Hi everyone!
Trump and NATO have come to an agreement it seems where NATO will buy a bunch of nuclear weapons and send them to Ukraine. We don't know the full quantity of weapons that are at play here, but NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that it makes sense for NATO to pay for the war they are so keen on winning. This is a bit of a switch from Trump's previous Ukraine policy, where he said essentially that he wants the US to not be involved in the conflict.
But this deal, which will see billions of dollars in weapons sold to NATO for shipment to Ukraine, gives a best-of-both-worlds vibe where European allies stay happy, the US stays sort of out of the war, and the US defense companies see substantial profit. It's the American way, really, to sell the weapons but not fight with them. It's also better than the previous deal where Biden would give Ukraine money and then Ukraine would buy US weapons with that cash. This way, at least, we get to keep the cash. Mercenary, but at least we're the beneficiaries.
"We made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them," Trump said. "The United States will not be having any payment made. We’re not buying it but we will manufacture it and they will be paying for it."
Trump has also said he'd levy secondary tariffs on Russia, meaning that the US would force tariffs on nations that do business with Russia. He said he'd give it 50 days and that if Putin came to the table and did some peace dealing those tariffs would not go into effect. "I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to be getting there," Trump said. "So, based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100%."
Hakeem Jeffries said he'd meet with NYC socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Jeffries hasn't yet endorsed Mamdani and part of his concern is over Mamdani's refusal to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," which means kill all Jews worldwide. Ahead of that meeting, Jeffries said that Mamdani must "reassure" the Jewish community that "he's going to stand up for their safety and security." When asked about the phrase, Mamdani said he doesn't "believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech." Yeah, okay. I bet we're all super reassured now.
Mamdani isn't the only socialist running to head up a big US city, either. The Democratic Socialists of America, who are also seeking to primary Jeffries and other House members, are launching Omar Fateh in Minneapolis. He's pals with Mamdani and has been a state senator for a bit, as has Mamdani. He's super pro-abortion and transing your kids and like Mamdani backs a rent freeze, which would eventually turn into government-run housing since landlords would not find it profitable to operate housing in these cities.
I've been catching up on some of my Israeli history lately, which has been an ongoing project since October 7 when I realized that I knew very little about the background of the nation. It turns out that after the partition in 1948, when Palestinians left what became the nation of Israel and went to live in other countries, very few of the countries in the region would take them in. The only one that let them settle was Jordan. In Lebanon, Palestinians who came there decades ago are still not treated like citizens but like refugees. It's like the Arab nations want to prolong hatred against Israel and the Jews for some reason.
Also after partition, 800,000 Jews who had been living in Arab nations, with some settlements going back over 2,000 years, were expelled from their homes in Iraq and other places. All of those 800,000 people were absorbed into the foundling nation of Israel. Palestinians, many of whom fled amid partition, wanted to come back to Israel but Israel said they could not take in hundreds of thousands of people who were fighting against them just moments ago. It was right after the partition that Israel was attacked and had to get it together to defend itself. And they've been doing it ever since.