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First on CNN: Ukrainians to start training on Patriot missiles in US as soon as next week, officials say | CNN Politics

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First on CNN: Ukrainians to start training on Patriot missiles in US as soon as next week, officials say | CNN Politics



CNN
 — 

Ukrainian troops are set to start coaching on the Patriot missile system in the USA as quickly as subsequent week, two US officers aware of the matter inform CNN.

The coaching program will happen at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, the place the US conducts its personal coaching on working and sustaining the superior air protection system. Fort Sill is likely one of the Military’s 4 primary coaching places and residential to the service’s area artillery faculty, which has been coaching service members for greater than a century.

The coaching for the Ukrainians on the complicated system is anticipated to take “a number of months,” stated Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of protection for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.

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“I’m not going to have the ability to offer you a selected timeframe for the completion of the coaching,” Cooper stated Friday.

Someday earlier, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder stated the US was quite a lot of choices the place to conduct the Patriot missile coaching “to incorporate potential coaching right here within the US, abroad, or a mixture of each.” Politico reported in December that any US-based coaching would doubtless happen at Fort Sill.

The US introduced it was sending Ukraine the Patriot missile system in late December when the nation’s President Volodomyr Zelensky visited Washington, DC, and met with President Joe Biden.

CNN first reported that the superior air protection system could be supplied, after months of denying the request because of the steep logistical and coaching challenges deploying it. Nonetheless, a senior administration official advised CNN final month that the “actuality of what’s going on” in Ukraine in the end pushed them to supply the system.

The US is offering one Patriot battery, which incorporates energy producing gear, computer systems, an engagement management system and as much as eight launchers. The battery is operated by roughly 90 troopers and takes months to coach up on.

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Although the Patriot is broadly seen as one of the crucial superior and efficient air protection programs, specialists cautioned that it’s “not a game-changer” due to its restricted vary and the period of time it would take for Ukrainians to have the ability to put it to use.

“These programs don’t choose up and transfer across the battlefield,” retired Military Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of US Military Europe, beforehand advised CNN. “You place them in place someplace that defends your most strategic goal, like a metropolis, like Kyiv. If anybody thinks that is going to be a system that’s unfold throughout a 500-mile border between Ukraine and Russia, they only don’t know the way the system operates.”

Nonetheless, within the wake of the information that Ukraine would quickly be working its personal system, Russian officers warned of “unpredictable penalties” in one more menace of escalation.

“Earlier, many specialists, together with these abroad, questioned the rationality of such a step which might result in an escalation of the battle and improve the chance of immediately dragging the US Military into fight,” Russian Overseas Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated in December.

The US shouldn’t be alone in offering the superior system to the Ukrainians; Germany just lately introduced that it was sending Ukraine a second Patriot missile system from its personal stock.

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And final week, the US introduced its largest help bundle to Ukraine because the conflict started – $2.85 billion price of US gear, together with 50 Bradley Combating Autos, 500 TOW anti-tank missiles and tens of hundreds of rounds of 25mm ammunition.

The brand new gear heading to Ukraine is a “substantive” change in what the US had beforehand supplied, two senior US officers advised CNN, mirroring the evolving modifications of Ukraine’s army because the conflict nears its one-year mark.

Ryder advised reporters on Friday that the “worldwide response” in offering gear and coaching will “afford Ukraine a chance to alter the equation on the battlefield and achieve momentum, and defend not solely their very own territory, however hopefully take again territory.”

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Falling Chinese bond yields signal concern with deflation

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Falling Chinese bond yields signal concern with deflation

China’s government bond market has opened 2025 with a clear warning for policymakers: without more determined stimulus, investors expect deflationary pressures to become even more entrenched in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s 10-year bond yield, a benchmark for economic growth and inflation expectations, fell to a record low of less than 1.6 per cent during trading last week and has since hovered close to that level.

Crucially, the whole yield curve has shifted downwards rather than steepening, suggesting investors are alarmed about the long-term outlook and not just anticipating short-term cuts to interest rates.

