Politico

What else to know: 👉 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed Valery Zaluzhny as the country's military commander-in-chief — ending months of tensions between the two. 👉After calls from members of the European Parliament to sanction Tucker Carlson went viral this week, the E.U. said it isn’t planning to do so — at least not yet.

The Senate advanced an aid bill of tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel after months of handwringing. It still has a ways to go, with timing for final passage in limbo. “We are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done,” said Chuck Schumer, in a not-so-subtle threat to keep his colleagues over the weekend or until the supplemental is passed in full.

Welcome to Monday. Here are three things to know to as we head into the week: 👉Senators unveiled their long-awaited bipartisan border deal last night, which includes sending billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as the U.S-Mexico border. But it could be dead on arrival in the House (if it even makes it there). 👉 After foreign secretary David Cameron said Britain would “look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state,” PM Rishi Sunak downplayed the idea that U.K. policy had changed. 👉The Pentagon isn’t planning for a long-term campaign against the Iranian military and associated proxy groups in Iraq and Syria, said the department’s top spokesperson. The comments follow recent messaging by the Biden admin that Friday’s strikes were just the first round in the U.S. response to the Jan. 28 attack in Jordan by Iran-backed militants that killed three U.S. soldiers.

Welcome to Wednesday 👋 Here are three stories to know halfway through the week: 👉Rumors are swirling that Volodymyr Zelenskyy might oust his top general. Our sources tell us the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is that the Ukraine president is afraid of creating a powerful political rival. 👉Are there more Russian spies in the European Parliament? As the chamber investigates a Latvian lawmaker, some are warning there are others like her. 👉A challenger to Vladimir Putin has submitted 105,000 signatures backing his presidential election campaign. Boris Nadezhdin should, in theory, be permitted on the ballot in March – but it’ll be a longshot.

What else to know: 👉The intensifying Red Sea conflict is threatening to ripple across the U.S. economy at the most inopportune time for Democrats and President Joe Biden — potentially nudging inflation back up just ahead of this fall’s election. 👉Senate Democrats are officially over Benjamin Netanyahu, pointing out significant problems with his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas after the October attack. While no senators called for his resignation, their comments — including from lawmakers who are normally more reserved on the issue — show how much Democratic lawmakers’ faith in the Israeli leader has eroded.

We caught up with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday as Kyiv fights to maintain Western support in its war with Russia. A snapshot of what he said 👇 Ukraine’s fears: It’s not just flagging U.S. support that’s keeping the country awake at night. It’s also concerned with maintaining European backing. A €50 billion EU package for Ukraine has stalled since last year, after Hungary blocked it, with EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week in a last-ditch effort to get it over the line. Ukraine’s needs: “This money is crucially important for us,” said Shmyhal. “It will let us finance our budget [and] allow us to implement a process of rapid recovery.” (About €38 billion is earmarked for budgetary support, another €8 billion for investment projects.) On Donald Trump: “We’ll see how conditions develop in 2025,” said Shmyhal when asked if he feared a second Trump presidency. “I believe that any president of the United States will support our fight for civilized values, our mutual values,” arguing that most American people back Ukraine.

What else you should know: 👉 President Biden invited congressional leaders to a White House meeting on months-long negotiations over funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and border security. They’re scheduled to meet on Wednesday. 👉U.S. diplomats, who are worried about the size and intent of the big Chinese delegation in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, are trying to arrange a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a Swiss official while he’s in the country.

Foreign diplomats are aghast that so many U.S. leaders let their zeal for partisan politics prevent the basic functions of government. It’s a major topic of conversations at their private dinners and gatherings, according to conversations with a dozen current and former diplomats. Many of these conversations wouldn’t have happened a few months ago.There are rules, traditions and pragmatic concerns that discourage foreign diplomats from commenting on the internal politics of another country. (One rare exception: some spoke out on America’s astonishing 2016 election.) But the contours of this year’s presidential campaign, a Congress that can barely choose a House speaker or keep the government open, and, perhaps above all, the U.S. debate on military aid for Ukraine have led some diplomats to drop their inhibitions. And while they were often hesitant to name one party as the bigger culprit, many of the examples they pointed to involved Republican members of Congress. Current and former diplomats said their countries are more reluctant to sign deals with Washington because of the partisan divide. There’s worry that a new administration will abandon past agreements to appease rowdy electoral bases and not for legitimate national security reasons. And while Russia’s diplomats delight in the U.S. chaos — and fan it — the world’s envoys are now reconsidering how their governments can deal with this America for many years and presidents to come.

What else to know: Progressive lawmakers are furious at Biden for not seeking congressional approval — as cited in Article 1 of the Constitution — before launching the attacks. It’s reigniting the long-simmering congressional battle over war powers and becoming a rare point of consensus for progressives and hardline conservatives.

The fact that Biden didn’t order the retaliatory strikes for more than a week after the Jan. 1 meeting was in line with his well-known desire to exhaust diplomatic options and avoid dragging the U.S. into another Middle East war. But the president made clear in a statement that the latest Houthi attack had crossed a line. More inside Biden’s decision

A timeline of President Biden's decision to strike the Houthis – the first major U.S. military response to the group’s ongoing attacks on commercial ships in a critical international trade area👇 Dec. 2023: The U.S. military drew up forceful options against the Houthis as early as the first week of December. But at that point, senior Biden officials — who worried that hitting the Houthis could provoke Iran and widen the Israel-Hamas conflict into a regional war — agreed striking the group was not the best course. Jan. 1: Biden spoke with his national security team after Iran-backed Houthis launched yet another attack on international shipping in the Red Sea. He was ready to discuss a military response, but at the same time directed his team to push for a diplomatic solution. Jan. 3: The U.S. and 13 other countries issued a statement warning the Houthis that they would bear the full “consequences” of any further attacks. But that did little to deter the group. Jan. 9: The Houthis launched their largest attack yet, launching drones and missiles toward U.S. commercial and military ships. This marked a turning point for U.S. officials. Jan. 11: The U.S. and its allies launched a massive retaliatory assault against the Houthis aimed at hurting their ability to continue their attacks. The joint assault targeted radar systems, storage and launch sites for drones, cruise and ballistic missiles across “a large area of Yemen”; no civilians were assessed to be present at the sites, a Defense Dept official told us.

This has made Netanyahu reluctant to take American advice on the war. It also suggests that U.S.-Israeli tensions will grow as Palestinians struggle to survive Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Privately, some in President Biden’s administration are seething that Netanyahu is still leading Israel’s government, and they believe his political shelf-life is limited. But U.S. officials aren’t giving up on trying to work with him amid the crisis. So many American officials have seen or otherwise reached out to Netanyahu that some observers call it “Bibi-sitting.” Read more