World

STOCKHOLM — France's Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz and Franco-Swede Anne L'Huillier won the Nobel prize in physics on Tuesday for research using ultra quick light flashes that enable the study of electrons inside atoms and molecules.

Their technique employs pulses measured in attoseconds, a unit so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the universe's birth over 13 billion years ago, the jury said.

The laureates' research has made it possible to examine moves or changes so rapid that they were previously impossible to follow, with potential applications in both electronics and medical diagnostics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences likened the process to how the flapping wings of a humming bird turn into a blur for the human eye, but can be slowed and examined using high-speed photography.

"We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons," Eva Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a statement.

'Not so many women' 

In 1987, L'Huillier "discovered that many different overtones of light arose when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas", the Nobel Committee noted, adding that she has continued to explore this phenomenon, "laying the ground for subsequent breakthroughs". 

In the early 2000s, Agostini and Krausz worked on experiments that made it possible to isolate light pulses that lasted only a few hundred attoseconds.

Agostini is a professor at Ohio State University in the United States, while Krausz is a director at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

L'Huillier, only the fifth woman to be awarded the Physics Prize since 1901, is a professor at Lund University in Sweden.

L'Huillier told reporters she was in the middle of teaching a class when she received the call from the Academy, making it "difficult" to finish the class, to whom she told nothing.

"I am very touched... There are not so many women that get this prize so it's very, very special," she said.

Before L'Huillier, Marie Curie (1903), Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963), Donna Strickland (2018) and Andrea Ghez (2020) are the only women to have won the award.

Speaking later at a press conference, she encouraged young women interested in a career in science to "go for it".

The laureate, who is married and has two sons, stressed it was possible to combine a research career with an "ordinary life, with a family and children”. 

French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the trio, noting that "two of our brilliant French researchers" had been honoured.

"What a source of pride for our nation!" Macron said in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter.

L'Huillier and Krausz had been seen as contenders for the honour, having been awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize last year together with Canadian physicist Paul Corkum.

Fellow Hungarian 

However, Krausz said he had not been expecting a call.

"I was not sure whether I was dreaming or whether it was reality," he told the Nobel Foundation in an interview.

Speaking at a press conference a few hours later, he said: "There are signs that it could be reality."

The physics award is the second Nobel of the season after the Medicine Prize on Monday, awarded to messenger RNA researchers Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian like Krausz, and Drew Weissman for their groundbreaking technology that paved the way for mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.

Krausz said he had actually been listening to an interview with his compatriot when he received the call, adding he was especially impressed with Kariko's determination as she toiled away at her research despite struggling to achieve recognition and even secure funding for it.

"That's the most important lesson for me, that's what I would like to convey to future generations, that if you believe in something and are convinced it's the right thing to do... the important thing is to keep believing in it," Krausz said.

The Physics Prize will be followed by the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday, with the highly watched Literature and Peace Prizes to be announced on Thursday and Friday.

The Economics Prize — created in 1968 and the only Nobel not included in the 1895 will of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel, which founded the awards — closes out the 2023 Nobel season on Monday.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called key allies on Tuesday to reassure them the United States will stand fast on Ukraine, after Republican hardliners derailed funding for aid to help Kyiv's war effort.

Biden spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Britain, and of the EU and NATO, along with the foreign minister of France, the White House said.

"President Biden convened a call this morning with allies and partners to coordinate our ongoing support for Ukraine," the White House said in a statement, adding that more details would be released later.

Biden had been under mounting pressure to calm shaken allies after an 11th-hour deal in the US Congress to avoid a government funding shutdown on Saturday contained no new aid for war-torn Ukraine.

Democrat Biden has called for Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to rush through new aid, saying that US support for Kyiv as it battles Russia's invasion could not be interrupted "under any circumstances."

"Speaker McCarthy and the majority of House Republicans must keep their word and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine as it defends itself," Biden said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier Tuesday.

"We are the indispensable nation in the world — let's act like it."

