Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken may soon be traveling to Beijing.

He called off a trip earlier this year because of a dispute over the

ledge Chinese spy balloon.

Morph M.P.R.

Spachelle-Celliment.

The State Department won't say when Blinken plans to go to Beijing, but two

administration officials were in China this week, and White House spokesman John

Kirby says they were talking about getting Blinken's trip back on the books.

And they felt that they had good, useful conversations with PRC officials about that and to

that end.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman also describes those discussions as candid and productive.

CIA director William Burns quietly went to Beijing last month too, as China and the

U.S. tried to put a floor under relations to ensure they don't sink further.

Michelle Kelliment and NPR News, the State Department.

A dam in southern Ukraine has collapsed, flooding villages and endangering crops in the

country's bread basket.

Both sides fighting there seeking to evacuate people in the path of floodwaters and blaming

one another for sabotaging the structure.

Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakovka dam and hydroelectric power station

of the Deneepa River in an aerial Moscow controls while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian

military strikes.

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