A small corner of Venezuela is spreading slowly along 77th Street in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

Municipal maps formally refer to that neighborhood as Unir II (“unite”), but to many of its inhabitants it is known as Barrio Hugo Chavez, after the late Venezuelan president.

Many of the more than seven million Venezuelans who fled their country over the past decade or more now call Bogota home. The city is brimming with informal communities where migrants come together to help each other integrate and combat the ever-present melancholy and homesickness.

Maria Alvarez is one such migrant. A 27-year-old single mother from Valencia, Alvarez left Venezuela in 2017 when her son Gabriel was only one. They haven’t returned since. Gabriel knows his grandparents only from the photos on his mother’s phone and the occasional video call.

Most of those seven million migrants left Venezuela after 2014, according to the United Nations, amid an economic and political crisis brought about by a crash in the price of oil – a key export for Venezuela – combined with chronic corruption and mismanagement at the hands of government officials.

Almost two million of them have been granted work permits to work in Colombia, where life is working out well for Alvarez and many others like her. After the Covid pandemic, she helped create a foundation in Unir II to provide Venezuelans and Colombians with professional classes and psychological counseling. She now makes a living as a manicurist and has met a new partner.

An election and a credible opposition

But with the authoritarian government of Nicolas Maduro firmly ensconced in power, for many years those dreams of returning have remained just that. Until now.

This month, for the first time in a decade, Venezuela will hold an election in which Maduro’s government is being challenged by an opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, who has a credible chance of winning.

In October last year, Maduro formally pledged to grant free and fair elections in 2024 at the end of a long and secretive negotiation process with the US State Department.

That pledge was at least partially compromised amid a new spat between Washington and Caracas: the leading opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, was barred from running earlier this year, as was her immediate replacement Corina Yoris. The Venezuelan government has accused the White House of not lifting all economic sanctions against government officials, and in recent weeks opposition supporters and members of Machado’s team have been detained.

Even so, many experts believe that come the July 28 election the opposition has a real chance of pushing Maduro out of power.

Recent polls put Gonzalez more than twenty percentage points ahead of Maduro and, for the first time in years, electoral observers from the Carter Center and the UN have been invited to monitor the election.

Such a lead would make Gonzalez the heavy favorite if this were almost any other democratic country. Yet in Venezuela, the government has a habit of clinging to power. Critics have long accused it of rigging votes and silencing the opposition.

Opposition protests were repeatedly repressed in 2014, 2017 and 2019, and hundreds of opposition leaders have been arrested, or exiled.

Still, to many, this year feels different.

“I personally find it difficult to believe Maduro will just give up power,” said Laura Dib, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office for Latin America.

Alvarez and many other migrants in Bogota, think similarly: “Maduro can only win the election if he steals it. But if there’s a new government, I’d go back the same day. Not just me, hundreds, thousands… there won’t be enough planes for everyone to return home,” said Endel Gonzalez, a 54-year-old from Maracaibo who has worked as a food courier in Bogota for the past five years.

What it means for America

It’s the fate of migrants like Alvarez and millions of others like her that are making this such a closely watched election.

Before the pandemic, it was common for Venezuelan migrants to seek opportunities in neighboring countries, but in the past three years more than half a million have headed to the United States’ southern border, moving directly via land from Colombia to Panama and Central America, all the way to Northern Mexico.

Venezuelans were the second largest group of migrants apprehended by US Customs and Border Patrol in 2023, totaling over 260,000 encounters, a fivefold increase from 2020 when there were less than 50,000, putting pressure on the White House to stem the flow.

With the Democratic administration facing an uncertain election in November and migration policies squarely on the ballot, this month’s contest in Caracas could hold profound consequences for US President Joe Biden.

In the early years of Venezuela’s migration boom, many Latin American countries offered emergency permits and ad hoc policies for migrants from the country, but now many are erecting barriers to deter the free movement of people.

Colombia for example has stopped issuing documents for recently arrived migrants, while the newly elected president of Panama, Jose Raul Mulino, has proposed fencing off the jungles that connect his country to Colombia.

Dib estimates that up to two million more migrants could be on the move by next year.

What next?

