Officials from the Biden government are considering drawing from American weapon stockpiles for Ukraine without replenishing them, putting U.S. military readiness at risk. Officials, who met at the Pentagon on Tuesday, are also considering purchasing weapons without congressional funding.
Using stockpiled artillery and ammunition is viewed as a last resort, but momentum is growing for this potential and controversial solution. One congressional official warned that “to do it now would absolutely kill us.”
U.S. aid to Ukraine has already diminished U.S. weapons stockpiles. “The DoD continues to urge Congress to pass a supplemental to support Ukraine in its time of need and to replenish our stocks,” a Pentagon spokesperson said in an official statement.
House action on Ukraine aid is not anticipated until late March, and despite having about $4 billion in congressionally approved Presidential Drawdown Authority funding, the Pentagon does not have sufficient approved funding to replace deployed weapons and equipment.
It is unlikely that Ukraine can sustain its war effort for long without U.S. assistance. Only 10 percent of Europeans currently think Ukraine can win against Russia, and Putin’s forces have recently made significant advances.
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Officials from the Biden government are considering drawing from American weapon stockpiles for Ukraine without replenishing them, putting U.S. military readiness at risk. Officials, who met at the Pentagon on Tuesday, are also considering purchasing weapons without congressional funding.
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A survey by the Pew Research Center shows a decline in the appeal of representative democracy, caused primarily by the refusal of politicians to listen to their supposed constituents.
Data from 24 democratic nations revealed a median of 77 percent of respondents viewed representative democracy as a “good” system of governance, but a median of 59 percent expressed dissatisfaction with its functioning. This represents a decrease in satisfaction compared to the countries surveyed in 2017.
Approximately 74 percent of respondents believe that elected officials disregard the perspectives of ordinary citizens. This number rises to a whopping 83 percent in the United States, and 85 percent in Spain. Sweden appears to be the only nation where a majority of residents believe elected officials care what they think.
The survey’s release comes at a crucial time, with over 50 nations preparing for elections this year, accounting for half the global population. However, this period also witnesses an escalating tide of support for more authoritarian forms of governance, with support for a “strong leader” devoid of court or legislative restriction rising in eight of the surveyed countries since 2017.
Notably, among these nations is India, where support for centralized leadership has increased by 12 percent, the highest increase among the surveyed countries. The survey indicates that 67 percent of Indians now support a strong leader like the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.
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A survey by the Pew Research Center shows a decline in the appeal of representative democracy, caused primarily by the refusal of politicians to listen to their supposed constituents.
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Far-left outlet Mother Jones is asking if Israel should be held accountable for “ecocide” in remarks similar to those advanced by the government of Ukraine regarding Russia at the tail end of 2023.
“When reports emerged in late December that the Israeli military planned to pump seawater into the underground tunnel networks used by Hamas fighters in Gaza, scientists and advocates around the world raised alarm over the prospect of an environmental disaster,” writes author Lylla Younes.
She continued: “Flooding the tunnels threatened to permanently salinate the land, making it impossible to cultivate crops. Seawater could also seep underground and into an aquifer that the majority of Gazans rely on for water. Palestinian rights groups and protesters around the world were already accusing the Israeli government of committing genocide against the Palestinians, with more than 20,000 killed by Israeli bombings on Gaza since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel last October. Now, another term has entered the conversation: “ecocide.””
The article notes:
The term “ecocide” was coined during the Vietnam War after the US military sprayed more than 90 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides across South Vietnam’s countryside. The chemical’s 20-year half-life can increase to more than 100 years if it’s buried beneath the soil, and people in southern Vietnam are still living with its effects more than half a century later. After visiting the region in the early 1970s and observing the chemicals’ devastating effects, a group of American scientists and legal experts began a campaign against using herbicide as a weapon of war. Their efforts led to an executive order by President Gerald Ford in 1975 renouncing the use of defoliants in future wars and to a UN convention in 1978 prohibiting the “hostile use of environmental modification techniques.”
There is currently no formal ability to hold a nation accountable for “ecocide” though far-left campaigners have been embarking on a campaign to do so since 2020.
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Far-left outlet Mother Jones is asking if Israel should be held accountable for "ecocide" in remarks similar to those advanced by the government of Ukraine regarding Russia at the tail end of 2023.
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The Brazilian state, now run by globalists, is persecuting the former President, Jair Bolsonaro, for allegedly harassing a humpback whale. Bolsonaro met with federal police officers on Tuesday regarding the incident, reportedly captured on video. In the video, a man presumed to be Bolsonaro was seen riding a watercraft too close to a whale. Brazil’s legal guidelines mandate a minimum of 100 meters distance between motor vessels and cetaceans, with violators facing potential imprisonment of two to five years or a fine.
