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Analysis: Zelensky to appeal to Americans as Russia intensifies bombardments

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Analysis: Zelensky to appeal to Americans as Russia intensifies bombardments
Zelensky’s relentless media marketing campaign and braveness in staying in Kyiv to battle alongside his folks prompted the world’s democracies to hurry anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons into the nation and to crush the Russian economic system in a much more sturdy response than was anticipated. However his appeals for extra assist, that are anticipated to dominate his deal with to the US Congress and the American folks on Wednesday, can even lay naked Ukraine’s creating tragedy.
The measures the warrior President says his nation must survive — like NATO-enforced no-fly zones and Soviet-era jets from ex-Warsaw Pact states that are actually a part of the West — are seen by the Biden administration as a step too far as a result of they might antagonize Moscow and drag the US right into a harmful escalation with its nuclear-armed rival.

The Ukrainian President supplied a doable preview of his request — and of his rising anger — in an deal with to the Canadian parliament Tuesday, his newest cease in a digital tour of nationwide legislatures that’s highlighting his talent at pressuring Western leaders.

“Are you able to think about whenever you name your mates, your pleasant nation, and also you ask: ‘Please shut the sky, shut the airspace. Please cease the bombing. What number of extra cruise missiles should fall on our cities till you make this occur?’ And so they, in return, they categorical their deep issues in regards to the state of affairs,” he mentioned.

Zelensky’s heartrending every day appeals, alongside the horrifying photos of civilian casualties, are making it unattainable to disregard the torment of Ukraine and its folks. If the worst occurs and he finally ends up being killed — as he has candidly admitted is an actual chance — and Ukraine falls, addresses just like the one to US lawmakers will stand as an indictment of Putin’s barbarism and of a world system that was unable to cease it.

Even with Biden set to announce an extra $800 million in safety help, together with anti-tank missiles, following Zelensky’s speech, there could also be a restrict to what the Ukrainian President’s appeals can obtain. As CNN’s Kevin Liptak has reported, Biden hadn’t relented in his opposition to a no-fly zone.

The West’s exterior conscience

Zelensky has already pushed Western leaders additional right into a battle that has modified the form of post-Chilly Warfare Europe than they might have thought they have been keen to go. His showcase of non-public braveness put a human face on the battle and struck a distinction with Putin’s reckless authoritarianism.

Together with his actor’s expertise, Zelensky is aware of precisely learn how to talk with the residents of the western nations whose leaders he is making an attempt to maneuver. He performs on overseas nations’ sense of their very own greatness and self-image by evoking historical past and nationwide mythology.

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In addressing the British Home of Commons, for example, Zelensky drew analogies to wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the nation’s lonely stand in opposition to Nazi tyranny in 1940. “We are going to battle within the forests, on the shores, within the streets,” he mentioned, echoing a well-known Churchill speech through which the nice statesman additionally appealed for assist from the “New World” — America — a lot as Zelensky is doing now. He additionally borrowed the quintessential Shakespearean line “To be, or to not be” — a meditation on the character of existence and demise — to argue that Ukraine had chosen life and sovereignty or, “to be.”

“Please be sure you do what must be completed and what’s stipulated by the greatness of your nation,” Zelensky instructed British members of parliament.

In his speech to the Canadian parliament on Tuesday, Zelensky blatantly heaped direct private stress on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a father of younger kids who is among the NATO leaders who must log out on better assist.

“Think about that at 4 a.m., every of you begin listening to bomb explosions,” Zelensky mentioned. “Extreme explosions. Justin, are you able to think about listening to — you, your kids, hear all these extreme explosions: bombing of (the) airport, bombing of Ottawa airport, tens of different cities of your fantastic nation. Are you able to think about that?”

Zelensky additionally confirmed a consummate politician’s aptitude for making a fancy or faraway difficulty relatable to an area viewers. He requested Canadians to think about what it will be like if Vancouver was underneath siege or if Toronto’s signature CN Tower was bombed. “Every metropolis they’re marching via, they’re taking down Ukrainian flags. Are you able to think about somebody taking down your Canadian flags in Montreal and different Canadian cities?” he mentioned.

