When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed British lawmakers in parliament as part of a surprise visit to the U.K. on Wednesday—only his third international trip since the Russian invasion began last year—he had a simple message aimed at the international community.

“Leaving the British Parliament two years ago, I thanked you for delicious English tea,” Zelensky, donning his trademark olive green sweater, recalled to a packed Westminster hall about his first visit to Britain as Ukraine’s President in 2020. “I will be leaving the Parliament today thanking all of you in advance for powerful English planes.”

There was little ambiguity in what the Ukrainian President was asking for. While much of his 20-minute address was dedicated to thanking Britain for its unwavering support for Kyiv “since day one,” it also served as a clarion call to provide Ukraine with modern fighter jets—an ask that governments in the U.S. and Europe have so far rebuffed.

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Read More: Biden Ruled Out F-16s for Ukraine. But the Debate Over Fighter Jets Is Starting to Roar

But there are signs that Western opposition to sending jets may be starting to fade. Just hours before Zelensky’s arrival, the British government announced that it would begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly NATO-standard fighter jets as part of a “long-term capability investment,” making it the first Western allied country to do so. The move marks a striking shift from the British government’s position only a week ago, when a government spokesperson described sending jets as impractical on the grounds that the U.K.’s fighter jets are “extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly.”

In a joint press conference following Zelensky’s address to British lawmakers, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “nothing is off the table” when asked about Ukraine’s request for fighter jets. Ben Wallace, Britain’s defense minister, is reportedly “actively” looking into whether the U.K. government can send military jets to Ukraine.

These moves may signal a recognition that Ukraine receiving fighter jets from its allies is a matter of when, not if. “The impossible has become possible more than once in terms of supporting Ukraine,” says Greg Bagwell, a former senior Royal Air Force commander and president of the U.K. Air Power Association. Indeed, it was only weeks ago that the U.S. and Germany joined Britain in agreeing to send battle tanks to Ukraine after months of deliberation and debate. A similar standoff is now playing out over the issue of fighter jets: While the U.S. and Germany have so far proven reluctant to provide jets, France and the Netherlands have suggested that they are more open to doing so.

The U.S.’s own willingness to provide jets—specifically the American-made F-16s—is what may prove most decisive in how Kyiv’s European allies choose to respond. Germany, in particular, has proven particularly reluctant to act out of lockstep with Washington for fear of provoking a Russian escalation. (Berlin initially refused to send its own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine until the U.S. agreed to send its Abrams tanks. However, Britain had pledged on its own accord to send its Challenger 2 tanks even earlier.) Besides, should European countries wish to donate their stockpile of F-16s to Ukraine, they will need the Biden administration’s permission.

Justin Tallis—AFP via Getty ImagesUkraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives with Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street in central London on Feb. 8, 2023.TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Still, the British government will undoubtedly come under pressure to take the lead in this area—if not from Kyiv and its allies, then certainly from within. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who Zelensky paid tribute to in his address for rallying others “when it seemed absolutely, absolutely impossible,” has been a vocal proponent of sending Ukraine the heavy weapons it needs to repel the Russian invasion—a call he renewed today. Other lawmakers in attendance were noticeably moved by Zelensky’s address, which was repeatedly interrupted with spurts of loud applause.

“It is crucial that the U.K. and the international community maintains its support for the people of Ukraine as its people fight for freedom, democracy, and human rights,” Alyn Smith, a Scottish Nationalist Party lawmaker, told TIME following Zelensky’s address. “I absolutely believe that Ukraine will win and I look forward to seeing that day soon.”

It is that belief that Zelensky was counting on when he presented the House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle with a helmet belonging to one of Ukraine’s most successful pilots, with a message scrawled on it: “We have freedom. Give us wings to protect it.”

