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«Термінові потреби на 2024 рік оцінюються у 872,6 мільйона доларів США», йдеться в повідомленні
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Tokyo — The United States needs Japan’s help to cope with strategic challenges in Europe and Asia that are straining its defense industries, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said on Monday as the countries kicked off talks on military industrial cooperation.

“Our national security strategy calls for us to be able to handle one and a half theaters, that’s a major war and another one to a stand-off, and with both the Middle East, Ukraine, and keeping our deterrence credible in this region (East Asia) you can already see that we are in two plus,” Rahm Emanuel told reporters. 

On Sunday, Japan and the U.S. kicked off their first talks in Tokyo on forging deeper defense industry collaboration under the U.S.-Japan Forum on Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition and Sustainment (DICAS) established in April by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden.  

Discussions on Tuesday between U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William A. LaPlante and Masaki Fukasawa, the head of Japan’s Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency, will focus on naval repairs in Japan that could help free up U.S. yards to build more warships.

“China has a major capacity we already know that will surpass us on new shipbuilding,” Emanuel said.  

Other potential cooperation between Japan and the U.S. includes aircraft repairs, missile production and military supply chain resilience, he added.

Japan and the U.S. already build a missile defense interceptor together and Tokyo has also agreed to supply Patriot PAC3 air-defense missiles to the U.S. 
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LOS ANGELES — Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Hollywood on Sunday for the L.A. Pride Parade, one of the biggest events during a month of celebrations honoring the LGBTQ+ community in and around Los Angeles. 

Rainbow flags ruled the day as revelers cheered the lively procession that featured “Star Trek” star and activist George Takei as the Icon Grand Marshal. 

“As someone who has witnessed the struggles and triumphs of our community over the years, I am filled with gratitude for the progress we have made and inspired to continue the fight for full acceptance and equality for all,” Takei said in a statement. 

The parade’s Community Grand Marshal was L.A. Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. The department’s first openly gay chief said she was “overjoyed” by the honor. 

Following the parade, the L.A. Pride Block Party offered DJs, live performances, food trucks and a beer garden. 

On Saturday night, Latin pop superstar Ricky Martin headlined a concert dubbed Pride in the Park at Los Angeles State Historic Park. 

Other events scheduled for Pride Month include celebrations at Dodger Stadium and Universal Studios Hollywood. 
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Водій легковика, тікаючи від патрульних, потрапив у ДТП після чого наїхав на трьох жінок на пішохідному переході
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New York — “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action-comedy series, opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast.

“Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban. The “Bad Boys” film was in development at the time and was momentarily put on hold, but ultimately went forward with about a $100 million production budget.

Smith starred in the Apple release “Emancipation,” but that film — released in late 2022 — was shot before the slap and received only a modest theatrical release before streaming.

This time around, Smith largely avoided soul-searching interviews looking back on the Oscars and instead went on a whistle-stop publicity tour of red carpets from Mexico to Saudi Arabia, where he attended what was billed as the country’s first Hollywood premiere. The 55-year-old Smith, who for years was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” the YouTube series “Hot Ones” and Friday, made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles movie theater.

Given that “Bad Boys” trailed May disappointments like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” – both of which struggled to pop with ticket buyers despite very good reviews – the “Ride or Die” opening counts as a critical weekend win for the movie business.

“The fact that a movie overperformed is the best possible news,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “It seems like all we’ve been doing over the past few weeks and almost since the beginning of the year, with a couple of exceptions, is try to figure out why seemingly well-marketed, well-reviewed movies have underperformed. This ignites the spark that the industry has been waiting for.”

“Ride or Die” still didn’t quite manage to match the opening of the previous “Bad Boys” film: 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life.” That movie, released in January 2020, debuted with $62.5 million. After the pandemic shut down theaters, it was the highest grossing North American release of that year, with $204 million domestically.

“Ride or Die” added $48.6 million internationally. Though reviews were mixed (64% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences gave the film a high grade with an “A-” CinemaScore.

Black moviegoers accounted for 44% of ticket buyers, the largest demographic.

In the film, which comes 29 years after the original, Smith and Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives. The plot revolves around uncovering a scheme to frame their late police captain (Joe Pantoliano). In one of the movie’s most notable scenes, Lawrence slaps Smith and calls him a “bad boy.”

Movie theaters will need a lot more than “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” though, to right the ship. Ticket sales are down 26% from last year and more than 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to Comscore. A big test comes next weekend with the release of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” After sending several Pixar releases straight to Disney+, the studio has vowed a lengthy, traditional theatrical rollout this time.

Last weekend’s top film “The Garfield Movie,” slid to second place. Also from Sony, the family animated comedy collected $10 million in ticket sales over its third weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $68.6 million.

