Today’s News? – Page 41 – The Tarbabys Blog

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns of an ‘artificial deficit’ of weapons after withdrawal from Avdiivka

Associated Press

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns of an ‘artificial deficit’ of weapons after withdrawal from Avdiivka

Geir Moulson and Kerstin Sopke – February 17, 2024

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech at the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024. The 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC) is taking place from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pose at the end of a joint press conference at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Tobias Schwarz/Pool via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, right, meet for talks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Tobias Schwarz/Pool via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris hold a joint press conference at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Tobias Schwarz/Pool via AP)

MUNICH (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned allies Saturday that an “artificial deficit” of arms for his country risks giving Russia breathing space, highlighting the need for artillery and long-range weapons after his military chief said he was withdrawing troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Zelenskyy spoke to the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of security and foreign policy officials. Ukraine is back on the defensive against Russia in the nearly 2-year-old war, hindered by low ammunition supplies and a shortage of personnel.

“Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat,” he said. “We can get our land back, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin can lose, and this has already happened more than once on the battlefield.”

“Our actions are limited only by … our strength,” he added, pointing to the situation in Avdiivka. Ukrainian commander Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said early Saturday that he was withdrawing troops from the city, where outnumbered Ukrainian defenders battled a Russian assault for four months, to avoid encirclement and save soldiers’ lives.

Russia said later its forces took complete control Saturday of the city in eastern Ukraine.

“Dear friends, unfortunately keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war,” Zelenskyy said. “The self-weakening of democracy over time undermines our joint results.”

The president said that the troop withdrawal was “a correct decision” and emphasized the priority of saving soldiers. He suggested that Russia has achieved little, adding that it has been attacking Avdiivka “with all the power that they had” since October and lost thousands of soldiers — “that’s what Russia has achieved. It’s a depletion of their army.”

“We’re just waiting for weapons that we’re short of,” he added, pointing to a lack of long-range weapons. “That’s why our weapon today is our soldiers, our people.”

Speaking alongside European and other officials later Saturday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that “all of us need much, much more artillery ammunition” and stressed that production must be ramped up. He said that “drones became a real part of the game; they will solve some problems, but they will not replace artillery ammunition.”

Zelenskyy on Friday went to Berlin and Paris, where he signed long-term bilateral security agreements with Germany and France, following a similar agreement with Britain last month.

Ukraine’s European allies are appealing to the U.S. Congress to approve a package that includes aid for Ukraine — $60 billion that would go largely to U.S. defense entities to manufacture missiles, munitions and other military hardware for the battlefields in Ukraine. The package faces resistance from House Republicans.

Asked whether it would be a good idea to invite former U.S. president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump to Kyiv, Zelenskyy replied: “I invited him publicly, but it depends on his wishes.”

“If … he will come, I’m ready even to go with him to the front line,” he added.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said after meeting Zelenskyy later Saturday in Munich that “it is in the strategic interest of the United States to continue our support.”

“History shows us: If we allow an aggressor like Putin to take land with impunity, they keep going. The other would-be aggressors then become emboldened,” Harris said. She added that “we must be unwavering and we cannot play political games.”

Standing next to Harris, Zelenskyy told reporters that the aid package stuck in Congress “is vital.” It would provide a step forward for Ukraine, and “moving forward is much, much better than stagnation on the battlefield,” he said, stressing that Kyiv is counting on the U.S. to remain a “strategic partner.”

Also at the conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Congress’ delay has meant the flow of U.S. weapons and ammunition dropped, with a direct impact on the front line.

“Every week we wait means that there will be more people killed on the front line in Ukraine,” he said.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, whose country directly borders Russia, pointed to the history of the 1930s.

“If America isolates itself, it eventually is going to cost you more,” she said, warning that if “aggression pays off somewhere, it serves as an invitation to use it elsewhere, jeopardizing global security.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country is Ukraine’s second-biggest military supplier after the U.S., renewed his call for other European countries to step up with more deliveries, and pointed to America’s military aid since the war began.

“A comparable effort must be the least that every European country also does,” he said.

Moulson reported from Berlin.

Taliban decrees on clothing and male guardians leave Afghan women scared to go out alone, says UN

Associated Press

Taliban decrees on clothing and male guardians leave Afghan women scared to go out alone, says UN

Associated Press – February 17, 2024

FILE – Afghan women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 23, 2023. Afghan women feel scared or unsafe leaving their home alone because of Taliban decrees and enforcement campaigns on clothing and male guardians, according to a report from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan women feel scared or unsafe leaving their homes alone because of Taliban decrees and enforcement campaigns on clothing and male guardians, according to a report from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

The report, issued Friday, comes days before a U.N-convened meeting in the Qatari capital is set to start, with member states and special envoys to Afghanistan due to discuss engagement with the Taliban and the country’s crises, including the human rights situation.

