KULGAM, MAY 08: The District Red Cross Committee (DRCC) Kulgam today celebrated the World Red Cross Day 2023 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the founder of the Red Cross Movement, Sir Jean Henry Dunant.
The theme for this year’s World Red Cross Day was ‘Everything we do come from the heart’ and the main function was held at the mini-secretariat Kulgam which was presided over by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Kulgam, Viqar Ahmed Girri.
Tehsildar Hq and other officers attended the programme, besides students from various educational institutions also participated and highlighted the importance of the day.
Speaking on the occasion, the ADC highlighted the historical background of the Red Cross and Red cross movement which is a global humanitarian network that operates in nearly every country around the world and provides assistance and support to those in need during emergencies, disasters, conflicts and other crises.
He said that the movement works to alleviate human suffering, protect human dignity and promote peace, health and well-being.
He added that the celebration of the day must ignite commitment to work for the betterment and welfare of the people and we all shall be ready to extend our help and support to the people in need around us.
Tehsildar Hq, presented a brief on account of Red Cross society Kulgam for the year 2022 and the assistance provided during the year 2022 under Red Cross.
Meanwhile, a blood donation camp was also organized at mini-secretariat in which employees and media persons donated blood.
“Rupert has shown a rare sign of weakness,” says one longtime Murdoch watcher. “There is something of the smell of blood in the water.”
In the space of two weeks the 92-year-old’s media empire has taken a reputational hammering on both sides of the Atlantic, putting a renewed focus on the future shape of the global conglomerate’s businesses – and who will run them.
Theories abound about what may happen when control of the empire moves to Rupert’s children – the Murdoch family trust owns 39% of the voting shares in News Corp and 42% in Fox Corporation – with Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prue holding equal power.
Scenarios not out of place in HBO’s Murdoch family-esque hit drama Succession, which Lachlan reportedly believes his younger brother James leaks plot lines to, include James, Elisabeth and Prue eventually coming together to oust their sibling.
Earlier this week, the Duke of Sussex, the “spare” royal on a mission to bring tabloid newspapers to account over phone hacking, presented a string of headline-grabbing allegations in a case against the Sun that threatens to put Murdoch favourite Rebekah Brooks back in the spotlight.
Lachlan Murdoch reportedly believes his younger brother James leaks plot lines to the HBO drama Succession. Photograph: HBO
Since being found not guilty of phone hacking at a criminal trial almost a decade ago, Brooks, the former Sun editor who runs Murdoch’s UK business including the Times, TalkTV and Virgin Radio, has focused on rehabilitating her corporate image with a future eye on a global role in New York.
“Rebekah is going to be spending a lot more time in New York,” says one source. “She has always been a significant adviser, very much a right-hand person, but every time there is a gap between wives she spends more time with Murdoch.”
Earlier this month, Rupert called off his engagement to his would-be fifth wife, Ann Lesley Smith, just two weeks after proposing, having finalised his divorce from Jerry Hall less than a year ago.
The 54-year-old Brooks started her career in the family publishing empire as a 20-year-old secretary at the News of the World, where she would work under Piers Morgan.
From humble beginnings – her father was an odd-job man and she attended a comprehensive school near Warrington, between Liverpool and Manchester – Brooks would rise to become editor of the News of the World in the early noughties and the first female editor of the Sun from 2003 to 2009.
Brooks is one of the most powerful women in media, having served two stints as chief executive of Murdoch’s British media empire. She was forced to resign in 2011 after the Milly Dowler phone-hacking scandal that resulted in the closure of the News of the World.
Rebekah Brooks, pictured with her husband Charlie, is one of the most powerful women in media. Photograph: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Pragnell
During her time outside the Murdoch empire she received more than £16m in compensation before returning as boss in 2015, a year after being cleared of any wrongdoing.
Brooks is part of the “Chipping Norton set”, which includes former UK prime minister David Cameron and the former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who introduced her to the racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, whom she married in 2009 while editor of the Sun. The couple had a daughter via a surrogate mother in 2012.
She had divorced the former EastEnders actor Ross Kemp, with whom she had a fiery relationship, in 2002.