The weekend’s other new wide release, “The Watchers,” failed to click with moviegoers. The horror film, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, is about a stranded 28-year-old artist in Ireland. Following poor reviews, the Warner Bros. release grossed $7 million in 3,351 theaters.

That allowed “If,” the Ryan Reynolds imaginary friend fantasy, to grab third place in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Paramount Pictures cumulative domestic total to $93.5 million. Rounding out the top five was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which added $5.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. It has grossed $150 million domestically and $360 million worldwide.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $56 million.

2. ”The Garfield Movie,” $10 million.

3. “If,” $8 million.

4. “The Watchers,” $7 million.

5. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $5.4 million.

6. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $4.2 million.

7. “The Fall Guy,” $2.7 million.

8. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” $2.4 million.

9. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” $1.9 million.

10. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $1.8 million.
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Washington — President Joe Biden’s administration is prepared to defend in court the sweeping asylum policy put into place at the U.S.-Mexico border last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that generally bars migrants who illegally cross the southern border from claiming asylum and allows authorities to quickly deport or send migrants back to Mexico if the daily number of crossings exceeds 2,500. The asylum ban has exceptions for unaccompanied minors, people who face serious medical or safety threats, and victims of trafficking.

Mayorkas on Sunday said the administration was ready to defend the policy against an expected American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit.

“I respectfully disagree with the ACLU,” Mayorkas said. “We stand by the legality of what we have done. We stand by the value proposition. It’s not only a matter of securing the border, we have a humanitarian obligation to keep vulnerable people out of the hands of exploitative smugglers.”

The ACLU confirmed on Sunday it plans to sue.

“It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now,” ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt said in a statement.

Biden took office in 2021 vowing to reverse some of Republican Donald Trump’s restrictive policies but has grappled with record levels of migrants caught crossing the border illegally ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Mayorkas said initial indications showed the new policy was deterring some illegal immigration.

“It’s early. The signs are positive,” he said.

A U.S. border official told Reuters that authorities arrested around 3,100 people crossing illegally on Friday, down roughly 20% from the days before. The official requested anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who installed razor wire fencing along the Rio Grande and has seen a state law to enforce illegal crossings into his state blocked by a judge, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” he thinks the policy is backfiring.

“All that this new Biden policy is going to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” Abbott said.
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Деяких африканців, які перебувають у Росії за робочими візами, затримують і змушують обирати між депортацією та участю в бойових діях
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Spokane, Washington — The inmates of Washington state’s prison system tramp through the forest, their yellow uniforms and helmets bright against the brown branches and green leaves.  

They are Arcadia 20, or ARC 20, an elite group of firefighters based in Spokane who have been recruited from existing firefighting prison camps.  

The aim? Teach the inmates the skills needed to help prevent forest fires – and in the process, give them an opportunity to start on a path to a new career.  

Recruited by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Department of Corrections, the program seeks to provide the dozen or so inmates with enough training to prepare them for jobs as civilian firefighters once they have completed their sentences.  

“I do believe one thing for sure, that people deserve a second chance,” said Kenyatta Bridges, 34, who joined the ARC 20 team for training in the middle of last year while serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter in a 2014 gang-affiliated shooting in Pasco, Washington.  

Bridges started a job in a civilian fire crew on June 3, following his release.  

Reuters was granted exclusive access to ARC 20 over three months, including a visit last August to the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds, a rural community in northeast Washington near the Canadian border. Bridges and the ARC 20 crew were setting up their tents after a day of helping contain a fire.

Crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, how to handle dangerous equipment, and how to ensure fires that have been contained stay that way. And when necessary, they are on the front lines of a fire, digging lines to help reduce the chance a fire will continue to spread.

“Team work, communications skills, an accountability for one’s actions and others as it relates to duties and providing for safety” are an integral part of their mindset, according to ARC 20 management.  

“The fellas that I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with, they’re amazing,” Bridges said. “We all made bad decisions in our life. Some of us got caught, some of us didn’t. But we learn from our mistakes.”

Earning ability

While states across the American West have inmate firefighting crews, Washington’s ARC 20 program is the only one of its kind in the U.S., recruiting incarcerated individuals from full confinement into a reentry center where they continue to build skills in firefighting and prepare for life after release.  

They also earn more. Inmates in Washington state’s regular prison firefighting camps, who number around 230, are paid up to $1.50 per hour, based on experience, for their daily duties. When dispatched to an active fire zone, they are paid the state’s minimum wage of $16.28 per hour plus overtime.  

Elite crew members who have joined the ARC 20 team are paid a base salary of up to $3,796 per month with potential overtime pay on fire assignments. This year-round crew has a maximum of 20 team members.  