Zelensky is certain to adapt that message for a US viewers on Wednesday. Given his facility with historic allusion, it will not be a shock to listen to him reference nice wartime presidents and freedom champions like Franklin Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln or America’s personal liberation battle in opposition to a superior army energy. His speech can be sure to extend home political stress on Biden to do extra to assist Ukraine and to punish Russia. CNN’s MJ Lee and Lauren Fox reported Tuesday that some congressional leaders are dropping endurance with the administration’s unwillingness to come back nearer to Zelensky’s requests.

“Every part Congress has requested to do, the administration has initially mentioned no. After which in a while, they are saying sure after our allies do it,” mentioned Sen. Jim Risch, the highest Republican on the Senate International Relations Committee. “It is sluggish. It is excruciating.”

However Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell reiterated opposition on Tuesday to a no-fly zone that might convey US and Russian pilots into direct clashes over Ukraine. “He (Zelensky) already is aware of that the US is just not going to have interaction immediately in Ukraine,” the Kentucky Republican mentioned, although he expressed assist for serving to Kyiv get previous Soviet-era jets.

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His feedback mirrored the temper in Congress that Zelensky is definite to solidify on Wednesday. Ukraine will get extra assist however will be unable to flee the geopolitical and nuclear conundrum that stops the West from committing unreservedly to its protection.

A merciless turning level

Zelensky’s deal with comes at a merciless turning level of the battle, and his refusal to desert his nation places him in grave hazard with Russia intensifying its assault on Kyiv and apparently getting ready a siege of town.

Blinken says there will be an independent Ukraine 'a lot longer than there's going to be a Vladimir Putin'

Russia’s sluggish advance has developed right into a murderous warfare of attrition as its forces bombard civilian residencies. Within the coastal metropolis of Mariupol, which can supply a catastrophic preview of what lies in watch for Kyiv, 1000’s of civilians are trapped with out warmth and with water and meals operating scarce in an unfathomable act of Russian cruelty.

A frenzied worldwide diplomatic effort, in the meantime, has made little headway. Nor have days of talks between Russian and Ukrainian officers on a ceasefire. There’s each signal that Putin, regardless of making his nation a political, cultural and financial pariah, is decided to blast Ukraine into submission to realize his aim of it by no means becoming a member of the West.

In a doable present of flexibility on that difficulty, Zelensky instructed a UK-led Joint Expeditionary Pressure in a digital deal with Tuesday that it should be “acknowledged” that his nation couldn’t be a part of NATO. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken instructed CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the doable concession to one in all Moscow’s key calls for was a “reflection of actuality.”

However there was no rapid signal that Putin, who has rebuffed ceasefire talks, is in any temper to indicate mercy.

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Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok extension to avoid ban

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Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok extension to avoid ban

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President-elect Donald Trump said he would “most likely” extend the deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to divest the video app which faces a nationwide ban that is set to come into effect on Sunday.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump said he was considering issuing a 90-day extension to the deadline. His comments come one day after TikTok warned that its 170mn users would face an imminent blackout after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the divest-or-ban law that Congress passed last year to address China-related national security concerns.

“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump said. “We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation . . . If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”

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On Friday, Trump said he had spoken to President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok with the Chinese leader. Chinese state media said the two leaders had spoken but did not specify if TikTok was part of the conversation.

The Biden administration on Friday said it would leave decisions about enforcement of the law, which comes into effect at midnight on Saturday eastern time, to the incoming Trump administration.

That means the companies that provide the video platform — including Apple, Google and Oracle — have to decide whether to risk violating the law between the midnight deadline and Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Apple and Oracle declined to comment, while Google did not immediately respond.

TikTok said statements from the Biden administration “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans”.

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It also warned that the video app would “go dark” on January 19 unless the Biden administration “immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement”.

In an overwhelming bipartisan vote last March, Congress passed a law that required ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid a nationwide ban on the app.

Lawmakers and US security officials believe that Chinese ownership of the app poses a national security risk because it could be used for espionage and disinformation by the Chinese Communist party. TikTok has denied that the Chinese government has any influence over the app.

In his first term, Trump issued an executive order to block TikTok from operating in the US, but it was stymied by the courts at the last minute. In early 2024, he came out in opposition to the congressional divest-or-ban measure on the grounds that it would help Facebook, which banned him from its social media platform for two years.

Trump has appointed several China hawks who oppose Chinese ownership of TikTok to his administration, including Mike Waltz, a former green beret and Florida congressman, who will serve as national security adviser.