Biden has also warned that time is short before existing funding runs out.

Russia has pounced on the chaos in Washington, with the Kremlin saying on Monday that Western war fatigue would grow amid the uncertainty over US assistance for Ukraine.

Putin 'wrong' 

White House Press Secretary said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir was "wrong" if he believes Moscow will be able to outlast Ukraine and its allies.

She added that the United States would soon announce new assistance for the Ukrainian armed forces, which will be drawn from a $113 billion budget already approved by Congress.

But the disruption in an ever-more divided US political scene could upend moves to pass the fresh $6 billion in aid that Biden had been seeking.

McCarthy was fighting for his political life Tuesday ahead of a vote seeking to oust him from his role as House speaker, forced by the far-right of his party that has made clear it opposes continued support for Ukraine.

The United States is by far the leading supplier of weapons and aid to Ukraine, which is trying to push forward a slow-moving counteroffensive against Russian forces that invaded in February 2022.

Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, recently estimated the amount of military assistance provided to Kiev since Russia’s invasion at $47 billion.

The US Congress has approved a total of $113 billion in aid for Ukraine but opposition among hardline Republicans has been spreading, including to some voters.

An ABC/Washington Post poll released September 24 showed 41 per cent of respondents saying the United States was doing too much to support Ukraine, up from 33 per cent in February and just 14 per cent in April 2022.

MADRID — Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed on Tuesday to be “generous” with Catalan separatists whose support he needs to remain in power after King Felipe VI tasked him with forming the next government.

Sanchez’s Socialists came second in an inconclusive general election in July, in which the right-wing Popular Party (PP) won the most votes.

If Sanchez is to be reinstated as premier, he will need to pass a key parliamentary vote for which he will need the backing of a hardline Catalan separatist party cast in the role of kingmaker.

The king turned to Sanchez after PP leader Alberto Nunez-Feijoo failed in his own bid to win parliamentary support to be inaugurated as prime minister last week, having only managed to win support from the far-right Vox.

Sanchez, who has governed Spain since he led a successful no-confidence vote against former PP prime minister Mariano Rajoy in 2018, said he accepted the king’s offer and would start talks with the different parliamentary groups on Wednesday.

“I will meet with all the different parliamentary parties except the far-right Vox, obviously,” he told a news conference.

Sanchez will now have to seek support from at least 176 lawmakers within the 350-seat parliament in the vote which must take place before November 27.

If he fails, Spain will automatically be forced to hold new elections, most likely in mid-January.

Barcelona protest planned 

Sanchez has proved to be a tenacious political survivor and is confident he will be returned to power with the backing of the hard-left Sumar along with Basque and Catalan regional parties.

But crucially, he will need the votes of seven JxCat lawmakers, who have demanded an amnesty for the hundreds of activists and politicians facing legal action over Catalonia’s failed 2017 separatist bid which sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Such a move is vehemently opposed by the right and also crosses a red line for some within Sanchez’s own Socialist party.

An anti-independence group is organising a protest in Barcelona on Sunday against the amnesty, and Feijoo and other top PP officials have said they will take part.

Sanchez acknowledged the negotiations “are going to be complex” but said he was “confident” they will be successful.

“One can’t head a government... without understanding the political plurality of parliament or the territorial diversity of Spain. It is therefore time for... generosity,” he added when asked if he would agree to the amnesty demand.

Among those who would benefit is JxCat leader Carles Puigdemont, who headed Catalonia’s regional government during the 2017 secession bid.

He fled Spain shortly after and currently lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

‘Heavy political price’ 

Sanchez, who has sought to calm separatist tensions since coming to office five years ago, in 2021 pardoned Catalan separatist leaders who were serving long prison terms over the secession bid.

But he has always opposed an amnesty and his government has insisted Puigdemont should stand trial in Spain.

Catalan separatists are also pushing for an independence referendum which “threatens to throw a wrench into the negotiations”, said Federico Santi, a senior analyst for Europe at Eurasia Group.

