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Category: Politics

France to deliver ‘light tanks’ to Ukraine

France to deliver ‘light tanks’ to Ukraine

Politico reports: France will deliver “light” battle tanks to Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced Wednesday, which would make it the first country to send such Western-designed armored fighting vehicles to the wartorn country. The Elysée said after a phone call between Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that France will send AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles, which Paris has been gradually replacing with new Jaguar battle tanks. Several countries have already sent Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine. Both France…

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Ukraine says Russia plans new mobilisation to ‘turn tide of war’

Ukraine says Russia plans new mobilisation to ‘turn tide of war’

Reuters reports: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was planning to call up more troops for a major new offensive, even as Moscow was facing some of its biggest internal criticism of the war over a strike that killed scores of fresh conscripts. Kyiv has been saying for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to order another mass conscription drive and shut his borders to prevent men from escaping the draft. “We have no doubt that the current masters…

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A single Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more than a dozen U.S. companies

A single Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more than a dozen U.S. companies

CNN reports: Parts made by more than a dozen US and Western companies were found inside a single Iranian drone downed in Ukraine last fall, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment obtained exclusively by CNN. The assessment, which was shared with US government officials late last year, illustrates the extent of the problem facing the Biden administration, which has vowed to shut down Iran’s production of drones that Russia is launching by the hundreds into Ukraine. CNN reported last month…

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John Kerry: Rich countries must respond to developing world anger over climate

John Kerry: Rich countries must respond to developing world anger over climate

The Guardian reports: People in developing countries are feeling increasingly angry and “victimised” by the climate crisis, the US climate envoy John Kerry has warned, and rich countries must respond urgently. “I’ve been chronicling the increased frustration and anger of island states and vulnerable countries and small African nations and others around the world that feel victimised by the fact that they are a minuscule component of emissions,” he said. “And yet [they are] paying a very high price. Seventeen…

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Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine

Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine

Reuters reports: In a square beneath the twin spires of Cologne’s gothic cathedral, around 2,000 protesters gathered in September to urge Germany’s government to break with the Western coalition backing Ukraine and make peace with Russia. “We must stop being vassals of the Americans,” right-wing German politician Markus Beisicht said from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck. The crowd clapped and waved Russian and German flags. A lean man in camouflage trousers stood at the side of…

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Defending against Russian drones is expensive, but Ukraine sees the cost as worth it

Defending against Russian drones is expensive, but Ukraine sees the cost as worth it

The New York Times reports: They are lumbering and noisy and relatively easy to shoot from the sky. Over the New Year’s weekend, the Ukrainian military said it downed every single one of the 80-odd exploding drones that Russia sent the country’s way. “Such results have never been achieved before,” a Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said on Tuesday. But beneath that result lies a question: How long can Ukraine sustain its effort when many of its defensive measures cost far…

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The right has already won the House speakership election

The right has already won the House speakership election

Ronald Brownstein writes: No matter how they resolve Tuesday’s vote choosing the next speaker of the House, Republicans appear poised to double down on the hard-edged politics that most swing state voters rejected in last November’s midterm election. Stubborn conservative resistance to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has put the party at risk of precipitating the first speakership election that extends to more than a single ballot since 1923 – and only the second since the Civil War. But even…

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China is flying blind as pandemic rages

China is flying blind as pandemic rages

Science reports: Most scientists believe China’s decision to end its zero-COVID policy was long overdue. But now they have a new worry: that the country is collecting and sharing far too little data about the rough transition to a new coexistence with the virus. China abruptly dropped virtually all controls a month ago, after protests, a sagging economy, and the extreme transmissibility of the virus’ latest variants made clinging to zero COVID untenable. Now, “SARS-CoV-2 has an open goal in…

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Oil, gas exploration and deforestation threaten Africa’s great carbon sink

Oil, gas exploration and deforestation threaten Africa’s great carbon sink

Olivia Rosane writes: In the center of the African continent, an immense and vital forest currently thrives. As the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, the Congo Basin covers six countries and around 500 million acres–an area one-fourth the size of the contiguous U.S. It is a haven for both human and natural diversity, hosting more than 150 different ethnic groups and one-fifth of all Earth’s species. It directly supports the livelihoods of the 60 million people who live in or near…

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Israel-Palestine and Daniel Barenboim’s musical bridges

Israel-Palestine and Daniel Barenboim’s musical bridges

Avi Shlaim writes: In his long and illustrious career, Daniel Barenboim has achieved the rare distinction of staying at the top of his field both as a pianist and as a conductor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of the past half-century. But he is also one of the world’s great public figures, with unique contributions to the advancement of musical education and to exploring pathways to peace in one of the most bitter and intractable…

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Ukraine strikes Russian forces in Donbas in deadliest attack in months

Ukraine strikes Russian forces in Donbas in deadliest attack in months

The Wall Street Journal reports: A Ukrainian strike killed dozens of newly mobilized soldiers in Russian-held territory in the east of the country in the single-deadliest known strike in months, piling pressure on Moscow’s military leadership, while Ukraine said it shot down at least 39 drones during another wave of attacks on Kyiv. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Ukrainian forces used a U.S.-supplied Himars rocket system to destroy a facility used as a base for mobilized troops in the…

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Brazil will revive fraud case against George Santos for using stolen checkbook and false name

Brazil will revive fraud case against George Santos for using stolen checkbook and false name

The New York Times reports: When Representative-elect George Santos takes his seat in Congress on Tuesday, he will do so under the shadow of active investigations by federal and local prosecutors into potential criminal activity during his two congressional campaigns. But an older criminal case may be more pressing: Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive fraud charges against Mr. Santos, and will seek his formal response, prosecutors told The New York Times on Monday. The matter, which stemmed from…

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Inside the Jan. 6 committee’s massive new evidence trove

Inside the Jan. 6 committee’s massive new evidence trove

Politico reports: The Jan. 6 select committee has unloaded a vast database of its underlying evidence — emails between Trump attorneys, text messages among horrified White House aides and outside advisers, internal communications among security and intelligence officials — all coming to grips with then-President Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election and its disastrous consequences. The panel posted thousands of pages of evidence late Sunday in a public database that provide the clearest glimpse yet at the…

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The wreckage of Brexit is all around us. How long can our politicians indulge in denial?

The wreckage of Brexit is all around us. How long can our politicians indulge in denial?

John Harris writes: This year will mark the 50th anniversary of a musical masterpiece that continues to speak illuminating truths about the impossibility of the human condition, and how people from these islands tend to cope with it. Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon was released in March 1973, as the last traces of postwar optimism gave way to mounting economic strife and international tension. The response it offered was twofold: a call to empathy and mutual understanding, and…

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‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

Boris Dralyuk, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, interviewed by Klaus Stimeder: Mr. Dralyuk, we are going into the tenth month of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine. What is your take on the situation? I am no military strategist, but my sense is that the Russian Army’s chances of defeating the Ukrainian Army on the battlefield are nil. Thanks to its allies, the Ukrainian Army is better trained, more experienced, and far better supplied. Also, we must remember…

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