DNIPRO/KYIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia and Belarus will begin joint air force drills on Monday, which have triggered fears in Kyiv and the West that Moscow could use its ally to launch a new ground offensive in Ukraine.

Minsk says the drills are defensive, and since Moscow used its neighbour as a springboard for its invasion of Ukraine last February Belarus has conducted numerous military exercises, both on its own and jointly with Russia.

Together with Moscow, Minsk has also been bolstering the drills with weaponry and military equipment.

Unofficial Telegram military monitoring channels have been reporting a series of fighters, helicopters and military transport planes coming to Belarus since the start of the year – eight fighters and four cargo planes on Sunday alone.

Reuters was not able to verify the reports. The Belarusian defence ministry said only that “units” of Russia’s air forces have been arriving in Belarus.

“During the tactical flight exercise, all airfields and training grounds of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus will be involved,” the ministry said in a statement.

The situation on Belarus’s southern border – the border with Ukraine – was “not very calm,” and Ukraine has been “provoking” Belarus, said Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarusian Security Council, according to a post on the Belarusian defence ministry’s Telegram app on Sunday.

“We’re maintaining restraint and patience, keeping our gunpowder dry,” Muraveyko said. “We have the necessary set of forces and means that will respond to any manifestations of aggression or a terrorist threat on our territory.”

Ukraine has continuously warned of possible attacks from Belarus and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that the country must be ready at its border with Belarus.

The Kremlin has denied that it has been pressuring Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to take a more active role in the conflict in Ukraine. Minsk has said it will not enter the war.

Ukraine saw little hope of pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro on Sunday, a day after the building was hit during a major Russian missile attack, with dozens of people expected to have died.

The regional governor’s adviser, Natalia Babachenko, said 30 people were confirmed dead so far and more than 30 were in hospital, including 12 in a serious condition. Between 30 to 40 people could still be trapped under debris, she said.

Emergency workers said they had heard people screaming for help from underneath piles of debris from the nine-storey apartment block in the east-central city and were using moments of silence to help direct their efforts. Freezing temperatures added to rescuers’ concerns.

“The chances of saving people now are minimal,” Dnipro’s Mayor Borys Filatov told Reuters. I think the number of dead will be in the dozens.”

Ukraine’s Air Force said the apartment block was struck by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which is known to be inaccurate and that Ukraine lacks the air defences to shoot down. The Soviet-era missile was developed during the Cold War to destroy warships.

Russia fired two waves of missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, striking targets across the country as fighting raged on the battlefield in the eastern towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

Moscow, which invaded last February, has been pounding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water.

In his nightly address after the Dnipro strike, Zelenskiy called on Western allies to supply more weapons to end “Russian terror” and attacks on civilian targets.

Western powers are considering sending battle tanks to Kyiv and ahead of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Ramstein in Germany next Friday, where governments will announce their latest pledges of military support.

On Saturday, Britain followed France and Poland with promises of further weapons, saying it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks as well as other advanced artillery support in the coming weeks.

The first despatch of Western-made tanks to Ukraine is likely to be viewed by Moscow as escalation of the conflict. The Russian Embassy in London said the tanks would drag out the confrontation.

Russia’s invasion, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, has already killed thousands, displaced millions and turned many cities into rubble.

In Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region – the focal point of Russia’s drive to capture more territory – Ukraine’s forces were battling around the small salt-mining town of Soledar.

Russian forces claimed to have taken control of the town, but Ukraine insisted on Sunday that its forces were battling to hold the town, with street fighting raging and Russian forces advancing from various directions.

“Put simply, THE BATTLE CONTINUES,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app. “Everything else is unverified information.”

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said it was highly unlikely that Ukrainian forces still held positions within Soledar itself.

Reuters could not immediately verify the situation in the town.

A file photo of Ron Johnson.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

• Sen. Ron Johnson appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
• Johnson and NBC News Host Chuck Todd repeatedly cut each other off throughout the interview.
• Johnson repeatedly claimed that the media was biased whenever Todd called him out. 

During a heated exchange on Sunday, NBC News host Chuck Todd repeatedly shut down Sen. Ron Johnson.

Todd kicked off the “Meet The Press” interview by asking Johnson — the highest Republican on the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations — for his thoughts on the Justice Department’s investigation into classified documents that were found at President Joe Biden’s former office and Delaware home.

The Wisoncon Republican said he believed that Biden should be investigated like Trump, but went on to discuss his belief that a special counsel should be appointed to investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“Senator, senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed because I’ve yet to see anybody explain. It is not a crime to make money off of your last name,” Todd said, adding “You’re targeting Hunter Biden multiple times on this show, Senator.” 