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Earlier this week, Waltz said the incoming administration would put “measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark”, saying the legislation allowed for an extension as long as a “viable deal” was on the table.

Following the TikTok statement on Friday, Rush Doshi, a former senior Biden administration China official, wrote on X that the company only had itself to blame.

“TikTok had 268 days to sell itself so it wasn’t operated by China. That would have solved everything. But they didn’t even try. China wouldn’t let them,” Doshi said.

“Now, with time short, they want Biden to ignore a bipartisan law SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US) upheld 9-0. If they shut down, it’s on them.”

Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy and Michael Acton

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Biden Proclaims That The Equal Rights Amendment Is The Law Of The Land—But What Does That Mean?

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Biden Proclaims That The Equal Rights Amendment Is The Law Of The Land—But What Does That Mean?

President Joe Biden announced on Friday that, as far as he’s concerned, the Equal Rights Amendment is the “law of the land,” a somewhat symbolic move that is poised to allow more women across the country to sue their states for gender discrimination—including challenges to abortion bans.

The ERA, originally drafted over a century ago and passed by Congress in 1972, has faced a long and hard-fought journey toward ratification and implementation as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. If formally recognized, the ERA would constitutionalize gender equality.

“The Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land—now!” Biden said in a speech to the United States Conference of Mayors. “It’s the 28th amendment to the Constitution—now.”

While Biden’s declaration is expected to spur legal and political repercussions nationwide, the president’s announcement isn’t so simple.

Immediately following Biden’s announcement on Friday, the National Archives, which publishes constitutional amendments, stated it had no plans to formally add the ERA to the Constitution. When Congress passed the ERA over 50 years ago, the initial preamble required that 38 states move to ratify within seven years (that deadline was extended to 1982). By that year, the amendment was three states short of implementation.

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View of Pro-Choice supporters, including several people with ‘Honored Guest’ sashes, as they take part in a March for Women’s Equality, Washington DC, April 9, 1989. Among the visible signs as ones supporting NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) and Physicians For Choice. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images)

Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Thanks to anti-abortion, anti-feminist activists like Phyllis Schlafly, the ERA was squashed. It wasn’t until 2020 that Virginia became the crucial 38th state to ratify the ERA. Yet, because the deadline had long passed and thanks to Donald Trump’s Justice Department saying at the time that ratification took too long, the ERA has remained outside of the founding text—even as about eight in ten US adults, including majorities of men and women and Republicans and Democrats alike, say they at least somewhat favor adding the ERA to the Constitution, according to Pew.

United States Archivist Colleen Shogan, a Biden appointee and the first woman archivist, has repeatedly stated that the ERA’s eligibility has expired and could not be added to the Constitution now unless Congress acts. Last month, Shogan and the deputy archivist released a statement saying they could not certify the ERA “due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.” On Friday, the Archives reiterated its position. “The underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed,” they said in a statement. Biden is also not going to order the archivist to certify and publish the ERA, the White House told reporters.

Biden’s Friday announcement about the ERA comes as the president has filled his last moments in office with sweeping executive measures, including designating national monuments in California, removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, blocking a Japanese company’s takeover of United States Steel, extending protected status to nearly 1 million immigrants, and commuting the sentences of almost everyone on federal death row, as detailed by The Washington Post this week.

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Under Trump’s Big Tent, Republicans Are Starting to Clash

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Under Trump’s Big Tent, Republicans Are Starting to Clash

Democrats have long been viewed as the big-tent party — a proudly noisy collection of differing views and competing interests, often prompting headlines describing them as “in disarray.”

Now, Donald J. Trump’s commanding victory may be ushering in a big-tent era for Republicans.

Even before he takes the oath of office on Monday, cracks in his freshly expanded coalition have emerged. With their divides, the incoming president and his party are being forced to confront a reality that has often tripped up Democrats: A bigger tent means more room for fighting underneath it.

In recent weeks, some congressional Republicans have dismissed Mr. Trump’s threats of military force against Greenland. Republicans from farm states have squirmed at his plans to impose new tariffs on all goods entering the United States. Opponents of abortion have grumbled about his selection of an abortion rights supporter for his cabinet. Mr. Trump’s embrace of tech billionaires has troubled conservatives who blame their companies for censoring Republican views and corrupting children.

And last week, a fight over the direction of immigration policy prompted Stephen K. Bannon, an architect of Mr. Trump’s political movement, to attack Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump adviser, as a “truly evil person.”