The Biden administration has been instrumental in reaching this moment. Maduro’s agreement to a free and fair election came only after the US partially lifted oil sanctions, and only after repatriation flights for undocumented migrants back to Caracas resumed in October.

Direct negotiations between Maduro and the State Department seem to have halted, although Maduro announced last week that his chief negotiator, Jorge Rodriguez, held a meeting with US officials to resume talks.

Washington is openly supporting Gonzalez, apparently reasoning that a transition to democracy in Venezuela would not only help negotiations around energy policy and migration, but also help turn Caracas from its ideological alliances with the likes of China, Russia and Iran.

But with both countries going to the polls this year, it may be what voters decide in November, rather than July, that really makes the difference.

“If the Biden administration remains in power, I believe (bilateral) negotiations will continue,” Dib said.

“Now, if there’s a Trump administration, most likely it’s just conducting business… without much regard on what happens in terms of democracy and human rights.”

Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla are planning to head down under.

The royal couple will travel to Australia in October as part of a tour that will also see them visit Samoa for this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday.

The forthcoming visit to Australia will be the 75-year-old British monarch’s first trip to a Commonwealth realm since he ascended the throne. In addition to the United Kingdom, Charles is also head of state in 14 realms including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, though his role is largely ceremonial.

Charles and Camilla are visiting the nation “at the invitation of the Australian government, where their program will feature engagements in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales,” the palace said.

He last visited Australia with his wife six years ago, when they traveled to the Gold Coast for the opening of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings – or CHOGM as they are known – are held every two years, with member states taking turns as host. The theme of this year’s event in Samoa, Charles’ first as head of the organization, is “One Resilient Future: Transforming Our Common Wealth,” and will see delegations from the 56 member states come together.

“Their majesties’ state visit to Samoa will celebrate the strong bilateral relationship between the Pacific Island nation and the UK,” the palace added.

Charles, who resumed public-facing duties in April as he continues his treatment for cancer, has had a busy calendar in recent months. Last month, he attended D-Day commemorations in France.

More recently, he appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister after the Labour Party won a landslide victory at the polls, traveled to Scotland for the annual “Holyrood Week” celebrating Scottish culture and on Thursday visited the Welsh parliament in Cardiff to mark 25 years since Welsh devolution. On Monday, the royal couple are headed to the Channel Islands for a two-day visit.

Further details on the king and queen’s tours are expected to be revealed in the coming months. However, a palace spokesperson said that similarly to all of Charles’s recent engagements, “his program in both countries will be subject to doctors’ advice, and any necessary modifications on health grounds.”

Some may wonder why the royal couple are not going to New Zealand while they are in the region. The palace spokesperson said that decision was made in consultation with the king’s medical team who advised that “such an extended program should be avoided at this time” in order to prioritize his continued recovery.

“In close consultation with the Australian and New Zealand prime ministers, and with due regard for the pressures of time and logistics, it has therefore been agreed to limit the visit to Samoa and Australia only,” the spokesperson said.

“Their majesties send their warmest thanks and good wishes to all parties for their continued support and understanding,” they added.

The king’s absence from undertaking any visits to any of the Commonwealth realms since his accession had raised eyebrows. There was much surprise when his first overseas tours as monarch were announced as France and Germany. Those were followed by travel to Kenya, which is a Commonwealth member but not a realm.

Charles’ visit to Australia will be a key test of his popularity as head of state. The nation – which was colonized by the British in 1788 – has long debated whether a long-distance monarch is still needed. A 1999 referendum on the issue saw voters opt to remain a constitutional monarchy, 55% to 45%.

In other Commonwealth nations, Queen Elizabeth II’s death renewed rumblings – some louder than others – of moves to sever ties with the crown and become republics. But in Australia, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pro-republic views, there has been no immediate push in that direction.

Albanese had proposed to hold a referendum over whether the nation should become a republic if he secured a second term in 2025. However, those plans appear to have been shelved to focus on more pressing challenges at home like the cost-of-living crisis.

Israel has announced that a Hamas commander was killed in Saturday’s strike on southern Gaza, but the fate of the major target, Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, remains uncertain.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that Rafe Salama, the head of the Khan Younis brigade and Deif’s deputy, was “eliminated” in the attack.

