Is Russia Really Pulling Back in Ukraine?
Plus: Remington Settles Over Sandy Hook, and P.J. O'Rourke
The Kremlin claims Russia is pulling back troops from the Ukrainian border, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says there is evidence Russia is actually adding troops, the BBC reports.
In an address from the White House Tuesday, President Biden vowed to “rally the world” against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, decides to invade Ukraine (per Newsweek). “The world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction,” Biden said. “Invading Ukraine will prove to be a self-inflicted wound.”
Biden put the number of Russian troops threatening Ukraine at 150,000 Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there’s a “measure of calm” in Kyiv, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.
Note: The “measure of calm” may have as much to do with the monotony over eight years of conflict over the Crimean peninsula as the actual Russian troop count. What may be making Ukrainians more nervous is the Kremlin’s acumen in cyber-warfare, which effectively shut down two national banks briefly earlier this week.
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Sandy Hook Families Settle with Remington
Nine families of victims in the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newton, Connecticut, have settled with Remington, manufacturer of the AR-15 used to kill 20 first graders and six adults, for $73 million, The New York Times reports. It is believed to be the largest payout for a gun manufacturer, and skirted a federal law protecting gunmakers from lawsuits by arguing the Remington AR-15 was marketed to “couch commandos” and troubled young men like the man who committed the massacre.
Note: The payout will be from Remington’s insurers, as the gun manufacturer is currently undergoing bankruptcy. Connecticut, along with New York and California, have instituted consumer protection laws that skirt federal protection for firearm manufacturers, and legislators in other states are looking at similar runarounds. This recalls the National Firearms Act of 1934, which essentially taxes certain high-power weapons out of existence although, in this case, it would work only for certain states.
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Obituary: P.J. O’Rourke
Writer, journalist, satirist, and conservative political commentator P.J. O’Rourke has died in Sharon, New Hampshire, from complications of lung cancer at age 74. He was editor-in-chief of National Lampoon, wrote numerous books, including Parliament of Whores and a collection of essays How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016, was the conservative opposite Molly Ivins in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes in the 1990s and was a regular on NPR’s comedy quiz show, Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me. O’Rourke wrote for The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone and The American Spectator.
When The New York Times in 2010 invited prominent people to define the two major political parties, O’Rourke wrote: “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says ‘government doesn’t work’ and then get elected and prove it.”
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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