Ukraine and Russia

• Ukraine claimed it killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet - and 30 other officers - in a missile strike on Crimea last week. Russia hasn't confirmed the commander's death, but Ukraine generally doesn't make claims like this without fully verifying them first.
• Ukraine received its first M1 Abrams tanks from the U.S. yesterday - months ahead of schedule. The NYT guesstimates that there were 8-10 tanks - of the 31 pledged to Ukraine - in this initial shipment. Ukraine plans to use them to reinforce its counteroffensive.
• Meanwhile, Russia targeted the port of Odesa for the first time since Ukraine began shipping grain through it last month.
• Russia is reportedly trying to buy its way back onto the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by offering council members free or cheap grain in exchange for their support of Russia's readmission petition. Russia was booted from the council in April 2022 after it invaded Ukraine.
• Russia's UNHRC petition could be complicated by new UN reports of "widespread and systematic" evidence that Russia tortured Ukrainians.

• A big blast at a fuel depot killed at least 20 people in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia claims Azerbaijan is carrying out an "ethnic cleansing" of the territory's Armenian population, and over 13,000 of them have fled to Armenia in the past week.
• Envoys from Armenia and Azerbaijan are meeting in Brussels today to try to calm the crisis.

• Pres. Maduro called for direct talks with Guyana's Pres. Ali to discuss their long-running dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region, which Guyana currently administers.
• Venezuela and Guyana have argued over Essequibo since at least 1777, but their dispute sharply intensified since Exxon discovered oil offshore in 2015.

• The Philippine coast guard severed a floating barrier that Chinese sailors had installed around a disputed fishing area near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both sides refuse to back down.

• Saudi Arabia agreed to join the IAEA's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement - and in doing so, agreed to UN inspection and monitoring of its nuclear programs. It's trying to keep up with regional archrival Iran's nuclear progress.