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Author: John Hanno
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.
Russia has the advantage, and Ukraine needs to dig in if it’s going to fend off the enemy’s war machine, conflict experts say
Jake Epstein – January 26, 2024
Russian maintains several advantages over Ukraine, including manpower and material, experts say.
To keep Moscow’s forces at bay, Kyiv will need to dig in and strengthen its defenses, they said.
The assessment comes as Ukraine faces ammunition shortages and is being outgunned by Russia.
Nearly two years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia again has the initiative, and its advantages over Ukraine are mounting.
Conflict experts are warning that Russia maintains a significant advantage over Ukraine in several key areas right now, and Kyiv will need to seriously dig in if it hopes to fend off Moscow’s war machine and have any shot at offensive operations next year.
Michael Kofman and Dara Massicot, experts with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Rob Lee, an expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote in commentary published on Friday by War on the Rocks that “while the current state of the war has been described as a stalemate, spurring an animated debate over what that means, Russia holds material, industrial, and manpower advantages in 2024, along with the initiative.”
But, “with tailored Western support, Ukraine could hold against Russian forces this year and rebuild the necessary advantage to conduct large-scale offensive operations in 2025, recreating another opportunity to deal Russia a battlefield defeat,” they said.
They cautioned that “without major adjustments, or if Western support falters, the current path holds a high risk of exhaustion over time and Ukraine being forced to negotiate with Moscow from a position of weakness.”
A Ukrainian soldier in a mask stands near an improvised multiple rocket launcher during firing on Russian positions on Jan. 15, 2024 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.Photo by Roman Chop/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
It is a less-than-ideal situation for Kyiv’s forces right now. They’re struggling as the Russian war machine gains momentum.
Ukrainian forces fighting along the war’s sprawling front lines are presently dealing with insufficient ammunition and are being outgunned by Russian troops, a reversal from the situation over the summer, when Kyiv was using artillery to hammer Moscow’s positions.
Furthermore, fears are growing over the future of US security assistance to Ukraine as additional funding remains held up by Congress — despite repeated pleas of urgency from the Biden administration. Officials in Washington, Kyiv, and European partner nations have sounded the alarms that the consequences of aid drying up may be catastrophic.
With a dearth of Western-provided artillery ammunition and combat-effective units for effective offensive operations, Ukraine is focusing on force reconstitution and digging in to hold the line against Russia’s attacks, the experts wrote in their commentary.
A Ukrainian soldier fires towards the Russian position as the Ukrainian soldiers from the artillery unit wait for ammunition assistance at the front line.Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu via Getty Images
But to resist additional Russian offensives in the near future, and protect troops from Moscow’s intense artillery and bombing, Ukraine will need to strengthen its defenses and fortifications. It needs tunnels and underground bunkers, the experts said.
Fortifying defenses, they added, will allow Ukraine to better maintain the front line and enable Kyiv to rotate troops and preserve critical ammunition. This method has already proven effective at preventing enemy advances during the war.
One reason why Ukraine’s much-anticipated summer counteroffensive failed to produce significant results was that Russia had built a complex network of defensive fortifications throughout Russian-occupied territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. The toughest defenses, known as the Surovikin Line, consisted of anti-vehicle ditches and obstacles, mines, and sophisticated trench networks.
The failures of the Ukrainian counteroffensive set the stage for renewed Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine, which kicked off in October and focused heavily around the city of Avdiivka. While Moscow has suffered heavy losses during its ongoing assault — both in manpower and in armored vehicles — its forces continue to advance, making small territorial gains. Russia is pushing in various other sectors of the front as well. With fortified defenses though, Ukraine could seriously complicate these efforts.
A serviceman of the 66th separate cannon artillery battalion of the 406th separate artillery brigade is pictured by the American M777 howitzer.Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Western officials have been reluctant to characterize Russian efforts as effective. A top Pentagon official told reporters this week that while Moscow has tried to shatter the lines in eastern Ukraine, it has “not succeeded” in its efforts.
Still, the US continues to raise concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains intent on capturing Ukraine and more security assistance is needed to keep Kyiv in the fight.