Fantastic for him but terrible for us, 10 years in Channing Tatum time is the equivalent of 2 years for normal humans. In Magic Mike’s Last Dance—the third movie in the Magic Mike series, a franchise that was never intended to be a franchise, which is just part of its ramshackle appeal—his face still has the scrubbed-clean mischievousness of a sailor on shore leave, and his physique shows no sign of creakiness or insidious flab. For Tatum, it may as well be 2012, the year of the first Magic Mike movie, directed, as this new one is, by Steven Soderbergh and written by Reid Carolin.

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But no matter how little Tatum has changed, the world around him has perhaps changed too much. In Magic Mike, Tatum induced fainting spells the world over as Mike Lane, a male stripper—or, er, male entertainer—and sometime construction worker whose dream was to start a custom furniture company. Yet Magic Mike’s Last Dance only partially rekindles the spark of the earlier movie, or that of its rambunctious sequel, Magic Mike XXL (directed by Gregory Jacobs but written by Carolin). One problem may be that the opening scene of Last Dance is so blazingly amorous the rest of the movie can’t hope to measure up—after that first 20 minutes or so, the picture has the clumsiness of a muffed backflip, and the letdown is hard to get over.

Read more: Why Aren’t Movies Sexy Anymore?

That’s especially disappointing considering that Magic Mike’s Last Dance offers glimpses, here and there, of everything we could wish for. For one thing, it matches Tatum with Salma Hayek, a performer whose comic timing—and movie-star radiance—may be even greater than his. Hayek plays the smart, saucy socialite Maxandra Mendoza, a woman who clearly keeps her wits about her. But even the most self-determined among us can be thrown by major life changes, and Max, who has learned that her husband is cheating on her, may be headed toward a tricky divorce. While hosting a charity event at her luxe Florida pad, she meets Tatum’s Mike, who’s in a transitional slump himself. He’s long retired from dancing, but the furniture business he’d built from scratch has gone belly-up with the pandemic. Now he’s bartending to make ends meet, and he almost doesn’t have the spirit to flirt, even with a smoldering, raven-haired beauty draped in fuchsia chiffon.

It’s Max who puts the moves on Mike, in a manner of speaking: one of her party guests has recognized him from his old line of work, and seeking temporary relief from her lousy mood, she tries to commission him for a private dance. He balks at first, but eventually succumbs—in a witty preamble to the performance, he moves flower vases off tables for safety’s sake, and shifts chairs around the room for use as props later. And as it turns out, Mike hasn’t lost his moves, and Max responds accordingly, becoming part of the dance rather than just an intoxicated observer: after a few sultry, hesitant moments of exploration, they’re like sine waves finding a simpatico groove.

The two end up in bed, and though Max isn’t looking for anything permanent, it seems her evening with Mike has renewed her spirit. She invites him to come to London with her, offering him a job whose details she at first refuses to reveal. They board her private jet, where they drink champagne together; she’s dressed in the first of a number of smashing silky PJ outfits, this one complete with a fetching little eye mask, which she perches atop her head like a pair of aviator goggles.

So far, so good—great, in fact. It turns out that Max wants other women to feel as she does, to take control of their lives and seek the things they really want. To that end, she wants Mike to direct a show, which will be mounted in the London theater that will supposedly belong to her once the divorce is final. And while all of this sounds like fun, it’s at this point that the movie starts to stumble. Max has a young teenage daughter, Zadie (Jemelia George), who also, for not fully explicable reasons, narrates the movie. She takes an immediate dislike to the middle-aged hottie who has taken up residence in their tony London house, though eventually he somehow wins her over—the movie elides the details of how they end up finding accord. Also mysterious is the fact that Max insists on keeping her relationship with Mike platonic, and it’s not clear whether he cares or not—until it’s revealed that he does.

Meanwhile, he and Max assemble a troupe of exquisite performers, some from the street and some classically trained; Mike shows them the way of the stripper, with the goal of designing a show that will put the women in the audience—as well as, of course, some of the men—in touch with their deepest desires. The movie is driven by some blurry logic about how important it is for women to demand what they want—as opposed to just succumbing to the fantasy offered by beautiful, raunchy, funny performers, which is the kind of bliss the earlier movies offered so unapologetically.

