Baltic countries urge Germany to send tanks ‘now’; Ukraine adviser tells allies ‘think faster’ over arms supply

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that caution and slow decision making over whether to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is costing lives. Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday his frustration at “global indecision” over arms supply to Ukraine: “Today’s indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster.”

Baltic countries have told Germany to send the tanks “now” to Ukraine after perceived heel-dragging by the government in Berlin. The Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, tweeted they are “needed to stop Russian aggression”. The same tweet was put out by his counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania.

Joe Biden told reporters after an event on Friday night that “Ukraine is going to get all the help they need,” in response to a question about the tanks.

The German defence minister, Boris Pistoriusm said that despite heightened expectations “we still cannot say when a decision will be taken, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank”. Germany has said it is doing a stocktake of its current tank numbers ahead of a possible decision.

Some 50 nations agreed on Friday to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware, including armoured vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.

A tearful Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended a memorial service on Saturday to commemorate seven senior interior ministry officials killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The interior minister, Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy and five others were killed when their helicopter plummeted amid fog into a nursery on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv. Including those on the ground, a total of 14 people were killed.

Agence France-Presse has reported the Russian army as saying its troops have launched an offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine. Russian forces claimed to have taken “more advantageous lines and positions” during the assault.

A 17-year-old boy has been injured by Russian shelling of Sumy oblast, Ukraine.

Russian attacks on Friday killed one person in Kharkiv, three people in Donetsk and one person in Zaporizhzhia. Four were also injured in Kherson, according to Zelenskiy’s office.

The war in Ukraine is in a state of deadlock, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. In an intelligence update, it said there was a possibility of Russian advances around the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donbas region, but otherwise little movement.

Near Kremina in the north-east, Ukraine’s forces have made small gains and defended against Russian counterattacks.

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A protest in Atlanta briefly turned violent on Saturday as demonstrators set a police car on fire and smashed windows of buildings.

Marchers had gathered to protest the killing of an activist by law enforcement on Wednesday during a raid to clear the construction site of a public safety training facility that activists have derided with the nickname “Cop City”.

The demonstration started peacefully, then abruptly escalated with some protesters throwing fireworks and rocks and smashing buildings’ windows with hammers, according to a Reuters witness.

As police moved on the marchers, the violence quickly fizzled without anyone injured. A Reuters photographer saw a protester who was carrying a banner being handcuffed by law enforcement.

The demonstrators were protesting an incident that occurred on Wednesday, when Manuel Teran, 26, was inside a tent and did not comply with officers’ “verbal commands” as law enforcement cleared Weelaunee People’s Park. Some activists had been camping there since last year to protest the facility.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), Teran shot a state trooper and was shot and killed by officers returning fire.

On Friday, GBI released a photo of a handgun police say was in Teran’s possession at the time of the shooting.

Opponents of the $90 million project south of Atlanta, which would be built by the Atlanta Police Foundation, say building it would lead to destruction of hundreds of acres of forest and greatly damage the environment.

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New Zealand’s ruling Labour Party on Sunday selected Chris Hipkins to replace Jacinda Ardern as its new leader and the 41st prime minister of the country, Radio New Zealand reported.

Hipkins, 44, was the only nomination for the job and his confirmation in a meeting on Sunday by the 64 lawmakers, known as the Labour caucus, was largely a formality.

Hipkins’ appointment to the top job followed the surprise resignation by Ardern on Thursday who said she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country.

Known as “Chippy”, Hipkins built a reputation for competence in tackling COVID-19 and was a troubleshooter for Ardern when other cabinet ministers were struggling.

He was first elected to parliament for the Labour Party in 2008 and became a household name fronting the government’s response to the pandemic. He was appointed health minister in July 2020 before becoming the COVID response minister at the end of the year.

The ruling party is expected to hold a press conference shortly to officially announce the decision from the caucus meeting. However, most local media organisations are already reporting the results and party members have tweeted congratulatory messages.

