A Ukrainian solider rushes through the front-line in Klishchiivka, eastern Ukraine, as gun and artillery fire erupt around him. Armed with an American-made M16 rifle, he and his unit storm an area that moments before was held by Russian forces.

Panting heavily as he dashes through the desolate landscape, he turns to a colleague holding a Belgian-made FN Minimi, ordering: “You, with the machine gun, hold this position.”

The scene, recorded on the soldier’s helmet camera, illustrates Ukraine’s heavy reliance on international military support — especially on the equipment arriving from the United States — not just expensive tanks, armored vehicles and high-tech missiles, but also small arms such as assault rifles and machine guns.

It also shows why the US Congress decision to pass a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, without additional funding for Ukraine, rang alarm bells from Kyiv right down to the front line.

US President Joe Biden was quick to try to reassure Ukraine and US allies that American support is unwavering, and called on Congress to follow through on a commitment to hold a separate vote on funding for Ukraine. But the damage was done: the squabble in Washington was a wake-up call for Ukrainians, indicating that US support could shift with the political winds in DC.

In Ukraine’s east, where Ukrainian soldiers are waging a counteroffensive against Russian forces assisted by American weapons, that scenario is unfathomable.

Unfazed by the artillery duels just a few miles away, over the battered city of Bakhmut, Vasyl, 44, practices with a US-made M2 Browning machine gun. He scopes out targets in the training ground, carefully aiming before pressing the trigger.

“This is a large-caliber machine gun that works without failures,” said Vasyl, who asked that his last name not be used due to safety concerns. “It’s very handy when you are working from a high-rise, for example. You have the high ground and you see the enemy below.”

Vasyl is part of the 80th airborne assault brigade’s fire support team, providing units with cover while they advance and slow Russian forces when they counterattack. He said he can’t imagine what would happen if Ukraine were to lose support from the US.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “That would be tough.”

Hundreds of miles away, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the government has downplayed the decision by Congress, billing it as a temporary halt and expressing confidence in American lawmakers approving continued military support for Ukraine.

“It would be a great joy for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and not only him, but for all autocratic regimes, if the US withdrew the assistance it provides to our country,” he said. “Darkness can quickly engulf many countries… The American people need to choose – either the side of light or prepare for very unexpected events that may occur.”

Danilov drew a historical comparison with the 1930s, “when everyone once turned a blind eye to Hitler’s actions,” but said he believed the US would remain committed to supporting Ukraine, saying he was sure the American people, including members of Congress, were “on the side of light.”

“Regarding the (possible) end of the US support, we are more than confident that this will not happen,” he added.

Back at the Ukrainian military training ground, smoke billows on the horizon but a momentary silence suggests an end to the artillery duel in the distance. It’s short-lived. Seconds later, a rumble signals the firing of multiple-rocket launch systems, indicating this remains a very active frontline.

Vasyl is unperturbed as he reloads the Browning, preparing another practice run with a confident smile. He used to fire Soviet machine guns. This one, he said, is a massive improvement.

“It’s much better because it doesn’t fail,” he said. “When you fire a Soviet one it often gets jammed after a few shots just because of the dust getting in. With the Browning, even when it jams as you saw, you jerk it and keeps working. No problem,” he adds.

While it would be a problem if Western weapons like this one stopped making their way into Ukrainian hands, it’s not something Vasyl can afford to worry about.

“Politics is for the politicians,” he explained. “My job is here, my job is to fight.”

And he say’s he’ll do so, with US weapons or not.

“We would be able to perform well with a Soviet gun,” he said. “We don’t have a choice. We have to fight.”

Police in Thailand arrested a 14-year-old, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday left at least three people dead and four others injured.

Local authorities held the suspect with a weapon, and are assessing exact casualties, Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau said.

Gun ownership in the Southeast Asian country is high compared with other countries in the region.

More than 10.3 million civilians held firearms in Thailand, or around 15 guns for every 100 people, 2017 data from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS) said. About 6.2 million of those guns are legally registered, according to SAS.

Thailand tallies the second-highest gun homicides after the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s 2019 Global Burden of Disease database.

But mass shootings in the country are rare. In October 2022, at least 36 people were killed in a gun and knife attack at a child care center in northeastern Thailand.

The massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province was believed to be the country’s deadliest incident of its kind.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to a team of scientists who created a ground-breaking technique using lasers to understand the extremely rapid movements of electrons that were previously thought impossible to follow.

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy,” the Nobel committee said when the prize was announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.

It praised the laureates for giving “humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules.”

The movements of electrons inside atoms and molecules are so rapid that they are measured in attoseconds – an almost incomprehensibly short unit of time. “An attosecond is to one second as one second is to the age of the universe,” the committee explained.

These movements “happen so quickly that normally we have no idea how they actually occur or what the sequence of events is,” said Rosner. But the laureates’ work means scientists can now observe how these movements happen, he added.

“Imagine building a house. You have foundation, walls, roof and so on. There’s a sequence to anything complicated. For a molecule, if you don’t get the sequence right, you won’t be able to assemble it,” said Rosner.

Capturing a snapshot of electrons

L’Huillier, a professor at Lund University in Sweden, discovered a new effect from a laser light’s interaction with atoms in a gas. Agostini, a professor at Ohio State University, and Krausz, a professor at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany, then demonstrated that this effect can be used to create shorter pulses of light than were previously possible.

L’Huillier said she was teaching a class when she got the call from Stockholm this morning, only picking up the phone on the third or fourth time.

“The last half hour of my lecture was a bit difficult to do,” L’Huillier told Hans Ellegren, secretary general of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, during the announcement news conference.

Together, the trio’s experiments with lasers have allowed them to “capture the shortest of moments,” the committee said.

Just as the naked human eye cannot discern the individual beats of a hummingbird’s wing, until this breakthrough scientists were not able to observe or measure the individual movements of an electron, the committee explained. Rapid movements blur together, making extremely short events impossible to observe.

“The faster the event, the faster the picture needs to be taken if it is to capture the instant,” the committee said. “The same principle applies to trying to take a snapshot of the movements of electrons.”

When asked about the potential applications of her research, L’Huillier said the first use is “to really understand when we look at electrons, and look at their properties.”

“The second one is much more practical and it’s coming. This radiation that we produce is also useful for the semiconductor industry as an imaging tool. So this is also coming with a practical application,” L’Huillier said.

Two of the United States’ closest Arab allies are asking the Biden administration to formalize their military relationship with a wide-ranging agreement as Washington becomes uneasy about China’s growing role in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the US’ closest military partners in the Arab world, have called for more security support from Washington of late, and both have indicated that in an increasingly multipolar world, their options aren’t limited to the US.

“They (the Americans) don’t want to see Saudi Arabia shifting their armament from America to another place,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview last month.

Anwar Gargash, the UAE president’s diplomatic adviser, last month described the US’ involvement in the Middle East as “a positive thing,” but stressed the importance of cementing that involvement so “that there are no vacuums” – which, he warned, would only “give opportunities for other players to move into.”

It is important to move from an “informal” security arrangement “to something that’s formal,” he said at a conference in New York, calling for a new, “ironclad” security arrangement with the US.

The demand for a formal arrangement that would offer Gulf states a security umbrella and bind the US to protecting them in the face of military attacks has become an essential component in ties with the US.

Gulf states have over the past few years faced attacks they have blamed on Iran and its proxies, and have found the US’ response to them inadequate.

“Only a substantive security commitment by the United States would be perceived by regional adversaries as a deterrent to their ambitions to topple the U.S.-led regional order of which Saudi Arabia is the anchor,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst, wrote in an article for the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University, in July. “If the United States wants to fully leverage with Saudi Arabia its own capacity to project military power into the region, then it needs to reintroduce deterrence by making such power projection tangible and reliable.”

A security pact is at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s talks with Washington over potential normalization of ties with Israel – which, if achieved, would mark a significant foreign policy win for President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 US presidential elections.

Last month, MBS for the first time publicly acknowledged the normalization talks, saying his country was moving “closer” each day to reaching a deal with Israel.

What a security pact could look like

Experts say the Gulf states may be disappointed as the US is unlikely to extend a blanket security agreement that could get it further bogged down in the Middle East’s conflicts and require a cumbersome legislative approval process in a Congress where Saudi Arabia remains unpopular due to its human rights record.