The Taliban — which took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of U.S. and NATO withdrawal from the country — have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed despite initial promises of a more moderate rule.

They are also restricting women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, and arresting those who don’t comply with the Taliban’s interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf.

The U.N. mission’s report, published Friday, said the decrees are being enforced through arrest, harassment and intimidation. Women said they increasingly fear going to public spaces owing to the threat of arrest and the “long-lasting stigma and shame” associated with being taken into police custody.

Over half of the women interviewed for the report felt unsafe leaving the house without a male guardian, or mahram. Risks to their security and their anxiety levels worsened whenever a new decree was announced specifically targeting them, the report said.

Women who went out with a mahram felt safer but noted the stress from depending on another person to accompany them. Some said their male guardians chided them for “wasting time” if they wanted to visit certain shops or stray from a route limited to performing basic necessary tasks.

This undercut chances to “enjoy even micro-moments of stimulation or leisure” outside the home, said the report.

Some women said that male relatives were also afraid and reluctant to leave the home with female relatives, as this would expose them to Taliban harassment.

A spokesman from the Vice and Virtue Ministry, the Taliban’s morality police that enforces such decrees, said it was “nonsense and untrue” that women are scared to go to the shops.

“There is no problem for those sisters (women) who have observed hijab,” said Abdul Ghafar Farooq. “As women are naturally weaker than men, then Shariah (Islamic law) has called mahrams essential when traveling with them for the sake of their dignity and respect.”

He said harassing women was against the law.

Heather Barr, from Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press that Afghan women’s fear of leaving home unaccompanied was “damning and devastating” but not surprising.

It seemed to be a specific goal of the Taliban to frighten women and girls out of leaving their homes, Barr said.

“This begs the question of what on earth this discussion is in Doha, with the U.N. hosting special envoys,” she said. “We need to be asking why the focus of this meeting and every meeting isn’t about this crisis that is unprecedented for women around the world.”

The Taliban are not attending the Doha meeting, their chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a voice note to the AP on Saturday night.

A Foreign Ministry statement said participation would only be beneficial if the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call their administration, are the sole and official representative for the country at the talks.

The U.N. envoy for Afghanistan last year warned the Taliban that international recognition as the country’s legitimate government will remain “nearly impossible” unless they lift the restrictions on women.

Tucker Carlson Condemns Alexei Navalny’s Death As “Barbaric” Days After Trumpeting Vladimir Putin’s Russia

Deadline

Tucker Carlson Condemns Alexei Navalny’s Death As “Barbaric” Days After Trumpeting Vladimir Putin’s Russia

Ted Johnson – February 16, 2024

The news of the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny very quickly put a focus on Tucker Carlson, the right-wing talk host who recently trekked to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin.

Carlson told the Daily Mail today that “it’s horrifying what happened to Navalny. The whole thing is barbaric and awful. No decent person would defend it.”

In the wake of reports of Navalny’s death, Carlson faced another round of backlash after interviewing Putin last week and for subsequent social media posts. In them, Carlson trumpeted a Moscow subway station and a grocery store.

Former congresswoman Liz Cheney wrote on X/Twitter earlier today, “This is what Putin’s Russia is, Tucker Carlson. And you are Putin’s useful idiot. Same with you J.D. Vance and other Putin-wing Republicans who are working to defeat Ukraine in its struggle for freedom.”

Carlson posted his interview with Putin on X/Twitter on Feb. 8, and in X/Twitter videos, he talked of the virtues of Moscow’s subway station and a supermarket, where he pointed out lower prices than in the United States. He said, “If you take people’s standard of living and you tank it, through filth and crime and inflation, you literally can’t buy the groceries you want, maybe it matters less what you say, whether you are a good person or a bad person, you are wrecking people’s lives and their country, and that is what are leaders have done to us. And coming to a Russian grocery store — the heart of evil — and seeing what things cost now, people live, it will radicalize you against our leaders. That’s how I feel anyway.”

At the World Governments Summit this week, Carlson was asked why he didn’t talk about Navalny, about freedom of speech, about assassinations or about restrictions on opposition in the upcoming election.

“I didn’t talk about the things that every media outlet talks about because those are covered, and I have spent my life talking to people who run countries, in various countries, and have concluded the following: That every leader kills people, including my leader. Leadership requires killing people,” Carlson said. “That is why I wouldn’t want to be a leader. That press restriction is universal in the United States. I know because I have lived it…. There is more censorship in Russia that there is in the United States, but there is a great deal in the United States.”

Those comments drew some comparisons to Donald Trump’s interview with then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in 2017. Less than a month after taking office, Trump was asked about Putin and O’Reilly noted, “He’s a killer.”