The multitude of legal issues facing Bolsonaro since he left the office a year ago are the subject of heated debate. Bolsonaro, who has been kept from running for office until 2030 and whose passport was seized, is also being harassed for an alleged attempt to unseat his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This includes a plot involving a decree claiming the 2022 election fraudulent if Bolsonaro had lost, which was never issued.
Despite the allegations, Bolsonaro fervently denies any wrongdoing. If proven guilty in the whale harassment case, he may face a fine as per local legal stipulations.
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The Brazilian state, now run by globalists, is persecuting the former President, Jair Bolsonaro, for allegedly harassing a humpback whale. Bolsonaro met with federal police officers on Tuesday regarding the incident, reportedly captured on video. In the video, a man presumed to be Bolsonaro was seen riding a watercraft too close to a whale. Brazil's legal guidelines mandate a minimum of 100 meters distance between motor vessels and cetaceans, with violators facing potential imprisonment of two to five years or a fine.
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A special congress of the breakaway Transnistria region of Moldova — the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic — is calling on Moscow for help “in the face of increased pressure.”
Pridnestrovian officials say the Moldovan government has unleashed an “economic war” on the region by blocking vital imports and is seeking to turn it into a “ghetto.” The breakaway republic’s congress is asking Russia’s Federation Council and State Duma “to implement measures to protect Transnistria in the face of increased pressure from Moldova.”
Transnistria is a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Dniester River and the internationally recognized Ukraine-Moldova border. Mostly Russian-speaking, it has asserted its independence from Moldova since 1991. In 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution asserting that the region is under military occupation by Russia.
“The decisions of the current congress cannot be ignored by the international community,” said Vitaly Ignatiev, the republic’s foreign policy chief.
The breakaway republic’s calls for Russian aid have increased fears that the territory could be used by Russia to open a new southwestern front in its war with Ukraine.
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A special congress of the breakaway Transnistria region of Moldova — the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic — is calling on Moscow for help "in the face of increased pressure."
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President Joe Biden’s weakness in tackling global conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East has emboldened North Korea and Kim Jong-Un. The communist dictator appears to have moved away from using nuclear weapons as bargaining chips for international aid and instead intends to use them for both deterrence – and worryingly – potential regional aggression.
In 2021, North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un stepped up long-range ballistic missile tests — along with rolling out a range of new weapons meant for use in a regional war with South Korea and Japan. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has become a testing ground for some of North Korea’s newest weapons developments. The East-Asian communist state has sent 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia for use in Ukraine.
After former President Donald Trump engaged Kim Jong-Un, the communist state suspended long-range ballistic missile tests starting in 2018. Those tests resumed less than a year into Bidne’s presidency. In 2022, North Korea tested its largest long-range ballistic missile yet. “This miraculous victory is a priceless victory,” Kim Jong-Un said at the time. Unlike previous tests five years earlier, neither China nor Russia condemned North Korea’s missile launch.
In January, the North Korean dictator announced he was abandoning peace discussions and possible reunification with South Korea. Now, the North Korean military is signaling it intends to take a more aggressive and combative stance in both East Asia and against U.S. interests in the region.
“What worries me the most is they’ve continued to increase the size and sophistication of their nuclear arsenal and delivery means,” said Siegfried S. Hecker, a former weapons inspector who has visited North Korean nuclear facilities, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Estimates now place the North Korean nuclear arsenal as high as 50 to 60 warheads.
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President Joe Biden's weakness in tackling global conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East has emboldened North Korea and Kim Jong-Un. The communist dictator appears to have moved away from using nuclear weapons as bargaining chips for international aid and instead intends to use them for both deterrence – and worryingly – potential regional aggression.
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President Emmanuel Macron of France has warned that while there is “no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground” to Ukraine, “nothing can be ruled out.”
The Frenchman spoke in Paris after a meeting of Western officials — including more than 20 European heads of state and government — vowing, “We will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war.”
His comments follow revelations by Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia — a skeptic of Western involvement in the Ukraine war, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban — that “a number of NATO and [European Union] member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis.”
Macron said he would not comment on which countries are considering sending forces to Ukraine, citing “strategic ambiguity.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany struck a different note, however, claiming it had been agreed in Paris “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states.”
Fico said Slovakia would not be sending troops, with his counterpart in the more pro-war Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, also saying his government “certainly doesn’t want to send its soldiers.”
Poland, one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters, also said it does not plan to intervene militarily.
