President Biden told CNN that it was a “difficult decision” to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions for the first time, but that he was ultimately convinced to send the controversial weapons because Kyiv needs ammunition in its counteroffensive against Russia.
Said Biden: “It was a very difficult decision on my part. And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill. The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
“President Biden said that he doesn’t think Ukraine is ready for NATO membership, adding that it’s premature to call for a vote to accept the war-torn country into the alliance,” The Hill reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Behind the deadly front lines where Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are locked in combat, a less-noticed life-or-death battle is raging to keep troops supplied with arms and ammunition. The side that loses that fight is the one that will lose the war. It is a lesson Washington is relearning.”
Donald Trump said for the first time publicly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would bring back a travel ban “even bigger than before,” CBS News reports.
Said Trump: “When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before. We don’t want people blowing up our shopping centers. We don’t want people blowing up our cities and we don’t want people stealing our farms. So it’s not gonna happen.”
The Dutch government collapsed on Friday night after the parties in the ruling coalition failed to resolve a dispute about how to handle migration, which means the country will hold new general elections in the fall,” the New York Times reports.
“Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is overseeing his fourth cabinet and is one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, told reporters on Friday that he would submit his resignation to the king.”
“For years, a small group of American officials watched with mounting concern as a clandestine unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service covertly tracked high-profile Americans in the country, broke into their rooms to plant recording devices, recruited informants from the U.S. Embassy’s clerical staff and sent young women to coax Marines posted to Moscow to spill secrets,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The secretive group is believed by these officials to be responsible for a string of strange incidents that blurred the lines between spycraft and harassment, including the mysterious death of a U.S. diplomat’s dog, the trailing of an ambassador’s young children and flat tires on embassy vehicles.”
“An acquaintance of New York City Mayor Eric Adams is at the center of an alleged straw-donor scheme, announced by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Friday, that funneled tens of thousands of dollars in illicit contributions to the Democratic mayor’s campaign,” Politico reports.
“Dwayne Montgomery is a retired deputy inspector with the NYPD, where he overlapped with Adams before the mayor retired to pursue a political career.”
“According to an indictment unveiled by Bragg Friday, Montgomery was among six people charged with an elaborate scheme to circumvent campaign finance laws and ply the campaign with cash in the hopes of currying favor for future business deals with the city, once Adams was elected.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) claimed he carried around a photo of a police officer friend who died in the line of duty in 1987, the New York Times reports.
“But the weathered photo of Officer Venable had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet. It had been created by employees in the mayor’s office in the days after Mr. Adams claimed to have been carrying it in his wallet.”
“The employees were instructed to create a photo of Officer Venable, according to a person familiar with the request. A picture of the officer was found on Google; it was printed in black-and-white and made to look worn as if the mayor had been carrying it for some time, including by splashing some coffee on it, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.”
New York Times: “Guam plays a central role in ‘homeland defense,’ though it rarely shows up on maps or in textbooks about the homeland — no place tries harder to show its patriotism and gets so little recognition in return.”
“False and misleading posts about the Ukraine conflict continue to go viral on major social media platforms, as Russia’s invasion of the country extends beyond 500 days,” the BBC reports.
“Some of the most widely shared examples can be found on Twitter, posted by subscribers with a blue tick, who pay for their content to be promoted to other users.”
Washington Post: “Nearly two years after Congress finalized the first in a series of measures to improve the nation’s aging infrastructure and combat climate change, some of the GOP lawmakers who originally tried to scuttle the spending are now welcoming it.
“They have privately courted newly available federal money to improve their local roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections, and publicly celebrated when their cities and states have secured a portion of the aid. The dynamic has created some uncomfortable contrasts, since those same GOP lawmakers still maintain that President Biden’s legislative agenda has served as a drag on the nation’s economy, worsening inflation.”
New York Times: “A meaningful easing of the economic tension may not be likely. Ms. Yellen headed back to Washington on Sunday with no announcements of breakthroughs or agreements to mend the persistent fissures between the two nations. And Ms. Yellen made clear that the Biden administration has serious concerns about many of China’s commercial practices, including its treatment of foreign companies, and policies that the United States views as efforts at economic coercion.”
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