Keeping Everyone In The Troop
February 3, 2022
The Good News
- Government backs bill to promote use of British Sign Language (BBC)
- Dolce&Gabbana announces it will drop use of animal fur starting this year (NBC)
“I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” – Thomas Paine
Keeping Everyone In The Troop
Vladimir Putin is playing a dangerous game by amassing tens of thousands of well-equipped Russian troops along Ukraine’s border. A diplomatic solution may not be dead, but it’s clearly on life support, and now President Biden has made an attempt to put Moscow in check. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced Wednesday that an additional 2,000 U.S. troops will be deployed to Poland and Germany, and 1,000 troops currently based in Germany will relocate to Romania. Kirby said the moves were not permanent but rather to show support for our Eastern European NATO allies who are feeling threatened by Putin’s provocative behavior. Kirby explained that the troops being deployed were separate from the 8,500 U.S. troops placed on heightened alert last month, and that more troops could still be deployed in coming days. However, he was careful to emphasize that “these forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.”
Russia has shown no signs of de-escalating after several rounds of diplomatic talks with the U.S. and NATO. Biden signed off on the additional troops following a meeting Tuesday morning at the White House with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley. Predictably, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the U.S. for ramping up tension in Europe, saying the deployments are “the best proof that we, as Russia, have an obvious reason to be worried.” The decision shouldn’t have been a surprise. “It’s totally consistent with what I told Putin in the beginning,” Biden said in a brief exchange in the White House East Room. “As long as he’s acting aggressively, we’re going to make sure we reassure our NATO allies and Eastern Europe we’re there and Article V is a sacred obligation.”
Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said an invasion by Russian troops of Ukraine continued to be “imminent.” The statement rattled Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, who argued such a description could cause panic and economic turmoil. This week Psaki, acknowledged that her description could send “a message that we weren’t intending to send, which was that we knew President Putin had made a decision [to invade].”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the decision to deploy additional forces to Europe. In a statement, Stoltenberg said: “This is a powerful signal of U.S. commitment, and comes on top of other recent U.S. contributions to our shared security – including 8,500 troops at high readiness for the NATO Response Force, and the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group under NATO command in the Mediterranean.” (CNN, USNI News)
Egypt Off The Old Block
- Candidate Joe Biden vowed to end “blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator,’” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and make human rights prominent in his administration’s foreign policy. But Biden’s record on Egypt disappoints.
- In February 2021, the administration approved nearly $200 million in missile sales to Egypt, days after el-Sisi’s government detained family members of a U.S.-based Egyptian American human rights activist. In September, the administration released $170 million of a controversial $300 million tranche of aid for Egypt, despite legislation requiring all $300 million be withheld unless Egypt takes steps to “strengthen the rule of law, democratic institutions, and human rights in Egypt.”
- Just $130 million was held back, conditioned on Egypt ending prosecution and investigations of human rights groups and activists, and releasing 16 detained individuals. When Egypt failed to meet the conditions last week, the administration continued withholding the $130 million, a move both punitive and symbolic. However, what’s being withheld is dwarfed by the $2.5 billion sale of U.S. weapons and equipment to Egypt the administration authorized days earlier. (WaPo, CNN)
Divine Intervention
- Archbishop Chrystostomos II, the head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church, said Sunday that he is suspending a dozen priests from his diocese because they refused to heed his call to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Archbishop said most of the priests are also theologians who have swayed some of the faithful not to get vaccinated.
- He called the insubordination “unheard of” and warned that the suspensions could be extended to six months or lead to the priests being defrocked. Chrysostomos suggested that some of the unvaccinated priests may be emboldened to defy him because of his frail health. Coronavirus infections in Cyprus remain high, as do the number of hospitalized patients, though health authorities say infections are tapering off, and the system is coping. (ABC News)
Additional World News
- President of Guinea-Bissau Reasserts Control After Fears of Another Coup in Africa (NYT, $)
- Biden says he will designate Qatar as major non-NATO ally (The Hill)
- India railway protests: Protesters torch trains as frustration over lack of jobs for young people boils over (WaPo, $)
- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto keeps quiet back channel to Putin as tensions rise (WaPo, $)
- Denmark becomes first EU country to lift all Covid-19 restrictions (CNN)
- Norway mass killer Anders Breivik ordered to stay in jail (BBC)
- New Zealand Covid rules: Pregnant journalist in Afghanistan can go home (NBC)
Not-So-Smooth Jailing
- The federal prison system was placed on nationwide lockdown Monday in “an abundance of caution” after a gang fight at a high-security penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas left two inmates dead. Several inmates at the facility, which houses 1,372 male prisoners, started a violent altercation around noon, and four people had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.