Unlike an amnesty, a referendum is “not something Sanchez could concede to without paying a heavy political price, even if it were legally feasible”, he explained.

He said there was a 40 per cent chance of Spain holding repeat elections.

Sanchez has firmly rejected a referendum.

On Tuesday, he defended his record on Catalonia saying his openness to dialogue and the pardons had reduced tensions in the wealthy north-eastern region.

“What Catalans want is to turn the page,” he said.

BANGKOK — A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday after a shooting at a packed Bangkok mall that left two people dead and five wounded, and sent hundreds of panicked shoppers running in terror into the streets.

Witnesses told AFP of chaotic scenes as shots rang out at the upmarket Siam Paragon mall in the heart of the Thai capital around 4:30pm (09:30 GMT).

The shooting comes just days before the first anniversary of the deadliest massacre in modern Thai history, when an ex-policeman armed with a gun and knife attacked a nursery in the country’s north, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

National Police Chief Torsak Sukwimol told reporters that two women — one Chinese, one from Myanmar — were killed in the mall shooting, and five other people wounded.

He said the 14-year-old suspect was in custody but was too confused to undergo questioning.

“He is a mental patient at Rajavithi hospital and he has not been taking his medication,” Torsak said.

“He said it was like there was another him telling him who to shoot.”

Video footage showed a long-haired boy wearing a black shirt, glasses and a cap with a US flag motif being taken into custody by police.

Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Centre, told reporters that all but one of those who were shot were women.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin offered condolences to the victims’ families and said he was monitoring the situation closely.

“What I care about most right now is the safety of all citizens,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I ask all workers to monitor the situation, and may everyone be safe.”

A private school called The Essence, just metres from Siam Paragon, confirmed the suspect was one of their students and offered condolences to the victims’ families.

“We will collaborate with the authorities and investigators for the benefit of those involved,” Wiwat Catithammanit, director of the $4,000-a-term school said in a statement.

‘Multiple gunshots’ 

Witnesses described scenes of panic as the attack unfolded at Siam Paragon, one of Bangkok’s top shopping destinations, hugely popular with tourists and Thais alike.

“At around 4:30pm, I heard loud gun noises, continuously, about 10 times,” Thanpawasit Singthongkham, 31, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the mall, told AFP.

“Then the department store announced that there was a shooting. The emergency sign was turned on and everyone ran to get out.”

In footage shared with AFP, he recorded a scrum of terrified shoppers scrabbling under metal security gates blocking shop entrances, before they fled down emergency stairwells as sirens blared.

In another video, shared on Facebook and verified by AFP, scores of people can be seen in the mall’s basement car park being directed by loudspeakers.

Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping centre’s main entrances in the wake of the shooting.

“I heard multiple gunshots — about three times — and saw people running around towards the exits,” Nattanon Dungsunenarn, who was shopping in a branch of Boots pharmacy, told AFP.

“It was very chaotic and seemed like many people didn’t know what exactly was going on.”

‘Terrified’ 

“We didn’t know what was happening, then staff from a shop asked us to go inside and said there was a shooter,” Chinese tourist Xiong Ying, 41, told AFP.

“Everyone was trying to find a place to hide. So many people were terrified, just like a scene in the zombie movies.

“I now feel quite scared. It happened just like two minutes after we left by crossing the bridge. We even took photos there.”

Almost a year on from the October 6 nursery massacre, the mall shooting will raise fresh questions about gun control in Thailand, which has one of the highest rates of firearm ownership in the region.

In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, murdering 29 people and wounding scores more.

GENEVA — The new head of the UN’s migration agency will visit Africa on her first official trip from Sunday to highlight the scale of migration happening around the continent.

Amy Pope, the first woman elected to lead the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), will then head to Brussels as the 27-member EU bloc deals with a recent influx of migrant arrivals in Italy.

The American, who took office on October 1, will visit the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, before meeting Ethiopian officials.

She will then travel to Kenya and Djibouti. 