“The fact that Russia continues to demonstrate an intent to fight against Ukraine and to occupy Ukraine and to eliminate Ukraine as a country highlights the fact that this is a serious security threat that is not going to go away,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing this week.
“The sooner that we’re able to continue to provide the levels of support that we have,” he said, “the better, not only for Ukraine, but for the international community.”
Mortar platoon soldiers with an 82mm mortar perform a combat mission as Ukrainian soldiers hold their positions in the snow-covered Serebryan Forest in temperatures of -15°C, on January 10, 2024 in Kreminna, Ukraine.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Image
In their recent commentary for War on the Rocks, Kofman, Lee, and Massicot argued that “if this year is used wisely, core problems are addressed, and the right lessons are applied from the 2023 offensive, Ukraine can take another shot at inflicting a major defeat on Russian forces.”
The recommended strategy is one characterized as “hold, build, strike,” with defenses creating opportunities to rebuild the force and strikes degrading Russian capabilities. “Ideally,” the experts explained, “Ukraine can absorb Russian offensives while minimizing casualties and position itself to retake the advantage over time.”
Getting there, however, begins with building a strong, fortified defense-in-depth, but Ukraine also needs continued support to fight off the Russians. As the three experts wrote, “key decisions have to be made this year, the earlier the better, in order to put the war on a more positive trajectory.”
‘The enemy is amassing’: Ukrainian army officials give unvarnished account of the battlefield
Andrew Carey and Maria Kostenko – January 27, 2024
A series of comments by Ukrainian military officials and spokespeople on Saturday provided an unvarnished assessment of Ukraine’s current position on the battlefield, describing offensive Russian operations along much of the front line.
Fighting is intense in the northeast along a stretch of territory where the regions of Kharkiv and Luhansk meet.
Earlier this week, Ukraine announced it had withdrawn its forces from the village of Krokhmalne to take up more advantageous defensive positions on higher ground.
Reports suggest Russian forces continue to press in the area.
A readout from the Army General Staff on its Facebook page said Ukrainian forces had faced down 13 attacks on the settlements of Tabaiivka and Stelmakhivka, to the northwest and south, respectively, of Krokhmalne.
Commenting on fighting there, a spokesman for Land Forces Command told Ukrainian television, “The enemy is focusing on a large number of artillery attacks, trying to advance.”
These small settlements, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Kharkiv, lie close to a major north-south waterway, the Oskil river, and were all liberated by Ukrainian forces in the late summer of 2022, after almost six months of Russian occupation.
A Ukrainian serviceman prepares 155-mm artillery shells near the front line in Zaporizhzhia, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on January 14, 2024. – Reuters
Further southeast, the area around Bakhmut, which was the overwhelming focus of Russia’s winter offensive exactly a year ago, Ukrainian forces also report coming under increased pressure.
Describing the posture of Russia’s forces to the southwest of the city, around the largely destroyed villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, Sergeant Oles Maliarevych of the 92nd Separate Brigade told Ukrainian television: “The enemy is amassing forces … they assault every day.”
He highlighted the huge threat now posed by drones, the impact of which on the battlefield has grown significantly over the past year. The Russians, he said, have significantly more drones than Ukraine, including drones equipped with night vision.
Klishchiivka and Andriivka represent the easternmost edges of Ukraine’s modest territorial gains around Bakhmut, the land reclaimed in September as part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the second half of last year.
The sense that Moscow’s troops are looking to win back the small pockets of territory recaptured by Kyiv since June was also brought out by an army spokesman with responsibility for operations to the south, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Attempts by Ukraine over the summer to push south from the town of Orikhiv towards Tokmak, seen as a key first step in an eventual move to break Russia’s land corridor to Crimea, only made it as far as Robotyne, a little over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south.
Now, the spokesman suggested, it was Russia more on the front foot.
“All in all, the invaders are very active, they have increased the number of offensive and assault operations. For the second day in a row, they have been conducting 50 combat engagements daily. The enemy is active in all directions,” Oleksandr Shtupun said.
“In Zaporizhzhia region, the enemy is trying to recapture lost ground.”