Discussions over the potential agreement have not been made public, but experts have put forward a number of ideas, from treaties that recognize Gulf security as part of US national interest, to declaring the Gulf nations Major Non-NATO Allies, to a formal security commitment from the US such as those signed with Japan and South Korea.

The US entered defense treaties with Tokyo and Seoul in the 1950s, pledging to defend the two nations in case of armed attack. Both nations have a sizable US military presence and also enjoy Major Non-NATO Ally status.

The Major Non-NATO Ally status is a US designation that provides partners with defense trade and security cooperation benefits. While it is seen as symbol of close partnership with some military and economic privileges, it doesn’t entail any security commitments from the US.

Among the Gulf states, Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, was the first to be declared a MNNA in 2002. Qatar, which is home to the US Central Command, was added to the list last year.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are likely asking for a comprehensive treaty, similar to that signed with Japan and South Korea, said Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore and author of “New Military Strategies in the Gulf: The Mirage of Autonomy in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.”

They may also be asking that Washington ease access to arms sales and potentially increase the US military presence in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, he added, potentially to match the presence in Qatar or Bahrain.

It is however unclear if the US would commit to a treaty that would require it to come to the Gulf states’ defense in case of attack.

“This can only be conferred through a Senate-ratified treaty,” said David Des Roches, a professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies and former Pentagon official who worked on the Middle East.

“The Saudis and others have seen how a non-treaty arrangement can be undone,” he said, referring to the Gulf perception that the US is disengaging from the region. “(They) are unlikely to be satisfied with anything short of a binding treaty commitment.”

Between oversight and autonomy

Some experts say that any agreement with the US will necessarily impact Gulf states’ autonomy over their own defense affairs, as the Biden administration is likely to ask for guarantees that its Arab allies reduce engagement with rivals like China and Russia, both of whom have bolstered ties with the Gulf states of late.

The UAE in 2021 suspended a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy US-made F-35 fighter jets amid Abu Dhabi’s growing frustration with Washington’s attempts to limit Chinese technology sales to the Gulf state. At the time, the sale was seen as a cornerstone of the UAE’s decision to normalize ties with Israel a year prior.

Asked if the UAE is still interested in procuring F-35 jets from the US, Gargash last month said it is, but stressed that there are “sovereign requirements” that need to be settled with the US.

Des Roches said that with a new security pact, the US is likely to ask the Gulf states to “curtail the fielding of any Chinese technology which has the potential to compromise US weaponry in service with Gulf countries.”

But Gulf states, he said, “are likely to regard such restrictions as an infringement on their sovereignty.”

Nevertheless, said Samaan, the demand for a new security arrangement with the US shows that Washington remains the Gulf states’ first port of call when it comes to security matters, despite the threats about finding alternatives.

“We’re back to business as usual,” he said, where Gulf states are turning to Washington and asking for bigger security packages – even if recent public rhetoric has shown some disconnect between what those states will publicly say and what they really want.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Monday that Washington’s reports last week warning of a big build-up of Serbian troops on the Kosovo border “were not fully accurate.”

The White House said last week that it was concerned, warning of an “unprecedented” build up of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, and mechanized infantry units near the Kosovo frontier and calling for an “immediate de-escalation.”

“A year ago, we used to have 14,000 people at the administrative line with Kosovo. Few days ago, we used to have less than 8,400. Today we have 4,400, which is a regular number of people,” Vučić said.

“We always hear, and we always listened when our partners were asking us to de-escalate a situation and we did it this time, although there were no reasons for a big worry, because we didn’t need any kind of wars, any kind of clashes with NATO,” he added.

When asked why the Serbian government moved more troops to the border, Vučić said that Serbia’s army “follow the situation in the field, and they move our forces in a way that they believe it can be… the most useful and they have their own operations and everything else but I did not sign even a high alert for our army people.”

The long fractious ties between Serbia and neighboring Kosovo flared in late September, when 30 armed men opened fire on a Kosovar police patrol in the village of Banjska, in northern Kosovo, before barricading themselves inside an Orthodox monastery. The ensuing hourslong shootout left one Kosovar police officer and three gunmen dead.

Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani pointed the finger at Belgrade for inciting the violence.

A top Kosovo Serb politician, Milan Radoicic said this weekend that he took part in the gun battle, Reuters reported.

