19: Ukraine

17: Ukraine

U.S. tries to woo India away from Russia with display of F-35s, bombers The United States brought its most advanced fighter jet, the F-35, to India for the first time this week alongside F-16s, Super Hornets and B-1B bombers as Washington looks to woo New Delhi away from its traditional military supplier, Russia. ........ In contrast, Russia, India's largest weapons supplier since the Soviet Union days, had a nominal presence. Its state-owned weapons exporter Rosoboronexport had a joint stall with United Aircraft and Almaz-Antey, displaying miniature models of aircraft, trucks, radars and tanks. ....... The United States is selective about which countries it allows to buy the F-35. ....... The United States has approved arms sales worth more than $6 billion to India in the last six years, including transport aircraft, Apache, Chinook and MH-60 helicopters, missiles, air defence systems, naval guns and P-8I Poseidon surveillance aircraft. ....... .

How a Tiny NATO Nation Tackled a Big Problem: Arming Ukraine Luxembourg’s challenges in buying arms on the open market underscore the struggle to keep Ukraine supplied until sophisticated Western weapons arrive in the spring........ Luxembourg’s military consists of fewer than 1,000 troops, one cargo plane, two helicopters shared with police forces and fewer than 200 trucks ......... the vexing problem of supplying Ukraine with the arms it needs to hold off Russia until the arrival of sophisticated Western rockets, missiles and tanks later this year. ........ Ukraine has been burning through ammunition at a prodigious rate since the start of the war ........ But determined to make a greater contribution to the war effort, Luxembourg set up a two-man team of in-house arms dealers soon after the Russian invasion. They set out to scour commercial weapons markets in Europe and the United States, and to demonstrate that their country’s commitment to defeating Russia was every bit as big as that of its much larger NATO partners. ......... He also drew a parallel to Luxembourg’s history as an invaded state during World War I and World War II. “We were occupied many times in the last century, so we have an enormous sensibility for what it means for what is now happening in Ukraine” ..............

“We cannot let Putin do what he intends.”

......... Luxembourg spends less on its military than any other NATO country, and was the only state in the alliance to contribute less than 1 percent of its gross domestic product to national defense last year. .......... Luxembourg, with a G.D.P. above $130,000 per person — by far the highest in NATO ........ painstaking, often frustrating negotiations with commercial brokers, cold calls to manufacturers and even Google searches to track down weapons that Ukraine says it needs. .

How Democracy Can Win The Right Way to Counter Autocracy ............ the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Without a doubt, American democracy had been shown to be far more fragile than it was when Biden left the vice presidency in 2017. ......... early 2022 may prove to be a high-water mark for authoritarianism. Putin’s ambitions to dominate Ukraine failed miserably, thanks to the unwavering resolve and courage of the Ukrainian people. Putin made mistake after strategic mistake while the free people of Ukraine successfully mobilized, innovated, and adapted. ......... Graft has rotted the Russian military from within, yielding reports of soldiers selling fuel and weapons on the black market. Russian commanders have taken massive risks with the lives of their soldiers: conscripts arrive at the front having been lied to and manipulated rather than properly trained. To avoid upsetting their superiors, military leaders have supplied overly rosy assessments of their ability to conquer Ukraine, leading one pro-Russian militia commander to call self-deception “the herpes of the Russian army.” ............ Most European countries are in a race to decouple their economies from Russia, and Finland and Sweden are on the brink of joining an expanded and united NATO. Public opinion of Russia and Putin has plummeted in countries around the world, reaching record lows ......... In Russia’s immediate neighborhood, Moscow’s traditional security and economic partners are staying neutral, refusing to host joint military exercises, seeking to reduce their economic dependence on Russia, and upholding the sanctions regimes. Russians themselves are voting with their feet: officially, hundreds of thousands of citizens have fled, but the true number is likely well over one million and includes tens of thousands of valued high-tech workers. ........... Between mid-2020 and the end of 2022, populist leaders saw an average decline of 10 percentage points in their approval ratings in 27 countries ........

Autocrats are now on the back foot.

....... For the last three decades, advocates of democracy have focused too narrowly on defending rights and freedoms, neglecting the pain and dangers of economic hardship and inequality. We have also failed to contend with the risks associated with new digital technologies, including surveillance technologies, that autocratic governments have learned to exploit to their advantage. It is time to coalesce around a new agenda for aiding the cause of global freedom, one that addresses the economic grievances that populists have so effectively exploited, that defangs so-called digital authoritarianism, and that reorients traditional democracy assistance to grapple with modern challenges......... The U.S. Agency for International Development, the institution I lead and the largest provider of democracy assistance in the world, has had “clear and consistent impacts” on civil society, judicial and electoral processes, media independence, and overall democratization .......... .