The party has also selected Carmel Sepuloni as the deputy prime minister, Radio New Zealand and other media reported.

Sepuloni, 46, is of Samoan, Tongan and New Zealand European decent and lives in Auckland .She currently holds a number of portfolios including social development and employment and arts, culture and heritage.

Grant Robertson, who is currently Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, is expected to hold onto the job of Finance Minister.

Before Hipkins officially becomes prime minister, Ardern must tender her resignation to King Charles III’s representative in New Zealand, Governor General Cindy Kiro. Following that Kiro would appoint Hipkins to the role and he will be sworn in.

The best outcome in the 2022 midterms was, obviously, that the Democrats keep the House and Senate. But since that didn’t happen, the second-best outcome was for Republicans to take control of the House and make complete fools of themselves. In that sense, so far it’s mission accomplished – and it turns out the Biden administration agrees.

So far House Republicans have had to hold fifteen votes just to name a Speaker, during which they nearly came to blows on the House floor. They’ve got a new member George Santos who’s a lifelong fraudster and is under active criminal investigation in two countries. And they’ve given key committee assignments to the most controversial and nationally unpopular members of their caucus.

Even as all of this has played out, far too many activists on our side have sat around and yelled “Oh no, House Republicans are getting away with it all, we’re doomed!” But back in the real world nothing works that way. For every action in politics, there is a reaction. And all that House Republicans are really doing is hamstringing themselves.

Sure, House Republicans can now run sham committee investigations into the phony Democratic “scandals” that they’ve invented. But while that’s not what you’d want out of a governing body, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Democrats. In fact the Biden White House is leaking to Politico that it’s “giddy” at the notion of being investigated by a committee whose members include the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and Lauren Boebert.

Why? These people are unhinged clowns. And on the national stage, they come across as unhinged clowns. For the general public to take an investigation seriously, it has to be run by people who are behaving (or at least pretending to behave) with integrity. It’s why the January 6th Committee worked, and influenced public opinion.

But this House Oversight Committee clown show is going to be a very different story. The likes of Greene and Boebert aren’t even going to be trying to influence the opinion of the general public. They’ll be playing solely to their own deranged base, as a fundraising opportunity for 2024. These committee antics won’t hurt Biden or the Democrats at all, and if anything, it’ll probably help them in 2024.

The worst case scenario would have been if Republicans had taken over the House and pretended to clean up their act, tossing aside their most unhinged members, so they could appear credible while carrying out their corrupt agenda. Instead, House Republicans are playing right into their own existing reputation as extremist loons who can’t govern. It really is a gift to the Democrats.

The post This is a gift to the Democrats appeared first on Palmer Report.

A new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday by the U.S. Justice Department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night.

Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Biden’s tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said.

The Department of Justice, which conducted a search that lasted over 12 hours, also took some notes that Biden had personally handwritten as vice president, according to the lawyer.

The president offered access “to his home to allow DOJ to conduct a search of the entire premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified material,” Bauer said.

Neither Biden nor his wife were present during the search, the attorney said. Biden is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend.

Justice Department investigators coordinated the search with Biden’s lawyers ahead of time, Bauer said, and the president’s personal and White House lawyers were present at the time.

Other classified government records were discovered this month at Biden’s Wilmington residence, and in November at a private office he maintained at a Washington, D.C., think tank after ending his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration in 2017.

On Saturday, Bauer did not make clear in his statement where in the Wilmington home the documents were found. The previous classified documents were found in the home’s garage and in a nearby storage space.

The search shows federal investigators are swiftly moving forward with the probe into classified documents found in Biden’s possession. This month, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to probe the matter.

Special counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed during the process, is investigating how the president and his team handled Obama-era classified documents that were recently found in Biden’s private possession.

Biden’s lawyers found all the documents discovered before Friday’s search by the DOJ, according to the White House. The latest search was the first time federal law enforcement authorities have conducted a search for government documents at Biden’s private addresses, according to information released publicly.