Donald Trump’s utmost assault on American democracy and the rule of law has been his ability to exploit these foundational institutions to weaken each as he constantly makes a mockery of both. It’s part and parcel of his efforts to sustain personal power. The ultimate goal is to enable oligarchic domination and facilitate financial looting by the uber-wealthy.
My aim in this commentary is to move beyond Trump’s procedural harms or distractions and to connect his very real substantive crimes, fraudulent behaviors, and policies of deception to the GOP’s larger and unending appropriation of accumulated capital from the US commonwealth.
Contrary to Trump’s repetitive narrative about how the Justice Department (DOJ), state prosecutors, and the courts are engaging in some kind of persecution or witch-hunt and/or weaponization of the rule of law against the former president as part of a “deep state” conspiracy to interfere with his winning back the presidency in 2024, these civil and criminal agencies of adjudication have been bending over backward to privilege or accommodate Trump’s perpetual lawlessness inside and outside various courthouses across America.
For example, the latest episodes of indulging the “man-child” occurred during closing arguments of Trump’s $370M civil fraud trial as well as his second sex abuse defamation civil trial in two Manhattan courtrooms located in close proximity.
In the latter case, which ended Friday with a jury judgment that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages, Judge Lewis Kaplan had this testy exchange with Trump. “I understand you’re probably very eager for me” to remove “you from the trial.” To which Trump sitting between his two lawyers at the defense table shouted back, “I would love it.” Of course, Trump would.
Trump had already been warned that he could be expelled for continuing to disrupt the trial. Nevertheless, the judicially found rapist of Carroll could be heard remarking loud enough to his lawyers for the jurors to hear, “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job.” Never mind that Trump in a previous lawsuit by a jury of his peers had already been found civilly liable for sexual assault as well as defamation of character to the tune of $5 million. It’s little wonder he stormed out of the courtroom on Friday.
In the former case, Judge Arthur Engoron bent the rules and allowed Trump “to go on a courtroom rant lasting several minutes,” which had nothing whatsoever to do with either the law or the facts of the case. Instead, Trump made another political speech claiming that the New York civil trial is a ‘fraud on me’ and that he was “an innocent man” who claimed among other things that the New York Attorney General Letitia James “hates” him and “doesn’t want me to get elected.” Trump also stated to the presiding judge, “I know this is boring you. I know you have your own agenda” here as well.
Procedurally, either Trump as the defendant or one of his attorneys, but not both, was entitled to make the closing argument. However, Judge Engoron made an exception allowing Trump and his attorney Chris Kise to speak during closing arguments. Before doing so, the judge re-iterated what he had previously spelled out one week earlier about what Trump could or could not comment about as part of his closing arguments. Predictably, Trump totally disregarded Judge Engoron’s instructions the same as he had Judge Kaplan’s.
On Friday, former federal judge Barbara Jones, appointed by Engoron to monitor the Trump Organization’s finances, told the judge that Trump had failed to provide “information required to be submitted to me pursuant to the terms of the monitorship order and review protocol.”
Engoron coddled the former president and permitted his procedural misconduct because the judge knew that after his final decision — dismantling Trump’s New York base business empire – to be rendered later this month, Trump and his attorneys would be appealing and filing an avalanche of motions mostly to delay rather than rectify justice. By allowing Trump to speak, Engoron figured there would be one less bogus motion to be made about how the former president had been denied his right to speak on his own behalf.
Again, I do not want to get caught up in these procedural abuses by Trump and his attorneys because their claims are primarily smokescreens designed to deflect attention away from the substantive lawlessness or fraudulent behavior involved in his adversarial conflicts with the administration of justice.
In the case of the fraudulent business trial brought by the New York Attorney General, Trump’s phony legal defense pertaining to his illegal acquisition of money or to his financial looting from both the Internal Revenue System and the US monetary system is that these lending transactions allegedly caused no injuries to the parties involved.
To paraphrase Trump: nobody was injured here or there were no harms to speak of. Of course, that is pure fiction or nonsense as the summary judgment has already been declared and as the final verdict will be revalidated in the next couple of days when Trump and company find themselves liable for at least $300 million.
