Immigration/foreign aid deal stalled: And it is Ukraine that risks losing.
Ukrainian military officials reported this The New York Times that on the Eastern Front, in places like Avdiivka, “the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian artillery fire is five to one,” which means that Ukrainian soldiers are forced to preserve and endanger their lives when groups smaller Russian forces are approaching. Russia, meanwhile, is supplied by North Korea, Iran and China.
It is an example of how negotiations in the US Congress have a direct impact on the Zelenskyj-Putin conflict in Ukraine. Currently, America provides about half of Ukraine’s total foreign aid, amounting to nearly $50 billion. But now, a deal that would have tightened the U.S.-Mexico border while providing aid to Israel and Ukraine has collapsed in the Senate. For some, the stalled relief package is evidence that America is beginning to quench its thirst for foreign entanglements; for others, it is a grim sign that Ukraine could fall without continued U.S. assistance.
“Ukraine has already found itself in difficulties in terms of weapons,” reports the Times. “In the first days, the military delivered rifles from the back of trucks to anyone who was willing to take them to Kiev, while Russian troops advanced through the city’s suburbs. Eventually, new American weapons arrived, such as the high-speed artillery missile system. high mobility, known as HIMARS and Patriot air defense missiles Now, Ukraine is once again looking for ways to adapt and improvise by expanding domestic weapons production and relying more on drones built from off-the-shelf off-the-shelf parts.
Ukraine has also sabotaged itself through its own internal corruption scandals, including one involving senior defense officials who are alleged to have misappropriated some $40 million intended to buy more weapons.
Milei gets some heat: Yesterday the news arrived that Argentine President Javier Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, presented a bill to Parliament that would ban abortion in the country.
Abortion would be criminalized both for the women who request it and for their doctors, the law on voluntary termination of pregnancy would be repealed, which currently legalizes abortion up to 14 weeks in Argentina (and forces taxpayers to pay for it so that the government can provide it). to anyone who wishes, free of charge).
La Libertad Avanza’s bill asks judges to have a wide margin of discretion in deciding criminal sanctions for abortion seekers. Judges should consider “the reasons that led her to commit the crime, her subsequent attitude and the nature of the crime” and prison sentences should range from one to three years.
More on Milei, for better or worse, from my co-conspirator Zach Weissmueller:
Javier Milei’s swift action to transform Argentina’s faltering economy has prompted the country’s largest union to call tens of thousands of people to protest in Buenos Aires against his libertarian agenda. pic.twitter.com/WJn6ySB4UV
— reason (@reason) January 31, 2024
(And this episode of Just ask questionswith the delicious Marco Falconetouched on attitudes towards abortion in Argentina, as well as Milei’s possible approach.)
Scenes from Berlin:
A Spielplatz (playground) in Berlin reserved only for children aged 6 to 12. No parents allowed, no rules, no children. A perfect free-range/free-play environment (reminds me of The Yard, New York’s only adventure playground, on Governor’s Island). The kids had built a huge bonfire, which is part terrifying and part awesome. I can’t wait to go back and stay again when my son is older.
QUICK SHOTS
- “Those who argue that the tax code should not encourage parenting are treating children as a lifestyle choice or a consumer good, like a Tesla,” writes Tim Carney in The Wall Street Journal. “The tax code should not be pro-Tesla, but it should be pro-humanity, especially in the context of our baby bust.”
- Socialized healthcare is not what people think:
All these stupid Americans who think socialized healthcare is the only metric that matters should go and visit a relative with cancer while he lies dying in an National Health Service hospital in Britain. I did it, man, and it’s not what you think it is. It is not happiness and salvation.
—Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) February 8, 2024
- “Former Barclays Plc CEO Jes Staley has long claimed he ended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein once he became head of the British bank,” reports Bloomberg. “Legal documents seen by Bloomberg News allege that he had indirect contact with the late pedophile financier for years” through an intermediary.
- Sweet Marianne, gone but not forgotten. She will live in our hearts.
- YES:
I wish these people would spend as much time investigating the rampant fraud and corruption of our public employees as they do “exposing” the identity of anonymous fintwit meme accounts https://t.co/8S7X458c6B
—Mike Solana (@micsolana) February 8, 2024
- Very normal and healthy behavior: “Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions of people go to the polls to vote for a new government,” the BBC reports.
- The regulators are coming for your paella. “A Spanish rice variety traditionally used to make paella is under threat from a fungus after the European Union banned a pesticide that growers said they relied on, in another example of how the bloc’s environmental rules are making anger farmers,” Reuters reports.
- Truly:
These ghouls always use the word “resurfaced” as if it were a corpse floating on top of a lake. No. You looked for them, like gravediggers, collecting the bones of the dead. pic.twitter.com/5beftNUUT8
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) February 7, 2024