In a letter sent to Reuters by his lawyer, Radoicic, who is wanted in Kosovo and lives in neighboring Serbia, said he “personally prepared logistics for the defense of Serb people” and received no help from the Serb authorities. Radoicic is under US sanctions for suspected links to organized crime.

When asked if Radoicic will face accountability that the European Union is demanding, the Serbian president said: “Of course, Serbia will held accountable all the people that committed criminal deeds and that we might find on our territory … prosecutors will do their job,” but said that the issue started from the Serbs wanting to “protect themselves.”

“I’m not going to defend a killing of an Albanian police guy and I didn’t do it. I condemned that. But I’m saying that Serbs were arresting with no charges, home searches, evictions, expropriations, everything that was not in accordance with a Brussels agreement,” he added.

Fragile peace

The clash was one of the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces responsible for a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanians, from Kosovo, leading to the end of the 1998-99 war.

More than 20 years on since the war, a fragile peace has been preserved in Kosovo, while Serbia continues to view it as a breakaway state and does not recognize its independence. Kosovo’s Serbs view themselves as part of Serbia, and see Belgrade as their capital, rather than Pristina.

The confrontation comes months after ethnic Serbs attacked dozens of NATO peacekeepers in the town of Zvecan, in northern Kosovo, in May. The clashes broke out after Serbian demonstrators tried to block newly elected ethnically Albanian mayors from taking office, following a disputed election in April.

Western leaders were quick to condemn the violent actions, urging both parties to de-escalate tensions. The violence has ratcheted tensions in the Balkan region as the EU and US mediators attempt to finalize yearslong talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo.

When asked about his thoughts on the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic leaving a political message on a TV camera lens at the French Open in May in response to violent clashes in Kosovo, the president said he believes Djokovic was expressing his feelings “from the bottom of his heart” but stressed that Serbian politicians need to be “pragmatic” about the situation.

Following his first-round victory against American Aleksandar Kovacevic, Djokovic wrote “Kosovo is the [heart] of Serbia. Stop the violence” in Serbian on a camera lens, using a heart symbol.

“I believe that Novak Djokovic was saying something from the bottom of his heart. 99% of people Serbian believe in that but I can tell you one thing, that we politicians need to be pragmatic, rational, which means that we need to find solutions through negotiating process, through constructive approach,” the Serbian leader said.

An annular solar eclipse will make its appearance in the skies over North, Central and South America on October 14, creating a singular spectacle for those in its path — and a rare opportunity for scientists.

The dazzling celestial event will allow millions of people to witness “the awe and the wonder of seeing a beautiful ring of fire eclipse,” said Peg Luce, acting director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters.

The “ring of fire” nickname comes from the appearance of annular solar eclipses, which are like total solar eclipses, except the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit from Earth, so they can’t completely block the sun. Instead, the sun’s fiery light surrounds the moon’s shadow, creating the so-called ring of fire.

The annular solar eclipse will begin in the United States at 9:13 a.m. PT (12:13 p.m. ET) and pass from the Oregon coast to Texas’ Gulf Coast, appearing in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas. The lunar shadow will also be visible in parts of California, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona. The eclipse will end in the US at 12:03 p.m. CT (1:03 p.m. ET).

After leaving the US, the eclipse will cross Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Panama and Colombia before ending off South America’s Atlantic coast at Natal, Brazil.

Weather permitting, a cresecent-shaped partial solar eclipse, where only part of the sun is covered by the moon, will be visible October 14 in all 49 continental US states, including Alaska, according to NASA. Use the agency’s interactive eclipse map to check when the eclipse will pass over your area.

Unable to see the eclipse? NASA will share a live stream beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET on eclipse day, sharing views from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kirbyville, Texas, and White Sands, New Mexico, according to Kelly Korreck, eclipse program manager at NASA.

“The next annular eclipse seen in this part of the country is actually going to be in 2046,” Korreck said. “It’s going to be a long stretch before we will see this phenomenon again, so we’re really encouraging folks to go out there and observe safely.”

What to see

Those in the path of the annular eclipse will experience several phases of the event. First, as the moon begins to pass in front of the sun, it will create a crescent-shaped partial eclipse.