Trump responded, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”

During comments on reports of Navalny’s death, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass a $95 billion aid package that includes a new infusion of money to help Ukraine in its war with Russia. Biden also blasted Trump’s recent comment encouraging Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t pay their due. Trump’s comments reflect a strain in the Republican party that admires Putin and his posturing, a reversal of Reagan-era conservatism.

Stuart Stevens, who was lead strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, wrote, “The world will be pointing to the murder of Navalny and trying to shame Trump’s party for supporting Putin. It won’t work. Trump wants Putin’s power. He is in court demanding immunity to murder opponents. Violence is at the core of Trumpism. As Tucker Carlson makes clear, Trump supporters look at Russia and ask, ‘Why can’t America be Russia?’ They hate the America we love. They must be defeated.”

Putin critic Alexei Navalny, 47, dies in Arctic Circle jail

BBC News

Putin critic Alexei Navalny, 47, dies in Arctic Circle jail

Paul Kirby – BBC News – February 16, 2024

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny addresses supporters during an unauthorized anti-Putin rally on May 5, 2018 — Alexei Navalny was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader of recent times

Russia’s most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the prison service has said.

President Vladimir Putin‘s most vociferous critic, he was serving 19 years on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated.

Navalny was moved to one of Russia’s toughest penal colonies late last year.

His wife Yulia has appealed to the international community “to help punish this regime”.

The prison service in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets district where Navalny was being held said he had “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday.

He had “almost immediately lost consciousness”, it said in a statement, adding that an emergency medical team had immediately been called and tried to resuscitate him but without success.

“The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established.”

Navalny, 47, was last seen only one day before his death, looking well and laughing during a court hearing via video link.

Yulia Navalnaya took to the stage at the Munich Security conference on the verge of tears, with a warning that the news had only come from unreliable state sources.

“But if it’s true, I know Putin, all his allies, all his friends, all his government know they will be held responsible for what they’ve done… and this day will come sooner than you think.”

His mother Lyudmila Navalnaya was quoted as saying: “I don’t want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the 12th [February], in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy.”

Navalny’s close aide Leonid Volkov cautioned that there was no way to confirm what had happened but said the prison authorities’ statement amounted to a confession that they had killed him.

Alexei Navalny was seen on Thursday during a court hearing via video link

There was minimal coverage on Russia’s state TV channels, although one report by RT suggested Navalny had suffered a blood clot. But that was ridiculed by Moscow specialist Alexander Polupan, who treated Navalny in the past, who said that kind of diagnosis could only be made from a post-mortem examination.

Within minutes of Navalny’s death being announced by the prison service, the international community hailed the courage of Vladimir Putin’s biggest domestic adversary.

France said he had paid with his life for resisting Russian “oppression”, while Norway’s foreign minister said Russian authorities bore a great responsibility for his death.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Munich that if the reports were accurate “his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built”, adding that “Russia is responsible for this”.

Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said merely that Navalny’s death had been “reported to the president”, who was on a visit to the city of Chelyabinsk. “Medics must somehow figure this out,” Mr Peskov said.

UK Foreign Minister David Cameron said “no-one should be in any doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin’s regime in Russia after what has just happened”.

Most of the Russian president’s critics have fled Russia, but Alexei Navalny returned in January 2021, after months of medical treatment. In August 2020 he was poisoned at the end of a trip to Siberia with a Novichok nerve agent.

His team succeeded in flying him out to Germany for specialist treatment and on his return to Moscow he was immediately taken into custody. He had been accompanied on the flight from Germany by his wife Yulia Navalnaya, embracing her at passport control before being led away.

He would never leave jail again in the next 37 months.

Law enforcement officers speaking with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny before leading him away at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2021 — Yulia Navalnaya last saw her husband at liberty at Moscow airport in January 2021

His last Instagram post to his wife two days ago said there were thousands of kilometres between them “but I feel that you are near every second”. He leaves two children, Dasha, who is studying in the US and Zakhar, who is still at school.

Navalny, who was 47, had long sought to challenge Vladimir Putin at the ballot box, but he was barred from running in the 2018 presidential election. Next month, Russia’s leader will stand unchallenged by any meaningful opposition.

Anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin was banned from standing in the election because of supposed irregularities found in the thousands of signatures submitted in support of his candidacy.

Navalny, whose opposition began in the form of an anti-corruption campaign, is the latest in a string of prominent Russian figures who have died while challenging Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a Moscow bridge a stone’s throw from the Kremlin in 2015, and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in August 2023 in an unexplained plane crash weeks after leading his mercenaries in an armed mutiny.The British Broadcasting Corporation

Yet Navalny repeatedly laughed off his friends’ concerns for his health. He was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow in December and was not seen for weeks until he reappeared in a penal colony in the Arctic town of Kharp.

