Supreme Court terms always bring the potential for momentous rulings. Last term, in particular, featured historic decisions that will have cascading effects. How will those play out judicially once the court is back in session?

• Israel warns Lebanon: The Israeli military warns people to evacuate a city and other communities in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone.
• Biden student debt plan: A federal judge has dealt a setback to a legal challenge by seven Republican-led states to the latest student debt forgiveness plan from President Joe Biden’s administration, removing Georgia from the case and moving it to Missouri.
• NATO chief visits Ukraine: New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visits Ukraine in his first official trip since taking office and pledging continued support for Kyiv.
• Dominican Republic to deport Haitians: The Dominican Republic announces that it will start massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country and expel up to 10,000 Haitians a week.
• Georgia anti-LGBTQ+ law: The speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, signs into law a bill that severely curtails LGBTQ+ rights, mirroring legislation in neighboring Russia.

Read these news briefs.

Almost any controversial action – or inaction – by government officials in the final weeks of an election campaign can appear politically motivated. We look at the latest filing in the Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump, and what it means.

The Middle East may be on the brink of full-scale war, but past experience teaches both Israel and Iran that wars in this region rarely go as planned. Might bad memories be enough to hold them back?

As colleges and universities move toward institutional neutrality policies in the wake of the war in Gaza, a new title is heading many prestigious schools: acting president.

Many Latin American countries have reached gender parity in politics, but powerhouse Brazil still lags far behind. Could grassroots efforts, combined with recent court rulings and social shifts, start to change that? 

A greener future is a focus of our progress roundup. For some children in France, a program to learn bike riding is part of the school day. And in Australia, Melbourne is using community engagement to encourage buy-in for citywide battery storage of wind and solar energy.

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, certainly has plenty on his plate: End Russia’s land grab. Join the European Union. Tour the world for support. Keep the economy and military up and running. And oh, by the way, reconcile with neighboring Poland over historical grievances from more than 80 years ago.

Yes, amid a war for its survival as a nation, Ukraine decided this week to make some amends with Poland. Next year, it will start to locate the bodies of thousands of Polish villagers killed during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists. The issue, among many in a long and complex history between the two peoples, has been exploited in recent years by conservative Polish politicians. What is often known as the Volhynia massacre is also frequently used by Russia to divide Ukraine and Poland.

Ties between the two countries are as close as ever, especially as each seeks to stop Moscow’s penchant for expanding its borders by force. Ukrainian refugees were warmly welcomed by Poles in 2022 after the Russian invasion. Yet Ukraine now sees a need for a reckoning on the truth about past atrocities, as well as full reconciliation with Poland.

“[We] value every life, remember history, and defend freedom together,” President Zelenskyy said during a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda last year. The two attended a church service in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk to commemorate those who died in the massacre. In a spirit of humility, President Duda said both nations made mistakes “for which we paid the ultimate price.”

In recent months, a new government in Warsaw has suggested that Ukraine move faster on the historical reckoning in order to become a EU member. “We do not want revenge, we do not demand punishment, we just want a dignified burial of our ancestors,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski told broadcaster Polsat.

After Kyiv’s announcement this week, the Ukrainian foreign minister pointed to shared geopolitical interests. “The past, no matter how complicated, must not jeopardize the modern-day efforts to address common challenges and the future of the Euro-Atlantic family,” said Andrii Sybiha. A clean slate along with a bit of forgiveness between Poland and Ukraine will be one more tool in the war against Russian aggression.