Instead, Magic Mike’s Last Dance has to be a movie about ideas, and they’re a mood killer. Channing’s Mike, though he keeps claiming he’s retired from gyrating, does dance, beautifully—though the movie’s finale is a pas de deux that, while beautifully choreographed and performed, takes place in a faux rainstorm. The performers end up looking droopy and bedraggled by the end.

Worst of all, for reasons that make no sense in the context of her character or the movie, Max loses her own nerve when it comes to standing up for what she wants. This is the worst thing you can do to Hayek, a performer who’s game for anything—to turn her into a wilted flower is a disservice to humanity. In an early scene, one in which she brings Mike to a restaurant to meet some of her society friends, she appears in a smashing halter gown patterned with Pucci-like swirls. “You look incredibly expensive,” Mike says admiringly. “You have no idea,” she purrs back. At this point in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, you still believe these two are going to embark on a fantastic, flirtatious adventure—in the restaurant, they’re lit gorgeously, as if Clarence Sinclair Bull were following them around with some gauze screens and a kerosene lamp. For a few glorious minutes, this is the movie these two gorgeous, criminally charming actors deserve, but its magic is fleeting—as unreliable as a pair of tearaway pants.

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When a fur-coiffed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled “liar” Tuesday night, among the loudest in an abrupt chorus of boos, the oldest President to ever deliver a State of the Union address didn’t miss a beat. He smiled and went far afield from his script as GOP lawmakers tried to reject his claims that Republicans were ready to gut social entitlement programs.

“Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? We’ve got unanimity?” he asked. “Apparently it’s not going to be a problem,” he deadpanned at another moment.

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The striking exchange, and Biden’s ease in handling it in front of an audience of millions, illustrated why the Democratic establishment isn’t yet ready to toss their 80-year-old standard-bearer overboard.

Despite a halting, vamped opening to Tuesday’s State of the Union speech—a Super Bowl joke? Why?— Biden proved himself plenty capable of holding his own when his Republican hecklers started to stalk him. In fact, he actually demonstrated how he might be able to troll them into their own self-own status in real time. Give Biden acrimony, he’ll toss back accomplishments. Throw him hostility, he’ll offer hope.

“As my football coach used to say, ‘Lots of luck in your senior year,’” he deadpanned at one point, mocking lawmakers who seemed to think high school was the same as the big leagues of Congress.

Biden baited Greene’s fellow Republicans into pledges of fealty to Social Security. When others pummeled him on the U.S.-Mexican dotted line—”secure the border”—Biden taunted them with an offer to work on comprehensive immigration reform. And when Republicans tried to lay blame at the ongoing drug addiction and overdose crisis at Biden’s feet, he simply asked Republicans if they’d work with him to combat it.

For as much as Democrats are gritting their teeth and girding for the worst when it comes to Biden’s likely 2024 campaign, Tuesday night’s State of the Union gave them reason to hold onto optimism. It wasn’t a robust reason, but it was sufficient. Biden showed he can keep his ground in the face of Republican attack; in fact, he seemed to delight in the heckling that came from the floor of the House. For every “liar”—and worse—that rose from the floor, Biden seemed ready with the rejoinder of his first-term economic record. For every peel of stage laughter coming from his physical left and his political right, Biden stood ready to offer some undeniably impressive facts. And for every protest to his trolling suggestion that Republicans were ready to ditch Social Security, Biden had a taunt right in the margins of his heavy black binder.

Biden’s third joint address to Congress set the tone not just for the next year but also his still-unannounced re-election campaign. Biden laid the trap of bipartisan collaboration as well as anyone in recent memory but also set the timer on some partisan timebombs.

Biden is convinced that he is the only Democrat in the land who can block Donald Trump’s return to the White House and is increasingly itchy to make his 2024 re-election bid real. He has effectively frozen the field of would-be challengers, resetting the nominating calendar in such a way that renders challengers as also-rans. He has never been a strong fundraiser or nurturer of outside moneybags, but the deep-pocketed allies are nonetheless ready to bankroll his efforts to stay in the gig that he has chased since his 20s.