Brooks’s ambition to rise further is unlikely to be thwarted by the prospect of executives including Murdoch being called to testify – more than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) has been spent keeping cases from going to trial to date. “They will make a big payout to Harry, that’s what they do,” says the source. “What difference is [Harry] going to make, ultimately?”
It is the fallout from Murdoch’s almost $800m 11th-hour settlement to stop a public trial over Fox News’s role broadcasting false claims of election rigging during the 2020 US presidential election that has more bearing on dynastic succession and executive musical chairs.
“Before this they only ever settled sexual harassment and phone-hacking lawsuits; this is a moment of weakness I’ve never seen,” says one former senior executive. “It is the right strategy, but it is still a stain on the company and there has been something of a cultural shift against Fox in the US, temporarily at least.”
Fox, which is run by Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan, is facing a shareholder legal action stating that bosses breached their governance duties by knowingly following a pro-Trump conspiracy line on-air.
Fox is run by Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan. Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Getty Images
The company is also facing a $2.7bn defamation suit by Smartmatic, a voting machine company, although sources say that it is seeing off the much more dangerous Dominion case that matters most. If Murdoch chooses to settle out of court with Smartmatic – Fox has said it is ready to go to trial – a figure of less than $500m has been rumoured.
Despite the embarrassing disclosures and reputational damage wrought by the Dominion case, which resulted in the shock firing of Fox News’s biggest star, Tucker Carlson, days after the settlement was reached, the fallout is viewed by some as cementing Lachlan’s position as Murdoch’s ultimate successor.
“Shareholders may say there is one pickle after another,” says Claire Enders, a co-founder of Enders Analysis. “They are not through this crisis yet, there will be a further elements of a clean-up operation, but they have been here before. The fact is there is always a constant movement of pieces in Rupert’s conglomerate.”
From this point on, Fox News, which was already swinging toward the new and less controversial Republican star Ron DeSantis, will have to show more careful editorial oversight of the content of its broadcast output – as will more extreme rivals such as Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN).
Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News less than a week after it settled a lawsuit over the network’s 2020 election reporting. Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
Seeing off lawsuits and a future with less chance of legal action at the immensely profitable Fox, which makes about $3bn in underlying profits each year, could ultimately strengthen Murdoch’s case to prove the merits of his desire to recombine his TV and newspaper empires to sceptical investors.
After recently scrapping the planned merger of Fox and News Corp, which Murdoch was forced to split a decade ago after the phone-hacking scandal, a multibillion-dollar side deal to sell a lucrative property listings business in the US to a rival also fell through.
The move into property listings in the US and Australia, championed and engineered by Lachlan, has proved a masterstroke, accounting for up to a third of News Corp’s profits. Despite the US deal falling through, the real estate business is expected to be the focus of future corporate activity when macroeconomic conditions improve.
The performance of Murdoch’s newspaper operations is much more hit and miss. The Wall Street Journal remains a juggernaut with 3.78 million subscribers – 84% of whom are digital-only – with analysts ascribing a standalone value of $10bn to its parent company Dow Jones. Murdoch acquired the business for $5.6bn in 2007.
In the UK, the Times and Sunday Times have also grasped the digital future transforming a £70m loss in 2009 into a £73m profit last year. However, the Sun continues to struggle, doubling pre-tax losses to £127m last year, mostly due to charges relating to phone hacking. Stripping this out, the Sun made £15m.
Ever the arch-pragmatist, Murdoch has shown that he is willing to make tough decisions to ensure the long-term survival of his empire.
In 2018, he sold 21st Century Fox, which ultimately also meant his crown jewel Sky, to Disney and Comcast respectively, after failing to engineer a takeover of Time Warner to give his entertainment business the global scale it needed to compete in the streaming era.
However, a recent expose by Vanity Fair revealed a string of worrisome health problems in recent years – including breaking his back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation and a torn achilles tendon – and has once again raised questions over whether it is time to hand the reins to the next generation.
“I don’t think the fallout in the US hurts Lachlan; he is still the heir apparent,” says the former executive. “Not least because James isn’t interested in the company with Fox part of it and Elisabeth and Prue certainly don’t want to do it.”
