Tag: Faster

Biden gets bipartisan blowback on getting U.S. tanks to Ukraine faster

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“This tank story is not satisfactory,” he added. “The decision’s been made, OK. Then let’s get ready to execute it and cut through whatever the red tape is.”
The independent, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said there is a “bipartisan concern” over the time frame, warning that not sending the tanks soon could prove to be “a tragic mistake.”
“Our country has thousands of main battle tanks,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said earlier in the hearing. “It would seem like it’s not that hard to find 31 and get them there.”
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill had long pressed President Joe Biden to send Kyiv U.S.-made main battle tanks, a move the administration finally agreed to in January. On Thursday, during a hearing with U.S. European Command’s Gen. Christopher Cavoli, and U.S. Transportation Command’s Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, senators were animated about why the administration can’t get them there much sooner.
The initial January announcement said the U.S. would provide M1A2 tanks, which would need to be overhauled in a process that could take as long as two years. But the Pentagon said in March the military would pull out some of its older M1A1 Abrams that need less refurbishment and would arrive by the fall.
A separate tranche of tanks is set to arrive in Germany next month for Ukrainian troops to begin training.
The Army and defense contractor General Dynamics are working on the tanks slated to be sent this year, which have been pulled from Army depots to send to Ukraine this spring and summer.
The armor on the tank’s turret and the optical sights are not eligible for export, so they need to be swapped out before they are sent overseas, something that can happen within weeks.

The work is being done at the Army’s facility at Lima, Ohio. The line has been exceptionally busy in recent months, with tanks for Poland and Taiwan — along with other allies — going through the upgrade process side-by-side.
The Polish order in particular is a rush job, with Warsaw slated to begin receiving its 116 M1A1 tanks that it ordered in January by this spring.
While the timeline for the Ukraine-bound tanks has been sped up, the autumn delivery schedule still didn’t sit well with senators.
Cotton accused the Biden administration of dragging its feet on following through on the January decision to provide the Abrams, which it had initially resisted but announced in tandem with a decision by Germany to send its own Leopard 2 tanks.
“I think the main reason for that is [also] the main reason why we didn’t even agree to supply the tanks for a year, which is that President Biden didn’t want to supply them,” Cotton said. “And again, I think we could supply them faster than eight or nine months if there was the political will.”
Cavoli, quizzed by Cotton about when tanks will arrive beyond those that will be used for training Ukrainians, said military planners were moving to speed up the process.
“The dates are moving right now,” Cavoli said. “We’re trying to accelerate it as much as we can.”
Another GOP senator, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, pressed Cavoli and Van Ovost on whether the nearly three dozen Abrams tanks had been identified, if they were located in the U.S. or in Europe and how quickly they could be delivered once ready. Van Ovost, who oversees the movement of military equipment and personnel around the globe, said her command has “multiple avenues to deliver Abrams tanks by air or by sea” and could do so quickly once given orders to transport tanks.
Rounds argued the holdup amounts to “a policy decision that [the administration is] not prepared to deliver 31 Abrams tanks at this time.”
“The bottom line is, if we needed those tanks, it shouldn’t take eight months for the United States Army to be able to access 31 Abrams tanks,” Rounds said. “If we needed them tomorrow, we’d get them very very quickly.”
Paul McLeary contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 27, 2023
Inflation | Food has become more expensive in Sweden even faster than in Finland

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The effects of a weak currency can be seen in Swedes’ commercial invoices.
in Sweden the price of food has risen faster than in Finland and other northern neighboring countries. In January, food became more expensive in Sweden by almost 20 percent compared to a year ago, says the country’s statistics authority.
At the same time, the price of food in Finland and Denmark rose by about 15 percent. In Norway, food prices fell by an average of 12 percent from a year ago.
According to experts, there is an important reason for the rapid increase in food prices in Sweden.
“Weak Swedish krone. It gives an extra boost to food prices in Sweden compared to other countries,” says Nordea’s chief analyst Torbjörn Isaksson.
A large part of the food sold in Sweden is imported, and the weak krone makes imported goods more expensive than before. You can see it especially clearly with fruits and vegetables.
Still, according to Isaksson, the weak krone also increases the price of food produced in Sweden.
“Although the products are produced and sold in Sweden, the Swedish producer always has the opportunity to sell abroad if the price is better there. That’s why the weak krona also affects food produced in Sweden,” says Isaksson.