Johnson replied by saying, “You know, part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching this, is you don’t invite me on to interview me, you invite me on to argue with me.” He continued: “Part of the reasons our politics are inflamed is we do not have an unbiased media. We don’t. It’s unfortunate. I’m all for free press. It needs to be more unbiased.”

Todd refuted: “Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity.” Todd said, apparently referring to Johnson’s many Fox News interviews. 

Though the two interrupted each other throughout the entire 13-minute show, they also discussed the denial around Biden’s 2020 election victory and current political tensions. 

Johnson originally backed the baseless idea that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. He said on a radio show in June 2022 that Rep. Mike Kelly gave him a list of “alternate” electors to send to former Vice President Mike Pence.

Todd attempted to ask about the incident on Sunday before Johnson interrupted, prompting the two to go back and forth again.

Johnson denied having “very much” involvement in the 2020 election fraud scheme.

“What you ought to do is go back and read my opening statement. And that pretty well lays out exactly what I thought about the 2020 election. But the news media never does that. They smear me. They lie about me. They make these things up,” Johnson told Todd, later refuting the idea that the recent insurrection in Brazil looked similar to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Johnson also told Todd he’d appreciate an opportunity to come onto the show at a later date to discuss “lies” the media has told about him. 

“Senator Ron Johnson, I look forward to our face-to-face at some point. Thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us,” Todd said as he wrapped up the interview.

“So do I,” Johnson said in closing.

Johnson and NBC News did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

While the former guy has officially launched his 2024 campaign for president, he did it considerably earlier than the start of the campaign season. We at Palmer Report largely predicted that he would do this, as Donald Trump’s campaign is meant to be little more than a distraction from the numerous scandals he faces as a former president and the multiple ones his organization is currently facing.

The media has largely ignored his new campaign, realizing it hasn’t had much to offer in the ratings department – and if they probably did pay a bit more scrutiny, the campaign would probably be even worse off, as that would require them having to concede that despite this being a serious presidential bid, Trump 2024 has no campaign manager in charge.

While you would expect Trump 2024 to be a whole bunch of rallies between now and November 2024, we haven’t had one since the midterm season wrapped up. The reason for that has become more clear – and it’s a fairly predictable one: The former guy doesn’t have the money. There haven’t actually been any formal campaign reports filed – but a number of former top GOP contributors are not supporting Trump’s latest presidential bid and Trump can’t tap into his own super PAC as a presidential candidate.

Even when it comes to grassroots fundraising there isn’t much left as Donald Trump milked those donors dry with his Stop the Steal nonsense. While the media was hoping Trump would run again for the sideshow, it turns out the sideshow isn’t even a particularly interesting one.

The post Donald Trump’s 2024 “campaign” crashes and burns appeared first on Palmer Report.

Share

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden once cracked to me that the House Intelligence Committee was known around Langley as “the land of broken toys”—a well deserved sobriquet for its long record of partisan bickering.

With the exception perhaps of Mike Rogers, the Michigan Republican who provided bipartisan leadership of the panel from 2011 to 2015, the committee has been periodically rent by partisan warfare over the past three decades, hamstringing its ability to provide sober, discreet oversight of U.S. intelligence agencies. In contrast, its Senate counterpart is widely considered a more contemplative overseer of the spy agencies under the leadership of Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Rogers was succeeded in 2015 by MAGA Republican Devin Nunes, a leading adherent of Trumpian “deep state” conspiracy theories, who in turn was succeeded by Democrat Adam Schiff, who not only chaired the panel’s highly charged investigation of Team Trump’s ties to Russia but was a leading figure in both his impeachments and the Jan. 6 committee.

Under Nunes’s purview Republicans on the intelligence committee did their own Trump-Russia probe and—no surprise—produced a report in diametric opposition to the findings of their bipartisan Senate counterpart and U.S. intelligence, that Moscow indeed interfered in the 2016 election to the benefit of Trump. Nunes accused the Democrats and FBI of manufacturing a case against the president.   

“We have gone completely off the rails, and now we’re basically a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news,” bemoaned GOP Rep. Tom Rooney during an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

After Nunes’ departure to run Trump’s TRUTH Social media operation in Jan. 2022, however, a manner of bipartisanship re-emerged between Chairman Schiff and the panel’s new Republican ranking member, Mike Turner of Ohio. Last month, they guided the FY 2023 Intelligence Authorization Act, part of the National Defense Authorization Act, to congressional approval by a vote of 350 to 80.