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“The big battles are all on our side of the football — meaningful, tough,” Mr. Bannon told The New York Times.

This wide range of internal fights over policy and power may be run-of-the-mill in politics, but they are somewhat extraordinary for the Trump-era Republican Party. Since Mr. Trump, a former Democrat unbound by strict ideology, effectively hijacked the party in 2016, the internal clashes have largely been between two clear factions: the traditional Republicans and the Republicans who embraced Mr. Trump.

But eight years later, most of the old guard has been thoroughly conquered or converted. Mr. Trump is entering a Washington where nearly all Republicans consider themselves part of his movement. They just don’t all agree on what, exactly, that means.

Inauguration Day will offer a vivid display of the new crosscurrents in the party. When he takes the oath of office, Mr. Trump will be joined not only by Vice President JD Vance, who spent years railing against big tech, but by at least four technology executives who are part of a crop of industry moguls who warmed to Mr. Trump in recent months, pouring money into his inauguration committee.

For most of his political career, Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on pleasing the voters who elected him. In his first term, Mr. Trump largely worried about holding on to his core group of supporters: white, working-class voters.

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But with a bigger, more diverse coalition, that task has grown more complicated and far less clear. Mr. Trump’s victory in November was marked by notable gains in traditionally liberal cities and suburbs and among the Black, Latino, female and younger voters who have long been central to the Democratic Party’s base.

While those voters largely supported Mr. Trump’s goals of lowering prices and curbing illegal immigration, it’s unclear whether they also support the full scope of conservative policies — like ending automatic citizenship at birth and banning abortion nationwide — that some of his hard-right supporters are eager to implement.

“This is the most racially diverse incoming governing coalition for a G.O.P. since at least 1956, and that has the potential to change things,” said Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist and founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who said he had attended every Republican inauguration over the past four decades. “But they’re good challenges to have.”

Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, pointed to two policy debates that will help show whether the party is ready to cater to its new voters.

One is whether Republicans support a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, a cohort of immigrants who were brought to the country as children. Stripping them of their legal status comes with the political risk of alienating moderate voters, Mr. Gingrich said.

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A second test, he said, would be whether Republicans can muscle through a tax bill before July 4 in order to stimulate the economy and help the party keep control of the House through the 2026 midterms.

“There will be mistakes and confusion and tension, but there will also be enormous changes,” he said.

Mr. Trump doesn’t have much wiggle room in Congress, where even slight ideological differences could have an outsize impact on his ability to enact his agenda. The party’s slim, three-vote margin in the House means that any Republican lawmaker has the power to slow down legislation, if not scuttle it entirely. In the Senate, Republicans have 53 votes, leaving little room for dissent on a majority vote.

During his first term, Trump’s grip on his voters — backed up by frequent political threats — stifled most opposition within the party. Whether his political hold remains as strong in his second — and final — term remains to be seen.

Republican strategists say there are plenty of issues where there is broad agreement across the party, including expanding the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration and curbing illegal immigration.

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Even within those issues, the challenge may be in the details. Already, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Musk have tangled over H-1B visas, a skilled-worker immigration program that has long been a key source of labor for Silicon Valley. Mr. Trump suspended H-1B visas during his first term, but last month seemed to indicate support for keeping the program.

The debt ceiling has created distance between Mr. Trump and deficit hawks in his party, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who last month refused to free him of the spending constraint.

Republicans also disagree over setting a new corporate tax rate and how much of the new tax cuts should be paid for by slashing spending.

A group of Republicans from swing districts in New Jersey, New York and California have vowed to block the tax bill unless a cap on a state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, is raised significantly. Many other Republicans oppose the measure, which would largely benefit wealthier families in blue states.

Foreign policy is another area with considerable intraparty divides, particularly over ending the war in Ukraine and over the role Russia should play in the region. Whether Republicans follow Mr. Trump’s lead and take a softer position toward Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, may offer hints of the party’s direction on America’s traditional alliances abroad.

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Still, Brad Todd, a Republican strategist, said no one understood the temperature of the Republican Party quite like Mr. Trump, who spends hours calling different lawmakers, donors and activists to get their views.

“Trump is not ideological,” Mr. Todd said. “He’s a pragmatic, practical person. He is a populist in that he wants to do popular things.”

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