Also Economist at the Swedish National Institute of Economic Research Erik Glans believes that the krona is “probably the most important” explanation for differences in the rate of price increases.
Glans mentions that the Swedish krona weakened by about eight percent against the euro in 12 months. According to him, food prices can be expected to rise the more the exchange rate of the krona weakens.
Like the Swedish krona, the Norwegian krona is also weak, but the price of food in Norway has not yet risen rapidly. According to Isaksson of Nordea, it is difficult to make a comparison with Norway, because the food market in Norway is more regulated and “stricter” than in Sweden. According to him, Finland and Denmark are better points of comparison.
“The Swedish krona has weakened a lot against both the euro and the Danish krone,” says Isaksson.
#Inflation #Food #expensive #Sweden #faster #Finland
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( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )

February 27, 2023
Michigan Dems consider faster push on gun laws after MSU shooting

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“We’re going to try to move faster,” Democratic state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said in an interview Tuesday morning. “After years of not getting an inch, now we’re making real plans.”
“Some of the legislation we have goes back 10 years,” added Bayer, who represented the town of Oxford in 2021, when four students died in a mass shooting at a high school there. “We just haven’t been able to get any traction to do anything.”
Bayer said that lawmakers updated legislative proposals following the 2022 midterms, knowing they might be able to move forward on it. Even before this week’s tragedy, state Democrats had said gun laws would be among their legislative priorities now that they have complete control of the government. In a roundtable with reporters in December, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks identified gun violence legislation as a priority for the chambers’ new majorities.
But this week’s shooting has increased the urgency.
“One of the models we’ve seen in these horrible tragedies is that we need to act quickly. Even in Florida, they were able to get it done in a red legislature,” said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, who represents the area south of Detroit. “I think we can do that with a Democratic trifecta. There are conversations we’re having as soon as today to figure out timelines to expedite this process.”
Whitmer specifically called out all three of Democrats’ gun control priorities in her State of the State speech last month.
“Despite pleas from Oxford families, these issues never even got a hearing in the legislature,” Whitmer said at the time. “This year, let’s change that and work together to stop the violence and save lives.”
The MSU shooting occurred on campus in East Lansing on Monday evening, which killed three students and injured five more. The suspected gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound off campus. The Detroit News reported that he pled guilty to a gun charge in 2019.

It is the 67th mass shooting in America this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a D.C.-based nonprofit.
Bayer, who Whitmer called out as a leader on gun control legislation in her address, said that there is a plan to introduce legislation “soon.”
“We had a schedule that we’re trying to move up even more,” she said. “We were targeting right after the first week of April, that’s what we were planning for, but we want to respond quicker.”
But Democrats in the state are also cognizant that they have very slim majorities to manage in both the state House and the state Senate. Even a single no vote from a Democratic lawmaker could sink a bill in the state House if no Republican joins.
“All you need is one Joe Manchin,” said Bayer, referencing the West Virginia senator’s role bedeviling Democrats on Capitol Hill on a myriad of issues. (Manchin has worked with senators from both parties on gun legislation in the past, and he supported the bipartisan law that passed last year following the mass shootings at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.)
“With these current events, how could anyone stop it?” Bayer continued. “But I’ve thought that for years.”
Spokespeople for Whitmer and Brinks did not immediately respond to requests for comment on new legislation. But statements in the immediate aftermath of the shooting expressed despair and outrage and signaled that Democratic leadership planned to push for gun control legislation.
Brinks tweeted that her daughter, a MSU student, was “answering my texts and calls” early Tuesday morning. Tate’s spokesperson pointed to a statement he issued saying “we can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act,” adding that he had “no understanding left for those in a position to effect change who are unwilling to act.”
“This is a uniquely American problem,” Whitmer, who ordered that flags around the state be lowered to half-staff on Tuesday morning, said in her own statement. “We should not, we cannot, accept living like this.”
Camilleri and Bayer expressed confidence that the party would be able to get all Democrats on board for legislation focused on red flag laws, safe storage and universal background checks. And Bayer said she thought some Republicans could join on some pieces of legislation as well. “We’ve had a couple of Republicans join our caucus on the topic,” she said. “I hope this will help more of them to come over.”
But beyond that, broader legislation may be much more difficult, the lawmakers admitted.
“When it comes to some other issues that I’m sure we’ll be discussing, those might be tougher, but the urgency to act is now,” Camilleri said.

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#Michigan #Dems #faster #push #gun #laws #MSU #shooting
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 15, 2023