The acquisition covers “several thousand missiles and several hundred launch units,” PGZ said in a statement. Deliveries of the group’s flagship weapon are to be completed by 2030, with Poland serving as the consortium’s leader.

On Poland’s side, the procurement will be financed from the European Union’s Security Action For Europe (SAFE) scheme which foresees around €43.7 billion ($50.9 billion) in low-cost loans for Warsaw. More than 80% of the acquired gear is to be delivered to the Polish military.

“Not only are we implementing this agreement through the Polish defense industry, but our partners from Lithuania, Latvia and Norway have also decided to make purchases in Poland,” Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said. “For the first time, the Armament Agency is making purchases not only for the Polish Armed Forces, but also for the armed forces of our allies.”

Building on the weapon’s successful use in Ukraine and the resulting international demand for the Piorun, PGZ officials say that, over the past several years, the group has increased its dedicated missile production capacity from 300 to 1,500 units annually, with plans to reach a capacity of more than 2,000 missiles per year.

Amid the weapon’s increasing popularity among European allies, PGZ has also sold the Piorun to numerous countries outside Europe, including the United States, Japan and Indonesia.

The current generation of the MANPADS is able to hit targets at an altitude of up to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles), and it has a range of up to 6.5 kilometers (4 miles), according to data from the producer. PGZ’s subsidiary MESKO, the group’s leading maker of ammunition and rockets, manufactures the Piorun at its plant in Skarżysko-Kamienna, in central Poland.

Meanwhile, PGZ is also working on a new version of the product, the Piorun New Generation (NG). The weapon is to be enabled with a longer range, additional features, and improved portability, company representatives said.

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As the Taliban retook Kabul, those allies were suddenly in grave danger. Their ranks included many translators, drivers and others who became targets because they worked with the United States. Many turned to the U.S. for such a chance at safety, and in 2021, a multi-agency, public-private effort mobilized to rally around our allies.

Both our organizations support Afghan evacuees in different ways. World Relief, in coordination with hundreds of local churches, has spent years resettling Afghan families in American communities, and AfghanEvac has fought to bring home the mission partners who served alongside our troops and enabled the U.S. mission. Since the beginning of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, promises have been made to provide a pathway to legal residency in America for Afghan allies who assisted the U.S. government.

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Many evangelical Christians in the U.S. recognized the moral crisis at stake and were eager to help welcome and support people fleeing persecution in Afghanistan. Evangelical leader Franklin Graham led  an initiative to organize support for Afghans. Here at World Relief, we were flooded by calls from churches wanting to help, and our offices were soon full of donations. At the time, polls found a majority of evangelicals supported taking in Afghan refugees. Due to unprecedented levels of support, many Afghan families were soon resettled in American communities. 

Ideally, Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government would have arrived with approved Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) or through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, either of which would have ensured new arrivals that they had a permanent place in the United States. But due to the urgent nature of the evacuation, most of the roughly 70,000 Afghans  brought to the U.S. by the federal government in the months immediately after the fall of Kabul were admitted on humanitarian parole, which allowed them to be lawfully present and authorized to work, but only temporarily. This was conducted through Operation Allies Welcome, an initiative made possible through grassroots veteran involvement. Some of these individuals were subsequently granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a distinct but still, obviously, temporary legal protection.  

When the conditions in Afghanistan did not improve over time, it was clear a more lasting resolution was needed. The Afghan Adjustment Act was originally introduced in 2022 and 2023 to create a pathway to a green card and citizenship for Afghans with little hope of returning home. As its name suggests, the bill would establish an adjustment process for tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees to gain permanent legal status. The act has bipartisan endorsements and the support of many evangelical Christian organizations . However, despite the diverse coalition behind urging Congress and President Biden to act, the bill failed to become law, leaving many stuck in limbo. 

Since the beginning of the second Trump presidency, their situation has not improved. Little has been done to help Afghans already present on temporary status, and pathways for those still stuck in Afghanistan or in refugee camps in neighboring countries have been shut down. No Afghan principal applicants have been issued SIVs in 2026, and for those SIV applicants still waiting to be processed, the average wait time is over 1,000 days, leaving them hanging in suspense. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has been effectively closed for all but a favored minority. In July of 2025, Temporary Protected Status was terminated for nearly 12,000 Afghans — despite pushback from evangelicals — forcing them into an impossible situation. By ending or suspending these programs, the administration has not just abandoned Afghans but has closed the door to anyone facing persecution abroad. 

Despite many attempts since the early waves of Afghan arrivals, a legislative fix still has not been passed. A new bill has recently been proposed  in both the House and the Senate — the Afghanistan TPS Act of 2026 — that would re-secure TPS for Afghans, protecting them from removal and buying more time to find a permanent fix. This act is needed to address the urgent crisis facing Afghan evacuees.