According to the statement, Salama was “one of the closest associates” of Deif, as well as “one of the masterminds” of Hamas’ attack on October 7.

It remains unclear if Deif himself died in Saturday’s strike. The Israeli military is verifying whether he was killed while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also acknowledged it is uncertain whether he died.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the strike killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured 300 others in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone.

The UN’s Scott Anderson described what he saw at a nearby hospital in the aftermath of the strikes as “the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza.”

An elusive and powerful figure, Deif is understood to be one of the architects behind the October 7 attacks. He has led the Palestinian militant group’s armed wing for more than two decades.

If his death is confirmed, Deif would be the highest profile Hamas leader killed since the war in Gaza began nine months ago. Israel has been seeking to dismantle Hamas following the October 7 attacks but with fighting ongoing and senior Hamas figures at large, that goal has seemed distant.

Israeli intelligence services said this past week they killed a total of 25 Hamas operatives involved in the October 7 attacks.

Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Shin Bet announced the figure during a meeting with commanders from the IDF’s Southern Command and 162 Division held in Rafah on Saturday. Bar commended the results of the Shin Bet’s “intensified activity” within Gaza.

Meanwhile, a fresh Israeli airstrike that hit a UN agency school in a camp for displaced people in central Gaza on Sunday has killed at least 15 and injured more than 100 others, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and officials at a nearby hospital.

Video from the scene in Al-Nuseirat camp shows bodies and injured people — some bleeding and covered in rubble — being rushed to ambulances.

A statement from the IDF on Sunday said the Israeli Air Force struck “a number of terrorists” who were operating in the area of the school in Nuseirat.

At least 22 people were killed in a strike Saturday that hit a makeshift mosque in a displacement camp in west Gaza City, according to an official at the hospital treating the casualties.

Video of the scene shows bodies lying on what appear to be mats laid out for prayer. Multiple dead and wounded people can be seen missing limbs.

The UN Human Rights Office also commented on the incident in its daily briefing on Saturday, saying, “Around 1300 hours, the IDF reportedly struck a makeshift mosque inside Ash Al Shati’ Refugee Camp, west Gaza City. Reports indicate that because the IDF struck shortly after the noon prayer, many people were still inside or near the mosque.”

“The IDF has not made any comments on the incident so far. There was no report of a prior warning for either of the attacks,” UN OHCHR said, also referring to an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in southern Gaza, which Israel said targeted Hamas’ military chief who was an alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

This is a developing story and will be updated

When two US avocado inspectors were assaulted and detained at a police roadblock in the Mexican state of Michoacán last month, it sparked a costly international crisis.

The US paused all avocado imports from the state for more than a week, leaving Mexican growers out of tens of millions of dollars and temporarily sending the price of a carton of the fruit in the US soaring by 40 percent, according to analysis firm RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness.

Weeks later, after diplomats and agricultural officials from both countries negotiated new security guidelines around inspections, the massive cross-border trade has stabilized, with the US Department of Agriculture saying that export levels returned to normal at the beginning of July.

But the episode underscored the precarious nature of the industry and the immense volatility in a region that provides most of the world’s avocados, one of Mexico’s most dangerous states and a nexus of cartel power.

US and Mexican officials are now considering new changes to the strict processes that direct how the fruit can make its way to American kitchens to meet ever-increasing demand, with industry groups and advocates urging for more oversight.

‘Green gold’

Avocados, the creamy fruit with the industry nickname “green gold,” are big business. Of the amount exported from the nearly 2.7 million metric tons of the fruit grown last year in Mexico, 81 percent went to the US, at a value of $2.7 billion.

Nearly three-quarters of Mexican avocados come from Michoacán, a state along the country’s Pacific coast with a volcanic belt running through it that makes its soil ideal for farming. The state’s deepwater port has also been critical for the flourishing of drug cartels, which moved into Michoacán in the 1980s, fueling a homicide rate that is today more than twice the national average.

The expansion of the avocado market in the state around the same time has been “deeply intertwined” with the violent groups and corrupt public authorities, researchers at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in a report this year.

Citing interviews with growers in the state, the researchers described how criminal groups illegally burn and log protected forests and bribe local officials to change permissions around the use of the land to allow for commercial activity. According to an academic article published by the Mexican government cited in the report, 80 percent of the avocado orchards in Michoacán were established illegally, “initially through unauthorized land use that was then turned into legal parcels thanks to corruption of public authorities.”

