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Zelensky says Ukraine doing everything it can to secure release of American soldiers detained by Russia: report

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday told NBC News that Ukraine is doing everything it can to secure freedom for two Americans who were captured while fighting Russian forces. 

NBC News reporter Richard Engel said in an appearance on the “Today” show that he met with Zelensky in his office in the capital Kyiv to help the American soldiers who answered his call for non-Ukrainians to volunteer to defend to country. Engel reported that Zelensky said he views securing their freedom as a “high priority” along with his efforts to secure the release of captured Ukrainians.

A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin would not guarantee to NBC that the two captured Americans would not face the death penalty earlier this week. Two British citizens and one Moroccan citizen were sentenced to death by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine earlier this month. 

Engel reported that Zelensky said he believes the Americans will be freed and Russia is using them and other foreign nationals to pressure foreign governments to speak with Moscow. 

Zelensky’s comments come as Ukraine withdraws its troops from the eastern city of Severodonetsk, one of the last remaining strongholds in the Donbas region, as casualties mount. Russia turned its attention to capturing the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in the Donbas after its efforts to capture Kyiv faced stiff opposition from Ukrainian forces.

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What the Biden administration gets right on student debt

The Biden administration’s recent Corinthian Colleges loan discharge announcement — which wiped away $5.8 billion in debt for half a million students who were scammed by the defunct for-profit giant — is exactly the type of student loan cancellation the government is supposed to undertake. It is well-targeted, fiscally responsible and legally sound. 

That stands in stark contrast to another announcement some expect the administration to make this summer — sweeping debt cancellation that would be overly broad, fiscally reckless, legally dubious and hard if not impossible to implement. The White House is reportedly seeking measures that would not require congressional approval to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower.

The landmark Corinthian loan forgiveness came through the borrower defense to repayment rule, a policy that allows for the clearing of federal debt for students cheated by predatory colleges. Over two decades in operation, Corinthian preyed on vulnerable Americans, lying about future job prospects to get them in the door with as many federally backed student loan dollars as possible, only to slam it behind them when the last of its 100 campuses was shuttered in 2015 amid scandals, lawsuits and fines. 

Those at the helm of Corinthian weren’t the only scam artists playing roulette with students’ futures and taxpayer funds to apparently pad the pockets of executives and shareholders, just among the largest and most egregious.  

Clearing the remaining Corinthian debt was the right thing to do. And the relief will be provided automatically, ensuring that borrowers won’t have to jump through hoops to see their balances zeroed out. To date, all the administration’s record-setting $25 billion in loan cancellation has come through policies like borrower defense, closed school discharges and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. 

The common thread across these efforts is the Department of Education’s use of existing authority to provide legally sound debt forgiveness. Unlike universal or income-tested cancellation, which would pose new and significant implementation barriers, these are forms of relief that the Department of Education knows how to realize and can work to improve for borrowers. 

It’s reckless to talk about broad cancellation without acknowledging what it would mean for President Biden’s executive action, if he does so, to be challenged in court. But that hasn’t stopped heavy pressure from mounting from some policymakers and advocates for the administration to do just that — blanket debt forgiveness.  

Not just for Corinthian, but for Cornell; not just for those ripped off, but for those reaping the benefits of quality degrees. And because this relief wouldn’t fall under established policy like borrower defense, the administration would be forced on the defensive for having tried to ram a $300 billion square peg into a legally questionable round hole. 

As of the start of this year, a backlog of 110,000 borrower defense claims were still pending review by the Department of Education. There are plenty of opportunities for the Biden administration to get it right on student debt — and one big one to get it wrong. 

Michelle Dimino is a senior education policy adviser at Third Way.

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Watch live: Protesters descend on Supreme Court ahead of anticipated Roe v. Wade ruling

The Supreme Court on Friday is expected to release its historic opinion striking down Roe v. Wade and ending nearly a half-century of national protection for abortion rights. Activists have gathered outside the Court to await the decision.

This event is ongoing and developing.

Watch the live video above.

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Former Obama AG Eric Holder says Trump telling DOJ to declare election ‘corrupt’ is ‘smoking gun’

Former Attorney General Eric Holder said revelations that former President Trump told the Department of Justice (DOJ) to declare the election “corrupt” amounts to a “smoking gun.” 

Former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection at its hearing on Thursday that Trump spoke to him by phone in late December 2020 to complain about the DOJ not acting on his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Donoghue took detailed notes of the conversation. 

“ ‘Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and Republican congressmen,’ ” Trump said on the call, according to Donoghue’s notes. 

