July 11 (Reuters) - Joe Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia this week is a diplomatic challenge that comes with a thorny logistics question: Should the U.S. president be photographed meeting, or even shaking hands with, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman?
U.S. presidential visits, even with the closest of allies, are often highly choreographed affairs involving weeks of planning around seating arrangements, camera positions and how officials plan to walk into rooms to set up or avoid a handshake. Biden, who called the Saudi government a "pariah" for its role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi, is reluctantly meeting the crown prince, who U.S. intelligence believe was behind the killing. But political experts say the White House understands that a photo, and perhaps one of the two men shaking hands, may be both inevitable and necessary, as Washington seeks to reset its relationship with the oil-rich nation and with a young crown prince destined to rule the kingdom for many years to come. “I think the White House's expectation is they're going to be in the same room. They're not going to be far apart. At some point, the crown prince is likely to come over and extend his hand and some sort of image will emerge," said Jon B. Alterman, a former State Department official and senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. When it does, Biden is sure to face criticism from Republican opposition who argue the president is courting a questionable ally to boost oil production over domestic producers and from his own Democrats, who have urged Biden to delay any meeting due to human rights concerns. Saudi officials have not disclosed whether MbS, as he is also known, or the ailing King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will greet Biden when he arrives in Jeddah. Other details, such as whether there will be a formal dinner, have not been released. BIDEN: HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE AGENDA The White House did not respond to questions about the optics of the trip. But in a Washington Post opinion piece published on Saturday, Biden wrote: "I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad." He wrote that as president his job was to keep America strong and secure, put the country in the best possible position to outcompete China, counter Russian aggression and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world. "To do these things, we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them, and when I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values," Biden wrote. The White House National Security Council has said that Biden would participate in a bilateral meeting with the king and the crown prince, but Biden has sought to emphasize the meeting with a broader set of Gulf leaders. Typically, leaders will emerge from bilateral talks and jointly take questions from reporters, but it is unclear whether that is the plan. BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP SAUDI PHOTO OPS Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner of the United States, thanks to oil and regional politics, and since the end of World War Two, U.S. presidents and Saudi kings have met on several occasions. The meetings have included many notable achievements but also produced a few awkward moments. A photo of President George W. Bush holding hands with an aged Saudi King Abdullah during a stroll on the president’s Texas ranch in 2005 raised eyebrows among Americans uncomfortable with the Arab custom of men holding hands. In 2009, Barack Obama greeted the Saudi King with what appeared to be a bow, and conservatives and Republicans were critical. The White House said that the president was "stooping" to look the feeble king in the eye while shaking hands. In 2017, Donald Trump, who lambasted Obama for his alleged bow, greeted MbS with a firm, vertical handshake, then drew criticism from Democrats for bowing to MbS when accepting a civilian medal from the crown prince. Biden on Friday will become the first president to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he wrote. He called it a small symbol of "the budding relations and steps toward normalization" between Israel and the Arab world. - Reuters
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GOP heavyweights are lining up behind their favorites in Pennsylvania in the likely event of an extended recount in the Republican race for Senate. Former President Donald Trump has a candidate -- as well as a favorite and familiar cause of his own. Trump is promoting vague and baseless claims of election fraud in that race, in an awkward replay of post-2020 messaging. This time, all the votes in question belong to Republicans. Meanwhile, as the House's Jan. 6 committee makes final plans for public hearings next month, the disproven allegations surrounding Trump's own loss in 2020 are set to come into even more dramatic view for conservatives as well as the country at large. Four states are voting Tuesday in statewide primaries. In each of them, Republican candidates for offices that would oversee or help certify future elections continue to advance discredited accusations that the last federal election was stolen. The biggest contests are in Georgia, where Trump's mission to dislodge the incumbent GOP governor and secretary of state who stood behind President Joe Biden's victory has made those races into marquee and hugely impactful primary contests. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, a leader of failed legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is widely expected to fend off a primary challenge by Land Commissioner George P. Bush, despite Bush's pro-Trump break with much of the rest of his family. In Alabama, surprise late turns in Senate race leave Rep. Mo Brooks back in the conversation in the GOP primary. Brooks was a key Trump ally in and around the events of Jan. 6, but Trump revoked his endorsement because, according to Trump, Brooks went "woke" and urged supporters to move on from the 2020 election. (Brooks remains committed to the "big lie" and is refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee.) Trump is likely to win some races and lose some races this week, like he did each of the last two weeks. But beyond his win-loss record is a stark reality: A significant group of Republicans who say -- despite all evidence otherwise -- that there was significant fraud in 2020 are going to be on the November ballot for jobs where they will have responsibility over voting in 2024 and beyond. Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy drew rebuke from fellow lawmakers and others for comments he made last week appearing to suggest maternal mortality rates in his home state wouldn't be so high if data were "corrected for race" or if the maternal mortality rates for Black women weren't a factor. "About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we're not as much of an outlier as it'd otherwise appear," Cassidy said in an interview with Politico. "Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality." What Cassidy (who subsequently contended he was misunderstood) failed to address is this: The reasons behind the disparities in maternal mortality rates are no mystery. Public health experts have pointed to bias, issues around access to health care and racism's influence in institutions as reasons that Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. In Louisiana, that gap is even wider. There, Black women are four times as likely as white women to die of pregnancy-related causes. Cassidy's remarks were denounced by Black female House members. There are currently no Black women in the Senate. "GOP elected officials like Sen. Cassidy have no desire to dismantle these inequities — it's easier for them to ignore them. Because dismantling health inequities means acknowledging systemic racism, and it's against his best interests to do that," tweeted Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.. She later added," A truly 'pro-life' Senator should have a vested interest in ending maternal health disparities." "He doesn't seem to be care that Black women are disproportionately dying in his state. His indifference is sickening to read but it helps explain why America continue to struggle with a maternal health crisis," said Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., of Cassidy's comments. "To think that Sen. @BillCassidy, who is an MD, can downplay Louisiana's maternal mortality rate because a third of the state's population is African American reinforces the underlying biases among medical professionals that might interfere with delivering the best maternal care," tweeted Rep. Robin Kelly, D-IL. Cassidy is one of four physicians in the Senate. Opposed to abortions, he supports the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the defunding of Planned Parenthood, which advocates and health experts say could more broadly exacerbate the issues with health care and maternal mortality rates. In response to the controversy over what he told Politico, Cassidy tweeted on Sunday that "individuals are cutting off & misquoting my statements highlighting minority health disparities to create a malicious & fake narrative." He wrote: "My entire conversation was about my work to address racial bias in healthcare & address high maternal mortality among African American moms." The race in Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary is still too close to call nearly a week after Election Day -- making the state the center of false political claims for a second time in the last three years. On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that undated mail ballots from last fall's election could be counted, sending lawyers for both Dave McCormick's and Dr. Mehmet Oz's campaigns into battle over every vote in what is increasingly looking like a victory that will come down to the smallest margins. Prior to the ruling, state courts backed Pennsylvania's requirement for voters to include the date on their mail ballots. Although the situation raises the specter of the fallout of the state's administration of the 2020 election, this cycle raises a major difference: Neither Oz nor McCormick are challenging the legitimacy of the votes cast, nor are they spreading false conspiracies about the counting process.
"Dr. Mehmet Oz continues to respectfully allow Pennsylvania's vote-counting process to take place and puts his faith in the Republican voters who we believe have chosen him as their nominee," Oz's campaign manager, Casey Contres, said in a statement over the weekend. Contres also accused McCormick's legal team of "following the Democrats' playbook" in an apparent reference to their backing of allowing the undated ballots to be counted. However, the same courtesy for the process was not expressed by former President Trump, who backed Oz in the primary. Instead, Trump took to a conservative social media outlet to suggest that somehow the state's Attorney General Josh Shapiro -- who is the Democratic nominee for governor and will run against Trump's pick, Doug Mastriano -- is involved with an unspecified conspiracy to count lawfully cast mail in ballots in the Republican Party. Neither Oz nor McCormick have expressed similar claims. - ABC News May 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Russia had no issue with Finland and Sweden, but that the expansion of military infrastructure on their territory would demand a reaction from Moscow, as the Nordic countries move closer to joining NATO.