Lachlan Murdoch (right) is seen by many analysts as Rupert’s heir apparent. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
The 51-year-old Lachlan, who still hankers after a life in Australia despite buying the most expensive home in Los Angeles, also has a good relationship with Brooks.
News Corporation, which as well as the UK papers owns titles including the New York Post, the Australian, and the crown jewel Wall Street Journal, is run by Robert Thomson.
The 62-year-old Thomson, who shares a birthday with Rupert, has been his right-hand man for decades.
“Lachlan is ambivalent to Robert, which is not to say he hasn’t done a good job,” says the former executive. “But Lachlan gets ever more powerful, every day this is more Lachlan’s company. And that would mean that at some point it is Rebekah’s job.”
But with the newly single nonagenarian once again energetically throwing himself into work, the time for plotting and scheming may still be some way off.
“I felt Rupert was very impressive in terms of what we saw in documents released relating to the Dominion case,” says Enders. “His answers were sharp and he showed perfect recall, and didn’t get himself in a perjury situation. With Joe Biden running for president 80 is the new 60, and for Rupert 92 is the new 80. He doesn’t look as if he is going anywhere soon.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Prayagraj: The blood stains found in the Chakia office of slain gangster Atiq Ahmad belong to a thief who had entered the partially demolished building to steal iron.
The police have arrested Shahrukh, who admitted that he had been injured while taking out iron from the debris.
According to DCP Deepak, Shahrukh had entered Atiq’s office with one of his accomplices with the intention of stealing iron, but he got hurt and started bleeding.
Shahrukh told the police that his accomplice was standing outside the office to keep a watch on people moving around.
He said that when he got injured and started bleeding, he ran upstairs to clean himself with whatever cloth he got.
He then went to a nearby shop and bought a bottle of water to clean the blood, but he did not have the money.
According to the police, after verifying the statements of Shahrukh, he has been arrested.
The police also said that he is a drug addict and a search for his other accomplice is on.
Prayagraj: In a shocking development, the forensic examination report has confirmed that the blood stains found in the partially demolished office of gangster Atiq Ahmed in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district was human blood, police said.
The report was handed over to the Special Investigation Team late on Wednesday night.
The blood stains and a blood smeared knife was found inside the office in Chakia on Monday after which the forensic team was called in to take the samples.
Police sources said that investigations had revealed that the demolished and abandoned building was being frequented by some local drug addicts.
The police have detained some of the addicts for interrogation and some of them had injuries.
The development follows days after Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead by three men while they were being taken for medical examination in Prayagraj by a police team. The two brothers were in police custody and the entire shooting was captured live on camera.
“Really bad scenario. It’s just not a good situation,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Manchin is backing Tester and has tried to stop senator-vs.-senator campaign appearances, even previously endorsing two moderate Republicans.
“I know it’s not a very close relationship,” Manchin added. “I think I’m accurate in that.”
The next two years will be a stress test for the two Montana senators. Their state is one of only five with Senate delegations split between the parties, a modern low. And three of those states, West Virginia, Montana and Ohio, are the fulcrum for next year’s battle for the Senate majority.
They’ve never run against one another, but the Tester-Daines relationship was already strained as they sided against each other in past Montana elections. Now, during a make-or-break race for Tester and Daines’ huge mandate to take back the majority, a palpable chill is setting in.
Daines responded to Tester’s reelection announcement by likening the Democrat to Steve Bullock, the former governor who challenged Daines in 2020 — only to be trounced by double digits. Tester, who spoke to Bullock during his recruitment, deadpanned in an interview that his relationship with Daines “couldn’t be better.”
Asked if Daines took the National Republican Senatorial Committee job specifically to defeat him, Tester replied wryly: “That’s your perspective. And I don’t necessarily think that perspective is wrong.”
Their interplay will demonstrate just how much Washington’s perpetual campaign affects policymaking — and the interests of an entire state. The duo tussled over a Montana judicial pick in December, a potential sign of things to come.