Cartels today also regularly extort producers in protection schemes, the report found. Local police forces in turn commonly rent themselves out as security for producers, and heavily armed militias known as “autodefensa” groups have formed to patrol farms.

“This is the core of the mafia-style relationships that exist in Michoacán around avocado production,” Romain Le Cour, one of the report authors and a senior expert at the initiative, said in an interview. “You need criminal actors in a way to stir up the business, you need business entrepreneurs to run the business, and you need corrupt authorities to make sure that what you’re doing becomes legalized or laundered.”

Mexican officials in the aftermath of the detention of the inspectors in June were quick to downplay the incident, claiming it was nonviolent and unrelated to organized crime and the inspectors’ work in the avocado industry.

The inspectors, who were Mexican citizens working for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, were stopped and taken from their car after attempting to cross a barricade on a highway set up by police officers who were protesting a pay issue, according to Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, the Michoacán governor.

A dangerous job

Since the US first allowed imports of avocados from Michoacán in 1997, APHIS employees in the country have inspected avocado orchards to ensure they are free of pests that could harm US avocado crops. About 100 inspectors from the agency operate within the state, according to Ramírez, visiting avocado groves and packing facilities to check the fruit before issuing a certification.

That close contact and pivotal responsibility leaves them “extremely exposed to corruption and violence,” said Le Cour, the GI-TOC expert.

In 2022, exports of Mexican avocados were similarly halted for several days after one of the US inspectors working in Michoacán received a threatening phone call.

In the wake of both incidents, Mexican leaders have pushed to change the bilateral agreement regulating the trade to allow for the Mexican government to take over the inspections, with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticizing the US decision to halt the export as “arrogance.”

In a news conference last month, Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Villalobos said the Mexican government was “perfectly prepared” to do the work, which he said would be valuable to “avoid having to stop the export.”

Officials at the US State Department and USDA have considered the possible change, according to Ken Melban, the vice president for industry affairs and operations at the California Avocado Commission, which represents growers in the state.

In a statement, Melban called it “unimaginable the US government would consider abdicating inspection responsibilities to Mexico.”

“US farmers will not be protected under such a program, one intended and designed specifically to protect US farmers’ economic interests,” he said.

An APHIS spokesperson declined to comment on the thinking around the policy.

US and Mexican officials have also recently resurfaced discussions around a policy to block the export of avocados from Mexico grown in orchards on illegally cleared lands, according to Brad Adams, the executive director of Climate Rights International, an advocacy group that used satellite imagery last year to document the widespread deforestation behind the market.

Instead, the agency pointed towards training and technical assistance that the US Forest Service has provided to Mexico “to support real-time deforestation monitoring of priority regions.”

“We’ve exposed something that is illegal and therefore indefensible,” Adams said. “They have an obligation that they recognize at a governmental level in Mexico, and the US can’t keep importing illegally harvested produce.”

A recent spate of alarming deaths has heightened fears for the Malayan tiger, wildlife authorities and conservationists say, with some calling the threat to Malaysia’s emblematic animal a “national emergency.”

Native to the jungles of peninsular Malaysia, the majestic feline subspecies is critically endangered, with fewer than 150 believed to be left in the wild due to habitat loss, illegal poaching and a decline in prey.

Found on Malaysia’s coat of arms and considered a national heritage symbol, its numbers have plummeted since the 1950s, when around 3,000 roamed the Southeast Asian country, officials say.

Against that already grim backdrop, photos and videos of a dead Malayan tiger went viral on social media in late June. The carcass, found bloated and floating in a stream in the rural northern state of Kelantan, was discovered by forest rangers.

There was no sign of injury from snares or gunshots, and state forestry officials are conducting a post-mortem examination.

The images provoked strong reactions from many in Malaysia, who noted the urgency of saving their national symbol from extinction.

Stronger conservation efforts are needed, he added, such as enhancing patrols in critical tiger habitats and leveraging advanced technology such as camera traps and drones for monitoring and surveillance.

“These magnificent creatures continue to teeter on the brink of extinction,” Chan said.