Putin, speaking in Moscow at a summit of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), said NATO's expansion was a problem for Russia and that it must look closely at what he said were the U.S.-led military alliance's plans to increase its global influence. - Reuters PORT CLINTON, Ohio – Ohio Republican Senate candidate Matt Dolan says he believes his campaign is bringing over supporters of other candidates in the final stretch before primary day, as reports indicate he's building significant momentum "I was the last person into this race, so the undecideds have had multiple times to go with any other candidate. So as they're becoming aware of me, that's where I'm rising in the polls," Dolan told Fox News in a Sunday interview at an Ottawa County Republican Women's Club event. "We're getting a lot of undecideds to come for us, I think we're getting some people leaving some other candidates," Dolan, an Ohio state senator, added. "They want somebody who's singularly focused on going to Washington to fight the Biden administration, fight for Ohioans and make America strong." Dolan mingled with voters over lunch at the event, which served barbecue chicken, cole slaw, potatoes and baked goods. Dolan is the only major candidate in the contentious and expensive GOP primary who didn't fight hard for former President Donald Trump's endorsement. He says he'll support Trump-style conservative policies in office, but doesn't want to run a nationalized race like other candidates are. "My message is talking about Ohio, taking about Ohioans' security, talking about Ohio's economic conditions, taking on the Biden administration," he said. "That's resonating. We knew it would resonate, and we feel good going into the last 48 hours that as people are paying attention to the race they'll know Dolan's the only person that's been taking about from Ohio from the beginning." Dolan's advisers have been predicting a late surge for weeks. There was some indication of that in the most recent Fox News Poll of the race, which showed Dolan as the only candidate besides venture capitalist and "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance to build support since early March. The poll was conducted in the immediate aftermath of Trump's endorsement of Vance. More recent reports show Dolan not just building momentum, but in genuine striking distance of winning the race ahead of Tuesday's primary election. Meanwhile, other candidates are still trading jabs over Trump's endorsement. Investment banker Mike Gibbons, former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken and former state Treasurer Josh Mandel continue to attack Vance over comments he made in 2016 that were highly critical of Trump and his voters. Those candidates were handed more ammunition Sunday when Trump stumbled over Vance's name in a Nebraska rally. "J.P., right? J.D. Mandel," Trump said, when referring to Vance as the Ohio candidate he endorsed. Gibbons campaign immediately seized the moment, saying Vance's "MAGA credentials, are fake." "Obviously J.D. Vance not only said some derogatory comments about President Trump but more importantly he said derogatory comments about the Trump voter," Timken said of Vance Friday. "I don't think he made a good decision coming into this race, particularly this late in the game," Gibbons said Sunday. "He took a guy that was single digits and made him competitive…. and I think a lot of Republicans in the state, conservatives in this state are concerned about that. They don't want to be told who to vote for by some guy from the West coast."