“Over 80 per cent of the migration takes place in Africa,” Pope said at a press briefing in Geneva, at a time when attention is particularly focused on migrants trying to reach Europe. 

She also spoke of the large number of African migrants heading for the Gulf, highlighting “very, very troubling reports” about their treatment there.

“Ensuring that there is better protection and access for migrants to services in that context is important,” she added.

“The evidence is fairly overwhelming that migration actually benefits economies... on the whole is a benefit,” Pope went on, citing its role in “fuelling the renovation or revitalisation of ageing communities”, while providing manpower and innovation.

“It’s critical that IOM begin to engage these partners who recognise the benefits of migration and demonstrate to our member states how that can work in a very pragmatic way, rather than in a political way.”

Pope meanwhile insisted she would “refrain from getting into any direct conflict with Elon Musk,” who courted controversy this weekend in claiming that Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean could be seen as an “invasion” of Italy.

The tech billionaire is a migrant himself, having been born in South Africa, has Canadian nationality and lives in the United States.

“We hear especially in the technology space, there is an overwhelming need for new ideas [and] for people for a sustainable workforce.

“And frankly, migration is our most obvious way to build out a sustainable workforce,” said Pope, urging investment in skills training as climate change encroaches on ever greater numbers of people.

The treatment of migrant workers who helped build the sites for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was also a hot-button issue.

The NGO Human Rights Watch more recently accused Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants attempting to enter the country from Yemen.

Riyadh denied the report as “politicised and misleading”. 

Pope is to discuss with the African Union the best way of guaranteeing the movement of people, in particular to support the free trade agreements promoted by the organisation.

STOCKHOLM — Researchers Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for work on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that paved the way for groundbreaking Covid-19 vaccines.

The pair, who had been tipped as favourites, "contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times", the jury said.

The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020 and the first mRNA vaccines were approved for use against the illness in December that year.

Billions of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna doses have been injected around the world since then.

Together with other COVID vaccines, they “have saved millions of lives and prevented severe disease in many more”, the jury said.

Kariko, 68, and Weissman, 64, longstanding colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, have already won a slew of awards for their research.

In recognising the duo this year, the Nobel committee broke with its usual practice of honouring decades-old research, aimed at ensuring it has stood the test of time.

While the prizewinning research dates back to 2005, the first vaccines to use the mRNA technology came out just three years ago.

Unlike traditional vaccines which use weakened virus or a key piece of the virus’ protein, mRNA vaccines provide the genetic molecules that tell cells what proteins to make, which simulates an infection and trains the immune system for when it encounters the real virus.

Sweet comeback 

The idea was first demonstrated in 1990 but it wasn’t until the mid-2000s that Weissman, of the US, and Hungarian-born Kariko developed a technique to control a dangerous inflammatory response seen in animals exposed to these molecules, opening the way to develop safe human vaccines.

The honour is particularly sweet for Kariko, the 13th woman to win the Medicine Prize, who toiled in obscurity for years and struggled to convince her superiors of the need for research on messenger ribonucleic acid.

Speaking to Swedish Radio, she said her late mother always had faith in her, listening to the Nobel prize announcements “year after year” hoping to hear her daughter’s name called out.

“Unfortunately, five years ago she passed at the age of 89. She might be listening from above,” Kariko said.

Thomas Perlmann, the secretary general of the Nobel Assembly, called Kariko “an extraordinary and unusual scientist” who “resisted any temptation” to do “something easier”.

Weissman told AFP he heard the news from Kariko, who received the call from the jury first.

“We were wondering if somebody was pulling a prank on us.”

“This is the ultimate, this is the prize I thought of when I was five years old when I started to get interested in how things worked,” he said.

Breakthrough 

In the 1990s, Kariko believed mRNA held the key to treating diseases where having more of the right kind of protein can help, like repairing the brain after a stroke.

But the University of Pennsylvania, where Kariko was on track for a professorship, decided to demote her after grant rejections piled up.

She carried on as a lower-rung researcher.