“Losing just one tiger brings the entire species closer to extinction, making every individual tiger’s life extremely critical to the survival of the species.”

“The Malayan tiger is on the brink of extinction with fewer than 150 remaining in the wild,” said Mark Rayan Darmaraj, country director of Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia, who noted that suspected poachers were arrested in a separate case in the nearby state of Pahang the following day, “in possession of the skull and bones of a tiger.”

“They suffer from habitat loss, prey depletion and retaliatory killings stemming from human-tiger conflicts,” he said.

“Additionally, the construction of roads through their habitats increases the risk of fatal vehicle collisions as seen in several recent incidents.”

On July 6, authorities in the western state of Perak were alerted to a dead tiger found in a storm drain off a major highway. Estimated to have been around 4 years old, the adult male had been hit by a car, officials said.

A month earlier, the body of another adult tiger was found by an expressway in Pahang state. Officials believe the tiger, believed to have been 5 years old, was run over by a vehicle while trying to cross the road from a nearby forest reserve.

It was the fourth Malayan tiger killed by a vehicle collision between November 2023 and May 2024, according to authorities.

Eight-year plan

The Malayan tiger was recognized as a subspecies in 2004. Like all tigers, they are excellent swimmers and powerful apex predators.

Smaller than Indonesia’s Sumatran tigers and the Bengal tigers found across South Asia, Malayan tigers can grow to about 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) long and weigh up to 130 kilograms (about 280 pounds), experts say, and need large swaths of forest to roam.

Their slightly darker, reddish-orange coats also distinguish them from other tiger species.

In an eight-year National Tiger Conservation Action Plan released in collaboration with non-profit groups in 2020, Malaysian officials outlined priorities such as conservation tools and a “National Physical Plan” to aid conservation efforts.

“By implementing a suite of concerted actions, backed by political commitment and public support, we as a nation and as part of the global conservation community can ensure that one of the most majestic and charismatic animals with which we share the planet will not vanish,” the report said.

Bankir and his men have been trying to fight off Russian attacks along the Ukrainian front lines for more than two years. But it’s only now that they are finally able to strike where it hurts: Inside Russia’s own territory.

After many months on the back foot because of ammunition and manpower shortages, Kyiv is finally able to take full advantage of Western military aid that started to flow into the country last month, after months of delays.

Soldiers on the front lines say the deliveries are beginning to make a difference – especially since they can now use the arsenal to strike across the border.

“We are deploying the most effective weapons systems in the areas where the Russians are trying to break through the defensive lines and there has been a significant slowdown in the Russian advance,” he added.

While Kyiv hasn’t managed to reclaim large swathes of territory, it has successfully averted what could have been a disaster: The occupation of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city.

‘Tragic moment’

Part of the northern Kharkiv region, including the cities of Izium, Kupiansk, and Balakliia, fell into Russian hands soon after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The occupation was brutal. When the area was liberated in the fall of 2022, Ukrainian troops found evidence of what they say were war crimes committed by Russian forces, including multiple mass graves and torture chambers.

In May this year, Russia launched another cross-border attack on the region, trying to exploit Ukraine’s ammunition shortages before the expected arrival of the first Western weapons.

The consequences were deadly. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that at least 174 civilians were killed and 690 were injured in Ukraine in May, the highest number of civilian casualties in a year.

More than half of the civilian casualties were in Kharkiv – even though the region encompasses a relatively small area compared to the whole country.

But it also marked a major turning point.

“It triggered a change in the position of our Western partners, it encouraged them to, at least partially, remove the restrictions on the use of the Western weapons,” he said.

Fearing an escalation, the US and other Western allies had long prohibited Kyiv from using their weapons to strike inside Russia, restricting their use to Ukrainian areas under Russian occupation.

That has allowed Russia to use the border areas as safe staging grounds for offensives and missile attacks.

“(Russia) knew that Ukraine did not have the capacity to strike these targets on the Russian territory,” Melnyk said.

“If the decision (to provide aid) wasn’t made, if we lost American support and military assistance, that would have been a game changer.”

But the possibility of Russian re-occupation of parts of Kharkiv region convinced some of Ukraine’s key allies, including the US, to lift the restrictions. This allowed Kyiv to hit and destroy or severely damage key targets inside Russia.