Donald Trump Jr., however, touted Vance Sunday as the "only candidate running for Senate in Ohio who my father and I trust to fight back against the RINO establishment and put America First." Dolan says that not only is his message hitting home with GOP primary voters, but that his approach will put Republicans in the best position to win in November. "The thing is with me, my message isn't going to have to change. My message has always been about Ohio," Dolan said in an interview with Fox News on Friday. Voters will go to the polls in the high-profile, expensive and contentious Senate primary on Tuesday, with Vance, Gibbons, Dolan and Mandel all seemingly within striking distance in many polls. And with a massive number of undecideds, Timken also maintains that she can pull out a late win thanks to her sprawling ground game. The winner of the GOP primary will likely face Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, in the general election in November. - Fox News FILE - A Y-20 transport aircraft of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force is displayed during the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China 2018, on Nov. 6, 2018, in Zhuhai city, southern China. Media and military experts said Sunday, April 10, 2022 that six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed at Belgrade's commercial airport early Saturday, reportedly carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File) BEIJING -- China said Monday its military planes delivered “regular military supplies” to Serbia, in its first comments on an unusual operation in which six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed in Belgrade early Saturday.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters the operation was part of the two countries’ annual cooperation plan, does not target any third parties and “has nothing to do with the current situation.” Zhao gave no further details. The planes’ arrival prompted heavy speculation they were carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missiles under the terms of a previous deal signed between the sides. Serbia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic all but confirmed the delivery of the medium-range systems that was agreed to in 2019, saying on Saturday that he will present “the newest pride” of the Serbian military on Tuesday or Wednesday. The veiled operation this weekend came amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the same time as war is raging in Ukraine could threaten the region. Serbia and China have long shared strong ties, partly out of a common disdain for Washington. Serbians nurture resentment over NATO's 1999 air campaign during the Kosovo conflict, in which the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was hit. NATO called the incident, which sparked violent demonstrations in Beijing, a mistaken bombing, an explanation China and many others have long rejected. Despite claiming to be neutral, China has largely sided with Russia in the Ukraine conflict and many Serbians are sympathetic to Moscow. Although Serbia has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions that condemn the Russian attacks in Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against its allies in Moscow or to outright criticize actions by the Russian troops there. The apparent arms delivery to Serbia over the territories of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach. The weekend flights “could be the largest overseas operation by the Chinese domestically developed large transport plane yet, displaying the country’s strategic transport capabilities," the Communist Party newspaper Global Times said Monday, citing Chinese defense analysts. The Y-20, which was first delivered to the People's Liberation Army Air Force in 2015, has been used in overseas missions before, including the dispatch of 105 members of the PLA honor guard to join the 2020 Russian Victory Day parade in Moscow, and in flights near Taiwan's air space aimed at testing the self-governing island's defenses and intimidating its democratic government. There are fears in the West that the arming of Serbia by Russia and China could encourage the Balkan country to move toward another war, especially against its former province of Kosovo that proclaimed independence in 2008. Serbia, Russia and China don’t recognize Kosovo’s statehood, while the United States and most Western countries do. - ABC News March 21 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) has struck an $11.6 billion deal to buy Alleghany Corp (Y.N), the owner of reinsurer TransRe, just weeks after the 91-year-old billionaire bemoaned the lack of good investment opportunities.
Alleghany adds to Berkshire's already large insurance portfolio, which includes Geico auto insurance, General Re reinsurance and a unit that insures against major and unusual risks. Founded in 1929 by railroad entrepreneurs Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, New York-based Alleghany operates mainly in property and casualty reinsurance and insurance through subsidiaries and investments. Alleghany, often likened to a mini Berkshire, was transformed from a largely railroad holding company into an insurance and investment firm by Fred Morgan Kirby II. The company's board is currently led by Jefferson Kirby. "Berkshire will be the perfect permanent home for Alleghany, a company that I have closely observed for 60 years," Berkshire Hathaway's Chairman and Chief Executive Warren Buffett said in a statement on Monday. "Throughout 85 years the Kirby family has created a business that has many similarities to Berkshire Hathaway," Buffett said. Buffett had pledged in February to keep more than $30 billion of cash on hand, leaving plenty available for the right acquisition. read more Alleghany's insurance holdings also include RSUI Group, an underwriter of wholesale specialty insurance, and CapSpecialty, a specialty insurance company. Berkshire Hathaway offered $848.02 for each share of Alleghany, a premium of more than 25% to the company's closing price on Friday. The deal, which includes a 25-day "go-shop" period, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022 and Alleghany will operate as an independent unit of Berkshire after closing. The purchase reunites Buffett with Alleghany Chief Executive Joseph Brandon, who had led Berkshire's General Re unit from 2001 to 2008. Brandon took up the reins at Alleghany in December. Goldman Sachs advised Alleghany on the deal. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and additional reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty - Reuters With Democrats holding the Senate majority, the odds are extremely low that Republicans in the chamber can sidetrack President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee – Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson - from winning confirmation and making history as the first Black female on the nation’s highest court. But that won’t stop some GOP senators with potential national ambitions who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee from taking advantage of the national spotlight afforded by Jackson’s confirmation hearing – which begins on Monday – as they take aim at the president’s nominee and potentially create some buzz-worthy moments that resonate among conservative voters. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas – who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and who is considering another run – sits on the committee. So do Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who are all considered by pundits as potential White House hopefuls in the 2024 cycle. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee – who some view as a possible Republican running mate in the next presidential race – also sits on the committee.z Cruz and Cotton graduated from Harvard Law School, like Jackson, and Hawley’s a Yale Law graduate. Cruz clerked for the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Hawley clerked for current Chief Justice John Roberts. Cotton clerked at the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Four of the five senators voted against Jackson last year when Biden nominated her for the bench on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with Sasse not voting. And all five senators, like everyone else on the 22-member panel, will have 50 minutes over two days this week to question Jackson on any topic. "Potential presidential contenders can use their time to take a few digs at the nominee to showcase their conservative credentials and opposition to left leaning judicial philosophy," longtime GOP consultant Ryan Williams, a veteran of multiple Republican presidential campaigns, told Fox News. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks after President Joe Biden announced Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court in the Cross Hall of the White House, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris listens at right. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster). Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are expected to question Jackson about her positions on such issues as abortion and a push by some Democrats to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court, which is known by opponents as court packing. GOP lawmakers are also likely to scrutinize the nominee’s time on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, amid Republican claims she was overly lenient to child pornographers -- a charge that the White House is branding a "debunked" and "desperate" conspiracy theory. Hawley last week used a lengthy Twitter thread to accuse Jackson, who the president nominated to fill the seat of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, of "a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday called Hawley’s push "a last-ditch, eve-of-hearing desperation attack on her record on sentencing in sexual offense cases." And White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Saturday noted that the Sentencing Commission recommendations were from a bipartisan panel that included Trump-era judicial pick Judge Dabney Friedrich. Jackson is a former federal public defender and last year, during her appeals court confirmation hearing, Cotton questioned her over her role as a public defender for Guantanamo Bay detainees. Cotton, speaking with reporters after meeting with Jackson last week, said it i possible "to both press a nominee on their views and be respectful and civil and cordial." This is far from the first time potential presidential contenders have questioned a Supreme Court nominee. Four years ago, during the combustible confirmation hearing of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by then-President Donald Trump, the Democrats were in the minority in the Senate. Among the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee were three lawmakers who ended up running for their party’s 2020 nomination – Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and now-Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time was a senator from California. - Fox News It won't be the State of the Union that President Joe Biden might have envisioned -- and quite suddenly, COVID restrictions are almost the least of it. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made this a moment that showcases foreign policy and broad questions of national security. And the divisions inside the Republican Party -- even those driven by former President Donald Trump -- aren't enough to shield Biden from pressures to act more boldly on multiple fronts. That's in part because the pressure isn't solely political. Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, said on ABC's "This Week" that her country is "grateful" for the support it's gotten but that government and business entities can and should provide much more. "We need more defensive weapons," she said. "It's time to take sides, and it's time to take Ukrainians' side." Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have been pressing Biden to get more weapons to Ukraine and to impose more severe sanctions against financial entities than those already laid out. Democratic lawmakers have also been agitating for bigger steps to be taken on a faster timeline than has been favored by the White House. Biden comes to the current crisis and Tuesday's speech with career-low approval ratings across a broad range of issues. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds just 43% trust in Biden's ability to handle a crisis and growing concerns about the impact world events might have on energy prices and overall security. The White House has signaled an openness to taking further steps to protect Ukraine and rebuff Russia. Biden's challenge from here will be less about connecting the crisis to Americans' lives than in convincing voters that his steps are helping minimize what could be a far-reaching catastrophe. The clock is ticking and Democrats want to move quickly after Biden's historic announcement of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his pick to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wants to see Jackson confirmed before the start of the Senate's Easter recess on April 8. That amount of time would still be longer than Amy Coney Barrett's 30 days between announcement and confirmation. Jackson is expected to begin meeting with senators before the start of confirmation hearings. Jackson is no stranger to the process. She has been confirmed by the Senate three times. She was last confirmed by the Senate in June to her post as United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. Then, Jackson got three Republican votes, but that's not guaranteed this time around. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, signaled openness to voting in favor of Jackson's confirmation Sunday. "Look, her nomination and her confirmation would or will be historic and like anyone nominated by the president of the United States, she deserves a very careful look, a very deep dive," Romney told CNN. "And I will provide fresh eyes to that evaluation, and hope that I will be able to support her in the final analysis." The reality is that Democrats don't need Republican buy-in. They only need a simple majority to confirm Jackson and if Democrats are unified since Vice President Kamala Harris could serve as the tie-breaking vote. This week, voters will head to the polls for the first midterm election day of the year, as Texans cast their ballots in the March 1 primary election. Apart from serving as a symbolic marker of the official start of the 2022 midterm cycle, the outcome of Tuesday's election will also give a better assessment of the impact of the state's new election law. So far, the most visible aspect of the law includes the tightened voter identification requirement for those who are eligible to vote by mail. In order to successfully cast their mail ballots, voters must include either their driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number on their ballots. The number they include must then match the number they originally used to register to vote. Voters ABC News spoke with over the last month who had their ballot applications rejected were either unaware of the change or did not recall which information they first used on their voter registration -- leading to mismatched data. Although primary election voter turnout is already perpetually low in midterm election cycles, this kind of confusion from voters could compound that.
The exact number of voters who cast mail ballots and were affected by this provision continues to fluctuate, but election officials in the state's largest metro area of Harris County tell ABC just over 30% of mail ballots they received were flagged for correction specifically because of the new identification requirements. It now remains to be seen how many of those ballots get corrected by the time polls close Tuesday. That's the percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way President Joe Biden has handled the crisis in Ukraine so far, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. And as FiveThirtyEight's Nathaniel Rakich wrote on Friday, that is broadly in line with how Americans view Biden's handling of foreign policy more broadly, which is likely a hangover from this summer when his numbers on the issue first fell during the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. But as Nathaniel writes, Americans largely approve of the sanctions Biden has imposed on Russia, so it's possible Americans might end up giving Biden higher marks for how he manages the Russian invasion of Ukraine. - ABC News Vladimir Putin is facing stiffer opposition than expected -- both inside and outside Ukraine2/28/2022 Five days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it seems things haven't gone exactly to plan for Vladimir Putin so far. Western intelligence officials briefed repeatedly over the weekend that Russian forces have encountered "stiffer than expected" resistance from an outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian military. Russia has thus far failed to take key cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv. On Sunday, Ukrainian forces successfully repelled a Russian advance on a strategic airfield near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, which has been under near-constant attack.In addition to a fierce fightback from Ukrainian forces and civilians, the Russian invasion has suffered logistical challenges, with soldiers on the front line running short of fuel, ammunition and food. "They are having problems," a NATO official said of the Russian forces, pointing to the alliance's latest intelligence. "They lack diesel, they are proceeding way too slow and morale is obviously an issue."But a senior US defense official told reporters on Sunday that Russia has only used two-thirds of the total combat power applied to the mission, leaving a significant amount of forces available to press the offensive.
