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Ukrainian ministers 'optimistic' about securing U.S. aid, call for repossession of Russian assets

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Ukrainian ministers 'optimistic' about securing U.S. aid, call for repossession of Russian assets

WASHINGTON (AP) — A pair of Ukrainian justice ministers in Washington this week urged U.S. lawmakers to put aside domestic political disputes and find a way to continue supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russia.

Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska and Deputy Justice Minister Iryna Mudra traveled to the U.S. to promote a bill that would allow the U.S. to repossess Russian state assets held in America and be used for the benefit of Ukraine.

DESPITE PUTIN’S NUCLEAR RHETORIC, US SEES NO NEED TO CHANGE NUCLEAR POSTURE, OFFICIAL SAYS

At a press conference at the Ukrainian embassy Wednesday, the ministers also called on U.S. lawmakers to pass a stalled supplemental funding proposal that would allot tens of billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine. Their visit comes as Ukrainian units on the front lines are rationing munitions in their fight against Russian forces that have a vast advantage in supplies.

Ukraines Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, left, and Deputy Minister of Justice Iryna Mudra attend a press conference at the Embassy of Ukraine on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Washington.

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“What we call for is to put aside any divisions or any political disputes,” Maliuska said, since Democratic and many Republican leaders agree that support should be provided. “We really hope that the supplemental and the REPO bill, together or separately will be voted on soon enough,” Maliuska said.

The ministers met with lawmakers, though they did not talk to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. The Republican speaker has resisted taking up the aid package passed by the Senate last month and insisted that the House work its own will on the matter.

Maliuska and Mudra pushed for bipartisan legislation circulating in Washington called the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act, which would use assets confiscated from the Russian Central Bank and other sovereign assets for Ukraine. That measure has not moved forward.

The U.S. and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian foreign holdings in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Those billions have been sitting untapped mostly in European Union nations as the war grinds on, now in its third year, while officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of sending the money to Ukraine.

“We really hope the U.S. is going to be a champion in terms of confiscation of Russia’s sovereign assets and leading other countries,” Maliuska said, adding that “the hardest discussion will be with regards to resources and assets located in Belgium.” More than two-thirds of Russia’s immobilized central bank funds are located in the EU.

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The idea is gaining momentum in the U.S.

Last month U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offered her strongest public support yet for liquidating roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets and using them for Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction.

Earlier this month, the European Union passed a law to set aside windfall profits generated from frozen Russian central bank assets. Yellen called it “an action I fully endorse.”

“REPO is not about money,” Maliuska said. “This would be reparations.”

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U.S. and China Will Start Discussing A.I. Safety, Bessent Says

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U.S. and China Will Start Discussing A.I. Safety, Bessent Says

The United States and China will discuss guardrails on artificial intelligence, including establishing a protocol for keeping powerful A.I. models out of the hands of nonstate actors, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.

Mr. Bessent, who was speaking from Beijing in an interview with CNBC, did not give more details, including when these discussions would take place. But Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and President Trump had been expected to discuss A.I. during their summit in the Chinese capital.

If these talks happen, it would be the first time the two countries formally take up the issue during Mr. Trump’s second term. The capabilities and usage of A.I. have grown rapidly, and so have concerns that this technology could be weaponized by hackers and terrorists, or spiral out of human control.

“The two A.I. superpowers are going to start talking,” Mr. Bessent said. “We’re going to set up a protocol in terms of, how do we go forward with best practices for A.I. to make sure nonstate actors don’t get ahold of these models.”

Still, Mr. Bessent made clear that the fierce competition between the United States and China for supremacy in A.I. — which has been a major hurdle to cooperation on safety — remained front of mind for U.S. policymakers. Officials and experts in both countries have argued that they cannot slow technological development and risk losing out to their rivals.

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Mr. Bessent said that the United States was willing to cooperate with China on A.I. safety because “the Chinese are substantially behind us” in terms of the technology’s development.

“I do not think we would be having the same discussions if they were this far ahead of us. So we’re going to put in U.S. best practices, U.S. values, on this, and then roll those out to the world,” Mr. Bessent said.

Experts have suggested that China’s A.I. models may be a few months behind the leading U.S. models.

Another hurdle to the United States and China working together on A.I. safety is that they have generally focused on different potential threats.

American experts have generally highlighted existential risks, such as the possibility of artificial general intelligence, or super-intelligence that exceeds that of humans. Chinese researchers and officials have more often highlighted risks related to social stability and information control, such as the possibility of chatbots producing content that challenges China’s leadership and policies.

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Still, researchers in both countries have highlighted some shared risks, such as the possibility of A.I. being used to develop new biological weapons.

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Ship seized off coast of UAE near Strait of Hormuz may have been ‘floating armory’: report

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Ship seized off coast of UAE near Strait of Hormuz may have been ‘floating armory’: report

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A ship was seized off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday morning, the British military reported.

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The ship was boarded and “taken by unauthorized personnel” while it was roughly 38 nautical miles northeast of the United Arab Emirates’ oil export terminal Fujairah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported Thursday.

UKMTO spotted the ship heading toward Iranian territorial waters after the seizure, it reported Thursday.

British authorities did not release information on who the ship belonged to or who seized it. Despite the lack of official corroboration, the BBC reported that the Honduras-flagged Hui Chuan was seized in the Strait on Thursday.

CARGO SHIP ATTACKED BY SMALL CRAFT NEAR STRAIT OF HORMUZ, UK MARITIME AGENCY SAYS

Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on May 4. A report on May 15 said a ship was seized off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and is being brought toward Iranian waters. (Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP)

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Citing the risk-management company Vanguard, the BBC reported that the ship’s operators told Vanguard that the Hui Chuan was operating as a “floating armory” for ships in the Strait to defend themselves from pirates.

A container ship sits at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, as a motorboat passes in the foreground on May 2, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

At least two other ships have already been seized in the Strait of Hormuz since February.

IRAN SAYS ITS SMALL SUBS DEPLOYED TO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS EXPERT EXPLAINS THREAT: ‘VULNERABLE TO DETECTION’

A cargo ship sails in the Persian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)

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In April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized the Panamanian-flagged MSC Francesca and the Epaminondes ships in the Strait.

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Fox News Digital contacted UKMTO and Vanguard for further information but did not immediately receive a response.

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Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington as expiration of ceasefire nears

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Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington as expiration of ceasefire nears
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Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo reports from Washington, where the first of two days of US-mediated ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon concluded on Thursday. A ceasefire between them expires on Sunday, though Israel has killed 512 Lebanese since its implementation on April 17.

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