An hour and 20 minutes after the partial eclipse begins, the moon will move directly in front of the sun, creating the ring of fire (also called annularity). Depending on your location along the path, this phase will last between one and five minutes.

During annularity, the sky will grow darker, though not as dark as during a total solar eclipse when all of the sun’s light is blocked. Animals may behave like they do at dusk, and the air may feel cooler, according to NASA.

The moon will continue its trek across the sun for another hour and 20 minutes, creating another partial eclipse, before the moon moves out of sight.

Safe viewing

It’s never safe to look directly at the sun without using specialized protection, and there is no phase of an annular eclipse that is safe to view with the naked eye because the sun’s light is never completely blocked.

To view the annular eclipse, wear certified eclipse glasses or use a handheld solar viewer. Separately, you can observe the sun with a telescope, binoculars or camera that has a special solar filter on the front, which acts the same way eclipse glasses would.

“You need certified ISO 12312-2 compliant solar eclipse glasses. There are plenty of safe sellers online,” said Alex Lockwood, strategic content and integration lead for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. “We cannot stress enough how important it is to obtain a pair of safe certified solar eclipse glasses in order to witness this annular event.”

Sunglasses won’t work in place of eclipse glasses or solar viewers, which are thousands of times darker and held to an international standard. Don’t use torn, scratched or damaged eclipse glasses or solar viewers.

Don’t look at the sun through any optical device — cameras lens, telescope, binoculars — while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer, according to NASA. Solar rays can still burn through the filter on the glasses or viewer, given how concentrated they can be through an optical device, and can cause severe eye damage.

Eclipses can also be viewed indirectly using a pinhole projector, like a hole punched through an index card. These function by standing with your back to the sun and holding up the card. The pinhole projects an image of the sun on the ground or other surfaces. But never face the sun and look directly at it through the pinhole.

If you’re sitting outside for a while awaiting the eclipse, don’t forget to apply sunscreen and wear a hat to protect your skin.

The next eclipse

A total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Mexico, Canada and more than 10 US states on April 8, 2024.

The eclipse will first appear over the South Pacific Ocean and begin its journey across North America. Mexico’s Pacific coast is the first point of totality on the path, expected at 11:07 a.m. PT.

The pathway will continue across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Then, it will cross over Canada in southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, ending on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland at 5:16 p.m. (3:46 p.m. ET).

What we can learn from eclipses

Eclipses afford scientists the opportunity to study the sun and how it interacts with Earth in unique ways. NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the annular eclipse to monitor how the drop in sunlight impacts Earth’s upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere.

About 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, the ionosphere is where air becomes electric. The sun’s ultraviolet rays separate electrons from atoms, creating an atmospheric layer full of charged particles. But at night, the atoms recombine to become neutral.

The eclipse causes a more drastic change as the temperature and density of the ionosphere drop and rise again over a shorter time scale.

“If you think of the ionosphere as a pond with some gentle ripples on it, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water,” said Aroh Barjatya, designer of the sounding rocket mission and a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, in a statement. “It creates a wake immediately underneath and behind it, and then the water level momentarily goes up as it rushes back in.”

Atmospheric changes were detected in 2017 during a total solar eclipse across the US.

“All satellite communications go through the ionosphere before they reach Earth,” Barjatya said. “As we become more dependent on space-based assets, we need to understand and model all perturbations in the ionosphere.”

The rockets will launch before, during and after the peak of the eclipse, flying just outside of the path of annularity, to measure the changes that occur in the ionosphere between 45 and 200 miles (72 and 322 kilometers) above the ground.

Amateur radio operators will try an experiment during both the annular and total solar eclipses to see how these phenomena change the way radio waves travel. Operators in different locations will record the strength of their signals and how far they travel. Scientists are interested in tracking this distance because the sun directly influences the ionosphere, which allows radio communications to travel farther. But when the moon blocks the sun, that can change.

The sun is currently approaching solar maximum in mid-to-late 2024, and scientists are eager to capture this peak of activity through a variety of observations, like studying the sun’s corona, or hot outer atmosphere, that can only occur during eclipses.

At least 11 people were killed and two people seriously injured on Sunday after the roof of a church in northern Mexico collapsed, officials said.

Preliminary reports indicate that about 100 people were inside the building in Ciudad Madero at the time of the incident, according to a statement from security services in the state of Tamaulipas. Thirty people were believed to be buried in the rubble, Reuters reported.