Alas, with Kevin McCarthy’s hand on the tiller and Turner ensconced as HPSCI’s new chair, the committee seems to be tacking back to the status quo ante. One of McCarthy’s first moves as speaker was to deny Schiff and fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell seats on the committee (and boot Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs), an obvious retribution for the Democratic majority last year voting to strip Georgia MAGA Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments after she appeared to endorse violence against Democrats. McCarthy said he was bouncing Swalwell because of the Californian’s long ago friendship with a female fundraiser later outed as a Chinese agent. Swalwell says he broke off the relationship as soon as the FBI warned him about the woman, but McCarthy this week called him a current security risk—no matter that a previous Republican speaker thoroughly briefed on the kerfuffle, Paul Ryan, kept him on the intelligence committee. The FBI also brought no charges against him.

But McCarthy may not get a free pass on Schiff. Word is that Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ assertive new leader, is going to nominate Schiff for a HPSCI seat anyway, “so as not to be cowed by McCarthy’s threats,” a committee source said. In the end, though, it’s likely Schiff will have to take a back seat to either the next highest ranking Democrat, Jim Himes, or Andre Carson to stay on the panel—that’s if he wants the continuing hyper-partisan headaches. He may not.

“Swalwell is in a slightly different position because he has reached the end of his four term limit,” the source said. “To nominate him, Hakeem would need to seek a waiver to the rules, which McCarthy would presumably deny.”

Further setting the tone for the term, incoming chair Turner has called for an “immediate review and damage assessment” on the discovery of classified documents in Biden’s former private office in D.C. and Delaware home. In stark contrast, Turner last year called Trump’s egregious mishandling of classified documents “more like a bookkeeping issue than it is a national security threat.”

Turner has been a reliable ally of Trump on other issues. In February 2022, he promoted debunked lies that Hillary Clinton “spied” on Trump’s 2016 campaign and White House, even after the Special Prosecutor looking into such claims, John Durham, dismissed that interpretation.

Bringing Home the Bacon

As his star rises, less flattering aspects of Turner’s career may get renewed attention. While he has been a reliable booster of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base back in his district, where he helped add 10,000 jobs and secured $182 million for a new National Air and Space Intelligence Center there, he’s also been knocked by fiscally conservative watchdog groups for directing federal funds to pet projects in his district, such as $250,000 for a local theater and $4 million for Open Source Research Centers intended for Radiance Technologies in Fairborn, Ohio.

In April 2019, Citizens Against Government Waste named Turner “Porker of the Month” for leading the effort to “spend more taxpayer dollars on the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history,” the F-35 program, which he succeeded in relocating to Wright-Patterson. The stealth warplane continues to have performance problems. Turner may have his own in the closely divided new congress.

Subscribe now

The U.S. came to last year’s United Nations climate conference in Sharm El-Sheik Egypt riding high. Finally, the country had passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a $369 billion dollar spending package designed to put the country on a path to eliminate its carbon emissions.

But, a few short months later, administration officials and members of Congress faced a range of questions and complaints about the landmark law. Why doesn’t it include funding to help countries most vulnerable to climate change? Could a future Republican Party undo it? Perhaps the most biting question came from allies: why does the law throw some of the U.S.’s closest partners under the bus?

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

One South Korean official called the law a “betrayal.” In the midst of the conference in Egypt, the EU dropped an extensive document complaining of “problematic” tax provisions that would harm the bloc’s industry. Japan said the law might stop its car companies from investing in the U.S. In December, Amitabh Kant, the Indian government official charged with leading this year’s G20 summit, joined the chorus, telling me the law represents “the most protectionist act ever drafted in the world.” He called on the U.S. to rethink provisions that favor U.S. manufacturing and “find a way out for its trusted partners,” including India.

The attacks are, on their face, startling. The U.S. has faced criticism for decades for failing to implement policies to cut its emissions and address the scale of climate change. Now it is being attacked for doing just that.

But the pushback is also an inevitable consequence of America’s long-awaited and full-throated embrace of climate policy. Building a clean energy economy from the ground up was always going to require new materials, supply chains, and manufacturing facilities—and new trade rules to accompany them.

Now, the attention turns to how the U.S.—and its partners and competitors—reconcile climate and trade considerations. A deft handling would support new investments in climate technology from governments across the globe, creating jobs and expanding economies at the same time. A poor handling would doom both the economy and decarbonization efforts. “We obviously need to manage this so it doesn’t go off the rails,” says Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the international climate think tank E3G. “But clearly part of the context here is that there is enough to go around in terms of growing markets, growing technologies.”