Trump’s fraudulent business dealings involved in this civil case, like using other people’s money vis-à-vis deceitfully acquired lower interest rates along with tax evasion, are consistent with the former president’s modus operandi and sheds light on some of the other ways in which the 45th president’s appointments of free marketers and deregulators facilitated financial looting on a much grander scale. The GOP’s $1.9 trillion tax break for the wealthy, signed by Trump, is perhaps the most infamous example
As I have argued in Indicting the 45th President, “the Racketeer-in-Chief as POTUS had established from the top down an administrative apparatus marked by placing self-interest, profiteering, and corruption above the public welfare.” In similar fashion, Trump’s “networks for raising and flowing cash loads of electronic money also helped to contribute to the ‘deadly insurrection that was rooted in the same self-serving ethos’.”
By the end of 2023, the ex-president had already spent more than $57 million of other people’s money on his legal fees, which will very likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future. While raising money to steal the election was unlawful, raising money to defend those people from trying to steal an election is perfectly lawful.
As we have learned in some detail from the New York civil fraud trial, Trump has spent most of his dishonest life in search of money. His business history has been filled with overseas financial deals and missed deals. Some of these have involved the Chinese state where Trump “spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.”
China along with Britain and Ireland are three nations that we know about where Trump maintains bank accounts. These foreign accounts do not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosures where he must list his personal assets because these accounts are not in his name. In the case of China, the bank account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management, LLC, whose tax records reveal that TIHM paid $188,561 in pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015 that did not pan out. During those same pre-MAGA years Trump had been paying the IRS less than $1,000 annually.
Until 2019, China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented three floors in Trump Tower stateside, a very lucrative lease that had generated accusations of conflicts of interest for the former president. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in its January 15, 2021, report on corruption identified more than 3,700 conflicts of interest while Trump was president because of his decision while in office not to divest from his business interests.
As far as offshore banking laws and accounts go, the release of Trump’s taxes from 2015 to 2020 revealed that for at least 2016 he had an offshore bank account in the Caribbean nation of St. Martin, a popular place to avoid paying taxes. Nevertheless, recall when he was asked during the 2016 campaign whether U.S. citizens should be allowed to save or invest in offshore bank accounts, Trump responded: “No, too many wealthy citizens are abusing loopholes in offshore banking laws to evade taxes.”
At the time, key planks in Trump’s tax reform plan would have allegedly ended the practices of U.S. multinationals stockpiling offshore hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of jobs. For the record, the sheltered tax dollars did not come home nor did outsourced jobs ever come back to America. Those were merely “talking points” that were never going to materialize during a Trump administration.
When it came to stocking the laissez-faire policy swamps, Trump’s political appointments included more than its share of high rolling donors with no expertise in anything let alone with an appropriate area of specialty. As for those appointments where expertise was required, those were located primarily in the areas of business, finance, and the law.
The economic orientation or philosophy of these appointments reinforced generally a “hands off” approach to regulation and taxation. These free marketers were not about recouping billions let alone trillions of dollars from the tax avoiding and tax evading superrich or mega corporations. Quite the contrary, these appointments involved persons who had specialized in tax avoidance. For example, four of Trump’s key economic appointments had been beneficiaries of shell companies and offshore banking accounts including Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson, Steven Mnuchin, and Randal Quarles.
Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn was the driver behind the White House tax reform act. Leaked documents reveal that between 2002 and 2006 Cohn was either president or vice-president of 22 separate offshore entities in Bermuda for Goldman Sachs. That was before Cohn eventually became the president and COO of Goldman Sachs, one of the foremost banking, securities, and investment management firms in the world.
As for secretary of state Rex Tillerson, leaked documents reveal that before he ascended to chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil in 2006 and while still presiding as president of ExxonMobil Yemen division, Tillerson was also a director of Marib Upstream Services Company that was incorporated in Bermuda in 1997.
Randal Quarles, Trump’s most senior banking “watchdog” was also outed in connection with offshore banks and tax evasion as he appeared prominently in the infamous Paradise Papers.