Russia currently has the upper hand on the battlefield, having thwarted a Western-equipped counter-offensive in 2023 and captured the fortress town of Avdeyevka, contested since 2014, in recent days.
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President Emmanuel Macron of France has warned that while there is "no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground" to Ukraine, "nothing can be ruled out.”
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President Volodymyr Zelensky has attacked Senator J.D. Vance, a leading America First voice in Congress, for saying that handing Ukraine $60 billion is unwise, partly because it is “not going to fundamentally change the reality on the battlefield.”
“I’m not sure that he understands what’s going on here, and we don’t need any rhetoric from people who are not deeply in the, you know, in the war,” Zelensky told CNN.
“So, to understand it is to come to the front line, to see what’s going on, to speak with the people, then to go to civilians to understand what will be with them, and then what will be with them without this support [sic],” he continued.
“And then [Senator Vance] will understand that millions [of] people been killed [sic] – will be killed,” he added.
“Of course he [doesn’t understand it], God bless, you don’t have the war on your territory.”
Frontline soldiers leaked to the U.S. press that they had suffered extremely heavy casualties shortly before Russian forces captured Avdiivka, a fortress town contested since the first phase of the war began following the Euromaidan in 2014.
Vance argues another massive transfer of funds to Zelensky cannot reverse these losses or even replenish the Ukrainian military’s acute shortage of munitions, as the U.S. and Europe lack the industrial capacity to produce sufficient stocks. The Ohio senator has also argued that rather than preventing millions of deaths, a continued war between Ukraine and Russia will needlessly cost more lives.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky has attacked Senator J.D. Vance, a leading America First voice in Congress, for saying that handing Ukraine $60 billion is unwise, partly because it is “not going to fundamentally change the reality on the battlefield.”
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Sweden’s move to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) cleared its final obstacle on Monday, with Hungary’s parliament approving the Nordic country’s accession. The historic decision, marking a significant shift in Sweden’s security policy, signals the end of Sweden’s neutrality that spanned two world wars and the Cold War. The approval followed a visit to Hungary by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson last Friday, during which an arms deal was signed between the two nations. Sweden’s NATO membership bid received support from 188 lawmakers in the Hungarian parliament, with 6 votes against and zero abstentions.
Sweden’s decision to abandon its non-alignment policy occurred in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Despite previous opposition from Turkey, changes made by Sweden to its laws and rules over arms sales provided reassurance and led to ratification.
Entering the NATO alliance is anticipated to ease defense planning and cooperation for Sweden, which has gradually increased collaboration with the alliance in recent years and contributed to operations in places such as Afghanistan. Sweden’s entry brings tactical assets into NATO, including advanced submarines tailored for Baltic Sea conditions and a sizable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets.
In a lengthy interview with Tucker Carlson this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized continued NATO expansion as a key cause of ongoing tensions between Moscow and the West.
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Sweden's move to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) cleared its final obstacle on Monday, with Hungary's parliament approving the Nordic country's accession. The historic decision, marking a significant shift in Sweden’s security policy, signals the end of Sweden's neutrality that spanned two world wars and the Cold War. The approval followed a visit to Hungary by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson last Friday, during which an arms deal was signed between the two nations. Sweden's NATO membership bid received support from 188 lawmakers in the Hungarian parliament, with 6 votes against and zero abstentions.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote that the prospect of a second Donald Trump administration was “really scary” shortly before he was transferred to the Arctic penal colony, where he died.
Navalny made the comments in a letter, quoted in part by The New York Times, to photographer Evgeny Feldman. The Russian also suggested “Trump will become President” if Joe Biden’s health deteriorates, fretting: “Doesn’t this obvious thing concern the Democrats?”
It is unclear whether Navalny was under the impression the presidency would fall to Trump if Biden is incapacitated — the role would actually fall to Vice President Kamala Harris — or if he were implying another Democrat would perform better against Trump in the upcoming U.S. elections.
In fact, polling suggests Trump would beat Harris by a wider margin than Biden and other Democrat contenders such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by a wider margin than Harris.
Navalny posed as a gay marriage advocate and opponent of the Ukraine war after the Russian government began opening criminal charges against him, but operated well to the right of Biden, Trump, and even Putin earlier in his career.
He advocated Russian ethno-nationalism and backed Putin’s intervention in Georgia in 2008, describing the Georgian people as “rodents,” and once dressed up as a dentist for a video in which he compared immigrants to rotten teeth.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote that the prospect of a second Donald Trump administration was "really scary" shortly before he was transferred to the Arctic penal colony, where he died.
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