You would be forgiven for being surprised that the world turned against the IRA. For years, decades even, countries called on the U.S. to pass big climate legislation. And activists welcomed the law as a giant leap in the right direction when Biden signed it in August.

But the immense legislation—unveiled in July and passed by Congress shortly thereafter—came so quickly that foreign friends and foes alike had little chance to process its substance. When they did, they found lots not to like. The law contains a range of subsidies for things like the production of clean hydrogen, electric vehicles, and renewable energy components that incentivize manufacturers to set up shop in the U.S.

“Any policy you devise, like we did with the Green Deal, like the IRA right now, has the potential of creating tensions because you’re taking things in a different direction, which was not envisaged when you entered into trade agreements,” Frans Timmermans, the top EU climate official, told me in September. “So it’s logical that there might be issues that need to be debated.”

The tone grew only more concerned from there. In my conversation with Kant, he returned to the IRA multiple times without prompting. “You don’t [decarbonize] by being uncompetitive and doing something which you’ve been against all your life,” Kant said of his message to U.S. officials. “You believed in market forces and now you do this?”

The U.S. has mounted a response on multiple fronts. Officials, from President Biden on down, have met with their counterparts to reassure them. During French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the U.S., Biden suggested that there might be “tweaks” to the law to satisfy Macron’s concerns. With that in mind, the Biden Administration has sought to take the edge off the law in its implementation. Guidance released by the Treasury Department in late December suggested that the U.S. would try to take a flexible approach as it implements the IRA’s auto provisions.

But for the most part the U.S. remains adamant that the law is actually a huge boon to other countries. The enormous American investment in the IRA will bring down the cost of clean energy technology not just for the U.S. but also for the rest of the world. In doing so, officials say, the U.S. is footing the green energy research and development costs bill for everyone else.

“It falls upon the most able countries in the world, including the United States, to make the investments that will commercialize these technologies and lower their costs for the rest of the world,” said John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, in November. “By the time 2030 approaches, folks, we’re going to have made clean technologies much more accessible, much more affordable for the rest of the world.”

Whether they like it or not, foreign leaders will ultimately need to accept that the law isn’t going to change much. John Podesta, who is charged with overseeing the implementation of the IRA, said in November that he was “fully engaged” in discussions regarding the concerns, but added that “the law is the law.”

What happens next? Some officials in Europe have called for the EU to match the IRA’s approach rather than trying to fight it. India is pursuing a “Make in India” program to bolster its own domestic clean energy manufacturing. Greater production of clean energy technology is, of course, a good thing. But policymakers need to make sure that these developments amount to a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom. To do that will require officials to have serious conversations in multilateral forums about new rules of the road that will allow for the development of domestic clean energy manufacturing while still encouraging global trade.

“Whatever we do, let’s not have a confrontation on these issues,” said Timmermans. “Let’s solve them. So that we’re all on the same page.”

Kant says the G20 forum which he is leading this year on behalf of the Indian government is an opportunity for the world’s largest economies to discuss these issues. Kant is particularly keen on developing rules of the road for so-called green hydrogen, a fuel source that many hope could provide a clean fuel source for industry.

Conversations are also happening at the World Trade Organization and between individual countries. The intersection of trade and climate will certainly be on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. All the better. “What is the best space?,” asks Meyer. ”We need a multitude of spaces where this conversation can develop.”

An activist stands on a pole high above the ground as another hangs on a rope fastened between poles as police close in at the settlement of Luetzerath on January 13, 2023 near Erkelenz, Germany.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

• Climate activists in Germany are protesting a coal deal between energy company RWE and the Green party.
• On Saturday, police evicted thousands of protesters who had gathered in the settlement of Lützerath.
• Protesters used delayed officers in deep mud but were met with “pure violence,” organizers said.

Climate change activists in Germany braved deep mud and “pure violence,” organizers say, as they faced off against police on Saturday to protest an energy deal that will raze the abandoned village of Lützerath to expand a coal pit. 

Thousands of protesters — among them, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and a person dressed as some kind of wizard— attempted to protect the coal beneath Lützerath from being mined by setting up barricades and treehouses, using rope systems to evade capture, and ensnaring officers in deep mud. 

Portions of the confrontation circulated on Reddit, with the mud wizard appearing to taunt officers who had fallen or became stuck in the mud, though the demonstration was not as peaceful as it was portrayed in some social media posts. 

France24 reported that Indigo Drau, a spokeswoman for the organizers of the protest, said during a Sunday press conference that police approached demonstrators with “pure violence” and “unrestrainedly” beat them, often on the head.

