The world awaits Putin’s word
on Ukraine
Amid the fear and guesswork over the possibility that President Vladimir Putin could order an attack on Ukraine, one man has been conspicuously silent: Putin. At a news conference Dec. 23, Putin warned that Russia needed “guarantees” that Ukraine would never join the NATO alliance. That news conference, more than a month ago, was the last time that Putin spoke publicly about the current crisis. As with all things when it comes to Putin’s foreign policy, the president’s silence in a high-stakes drama that revolves around him appeared designed, in part, to keep the West guessing at his intentions.
Oath Keepers leader denied bail on sedition charge
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year, was denied bail Wednesday by a federal judge in Texas who said he was a flight risk, citing the “elaborate escape tunnels” he had installed in his backyard. Rhodes, 56, lived in fear of being “picked up by the feds” and bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of razor wire intended for the perimeter of his property in Montana, Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson wrote in a 17-page order. Rhodes, Johnson said, also stashed “unregistered cars in the woods” near his home.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is among leading candidates to succeed Breyer
Attention turned Wednesday to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a likely option who could fulfill President Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, after the disclosure that Justice Stephen Breyer has decided to retire. Jackson, 51, already successfully went through the Senate confirmation process last year, when Biden elevated her from the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was confirmed to the appeals court in June by a 53-44 vote. All 50 members of the Democratic caucus voted for her, as did three Republican senators.
Redwood forest in California returned to native tribes
In Northern California’s Mendocino County, 523 acres of rugged forest is studded with the ghostlike stumps of ancient redwoods harvested during a logging boom. But about 200 acres were spared from logging. On Tuesday, the Save the Redwoods League, which was able to purchase the forest with corporate donations in 2020, said it was transferring ownership of the 523-acre property to the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a group of 10 native tribes whose ancestors were “forcibly removed” from the land by European American settlers, according to a statement from the league. The tribes will serve as guardians of the land in partnership with the Save the Redwoods League.
North Korea launches 2 ballistic missiles
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Thursday in its sixth missile test this month, the South Korean military said. The South Korean military said its analysts were studying the trajectory of the latest launch and other flight data to help determine the types of missiles launched. The latest flurry of missile tests suggests that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is pushing ahead with his program of modernizing his country’s missile forces and trying to force the United States to engage with North Korea on Kim’s terms.
By wire sources
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