Over 1,000 Days of War in Ukraine
Last Sunday, President Biden approved Ukraine to use U.S.-made ATACMS long-range missiles against Russian and North Korean forces in Russia's Kursk territory.
On Tuesday, Russian President Putin responded by lowering Russia’s threshold for using nuclear weapons. Russia then reported that Ukraine had shot six of the ATACMS missiles into its Bryansk region. President Biden authorized Ukraine to use anti-personnel mines in their efforts to slow down the Russians.
On Wednesday, Ukraine fired up to a dozen British-made Storm Shadow missiles into the Kursk region for the first time.
In response, on Thursday Russia shot what appears to be a new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine, deploying the weapon for the first time on the battlefield.
According to The New York Times, “‘The use of an intermediate-range missile drawn from Russia’s strategic arsenal was notable,’ Ukrainian and Western officials said. The target inside Ukraine was well within the range of the conventional weapons that Moscow has routinely used throughout the war.
“But this time, Russia launched a longer-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads that is mainly intended as nuclear deterrence; ‘that choice,’ the officials and military analysts said, ‘signals a warning aimed at striking fear into Kyiv and its allies.’”
This all comes as a new Gallup poll shows that more than half of Ukraine’s citizens believe their government should seek to negotiate an ending to the war “as soon as possible,” while less than 40% support continuing to fight until victory is achieved. (In the beginning of the war, 73% preferred fighting until victory.)
Trump Stocks Cabinet
President Trump has finished naming his cabinet (full list in endnotes).
This comes after Matt Gaetz, the firebrand Florida congressman President Trump tapped for attorney general, has withdrawn his name from consideration, saying that his nomination was a “distraction” from the transition process.
Gaetz has been the subject of an FBI probe and House investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. After three years of investigation by the FBI, the federal investigation was closed by the Justice Department without any charges against him. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The House Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz was days from completion when Gaetz resigned from Congress last week upon being nominated by Trump for the attorney general position. Since then, salacious details from the report have been leaked to two different media outlets. Some of this material had been gathered by the FBI in its dead-end investigation into Gaetz and provided to the House committee during their investigation.
ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu
Axios' Barak Ravid writes that "the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza." The warrants are not enforceable in Israel and the U.S., but they could make it difficult for Netanyahu to travel to most other countries.
Joe Scarbrough and Mika Brzezinski Visit Trump
The hosts of President Biden’s favorite show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, surprised their viewers by visiting President Trump last week, in an about-face from the hosts’ formerly very negative coverage casting Trump as a Hitlerian dictator.
“Five years of political warfare have deeply divided Washington and the country. We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the coarsening of public debate,” Brzezinski said as she opened Monday’s show.
A Fox News exclusive article followed: “President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that in order to ‘Make America Great Again,’ it is ‘vital’ to have a ‘free, fair and open media,’ telling Fox News Digital that he feels he has ‘an obligation’ to the American people to work with the press, even those who had treated him ‘badly beyond comprehension.’
“‘And while many others are calling for meetings, I am not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly, or even badly beyond comprehension,’ he said. ‘I am always looking to give a second and even third chance, but never willing to give a fourth chance — that is where I hold the line.’”