On a personal level, the two men represent the divergent profiles of their Western home: Tester the blunt-speaking, self-described “dirt farmer” versus Daines, a buttoned-up conservative with Trump ties. The tension between them is a reminder, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), that “none of this stuff’s easy. It’s not for sissies.”
Outwardly, Tester and Daines maintain at least a veneer of civility. They still put out joint press releases, a sign that their offices work together. Yet it’s clear things are strained, judging from clues both past and present.
This week, Montana Republicans are seeking to limit third-party bids with a bill that creates a “top two” jungle primary— albeit only for Tester’s 2024 race. In theory, it would help the GOP head off a spoiler effect that helped Tester win reelection in 2012, when a libertarian siphoned votes from the Republican candidate. But in 2018, Tester surpassed 50 percent against Republican Matt Rosendale, who’s now a House member; the libertarian candidate that year received just under 3 percent.
The Montana bill’s chief sponsor, Rosendale backer and state Sen. Greg Hertz (R), first sought a constitutional amendment to make all races subject to a “top two” system but faced statewide resistance. Hertz said Chuck Denowh, a Montana lobbyist who lists finance work for both Daines and Rosendale on his LinkedIn page, then offered to help. They eventually settled on a bill specific to Tester’s race.
“I mean, how much more obvious can you be?” asked GOP state Sen. Brad Molnar, who voted against the Tester-specific plan. He warned the bill could outrage Libertarians and guessed that the RNC, which has not “had a good idea in 20 years,” was probably behind it.
Hertz, however, said he didn’t talk to Daines or the NRSC about the effort and was unaware if Denowh advocated for it on behalf of any particular client. Denowh did not respond to a request for comment.
“I don’t know if it would help them or hurt [Republicans],” added Hertz. “My main goal is just to make sure that the person who wins the U.S. Senate race in Montana has more than a majority.”
It’s the latest twist in a state where political mischief borders on sport. A mysterious left-leaning group in Montana boosted the Libertarian candidate in 2012 to 6 percent of support, more than Tester’s winning margin. Democrats then fought to remove the Green Party from the ballot in 2018 and 2020, while the GOP helped the Green Party gather signatures in 2020.
Daines and Tester are no exception to the Montana trend. They nearly clashed directly a decade ago, when Daines briefly launched a campaign against Tester during the 2012 cycle. He ultimately decided to seek an open House seat instead, winning easily.
They have now served together for a decade, including in the Senate since Daines’ 2014 win. But Daines grew close to Donald Trump during his presidency, and his son Donald Trump Jr. as well. So when Tester faced reelection in 2018, Daines teamed with the Trumps to stump for GOP challenger Matt Rosendale down the stretch — arguing that “we need to send a different senator” to Washington and urging Trump to come deliver a knockout blow for Rosendale.
Tester won.
Then, in 2020, Tester played at least some role in drafting Bullock, then a former presidential candidate, to take on Daines. Tester said that Bullock made “that decision on his own.” Still, Tester spoke of his hopes that Bullock would run and said his state “needs a senator in Washington that will stand up for Montana, not take a seat because leadership tells them to.”
And Tester knows Senate races: He’s won three and chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2016.
“I’m sure Jon Tester has something to do with the race between Governor Bullock and Steve Daines,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.).
Zinke is among the potential Republican recruits to take on Tester, whose reelection bid Daines greeted with a frosty statement that both he and Bullock “should have ended their political careers on their terms. Instead, they each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.”
Perhaps understating things a bit, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), said “there’s some stuff in Montana politics that goes back a while.”
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a former NRSC chair, said he hopes the situation between Tester and Daines “doesn’t become terribly personal.” But “I don’t know how you avoid that.” Moran, who works closely with Tester, said he’s trying to stay out of it.
Other potential Tester challengers include Rosendale, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and veteran Tim Sheehy. As of now though, Tester has no top-tier opponent.
Yet Daines insisted he and Tester “are friends” despite it all.
“He supports about everything the Biden administration has tried to do, and I fought against that: massive spending bills. tax increases, judges. Across the board. So there’s a real clear contrast,” the Republican added in an interview.
