The United States plays a leading role in the global response to disease threats and pandemics. But the momentum for addressing COVID-19 worldwide is slowing down, according to the director of USAID’s pandemic task force, while global leaders warn that the world remains vulnerable. And one of Ukraine’s leading artists, Pavlo Makov, has become a spokesperson for Ukraine’s cultural resistance at this year’s Venice Biennale. Makov was able to escape from the eastern city of Kharkiv just in time. Plus, the US Army has delivered a birthday cake to Italian woman Meri Mion on her 90th birthday. The cake replaces the one stolen by US soldiers in 1945.