Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a Dear Colleague letter to lawmakers announcing the joint session with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Taliban Bans All Education for Girls
“The Taliban banned girls from attending primary school, effectively instituting a total ban on the education of girls and women and dealing one of the most dramatic blows yet to women’s freedoms since seizing power last year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Wednesday’s announcement came a day after the Taliban government closed universities to women and further restricts opportunities for Afghan girls and women, who have been pushed out of public and professional life since the hard-line movement took power.”
“Women now need a male guardian to travel more than 48 miles, or to undertake basic tasks such as entering government buildings, seeing a doctor or taking a taxi. They are banned from nearly all jobs, except medical professions and, until Wednesday, teaching. Women also can no longer visit public parks.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Zelensky is basically an ungrateful international welfare queen.”
— Donald Trump Jr., on Twitter.
Why Zelensky’s Surprise Visit Is So Hugely Significant
“President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit Wednesday will symbolically bolster America’s role as the arsenal of democracy in the bitter war for Ukraine’s survival and send a stunning public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” CNN reports.
“That his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February is to the United States will also highlight President Joe Biden’s historic role in reviving the Western alliance that kept the Soviet Union at bay and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers.”
The Week: Biden will announce Patriot missiles for Ukraine during Oval Office meeting with Zelensky.
China’s Crematoriums ‘Packed’ as Covid Cases Soar
“Crematoriums across China are straining to deal with an influx of bodies as the country battles a wave of Covid cases that authorities have said is impossible to track,” AFP reports.
Zelensky Expected to Visit Capitol Tomorrow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit the Capitol Wednesday, Punchbowl News reports.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged lawmakers in a letter Tuesday to come to Washington for “a very special focus on Democracy Wednesday night.”
Russia Seizes Oligarch’s Hotel Complex
“A Russian court has ordered the seizure of a luxury hotel complex owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, one of the few oligarchs to have criticised President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, in a sign of the pressure facing the country’s tycoons since the invasion,” the Financial Times reports.
“Deripaska has been under US sanctions since 2018 over his links to the Kremlin. But the metals tycoon is the most prominent of the small number of Russian business leaders who have spoken out since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.”
Taliban Bans Women From Universities
Women were banned Tuesday from private and public universities in Afghanistan with immediate effect and until further notice, Bloomberg reports.
White House Braces for GOP’s Looming Afghanistan Probe
“From the moment President Biden’s Afghanistan pullout began to go wrong — chaos at Kabul’s airport, 13 U.S. service members killed by a suicide bombing, Afghans falling to their deaths from departing planes — the White House braced for withering congressional inquiries,” the Washington Post reports.
“But it never had to face one from an empowered opposition — until now. While much attention is focused on Republicans’ plans to investigate Biden’s son Hunter, some White House and other administration officials privately say an Afghanistan probe could prove more emotionally difficult and politically damaging.”
Biden Said Iran Nuclear Deal Is Dead
President Biden was caught on video saying the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is “dead,” but stressed the U.S. won’t formally announce it, Axios reports.
China Records First Deaths After Easing Covid-19 Policy
“China acknowledged the first Covid-19 deaths since the country ended its strict pandemic control policies, but the true scale of the outbreak is veiled by lack of data and unclear rules,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reports demand for lemons is surging in China as they are seen as a natural cure for Covid-19.
Putin Makes Rare Visit to Belarus
“Vladimir Putin has discussed closer military cooperation with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, during a rare visit to the country, as fears grow in Kyiv that Moscow is pushing its closest ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine,” The Guardian reports.
The Golden Age of Cocaine
Bloomberg: “While fans of the hit Netflix series Narcos may have the impression that the era of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel in the 1980s and 1990s was the heyday of the cocaine trade, in fact, a much bigger boom is going on right now.”
Said Toby Muse, the author of the 2020 book Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels: “We’re living in the golden age of cocaine. Cocaine is reaching corners of the planet that have never seen it before, because there is so much of the drug.”
“Underlying that boom is a massive growth in acreage, as well as higher productivity on coca farms — trends driven by shifting political dynamics in the region as well as rising demand. The illicit industry now produces about 2,000 tons of cocaine per year, almost double the amount being made a decade ago… Satellite photos show that the amount of Colombian land planted with coca rose to a record of more than 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) last year, more than five times what it was when Escobar was gunned down in 1993.”
Ukraine to Get Thousands More Starlink Antennas
Ukraine reached a deal with Elon Musk’s Space X to receive thousands more Starlink antennas to help counter Russian air attacks, Bloomberg reports.
Official Claims 60+ Russians Held ‘Hostage’ in U.S.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister has claimed that over 60 Russian citizens are being held “hostage” in American prisons, according to an interview published in state media Tuesday, the Daily Beast reports.
Sergei Vershinin said U.S. authorities “have been literally hunting down Russians all over the world for many years” and “seeking to detain our citizens on false charges with subsequent transfer to American punitive justice with a predictable result.”
Covid Spreading Faster Than Ever in China
“China is now facing what is likely the world’s largest COVID surge of the pandemic,” NPR reports.
“China’s public health officials say that possibly 800 million people could be infected with the coronavirus over the next few months. And several models predict that a half million people could die, possibly more.”
Another Russian Oligarch Dies Falling Down Stairs
Daily Mail: “Dmitry Zelenov, a real estate tycoon, died on December 9 in the French Riviera town of Antibes.”
“The oligarch, 50, was out to dinner with some friends when he began feeling unwell and tumbled down a flight of stairs, sustaining serious head injuries, according to Russian news outlet Baza and local French outlet Var Matin.”
Political Crisis Deepens in Peru
“The political crisis roiling Peru deepened Saturday, as President Dina Boluarte’s new government edged toward collapse and protesters across the country refused to back down despite the military enforcing a state of emergency,” the Washington Post reports.
“A total of 20 demonstrators are reported to have been killed in clashes with security forces, including eight allegedly shot Thursday by soldiers using live ammunition in the southern mountain region of Ayacucho.”
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