[ad_1]
Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from heavy Russian missile bombardment including against its energy infrastructure.
Ground-based air defense systems such as Raytheon Technology Corp’s Patriot are built to intercept incoming missiles.
The Patriot is considered to be one of the most advanced U.S. air defense systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it.
“It’s very, very significant,” said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who led Ukraine policy at the White House during the Trump administration.
“These are going to be quite capable of dealing with a lot of different challenges the Ukrainians have, especially if the Russians bring in short-range ballistic missiles” from Iran.
Two of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the announcement could come as early as Thursday but was awaiting formal approval from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and President Joe Biden.
The Pentagon declined comment on reports about the Patriot system at a news briefing.
One of the officials said Ukrainian forces would likely be trained in Germany before the Patriot equipment was sent to Ukraine. Vindman said the training could take several months.
Details such as the version of the Patriot missile defense system, its range or how many units would be sent were not immediately available.
It was unclear if the United States would limit how the Ukrainians employ the Patriot system. Washington has restricted use of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers to targets inside Ukraine.
!1 New UpdateClick here for latest updates
Jack Dorsey says he will give $1 mln per year to Signal app
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said in a blog post on Tuesday that he will give a grant of $1 million per year to encrypted messaging app Signal, the first in a series of grants he plans to make to support “open internet development.” Social media should not be “owned by a single company or group of companies,” and needs to be “resilient to corporate and government influence,” Dorsey wrote in a post on Revue, a newsletter service owned by Twitter.
China stops publishing asymptomatic COVID cases, reports no deaths
China’s National Health Commission will stop from Wednesday reporting new asymptomatic COVID-19 infections as many no longer participate in testing, making it hard to accurately tally the total count, it said. The health authority reported 2,291 new symptomatic COVID-19 infections on Dec. 13.
Scientists declare 2 Hawaii volcanoes have stopped erupting
U.S. scientists have declared that two active Hawaii volcanoes — one where lava destroyed hundreds of homes in 2018 and another where lava recently stalled before reaching a crucial Big Island highway — have stopped erupting. “Kilauea is no longer erupting,” the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said in a statement Tuesday, followed by a separate one saying, “Mauna Loa is no longer erupting.”
ADB cuts developing Asia growth projection on China slowdown
The Philippines-based lender cut its 2022 forecast to 4.2 percent, down marginally from a 4.3 percent projection made in September.Prospects for 2023 also grew dimmer, it said in a report, which lowered the region’s growth forecast to 4.6 percent from 4.9 percent.
US poised to approve Patriot missile battery for Ukraine
The U.S. is poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian attacks, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The approval is likely to come later this week and could be announced as early as Thursday, said three officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision is not final and has not been made public.
Massive US storm brings tornadoes to South, blizzard threat
A massive storm blowing across the country spawned tornadoes that wrecked homes and injured a handful of people in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions. An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Ice and sleet were expected in the eastern Great Plains.
New FTX CEO says lax oversight, bad decisions caused failure
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, helped 1,500 Bahamian investors remove $100 million from their accounts while other customers around the world were locked out of the exchange, according to the company’s new CEO, who testified before a House committee Tuesday. FTX CEO John Ray III, who has guided dozens of companies, including Enron, through bankruptcy restructuring, called FTX’s collapse one of the worst business failures he has seen — a “paperless bankruptcy,” fueled by an “unprecedented lack of documentation.”
Biden signs gay marriage law, calls it ‘a blow against hate’
A celebratory crowd of thousands bundled up on a raw Tuesday afternoon to watch President Joe Biden sign gay marriage legislation into law, a joyful ceremony that was tempered by the backdrop of an ongoing conservative backlash over gender issues. “This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,” Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House. “And that’s why this law matters to every single American.”
[ad_2]
Source link
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.