So it’s worth considering Tuesday night’s State of the Union as the prologue to Biden’s next chapter, perhaps the final eighth volume in his Robert Caro-esque chronicle. (For the record, not that I’d write it: the first volume would be the first Senate race; Volume II: his Senate term ahead of the 1988 race; III: his return to the Senate; IV: the 2008 primary: V: his time as Vice President; VI: his time as a free radical from 2016-20; and VII: the last two years, leading us to the present.) Biden holds dear to him the spirit of Irish poets, in that the specter of legacy is always just barely off-stage and always above it. Biden wants wins, and his speech—and the interruptions to it—suggest a measure of confrontation is going to define it.

That said, Republicans weren’t entirely sure that the interludes of heckling and hectoring were useful to their side. In fact, plenty of Republicans groaned in the chamber and groused privately that the likes of Greene managed to make the speech into an interactive experience not terribly dissimilar to the British Parliament’s tradition of P.M. Questions. In public, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shushed his caucus a number of times as they chucked invectives at Biden. More quietly—but still in view of the public—Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tried to silence a GOP House member who has proven plenty shameful to the brand. Romney—who in 2008 and 2012 thought he would do well to be giving a State of the Union himself as President—told Rep. George Santos that he was an embarrassment. Biden seemed to share that assessment, opting to see Santos and deny him a handshake on the aisle.

Again, Biden mightn’t be the most optimal nominee-in-waiting Democrats have ever had on deck, but he’s hardly the most problematic. And that, right there, is why Tuesday night’s State of the Union leaves a whole of the Democratic Party’s top donor roster less dour than they began their week. It’s also why the ragtag Republican contenders hoping to see a slow, doddering commander in chief ready to be put out to pasture were standing at the starting line with empty hands.

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An exquisite gold bead crafted in Mesopotamian style has been found during excavation of a Roman structure by the stepped Pilgrimage Road in the so-called “City of David,” the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Wednesday.

The bead was found in pristine condition by Hallel Feidman, a volunteer sifting and washing dirt removed from the Roman building, itself a big, ornate construction. It can’t be dated but the building where it was lost can. It is from the Late Roman era, about 1,600 years ago.

Made of pure gold, the bead was crafted by affixing tiny golden spheres together to shape a tiny ring. It likely wouldn’t have been worn in solo glory like a pendant but probably formed part of a bigger piece, says Dr. Amir Golani, the IAA’s ancient jewelry expert.

Announcing the discovery of a single bead is rather unusual but to do the micro-artifact justice, it is an extraordinary find. Also, its exquisite material and crafting attest to the high rank of its owner, if not the circumstances of its loss.

Another reason to celebrate is that finding gold in any form in archaeological sites is extremely infrequent – “Throughout all my years in archaeology, I have found gold perhaps once or twice,” Golani says. That is because gold has been a precious metal since the dawn of metallurgy and remains coveted to this day, Golani explains. If one had gold in any form, one would hand it down to one’s heirs until it got stolen, whether by muggers or robbers of home or grave.

How this particular gold bead survived the ages in situ, only to pop up shining splendidly while Feidman sifted dirt from the Roman manse in the City of David must remain speculative. “It may have been part of a bigger piece that broke apart and this bead got lost,” Golani speculates. “The circumstances of finding it are serendipity. It wasn’t hidden: it had to have been lost. Nobody throws a thing like this away. Maybe it rolled under a furnishing.”

The metallurgical technique underlying the bead emerged in Mesopotamia around 4,500 years ago, the IAA says, and its manufacture speaks to great skill. “Understanding of the materials and their properties is required, as well as control over the heat, to solder the tiny balls together to create a tiny ring on the one hand, while preventing overheating which could melt the gold,” Golani says.

Gold caches from antiquity have been found here and there in Israel, including a 1,400-year-old hoard from the period of the Muslim conquest found in Jerusalem but finding any gold is rare.