As we all know the only shining accomplishment of President Trump during his four years in office was a $1.9 trillion tax gift or cut enjoyed primarily by super-wealthy individuals, mega-corporations, and multinational businesses – to the ongoing detriment of the general population — who already had enjoyed the lowest tax rates in the corporate world.
These economic projections are consistent with the negative or not “trickling down” benefits and failures to increase production after the same types of Reagan and Bush II administrations’ tax cuts or benefits for the corporate wealthy had also occurred.
What is consistent is that these same types of neoliberal taxing policies or practices of financial looting from other commonwealths around the global economy have yielded the same dismal outcomes in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and every other nation where they have been employed.
Head-to-head: Trump accounted for the largest deficit growth in the 21st century of $6.7 trillion in four years while Biden accounted for only $2.5 trillion in his first three years in office.
In stark contrast, however, the deficits accumulated during the Obama and Biden administrations have benefitted the American people in numerous ways, for example, from health care coverage to infrastructure development. Meanwhile, the deficits accumulated by Bush II and Trump had only benefited the wealthy.
While men ran for cover, women rose and stared down Donald Trump | Opinion
Gene Nichol – January 27, 2024
I’m much taken with a particular photograph of Nancy Pelosi. It’s from October 2019. In it, Pelosi stands across the White House Cabinet Room pointing an accusing finger at a seated Donald Trump. The president and the speaker are only a few feet apart. Still, Pelosi is resolute, undaunted. Punctuating a heated foreign policy disagreement, she was reportedly saying that, with Trump, “all roads lead to Putin.” Frosty and fearless.
But that’s not what I find most remarkable about the photo. Pelosi and Trump were not alone in the room. They were surrounded by executive officials and congressional leaders. None, except Pelosi, seemed comfortable with the turn of events. The AP reported:
“Eyeballs – most belonging to men – are averted. Heads are bowed around the table, including those of Joint Chief of Staff Chairman, Mark Milley and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s eyes are closed. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is leaning back, a few chairs down from Trump.”
As the males looked for cover, Pelosi rose, and led.
It reminded me of video clips I’d seen from the Oval Office. President Trump would meet in the lavish room with Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to hammer out their multifaceted differences. Schumer might be energetic and forceful at the press conference afterwards, beyond the confines of the famous building. But when sitting across from Trump, Schumer seemed afraid to look him in the eyes. Only Pelosi fixed her gaze on the bully. Brave, resolute, mission-driven. Never, even for a moment, contemplating fear. Courage occupied only one seat in those meetings. And it wasn’t companion to the males.
The picture I describe points to a growing reality – the outsized role of women in modeling courage, teaching fearlessness, in the new American battle for democracy. We’ve all seen this, thought of it, been marked and altered by it.
Liz Cheney stood not only against Trump, but almost every shamed and humiliated enabler of her caucus and political party. She put her leadership position and her congressional seat on the line in favor of her sacred oath and love of country. She did it all knowingly, without a conceivable doubt about what was to come. I can’t forget the words:
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
Nathan Hale had nothing on Liz Cheney.
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, election workers from Fulton County, Georgia, refused to surrender to the intimidation, slanders, and threats of Rudy Giuliani in one of modern America’s starkest contests between good and unrelenting evil. Their prior lives and attachments to beloved community had been sundered by darkness. Trump boasted on a fateful call to Brad Raffensperger that “Freeman’s reputation is done – she is known all over the internet for fraud.” But unlike the fabulist of Mar-a-Lago, Freeman and Moss’ character abides. It gleams. And teaches.
Cassidy Hutchinson, with astonishing stoicism, quietly insisted on the truth, under unspeakable pressure, as Mark Meadows hid, dissembled and conceded his powerlessness before the master — as if gutlessness is all one can expect from human beings.
And E. Jean Carroll, an 80-year-old sexual assault survivor, reclaimed her life, amid continuing taunts by Trump, even at the cost of having to face down her vile assailant. It’s not right to force “a woman to be quiet,” she explained. Even if supposed toughs depend on it.
If we see more women leaders, we’ll see more courage.
Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Ukrainian defenders have killed over 380,000 Russian occupiers
Ukrainska Pravda – January 26, 2024
Stock photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Russia continues to suffer losses in its war of aggression against Ukraine, as Ukraine’s Defence Forces killed 990 Russian soldiers and destroyed 16 armoured combat vehicles and 15 artillery systems over the past day alone.
Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook
Details: The total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 26 January 2024 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses – ed.]:
Trump Privately Pressuring GOP Senators To ‘Kill’ Border Deal To Deny Biden A Win
The former president is telling Republicans he “doesn’t want Biden to have a victory” in 2024, said a source familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
By Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic – January 24, 2024
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump on Wednesday privately pressured Senate Republicans to “kill” a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a source familiar with the tenuous negotiations on the package.
Trump directly reached out to several GOP senators on Wednesday to tell them to reject any deal, said this source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The GOP presidential frontrunner also personally reached out to some Senate Republicans over the weekend, the source told HuffPost.
“Trump wants them to kill it because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” said the source. “He told them he will fix the border when he is president… He said he only wants the perfect deal.”
Trump’s meddling generated an “emotional” discussion in a closed door meeting between Senate Republicans on Wednesday, as senators vented their frustrations for hours about the largely secret negotiations over emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel and immigration. The conference is splintering into two camps: those who believe Republicans should take the deal, and those who are opposed at any cost.
“The rational Republicans want the deal because they want Ukraine and Israel and an actual border solution,” said the source. “But the others are afraid of Trump, or they’re the chaos caucus who never wants to pass anything.”
“They’re having a little crisis in their conference right now,” the source added.
A bipartisan group of senators has been working for months to craft a border deal, and Trump has made it no secret that he opposes it. Last Wednesday, he wrote on Truth Social, his conservative social media site, “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions and Millions of people.”
What’s different now, though, is that Trump, who appears to have the GOP presidential nomination locked up, is now directly telling GOP senators to oppose any deal. His meddling has left their conference in even more disarray than it was already in, and a potential border deal in limbo.
Donald Trump is privately telling Senate Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) demurred when asked if he thinks it’s constructive for Trump to tell Republicans not to make any border deals.
“I could probably go through any number of things that Biden is saying that are not constructive when he’s on the campaign trail, but that’s the nature of campaigns,” Tillis said. “So I’m not going to criticize President Trump or his positions.”
But, bucking Trump, he said he supported passing the bipartisan border deal, which Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) has been working on with Democrats.
“Based on what I’ve seen and based on the work that James Lankford has put in, it goes far enough for me,” said Tillis. “If anyone’s intellectually honest with themselves, they all know these would be extraordinary tools for President Trump.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) referenced comments Trump made as president in 2018 about the difficulty of getting Democrats to agree to changes to immigration laws. McConnell, who is no fan of Trump, was making the case that Republicans should agree to a border deal now, since the likelihood of Democrats potentially cutting a deal with Trump in the White House again would be highly unlikely.
At the meeting, senators also viewed footage of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) making a prophetic warning about Russia’s designs on Europe after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Crimea in 2014 — a bid by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) to build support for Ukraine aid.
Tillis, who is an advocate of aid to Ukraine, told HuffPost there is “a general consensus in the majority of our conference that we need to support Ukraine.”
He warned what it would mean if the U.S. gives up on Ukraine: “This won’t take decades to regret. This will be in a matter of years. People who choose to ultimately exit Ukraine, if they are successful, for as long as I am breathing, I will remind them of the consequences I am convinced we will have to live through.”
Multiple senators described the meeting as a healthy airing of views, but none believed that it changed any minds.
“I don’t think Russia’s going to keep going,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), said when asked about the dangers of abandoning Ukraine.
Exclusive-Russia struggles to sell Pacific oil, 14 tankers stuck – sources, data
Reuters – January 26, 2024
FILE PHOTO: Regional office of Russian oil firm Rosneft is seen in city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island
This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
More than a dozen tankers loaded with 10 million barrels of Russia’s Sokol grade crude oil have been stranded off the coast of South Korea for weeks, so far unsold due to U.S. sanctions and payment issues, according to two traders and shipping data.
