International Glance
The 13th Khartia Brigade has become one of the most visible and fastest-growing formations within Ukraine’s National Guard. What began as a volunteer unit defending Kharkiv in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion has since expanded into a corps, operating along some of the most contested sections, including Bakhmut in 2023 and, more recently, the battles around Kupyansk, where it helped retake roughly 90 percent of the city.
Just a short drive beyond Kharkiv, the war reveals itself in fragments: in positions, in improvised workshops, in training grounds, and in the people moving between them.
On a large parking lot in Saltivka, the northeasternmost district of Kharkiv, a white van pulls up. The sliding door opens. Inside are Titan, the driver, Kit and Cat. With a slight smile, I check once more if I heard correctly. Cat is my contact with the Khartia Brigade, an operational unit with a high degree of autonomy, bringing together infantry, artillery and drone systems under one structure. Based here in the city, its presence is hard to miss – its tags and symbols appear on walls, bus and tram stops across Kharkiv and beyond.
We head further north, passing one high-rise after another, long rows of Soviet-era panel buildings. Saltivka is among the areas most frequently hit by Russian drones and missiles. Facades are torn open, entire sections are missing, and some floors are exposed. Almost every block has windows boarded up with plywood.
Two U.S. Embassy officials died in a car crash on Sunday alongside one Mexican official and an officer in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. 
A senior State Department delegation traveled to Cuba on April 10 for talks with the government, a State Department official confirmed to USA TODAY. A senior State Department official also had a separate meeting with former Cuban leader Raul Castro's grandson during the visit, the person said.
On 8 April, Israel's military launched the psychopathically titled Operation Eternal Darkness against Lebanon, with predictably macabre results. In the span of a mere 10 minutes, Israel struck more than 100 sites across the country, killing more than 300 people and wounding at least 1,150.
A deadly shooting spree in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district ended with the liquidation of the attacker by police special forces after he killed s people and took several hostages in a local supermarket.
Two former student leaders at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London have reached a settlement with the university’s students’ union after taking the union to court over wrongful dismissal for their anti-Zionist beliefs and pro-Palestine activism.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Tuesday signed a Joint Declaration on Enhanced Defense and Security Cooperation, deepening bilateral ties in air defense, drones, electronic warfare, maritime security and joint defense production.
