How the US helping Ukraine acquire F-16s shows that for military aid, 'no' can become 'yes'

The US has once again buckled under pressure from European allies and Ukraine's leaders and agreed to provide more sophisticated weapons to the war effort. This time it's all about F-16 fighter jets. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What The World is following How the US helping Ukraine acquire F-16s shows that for military aid, 'no' can become 'yes' Credit: Aijaz Rahi/AP Ukraine The US has once again buckled under pressure from European allies and Ukraine's leaders and agreed to provide more sophisticated weapons to the war effort. This time it's all about F-16 fighter jets. Ukraine has long begged for the sophisticated fighter to give it a combat edge as it battles Russia's invasion, now in its second year. And this new plan opens the door for several nations to supply the fourth-generation aircraft and for the US to help train the pilots. President Joe Biden laid out the agreement to world leaders meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday, according to US officials. So far, however, the US has provided no details and said decisions on when, how many, and who will supply the F-16s will be made in the months ahead while the training is underway. Serbia Tens of thousands of people rallied in Serbia's capital on Friday for a third time in a month in protest at the government's handling of a crisis after two mass shootings in the Balkan country earlier this month, even as officials rejected the criticism and ignored their demands. In a show of defiance, the nationalist right-wing party of autocratic Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic organized a counterprotest in a town north of Belgrade attended by thousands of his supporters. Greece Greece faces new national elections as early as June 25, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirming Monday he would not try to build a coalition government — despite having dominated the ballot hours earlier by the most decisive margin in half a century. It was a tantalizing result for the center-right leader: although Mitsotakis slightly expanded his New Democracy party's standing, got double the votes of leftwing Syriza and nearly four times those of third-place Socialist Pasok, the one-off electoral law in place Sunday denied him a governing majority. He'll now pin his hopes on a second vote — expected no later than July 2 — where the electoral system will revert to boosting the first party with a bonus of up to 50 of Parliament's 300 seats. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [Tokyo’s trash-collecting samurai takes a fun, zany approach to cleanup]( Credit: Julia Kim They call themselves the Gomi Hiroi Samurai — or the “Samurai Who Pick Up Litter.” These sword-wielding eco-warriors have turned garbage collecting into a choreographed performance. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bright spot In Britain, the bumblebee population is declining. But an army of volunteers are at the forefront of conservation efforts to save the bees. Between March and October each year, volunteers walk a designated route and count how many bees they see, as part of an initiative called BeeWalk; after a little more than a decade, the trust now has a huge community of almost 800 citizen bee counters, and have amassed one of the largest bumblebee datasets in the world. In case you missed it on The World --------------------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. [The World]( is produced by [PRX]( and [GBH](.