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a summit talk during the two-day trip to discuss further cooperation since their meeting last September.

The Kremlin revealed Putin’s letter published in North Korea’s state newspaper Tuesday in which Putin referred to the relationship with North Korea as “friendship” and “neighborliness.”

“Today, as before, Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are actively advancing their multifaceted partnership,” Putin said in an article published in North Korea’s state newspaper Tuesday morning. “We highly appreciate the DPRK’s unwavering support for Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.”

In the letter, Putin also hinted at closer cooperation, unrestrained by the Western world. He wrote of a plan to “develop alternative trade and mutual settlements mechanisms not controlled by the West,” calling for a joint movement to oppose the unilateral restrictions that Russia believes to be illegitimate.

Analysts in Seoul are also anticipating what may come out of the talks between the two notorious leaders who likely know that there is high interest from the international community in this summit.

“Putin’s visit is in part to thank North Korea for acting as an ‘arsenal for autocracy’ in support of his illegal invasion of Ukraine,” Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told ABC News. “Moscow’s transfer of sensitive military technologies to Pyongyang would not only violate UN sanctions but could also destabilize the Korean Peninsula and East Asia.”

“It seems Putin is paying the visit to keep his words, and also to show the world that Russia-North Korea solidarity is ironclad,” Sang-Jung Byun, Director of North Korean Studies at the Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy, told ABC News. “There is potential that Russia may bring up connecting railways again, which will become a huge source of foreign currency if possible.”

Another agenda item likely to be on the table is cooperation in space technology. North Korea is in desperate need of Russia’s help to upgrade its ambitious space program at the moment. The regime failed to launch its second reconnaissance satellite, and the satellite that is up and running in space is also questioned for its performance.

“A noticeable difference from Putin’s North Korea visit back in 2000 is that the heads of space corporation, railways and also energy are included in the entourage,” Seoul’s Unification Ministry official told journalists Tuesday. “We feel a need to keep a close eye on possible cooperation in space technology since the latest Russia-North Korea summit was held at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year.”

The two leaders met nine months ago during Kim’s visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in far east Russia last September. For Putin, it is the first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years, when he as a new Russian leader met with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea on an official state visit beginning on Tuesday, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Putin’s trip, which is scheduled to last for three days, follows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia in September 2023. Putin will spend two days in North Korea before traveling to Vietnam, the Kremlin said.

Kim during that visit had “cordially” invited Putin to visit North Korea at a “convenient time,” the Korean Central News Agency, a state-run media outlet, reported at the time.

Putin had accepted with “pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history” of friendship between the nations, the outlet said.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, negotiations are apparently stalled to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization, and Israeli forces continue to launch incursions in the southern Gazan town of Rafah ahead of a possible large-scale invasion.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 17, 2:58 PM
End of Rafah operation weeks away: IDF

The Israeli military is “weeks” away from wrapping up the main part of its controversial ground invasion in and around Rafah in southern Gaza, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told ABC News.

“We are there to dismantle the military framework of the [Hamas’] Rafah Brigade,” Hagari said on Monday.

“We are weeks now just from achieving this goal,” he said.

The Israeli military now controls over 60% of the Rafah area, Israeli defense officials told ABC News on Monday.

-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Hugo Leenhardt and Dana Savir

Jun 17, 1:49 PM
Israeli forces kill ‘key’ Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that its soldiers have killed Muhammad Mustafa Ayoub, describing him as a “key operative” in Hezbollah’s rocket and missile department in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirmed Ayoub’s death in a brief statement.

Jun 17, 8:54 AM
Israeli war cabinet disbanded, official says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has disbanded his war cabinet, the small group of government officials who had been tasked with overseeing decisions about the war against Hamas, a spokesperson said.

The prime minister said there was “no more need for an extra branch of government,” the spokesperson said.

-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti

Jun 17, 6:37 AM
Netanyahu’s security cabinet to handle war decisions, Israeli official says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government’s security cabinet will now make decisions about the war against Hamas, an Israel official told ABC News.

Netanyahu is now expected to make critical decisions on the war during small ad hoc meetings while seeking final approval from the wider security cabinet.

The decision came about a week after one of three core members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet’s said he would resign from the influential body.

Israeli minister Benny Gantz on Sunday, June 9, said he would resign from both the coalition government led by Netanyahu and the prime minister’s war cabinet.

The war cabinet had been formed on Oct. 11, in the days following the Oct. 7 surprise terrorist attack by Hamas militants.

-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey

Jun 16, 6:41 PM
Israeli security cabinet discusses steps to ‘strengthen’ West Bank settlements

The Israeli political security cabinet “discussed steps to strengthen settlements in the West Bank, among other things, in response to countries that unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state after October 7,” in a meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized Palestine as a state at the end of May. Separately, 143 of the 193 members in the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution stating that Palestinians qualify for full-member status at the United Nations at the beginning of May, according to the New York Times.

The cabinet also discussed “a series of reactions against the Palestinian Authority following its actions against Israel in international bodies,” the statement added.

The Israeli minister of defense and the deputy prime minister “requested an additional period of time to make their comments,” the statement says, and then the prime minister will “bring all the proposals to a vote at the next cabinet meeting.”

-ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Jun 16, 4:35 PM
Biden cites pain of Muslims in Gaza in Eid al-Adha holiday statement

President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday commemorating the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha in which he acknowledged the pain and suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza.

“In Gaza, innocent civilians are suffering the horrors of the war between Hamas and Israel.,” Biden said. “Too many innocent people have been killed, including thousands of children. Families have fled their homes and seen their communities destroyed. Their pain is immense.”

Biden added that his administration is working to end the war and make progress toward a two-state solution.

“And I strongly believe that the three-phase ceasefire proposal Israel has made to Hamas and that the U.N. Security Council has endorsed is the best way to end the violence in Gaza and ultimately end the war,” Biden said.

Biden also cited the conflict in Sudan as well as the targeting of Muslim communities in Burma and China.

He used the holiday to celebrate the contributions of the Muslim community in America and also to say that he is committed to fighting Islamophobia in the United States.

“Hate has no place in America, whether it is targeted at American Muslims, Arab Americans including Palestinians, or anyone else,” Biden said.

He added, “In the spirit of Eid al-Adha, let us all renew our commitment to values that unite us — compassion, empathy, and mutual respect — which are both American and Islamic.”

ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart

Jun 16, 5:49 AM
Netanyahu not briefed before ‘tactical pause’ announcement, Israeli official tells ABC News

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heard the reports on Sunday about a daily “tactical pause” along an aid route, he contacted his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him, an Israeli official told ABC News.

After an inquiry, the prime minister was informed that there was no change in Isreal Defense Forces policy and that the fighting in Rafah would continue as planned, the official said.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari released a statement in Hebrew shortly after announcement saying the pause will affect a single aid route.

“There is no cessation of fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, and the fighting in Rafah continues,” Hagari said. “Also, there is no change in the introduction of goods into the Gaza Strip.”

-ABC News Jordana Miller, Victoria Beaule and Kevin Shalvey

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