It had 13 people on the team during its first full year in 2023 and expects to have 12 as Washington state’s fire season ramps up at the end of June.

The Pacific Northwest is struggling with the effects of climate change, with higher-than-normal chances of wildfires and a longer season this year, according to meteorologists at the Department of Natural Resources, the state agency charged with wildfire prevention and management.  

According to DNR officials who manage both fully incarcerated camp crews and the ARC 20 team, a high-earning member of the camp crew received approximately $11,000 in 2023, whereas an ARC 20 crew member earned up to $60,000.  

The ARC 20 team is trained to join “hand crews” — teams of 18 to 25 firefighters who work and camp near the front lines of active wildfires, often hiking long distances and carrying their own gear to reach remote areas. They also conduct prescribed burns and chainsaw trees to the ground as part of the state’s fire mitigation and forest management efforts.

ARC 20’s crew superintendent Ben Hood is on the team that selects participants.

“We call it getting bit with the fire bug… Once you get bit with it, you’re hooked in,” said Hood. “It becomes part of, kind of who you are, becomes more than just a job. It kind of becomes a lifestyle.”  

When the team isn’t traveling the state fighting fires, they are housed at Brownstone Reentry Center, a minimum security facility in downtown Spokane. Residents participate in work or training programs and are granted additional freedoms like wearing normal clothes or owning a cellphone.  

ARC 20 crew members are paid higher wages than some staff in the state’s correctional system, including the facility where they live, according to Brownstone’s manager.

Running a kitchen

Reuters visited another crew of fully incarcerated individuals in September at a Department of Natural Resources facility at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, southwest of the state’s capital city, Olympia.  

They had just returned from a weeks-long assignment running a mobile kitchen for almost 1,000 wildland firefighters per day, who were fighting two of the 2023 season’s biggest fires in the state.  

Timothy Bullock, 32, an electrician jailed for second-degree assault stemming from a domestic dispute, said he has changed his life goals and wants to become a wildland firefighter.

“I used to drink quite a bit… it was a terrible mistake on my part that affected other people, people I cared about. So it’s hard dealing with that,” said Bullock, acknowledging a prison sentence may have been needed for him to change his path. “I just know that I’m never going to make those types of mistakes ever again.”  

Bullock has been a standout member of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center camp crew, according to his bosses at DNR. He has submitted his application for ARC 20 and is being considered for a spot in late 2024.

“I’m getting real close to getting out. It’s kind of working out for the better, you know, to get back on my feet and then have an opportunity when I get out,” said Bullock.

Washington’s model could be a ‘stepping stone’ for state agencies across the U.S., according to transition crew liaison Roy Hardin, who helped form the crew with Hood.  

“If a person is employed, has a really good job right when they get out of prison, they’re not homeless, they’re probably not going to come back,” said Hardin. He said four crew members from ARC 20 have gone on to take jobs as members of the state firefighting agency – one engine leader and three engine crew members.  

Kenyatta Bridges is one of those crew members.  

On June 3, he started fighting fires with DNR’s Arcadia Engine 7405 near Spokane, in one of the most wildfire prone areas of Washington state.  

“He’s hard working. He’s motivated,” said superintendent Hood, who recruited Bridges. “He’s becoming one of those leaders. He’s good with the chainsaw. He doesn’t know how to quit working; he’s physically capable of the job. He’s what you want in a firefighter.”

Bridges is elated for this new chapter of his life. Since his release from Brownstone he has been living in transitional housing with other formerly incarcerated individuals in Spokane, and on May 20 his partner gave birth to their son.  

“I feel like I couldn’t ask for nothing better,” Bridges said, discussing his life post-release. “To have everything so quickly, it feels like every gear is rotating and spinning just on point.”
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white house — Protesters formed a symbolic red line around the White House on Saturday, calling for an end to the eight-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and urging American leaders to press Israel not to invade Rafah, where airstrikes were reported Saturday. 

As the conflict enters its ninth month, the demonstrators chanted “From D.C. to Palestine, we are the red line” while holding a long banner listing the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. 

President Joe Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch a major military operation, calling it a red line, but Israel Defense Forces have been carrying out military operations in and near Rafah since early May. 

In late May, an Israeli airstrike on a camp in southern Gaza killed at least 45 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. When asked if this breached the president’s red line, John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, said the administration does not believe Israel’s actions in Rafah constitute a “major ground operation.”  

That view was rejected by the protesters in Washington on Saturday. 

“I no longer believe any of the words that Joe Biden says,” said 25-year-old protester Zaid Mahdawi from Virginia, whose parents are Palestinian.  

“This ‘red line’ in his rhetoric is rubbish… it shows his hypocrisy and his cowardice,” Mahdawi told Agence France-Presse. 