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The response in 2021 by churches, veterans’ groups and many other Americans, was overwhelmingly positive and extended welcome to Afghans. However, as we reflect on the five-year anniversary of the evacuation, the work of helping them integrate and make a home in the United States is incomplete. Now is the time for us to secure their welcome permanently. For the faith communities that have carried so much of this work, Scripture is direct about welcoming the stranger and loving your neighbor. For veterans, and for a country that gave its word, the obligation is just as plain. America told these men and women that if they stood with us, we would stand with them. Both roads lead to the same place.

Will we support and protect our Afghan neighbors through our hospitality or abandon them out and succumb to fear and apathy? Furthermore, to not fulfill our agreements with our Afghan allies would be to violate our promises as Americans. That is not abstract. By showing ourselves untrustworthy, we risk losing potential allies’ cooperation in future conflicts, putting the lives of our service members in danger.

Since Kabul’s fall, the need has been unambiguous, and through the beginning of 2025, the political will was strong. But as a nation, we have faltered. We must once again stand up for our allies and urge our officials to take action passing the Afghanistan TPS Act, the Enduring Welcome Act, and reopening the resettlement program to all eligible mission partners. Not just because it’s good for our service members in future conflicts, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Shawn VanDiver is the founder and president of #AfghanEvac. 

A three-judge panel on Thursday denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a group of Black Tennessee voters and civil rights organizations, who argued the map intentionally sought to weaken the power of Black voters.

The lawsuit stems from Tennessee lawmakers redrawing the state’s congressional map during a special session in May after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which made it harder to challenge redistricting plans on racial discrimination grounds. The new map split Memphis and Shelby County into three congressional districts, effectively dismantling Tennessee’s only majority-Black district. Republican lawmakers said the goal was to create a map that favored Republicans in all nine congressional districts and help preserve the GOP’s majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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The judges — two Trump-appointed judges and one appointed by President Barack Obama — concluded the evidence pointed to partisan politics as the driving force behind the redistricting.

“At bottom, Plaintiffs won’t succeed on their vote-dilution claim because they haven’t presented meaningful evidence that race — not politics — motivated Tennessee’s May 2026 map,” the judges wrote.

The judges contrasted the case with the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Cooper v. Harris, where the High Court ruled that there was direct evidence that race influenced the redistricting process.

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“Plaintiffs’ evidence is a far cry from the ‘smoking gun’ direct evidence in Cooper v. Harris.”

As evidence, the plaintiffs pointed to the map itself, which eliminates the state’s only majority-minority district; lawmakers’ use of census data containing racial demographics; the unusual timing of the mid-decade redistricting; Tennessee’s history of racial discrimination; and affidavits from Black Memphis voters who said the new map diluted their voting strength.

“Plaintiffs present no direct evidence, weak circumstantial evidence, and no path for Tennessee to accomplish its political aims without producing the same effect,” the judges wrote.

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Amber Sherman, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and an affected voter, called the panel’s rejection of the preliminary injunction “painful.”

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“The decisions by this court continue to further the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Memphis,” Sherman said in a statement. “We deserve the same opportunity to shape our future as anyone else. When our voting power is diluted, our neighborhoods have a harder time making their voices heard on the issues that shape our daily lives.”

While the preliminary injunction was denied, the lawsuit remains ongoing.

Since Trump began urging GOP-led states to pursue mid-decade redistricting, at least eight states have adopted new congressional maps, with Republicans hoping to gain seats in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. Democrats have responded with redistricting efforts in California, Utah and Virginia, although Virginia’s new map was later struck down by the state’s Supreme Court.

The veteran-led organization AfghanEvac hopes a new AI-powered tool will benefit from the extensive data it’s gathered about the tortuous visa and asylum application process to help new applicants find the most promising pathways to help.

The Visa Pathways and Relocation Information Center, or V-PRIC, launched earlier this month and has seen more than 30,000 visits in its first week live, said Shawn VanDiver, the Navy veteran who founded and leads the organization. While the tool requires users to verify that they understand it won’t provide vetted legal advice, it aims to simplify daunting and confusing options and find the pathway most aligned with their circumstances.

When users select “find my pathway,” they’re prompted to enter information about their current location, their eligibility as an Afghan who worked for the U.S. and whether they’re in danger now. They’re also asked to write a brief statement in their own words describing their story and situation.

Then, the tool uses its database of 124 U.S. visa and status classifications — 16 of them relevant to Afghan applicants — and detailed information on global pathways around the world to link users up with the options that best match their needs and qualifications.