Navalny said he had been taken on a 20-day trip around Russia, telling reporters during a court appearance by video that his conditions were “much better” than in his previous penal colony in Vladimir.

However, he was repeatedly punished by his prisons with solitary confinement. His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said last month he had spent more than 280 days in isolation.

Navalny had not been due to leave prison until his 70s, because of his most recent conviction for extremism last August. It was his third jail sentence and supporters accused the Kremlin of trying to silence him for good.

Russian human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva said on Friday that he had been placed in solitary confinement at least 27 times, saying it “could not but play a role” in his death.

In such extreme conditions doctors knew that such punishment was very harmful to the human body, so under the law no-one could be given more than 15 days in isolation, she said.

Who was Alexei Navalny? Fierce Putin critic reportedly found dead in arctic jail

Yahoo! News

Who was Alexei Navalny? Fierce Putin critic reportedly found dead in arctic jail

President Biden says the Russian president “is responsible Navalny’s death.”

Dylan Stableford, Senior Writer – February 16, 2024

Alexei Navalny, the 47-year-old jailed opposition leader and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, is dead, Russian prison officials announced Friday.

Navalny, who survived an assassination attempt with a nerve agent in 2020, had been imprisoned since returning to Russia in 2021. He was being held in a Russian jail about 40 miles north of the arctic circle.

🔊 How was his death announced?

A view of the entrance of the Arctic penal colony where Navalny had been jailed. — A view of the entrance of the Arctic penal colony in Kharp, Russia, where Navalny had been jailed. (AP Photo, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny lost consciousness and died after taking a walk and could not be resuscitated.

“The facility’s medical staff immediately arrived and an ambulance brigade was called,” the statement said. “All necessary resuscitation measures were taken, which did not lead to positive results. The ambulance doctors confirmed the death of the convict.”

🔎 Who was Alexei Navalny?

Navalny was born on June 4, 1976, near Moscow.

A former lawyer, he rose to prominence in the early 2000s and 2010s for leading nationalist marches and exposing what he called corruption among the Russian elite, describing Kremlin leaders as “crooks and thieves.”

As Reuters put it, Navalny “exposed some of the opulence of the lifestyles of senior officials, using the internet and even drones to illustrate what he described as their vast holdings and luxury property.”

Among them: a palace built on the Black Sea for Putin’s personal use; mansions and yachts used by ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; and “a sex worker who linked a top foreign policy official with a well-known oligarch,” per the Guardian.

🇷🇺 A thorn in Putin’s side

Alexei Navalny and Yulia Navalnaya. — Alexei Navalny, with his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, leads a protest in Moscow in 2013. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Navalny had long been considered Putin’s top political foe. He led protests in Russia against election fraud and government corruption and was arrested and jailed for 15 days in late 2011 for “defying a government official” amid demonstrations against Russia’s parliamentary election.

In 2020, Navalny fell into a coma after a suspected poisoning while on a flight and was evacuated to Germany for treatment. He recovered and in 2021 returned to Russia, where he was promptly arrested on a parole violation charge and sentenced to his first of several jail terms totaling more than 30 years.

🗓️ Navalny’s final days

In December 2023, Navalny was quietly moved from a prison east of Moscow to a penal colony, nicknamed “Polar Wolf,” in the town of Kharp, some 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow.

The day after Christmas, he posted a string of messages on X joking that he was the “new Santa Claus” and telling his supporters, “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

📢 An activist until the end

Navalny recently urged Russians to protest against Putin by turning out to vote at noon on election day next month.

“This can be a powerful demonstration of the mood of the country,” Navalny wrote on his Telegram channel, according to Reuters. “This will be a nationwide protest against Putin that takes place near your home. It’s available to everyone, everywhere. Millions will be able to take part. And tens of millions will witness it.”

Putin, the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, is running for a fifth term in office.

Navalny’s last public appearance was Thursday, when he appeared, via video link, to be in good spirits while laughing and cracking jokes during a court hearing.

↘️ Who is Navalny’s wife?

Yulia Navalnaya, also 47, is a former economist, banker and prominent public figure in Russia, where she is often described as the “first lady” of Putin’s opposition. She and Navalny met in the summer of 1998 in Turkey and were married two years later. They have two children.

On Friday, Navalnaya learned of Navalny’s death Friday in Munich, while attending the Munich Security Conference.

“I don’t know if we should believe the terrible news,” Navalnaya said. “But if it’s true, I want Putin, his entourage, Putin’s friends and his government to know they will be held responsible for what they have done to our country, my family, and my husband. And that day will come very soon.”