The protest was organized by several groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CODEPINK, and others.  

CODEPINK, a left-wing anti-war organization, is supported by many at the protest for its stance on Palestinian statehood but criticized by others for opposing U.S. support for Ukraine during Russia’s invasion. Some protesters said they were not affiliated with any movement.  

Organized buses brought people to the capital from at least 13 states. There was no official count of protesters, but the crowd formed a symbolic red line around the White House.

Biden was not at the White House to see the protest, as he is in France until Sunday.  

The White House is waiting for Hamas’ official response to the latest hostage deal and cease-fire proposal. Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed Gaza in their bilateral meeting Saturday. 

VOA asked the White House for a reaction to the protest and the protesters’ demands and received the U.S. Secret Service’s statement: “In preparation for the events this weekend in Washington, D.C., which have the potential to attract large crowds, additional public safety measures have been put in place near the White House complex.”  

A LGBTQ+ pride parade was among the events in the U.S. capital Saturday.  

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse. 
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York — When Luis Saez first rode Dornoch at Saratoga Race Course last summer, he told trainer Danny Gargan, “You have the Derby winner.”

While that did not come true, Dornoch made good on that optimism Saturday by winning the first Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, hugging the rail and holding off Mindframe to spring a major upset in the Triple Crown finale at odds of 17-1.

The horse co-owned by World Series champion Jayson Werth won the Belmont five weeks after a troubled trip led to a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. This time, Dornoch sat off leader Seize the Grey, passed the Preakness winner down the stretch and held on for a 1 1/2-length victory.

“I would put it right up there with winning on the biggest stage. Horse racing is the most underrated sport in the world, bar none,” said Werth, who won Major League Baseball’s championship with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. “It’s the biggest game: You get the Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont. We just won the Belmont. This is as good as it gets in horse racing. It’s as good as it gets in sports.”

It’s the first win in any Triple Crown race for Gargan and the second in the Belmont for Saez, who said he never lost faith in Dornoch.

“He’s one of the top 3-year-olds in the country, and we’ve always thought it,” Gargan said. “We let him run his race, and he won. If he gets to run, he’s always going to be tough to beat.”

It’s the sixth consecutive year a different horse won each of the three Triple Crown races. Sierra Leone, the Derby runner-up who went off as the favorite, was third and Honor Marie fourth.

Dornoch paid $37.40 to win, $17.60 to place and $8.10 to show. Todd Pletcher-trained Mindframe paid $6.80 to place and $4.20 to show and Sierra Leone paid $2.60 to show after a jumbled start and more directional problems.

There were no such issues for Dornoch, who triumphed at the track known as the graveyard of favorites for its penchant for upsets.

“No one believed in this horse,” Gargan said. “It’s speechless. He’s such a talented horse.”

Despite there not being a Triple Crown on the line, it’s a historic Belmont because the race was run at Saratoga for the first time in the venue’s 161-year history. It returns next year while Belmont Park undergoes a massive, $455 million reconstruction with the plan for the Triple Crown race to go back to the New York track in 2026.

Having it at Saratoga necessitated shortening the race to 1 1/4 miles from the usual “test of the champion” 1 1/2-mile distance that has been a hallmark of the Belmont for nearly a century. The temporary change contributed to getting more quality horses into the field who previously ran in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or both. At 1 1/4-mile distance, Dornoch crossed the wire in a time of 2:01.64. 
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, who says he regularly prays “Lord, give me a sense of humor,” will welcome comedians from around the world to a cultural event in Italy to “celebrate the beauty of human diversity,” the Vatican said Saturday. 

Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock will be among more than 100 entertainers at the Vatican on June 14. 

The pope “recognizes the significant impact that the art of comedy has on the world of contemporary culture,” a Vatican statement said. 

British comedian Stephen Merchant — the co-writer of the TV comedy series “The Office” — and Italian comedian Lino Banfi will also be at the event. 

The meeting will take place Friday morning, before the pope travels to Puglia to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit. 

“The meeting between Pope Francis and the world’s comedians aims to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and to promote a message of peace, love and solidarity,” the Vatican said. 

The audience has been organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Communication. 

Goldberg last month said in an interview that she had offered the pope a cameo in “Sister Act 3,” in which she will reprise her comedy role of a singer who takes refuge in a convent and organizes a choir. 

“He said he would see what his time was like,” Goldberg said joking, when asked if the pope had accepted her offer. 
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The United States cricket team beat Pakistan — a former world champion — on Thursday, achieving one of the biggest upsets in T20 Cricket World Cup history. This year’s tournament is being hosted by the United States and the West Indies. Saqib Ul Islam has more from the games in Dallas, Texas.
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