Holder, who led the DOJ during the Obama administration, posted on Twitter on Thursday that statement could be considered evidence of a crime. 

“This is the smoking gun,” Holder wrote. “Coupled with other testimony demonstrates Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind.” 

Donoghue said the phone call was an “escalation” of Trump’s claims of voter fraud, which were proven to be baseless, and that the former president became more “adamant” that the department was not doing its job. 

Donoghue said he responded to Trump by refuting his claims based on witness interviews, documents and investigations that had been conducted. 

Throughout the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearings, members have presented evidence showing that Trump was repeatedly told by those surrounding him that his claims of voter fraud were false but that he maintained his claims and attempts to overturn the election results anyway. 

The committee also revealed during its hearing Thursday that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former legal adviser, told the committee that Trump pushed to install an attorney general who would support Trump’s claims and use the DOJ to pursue them. Trump wanted to appoint Jeffrey Clark, the then-acting leader of the DOJ’s civil division, but the plan was abandoned when top department leaders threatened to resign.

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Bipartisan bill targets data flows to American adversaries

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday unveiled legislation aimed at restricting the ability of foreign adversaries to purchase data about American citizens.

The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act would direct the Commerce Secretary to identify kinds of personal data that could harm national security if exported.

The agency would then determine which countries are low risk and which are high risk.

Low-risk countries would be allowed to import data without restrictions, while high-risk ones would see exports of data be presumptively denied. All other countries would require license for bulk exports of data identified as potentially harmful.

“Right now it’s perfectly legal for a company in China to buy huge databases of sensitive information from data brokers about the movements or health records of millions of Americans, and then share that information with the Chinese government,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of four lawmakers behind the bill said in a statement. “That’s a huge problem for our country’s security.”

The legislation is modeled after a draft bill that Wyden released last year.

The text of the legislation does not identify any specific country that would have data flows blocked, but it’s safe to assume China would be on the list. 

The legislation includes set of factors to consider when identifying high-risk countries including whether their governments have conducted hostile intelligence operations against the U.S. and domestic policies on compelling individuals to turn over personal data.

Wyden was joined by Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in introducing the bill.

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Watch live: Pelosi holds press briefing

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will hold her weekly press briefing Friday.

The event is scheduled to start at 10:45 a.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

Source: TEST FEED1

US must stop hesitating in its support for Ukraine

The White House periodically announces sending Ukraine some arbitrary number of this weapons system, another few of that system, and so on. Isolationists insist we are doing too much; anguished Ukrainians watching their people be slaughtered say they need much more. 

Our goal should be to allow the Ukrainians to reclaim their lands and safeguard their people as quickly as possible. That will save lives — both Ukrainian and Russian — as well as minimize disruption of the world economy and check the imminent famine created by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports. 

And the only way to achieve that goal is to strengthen the Ukrainians. 

Sanctions are important to weakening Russia, but they will not force Putin to end his invasion. Individual sanctions have little more than entertainment value. We may enjoy the thought of Russian oligarchs being temporarily denied use of their yachts, but even if some oligarchs do have the temerity to complain to Putin — several leading oligarchs and their families have died in “murder-suicides” since the war began — Putin will not abandon a war on which he has gambled so much just to restore their creature comforts. After all, Putin made the oligarchs, not the other way around.

Economic sanctions hold more promise. They could work in various ways. In theory, they could deprive Putin of the cash needed to keep fighting. That was the hope behind western governments’ freezes on Russian reserves held overseas. In fact, Europe’s continued heavy purchases of Russian oil and gas have left Putin flush with funds so that cost is no object in buying what he needs to conduct the war. Cutting off purchases of Russian gas would cause broad economic dislocation that Europe to date has been unwilling to accept.

Another set of sanctions prevent Russia from purchasing critical parts and components. Eventually, the lack of microchips and spare parts for western-made equipment will do severe damage to the Russian economy. Similarly, excluding some Russian banks from the international financial system is gradually isolating the Russian economy. Those long-term effects, however, will not affect Putin’s commitment to a war on which he has staked his political survival. 

Nor can we count on an early military defeat for Putin. Large numbers of Russian soldiers are dying, but Putin evidently does not care. Corruption, poverty, and inequality in Russia have forced disproportionate numbers of indigenous Siberians and Muslims into the army. As a result, they, not well-connected Russians from the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas, are the ones dying. Putin’s puppet states in Luhansk and Donetsk have even drafted Ukrainians in their 50s to fight with crude weapons against their own country’s army, with over half dead or wounded. None of these losses affect the regime’s political stability in the least. 