“For the long-term [bonds], yields have been trending down and I think that’s more about longer-term growth expectations and inflation expectations becoming more pessimistic. And I think that trend is likely to continue,” said Hui Shan, chief China economist at Goldman Sachs. 

Falling yields offer a stark contrast to volatile and rising yields in Europe and the US. For Beijing, the fall represents an ignominious start to the year after policymakers in September launched a stimulus drive designed to revive the Chinese economy’s animal spirits.

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But data released on Thursday showed consumer prices remained close to flat in December, eking out growth of just 0.1 per cent on a year earlier, while factory prices declined 2.3 per cent, remaining in deflationary territory for more than two years.

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China’s central bank last year unveiled policies to stimulate investment by institutions in equity markets and announced for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis that it was adopting a “moderately loose” monetary policy. 

On Friday, it announced a “shortage of supply” meant it would pause its programme that has seen it purchase a net Rmb1tn of government bonds on the open market.

An important Communist party meeting on the economy in December, presided over by President Xi Jinping, emphasised consumption for the first time over other previously more important strategic priorities such as building high-tech industries.

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The change of emphasis reflects concern over household sentiment weakened by a three-year property crisis that has left the economy more dependent on a manufacturing and export boom for growth. Investors worry this run of strong exports will slow abruptly after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20 with promises to levy up to 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods.

Citi economists estimated in a research note that a 15 percentage point increase in US tariffs would reduce China’s exports by 6 per cent, knocking a percentage point off GDP growth. Growth in China was estimated to be 5 per cent last year.

Line chart of Government bond yields (%) showing China's yield curve has shifted downwards at all maturities

More insidious than the slower growth, however, are the deflationary pressures in China’s economy, said analysts. The Citi economists noted that the final quarter of last year was expected to be the seventh in a row in which the GDP deflator, a broad measure of price changes, was negative.

“This is unprecedented for China, with a similar episode only in 1998-99,” they said, pointing out that only Japan, parts of Europe and some commodity producers had experienced such an extended period of deflation.

Chinese regulators are aware of the parallels with Japan on deflation, said Robert Gilhooly, senior emerging markets economist at Abrdn, but “they don’t seem to act like it, and one thing that contributed to the Japan example was going small with piecemeal easing”.

Goldman’s Shan said the central bank had promised to ease monetary policy this year, but just as important would be a large increase in China’s fiscal deficit at the central and local government levels.

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Line chart of CN10YT bid yield (%) showing China's 10-year yields have fallen sharply in recent months

How that deficit is spent will also be important. Channelling it directly to low-income households, for example, might have a higher “multiplier effect” than giving it to other sectors, such as to banks for recapitalisation, she said.

Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC, said another reason government bond yields were at record lows was that the economy was awash with liquidity. High household savings and low demand for corporate and individual loans have left banks flush with cash that is finding its way into bond markets.

“It’s a little bit of a liquidity trap in the sense that there is money, it is available, it can be borrowed cheaply, but there’s just no demand for that,” said Neumann. “Monetary easing at the margin is becoming less and less of an effective driver of economic growth.”

Without a strong fiscal spending package, the deflationary cycle might continue, with interest rates dropping, wages and investment falling and consumers deferring purchases while they wait for prices to fall further.

“Some investors have lost a little bit of patience here in the past week,” he said, referring to the rush into bonds. “It’s still likely we’re going to get more stimulus coming through. But after all the fits and starts of the past couple of years, investors really want to see concrete numbers.”

Some economists warned that the slide in Chinese bond yields could have further to fall. Analysts at Standard Chartered said the 10-year yield could fall another 0.2 percentage points to 1.4 per cent by the end of 2025, especially if the market has to absorb higher net central government bond issuance for stimulus purposes.

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Mondale and Ford’s eulogies written for Carter read by sons at funeral

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Mondale and Ford’s eulogies written for Carter read by sons at funeral

Former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral was a somber time of remembrance, but also a celebration of a century of life, well-lived.

Funeral held for Jimmy Carter

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Carter memorialized:

Former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral was held on Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral.