According to Ukrainian defense authorities, these included a regiment command post in Belgorod region, an ammunition depot in Voronezh, a drone facility and an airfield in Krasnodar, communication centers in Bryansk and several naval sites in occupied Crimea.

The arrival of long-range ATACMS missile systems was a particular game-changer, Melnyk said. While Ukraine was previously able to strike targets inside Russia using Ukraine-made drones, ATACMS make these strikes far more efficient.

“Speed matters,” Melnyk explained. “With drone strikes, Russians have hours to react, because they can detect Ukrainian drones early. Russian pilots can have a coffee and a cigarette before jumping into the cockpit and taking off to take it down. With the ATACMS, it’s a matter of minutes,” he said.

Konrad Muzyka, an independent defense analyst and the director of Rochan Consulting who has recently returned from eastern Ukraine, said Russia is also no longer able to target Kharkiv region with S-300 and S-400 missile systems.

“Ukraine started conducting HIMARS strikes on targets in the Belgorod region and forced the Russians to push their S-300 system with which they were striking Kharkiv much further away, so now Kharkiv is beyond their range of Russian S-300 systems,” he said.

While Russia switched to aerial glide bombs – guided munitions with pop-up wings dropped by fighter jets from a distance of some 60-70 kilometers – out of range of Ukraine’s air defenses, the elimination of the S-300 threat has provided at least some relief to Kharkiv.

Weapons without men, men without strategy?

But while the new weapons are making some difference, Ukraine is long way off being able to push Russian forces off its territory.

“It isn’t enough to turn the tide at the front. Enough to hold the enemy back, yes, but not enough to change the situation dramatically,” he said.

“The enemy is now exhausted but not destroyed,” he said, pointing to the fact that Russia still has complete air superiority over Ukraine.

Kyiv is now pinning its hopes on the deliveries of F-16 fighter jets which should start soon – the first Ukrainian pilots were set to complete their training in the US this summer.

But Muzyka said it is far from certain the jets will bring a massive change to Ukraine’s fortunes.

“The F-16s are combat aircraft from 1980s and 1990s and their capabilities are worse than the most modern Russian combat aircraft,” he said, adding that the newest Russian jets would likely prevail in an air battle with the F-16.

However, Ukraine can still use the F-16 to deny Russia control over the skies – and push away Russian aircraft delivering bombs.

Yet the new weapons are just part of the puzzle.

“If it had not been for the supplemental package, Ukrainians would be in a much worse situation right now, but at the same time, the current situation is not only the result of a lack of actions by the US Congress, it’s also the result of the decisions that were made and were not made in Kyiv, especially when it comes to mobilization,” Muzyka said.

“The decision to introduce a wider mobilization was probably as important, if not more important, and it came too late,” he said. The new mobilization law, which requires all men between 18 and 60 to register with Ukraine’s military, came into effect in May.

He said that while Ukraine has managed to recruit a significant number of men over the past month and half, it will take time for these new soldiers to be trained up and ready for the front lines.

“Ukrainians are going to be in a very difficult position until August, September, when the first mobilized guys start to enter the front line. If they can get to that point, then there is a big likelihood that they will manage to stabilize the situation from August onwards, but until this happens, more Russian gains are highly likely.”

Muzyka said that with the new weapons arriving and battalions and brigades getting a boost soon from the new recruits, Ukraine will need to decide on its next steps.

“It is unclear what the plans are. What is the strategy for counteroffensives? The problem is that Ukraine is waiting to see what equipment the West can supply them with, and the West is waiting to see what plans Ukraine have for the future,” he said.

Time is of the essence here. Experts estimate that the $60 billion US aid package approved earlier this year will last for – at best – a year or 18 months.

Ukraine’s allies made fresh pledges on arms this week while at a NATO summit in Washington, DC, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for all restrictions on their usage to be lifted.

Given the possibility of former US President Donald Trump winning a second term in November – he has little time to spare.

Maria Kostenko and Daria Tarasova-Markina contributed reporting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has defended Joe Biden after being called “President Putin” by him, calling it “a mistake.”

The US president accidentally referred to Zelensky as “President Putin” when introducing Zelensky at a NATO event on Thursday, before correcting the name moments later.

