BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday warned against the introduction of “geopolitical games” in the South Pacific following the announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Papua New Guinea next week.

The U.S. opted to send Blinken after President Joe Biden canceled what was to have been a historic stop in Papua New Guinea as well as a visit to Australia for a meeting of leaders of the so-called Quad partnership so he can focus on debt limit talks in Washington.

19 May 2023; AA: Russia and the US traded barbs at the UN on Thursday over arming Ukraine, with Moscow blaming the West for using the Eastern European country as a ''testing site'' for their weapons. 

Speaking at the UN Security Council, Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said that Ukraine was being dragged into a prolonged conflict by the West.

18 May 2023; MEMO: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is heading to Saudi Arabia's Jeddah to attend the Arab League's 32nd Summit, which will be held on Friday, 19 May, in his first visit to the Kingdom since before the outbreak of the 2011 uprising.

The official Syrian news agency, SANA, reported that Assad's participation in the Arab Summit comes after he received an official invitation from the Saudi King, Salman Bin Abdulaziz.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI employees accused the bureau of politicization in congressional testimony Thursday, a day after the agency disclosed that two of the men had seen their security clearances revoked over concerns about how their views of the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, affected their work.

The three men alleged overreach and retaliation by the FBI in testimony to a special House committee investigating what Republicans assert is the “weaponization” of the federal government against conservatives.

19 May 2023; AA: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the military alliance’s member countries Thursday to step up their defense spending and indicated his expectation for an agreement to be reached on the matter at their summit in Lithuania. 

During a press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa in Lisbon, Stoltenberg praised Portugal’s support to Ukraine, including the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks and its contribution via NATO’s comprehensive assistance package.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The Biden administration halted the export of a wide range of consumer goods to Russia on Friday and added 71 companies to a trade blacklist, as the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced new sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

The new curbs targeted items that can be used to help Russia's military, including items used in daily life like clothes dryers, snow plows and milking machines, which the U.S. thinks could be repurposed to support Moscow's war machine.

18 May 2023; AA: NATO's expansion has brought the world very close to a global conflict, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said on Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk, Lukashenko criticized Finland's accession and Sweden's application to the military alliance.

19 May 2023; AA: Russia aims to increase the cargo turnover by 155% by 2030 along the North-South Transport Corridor, a 7,200-kilometer (4,473-mile) multimode transportation network, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Thursday.

19 May 2023; MEMO: Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister, Saadeh Al-Shami, called on Thursday for Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, to resign following France's issuing of an arrest warrant against him as part of a fraud investigation, Reuters reports.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion — an accounting error that could be a boon for the war effort because it will allow the Defense Department to send more weapons now without asking Congress for more money.

The acknowledgment Thursday comes at a time when Pentagon is under increased pressure by Congress to show accountability for the billions of dollars it has sent in weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine and as some lawmakers question whether that level of support should continue.

19 May 2023; AA: Several members of Congress gathered outside the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Thursday to call for accountability for the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. 

Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar, Andre Carson, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum and Jamaal Bowman as well as Sharif Mansur, Program Coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a press statement.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott has entered the 2024 presidential race, according to a filing with the U.S. election regulator on Friday, in what amounts to a long-shot bet that a message of unity and optimism can still appeal in a party where many voters are hungry for a bare-knuckled fight.

The impoverished child of a single mother and the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, Scott often points to his personal story as proof that America remains a land of promise.