The Biden administration’s reaction to Navalny’s death

https://s.yimg.com/rx/ev/builds/1.2.36/pframe.html Biden on reports of Navalny's death: 'More proof of Putin's brutality' Scroll back up to restore default view.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who are also in Munich, responded to the reports of Navalny’s death Friday.

Harris said the administration was working to confirm his death.

“If confirmed, this would be a further sign of Putin’s brutality,” Harris said. “Whatever story they tell, let us be clear, Russia is responsible.”

“If these reports are accurate, our hearts go out to his wife and to his family,” Blinken said. “Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House early Friday afternoon, President Biden praised Navalny for his bravery — and put the blame for his death squarely on Putin.

“Make no mistake,” Biden said. “Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”

Harris says reports of Navalny’s death are another sign of Putin’s brutality

CNN

Harris says reports of Navalny’s death are another sign of Putin’s brutality

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN – February 16, 2024

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called reports Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in a Russian prison “terrible news,” and that “Russia is responsible.”

“We’ve all just received reports that Alexey Navalny has died in Russia. This is, of course, terrible news, which we are working to confirm,” Harris said as she began her remarks.

She added, “If confirmed this, would be a further sign of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutality. Whatever story they tell, let us be clear: Russia is responsible.”

The Russian prison service said Friday morning that Navalny died. He had been serving multiple lengthy prison sentences for crimes that he had denied. He faced those charges after returning to Russia following treatment in Germany after being poisoned in August 2020. Navalny returned to Russia after that treatment concluded in 2021, and he was quickly arrested.

Navalny had long been a point of contention between the US and Russia. President Joe Biden previously told reporters in 2021 that he warned Putin that the consequences would be “devastating for Russia,” if Navalny died in prison.

Harris had been facing the fraught task of reassuring US allies on the world stage, as lawmakers struggle to pass aid for Ukraine and Israel and former President Donald Trump threatens to abandon NATO allies.

It was another high-profile moment for Harris to address the Munich Security Conference Friday amid a consequential moment in US foreign policy, as ongoing conflicts overseas have roiled domestic politics. It came at a delicate time for the White House, which continues to grapple with the fallout of the special counsel report that called into question President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and has placed renewed focus on the vice president.

But it suddenly became an opportunity for Harris to be the most prominent American voice to offer a reaction to the reports of Navalny’s death.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on NPR earlier Friday that the US was working to confirm Navalny’s death.

“If it’s confirmed, it is a terrible tragedy, and given the Russian government’s long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents, it raises real and obvious questions about what happened here,” Sullivan said.

The administration had repeatedly called for Navalny’s immediate release, and CNN has reported Biden called for Navalny’s release in his first phone call with Putin after taking office in 2021.

After her opening comment on Navalny, Harris transitioned into her prepared remarks that were meant to reassure American allies over the future of US foreign policy.

Chief among the worries from the US’ top allies is Trump’s statement last weekend that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense.

After the Biden administration helped strengthen the bonds of the NATO alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s statement is sparking real concern that he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of the alliance if reelected.

During her speech, Harris launched a veiled attack against Trump, describing his foreign policy approach as “dangerous” and issuing a stark warning if the US cedes ground to Russia.

“They suggest it’s in the best interest of the American people to isolate ourselves from the world, to flout common understandings among nations, to embrace dictators, and adopt the repressive tactics and abandon commitments to our allies in favor of unilateral action,” Harris said.

“Let me be clear – that worldview is dangerous, destabilizing and indeed shortsighted,” she said.

Trump had drawn immediate consternation last weekend for saying he would encourage Russia to invade countries who don’t meet their NATO obligations. The comment concerned not only the American foreign policy establishment but from American NATO allies, who have watched warily as Russia proceeds with its invasion of Ukraine. The former president on Wednesday said he wouldn’t defend NATO nations who don’t spend enough on defense but did not repeat his comment about encouraging Russia to do whatever they wante

“I’ve been saying look, if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect, OK. And Biden said, ‘Oh this is so bad, this is so terrible that he would say that.’ No, if they’re not paying their bills, and most of them weren’t when I got there,” Trump said at a campaign event in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Harris maintained Friday that US commitment to NATO remains “ironclad” in the wake of Trump’s comments.

It’s a similar message to the one that has been promoted by her boss this week. Biden took direct aim at his predecessor on Tuesday, pointedly accusing Trump of “bowing down” to Putin in some of his harshest criticism of his likely rival on foreign policy to date.

Trump, Biden claimed, sent a “dangerous and shocking” signal with his comments, delivered during a weekend campaign rally.

Concern is also rising over the ability of Washington to send more aid to Ukraine. For months, the White House’s national security supplemental request that includes billions in funding for Ukraine and Israel, among other priorities, has remained stalled in Congress over GOP infighting.

