>> turkey agrees to back sweden's bid to join nato. the breakthrough came at the start of the alliances annual summit in lithuania. a ratification vote in turkey's parliament is expected in the near future. ukraine's army is struggling to recapture territory from russia. we will look at why it is proving difficult. ♪

nicole: welcome to the program. nato chief jens stoltenberg says turkey has agreed to back sweden's b and to join the military alliance. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan made it clear commitment and agreed to forward sweden's application. nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg made the comments after a meeting in the lithuanian capital, vilnius. the city's host in a two day nato summit. let's cross right over to alexander. ride did president erdogan suddenly change his mind? reporter: this breakthrough is a real surprise because only this

morning president erdogan was not ready to drop his objections and instead he was even making demands linking sweden's aspirations to turkey's ambitions to join the european union. talking about two different institutions. he talked about that in his press conference a bit. to understand the decision, we also need to speculate a bit. we know that president erdogan met with the european council president. that he was promised that eu members are ready to reinvigorate their relations with turkey. he had a conversation with the u.s. president joe biden. maybe he was also promised than a deal to buy f-16 fighter jets

could be soon done deal. of course, there were also promises made by sweden and nato itself. i guess what he was able to reach this night was a sort of package that he was satisfied with that and in the end promised to drop his objections against sweden's nato membership. nicole: is this change of heart linked to any conditions? reporter: there are at least two conditions that were mentioned in the press conference of nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg. one of them is the promise by nato to establish a new special coordinator on counterterrorism. and the promise by sweden to work closer together with turkey to fight terrorism.

those issues are very important for turkey. i have been speaking to experts who told me that turkey feels nato is not taking their concerns seriously enough. they have to deal with organization on their soil and there perhaps being terrorist attacks. by establishing the special coordinator and by sweden's promise to work closely together on that matter, nato and sweden are taking the turkish concerns more seriously. nicole: president erdogan has agreed to take this to his parliament as soon as possible. is there a timeline here? reporter: we do not have a timeline yet, just the promise that president erdogan is ready to do it as soon as it is possible. nicole: this was tied to some

prior work done by sweden, right? turkey wanted some concessions made by stockholm. can you remind us what steps sweden had to make to get to this point? reporter: they had to do a lot. sweden has decided to toughen its entire terrorism legislations to make it not possible to go after people who are helping to commit terrorist attacks and to accuse people of helping or financing such organizations. they had to change their constitution and they also lifted an arms embargo against turkey. the understanding at nato was

that sweden has met all of the demands put forward by turkey. nicole: turkey was not the only holdout. can we expect hungry to follow? reporter: nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg told us today that he is confident because hungry has been saying they do not want to be the last nato country to rectify sweden's nato membership. for now, we have not heard anything from the hungarian prime minister to make it official to enable sweden to be a member of the alliance, not only turkey, but also hungry needs to ratify sweden's membership. nicole: thank you so much.

u.s. president joe biden has arrived for the nato summit. he stepped over in london for a meeting at downing street and with king charles. his meeting with the prime minister was overshadowed by washington's decision to supplied ukraine with cluster bombs, which are widely banned. mr. biden said the relationship between the two countries remains rocksolid. ukraine says a russian attack on a residential area has killed seven people and hospitalized 11. the governor said the attack hit a humanitarian aid distribution point. ukraine showed pictures of the destruction which was caused by a bomb that struck the school where residents were collecting aid. russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. it has been more than a month since ukraine launched its counteroffensive, pup progress

has been slow. ukraine's army is conflicting a host of -- confronting a host of obstacles, including better prepared russian troops and minefields. reporter: ukraine launched in spring offensive in june. but so far games have been modest. even president zelenskyy has acknowledged the counteroffensive has been slower than hoped. >> napped everything is easy. there are certain difficulties because [indiscernible] we would like to be making bigger gains. reporter: a look at ukraine's geography helps to explain why. for months the frontline has been largely unchanged. it is thought ukrainian forces would push the russian lines in the south and east. one of the areas that has seen heavy fighting is around a

