Ukraine Gets Tanks & The No-Fly List Goes Public
January 25, 2023
The Tanks That Were Promised
Ukraine is all set to armor up after weeks of leaning on Germany and the U.S. for more military aid. On Tuesday, Berlin and Washington both gave in to Kyiv’s demand for modern tanks, with Germany set to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and the U.S. reportedly readying dozens of M1 Abrams battle tanks for a trip across the Atlantic.
The U.S. decision to send the tanks to Ukraine comes just days after Washington argued against the move in the face of public pressure from Berlin and Kyiv. Washington had initially balked at sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine because they’re hard to operate and maintain – they also run on jet fuel, making them a bad choice for Ukraine’s military at this point in the war.
The Abrams tanks will be procured through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund, which allows President Biden to tap arms manufacturers to produce the tanks instead of drawing from current military weapons stocks. According to some experts, using the USAI process could allow the U.S. to buy back tanks from allies, refurbish them, and then send them to Ukraine, a process that could take months or even years. An official announcement is expected sometime later today.Germany is also expected to send Ukraine its Leopard 2 tanks after months of deliberations. The tanks are more suited for Ukraine’s war effort, boasting a cannon and machine gun on each tank. The vehicles are also highly maneuverable, reaching 70 kmph (44mph) on roads and 50 kmph (31mph) off-road, providing much-needed modern equipment for Ukraine’s ground defense efforts. Germany’s army currently possesses 320 Leopard tanks, but it’s unclear how many are battle-ready, and how many will be sent to Ukraine.
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Righting Past Wrongs
- On Monday, Brazil’s justice minister requested an investigation into possible crimes of genocide against the country’s indigenous Yanomami people. The request came after Brazil’s government sent aid and personnel in response to a malnutrition and disease crisis in the state of Roraima, where much of the country’s indigenous reserves are located.
- “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was a genocide,” tweeted Lula about his visit to Yanomami territories on Saturday. “A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to the suffering of the Brazilian people.” He described children dying of “malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and other diseases,” and cited statistics showing that over 570 children younger than five had died in the region over the past five years.
- Brazil’s justice minister said the investigation would look into “crimes of genocide, failure to provide emergency assistance, environmental crimes and other crimes, since there are reports of embezzlement, corruption and siphoning of public funds meant for Indigenous health care.” Lula also blamed the crisis on the previous Bolsonaro administration – illegal mining operations linked to the health crisis increased by almost threefold from 2018 to 2021.
Deposing Dozens Of Deputies
- The government of Ukraine now has another thing to worry about – besides the invading Russian forces, it has to contend with a growing corruption scandal that has affected even the upper tier of government officials. On Tuesday, President Zelenskyy’s deputy chief of staff, deputy defense minister, deputy prosecutor general, deputy minister of social policy, and two of his deputy ministers of regional development all resigned (or were asked to) after being linked to the scandal. Those darn deputies, man.
- The deputy ministers were all caught up in a corruption scheme linked with jacked-up prices for war supplies. The corruption crackdown began on Sunday night, with the arrest of acting minister for regional development Vasyl Lozynskyy. He was accused of receiving about $400,000 in “unlawful benefits” for facilitating various contracts. On Monday, Zelenskyy announced that officials would be banned from international travel for any non-official business.
- According to a report by Transparency International, Ukraine was the second-most corrupt country in Europe in 2021. President Zelenskyy, a former actor with no political experience, actually rose to power in 2019 based on his promise to clean up the government. While he has made some headway with the corruption problem, Transparency International says Ukraine has reached a “deadlock” with the issue since its war with Russia began.
Additional World News
- Deadly and disposable: Wagner’s brutal tactics in Ukraine revealed by intelligence report (CNN)
- Jacinda Ardern makes final appearance as New Zealand leader (NBC)
- Russian mercenary boss asks parliament to ban negative media reports about his men (Reuters)
- 50 Hells Angels go on trial in case alleging prostitution, murder, trafficking and other crimes in Spain (CBS)
- North Korea issues ‘extreme cold’ weather alert (BBC)
- Navalny supporters put replica cell outside Russian embassy (AP)
- China tells US to fix its own debt problems after Yellen Africa remarks (Reuters)
“In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.” – Immanuel Kant
A Nominee No More
- Sarah Margon, President Biden’s nominee for the role of Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (that really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?), withdrew her name from consideration this week. Margon faced opposition from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking Republican, Jim Risch of Idaho, and with the new Congress now sworn in, Margon says, “I don’t see a path forward for confirmation, and after 1 ½ years, it’s time to move on.”
