MOSCOW — The trial of a Russian American dual citizen whom Russia accuses of treason opened Thursday as tensions rise between Washington and Moscow, including over the arrests of two U.S. journalists.

The trial is being held behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, in the same court that next week is to begin hearing the case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in March 2023 and charged with espionage.

The defendant was identified by Russian authorities as Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, although U.S. media reports frequently use the surname Khavana, the name of her ex-husband.

Karelina was born in Yekaterinburg and was arrested in February while visiting her family.

Russia’s main domestic security agency, the Federal Security Service, charges that Karelina raised money for a Ukrainian organization that was providing weapons, ammunition and other supplies to the Ukrainian military. Her boyfriend has said she made a single donation of about $50 to a Ukrainian organization, according to media reports.

Karelina faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Almost all Russian criminal cases that make it to court end in convictions. The trial was adjourned in the afternoon and the next session was set for Aug. 7, Russian news agencies said.

Gershkovich, the highest-profile American behind bars in Russia, is accused of gathering secret information from a tank factory in Nizhny Tagil, about 90 miles north of Yekaterinburg. His employers deny the allegation, and the U.S. State Department has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Gershkovich’s trial, also closed, is to begin next Wednesday.

A journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe with U.S. and Russian dual citizenship has been held since October on charges of gathering military information and failing to register as a foreign agent.

Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has sharply cracked down on dissent and has passed laws that criminalize criticism of the operation in Ukraine and remarks considered to discredit the Russian military. Concern has risen since then that Russia could be targeting U.S. nationals for arrest.

On Wednesday, a court in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok convicted a visiting U.S. soldier of stealing and making threats of murder, and it sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison.

Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city to see his girlfriend and was arrested last month after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. and Russian officials.

Election betting inquiry: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Thursday that anyone involved in using inside information to bet on the date of Britain’s July 4 national election should be expelled from his Conservative Party.

Sunak said on the BBC that he was “incredibly angry, incredibly angry” to learn of allegations that Conservative politicians placed bets on the election date, and that they “should face the full force of the law” if they were found to have broken the law.

Two weeks ahead of the general election, it was an uncomfortable experience for Sunak, whose Conservative Party is trailing the main opposition Labour Party — by 20 points by many polls — ahead of the vote.

Sunak announced May 22 that parliamentary elections would be held July 4. The date had been a guarded secret and many, even those in Sunak’s governing party, were taken by surprise as a vote had been expected in the fall.

British media, including the PA news agency and the BBC, reported Thursday that Tory candidate Laura Saunders, who is married to the Conservative Party’s director of campaigning, Tony Lee, is facing a Gambling Commission investigation into alleged betting offenses. The Conservative Party said the commission contacted it over a “small number of individuals” in connection with the investigation.

Social media limits: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed a bill that would allow parents to block their children from getting social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm, a move to limit feeds critics argue are addictive.

Under the legislation, feeds on apps like TikTok and Instagram would be limited for people under age 18 to posts from accounts they follow, rather than content suggested by an automated algorithm.

The law does not take effect immediately.

The signing is the first step in what is expected to be a drawn-out process of rule making, and a probable lawsuit from social media companies to block the law.

NetChoice, a tech industry trade group that includes X and Meta, called the legislation unconstitutional.

Russia-Vietnam deal: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its war in Ukraine.

Putin and President To Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration, and clean energy.

The two countries also agreed to work on a road map for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.

Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defense, but Lam said there were other deals that were not made public.

Putin signed a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday pledging mutual aid in the event of invasion.

France-Africa vaccination: French President Emmanuel Macron joined several African leaders Thursday to kick off a planned $1 billion project to accelerate the rollout of vaccines in Africa, after the coronavirus pandemic exposed gaping inequalities in access to them.

They launched the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, which will provide financial incentives to vaccine manufacturers.

Many African leaders and advocacy groups say Africa was unfairly locked out of access to COVID-19 treatment tools, vaccines and testing equipment — that many richer countries bought up in huge quantities — after the pandemic was declared in 2020.

Kenya tax protests: Thousands of mostly young people demonstrated Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, and across the country against new tax proposals by President William Ruto’s annual budget legislation.

The protesters, who began their demonstrations in a first round Tuesday, are demanding that lawmakers vote against the legislation. They say Ruto has gone back on his pledge to reduce taxes and lower the cost of living.