For anyone slow on the uptake, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un provided some helpful show-and-tell in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Two years ago, NATO adopted a “back to the future” strategy of forward defense and deterrence following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To implement it, allies committed to take various measures to strengthen their deterrence and defense at the 2022 Madrid Summit.

Four hostages were rescued simultaneously from two separate nearby locations in Nuseirat in central Gaza, in a high-risk joint operation by the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Yamam and police in broad daylight, the IDF announced in a series of statements on Saturday.

The White House this week said it moved at “lightning speed” to allow Kyiv to use U.S. weaponry to strike limited targets inside Russia, just 17 days after Ukraine came begging for the capability. But for Ukrainians who have weathered a punishing Russian assault on the northeast Kharkiv region, those 17 days of waiting are emblematic of a White House that has lagged repeatedly behind battlefield developments at the cost of Ukrainian lives.

US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan’s Mideast visit this weekend is an opportunity for Washington and Jerusalem. Whether they revive their wartime ties or risk further deterioration in relations with the onset of election season in the US, and possibly Israel, remains to be seen.