Police estimate 15,000 protesters were present at the demonstration on Saturday, though organizers estimate that number closer to 35,000 according to reports. At least 20 activists were taken to hospital for treatment of injuries received during the clash, France24 reported Birte Schramm, a medic with the group said.

Though some stragglers remain in the area, most of the activists were ultimately removed and the demolition of Lützerath is underway, Politico reported.

The deal, made between the left-leaning political Green party and the largest German coal company, RWE, has been toted as a climate-saving agreement by the politicians who brokered it. While the deal lays the groundwork to phase out coal in Germany by 2030, it allows RWE to demolish Lützerath as part of the company’s plan to expand the Garzweiler mine located nearby.

Police in riot gear carry away an activist out of the settlement of Luetzerath on January 13, 2023 near Erkelenz, Germany.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“It’s a gut punch that Green ministers now try to sell this backroom coal deal as a success,” Politico reported Olaf Bandt, the chair of the non-governmental German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation, said. “We won’t accept that.”

Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy and climate minister — and a member of the Green party that helped complete the deal — said in a video posted to Twitter that the agreement is a “painful” but necessary compromise caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has forced Germany to reboot its coal plants. 

Critics argue that Germany has enough coal reserves without accessing the brown coal located beneath Lützerath and allowing RWE access to the coal will prevent Germany from meeting the CO2 budget that was agreed to with the Paris Agreement. 

Climate activist Greta Thunberg (r) stands between Keyenberg and Lützerath under police guard on the edge of the open pit mine and dances.

Federico Gambarini/picture alliance via Getty Images

“Not all things around the climate crisis are black and white, but this is,” climate activist Luisa Neubauer posted on Twitter about the protests. “If we want to see a world with less crisis, we need the fossil fuel destruction to be stopped. And we need governments to hold fossil fuel companies accountable, to put people over fossil fuel profits.”

The mayor of New York traveled to the Mexican border city of El Paso on Sunday and declared that “there is no room in New York” for busloads of migrants being sent to America’s most populous city.

Eric Adams, a Democrat, was also critical of the administration of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, saying “now is the time for the national government to do its job” about the immigrant crisis at America’s southern border.

The visit of a New York mayor to a southern border city about the issue of immigrants is unprecedented.

Busloads of migrants have been shipped north to New York and other cities by Republican run states. That has exacerbated a housing crisis in New York and a worsening homeless crisis in the city.

Adams’s trip to El Paso comes after he said the migrant influx into New York could cost the city as much as $2 billion, at a time when the city is already facing a major budget shortfall.

In recent months the Republican governors of Florida and Texas have sent thousands of migrants seeking sanctuary in the U.S. to cities run by Democratic politicians, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Related Galleries:

---

It was the wee early morning hours. Many were still cozily asleep in bed. Perhaps you were as well. And if you were, you just might have missed the latest meltdown from the worst President in the history of presidents. “I have done nothing wrong!”

Yep. That’s the Donald on Truth Social, obsessing over himself — again. Only this time was a bit different because Trump wrote a little short story. The boy who cried wolf is an example of a short story. It is also a parable. Trump’s short story was about three pages long and was even charmingly numbered. How sweet!

Let us examine this little fictitious short story together.

Page one largely consisted of whining about how much cooler Biden’s special council is over his own. Trump also added that what he did was RIGHT. Whatever. On the plus side — no talking in the third person this time. Small favor.

Page two was more paranoia about various people being out to get him and talking about what a great guy he is and how he did nothing wrong.

Page three was funny. The “boxes Hoax case,” as Trump charmingly called it, needs to be dropped immediately! Yes, I’m sure Jack Smith saw this and thought to himself: “Wow. I better drop the case. Trump says he’s innocent.”

Of course, all of this is lies. This short story is entirely fictitious. But it did make me think of the story of the boy who cried wolf and that is why I mentioned that wonderful little story. The difference between that boy and Trump is the boy who cried wolf eventually told the truth once — and wasn’t believed.

I do not think Trump has ever told the truth about anything, but he has so ruined his own reputation that even if he ever did, nobody would believe him. Take this fake numerically written rant on truth social. Every word of it is a lie. It is pure fiction.

But it does show Trump’s panic. I believe that every time Trump has a meltdown of this sort, he reveals the truth in his own way. And that truth is he is panic stricken. He is afraid of what’s coming for him, but we, the villagers, the voters, the truth seekers, already know what that is — justice.

The post Donald Trump is getting eaten alive by his own paranoia appeared first on Palmer Report.