Much of the scientific community was at the time focused on using DNA to deliver gene therapy but Kariko believed that mRNA was also promising since most diseases are not hereditary and don’t need solutions that permanently alter our genetics.

First though, she had to overcome the problem of the massive inflammatory response in animal experiments, as the immune system sensed an invader and rushed to fight it.

Kariko and Weissman discovered that one of the four building blocks of the synthetic mRNA was at fault — and they could overcome the problem by swapping it for a modified version.

They published a paper on the breakthrough in 2005.

In 2015, they found a new way to deliver mRNA into mice, using a fatty coating called “lipid nanoparticles” that prevent the mRNA from degrading and help place it inside the right part of cells.

Both these innovations were key to the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

Their mRNA technology is now being used to develop other treatments for diseases and illnesses such as cancer, influenza and heart failure.

Kariko and Weissman will receive their Nobel prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque, in Stockholm on December 10.

The Nobel will however not be the first gold medal in Kariko’s family. Her daughter Susan Francia is a two-time Olympic gold medallist rower.

LACHIN, Azerbaijan — A United Nations mission arrived in Nagorno Karabakh on Sunday, Azerbaijan said, after almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population fled since Baku recaptured the breakaway enclave.

An Azerbaijani presidency spokesman told AFP that a "UN mission arrived in Karabakh on Sunday morning" — mainly to assess humanitarian needs.

It marks the first time in about 30 years that the international body has gained access to the region.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku following a one-day Azerbaijani offensive last week.

France has lashed out at Azerbaijan for only allowing the UN mission in after most residents had already fled.

The end of Karabakh's separatist bid dealt a heavy blow to a centuries-old dream by Armenians of reuniting what they say are their ancestral lands, divided among regional powers since the Middle Ages.

Nearly all of Karabakh's estimated 120,000 residents fled the territory over the following days, sparking a refugee crisis.

An AFP journalist at a border crossing along the Lachin corridor that links Karabakh with Armenia, saw only one car arrive from the now deserted enclave.

Sergei Astsaryan, 40, said he was among the last Armenians to leave the region.

"I have no idea of where to go, maybe Europe," he told AFP, adding however that he hoped many of the refugees would return if Azerbaijan "gives guaranties, provides help".

"I've talked to Azerbaijani police and they said there would be no problems if we want to return, that we can live in our homes."

The Azerbaijani presidency said Baku’s migration service began operating in Karabakh’s main city of Khankendi (Stepanakert in Armenian) to register Armenian residents to ensure their “sustainable reintegration... into the Azerbaijani society”, promising them the “patronage of the Azerbaijani state”.

Nazeli Baghdasaryan, spokeswoman of the Armenian prime minister, said “100,490 forcefully displaced persons arrived in Armenia” by Sunday morning.

She said 47,322 refugees were now in temporary accommodation.

On Sunday, Armenia observed a national day of prayer for the region.

Bells rang in churches across the country, and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin II, lead a service in the nation’s main cathedral Echmiadzin, close to the capital Yerevan.

“As our sacred land of Karabakh is deserted, we pray for our sisters and brother of Karabakh who are going through terrible suffering,” said the pontiff.

Hundreds attended the religious service in the church of Saint Sarkis, in Yerevan.

“One of the most tragic pages of Armenian history is being written today,” 28-year-old Mariam Vartanyan told AFP, standing in the crowd of worshippers wrapped in the smoke of burning incense.

In the Vatican City, Pope Francis said he was “following in recent days the dramatic situation of the displaced people in Nagorno Karabakh”.

Following his Sunday Angelus prayer to the faithful at St Peter’s Square, he called for “dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia” to end the humanitarian crisis with the support of the international community.

Ethnic hatred 

Yerevan has accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing” — an allegation that Baku rejected — calling on Armenians not to leave their homes and reintegrate with Azerbaijan where their rights would be respected.