The Inflation Story Has Changed Significantly. Paul Krugman Breaks It Down. The Nobel laureate economist discusses inflation’s slowdown, the G.O.P.’s incoherent economic agenda and A.I.’s impact on the labor market. ........... Brad DeLong, my friend, an economist and historian, has this wonderful book called “Slouching Towards Utopia,” which is a history of what he calls the long 20th century. And if you just want to understand how the world changed from — he says that 1870 was the pivot point of history ........ “How the War Was Won” by Phillips O’Brien, who’s a military historian. And it’s a book about World War II, but he’s become a prolific commentator on the war in Ukraine, and it’s mostly — it’s this wonderfully unromantic, anti-glory view of war. It’s all about, look, it’s really about — modern war is about production and logistics. The opening sentence is, I think, “There were no decisive battles of World War II.” And it opened my eyes to thinking about how both about that history and about how to think about what’s happening in Ukraine now. ........... a fantasy novel by Leigh Bardugo called “Ninth House,” which is set at Yale. ........... every $10 million of democracy assistance it provided between 1992 and 2000 contributed to a seven-point jump on the 100-point global electoral democracy index maintained by the nonprofit Varieties of Democracy. ........... a host of interrelated factors contribute to democracy’s struggles: polarization, significant inequality and widespread economic dissatisfaction, the explosion of disinformation in the public sphere, political gridlock, the rise of China as a strategic competitor of the United States, and the spread of digital authoritarianism aimed at repressing free expression and expanding government power. ......... must help societies address economic concerns that antidemocratic forces have exploited; take the fight for democracy into the digital realm, just as autocracies have.........

At the core of democratic theory and practice is respect for the dignity of the individual.

........ But among the biggest errors many democracies have made since the Cold War is to view individual dignity primarily through the prism of political freedom without being sufficiently attentive to the indignity of corruption, inequality, and a lack of economic opportunity. ......... building coalitions to tackle these intersecting problems. ......... When we help democratic leaders provide vaccines to their people, bring down inflation or high food prices, send children to school, or reopen markets after a natural disaster, we are demonstrating—in a way that a free press or vibrant civil society cannot always do—that democracy delivers. ....... The task before reformist leaders is enormous. Often they inherit budgets laden with debt, economies hollowed out by corruption, civil services built on patronage, or a combination of all three. When Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema took office in 2021 after winning a landslide victory over an incumbent whose regime had arrested him more than a dozen times, he discovered that his predecessors had accumulated over $30 billion in unserviceable debt, nearly one and a half times the country’s GDP, with very little new infrastructure or return on borrowing to show for it. In Moldova, where the anticorruption advocate Maia Sandu was elected president in 2020, a single corruption scandal had previously siphoned off a whopping 12 percent of the country’s GDP. ........ USAID has also partnered with Vodafone to expand the reach of a mobile app called m-mama to every region in Tanzania. The app is akin to an Uber for expectant mothers, helping pregnant women who lack ambulance services reach health facilities and contributing to a significant decrease in maternal mortality. .......... Even individuals can do their part to support democracy by considering a democratic bright spot for their next vacation. ........... Over the past four decades, Beijing has transformed from one of the largest recipients of foreign assistance to the largest bilateral provider of development finance, mostly in the form of loans. ........... Much of the development financing China offers, even to highly indebted poor countries, is provided at nonconcessional market rates through opaque agreements hidden from the public. According to the World Bank, 40 percent of the debt owed by the world’s poorest countries is held by China. .......... with Chinese lenders rarely agreeing to reductions in interest rates or the principal. ......... Chinese lending to African countries increased closer to elections and that funds disproportionately wound up in the hometowns of political leaders. ....... Together with the rest of the G-7, the United States plans to mobilize $600 billion in private and public investment by 2027 to finance global infrastructure. .......... and expand secure and open 5G and 6G digital networks so that countries don’t have to rely on Chinese-built networks that may be susceptible to surveillance. ............. Authoritarian regimes use surveillance systems and facial recognition software to track and monitor critics, journalists, and other members of civil society with the goal of repressing opponents and stifling protests. They also export this technology abroad; China has provided surveillance technology to at least 80 countries through its Digital Silk Road initiative. .......... We blacklisted flagrant offenders, such as Positive Technologies and NSO Group, both of which sold hacking tools to authoritarian governments. ........ perhaps the biggest threat to democracy from the digital realm is disinformation and other forms of information manipulation. ......... 81 governments have used social media in malign campaigns to spread disinformation, in some cases in concert with the regimes in Moscow and Beijing .............. Both countries have spent vast sums manipulating the information environment to fit their narratives by disseminating false stories, flooding search engines to drown out unfavorable results, and attacking and doxxing their critics. ...........