The White House has repeatedly stressed the need to deliver additional funds to Ukraine, framing it as a matter of national security. Harris will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.

Harris called Putin’s war in Ukraine an “utter failure” and stressed the consequences of ceding any ground to Russia, reaffirming US support for Ukraine.

“Imagine if America turned our back on Ukraine and abandoned our NATO allies and abandoned our treaty commitments. Imagine if we went easy on Putin. Let alone encouraged him,” Harris said.

“History offers a clue. If we stand by while an aggressor invades its neighbor with impunity, they will keep going. In the case of Putin, that means all of Europe would be threatened. If we fail to impose severe consequences on Russia, other authoritarians across the globe would be emboldened,” Harris said.

This story has been updated with additional developments on Friday.

Biden says ‘no nuclear threat’ to U.S. as Russia considers potential space weapon

NBC News

Biden says ‘no nuclear threat’ to U.S. as Russia considers potential space weapon

Rebecca Shabad, Courtney Kube, Dan De Luce, Alexander Smith and Tara Prindiville – February 16, 2024

Biden discusses threat posed by Russian weapon targeting satellites

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden sought to reassure the American public Friday that there’s “no nuclear threat” to the U.S. even as Russia considers using an anti-satellite capability that officials say would be used in space.

“First of all, there is no nuclear threat to the people of America or anywhere else in the world with what Russia is doing at the moment, No. 1,” Biden said in remarks from the White House when asked if he was concerned about Russia’s potential anti-satellite capability.

“No. 2, anything they’re doing or they will do relates to satellites in space and damaging those satellites potentially,” he added. “No. 3, there’s no evidence they’ve made a decision to go forward with anything in space either.”

The question came after Biden spoke about the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for Navalny’s death in a Siberian prison Friday.

President Joe Biden at the White House on Feb. 16, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, briefed top House leaders behind closed doors Thursday on Capitol Hill about the Russian threat. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also confirmed Thursday at the White House briefing that the threat is “related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing.”

“First, this is not an active capability that’s been deployed, and though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety,” Kirby told reporters. “We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth. That said, we’ve been closely monitoring this Russian activity and we will continue to take it very seriously.”

In response, Biden has directed a series of actions, Kirby said, including additional briefings to members of Congress and direct diplomatic engagement with Russia as well as with U.S. allies and other countries.

A U.S. official and congressional official familiar with the intelligence told NBC News on Thursday that the threat is a Russian nuclear-powered space asset that could be weaponized rather than a nuclear bomb that Russia is trying to send into space. Russia is making headway, although it has not fielded the capability, officials said.

NBC News has reported that arms experts believe the threat is likely a nuclear-powered satellite that might be able to carry a high-powered jammer that could block satellite communications for long periods, according to a 2019 essay in The Space Review, an online publication, that was widely shared among experts following this week’s news.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov characterized the U.S. information as a “malicious fabrication,” according to Russian state-run news agency Tass.

Information about the threat surfaced after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, released a cryptic statement Wednesday that called on the White House to declassify information about an unnamed “serious national security threat.”

Sullivan later said he had already planned on briefing top leaders in the House on Thursday.

The Trauma of the Trump Years Is Being Rewritten

The New York Times – Opinion

The Trauma of the Trump Years Is Being Rewritten

By Charles M. Blow – February 14, 2024

Donald Trump with his face partially obscured in a blur of colored light. — Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Americans rehabilitate ex-presidents all the time.

It was fascinating to see the rebranding of George W. Bush — the man who took us into the disastrous Iraq war and horribly bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina — into a charming amateur artist who played buddies with and passed candy to Michelle Obama.

And it didn’t just happen for him. The Monica Lewinsky scandal faded in our consideration of Bill Clinton. Barack Obama’s reliance on drone strikes and his moniker “deporter in chief” rarely receive mention now.

This is because our political memories aren’t fixed, but are constantly being adjusted. Politicians’ negatives are often diminished and their positives inflated. As Gallup noted in 2013, “Americans tend to be more charitable in their evaluations of past presidents than they are when the presidents are in office.”

Without a doubt, Donald Trump benefits from this phenomenon. The difference is that other presidents’ shortcomings pale in comparison with his and his benefit isn’t passive: He’s seeking the office again and, as part of that, working to rewrite the history of his presidency. His desperate attempts, first to cling to power, then to regain it, include denying the 2020 election result and embracing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that his denials helped fuel.

His revisionism has worked remarkably well, particularly among Republicans. A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll conducted in December found that Republicans “are now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were ‘mostly violent,’ less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack and are slightly less likely to view Joe Biden’s election as legitimate” than they were in 2021.

