With funding for weapons shipments exhausted, the White House claims that it can keep the arms flowing thanks to an “accounting error”
US President Joe Biden is “pulling an accounting scam to send more money to Ukraine,” Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed on Tuesday. One day earlier, US officials said that the next aid package for Kiev would be financed from a $6.2 billion windfall discovered in May.
The Pentagon announced in May that its accountants had overvalued previous arms shipments to Kiev to the tune of $6.2 billion, and that this money could “go back into the pot” and be used to finance future weapons transfers from US stockpiles. Crucially for the Biden administration, this “error” was discovered before the last tranche of military and economic aid money authorized by Congress for Ukraine – worth $48 billion – ran out this month.
Essentially, the quantity of weapons sent to Ukraine remains unchanged, but by declaring them overvalued, the Pentagon claims that more can now be sent. Two US officials told Reuters on Monday that the first arms package financed by this error would be announced on Tuesday.
“We have NOT even finished funding our own military … and the Biden admin is pulling an accounting scam to send more money to Ukraine!” Greene tweeted on Tuesday. .......more below
https://www.rt.com/news/581018-biden-accounting-scam-ukraine/
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...