Similarly, although Ukrainian success is increasingly forcing Russia to rely on Cold War-era tanks long in storage, these tanks can still cause enormous harm. They are considered obsolete because of their vulnerability to opposing fire, but again Putin does not care how many minority group members die in his tanks. 

Daily battle reports tell us little. With a long frontline, either side can punch through if it concentrates enough forces in one place and is willing to take disproportionate losses from attacking entrenched positions. Russia has done this in the East, achieving real but modest gains at high cost. Ukraine is less willing to sacrifice its under-supported soldiers but has reclaimed significant land in the South. 

Parsimonious supplying of Ukraine risks letting this conflict settle into a war of attrition, which will result in more pulverized cities, needlessly wasted lives, and a possible waning of European solidarity if Russia threatens their natural gas supplies when heating season returns. 

The U.S. never deliberately engages in wars of attrition. And when it has done so by accident, it has fared badly. Wars of attrition favor dictators, whose power does not depend on popular support, over democracies whose voters grow fatigued.  

To avoid this, the U.S. does not try to finely calibrate how much force it brings to bear. We likely could have evicted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, or later deposed him, with one-third of the force we brought to bear. Half the planes would have been enough to drive Slobodan Milosevic from Kosovo. We brought overwhelming force to shorten the conflict and minimize casualties.

In the same spirit — because we cannot know exactly how much weaponry the Ukrainians needs to prevail — we should send the Ukrainians anything that might help them secure an advantage. Valuable time, and lives, are lost if we try half-measures and then wait to assess the results.

We need not worry about depleting our or other western countries’ arsenals. The primary purpose of our tanks, artillery, anti-tank weapons, and ammunition is to prevent Russia from overrunning Europe. Any Russian tanks or artillery the Ukrainians destroy is that many fewer for us to worry about. 

Nowhere else in the world are we likely to face a protracted ground battle like that underway in Europe. Any battle over Taiwan will be fought primarily in the air and in the sea. North Korea might invade South Korea by land, but our planned response has always depended overwhelmingly on air and naval power. Russia is our only plausible adversary heavily dependent on tanks and artillery. 

We also need to stop tying the Ukrainians’ hands behind their backs. Ukraine has repeatedly and persuasively disavowed any interest in seizing Russian territory, but we should not ask the Ukrainians to forego attacks on Russian military targets threatening them wherever they may be. Several Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, are so close to the border that their citizens may never be safe unless Ukraine can remove Russian artillery and rocket launchers across the border. 

The risks — to Ukraine, to Europe, to world peace and prosperity, and to our own economy — of giving the Ukrainians too little are far greater than the risks of giving them too much. The time is now.

David A. Super is a professor of law at Georgetown Law. He also served for several years as the general counsel for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Follow him on Twitter @DavidASuper1

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Florida-based Publix says they will not offer vaccine 'at this time' to kids under 5

Florida-based grocery chain Publix this week said that it will not offer the COVID-19 vaccine to children under five years of age at this time.

Responding to a customer’s question on Twitter, Publix confirmed that parents would be unable to vaccinate their young children at their stores and suggested that customers speak with their pediatrician’s offices, community health centers, children’s hospitals, and public health clinics for availability.

A spokesperson for Publix confirmed the news to FOX 13 on Wednesday.

Publix, however, currently offers other vaccinations for children and infants under five as well as COVID-19 vaccines for those more than five years of age, according to its website.

The Hill has reached out to Publix for comment.

CNBC reported in the early months of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021 that grocery stores like Publix were a cornerstone of Florida’s Covid-19 vaccination program.

Florida is the only state in the U.S. that has not pre-ordered any COVID-19 vaccines for children five and younger from the federal government.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says that children are not at risk of getting seriously sick, disputing the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other experts who encourage vaccinating children against COVID-19.

In a statement to The Hill, Florida’s Department of Health said it was actively choosing not to participate in the “convoluted” federal vaccine distribution process, “especially when the federal government has a track record of developing inconsistent and unsustainable COVID-19 policies.”

The White House has blasted DeSantis’s decision after he indicated that Florida will not order vaccines for children under five.

“The state of Florida intentionally missed multiple deadlines to order vaccines to protect its youngest kids,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha told reporters Friday. 

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Watch live: Jill Biden participates in memorial at site of Florida condo collapse

First lady Jill Biden will attend a memorial Friday to honor the 98 people who lost their lives at the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, on the one-year anniversary of the building’s collapse.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

Source: TEST FEED1