While the US president – who faces mounting pressure over whether he is fit enough to serve another term in office – played down the gaffe at a high-stakes news conference later that day, the incident was scrutinized internationally.

Russian state media seized on Biden’s performance to further criticize the NATO alliance, saying it turned the event into “a farce.”

However, when asked by press at Ireland’s Shannon Airport Saturday what his reaction was to the error, Zelensky shrugged and said, “It was a mistake.”

“I think United States gave a lot of support for Ukrainians. We can forget some mistakes, I think so,” he continued.

The US is providing Ukraine with much-needed military support in its war against Russia.

The Biden Administration announced a new $2.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday, and said an additional $2.2 billion will be purchased for Ukraine from US arms manufacturers under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which provides Kyiv with longer-term support.

Weeks earlier, the United States and Ukraine signed a bilateral security pact, which commits the US for 10 years to continued training of Ukraine’s armed forces, as well as more weapons support and intelligence sharing. Zelensky at the time described the security pact as “a bridge to Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”

In May, Biden also accepted a request from Ukraine for a change in policy, giving Ukraine permission to strike inside Russian territory, close to the Kharkiv border, with American munitions.

Poland is considering a Ukrainian proposal to intercept Russian rockets that are on course to hit cities in Ukraine or enter Polish territory, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said following a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Friday.

“We are a frontline state and Russian missiles breach our airspace – we assume by mistake,” Sikorski said.

Sikorski explained that some missiles fired from around St. Petersburg fly along the Polish border through Belarusian airspace, before briefly entering Polish airspace for about 40 seconds before hitting targets inside Ukraine.

“Our dilemma is the following: if we shoot them down only when they enter our airspace, the debris is a threat to our citizens and to our property,” he said.

“And the Ukrainians are saying, ‘Please, we will not mind, do it over our airspace when they’re in imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory,’” he said, “To my mind, that’s self-defense but we are exploring the idea.”

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Warsaw to sign a security cooperation agreement between the two countries.

Sikorski said the idea of Poland downing Russian missiles was discussed in that agreement.

“At this stage, this is an idea. What our agreement said is we will explore this idea,” he said.

On Wednesday, Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polish national radio service Polskie Radio 24 that such a decision would only be made with NATO allies.

“If NATO does not make such a decision, Poland will not make it individually,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian said he looks forward to improving ties with Europe, despite accusing the continent of backtracking on commitments to alleviate the impact of US sanctions.

“Despite these missteps, I look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries to set our relations on the right path, based on principles of mutual respect and equal footing,” Pezeshkian wrote in the English-language Tehran Times newspaper.

Pezeshkian went on to state that there were numerous areas of cooperation to explore once “European powers come to terms with this reality and set aside self-arrogated moral supremacy coupled with manufactured crises that have plagued our relations for so long.”

In 2018, under then-President Donald Trump, the US pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a move the EU, UK, France and Germany later said they “deeply regret” – and reimposed sanctions.

European countries made 11 commitments to Iran to “try to salvage the agreement and mitigate the impact of the United States’ unlawful and unilateral sanctions on our economy,” Pezeshikian said.

“European countries have reneged on all these commitments, yet unreasonably expect Iran to unilaterally fulfill all its obligations under the JCPOA,” he added.

He said the commitments included “ensuring effective banking transactions, effective protection of companies from U.S. sanctions, and the promotion of investments in Iran.”

Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old trained heart surgeon and lawmaker, won Iran’s presidential election last Saturday, defeating his hardline rival Saeed Jalili, Iran’s former nuclear negotiator, in a pivotal vote amid heightened tensions both domestically and internationally.

The reformist has favored dialogue with Iran’s foes, particularly over its nuclear program, and sees that as a means to address the country’s domestic issues.

“I wish to emphasize that Iran’s defense doctrine does not include nuclear weapons and urge the United States to learn from past miscalculations and adjust its policy accordingly,” Pezeshkian wrote.

“Decision-makers in Washington need to recognize that a policy that consists of pitting regional countries against each other has not succeeded and will not succeed in the future,” he added.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has the final say on all matters of state. Pezeshkian will ultimately defer to Khamenei, who has condemned those seeking improved relations with the West, on matters of foreign policy.