NATO

Poland said it has stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine, further escalating a dispute over grain shipments that’s threatening to break a key alliance in Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

More than 6,000 people are confirmed dead in the flooding across eastern Libya caused by Storm Daniel, which burst two dams and destroyed large parts of the port city of Derna. Many thousands are still missing and the confirmed death toll is expected to at least double as the remains of victims the flood swept out to sea wash back ashore.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last year to prevent NATO from expanding into the country.

Thirty-one NATO countries and Sweden are to conduct in 2024 the biggest NATO military exercises since the Cold War, UK newspaper the Financial Times reports, citing its sources in the defensive alliance.

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński told a group of arms manufacturers that Warsaw will have Europe’s strongest land force within two years through a series of weapons purchases. Warsaw believes increasing military spending to three percent of GDP and expanding its military to 300,000 personnel will make the Polish Army so powerful it cannot be challenged.

The Economist reported Sunday that Ukraine’s increasing drone attacks inside Russia are carried out using intelligence gathered by Kyiv’s Western backers.

The United States is urging Americans in Belarus to leave the country “immediately,” citing spillover risks from the war in Ukraine, including a buildup of Russian troops in Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to use nuclear weapons, deployed to his country by Moscow, if “aggression is launched against us.” This comes as neighboring NATO states have deployed thousands of troops near the Belarusian border amid heightened tensions between Minsk and Warsaw.

Washington and Helsinki are working on a new deal to govern the military relationship between the two nations. Finland recently became the thirty-first member of NATO, doubling the alliance’s border with Russia.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the Biden administration will move forward with a $20 billion sale of Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.