At least 60 people were injured, with two people sustaining serious injuries, Tamaulipas security spokesperson said.

Units from the National Guard, State Guard, Civil Protection and the Red Cross were assisting in the rescue operation.

Bishop Jose Armando Alvarez, from the diocese of Tampico, said the roof of the church collapsed while worshipers were taking communion, Reuters reported. He urged other members of the community to pray for survivors.

“In this moment the necessary work is being carried out to pull out the people who are still under the rubble,” Bishop Armando said in a recorded message shared on social media, according to Reuters.

The United Nations Security Council has greenlit the deployment of an armed multinational force to Haiti, as the Caribbean nation wrestles with rampant gang violence and political paralysis.

The decision follows repeated calls for military assistance by Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the United States have also strongly urged the international community to back such a mission.

Thirteen members of the council voted in favor of the resolution, with Russia and China abstaining.

Though approved by the powerful UN Security Council, the force would not formally be under UN control. It is expected to be led by Kenya, which has pledged 1000 police to spearhead the mission. Several of Haiti’s Caribbean neighbors – Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica – have also offered support to the mission.

The “multinational security support” force will have a 12-month mandate in Haiti. The timing of its arrival is not set yet and more countries have been invited to participate. The resolution also calls for a global stop to arms sales to Haiti, except for approved security purposes.

Warring gangs control much of Port-au-Prince – Haiti’s capital city and main port – choking off vital supply lines to the rest of the country. Gang members have also terrorized the metropolitan population, forcing some 200,000 people to flee their homes amid waves of indiscriminate killing, kidnapping, arson and rape.

The mission is expected to strengthen local security and to reinforce the Haitian National Police in its pursuit of the gangs. Haiti’s security forces already receive some international support but remain understaffed and outgunned.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, Prime Minister Henry told fellow nations that it was “urgent” that the Security Council approve a military mission to reestablish order. Violence has exacerbated broader instability across the country, Henry said, noting that inflation has soared past 50%, leaving 4.9 million Haitians struggling to eat – a dismal new record for the country.

In a statement the same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the international community to support the plan and to provide assistance, including personnel, and said Washington was ready to provide “robust” financial and logistical assistance.

The Security Council has found itself in repeated deadlock in recent years amid deepening geopolitical rivalries. A statement by the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described Monday’s decision on Haiti as “historic” and said the mission “speaks to the UN’s ability to galvanize collective action.”

Speaking in the Security Council after the vote, China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said his country had “a cautious and responsible approach” toward authorizing the use of force – but that in the case of Haiti, China’s abstention represented a “constructive position” toward the resolution.

Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia criticized the move in remarks to the council, saying “that sending the armed forces of another state to any country even upon its request is an extreme measure that must be thoroughly thought through,” but noted “some positive elements” to the approved resolution.

Both Russia and China expressed approval of the resolution’s arms embargo.

Critics of the mission have previously pointed to scandals associated with UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, including allegations of sexual abuse and the introduction of a deadly cholera epidemic, which killed nearly 10,000 people. Some Haitians also question the mandate of Prime Minister Henry, who took leadership of the country after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021.

Henry has said that Haiti’s long-overdue elections cannot be held until the country reaches a basic level of security.

The United Nations’ special representative in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, said her office would support the mission “within the limits of its mandate,” while emphasizing that “unlike recent international missions deployed in Haiti, the MSS mission is not a UN mission.”

Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests on a “case-by-case” basis, a seeming reversal of previous statements.

The Pope made the suggestion in a letter to his harshest critics within the Catholic ranks, written in response to a letter from five conservative cardinals with formal questions – called a “dubia” (Latin for “doubt”) – which is an official request for a yes or no answer from a sitting pontiff regarding his running of the Church.

The cardinals, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, first sent the letter to Pope Francis on July 10. It focused on an upcoming October meeting of bishops, asking what impact it could have on Church’s teaching, and included questions about the Pope’s intention to bless same-sex unions, and whether he intends to open the door to women priests through ordination.

Unsatisfied with the Pope’s initial response, according to a blog post by American Cardinal Raymond Burke, the five cardinals reworded the “dubia” letter and sent it again on August 21, citing “the gravity of the matter,” according to Burke.