This is one of the truly remarkable aspects of the current presidential cycle: the degree to which our collective memory of Trump’s litany of transgressions has become less of a political problem for him than might otherwise be expected. Even the multiple legal charges he now faces are almost all about things that happened years ago and, to many citizens, involve things that the country should put in the rearview mirror.

Indeed, in the same poll, 43 percent of Americans and 80 percent of 2020 Trump voters said they believed that the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol was an event that the country needed to move on from.

Many Americans experienced the Trump years as traumatic, and one of the most bewildering aspects of this year’s presidential race is the way that so many other Americans are disregarding or downgrading that trauma.

In 2021 a study was published about how we remember political events, specifically examining recollections about two watershed moments, one being Trump’s election in 2016. The study’s lead author, Linda J. Levine, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, wrote, “People exaggerated when remembering how angry they had felt about the political events but underestimated their feelings of happiness and fear.”

This is part of what she describes as “memory reconstruction,” the updating of our memories of the past to reflect our current feelings and beliefs. And what it says to me is that many of us have a clearer recollection of our indignation from 2016 but have developed a hazier recollection of the sense of foreboding that hung in the air during the years that followed.

I’m not sure that people — not just Republicans — are fully remembering what it felt like, just a few years ago, to wake up every morning having to brace themselves before checking the news because they didn’t know what fresh outrage awaited them.

I’m not sure that people are fully remembering the constant chaos or the disorienting feeling of the stream of lies flowing from the Trump White House.

I’m not sure that people are remembering the family separation policy, the “very fine people” refrain or the tossing of rolls of paper towels in Puerto Rico after a hurricane ravaged the island.

Too many people have settled into a hagiographic view of Trump’s presidency, even though you can make a solid case that today’s economy is stronger than the one Trump left behind and that Trump did — and still does — gush over the world’s dictators and agitate America’s allies.

D. Stephen Voss, a political scientist at the University of Kentucky, told me this week that “voters are usually only responding to fairly recent memories and fairly recent messaging.” As he put it, “Candidates can fairly easily put their past behind them.”

This electoral quirk is an outgrowth of human nature. Staying in moments of apprehension is so emotionally expensive and consumes so much energy that we often allow ourselves to grow numb to them or diminish them.

But the threat that Trump poses to our country hasn’t diminished. It has increased. He keeps saying things — he won’t be a dictator “except for Day 1” — that demonstrate he is not only a danger to the country but also to the world order.

And in the end, that is the most important issue in this election, not Biden’s memory or disagreements over his foreign policy or migrants at the border or economic anxiety. You can’t make the country better without saving it first.

Those fighting to save our democracy can never lose sight of that, particularly since many of those supporting Trump now see his multifarious sins through rose-tinted glasses.

Charles M. Blow is an Opinion columnist for The New York Times, writing about national politics, public opinion and social justice, with a focus on racial equality and L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

US has new intelligence on Russian nuclear capabilities in space

CNN

US has new intelligence on Russian nuclear capabilities in space

Katie Bo Lillis, Alex Marquardt, Jim Sciutto, Oren Liebermann, Natasha Bertrand, Melanie Zanona and Kevin Liptak – February 14, 2024

The US has new intelligence on Russian military capabilities related to its efforts to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence.

The intelligence was briefed to Congress and key US allies, and some lawmakers say it is serious enough that it should be declassified and made public. While the intelligence is concerning, multiple senior members of Congress briefed on the information on Wednesday emphasized that it does not pose an immediate threat to the US or its interests.

The system remains under development and is not yet in orbit, according to three US officials familiar with the intelligence. It’s not clear how far the technology has progressed, one of the officials said. A separate US official told CNN the threat does not involve a weapon that would be used to attack humans.

It was not immediately clear whether the intelligence referred to a nuclear-powered, anti-satellite capability or a nuclear-armed capability.

While members of Congress downplayed the immediacy of the threat, an anti-satellite weapon placed in orbit around Earth would pose a significant danger to US nuclear command and control satellites, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. The US relies on such satellites – which he called “essential” – to ensure constant, seamless control over its nuclear arsenal.

Other countries have tested anti-satellite weapons in the past, but this would be an escalation, Kristensen said, and the US has made clear that it would react “very forcefully” to an attack on its nuclear command and control satellites.

“If it’s orbital, it’s a new level of threat [to the system], whether it’s nuclear or not,” said Kristensen, who added that even conventional weapons on an orbital anti-satellite system could pose a significant threat to the US.

ABC News first reported that the intelligence related to a Russian space-based nuclear capability.

Earlier Wednesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill when he issued a cryptic statement announcing that the panel had “information concerning a serious national security threat.”

In a letter to lawmakers inviting them to view the intelligence in the committee’s classified spaces, he said that it related to a “destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all congressional policymakers.”

Immediately, lawmakers began tramping down to the House basement to learn what the intelligence was.