Putin, it seems, hasn't just misjudged Ukraine's ability to defend itself, but also just how hard a line the international community would take against Russia in the event of an invasion. For years, the Russian president has faced very little pushback from the West over his illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, his brutal support for the Syrian regime and acts of aggression in other countries. For all their strong words of condemnation for Putin and his regime, Western countries still bought gas from Russia, offered a safe haven to Russian oligarchs and retained relatively normal diplomatic relations with Moscow. But this time around -- despite a few early rocky patches which saw Western nations accused of not hitting Russia hard enough -- Putin has faced an unusually united Western alliance.
Those same citizens might soon wonder just why Putin is risking so much for a war that didn't need to happen.
Of course, things are very fluid on the ground and could change very quickly.There's little hope that Monday's talks will yield a deescalation, and no one expects this war to end in the immediate future -- either by force or by agreement. But it's likely that Putin, having come this far, will throw more at Ukraine in the coming days. However, as the invasion enters its second week, it's impossible to ignore the fact that Putin's best-laid plans have been met with firmer resistance than he -- and many of his opponents -- ever imagined. - CNN MOSCOW/PARIS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Russia's military said on Monday Ukrainian military saboteurs had tried to enter Russian territory in armed vehicles, an accusation dismissed as "fake news" by Kyiv amid Western accusations that Moscow could fabricate a pretext to invade. The Russian military said five people had been killed when the Ukrainian saboteurs were thwarted. Ukraine and its Western allies have been saying for days that Moscow could manufacture a pretext to invade Ukraine with a huge force it has massed on the border. Western countries accuse Russia of planning to invade a neighbour that it had controlled until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Moscow denies planning any attack but has demanded sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Hours earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden had agreed in principle on a meeting. An adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told Reuters that Macron had put the proposal to Putin at Biden's request. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a call or meeting between Putin and Biden could be set up at any time, but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit. Tensions were growing, he said, but a foreign ministers' meeting was possible this week. Macron's office and the White House said the substance of the plan would be worked out by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting planned for Thursday. European financial markets were tumbling on Monday at signs of increased confrontation, after having briefly edged higher on the glimmer of hope that a summit might offer a path out of Europe's biggest military crisis in decades. After the report of the alleged incursion, major European bourses were down between 0.5% and 1.8%. Russian stocks plunged.
Russia's military said troops and border guards had prevented a "diversionary reconnaissance" group from breaching Russia's border from Ukrainian territory near Rostov and that five people had been killed, Russian news agencies reported. Interfax cited the Russian military as saying that Ukrainian armed vehicles had been destroyed. Ukraine rejected the report, calling it fake news, and said no Ukrainian forces were present in the Rostov region where the incident was alleged to have taken place. Satellite imagery released at the weekend appeared to show Russian deployments closer to Ukraine's border than before. Nerves frayed further when Moscow's close ally Belarus announced on Sunday that Russia would extend military exercises there. Russia has tens of thousands of soldiers in Belarus - part of what Washington says is a force now numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. After talks in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, British foreign minister Liz Truss said Western countries were preparing for a "worst-case scenario". The airlines Lufthansa, KLM and Air France all cancelled flights to Kyiv. After the report of the alleged incursion, major European bourses were down between 0.5% and 1.8%. Russian stocks plunged. Russia's military said troops and border guards had prevented a "diversionary reconnaissance" group from breaching Russia's border from Ukrainian territory near Rostov and that five people had been killed, Russian news agencies reported. Interfax cited the Russian military as saying that Ukrainian armed vehicles had been destroyed. Ukraine rejected the report, calling it fake news, and said no Ukrainian forces were present in the Rostov region where the incident was alleged to have taken place. Satellite imagery released at the weekend appeared to show Russian deployments closer to Ukraine's border than before. Nerves frayed further when Moscow's close ally Belarus announced on Sunday that Russia would extend military exercises there. Russia has tens of thousands of soldiers in Belarus - part of what Washington says is a force now numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. After talks in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, British foreign minister Liz Truss said Western countries were preparing for a "worst-case scenario". The airlines Lufthansa, KLM and Air France all cancelled flights to Kyiv. read more But the European Union rebuffed a call from Kyiv to impose some sanctions now to try to avert war before it started. read more. - Reuters |
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