We also helped support the production of the online comedy show Newspalm, which regularly racks up tens of thousands of views as it skewers Putin’s lies.

........... have heard from independent journalists around the world that one of the major impediments to their work, in addition to death threats and intimidation, is lawsuits brought against them by those whose corruption they seek to expose ......... These frivolous lawsuits can cost journalists and their outlets millions of dollars, putting some out of business and creating a chilling effect for others. ............ Autocrats no longer simply stuff ballot boxes on election day; they spend years tilting the playing field through cyber-hacking and voter suppression. ........... corruption that is occurring on a grand international scale, abetted by an industry of shadowy facilitators. .......... We support global investigative units that unite forensic accountants and journalists to expose illicit dealings, including those detailed in the Luxembourg Leaks and the Pandora Papers. And as corruption grows more complex and global in scope, we are helping link investigative journalists across borders, including in Latin America, where such efforts have uncovered the mismanagement of nearly $300 million in public funding. ............ Democracy is not in decline. Rather, it is under attack. Under attack from within by forces of division, ethno­nationalism, and repression. And under attack from without by autocratic governments and leaders who seek to exploit the inherent vulnerabilities of open societies by undermining election integrity, weaponizing corruption, and spreading disinformation to strengthen their own grip on power. Worse, these autocrats increasingly work together, sharing tricks and technologies to repress their populations at home and weaken democracy abroad. ............ second Democracy Summit—this time, held simultaneously in Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United States, and Zambia— .



How did Hindenburg short Adani stock? People familiar with the firm’s modus operandi say it may have used single stock futures and the help of western banks in Singapore ....... the firm had taken a short position in Adani “through US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments”. ........ a 100-page report .......... Despite Adani denying the allegations in a 400-page rebuttal, Hindenburg’s report has triggered a sell-off in the group’s listed entities, knocking more than $100bn off their combined market value. ......... Short sellers typically borrow stocks through a broker, sell those shares on the market and hope that the price will go down. If it does, they buy shares to hand back to the lender and pocket the difference........ “I was looking at Adani myself for a short last summer and one of the reasons why I decided not to investigate it further is because of the difficulty of shorting it in India,” said Gabriel Grego, a hedge fund manager at Quintessential Capital, who is waging a short selling campaign at cyber security group Darktrace......... Hindenburg found a way. Investors who want to bet against an Indian company can do so using India’s main stock index, the Nifty 50, in which Adani Enterprises is one of the largest constituents ....... short sellers can do these types of trades, can create a product called a single stock future. ........ In Hindenburg’s case, it would receive the value of Adani Enterprises’ weighting in the index and the rest would be sold in the market. ........ the research took two years. ........... Hindenburg enlisted the help of an outside analyst who focused on Indian companies to investigate Adani. This analyst led the research with the help of a team of five Hindenburg employees. The team decided to release the report days before a planned $2.4bn share sale by Adani last month.......... The timing was crucial because Hindenburg’s report cast doubts on the anchor investor group involved in the fundraising, which included Mauritius-based entities. The short seller alleged these had links to the Adani family and were buying shares to prop up the stock price of the listed businesses in the group. Adani has denied the allegations. .......... a now infamous video that showed a functioning Nikola prototype that the short seller said was actually moving only because it was rolling downhill. ........ Anderson also made a winning bet on Twitter, shorting the company’s stock in May just as Elon Musk sought to get out of his offer to buy it. ......... Shares in property investment group Welltower have risen more than 15 per cent since Hindenburg published a report in December alleging one of its critical partnerships was a “sham”. ......... Shares in medical devices group Establishment Labs are up more than 30 per cent since Hindenburg described it as a “financially stretched silicone safety charade” in October. ........... have portrayed the report as an attack on India and a “hit job” on its markets. ........ accused Hindenburg of spreading “malicious lies” .