Why that might be in a land riddled with archaeological remains can be imagined. One can imagine that any gold left lying around, unlike say a broken pot, would be picked up, which explains that.

Other finds in the building attesting to the status of its occupants are imported ceramics and the quality mosaic floor, Shlomo Greenberg and Ari Levy of the IAA said. But theoretically the bead could have originated in an earlier time.

There is no reason to think the bead was made in Jerusalem, the archaeologists add. It could have been made anywhere and reached the Holy Land at any time, through trading networks, for instance.

Beads of similar style but made of silver have been discovered in burial caves from the late First Temple period, about 2,500 years ago, in Ketef Hinnom near the City of David, during excavations carried out by Professor Gabriel Barkay, the IAA said. All told only a few dozen gold beads have been found in Israel. The rest have not survived the cupidity of the ages.

The post Archaeologists discover rare 1600-year-old gold bead in Jerusalem appeared first on The Forward.

<p>(<a href=”http://www.jta.org/”>JTA</a>) — In January, 24-year-old Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field after experiencing cardiac arrest. His team and the entire NFL community rallied around him. His first words upon awakening: “Who won?”  </p>

<p>Although Hamlin’s medical crisis was a rare on-field occurrence, the trauma surrounding his collapse stirred up age-old questions for me, and for many of us, about the toll football takes on the bodies of its players. What are we allowing to happen to these young men, in the name of sportsmanship, entertainment and national identity? When the Super Bowl airs on Sunday, what is our responsibility as spectators?</p>

<p>While still a newcomer to football, I turned to Jewish texts to help me find answers, and fascinatingly, I found a striking parallel between the rabbis of old and two contemporary journalists.</p>

<p>In 2009, in a scathing critique in The New Yorker, <a href=”https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/19/offensive-play”>Malcolm Gladwell denounced the game for the serious and long-lasting damage it does to players</a> — especially traumatic brain injuries and debilitating neurological disorders resulting from repeated blows to the head — and placed the blame squarely on the fans. “There is nothing else to be done, not so long as fans stand and cheer,” he wrote. “We are in love with football players, with their courage and grit, and nothing else — neither considerations of science nor those of morality — can compete with the destructive power of that love.”</p>

<p>William C. Rhoden <a href=”https://andscape.com/features/damar-hamlin-and-my-desensitized-soul/”>wrote a heartfelt piece after Hamlin’s collapse</a>, where he reflected on his own experience as a professional sports reporter of over 40 years. “We’re used to ferocious collisions and mostly happy endings. We applaud the player as he walks off the field, then sit back down in our seats, in our suites, in our press boxes and focus on the next play,” he wrote. “I realized, with sadness, the extent to which I had become desensitized to the real-life violence of our national pastime.”  </p>

<p>Gladwell and Rhoden both recognize that football has inherent violence, and that as spectators we have an obligation to contend with it. Gladwell is pointing to the fans’ desire for violence, which makes them culpable in the destructive nature of the sport. Rhoden asks fans to notice their own callousness as they behold the effects of that violence.  </p>

<p>This same dichotomy is reflected in the rabbis’ understanding as well. Indeed, many of the rabbis of the Talmud lived in the Greco-Roman world, when gladiators would battle with one another to the death, for thousands of people to watch. One of the most extolled rabbinic figures, Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish, is said to have himself been a mighty gladiator who eventually escaped that life to become a great sage. </p>

<p>In the Tosefta, an ancient Jewish legal code contemporaneous to the Talmud, a question is raised about whether one is allowed to attend Roman amphitheaters and stadiums. For some of these venues, the concerns center around viewing and possibly participating in forbidden idol worship, or associating with foolishness and taking time away from more serious pursuits. </p>