- Guillermo Riojas, 54, serving 38 years for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce, and Andrew Pineda, 34, serving six and a half years on racketeering charges, were pronounced dead by hospital staff. The Bureau of Prisons’ decision to lock down all of its 120 facilities is rare. Officials worried that the deadly fight, which included members of the Salvadoran street gang MS-13, could set off riots at other facilities. (NYT, $)
The Long Army Of The Law
- On Wednesday, the U.S. Army immediately began discharging soldiers who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccination, saying the move was critical to maintaining combat readiness. The order applies to regular army soldiers, active-duty army reservists, and cadets, unless they have approved or pending exemptions.
- The Pentagon made vaccines mandatory for all service members in August 2021. The air force gave its members until November 2 to get the vaccine. Thereafter 27 airmen, none of whom had sought an exemption, were discharged for disobeying the mandate. Some 79 uniformed military personnel across the different services have died from the virus. (Guardian)
Additional USA News
- Georgia DA investigating Trump asks FBI for security help (AP)
- Biden’s FDA pick makes major ethics pledges to win over Elizabeth Warren (Politico)
- US says it fired missiles during latest Houthi attack on UAE (Al Jazeera)
- DeSantis says people calling for him to condemn Nazis are trying to ‘smear’ him (CNN)
- 1 in 4 Americans say violence against the government is sometimes OK (NPR)
- GOP governor says he disagrees with Trump’s suggestion that he would pardon Capitol rioters if reelected: ‘There is a rule of law’ (CNN)
- Southern University, other HBCUs receive bomb threats, disrupting campuses (CNN)
Yacht Between A Rock And A Historic Bridge
- Ahh, the uberwealthy and their toys. Last summer, impossibly-rich Amazon founder Jeff Bezos blasted off into space in his own rocket ship, New Shepard. He took his brother, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer from Texas, and an 18-year-old kid from the Netherlands, with him. The flight only lasted 10 minutes, but Bezos assured us it was his “Best day ever!” Now that space is a “been there, done that” thing, Bezos has something new planned for this summer, something a little more leisurely, but still pretty out-of-this-world. He’s spent a cool $500 million to have the Dutch company Oceano build him a 417-foot-long, three-mast yacht that he calls Y721. Once the ship is completed, it’ll be the largest sailing yacht in the world.
- Oceano is constructing the humongous vessel in Alblasserdam, a city close by the major port city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Rotterdam is reportedly the maritime capital of Europe, and to get to the open sea, Y721 must first make its way through Rotterdam’s waterway and past its historic Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef. To do that, De Hef must be partially dismantled. Originally built in 1927, De Hef was a railway bridge, and the first of its kind in Western Europe, with a central span that could be lifted to allow ship traffic to pass underneath. It was decommissioned in 1994 after being replaced by a tunnel, but later declared a national monument. The bridge underwent a major restoration from 2014 to 2017, after which the city said it would not be dismantled again. Famous last words.
- Frances van Heijst, the Rotterdam municipality spokeswoman, now confirms that after receiving the request to dismantle the bridge yet again and weighing the economic costs and benefits, the city agreed to temporarily take out the middle part of De Hef so that Bezos can sail to the ocean on a completed yacht. Van Heijst pointed out “the economic importance/employment due to the construction of this ship,” and was quick to say Bezos is paying for everything. “From an economic perspective, we attach great importance to preserving employment,” she added. Now inquiring minds want to know: will that Netherlands kid who went to space with Bezos also get a ride on his yacht? (AP News, WaPo)
Additional Reads
- Germany: Inmates fined over prison potato mash fight (AP)
- Lightning bolt stretching 477 miles over 3 US states sets world record: “Absolutely extraordinary” (CBS)
- India wants to launch a digital rupee and tax crypto profits (CNN)
- Scorching exoplanet is a little like Earth in one key way, scientists say (CNET)
- Nearly 200 human spines found threaded onto posts in Peru (CNN)
- Comic book store owner to ship ‘Maus’ free to anyone who asks in Tenn. district where it’s banned (WaPo, $)
- The Internet Gave Rise to ‘Cancel Culture OCD’ (Wired)