- Margon is a former Capitol Hill staffer and Washington director for Human Rights Watch who now works in a senior role at the Open Society Foundations, the organization founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Risch accused Margon of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which targets Israel due to its policies toward the Palestinians, using her past tweets as evidence.
- Despite Margon’s attempts to explain herself and deny any such support for the BDS movement, Risch was unswayed. Even if the Biden administration finds a new nominee quickly, the confirmation process could drag on again. The administration was confident that they could make human rights a priority, but these latest delays in confirmations have been a significant barrier to that – of course, it also doesn’t help that the White House has been overly friendly to some not-so-friendly countries, like Saudi Arabia.
Oh Me Oh My Oh, Won’t You Look At Corrupt Ohio
- A historic trial began in Ohio this week that alleges top Republicans in the state accepted bribes from the power company FirstEnergy. Experts say the corruption has led to higher bills for customers, less clean energy, and more planet-warming emissions. Similar cases occurred in Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida over the past decade.
- One of the defendants, the former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (what a fitting name), is charged with one count of racketeering and faces up to 20 years in prison. Householder and four other men are thought to have received over $60 million in exchange for passing HB-6, which gave $1.4 billion in customer-funded bailouts to two nuclear plants controlled by FirstEnergy.
Additional USA News
- ‘Decisions imminent’ in Trump election meddling case, Georgia prosecutor says (Guardian)
- 3 killed in random shooting in Yakima, Washington; gunman at large (ABC)
- FDA proposes once-a-year COVID vaccine shots for most Americans (CBS)
- ‘Tragedy upon tragedy’: why 39 US mass shootings already this year is just the start (Guardian)
- WATCH: Hear DeSantis defend rejection of AP African American studies course (CNN)
- 2 Memphis fire department personnel ‘relieved of duty’ in connection to Tyre Nichols’ death (NBC)
- Classified documents found at Mike Pence’s home (BBC)
In Plane Sight
- In a reminder that every operation is only as strong as its weakest link, a copy of the 2019 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) no-fly list has been uncovered by a Swedish cybersecurity researcher and hacktivist. The hacker, known as “maia arson crimew” (crimew for short), claims that they found a copy of the no-fly list, named “NoFly.csv,” on a publicly accessible server run by CommuteAir, a small regional airline.
- The TSA essentially confirmed that the leak was real, stating that the agency “is aware of a potential cybersecurity incident, and we are investigating in coordination with our federal partners.” The list of over 1.5 million names includes the names and birthdates of people that the U.S. government suspects to be terrorists, including individuals from the Irish Republican Army and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
- crimew also claims that 2019’s no-fly list skews disproportionately Arabic and Russian. “It’s just crazy to me how big that Terrorism Screening Database is and yet there is still very clear trends towards almost exclusively Arabic and Russian sounding names throughout the million entries,” they told The Daily Dot. Fingers have already been pointed, with Representative Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) warning that Congress “will be coming for answers.”
Additional Reads
- Bee-harming pesticide use given emergency authorisation (BBC)
- Princess Eugenie Is Pregnant! Royal Announces She’s Expecting Baby No. 2 with Jack Brooksbank (People)
- Promising gene therapy delivers treatment directly to brain (AP)
- ‘Westernization is not the answer’: Artist Àsìkò explores Yoruba culture through mythology (CNN)
- Meet boy-genius Teddy Hobbs, Britain’s youngest-ever Mensa member (CBS)
- Live Nation exec will face lawmakers about Taylor Swift concert tickets fiasco (CNN)
- U.S. Approves First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor, Beginning New Era for Atomic Energy (Vice)