Ukraine

• Ukrainian forces claimed a minor win pushing Russian troops back from a key position along a canal outside of Bakhmut and capturing about eight square kilometers (three square miles) of land back from Russia, marking the first Ukrainian gains there since March.
• Pres. Zelensky signaled that Ukraine's looming counteroffensive will be delayed by a few days until new military aid arrives.
• Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said he is also waiting on supplies: he estimated his forces have only received 10% of the ammunition it needs.
• Prigozhin also accused the Russian army of abandoning the fight in Bakhmut, leaving his paid troops to defend the captured terrain.

• UK intelligence assessed that the 8,000 Russian "soldiers" who marched in Tuesday's Victory Day parade were not combat soldiers, but rather auxiliary forces and cadets from training camps. That's probably because all the regulars are deployed to Ukraine.

• Chinese officials raided the offices of several foreign consulting firms - including Capvision, Bain & Company, and Mintz - in a crackdown on spying. Beijing says the companies "ignored potential national security risks" by seeking "sensitive data."
• Separately, China and Saudi Arabia announced a new joint investment in a steelmaking plant in Saudi that will produce 1.5 million tons of steel plate per year.

• In the latest example of Syria continuing to normalize relations with its neighbors after being shunned for over a decade, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria will meet today for the first time since the Syrian civil war started in 2011. Turkey wants to send the six million Syrians it's hosting back home, but few of them want to return yet.

• Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed an appeal on behalf of Exxon against a High Court ruling that Exxon provided insufficient insurance coverage to proceed with an offshore oil project.
• The EPA's advocacy probably won't help the appeal's chances of success: the court's original ruling criticized "derelict, pliant, and submissive" environmental regulators for bending to Exxon's will.

• Azerbaijani and Armenian troops exchanged fire today. They may both be seeking to solidify positions ahead of EU-mediated talks that start this weekend.

• Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) rooted about 1,400 Boko Haram fighters out of their hideout in the Sambisa Forest and chased them into Niger - which promptly captured them and handed them over to the Nigerian military.

• Pakistani police arrested former PM Imran Khan on charges of corruption related to a land deal. He says the charges are politically motivated, and his supporters are protesting for his release. At least eight people have died in protests, and over 2,000 have been arrested.
• Egypt, Qatar, and the UN are all trying to mediate between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Israel. Islamic Jihad is demanding that Israel pledge to stop targeted assassinations, but Israel is unlikely to agree to that. In fact, it reportedly targeted another Islamic Jihad commander early this morning.
• The UK is giving up on its post-Brexit goal of replacing all 4,000 European Union (EU) laws still in place by the end of 2023, and will instead focus on 600 high-priority laws. The laws that have been replaced already are largely carbon copies of their EU predecessors.