Briefly

UKRAINE

Blinken visits Kyiv to tout US support

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine it has US support. "We know this is a challenging time," Blinken said in the Ukrainian capital where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that set aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems. Assistance from the new package "is now on the way", Blinken said, adding that some of it had already arrived in Ukraine.

SPAIN

PM's Socialists win Catalan regional poll

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists won a clear victory in the Catalan regional election, dealing a blow to separatists who lost their majority after 10 years in power. The vote came six years after Carles Puigdemont led a botched 2017 independence bid that triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades. In gaining more than 200,000 votes, the Socialists managed to deprive the separatist parties of the majority they needed to stay in power in a region they had ruled for the past decade. Hailing the result as "historic" in a post on X, Sanchez said it would mark the start of "a new era in Catalonia". Puigdemont said on Monday that he aims to form a minority regional government.

INDIA

14 dead as billboard collapses in Mumbai

At least 14 people died and 75 others were injured when a billboard bigger than an Olympic swimming pool fell on them during a thunderstorm in India's financial capital Mumbai, authorities said on Tuesday. Dozens are still feared trapped. Videos showed the towering hoarding billowing in the wind before collapsing on houses and a fuel station in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar on Monday as a dust storm and rain lashed the city in the evening, bringing traffic to a standstill and disrupting flights at Mumbai airport. Mumbai's municipal corporation said at least 75 injured people were taken to hospitals. The agency owning the billboard did not have a permit from the corporation to put up the hoarding, the municipal body said.

Agencies Via Xinhua