Some left underwhelmed. One Democratic member with deep national security experience said that they had never before received that kind of urgent summons over a national security matter during their time in Congress — and that the intelligence they saw when they arrived was not urgent enough to justify Turner’s alarm-pulling.

Within hours, the Republican speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, attempted to tamp down the imbroglio, telling reporters that “there is no cause for alarm” and indicating that he had known about the intelligence since at least January.

“We just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel. We’re working on it and there’s no need for alarm,” Johnson said.

Rep. Jim Himes, the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement that “the classified intelligence product that the House Intelligence Committee called to the attention of Members last night is a significant one, but it is not a cause for panic.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday said he was “surprised” that Turner had made the existence of the intelligence public, noting that he was already scheduled to brief the top Republican and Democratic leaders of the House as well as Turner and Himes on Thursday.

“We scheduled a briefing for the House members of the Gang of Eight tomorrow,” Sullivan said. “That’s been on the books. So I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow.”

Turner in his statement has urged the Biden administration to declassify “all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat.”

Meanwhile, in a joint statement, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee suggested that they had been tracking the intelligence but that it would be difficult to declassify it without exposing sensitive sources and methods.

The uproar over the new intelligence comes as a $60 billion aid package to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia has stalled in the House and former President Donald Trump has been publicly supporting GOP members who have opposed the package. Trump has also in recent days said that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not meet alliance-set spending goals on their own defense.

Johnson has said that he will not bring the Senate-passed aid measure to the floor.

But Turner has publicly supported continuing to fund the Ukraine war effort. Some lawmakers and US officials privately speculated that his effort to brief lawmakers on the intelligence — something the House Intelligence Committee voted on Tuesday night to do — might be an attempt to shore up flagging support for Ukraine.

Sources declined to provide further detail on the intelligence or the Russian capabilities it describes.

But for years, Russia has pursued counterspace systems designed to neutralize US military and commercial space systems, according to a 2022 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report on space security. Russian doctrine called for being able to target an enemy’s satellites from the ground, air, cyber and space, using attacks that range from temporary jamming to outright destruction.

In 2020, Russia tested a space-based anti-satellite weapon with sophisticated orbital capabilities that could have a dual purpose: it could service and inspect friendly satellites while having the capability to attack enemy satellites.

An attempt to launch a nuclear-armed anti-satellite system into space would violate The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which explicitly prohibits “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Michael Williams, Annie Grayer and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

Top Republican warns of ‘serious’ national security threat

BBC News

Top Republican warns of ‘serious’ national security threat

Bernd Debusmann Jr – BBC News, Washington – February 14, 2024

The chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee has issued a vague warning of a “serious national security threat” facing the US.

The cryptic statement from Republican Mike Turner called on President Joe Biden to declassify the threat, although no further details were given.

The White House has said the threat is not imminent, but that congressional leaders would be briefed this week.

Lawmakers have until Friday to review intelligence about the threat.

In a statement posted by the House Intelligence Committee on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Mr Turner said only that the committee has “made available to all members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat”.

“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the administration and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat,” the statement added.

A memo sent to members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night that was obtained by Punchbowl News provided few additional details, noting only that the “urgent matter” is in “regard to a destabilising foreign military capability”.

The intelligence is available for lawmakers to view in a secure facility within the US Capitol complex until Friday, 16 February.

Some reports in US media suggest the warning is related to Russian attempts to develop a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon. The New York Times, citing current and former US officials, said the weapon was not yet in orbit.

The top Democrat on the committee, Connecticut’s Jim Himes, said in a statement that while the classified threat is “significant”, it “is not a cause for panic”.

“As to whether more can be declassified about the issues, that is a worthwhile discussion but it is not a discussion to be had in public,” he added.

Similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that there is “no need for public alarm”.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner and Vice-Chairman Marco Rubio said in a statement that their committee has been “rigorously tracking this issue from the start” and “are discussing an appropriate response with the administration.”

“We must be cautious about potentially disclosing sources and methods that may be key to preserving a range of options for US action,” the statement added.

Asked about the threat at the White House, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that he had offered to personally brief the so-called “Gang of Eight” comprised of House and Senate leaders from both parties and the top lawmakers on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

A briefing for the House members of the wider group – which includes Mr Turner, Mr Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – had been scheduled for Thursday, 15 February.

“I’m a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defence professionals tomorrow,” Mr Sullivan said. “I’m not in a position to say anything further today.”

Mr Sullivan later added that the Biden administration is “protecting the national security of the United States and the American people”.

“Americans understand that there are a range of threats and challenges in the world that we’re dealing with every single day, and those threats and challenges range from terrorism to state actors,” he said. “And we have to contend with them.”