Republicans have compared the investigation to the ongoing probe into how former President Donald Trump handled classified documents after his presidency. The White House has noted that Biden’s team has cooperated with authorities in their probe and had turned over those documents. Trump resisted doing so until an FBI search in August at his Florida resort.

The search escalates the legal and political stakes for the president, who has insisted that the previous discovery of classified material at his home and former office would eventually be deemed inconsequential.

Biden said on Thursday he has “no regrets” about not publicly disclosing before the midterm elections the discovery of classified documents at his former office and he believed the matter will be resolved.

“There is no there, there,” Biden told reporters during a trip to California on Thursday.

Since the discovery of Biden’s documents, Trump has complained that Justice Department investigators were treating his successor differently.

“When is the F.B.I. going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Trump said in a social media post earlier this month.

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New Zealand’s ruling Labour Party selected Chris Hipkins to replace Jacinda Ardern as leader of the Labour party and prime minister in a meeting on Sunday, Radio New Zealand reported.

Hipkins, 44, was the only nomination for the job and his confirmation by the 64 lawmakers, known as the Labour caucus, was largely a formality.

Hipkins is expected to hold a news conference shortly to officially announce the decision.

A new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday by the U.S. Justice Department led to the discovery of six more classified documents , a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night.

Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Biden’s tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said.

The Department of Justice also took some notes that Biden had personally handwritten as vice president, according to the lawyer.

The president offered access “to his home to allow DOJ to conduct a search of the entire premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified material,” Bauer said.

Neither Biden nor his wife were present during the search, the attorney said. Biden is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend.

Other classified government records were discovered this month at Biden’s Wilmington residence, and in November at a private office he maintained at a Washington, D.C., think tank after ending his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration in 2017.

The search shows federal investigators are swiftly moving forward with the probe into classified documents found in Biden’s possession. This month, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to probe the matter.

Special counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed during the process, is investigating how the president and his team handled Obama-era classified documents that were recently found in Biden’s private possession.

Biden’s lawyers found all the documents discovered before Friday’s search by the DOJ, according to the White House. The latest search was the first time federal law enforcement authorities have conducted a search for government documents at Biden’s private addresses, according to information released publicly.

Republicans have compared the investigation to the ongoing probe into how former President Donald Trump handled classified documents after his presidency. The White House has noted that Biden’s team has cooperated with authorities in their probe and had turned over those documents. Trump resisted doing so until an FBI search in August at his Florida resort.

Biden said on Thursday he has “no regrets” about not publicly disclosing before the midterm elections the discovery of classified documents at his former office and he believed the matter will be resolved.

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Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

• DOJ officials conducted a search of Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday.
• Biden’s personal attorney said in a statement that “six items” with classified markings were found.
• Classified documents were previously found in Biden’s home and the Penn Biden Center think tank.

Justice Department officials found another set of classified documents in President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home after they conducted a search on Friday, according to a statement from Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer.

“Yesterday, DOJ complete a thorough search of all the materials in the President’s Wilmington home,” Bauer said in the statement. “It began at approximately 9:45 a.m. and concluded at around 10:30 p.m. and covered all working, living and storage spaces in the home.”

A statement from Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, said Biden and the first lady were not present during the search.

Some of the items that were seized from the Wilmington home date back to Biden’s time in the Senate and as vice president, Bauer wrote. Personally handwritten notes from Biden’s vice-presidential tenure were also taken for the Justice Department’s review.

A set of classified documents was previously found inside the garage of Biden’s Delaware home and at the president’s Washington think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.

Biden’s lawyers first discovered what was described as a “small number” of classified documents on November 2 as they were vacating the office space Biden periodically used at the think tank between 2017 and the beginning of his 2020 presidential campaign.

The president’s personal attorneys then disclosed that they had found a second set of classified documents in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home on December 20. Both sets of documents