southern town. as satellite images show the land is mostly patchwork fields. those fields are flat. which poses risks for ukrainian forces trying to retake the land. it means having to cross open fields, which have been heavily mined and which are exposed to fire from the air as well as from russian troops hiding behind the tree lines. beyond those open fields, ukrainians are encountering man-made trench defenses that the russian forces had months to build. the defenders had time to put up dragon's teeth to stop tanks. then there is the learning curve. military experts say russia has picked up from its mistakes and has adjusted to the condition on the battlefield. still, analysts say ukraine's

counteroffensive is capable of making progress, but it will take time. nicole: mark is a retired colonel and a senior advisor at the center for strategic and international studies. i asked him about the ukrainian counteroffensive. >> i think many people hoped that by this time the counteroffensive would have broken through the russian offenses and had a chance to use all the armor and armored vehicles that they receive from nato and the united states. that clearly has not happened. they are still moving forward, so they have not culminated. the hope had been they would be further along than they are. nicole: it was clear always this was not going to be a walk in the park. where the west's expectations not realistic? >> i think some were not

realistic. i heard many speculating about trying to retake crimea, which would take jumping over a body of water. that is clearly out of reach at this point. for the last couple of months you saw officials trying to tamp down these expectations. general milley said it would be a tough fight and would take some time. it was not everybody i think who had expectations, but there was a sense out there that maybe this counteroffensive would bring victory or something close to it. nicole: the ukrainian defense ministry has reacted to concerns. let's take a quick look. ♪

nicole: the message here, to you this is very abstract and we are out here doing the fighting. can the ukrainian troops afford to continue the refunds of the way they started it? or do they need to change their strategy? >> it is a little hard to say at this point. they need to break through in one spot and that is still possible by attacking a number of places on the frontline. i think they will keep this up for some time. the video makes a couple of

important points. of course, it is very clever. this takes time and that they know what they are doing. one of the challenges they have is the demands of this kind of an attack requires a lot of skill, coordinating, combined arms and not all ukrainian units have received the training. they are really being challenged on their training. nicole: if results continue to underwhelm, could that lead to ukraine supporters growing more impatient? >> i think we see that now unfortunately. there have been a lot of complaints about a forever war. at this might go on for a long period of time.

the problem with negotiations is that there is no overlap between the two sides. negotiations would be in effect be a partial victory for putin. nicole: could that kind of pressure do more harm than good on the battlefield? >> there are no shortcuts. and this is going to be a long war. the ukrainians are determined to liberate all of their country. i think they are going to keep at it if this counteroffensive is disappointing, i think they will regroup and try again. nicole: let's look a the other side. the wagner mutiny, the chaos in moscow and putting -- putin looking weaker. >> so far they have had

tremendous political importance, the turmoil in moscow and what the relationship is. on the battlefield, i do not think there is any effect. wagner had already pulled out of the front lines. there was not this hole that all of a sudden opened up. as far as we can tell the average brush unit on the frontline is not -- russian unit on the frontline has not reduced its combat power. unfortunately on the frontline, things continue as before. nicole: thank you so much for your analysis. let's take a brief look at some other stories. israel's problem is said to hold up first vote on a bill that would limit the supreme court's power and give the government a greater say in the appointment

of judges. this has sparked months of mass protests. critics say it invites corruption and abuse of power. a prominent iranian rapper has been sentenced to six years in prison for voicing support for protests. u.s. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into prime, and in high levels of caffeine are dangerous for its target market of children. it has become an obsession among their followers. the un security council is to vote on extending the delivery of humanitarian aid to syria's

rebel held northeast. many were forced to flee their home in syria's 12 year civil war. the delivery of aid increased following the devastating earthquakes in february. those aid deliveries are now in danger of stopping unless the security council agrees to extend the mandate. reporter: in february, he lost his home. his house collapsed during the earthquake. his family survived without harm and now the 10 of them live in a tent. they get groceries once in a while from aid agencies. >> they bring us water and hope where they can. sometimes we get $150 cash. we have been able to survive. we visited a tent camp. hundreds of thousands of syrians live here. even though it has been months

since the earthquake they are still waiting for the city to be rebuilt. money is always in short supply. an aide organization is building them new sanitary facilities. we are on the brink of a massive humanitarian catastrophe. the people suffering from the earthquake are the same ones who fled the war. their needs are immense. the people living in the area surrounding it are cut off from the rest of syria. robles controlled the region. humanitarian aid comes from turkey. >> we do need to extend this resolution. we need time to implement. reporter: their fate will be decided by the security council on monday. it depends on the veto power of