The Vatican then released a letter in Spanish dated September 25 signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s new chief of doctrine. The response includes Pope Francis’ answers to the dubia, signed “Francis.”

On the issue of homosexual unions, the pontiff reiterated that the church only recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but opened the door for blessings of individuals in same-sex unions, the letter shows.

“When you ask for a blessing, you are expressing a request for help from God, a prayer to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better,” the Pope wrote, adding that a clergy must show “pastoral prudence must adequately discern if there are forms of blessing, requested by one or various people, which do not convey a wrong concept of marriage.”

The Pope’s response appears to contradict his statement in March, when he said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could “not bless sin.”

The latest development appears to be a nod to a decision made by the German Church in March and carried out in August, in which same-sex unions received a Catholic blessing by several priests in the city of Cologne.

On the issue of women’s ordination, the pontiff was clear that he upheld the words of the late Pope John Paul II, who said in 1994 that the (Catholic) Church had “no authority” to ordain women, but said that the issue needed to be studied in order to educate those who doubt it, the letter said.

“If is not understood and the practical consequences of these distinctions are not drawn, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men and we will not be able to recognize the rights of women or the need for them to participate, in various ways, in the leadership of the Church,” the Pope added.

On the issue of the impact the upcoming meeting of Catholic bishops may have on the church’s teaching, Pope Francis was vaguer, writing, “Both the hierarchy, and the entire People of God in different ways and at different levels can make their voice heard and feel like part of the Church’s journey. In this sense we can say that yes, synodality, as style and dynamism, is an essential dimension of the life of the Church.”

He also added that attempts to “sacralize or impose a certain synodal methodology that pleases one group, transforming it into a norm and an obligatory path for everyone, because this would only lead to ‘freezing’ the synodal path.”

The upcoming Synod in Rome has been met with skepticism by the conservative corners of the Church who have expressed concern both that women will have a voice, and that the Church’s teaching is not carried out by consensus.

Satellite television company Dish Network has been hit with a $150,000 fine for failing to properly dispose of one of its satellites, marking the first time federal regulators have issued such a penalty.

The Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes space-based telecom services, announced Monday that it settled an investigation into Dish, resulting in the fine and an “admission of liability” from the company.

“This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts,” the FCC said in a news release.

Dish responded in a statement, saying the satellite at issue was “an older spacecraft (launched in 2002) that had been explicitly exempted from the FCC’s rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit.”

Dish also said the FCC made no claims that the satellite “poses any orbital debris safety concerns” and said the company has a “long track record of safely flying a large satellite fleet and takes seriously its responsibilities as an FCC licensee.”

Space debris is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for satellite operators. It’s estimated that there are nearly 700,000 pieces of uncontrolled garbage larger than 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) in Earth’s orbit.

The objects could pose a risk of colliding with active satellites, the International Space Station or other pieces of debris, further exacerbating the risk of in-space collisions. And, until recently, the satellite industry had largely been left to self-regulate its compliance with most stringent debris mitigation recommendations.

The FCC’s investigation into Dish centered on a satellite called EchoStar-7. It was launched to geostationary orbit — a field of space that begins about 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth — in 2002.

The FCC approved a decommissioning plan in 2012 to ensure the satellite would retire about 186 miles (300 kilometers) above its operational field — essentially putting the defunct satellite into a graveyard orbit where it wouldn’t pose a risk to other active satellites.

But, according to the FCC, Dish did not leave enough fuel on board the satellite to make that maneuver possible. And EchoStar-7 was instead left dead in an orbit only about 76 miles (122 kilometers) above the active areas in geostationary orbit.

“Orbital debris in space jeopardizes the nation’s terrestrial and space-based communication systems by increasing the risk of damage to satellite communications systems,” according to the FCC’s consent decree. “Therefore, it is important for the Commission to ensure that satellite licensees meet post-mission disposal requirements in a manner compliant with their authorizations.”

Geostationary orbit is located well above low-Earth orbit, the area of space that is home to the ISS and thousands of small satellites including SpaceX’s Starlink network, as well as most of the problematic space debris. But geostationary orbit remains home to large, expensive telecommunications satellites, such as those operated by Dish, Intelsat, SES and Viasat.