Several speakers memorialized the 39th President who died in Dec. 2024 at age 100., including President Joe Biden.

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Minnesota ties remembered as Carter’s VP’s words read during service

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Eulogy deliver by son:

The words of Carter’s Vice President, Minnesotan Walter Mondale, were read by his son, Ted Mondale. Walter Mondale passed away in 2021.

“My father wrote this in 2015. He edited it a couple of times since then, but here we go,” said Ted. “I was surprised when then-candidate Gov. Carter asked me to join him as his running mate in 1976. He amazed me then as he has every year since.”

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In the eulogy he left, he spoke about the Carter he knew as a selfless man of integrity and the how the two were bonded by the same faith.

“While we had only four years in the White House, he achieved so much in that time. It stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to justice and decency,” said Ted. “I was also a small-town kid who grew up in a Methodist church where my dad was the preacher, and our faith was core to me as Carter’s faith was core to him.”

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Ford’s son speaks:

Former President Gerald Ford had also left a eulogy before he passed away in 2006. His son, Steve Ford, delivered the remarks.

He described a friendship that transcended politics.

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“It was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends,” said Steve.

And his written words remembered a man whose legacy remains timeless.

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“A man whose life was lived to the fullest, with a faith demonstrated in countless good works, with a mission richly fulfilled, and a soul rewarded with everlasting life,” said Steve.

Final resting place::

Carter will be laid to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

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Elon Musk Downplays the Role of Climate in L.A. Fires, Scientists Say

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Elon Musk Downplays the Role of Climate in L.A. Fires, Scientists Say

Elon Musk on Thursday inserted himself into the debate over the role climate change plays in wildfires as at least five fires scorched the Los Angeles area, charring entire neighborhoods, killing at least five people and forcing tens of thousands to flee.

“Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim,” Mr. Musk wrote to his 211 million followers on X, the social media site he owns. He said the loss of homes was “primarily due” to “nonsensical overregulation” and “bad governance at the state and local level that resulted in a shortage of water.”

But scientists are clear: A warming planet, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels, has created the conditions for increasingly destructive wildfires, along with more damaging hurricanes and other extreme weather.

Studies have found that extreme wildfires are getting more frequent and more intense, and fires are spreading faster, too.

“Wildfires have become larger and more frequent because of climate change in the Western part of the United States,” said Michael F. Wehner, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Regarding Mr. Musk’s comments, he said, “I find the whole thing pretty alarming.”

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Scientists are unable to say with certainty that any single weather event was caused by global warming. But coming off the hottest year in history, the Los Angeles area has received less rainfall since the start of the rainy season in October than almost any other year since record-keeping began in 1877.

That drought turned vegetation into ready kindling, and temperatures have been above normal, further drying out grasses and scrubs. At the same time, Santa Ana winds have been unusually ferocious, blowing as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Benjamin Hatchett, a fire meteorologist at the University of Colorado, said there have been dry starts in past years but the combination of drought and high winds is fueling more destruction.

“This is probably just a bad, unfortunate, confluence of events,” Mr. Hatchett said. “I would be very hesitant to immediately say this is climate change and I don’t think that’s the right message here.

But because of climate change, he said, “this is the kind of conditions we expect to see more of going into the future.”

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President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk and other Republicans have sought to politicize the wildfires, using it as a way to attack Democratic officeholders in California. Mr. Trump in particular has seized on environmental regulations, including federal and state protections for California’s endangered delta smelt fish. He falsely claimed that those regulations led to inadequate water availability for firefighting efforts.

Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a California research organization that focuses on water, said Mr. Trump was spouting “complete nonsense.”

“There’s no link between California’s water policies and efforts to protect endangered species and water availability for firefighters,” Mr. Gleick said. “They’re completely unrelated.”

He noted that Southern California reservoir levels, including ones that feed Los Angeles, are above normal for this time of year. “There’s no water shortage,” he said. “The real issue is that urban water systems are not built or designed to fight massive, urban wildfires.”

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