<p>However, by far the greatest concern is that of attending events in stadiums where violence is prevalent. Indeed, the text goes as far as to say that “one who sits in a Stadium, is one who sheds blood.” (<a href=”https://www.sefaria.org/Tosefta_Avodah_Zarah.2.2?lang=bi”>Tosefta Avoda Zarah 2.2</a>) Here we see the same concerns that Gladwell raised, that by being a spectator of this violence, you are yourself more than a bystander. Indeed, if there were no fans, there would be no audience for these violent spectacles — making fans directly culpable in these acts of bloodshed.</p>

<p>The Tosefta then quotes another perspective: “Rabbi Natan permits [going to Roman stadiums] because of two things: because of crying and saving a life and because of testifying for a woman that would remarry.” </p>

<p>Rabbi Natan here desires to find justifications for why one could attend these events. He refers to the idea that during a gladiator event, the crowd could cheer for the losing fighter, and beg for mercy so that he would not be killed. A Jew is therefore permitted to attend because they could potentially save a life. An additional reason: They could also provide eyewitness testimony to a person’s death, thus causing the victim’s wife to become free to remarry. </p>

<p>Recently, while learning this text with my colleagues at The Jewish Education Project, we understood Rabbi Natan as showing a keen understanding of the reality of his time. People will attend these games, and these games are a part of the Jewish community’s life. Rather than forbidding them from going, he explains that there are positive motivations for their attendance. </p>

<p>In many ways, this matches the Rhoden position as well. He assumes we will continue to watch sports, report on games and enter fantasy football leagues. Yet, what should our motivations be as we watch these games? Do we voyeuristically cheer for the violence, enjoying the hard hits? Or can we re-sensitize ourselves and remind ourselves that these are human beings with families, and futures after their playing days are over?</p>

<p>I am still thinking about those awful moments in Buffalo, when Hamlin fell to the ground. All that time he spent training, the myriad ways he has broken his body for our viewing pleasure, and the lengthy rehabilitation ahead of him.</p>

<p>For those of us who will watch the hard hits this Sunday, I offer a charge: Do not allow yourself to ignore the pain and violence you see. Actively re-sensitize yourself to the humanity of these players. Commit to understanding what the policies are that will make this sport safer, and demand their implementation. Watch this game as Rabbi Natan teaches: with the intention to call out for justice wherever you can.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.</p>

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Wall Street’s main stock indexes slipped on Wednesday as comments from Federal Reserve officials intensified worries over the central bank’s rate hike path, while Alphabet slumped on a disappointing debut of its much-awaited AI chatbot.

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams backed views of a peak rate of 5.00%-5.25%, higher than what markets expect, a day after Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that the battle against inflation will take quite a bit of time.

Money market participants are now betting the Fed’s benchmark rate to rise above 5% in May before peaking to 5.16% by July, levels that officials have backed vociferously.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook said the U.S. central bank is not yet done raising rates and even though inflation has shown signs of moderation, the economy is still running too hot.

“If you get somebody like John Williams and another prominent Fed governor speaking again this morning, at some point the markets are going to listen,” said John Lynch, chief investment officer at Comerica Bank.

The comments come after a strong jobs report on Friday frustrated investors hoping for rate cuts later this year, and could test a solid start for markets following last year’s battering.

“The market’s view is that the Fed may cut rates, but only by 25 basis points at the end of the year, and the Fed is still signaling they won’t make any cuts this year,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth in Boston.

In a bright spot, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) edged up 0.5% after the tech giant said it was revamping its Bing search engine and Edge Web browser with artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, AI rival Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) tumbled 7.9% after its AI chatbot Bard delivered an incorrect answer in an online advertisement.

At 12:39 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was down 173.23 points, or 0.51%, at 33,983.46, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was down 42.42 points, or 1.02%, at 4,121.58, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was down 187.22 points, or 1.55%, at 11,926.56.

All of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined, with communication services (.SPLRCL) plunging 4.3%.

President Joe Biden‘s comments at the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening that supported calls to tax corporate share buybacks also weighed on sentiment.

Of all the S&P 500 companies that have reported quarterly earnings, 69% of them have beaten expectations, according to Refinitiv. Still, analysts expect quarterly earnings to decline 2.9%.

CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) surged 4.7% on its $9.5 billion cash buyout offer for Oak Street Health Inc (OSH.N). Oak Street Health rose 4.5%.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.41-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 2.42-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded nine new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 63 new highs and 27 new lows.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy began a tour of Europe on Wednesday in search of better aerial firepower to turn the war against Russia, winning a British pledge to train Ukrainian pilots on advanced NATO fighter jets.

On just his second trip abroad since the war began a year ago, Zelenskiy met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles. He was later due in Paris for dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“We’ve all been worried about you and thinking about your country for so long, I can’t tell you,” Charles told him.

In a speech to British lawmakers, Zelenskiy hammered home his plea for combat aircraft, which he referred to as “wings for freedom”. Western countries have so far stopped short of providing planes or weapons that can strike deep inside Russia.

He gave a pilot’s helmet to the parliamentary speaker with the message: “We have freedom, give us wings to protect it”.

Two years ago he had left the British parliament with thanks for “delicious English tea”, Zelenskiy said. Now he would leave “thanking you in advance for powerful English planes”.

Russia’s embassy to Britain warned London against sending fighter jets to Ukraine, saying such a move would have ramifications for the entire world, TASS news agency reported.

Britain announced plans to expand a programme training Ukraine’s military to ensure its pilots could fly sophisticated jets of NATO military alliance standard.

The announcement gave no timeframe and stopped short of a commitment to provide Kyiv with British jets. But it signalled a shift that could pave the way for other nations to send planes.

Zelenskiy’s tour of Europe, which will also include a European Union summit in Brussels, follows a surprise visit to Washington in December. The choreography of meeting the British, French and German leaders the same day was a sign of his assiduous care in cultivating Western opinion.

Britain announced the addition of new names to its Russia sanctions blacklist, as well as plans for more military equipment for Kyiv, including unspecified longer range weapons.

As Zelenskiy wrapped up his London speech, air raid sirens rang out in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. An all-clear later sounded.

Germany’s Scholz said he expected strong support for Ukraine from this week’s EU summit and a new round of European sanctions on Russia around the anniversary of the invasion.

Scholz, publicly more cautious than some other Western leaders on arms deliveries, said decisions on weapons were best coordinated behind the scenes rather than announced by countries in a “public competition to outdo each other”.

His defence minister said Western allies could deliver a first battalion of about 31 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine in the early months of this year.

Western countries have scaled up pledges of aid, including the offer last month of tanks. Kyiv still wants longer range missiles as well as warplanes.

After major Ukrainian gains in the second half of 2022, Russia has recovered momentum, sending tens of thousands of freshly mobilised troops to the front. They have made incremental progress in relentless winter battles which both sides describe as some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Kyiv says it expects Moscow to broaden that offensive with a big push as the Feb. 24 anniversary of the invasion approaches.

“When the offensive starts, my president won’t be able to travel in March,” said a senior Ukrainian official, stressing the urgent need for more Western arms.

“We will never use these systems to capture a part of the territory of another country, we don’t want a part of Russia. But we will fight for our territory.”

In the Netherlands, prosecutors concluded an investigation into the 2014 downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine, saying evidence pointed to involvement by Russian President Vladimir Putin but was insufficient to charge him.

A Dutch court has convicted two Russian agents and a pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist of murder for the missile strike which killed 298 passengers and crew. Moscow denies blame.

Russia launched its “special military operation” last year to combat what it describes as a security threat from Ukraine’s ties to the West, and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian provinces. It says Western supplies will prolong the war.

Ukraine says the only way to end the fighting is for the West to give it the capability to drive Russian forces out.

Western fighter jets are at the top of Ukraine’s wish list. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv enjoys air superiority over Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden said last month Washington would not send U.S. F-16s to Ukraine, and British officials have said their jets require too much training to be useful now. France and Poland are among countries that have kept the door open to sending jets as part of a collective Western decision.

