More tanks for Ukraine
The Biden administration has a plan send up to 50 M1 Abrams tanks to UkraineUS officials said yesterday it would be an important step in arming Kiev as it tries to retake its territory from Russia. It may take years before those tanks reach Ukraine, but this announcement will clear the way for Germany and other countries to send their battle tanks.
The plan to send Abrams tanks comes after a bitter confrontation last week, during a meeting of NATO defense chiefs, over the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s refusal to send Leopard tanks, to which many experts are concerned. Military experts believe that can be the decisive weapon in Ukraine hand.
German officials have privately asserted that the country will only send tanks if the US agrees to send its own M1 Abrams tanks. Publicly, US and German officials have denied that the two issues are related, but the German media last night reported that Scholz had decided to send the tanks. The Prime Minister will address the National Assembly today.
In other news from the war: Some of Ukraine’s top officials have was fired yesterday amid an exploding corruption scandalthe biggest upheaval in the country’s government since the Russian invasion began 11 months ago.
Can Germany be a military power again?
When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, German military planners began to consider the sudden possibility of a major European land war – one that required German soldiers to defend their territory. European territory. Those fears have become more acute, leading, last year, to the announcement of plans for biggest jump in German military spending since World War II.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, skepticism about the value of military power facilitated the long post-Cold War disarmament process in Germany. Now, German leaders vow to turn the country into a military power capable of taking charge of Europe’s security. But German society, in which the Nazi past envelops, remains hesitant.
The fact that German soldiers were constantly implicated in high-profile cases of right-wing extremism did not help ease this discomfort. Russian propagandists are clearly trying to strike a chord as they react to Germany’s current plans by suggesting that the country is turning back to Nazism.
Story: Every recent US administration has tried, and most failed, to get the Germans and other European allies to bolster their militaries and meet NATO’s defense spending target of 2%. gross domestic product, a goal that Germany has long set.
California reels from rising gun violence
The death toll from two mass shootings in California in the past few days has increased at least 18 people. Those tragedies are just two in a series of mass shootings this month in a state that, overall, has some of the nation’s lowest gun violence death rates, as well as some of the strictest gun laws. its.
In Northern California, a 66-year-old man was taken into custody after fatally shooting seven people Monday. The eighth victim was hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Officials said suspect Zhao Chunli was an employee at one of the shooting locations. And in Southern California, investigators continue to search for a motive for Saturday night’s massacre at a dance venue in Monterey Park.
The cases, which took place during the Lunar New Year holiday, claimed the lives of most of the victims who were immigrants: the elderly Asian-Americans at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, and the Asian and Latino agricultural workers around. Half Moon Bay. The suspects in those two shootings were Asian immigrant men in their 60s and 70s – a rare age for attackers in mass shootings.
Text definition: Just over a week ago, in an attack that authorities compared to a drug gang execution, six people were shot dead in rural central California. And on Monday night, one person was killed and seven injured in a gunfight in Oakland.
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At the world’s most elusive surfing event, Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, a local lifeguard, Luke Shepardson, Beat the top professional surfers to win the trophy.
“I have to get back to the tower,” Shepardson, who accepted the award in her uniform, said after a brief celebration. “I have to go back to the tower to make sure everyone is okay for the rest of the day.”
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From the Era: Mikaela Shiffrin made skiing history, winning the 83rd World Cup of her career, the most of any female athlete in the history of the sport. At the Australian Open, Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul squared in the first all-American Grand Slam quarterfinals for 16 years.
