Good morning. President Vladimir Putin has praised North Korea for backing Russia in its war against Ukraine as he travels to Pyongyang to seek continued military aid, his first visit to the authoritarian state since 2000. The Russian president is expected to sign a partnership agreement with the isolated country during his visit.
It was unclear what time he would arrive, with Wednesday expected to the main day of his state visit, where there will be an official ceremony and he is expected to receive a guard of honour. Nato’s outgoing secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, which has supplied shells to Moscow despite being under UN sanctions, showed how “dependent” the Kremlin was on authoritarian leaders to fight the Ukraine war. How much artillery has North Korea provided? Seoul has identified at least 10,000 shipping containers suspected to contain ammunition and other weapons sent to Russia, the South Korean defence minister, Shin Won-sik, told Bloomberg News.
They could contain up to 4.8m shells. How does that compare to Ukraine’s allies? It does not bode well for Kyiv – EU countries failed to meet a target of 1m shells to Ukraine over the last year, sending just half.
Millions face record-high temperatures of up to 105F in US heatwave View image in fullscreen Tourists find shade at a cooling station at the Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada, during a heatwave on 8 June. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Extreme heat is spr.