Though Democrats have spent a dozen years reading media predictions that this election cycle will be Tester’s last, so far he’s withstood nearly every kind of GOP challenger. This cycle’s intense Republican focus on Montana, however, raises the question of whether Daines’ NRSC chairmanship gives Republicans an edge.
“The people running the NRSC are McConnell and corporate America. We know that,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a fellow endangered incumbent who vowed Tester would prevail. “I don’t think it matters who the figurehead is.”
Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: Jr. NTR’s next film, tentatively titled NTR30, is set to take Tollywood by storm with action-packed sequences, grand sets, and a star-studded cast. The film has already begun production, and a photo from the set is causing quite a stir on the internet.
The image portrays a massive water tanker with the words “NTR30” written on it and a red liquid dripping over it, which is thought to be blood for an intense action sequence. The rumour that the film would begin with special action scenes has only added to the fans’ excitement.
Ram and Lakshman Chella, renowned Tollywood stunt masters, have been hired to choreograph the action sequences. The grand set being built on the outskirts of Hyderabad by production designer Sabu Cyril will undoubtedly add to the visual appeal of the film.
But that’s not all; the film features a talented cast, including Jahnvi Kapoor, Prakash Raj, Srikanth, and music director Anirudh Ravichander. The presence of SS Rajamouli and Prashant Neel, who clapped for the first shot and switched on the camera, is the icing on the cake.
With such a star-studded cast on board, fans are eagerly anticipating the release of NTR30. With its larger-than-life action sequences and grand sets, it appears that this film is set to take Tollywood by storm. Stay tuned for more information on this eagerly anticipated project!
The European Union regulates all sorts of banks: money banks, blood banks, sperm banks.
Its next target? Breast milk banks.
Brussels bureaucrats want to homogenize the rules overseeing the donation and use of donor breast milk across the bloc.
It’s part of the European Commission’s proposed revamp of the laws covering safety and quality standards for substances of human origin (SoHO) intended for human use. Currently, the laws cover blood, tissues and cells, but the EU wants to extend coverage to all SoHO — including donor breast milk.
While, at first glance, it might seem like the EU is trying to milk its regulatory powers, experts are largely in favor of the plan to set EU-wide standards, saying it will improve its availability and safety.
With lawmakers and EU countries debating the revamp, POLITICO walks you through the issue.
What are breast milk banks?
Women who make more breast milk than their babies need can donate it to a breast milk bank.
These banks screen donors and collect, process and distribute the milk to infants in need — those whose mother’s own milk is not available or sufficient.
While exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for all babies in the first six months of their life, it’s especially important for premature or sick newborns, experts say.
Among many other benefits, breast milk contains antibodies that are important for newborns’ immune systems. Babies born before 30 weeks of pregnancy are especially susceptible to infections, particularly from necrotizing enterocolitis, a type of gut inflammation that can be fatal. Their survival rates improve when they get human milk as compared with formula, said Elien Rouw, a breastfeeding medicine specialist in Germany and president-elect of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.
There are currently 282 breast milk banks in Europe, including Turkey and Ukraine, according to the European Milk Bank Association.
Aren’t they already regulated?
Donor breast milk is regulated differently in different countries. For example, it’s considered a health product in France, a food in Germany, and is uncategorized and unregulated in Romania. And while the safety standards are set at the national level in France, for instance, they are setat the regional level in Belgium.
The Commission wants to harmonize breast milk safety standardsacross the EU | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
There is some level of convergence though. For example, most national guidelines in the world recommend donor breast milk should be pasteurized, according to the European Milk Bank Association.
In France, for example, the milk is first tested for bacteria and highly contaminated milk is thrown out, explains Jean-Charles Picaud, professor of pediatrics specialized in neonatology at Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon, and president of the French Human Milk Bank Association. The rest is then pasteurized at precisely 62.5 degrees Celsius for exactly 30 minutes and then retested before being made available for babies.
What does the Commission want to do?
The Commission wants to harmonize safety standardsacross the EU, not only to ensure the safety of the babies that consume breast milk, but also to make it easier for donor breast milk — and other SoHO — to cross borders.
