US News

• Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said the link between domestic terror attacks and easy access to powerful guns is “beyond dispute.” [Link]

World News

• The world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent $82.4 billion upgrading their atomic weaponry in 2021, eight percent more than the year before. [Link] 
• According to the UN, 100 million people are forcibly displaced. [Link]

Russia

• Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that some Biden administration officials are privately expressing concern that sanctions on Russia are worsening the global food crisis, exacerbating inflation, and hurting ordinary Russians more than President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle. [Link]
• The US will send Ukraine another $1 billion in weapons to fight Russia, including Harpoon anti-ship launchers for the first time, and more ammunition for high-tech, medium-range rocket launchers. [Link]
• Rep. Adam Smith, the head of the House Armed Services Committee, slammed the Biden administration’s Ukraine military aid policy, calling it “too cautious,” and called for the US to send more long-range artillery and drones. [Link]
• Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed or wounded each day in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, with 200 to 500 killed on average. [Link]
• Top US General Mark Milley at a meeting with the Joint Staff Wednesday said “the numbers clearly favor the Russians.” [Link]
• Russia offered “safe passage” for Ukraine grain shipments from Black Sea ports but is not responsible for establishing the corridors and Turkey suggested that ships could be guided around sea mines. [Link]
• Ukraine’s NJSC Naftogaz has carried on its business of routing Russian gas to Europe since Russia invaded. [Link]
• The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s financial committee said Ukraine needs $5 billion in external financial assistance or it will be facing sharp budget cuts. [Link]
• Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has called to equip Ukrainian forces with enough weapons and gear to defeat the Russian military. [Link]
• Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have been calling for a massive increase of NATO troops in the region which would be the biggest military buildup of the alliance in Europe since the end of the Cold War. But according to a report from Reuters that cited seven unnamed senior diplomats and officials from NATO, it’s not going to happen. [Link]
• Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the US has increased funding of technology companies to help Russians get around internet censorship and access US state-funded media. [Link]

China

• Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, said Tuesday that a Chinese “act of aggression” against Taiwan would likely see a global response similar to what the US and its allies have done in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. [Link]

Middle East

• Barbara A. Leaf, the most senior U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, urged Israel’s politicians to refrain from taking steps that would provoke the Palestinians ahead of the president’s visit. [Link]
• Biden administration officials assured senators at a classified briefing that the US would ramp up sanctions on Iran if needed as hopes dim for a diplomatic pathway on Tehran’s nuclear program. [Link]
• Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is demanding Iran be referred to the UN Security Council, with an eye toward restoring every single sanction on them. [Link]
• A Congressional watchdog’s report has found serious gaps in the government’s oversight of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. [Link]
• Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq killed two members of the Yazidi YBS militia. [Link]
• A senior Islamic State militant group leader and bomb-maker was detained in a raid in Syria, according to the US military. [Link]

Congo

• Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta called for the immediate deployment of a new East African Community – a seven-nation group – to deploy its forces to eastern Congo. [Link]