Armenia, a country of 2.8 million, faces a major challenge housing the sudden influx of refugees.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Friday announced an emergency appeal for 20 million Swiss Francs ($22 million) to help those fleeing.

Azerbaijan is now holding “reintegration” talks with separatist leaders while, at the same time detaining some senior figures from its former government and military command.

Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said criminal investigations had been initiated into war crimes committed by 300 separatist officials.

“I urge on those persons to surrender voluntarily,” he told journalists on Sunday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are set to meet on Thursday in the Spanish city of Granada for Western-mediated talks aimed at ending their historic enmity.

With the two countries’ relations poisoned by ethnic hatred ensuing from three wars in as many decades, several rounds of negotiations mediated by Brussels and Washington have so far failed to bring about a breakthrough.

WASHINGTON — The future of US aid for Ukraine hangs in the balance after a last-gasp deal to avoid a government shutdown, despite President Joe Biden's attempts to reassure Kyiv it will get what it needs to fight Russia.

Barely a week after President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington appealing for more funds, the compromise struck in Congress late Sunday dropped new funding for Ukraine amid opposition from hardline Republicans.

Biden and his Democratic party say America has a duty to help Ukraine stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion, warning that a failure to do so could embolden other autocrats in the future.

But the issue has become so politicised in Washington that the fate of vital military aid is now in jeopardy, just as Kyiv tries to make progress in its sluggish counteroffensive before winter sets in. 

Biden urged Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday to "stop the games" and said he "fully expects" him to secure passage of a separate bill for Ukraine funding soon.

"I want to assure our American allies, the American people and the people in Ukraine that you can count on our support. We will not walk away," Biden said in an address from the White House.

Ukraine played down the blow, saying Sunday it was "actively working with its American partners" to ensure new wartime aid.

Moscow 'celebrating' 

Yet the wider signal to the world — that not only Republicans but also some Democrats were willing to sacrifice Ukraine for politics — is damaging, said analyst Brett Bruen.

"That ought to worry leaders in Kyiv, and I think in Moscow they're celebrating the signs that our support may be waning," Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room consultancy and a former US diplomat, told AFP. 

Ukraine is already nervously eyeing the possibility of a return to the White House by Republican former president Donald Trump, who has previously praised Putin.

Top House Democrats said on Saturday that they expect McCarthy to bring a separate Ukraine aid bill for a vote next week, though it was unclear if it would be the $24 billion Biden originally sought.

But that could be more easily said than done. 

Ukraine’s fight for survival has become a political football just over a year from the US presidential election, with questions mounting over aid approved by Congress that totals $100 billion so far, including $43 billion in weaponry.

First, there is a bid to unseat McCarthy next week by hardline Republican Matt Gaetz, one of a core of hard-right members of the party implacably opposed to any more aid for Ukraine. 

If he does survive, McCarthy made it clear on Sunday that he would hold out for funding to stop immigrants crossing the Mexican border, a key Republican demand.

“I’m going to make sure that the weapons are provided for Ukraine, but they’re not going to get some big package if the border is not secure,” McCarthy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

War fatigue 

Even if McCarthy does agree on the Ukraine aid, possibly in a deal with Democrats to allow him to stay as speaker, there is a wider problem — war fatigue.

Skepticism is spreading from the hardline Republicans to more moderate lawmakers who say they won’t write Ukraine a “blank check”.

More worryingly for Biden and Kyiv, inflation-hit American voters appear to have similar concerns about Ukraine. 

An ABC/Washington Post poll released September 24 showed 41 per cent of respondents saying the United States was doing too much to support Ukraine, up from 33 per cent in February and just 14 per cent in April 2022.

Making the problem even tougher is a Republican impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunter’s business deals in Ukraine.

The Biden administration’s answer is simple — if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, the rest of the world could be at risk. 

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Congress to “live up to America’s commitment to provide urgently needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against the forces of tyranny”.

Analyst Bruen added that even a temporary delay on Ukraine funding was a “big boost to the detractors”.

“I think that, over the long term, is going to prove more problematic,” he added.