Axios

President Joe Biden authorized an additional $150 million in military assistance to Ukraine on Friday, pulling from his dwindling drawdown authority, the State Department confirmed.

Driving the news: As Biden has nearly exhausted these funds, he also called on Congress to pass his $33 billion request for humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.

Displaced by war, separated from family and far from home, six students from Ukraine are competing in the world's largest science fair.

Details: This week, the students will participate virtually alongside more than 1,750 other finalists in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

Israel next week will approve the planning and building of 4,000 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said on Friday.

Why it matters: The announcement comes as preparations are underway for President Biden’s visit to Israel, which is expected to take place in the last two weeks of June.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz should visit Kyiv on May 9 — the date of Russia's highly symbolic Victory Day holiday — as a show of solidarity with Ukraine.

Why it matters: Tensions between Ukraine and Europe's most powerful country are beginning to ease after a weeks-long diplomatic standoff, which was triggered by Zelensky's refusal to host German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Kyiv over his past support for rapprochement with Russia.

The 2022 Asian Games that were set to be held in Hangzhou, China, in September have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, the Olympic Council of Asia announced Friday.

Driving the news: China is currently experiencing its worst outbreak to date, largely driven by the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Ukraine's U.S. ambassador, Oksana Markarova, is setting a high bar for victory in her country's war: pushing all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory — including the Crimean Peninsula and Donbas regions claimed as their territory since 2014.

Why it matters: As the war drags into its 10th week, it’s a sign Ukraine is increasingly looking ahead and gaining confidence — which seemed absurd at the start of the war.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday doubled down on calls for an end to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, calling it "senseless in its scope, ruthless in its dimensions and limitless in its potential for global harm." 

Driving the news: The devastation has already had far-reaching consequences for global food security, said Guterres in remarks to the UN Security Council.

Brazilian presidential front-runner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offered a stark reminder this week that the world is not united over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when he told Time magazine that the U.S., EU and Ukraine itself bear as much responsibility for the war as Vladimir Putin.

The big picture: Sanctions on Russia are still limited largely to NATO, EU countries and America’s allies in the Pacific. Not only did countries representing more than half of the world’s population decline to condemn Russia’s invasion at the UN, the momentum toward Moscow’s international isolation seems to have slowed even as evidence of Russian war atrocities has mounted.

A European official told reporters Thursday that “inappropriate communication” about the intelligence being provided to Ukrainian forces could “trigger an unexpected reaction” from Russia.

Between the lines: The NYT reported Wednesday that intelligence provided by the U.S. had helped Ukraine kill several Russian generals, while NBC reported Thursday that Ukraine used intelligence provided by the U.S. to target the Moskva warship. Both cited anonymous U.S. officials.

Former President George W. Bush confirmed on Twitter on Thursday that he'd had a video call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he praised as "the Winston Churchill of our time."

Why it matters: The meeting makes Bush the first known former U.S. president to speak with Zelensky since the start of the war.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper reveals in his forthcoming memoir that Trump asked him about the possibility of secretly launching missiles into Mexico, the New York Times reports.

Driving the news: Trump, concerned about drug cartels, asked at least twice in the summer of 2020 if the U.S. military could "shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs," according to excerpts of the memoir quoted by the Times.

The Pentagon denied Thursday that the U.S. has shared intelligence with Ukraine with the intent of targeting and killing senior Russian military leaders, stressing that the goal of U.S. intelligence is simply to allow Ukrainian forces to defend themselves against Russia's invasion.

Why it matters: The New York Times published a report Wednesday suggesting that U.S. intelligence-sharing has played a key role in the death of "many" of the Russian generals who have been killed in action during the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized on Thursday for his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's false claim that Adolf Hitler had "Jewish blood," the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said following a call between Putin and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Why it matters: Lavrov’s comments created a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Israel, which was heightened Tuesday after the Russian Foreign Ministry doubled down on Lavrov's statements and accused Israel of supporting Ukrainian "neo-Nazis." If confirmed, Putins' apology is a remarkable walk back.

The future of water access in Peru might be in engineering practices from 1,400 years ago.

Why it matters: Andean nations like Peru have experienced prolonged droughts in the past few years. Chile announced a water rationing plan this April.

Ukraine received pledges for $6.5 billion in aid at a donor conference in Warsaw on Thursday to help the country recover from Russia's unprovoked invasion, the Associated Press reports.

Driving the news: Countries and businesses committed the money at the event co-hosted by the Polish and Swedish prime ministers in an effort to meet the mounting costs the war has caused. The humanitarian crisis has displaced millions and battered the country's basic services, according to the United Nations.

Fiji's government seized a $300 million yacht that American officials say belongs to sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Why it matters: Kerimov is an official in the Russian government who controls the largest gold producer in the country and has been sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union for money laundering and tax evasion.

Russia has committed at least 9,800 war crimes since the start of its unprovoked invasion, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova told the U.S. Helsinki Commission and shared in a Facebook post Thursday.

The big picture: Russian troops have deliberately bombed civilian infrastructure, killed and tortured Ukrainians in towns they occupied and used rape as a weapon in the first 70 days of the war, Venediktova said.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that it estimates around 14.9 million people around the world died directly or indirectly from the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

The big picture: That figure is double the more than 6 million COVID-19 deaths that have been officially reported by countries, though determining exactly how many people have died as a result of the pandemic has been difficult.

Russian forces were pausing their assault on Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant on Thursday morning "to open a humanitarian corridor" as part of a three-day daytime ceasefire pledge, Russia's Defense Ministry announced.

The big picture: The United Nations said more than 300 civilians were evacuated on Wednesday from the Mariupol area to the city of Zaporizhzhia, also in southeastern Ukraine, as Ukrainian officials and their forces defending the port city plant reported intense, bloody battles at the facility.

Israel and the U.S. have been discussing ways to put more pressure on Iran in a scenario in which there is no return to the 2015 nuclear deal in the near future, a senior Israeli official told Axios.

Why it matters: The seven-week “pause” in the Vienna nuclear talks has thrown the negotiations into limbo. The Biden administration, its European allies and Israel have expressed concerns that Iran will continue to advance its nuclear program while the talks are stalled.

A Canadian official said on Wednesday after a Supreme Court draft ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked that Americans would be able to obtain abortions in Canada, NPR reports.

What they're saying: "If they, people, come here and need access, certainly, you know, that's a service that would be provided," said Karina Gould, the minister of families, children and social development.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News on Wednesday that Russia's attempts to smear him with comparisons to Adolf Hitler are a form of propaganda modeled after Joseph Goebbels' tactics, which indoctrinated German people in antisemitic Nazi ideologies.

Why it matters: Zelensky, who is Jewish, is a regular target of Russian disinformation campaigns. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attempted to justify the comparison to Hitler on Sunday by falsely claiming that Hitler had "Jewish blood" — prompting Israel's government to publicly rebuke him.

U.S. military officials overseeing the training of Ukrainian troops say the evolution of their mission since 2015 helps explain "to a significant degree" why Ukraine has had so much success against Russian forces on the battlefield.

Why it matters: The willingness of top Pentagon brass to speak — on the record — about training the Ukrainian military is the latest evidence of the sea change in how the U.S. views and discusses its role in the war.

The leader of Russia's Orthodox Church said Wednesday he regrets the "incorrect tone" Pope Francis used in addressing his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine, per multiple reports.

Driving the news: The pope addressed Putin loyalist Patriarch Kirill's support for the invasion as he called for an end to the war during an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.