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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A big investment: “President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.”
* Striking new allegations: “A state-sponsored actor in China hacked the U.S. Treasury Department, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said on Monday. The announcement comes after revelations in recent months that China had penetrated deep into U.S. telecommunications systems, gaining access to the phone conversations and text messages of U.S. officials and others.”
* At the U.S./Mexico border: “Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico in December are little changed from a month earlier, a U.S. official said Monday, hovering near the lowest levels since July 2020 and indicating that an anticipated surge ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president hasn’t happened.”
* A story worth watching: “The leader of Azerbaijan directly blamed Russia on Sunday for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet last week, calling on Moscow to accept responsibility and offer compensation to victims. President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijan’s national broadcaster that a vague apology issued by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a day earlier would not suffice to preserve friendly relations between the two former Soviet states.”
* Musk’s political interests are not limited to the United States: “Tech billionaire Elon Musk doubled down on his support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, calling it the ‘last spark of hope’ for the country, in an opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Musk’s piece, which expanded on his endorsement of the AfD on X last week, was posted online on Saturday and prompted the editor of the newspaper’s opinion section to resign in protest.”
* On a related note, the government spokesperson in Berlin is obviously correct: “Billionaire Elon Musk is trying to exert influence over the German election taking place in February, a government spokesperson said on Monday.”
* I have the same concern: “Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who famously cleaned up trash after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said he is concerned that day is being ‘papered over.’”
* A terrifying story out of Grand Junction: “A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying ‘This is Trump’s America now,’ according to court documents.”
* Best wishes to the Carter family: “Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who dedicated his life after he left office to brokering international peace, has died at age 100, his office confirmed Sunday.”
The holiday schedule is a little unusual this year, and I’ll be off on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. That said, I’m planning to return to a normal publishing schedule on Thursday, Jan. 2. See you then.