The United States is expected to announce a $2 billion weapons package in coming days that would include new rockets with gliding bombs that double the range of rockets it sent last year. That would put all of Russia’s supply lines in mainland Ukraine as well as parts of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula within firing distance.

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President Bashar al-Assad is seeking political advantage from an earthquake that has devastated large parts of Syria and Turkey, pressing for foreign aid to be delivered through his territory as he aims to chip away at his international isolation, analysts say.

Amid an outpouring of sympathy for the Syrians hit by the earthquake, Damascus has seized the moment to reiterate its long-standing demand for aid to be coordinated with his government, shunned by the West since Syria’s war began in 2011.

Western powers have shown no sign they are ready to meet that demand or re-engage with Assad, but his hand has been strengthened by difficulties facing cross-border aid flows into Syria’s rebel-held northwest from Turkey.

The aid flows, critical to 4 million people in the area, have been temporarily halted since the earthquake, although a U.N. official expressed hope they could resume on Thursday. Damascus has long said aid to the rebel enclave in the north should go via Syria not across the Turkish border.

“Clearly there is some kind of opportunity in this crisis for Assad, for him to show ‘you need to work with me or through me’,” said Aron Lund, a Syria expert at the Century Foundation.

“If he is smart he would facilitate aid to areas outside his control and get a chance to look like a responsible actor, but the regime is very stubborn.”

The West has long shunned Assad, citing his government’s brutality during more than 11 years of civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, uprooted more than half the population, and forced millions abroad as refugees.

But the frontlines have been frozen for years and Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, controls the biggest part of the fractured country.

The U.S. State Department has shot down the suggestion that the earthquake could be an opportunity for Washington to reach out to Damascus, saying it will still provide aid to Syrians in government-held areas via NGOs on the ground not the government.

“It would be quite ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalised its people over the course of a dozen years now – gassing them, slaughtering them, being responsible for much of the suffering that they have endured,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing this week.

Still, the leaders of some U.S.-aligned Arab states have been in touch with Assad since the disaster, including Jordan’s king and the presidents of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Jordan and the UAE, which once backed Syria’s opposition but have normalised ties with Assad in recent years, have sent aid to Damascus, Syrian state media has reported.

Government-held areas have been hit hard by the earthquake. The overall death toll reported so far from Syria – around 2,500 – is equally split between government- and rebel-held areas.

Key ally Russia has provided support, sending rescue teams and deploying forces already in Syria to join relief work.

Russia, locked in a conflict in Ukraine and under U.S. sanctions, was fast to help Syria. Moscow regards its alliance with Damascus as a bargaining chip with the West.

Moscow has long argued that delivering aid to northwest Syria from Turkey violates Syrian sovereignty. Extending the mandate for that aid operation has prompted diplomatic wrangling between Russia and Western powers at the Security Council.

Syrians in the enclave worry Damascus would choke off aid if the Turkish route was shut and the government controlled flows.

Aid agencies, meanwhile, have been exploring ways to keep help flowing to the area, including via government-held areas.

“The U.N. and partners will continue to seek ways to expand points of access and ensure that help reaches the most vulnerable,” El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the top U.N. humanitarian official for Syria, said. “Ensuring that aid reaches those who need it most will require political will from all actors.”

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for help in a meeting on Monday. But he said aid flows must be coordinated with the government and delivered through Syria not across the Turkish border.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said this week the government was ready “to allow aid to enter all regions as long as it does not reach the armed terrorist groups”, referring to rebels.

Mekdad told Arabic broadcaster al-Mayadeen that sanctions were “increasing the difficulty of the catastrophe”.

The Damascus-based Syrian Red Crescent called for lifting of sanctions, which Syria’s government has long blamed for mounting economic hardship. Washington tightened sanctions in 2020.

Western states say they aim to put pressure on Assad to end repression and negotiate a political settlement. The United States says the sanctions do not target humanitarian aid.

Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Damascus was trying to leverage aid “to legitimise the regime”.

“There is an outpouring of compassion by all Arabs and the world at large for the Syrians who have suffered so much. Assad will try to exploit this.”

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