Adani hires US legal powerhouse Wachtell in short-seller battle
Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the US and NATO can produce it. Inside the Pentagon’s plan to close the gap The US and its allies have already sent nearly $50 billion in aid and equipment to Ukraine’s military over the past year. To keep that up, and to rebuild its own stockpiles, the Pentagon is racing to re-arm, embarking on the biggest increase in ammunition production in decades, and putting portions of the US defense industry on a war-footing despite America technically not being at war. ........ The Pentagon has allocated roughly $3 billion alone to buy munitions overseas from allies and to ramp up production at home. Some of that money will go toward producing what has become a staple of the war – 155 millimeter artillery shells. ........ The Army is planning a 500% increase in artillery shell production, from 15,000 a month to 70,000 ....... Across the US, munitions factories are increasing production as fast as possible. A Lockheed Martin plant in Camden, Arkansas, is cranking out a series of rockets and missiles, including those used by the Army’s Patriot missile system – all of which are in high demand in Ukraine. Bush told reporters in January that the Army was standing up a new plant in Garland, Texas to make artillery shells, while an existing plant is being expanded in Middletown, Iowa that loads, packs and assembles 155 millimeter shells. ........ the Army intends to double the production of Javelin anti-tank missiles, make roughly 33% more Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) surface-to-surface medium-range missiles a year, and produce each month a minimum of 60 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles – which were “almost not in production at all” ........

Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the US and NATO can produce them

. ........ As Ukraine prepares for a much-anticipated spring offensive in the coming weeks, the US is still years away from reaching its expected level of increased weapons production. ........ “For Ukraine, the challenges are more immediate and medium term, while much of the added US production capacity appears to be two years in the future” ......... it will take anywhere from 12 to 18 months for the US to reach its “max” production rate of 70,00 artillery shells a month. ........ In Brussels this week, top US defense officials struck an optimistic tone about being able to deliver Ukraine what it needs. ......... the international community “will continue to support Ukraine” until Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends his war of choice.” .........

the rate of weapons production could make all the difference on the battlefield.

....... “We are still the arsenal of democracy,” Bush said. “And nobody does it better than the United States.”

The Taliban are digging an enormous canal A mega-project in northern Afghanistan risks raising regional tensions some 5,500 people are working around the clock on the project, using over 3,300 bits of machinery. Once completed, the Qosh Tepa Canal will divert water from the Amu Darya river for irrigation. The river, once known as the Oxus, rises in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, flows into Uzbekistan and is one of the longest in Central Asia. The Taliban expects the project to turn 550,000 hectares of desert into much-needed farmland. .

माओवादी कांग्रेसतिर ढल्किन खोज्दा ओलीको नजरमा महन्थ र अशोक ! माघ २७ मा ओलीले गाडीमा लिफ्ट दिएर ठाकुरलाई आफ्नो निवास बोलकोट लिएका थिए । ओली र ठाकुरबीच राष्ट्रपतिका सन्दर्भमा एक घण्टा छलफल भएको थियो । लोसपाका एक नेताका अनुसार ओलीले राष्ट्रपतिका लागि ठाकुरलाई प्रस्ताव गरेका थिए । ....... ओलीको भनाइ उद्धत गर्दै लोसपाका एक नेताले भने, ‘मेरो प्रयत्न पुस १० को सहमति कार्यान्वयन गराउने छ । त्यो परिस्थिति बन्छ जस्तो लागेको छैन । राष्ट्रपतिमा तपाई पनि उठ्नुपर्ने हुन सक्छ । के छ मनस्थिति ?’ ...... प्रमुख दलहरुले राष्ट्रपतिमा आवश्यकता महसुस गरे आफू तयार रहेको ओलीलाई ठाकुरको जवाफ थियो । ....... भारतका विश्वासपात्र ठाकुरलाई राष्ट्रपतिमा प्रस्ताव गरेर ओलीले कांग्रेस–माओवादीलाई अप्ठ्यारो पार्ने नीति लिएको नेताहरू बताउँछन् । ....... ओलीको प्रस्तावपछि ठाकुरले पनि राष्ट्रपतिका लागि आन्तरिक गृहकार्य बढाएको पाइएको छ । लोसपाका नेता डा. सुरेन्द्र झाका अनुसार केही दिनमा कांग्रेस सभापति शेरबहादुर देउवासँग भेटवार्ता गर्ने तयारी छ । ...... ‘उहाँ माओवादी, कांग्रेस र एमालेका लागि स्वीकार्य व्यक्ति हो । गणतन्त्र र संघीयतामा प्रधानमन्त्रीजीसँग स्प्रीड मिल्छ भने कांग्रेसमा उहाँले लामो समय राजनीति गर्नु भएको छ,’ नेता झा भन्छन्, ‘ओलीजीलाई विगतमा गुन लगाउन भएको छ । उहाँको नाममा राष्ट्रिय सहमति भन्ने परिस्थिति बन्दै गएको छ ।’ ... तर ओलीले भने ठाकुरका साथै अहिले एमालेसँग नजिक रहेका जसपाका अध्यक्ष राईलाई पनि राष्ट्रपतिको उम्मेदवार बन्न ग्रीनसिंनल दिएको स्रोतले रातोपाटीलाई बतायो । पूर्व एमाले पृष्ठभूमिका राई गत निर्वाचनमा एमालेको साथमा सुनसरी १ बाट सांसद निर्वाचित भएका थिए । ........ सत्ता दलीय गठबन्धनमा पुस १० मा भएको सहमति कार्यान्वयन गर्न जटिल भएपछि ओलीले एमाले बाहेकको खोजी थालेको कांग्रेस नेताहरू पनि बताउँछन् । ...... साना दलका नेता पनि खोजिराख्नु भएको छ । नागरिक समाजबाट पनि खोजिराख्नु भएको छ ।’ ....... ‘पार्टीले सबैलाई मान्य हुनेगरी उपयुक्त उम्मेदवार उठाउँछ । गठबन्धन कायम रहन्छ ।’