Donor milk banks are unevenly spread out across the Continent. There are over 30 in France, for example, but only four in Belgium and one in Romania.And parts of Europe are facing a shortage of donor breast milk, while it remains in limited supply elsewhere.
“There are children dying in Germany because they didn’t have, or didn’t have enough, human milk,”Rouw, the breastfeeding medicine specialist in Germany, said. Centers in Germany caring for extremely premature babies without direct access to a milk bank are buying it in part from Belgium and the United States, she added.
Experts agree that having harmonized safety standards would make the cross-border exchange of breast milk easier, improving babies’ access to it. These include things like donor selection criteria, maternal blood tests for infections, hygiene standards during collection, cold chain conditions during transport, and testing the milk for bacteria, said Picaud, president of the French Human Milk Bank Association.
However, while the Commission is setting out the principle of bloc-wide standards in its regulation, it aims to leave it to expert bodies — the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) — to hammer out the precise scientific and technical details so that these can be more easily updated should the need arise.
Should donors get paid?
The debate over paying for substances of human origin is a divisive one. Germany’s Human Milk Bank Initiative, a nongovernmental organization that promotes nonprofit donor milk banks, warned in a position statement to the Commission in 2020that “ethically questionable approaches” have been used globally to acquire human milk from “lactating mothers in resource-limited regions or from socio-economically disadvantaged populations.”
EU countries take varying approaches when it comes to donor compensation for breast milk. Donors in France, for instance, receive no financial compensation. In Sweden, donating mothers receive a nominal 250 Swedish krona (€22.56) per liter of donated milk.
The Commission’s proposed revision includes guidance on compensation for all SoHO donors, to allow any financial losses to be covered — but leaves it to EU countries to determine whether to allow it and if so, the conditions for it, ensuring they remain “financially neutral.”
As well as human milk banks, the new law would also apply to any company looking to commercialize breast milk as an ingredient.
A nurse checks reserves of breast milk in the Sant’Anna hospital in Turin, Italy | Diana Bagnoli/Getty Images
Given the growing body of research showing the clinical benefits of donor breast milk for premature babies, hospital-affiliated milk banks around the world are expanding their activities — and there’s also growing commercial interest, a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO.
At least one company is using breast milk to make fortifiers for sick and premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, which are then added to either a mother’s milk or donor milk.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
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The deceased men Nasir and Junaid. (Photo: Twitter/MeerFaisal)
Jaipur: The report of forensic science laboratory has confirmed that the charred bodies and the blood stains found in the SUV recovered from a cow shelter in Haryana’s Jind were of Junaid and Nasir, a Rajasthan police officer said.
The bodies of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur-based men, who were abducted, were found inside a vehicle in Haryana’s Bhiwani district on February 16. The families of the deceased alleged that they were beaten and murdered by members of the Bajrang Dal.
“The FSL (forensic science laboratory) report confirms that the charred bodies and the blood stains in the SUV recovered from a Gau-shala in Jind (Haryana) were of Nasir and Junaid,” Bharatpur range IG Gaurav Srivastav said.
He said the burnt vehicle matched the chassis number, but the bodies left inside could not be identified.
The officer said that FSL samples were collected from the spot. Blood samples of the family members of Nasir and Junaid were also collected so that the blood stains found in the SUV and the bones found in the burnt vehicle can be matched.
He said the report has now confirmed the identity of both bodies.
During the probe, the SUV was found in Jind in which the victims were abducted and beaten.
“Our teams are camping in Haryana and working closely with the Haryana police to nab the accused,” he added.
Penn is one of a growing chorus now urging Western countries to send Kyiv modern fighter jets ahead of an expected Russian spring offensive. Lawmakers from both parties are pressing the White House to transfer the jets, but President Joe Biden recently ruled it out — at least for now.
On Thursday night, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the fighter planes aren’t what Ukraine needs right now.
“From our perspective, F-16s are not the key capability for that offensive. It is the stuff that we are moving rapidly to the front lines now,” he said on CNN.
“F-16s are not a question for the short-term fight,” he added. “F-16s are a question for the long-term defense of Ukraine, and that’s a conversation that President Biden and President Zelenskyy had.”