The volumes, equating to 1.3 million metric tons, represent more than a month’s production of the Sakhalin-1 project, once a flagship venture of U.S. major Exxon Mobil, which exited Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sakhalin-1 was one of the first post-Soviet deals in Russia made under a production sharing agreement. When Exxon Mobil left in 2022, output fell to nearly zero and hasn’t fully recovered since.
Difficulties in selling Sokol grade pose one of the most significant challenges Moscow has faced since the West imposed sanctions and one of the most serious disruptions to Russian oil exports in two years.
Washington has said it wants sanctions to reduce revenues for President Vladimir Putin and his war machine in Ukraine but not to disrupt the flows of Russian energy to global markets.
Last year, the United States imposed sanctions on several vessels and companies involved in transporting Sokol.
As of Friday, 14 vessels loaded with Sokol were stuck around South Korea’s port of Yosu, including 11 Aframax vessels and three very large crude carriers (VLCCs), according to LSEG, Kpler data and traders.
The volume stored in tankers represent 45 days of production from Sakhalin-1, which averages output of 220,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Supertankers (VLCCs) La Balena, Nireta and Nellis with some 3.2 million barrels onboard (430,000 metric tons), currently near South Korea’s Yosu, are acting as a floating storage for the Russian oil grade, Reuters sources said and Kpler and LSEG shipping data show.
The VLCCs previously accepted oil from several Aframax vessels via ship-to-ship, the data showed. Supplying oil volumes from smaller ships to bigger ones can save on freight.
The rest of the Sokol oil loaded from November to January is stored on smaller Aframax vessels (able to carry 500,000-800,000 barrels) – Krymsk, NS Commander, Sakhalin Island, Liteyny Prospect, NS Century, NS Lion, NS Antarctic, Jaguar, Vostochny Prospect, Pavel Chernysh and Viktor Titov.
Shipments of Sokol to the Indian Oil Corp have been delayed by payment problems, forcing India’s biggest refiner to draw from its inventories and buy more oil from the Middle East.
A source close to IOC said the company did not expect to receive any Sokol shipments soon due to a disagreement over which currency would be used to pay for it.
IOC is the only state refiner that has an annual deal to buy a variety of Russian grades, including Sokol, from Russian oil major Rosneft. IOC and Rosneft did not reply to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Reuters reporters in Moscow, Nidhi Verma in India, Muyu Xu in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens and Ros Russell)
Conservative CNN Pundit Says Nikki Haley Baited Trump Into ‘A Strategic Mistake’
Josephine Harvey – January 25, 2024
Donald Trump missed an opportunity after winning New Hampshire’s GOP presidential primary against Nikki Haley on Tuesday, according to a conservative commentator for CNN.
“He made a mistake last night,” Scott Jennings said Wednesday on the network.
“He could’ve walked out there and just said: ‘This race is over. I appreciate all my opponents. I appreciate Ambassador Haley. All Republicans are welcome to join. Let’s go beat [Democratic incumbent] Joe Biden,’” added Jennings, a former aide to President George W. Bush.
“And he just couldn’t do it.”
Haley, Trump’s onetime United Nations ambassador, gave an upbeat speech after her 11-point loss, criticizing the former president and vowing to continue her campaign through next month’s primary in her home state of South Carolina.
In the days prior to the New Hampshire vote, she had stepped up her criticism of Trump, questioning his mental acuity. The tactic appeared to get under his skin, as Trump’s victory speech was filled with grievances and insults directed at the former South Carolina governor.
“The Haley people went out and spoke early to try to bait him into that reaction. And he took the bait,” Jennings said on CNN. “Now we’re going to fight it out … for another month.”
He added, “It was a strategic mistake.”
During the victory speech, Trump fumed that Haley hadn’t dropped out of the 2024 race, commented on the way she dressed and said, “I don’t get too angry — I get even.”
The Haley campaign responded by mocking his “angry rant.”
“This is why so many voters want to move on from Trump’s chaos and are rallying to Nikki Haley’s new generation of conservative leadership,” a Haley spokesperson said.
