News Wrap: Ukraine and Russia reach agreement on safe navigation of Black Sea

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• Geoff Bennett:

  And we asked each of the Republican senators on the Intelligence Committee to join us for an interview tonight, but none accepted our invitation.

  We start the day's other headlines with a breakthrough between Russia and Ukraine. After three days of separate talks with the U.S., both sides now say they have reached an agreement to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to take steps towards stopping strikes on energy facilities, a limited cease-fire in pursuit of a comprehensive peace deal.

  In Kyiv today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the development and the U.S. for brokering it, but he indicated there are still questions about the deal's enforcement.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President (through translator):

  These are the first steps, not the very first, but initial ones, with this presidential administration towards completely ending the war. It doesn't say in the statement what happens if someone violates. I understand why, because the American side really wanted all this not to fall apart. These are the first agreements. They don't want them to fall apart.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The Kremlin warned the deal is contingent on the West easing its sanctions on Russian food and fertilizer exports. The U.S. pledged to help make that happen. Zelenskyy insisted the deal did not require sanctions relief.

  The Oscar-winning Palestinian director of the documentary "No Other Land" was released by Israeli authorities a day after soldiers detained him in the occupied West Bank. Hamdan Ballal left an Israeli police station today with bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, he says from being beaten by Israeli settlers and troops.

  Meantime, on Capitol Hill, President Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel assured senators at his confirmation hearing that his personal views would not affect his work. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is an evangelical Christian who has supported Israel's right to annex the West Bank.

  Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel-Designate: It'll be my duty to carry out the president's policy, not mine. One of the things that I will recognize, an ambassador doesn't create the policy. He carries the policy of his country and his president.

• Geoff Bennett:

  In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 23 more Palestinians. Health officials say nearly 700 people have been killed in just the past week. Tens of thousands of Gazans are under new evacuation orders as Israel resumes and ramps up its campaign against Hamas.

  A court has ordered the prominent South Korean-based church known as the Unification Church to dissolve in Japan. That church has faced scrutiny following the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. An investigation revealed ties between the church and Abe's party, the Liberal Democratic Party, that spanned decades.

  The man accused of shooting Abe blamed the church's fund-raising practices for bankrupting his family. The Unification Church called the ruling regrettable and unjust, representing a serious threat to religious freedom.

  Pope Francis came so close to death during his recent hospitalization that his medical team briefly considered ending treatment so that he could die peacefully. The doctor coordinating the pontiff's hospital care said today that a breathing crisis in late February forced them to choose whether to stop and let him go or to push it, taking the very high risk of damaging other organs.

  (Cheering)

• Geoff Bennett:

  Pope Francis made his first public appearance in more than five weeks on Sunday from his hospital window in Rome. He's under doctors' orders to avoid large gatherings for the next two months while he recovers.

  And it was another day of gains on the Wall Street, but those gains were minimal. The Dow Jones industrial average finished up by less than five points, while the Nasdaq notched the biggest gain. The S&P 500 also had a positive, but quiet finish on the day.