के छ बालेन शाहको मुद्दामा सर्वोच्चले दिएको अन्तरिम आदेशमा ? (आदेशसहित)
डिल्लीबजार कारागारमा रेशम चौधरीको हाइफाई जिन्दगी, पाउँछन् अतिरिक्त सुविधा
राष्ट्रपतिबारे ओलीको प्रस्तावमा प्रचण्डले दिए तीन विकल्प



Moscow’s Military Capabilities Are in Question After Failed Battle for Ukrainian City A disastrous Russian assault on Vuhledar, viewed as an opening move in an expected spring offensive, has renewed doubts about Moscow’s ability to sustain a large-scale ground assault.......... a faltering Russian campaign that continues to be plagued by battlefield dysfunction. ......... as President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces seek to demonstrate progress before the anniversary of his invasion on Feb. 24. ........ a large part of Russia’s army is already fighting in Ukraine. ....... about 80 percent of Russia’s ground forces are dedicated to the war effort. ........ Vuhledar, which sits at the intersection of the eastern front in the Donetsk region and the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region, has long been in Moscow’s sights. It has been used by Ukraine as a base for harassing shipments on an important rail line supplying Russian forces. ......... He said the attacks on Vuhledar had been no surprise — the Russians even warned the Ukrainians of the coming assault through social media channels, in an apparent attempt to scare them ............. As they have done throughout the war, the Russian commanders made some basic mistakes, in this case failing to take into account the terrain — open fields littered with antitank mines — or the strength of the Ukrainian forces ........ In one week alone in the Vuhledar clash, the Ukrainian General Staff estimates, Russia lost at least 130 armored vehicles, including 36 tanks. ......... “a whole Russian brigade was effectively annihilated” in Vuhledar, where he said that Moscow “lost over 1,000 people in two days.” ......... “a president and a Russian general staff that defies reality or ignores reality and simply doesn’t care how many people they are killing of their own, let alone of the people they are trying to oppress.” ........... The Russians faced another problem in Vuhledar from Ukraine’s deployment of American-made HIMARS missiles that forced commanders to position large concentrations of forces more than 50 miles from the front. That made it hard to attack with either speed or surprise. ....... those who survived the battle were considered deserters. .......... Despite the setbacks, Moscow has continued to insist that all is going according to plan. On Sunday, Mr. Putin said that the “marine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.” .

In 46 Words, Biden Sends a Clear Message to Israel a concern that the radical transformation of Israel’s judicial system that Netanyahu’s ultranationalist, ultrareligious coalition is trying to slam through the Knesset could seriously damage Israel’s democracy and therefore its close ties to America and democracies everywhere. ......... “I can’t be silent,” Mandelblit concluded. “If there is no independent judiciary, it’s over. It’s a different system of government.” ...... Biden is telling Israel our relationship has never truly rested on shared interests. It’s always been built up from our shared values. That is why it has endured so long — even when we disagree on interests. .

Canned Tomatoes, Explained Whole peeled, crushed, puréed or paste? There’s a time and a place for each. ...... Tomato purée is already cooked, blended and strained, so it’s seed-free and more concentrated ....... .

There’s nothing to see in Ohio. pic.twitter.com/SLNwPt961e

— Douglas A. Boneparth (@dougboneparth) February 16, 2023

“A lost war in Ukraine is a steppingstone to war in the Asia Pacific”
“If the US wants to go to war in Asia,then the most correct path to this is to show weakness in Ukraine as well”
Mikhail Khodorkovsky will speak @MunSecConf this week@CatherineBelton https://t.co/A5FQrGMV2m

— Mikhail Khodorkovsky (English) (@mbk_center) February 16, 2023