Trump didn’t seem to have cooled off by Wednesday, with his criticism of Haley only increasing in vitriol. In one social media tirade, he said that anyone who donates to the Haley campaign would be “permanently barred” from his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Ex-Trump Staffer Brilliantly Responds To Trump’s Warning To Haley Donors
Ron Dicker – January 25, 2024
Sarah Matthews, who briefly served as Donald Trump’s deputy press secretary, happily defied Trump’s warning to Nikki Haley donors by giving money to Haley’s campaign on Wednesday.
Matthews took that as encouragement and shared a receipt for her contribution to Haley’s underdog bid against the GOP front-runner while attaching Trump’s threat on Truth Social.
“Done. Join me in donating to @NikkiHaley,” she wrote while including the link.
Matthews resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a Trump-inspired mob laid siege to the Capitol. She said she was “deeply disturbed” by what happened and held Trump accountable for not keeping the peace. She later testified before a Jan. 6 panel and has periodically sounded the alarm on Trump’s rhetoric.
Haley also worked in the Trump administration as the U.N. ambassador and has been dismissed by the former president as a “birdbrain” while she carries on her presidential campaign against him despite long odds.
Many parts of the world are experiencing a rapid depletion in the subterranean reserves of water that billions of people rely on for drinking, irrigation and other uses, according to new research that analyzed millions of groundwater level measurements from 170,000 wells in more than 40 countries.
It’s the first study to piece together what’s happening to groundwater levels at a global scale, according to the researchers involved, and will help scientists better understand what impact humans are having on this valuable underground resource, either through overuse or indirectly by changes in rainfall linked to climate change.
Groundwater, contained within cracks and pores in permeable bodies of rock known as aquifers, is a lifeline for people especially in parts of the world where rainfall and surface water are scarce, such as northwest India and the southwest United States.
Reductions in groundwater can make it harder for people to access freshwater to drink or to irrigate crops and can result in land subsidence.
“This study was driven by curiosity. We wanted to better understand the state of global groundwater by wrangling millions of groundwater level measurements,” said co-lead author Debra Perrone, an associate professor in University of California’s Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program, in a news release on the study that published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The authors found that groundwater levels declined between 2000 and 2022 in 71% of the 1,693 aquifer systems included in the research, with groundwater levels declining more than 0.1 meter a year in 36%, or 617, of them.
The Ascoy-Soplamo Aquifer in Spain had the fastest rate of decline in the data they compiled — a median decline of 2.95 meters per year, said study coauthor Scott Jasechko, an associate professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California Santa Barbara.
Several aquifer systems in Iran were among those with the fastest rate of groundwater decline, he added.
The team wasn’t able to gather data from much of Africa, South America and southeast Asia because of a lack of monitoring, but Jasechko said the study included the countries where most global groundwater pumping takes place.
Declines not universal
The study also highlighted some success stories in Bangkok, Arizona and New Mexico, where groundwater has begun to recover after interventions to better regulate water use or redirect water to replenish depleted aquifers.
“I was impressed by the clever strategies that have been put into action to address groundwater depletion in several places, though these ‘good news’ stories are very rare,” Jasechko said via email.
To understand whether the declines seen in the 21st century were accelerating, the team also accessed data for groundwater levels for 1980 to 2000 for 542 of the aquifers in the study.
They found that declines in groundwater levels sped up in the first two decades of the 21st century for 30% of those aquifers, outpacing the declines recorded between 1980 and 2000.
“These cases of accelerating groundwater-level declines are more than twice as prevalent as one would expect from random fluctuations in the absence of any systematic trends in either time period,” the study noted.
Donald John MacAllister, a hydrologist at the British Geological Survey who wasn’t involved in the research, said it was a really “impressive” set of data, despite some gaps.
“I think it’s fair to say this global compilation of groundwater data hasn’t been done, certainly on this scale, at least to my knowledge before,” he said.
“Groundwater is an incredibly important resource but one of the challenges is… because we can’t see it, it’s out of mind for most people. Our challenge is to constantly bang the drum for policymakers — that we have this resource that we have to look after, and that we can use to build resilience and adapt to climate change.”