VanDiver is clear: there aren’t many promising pathways available to anyone right now. The Trump administration last year issued an indefinite suspension on processing of Afghans’ request to immigrate to the U.S., and terminated temporary protected status for asylum-seeking Afghans, leaving about 11,000 already in the States unable to work and at risk of deportation.

About 1,100 Afghan allies and their family members are stuck in grim conditions at the Camp As Sayliyah processing facility in Doha, Qatar, unable to leave due to the travel ban even though many had already secured approval to enter the U.S.

This spring, the Trump administration proposed forcing those at the camp to choose between returning to Afghanistan or being relocated to the war-torn and desperately impoverished Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some 400 of those camp residents are children, according to VanDiver.

Despite the barriers, VanDiver believes V-PRIC will help prospective applicants avoid wasting time at closed doors, stay abreast of rapidly changing policy and figure out the most promising options.

“It … tells you where the blocker is,” he said. “If it’s a matter of policy or a matter of law, if it’s a choice that can be unmade, and who can approve exceptions to it.”

The tool has been trained on legal decisions and executive orders and policy statements, but also surveys AfghanEvac has run and plain-language explainers they’ve developed, VanDiver said. Organization staff continue to update it to remove inaccuracies and reflect changing conditions. It might provide context that the U.S. State Department does not.

VanDiver gave the example of an Afghan special immigrant visa applicant who has received a notice from State that they can schedule a visa interview — not noting that the visa approval pipeline remains closed. V-PRIC can flag that, he said.

“It says, ‘Hey, hold up, don’t necessarily schedule your interview yet. They’re all going to be denied, and having that denial on your record can create problems down the line,’” VanDiver said.

For AfghanEvac, the work to secure safety for those who helped the U.S. at war continues indefinitely. A survey of more than 1,100 Afghans run between Jan. 31, 2025 and July 7 found, of the 427 respondents still in Afghanistan, nearly half face a direct threat from the Taliban. Another 427 respondents reported being in Pakistan, awaiting a pathway to safety there. Of that group, 44% said they feared deportation, and 45% reported experiencing a health crisis. Thirty-nine of the respondents were at Camp As Sayliyah, awaiting a pathway out.

“It feels like we’re in jail, punished like criminals — even though we stood with the U.S.,” one respondent who’d spent 282 days at the camp, said in the survey, according to information provided by AfghanEvac.

VanDiver stresses that the V-PRIC tool doesn’t replace legal expertise, but he hopes it will offer a starting point to help people who may be at a loss to understand their first or next steps toward reaching safety.

“Get a lawyer, open a congressional case; here are the warnings about your particular type of case,” he said. “[V-PRIC] can help people understand, based on their specific situation, what their options are.”

The push follows this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, where allies pledged €70 billion ($80 billion) in military aid for Ukraine this year.

U.S. President Donald Trump also pledged to allow Ukraine a license to build its own Patriot interceptors, a long-awaited goal of Kyiv. “We’ll give them the right to make Patriots,” he said.

“This is a European model,” Zelenskyy said Thursday. “FREYA is our Ukrainian anti-ballistic system…an analogue in terms of intercepting ballistic targets, an analogue of Patriot, but a system for more mass production and a cheaper system.”

Long-range missile and drone strikes caused 45% of Ukraine’s civilian casualties in May, the worst monthly toll since April 2022, according to a U.N. report.

Ballistic missiles remain the one threat Ukraine still can’t intercept with a system it built itself. Freya could change that, potentially shifting Kyiv’s position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.

Freya centers on the FP-7.X interceptor, produced by the Ukrainian company Fire Point, and is designed to hit a ballistic target at roughly 15 miles altitude.

Like Patriot interceptors, Freya is an entire system and will rely on allies for production support.

“A system needs not only a missile and a launcher. It needs radars, command and control, and many different elements,” he said.

“To create our anti-ballistic system very quickly, we need European partners who have production of those things that Ukraine does not yet have for its own anti-ballistic system.”

Fire Point has signed a memorandum with Germany’s Hensoldt for radar technology and is in talks with France’s Thales, Italy’s Leonardo and Norway’s Kongsberg to supply tracking and command-and-control systems.

Zelenskyy said the Freya coalition, which he described as comprising roughly eight partner nations, will speed up the production process and make a faster timeline possible.

“We can do it ourselves, but years will pass,” he said.

Fire Point is targeting a per-shot cost near $700,000, versus roughly $3.8 million for a Patriot PAC-3.

The missile was flight-tested in early June, the company said, and is aiming to mass-produce three a day starting in August and intercept its first ballistic missile by the end of 2027.

The upcoming meeting in France may yield the next updates as Zelenskyy said the current plan depends on partner nations, their manufacturers and their production capacity signing on.

“God willing, the partners will support it, and God willing, our manufacturers will succeed with all of this,” he said.