russia. his family are waiting come along with other survivors. nicole: tens of thousands are leaving sri lanka as the country struggles to recover from its worst economic crisis in decades. 122 1000 people left in the first five months of this year. that is the same number that left the country and all of 2021. soaring inflation is driving millions into property. reporter: lentils and rice is all this couple can afford. they often have to skip meals. sri lanka about economic crisis has hit them hard. over the last year the situation has become more difficult. >> last year, we had money but no goods. now there are goods but we do

not have money. the price of goods has increased compared to last year. reporter: his family lives in a working-class area. this life has become unaffordable. the government has remove subsidies and utilities, doubling their bills. his home is also damp due to leaks. but municipal authorities have no funds left to fix it. the couple's biggest worry is expensive medicine. he has chronic asthma and public hospitals use to provide free medicine, but that program has been stopped. >> an inhaler costs too much. we do not have enough money. we used to get medicine for free . now they tell us to buy it from the pharmacy. only a small amount of medicine

are available for free. reporter: last year, inflation and debts triggered nationwide protests. former president was forced to flee the country. he has returned under tight security, but things have worsened for ordinary people. he -- his successor is hoping to get the economy back on track with a bailout. the program imposes tough measures, increased taxes, more burden for citizens. >> at least there is availability of essential goods like electricity.

we have added 4 million new people below the poverty line. reporter: government officials are pinning their hopes on the program to win sri lanka's crisis in a few years. nicole: novak djokovic should continued his march through the wimbledon with a win on monday. after winning the first two sets on sunday, the 23 time grand slam champion returned to the court on monday and dropped the third set. he has now won 32 consecutive matches at the all england club and is a favorite to win the most prestigious tennis tournament for a fifth time in a row. also on monday, mary andrea vallas wimbledon fairytale came to an end after she was beaten.

she looked on course to become the youngest player to reach the quarterfinals since 1997, but her opponent celebrated a hard-fought combat to return -- come back to return to the next round. latvia has wrapped up the latest edition of its song and dance festival, one of the largest dance and events in the entire world. tens of thousands of singers and dancers were on hand to delight the crowds. for some participants, the songs and dances are deeply personal. reporter: these songs convey a sense of belonging, hope and belief. they convey a lot for a free latvia, country located on the border coast. every five years, 40,000

performers from all over latvia gather to celebrate at the enormous song and dance festival. ♪ this year, this woman and this man taken part in the festivities. they just met each other for the first time. she comes from russia. she has latvian ancestors. she said in a latvian choir in moscow. she often went to perform, but now she lives here and teaches at the russian school. she says she is building bridges to help connect the two cultures. >> some of the children now speak fluent latvian. others hardly ever use to speak it at home.

things are more difficult for them. reporter: dancing is as important to him as singh's to her. it is part of their identity. he is a farmer in western latvia. two times a week he drives three hours to rehearse with his dance ensemble. >> when my sister and i were little, her parents brought us here to take dance lessons. we drove 10 km to take classes. since then, dance and has become part of my routine. reporter: the festival started 150 years ago. during 50 of the years, latvia was part of the soviet union. back then, some of their native songs were banned.

>> we fought hard to regain freedom and latvia. there are many songs about this. they are intertwined with my own life story. i cannot imagine who i would be without these songs. reporter: that might explain why these amateur dancers and singers rehearsed for years preparing for the festival. there is hardly any time for anything else. >> my family supports my hobby. my wife does not dance, but my children do. i am happy they share my passion. reporter: performing on stage is exhilarating. when the show is over, the performers celebrate together until dawn. they are making the most of it because they have to wait five

years until they can meet up again. nicole: a quick reminder of the top story. nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg says turkey has agreed to back sweden's bid to join nato. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan agreed to forward sweden's application to join nato for approval as soon as possible. that is all for now. stick with us. i will be for more after a short break. ♪

anchor: these are the headlines. sweden's entry into nato has been agreed. turkiye said it will stop blocking the way, nato agrees a regional defense plan in the event of a russian attack. he wants the summit to confirm ukraine is a de facto member. we are standing by for more.