PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government approved a Defense Ministry plan on Wednesday to acquire 246 CV90 armoured combat vehicles as part of a massive modernisation of the military amid the Russian war against Ukraine.

Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said the deal to get the infantry fighting vehicles made by Sweden’s BAE Systems Hägglunds AB is worth 59.7 billion Czech crowns ($2.7 billion).

The ministry signed the deal with the Swedish side on Wednesday.

Cernochova said the first CV90s should be delivered in 2026 and all of them by 2030.

SYDNEY, May 24 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 scholars of the humanities, social sciences and other disciplines have signed an open letter as of Tuesday expressing their concerns over Australia's participation in the AUKUS trilateral security agreement.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States announced at a U.N. conference on Wednesday nearly $524 million in additional humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa that aims to put a spotlight on the extreme effects of climate change and the worst drought in the region in 40 years — and the need for more than $5 billion.

Near the start of the conference, Germany announced a pledge of 210 million euros ($226 million) and the United Kingdom pledged $119 million for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

BEIRUT, May 24 (NNN-NNA) – Large-denomination banknotes of 500,000 and 1,000,000 Lebanese pounds (LBP), will likely be issued soon in Lebanon, local media reported, yesterday.

A joint session of parliamentary committees, yesterday approved a bill, permitting Banque Du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, to issue notes worth more than 100,000 LBP in denomination.

If the bill is passed in parliament, notes worth 500,000 and 1,000,000 LBP will be printed, said the report.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state audit released Wednesday faults the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for how it awarded grants and ventilators to health care providers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agency’s leader, in her response, defended the awards, emphasizing that the money and ventilators were handed out during a public health emergency with the goal of keeping health care providers open and able to provide care to patients.

23 May 2023; MEMO: Iran is building a new underground nuclear facility in defiance of Western sanctions, as talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers remain stalled. According to Associated Press, the facility is being built so deep in the earth that it is likely to be beyond the range of the latest US "bunker buster" weapon designed to destroy such sites.

NEW YORK, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States is "highly likely" to default on government obligations by early June and potentially as early as June 1 if the Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt limit, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in an update letter to congressional leaders on Monday.

Yellen gave a similar estimate in another letter one week ago.

22 May 2023; MEMO: Legal authorities in the UAE have reminded the public of harsher punishments for using foul language or defaming others online.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On President Joe Biden ’s first day in office, he handed Congress a legislative plan to modernize the nation’s immigration system.

It went nowhere, just like so many past overhaul attempts.

BERLIN (AP) — Scores of members of Congress and the European Parliament called Tuesday for the designated chair of the next United Nations climate summit to be replaced over his ties to the fossil fuel sector and for the industry’s influence at the upcoming talks to be sharply limited.

The United Arab Emirates has been strongly criticized by environmental advocates for nominating Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, to preside over the Nov. 30 - Dec. 12 meeting in Dubai known as COP28.

22 May 2023; MEMO: Sinan Ogan, who came third in last week's presidential election in Turkiye, has endorsed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the runoff vote scheduled for Sunday.

Speaking to reporters today, Ogan said: "I declare that we will support the candidate of People's Alliance, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round of the presidential election."

NEW YORK (AP) — A recent $5 million defamation verdict hasn’t kept Donald Trump quiet. Will a stern warning from the judge in his Manhattan criminal case?

That’s the question looming over a hybrid hearing Tuesday where the former president is set be instructed on new rules barring him from using evidence in the hush-money case to attack witnesses who could testify against him.

Trump won’t have to show up to court for the afternoon hearing at a Manhattan courthouse, avoiding the mammoth security and logistical challenges that accompanied his arraignment last month.