hello. i m helena lee. great to have you with us. we begin with some news from the war in ukraine. russia says its troops have fully captured the ukrainian city of bakhmut. kyiv has denied those claims, but if true, it could mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15 month war. russia has been trying to take bakhmut since last year in a grinding war of attrition. and in the last few minutes, the russian news agency interfax has said president putin congratulated his troops for capturing the city. earlier, ukraine had said its units were still fighting in the city. this comes on the heels of the us agreement to allow ukrainian pilots to train in american made f16 jets. a move moscow had criticised. meanwhile, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky has been on a whirlwind tour in an effort to drum up support and weapons for an expected counter offensive against russia. it s been a busy few hours for zelensky, touching down injapan on saturday for diplomatic talks
an update on what else the french president has been saying, he says that the g7 is an opportunity to convince india and brazil over ukraine. india and brazil over ukraine. india which has been ambivalence that ambivalent with its stance on the russian invasion of ukraine. late5t invasion of ukraine. latest comments there coming from the french president, emanuel macron in hiroshima injapan. let s have a look now at some other news. the white house and republicans have called their latest offer is a step back in negotiations to raise us federal debt ceiling. there were no new meetings on saturday on capitol hill and kevin mccarthy has said that talks were unlikely to move forward until president biden return5 forward until president biden returns from the g7 summit on sunday. lawmakers have until june one to reach a deal to lift the borrowing limit before the us default5 lift the borrowing limit before the us defaults on debt triggering po55ible financial