But those pushing the jets aren’t giving up without a fight. Penn was actually one of the first people to call for sending modern fighter jets to Ukraine. As far back as April, he called for a billionaire to buy two squadrons of F-15 or F-16 aircraft for Kyiv. Since then, he has made the case — publicly in TV appearances and in private by pressing members of Congress — that the seasoned Ukrainian fighter pilots should get more advanced aircraft to better protect their homeland.
One of those lawmakers is Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who in the past has tweeted out messages lauding Penn’s support for Ukraine, including one linked to a video showing the Oscar winner giving one of his statues to Zelenskyy. “This is the best of American creative talent helping Ukraine,” Swalwell wrote in November.
A spokesperson for Swalwell confirmed that he has talked to Penn about the fighter jet situation. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Penn said Biden’s recent trip to Kyiv to mark one year since the Russian invasion is “extremely encouraging,” but urged the administration to continue arming Ukraine, including with modern fighter jets.
“There’s no scenario where Ukraine loses this battle,” Penn said. “There’s a scenario where territory is taken, and Putin buys his way into fighting insurgents throughout a broken infrastructure of a broken country. But the Ukrainians are going to fight till the last drop of blood. And that drop of blood will be on our hands if we don’t faithfully equip them.”
The actor, whose documentary about the Ukraine conflict, “Superpower,” premiered on last week, was actually in Kyiv when Russian forces launched their attack one year ago. Penn recalled how in a meeting on the eve of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to participate in the film.
“We went back to our hotel and closed our eyes for about two hours and all of a sudden, the missiles and rockets were coming in,” Penn said.
Despite the onslaught, Zelenskyy, who features prominently in “Superpower,” honored his promise and allowed Penn’s team in the next day to film. Penn stayed in the country for a few days before evacuating. He’s been back for a total of six visits, including most recently Feb. 13-14 to show Zelenskyy the final version of the film in person.
The Ukrainian president spoke to artists and filmmakers in a live video address at the opening of the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 16, where “Superpower” premiered.
While Zelenskyy was “clearly realistic” about the threat of an impending invasion when they met on Feb. 23, the Ukrainian head of state “could not possibly have known that he would so completely rise to the occasion of the actuality,” Penn said.
The next day, Zelenskyy was a changed man whose country was at war.
“It was immediately clear when he walked into the room on February 24th that we were witnessing the newfound embodiment of an historic courage and leadership,” Penn said. “The resolve was in his eyes; Zelenskyy wasn’t going anywhere.”
Penn is the latest celebrity to lend his fame to help Ukraine. This month, “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill told POLITICO that he plans to sell signed movie posters in order to raise money to send drones to Kyiv.
Over the past year, Penn has become versed in different fighter jets after many discussions with Ukrainian and American pilots on the urgency of upgrading Kyiv’s aircraft. He recently visited Washington, D.C., with a group of Ukrainian fighter pilots, who were there lobbying the Hill. There, he also met with members of the 144th Fighter Wing with the California Air National Guard, which has a 30-year state partnership with Ukraine.
The group discussed how the U.S. could train experienced Ukrainian pilots to fly the American-made F-16 in as little as three months. Penn was particularly struck by the pilots’ argument that the jets could help defend Ukrainian cities and military positions from Russian missile attacks.
“Some of the discussion related to training, fueling, maintenance and compatible munitions — holistic training — is a distraction. You have to force-multiply by dividing the specialization of skills among squadrons. Talk to the [California] National Guard,” Penn said. “It’s about bringing in specialty squadrons to get them up and flying effectively.”
‘It changes the dynamics,” he said, referring to modern fighter jets.
During Penn’s conversations with the Ukrainian pilots, it became clear to him just how outdated their military technology is. While they were in the U.S., they even attempted to buy helmets on Amazon, he said.
The average Ukrainian soldier doesn’t even have a direct communications line to call in an airstrike, Penn said, noting that they have resorted to using their cell phones.
But even with inferior technology, “It’s amazing how toe to toe the Ukranians have been able to defend themselves against those superior aircraft,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
