No images? Click here 11 January 2023House Speaker voting chaos underlines split among RepublicansAfter 15 rounds of voting, Republican Kevin McCarthy has been appointed the US House Speaker. The tumultuous process foreshadows the challenges that will face Kevin McCarthy and the Republican party as a whole in 2023. As United States Studies Centre's Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe notes, the House voting process reveals a Republican party that is split between traditional conservatives in the spirit and philosophy of past Presidents like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and a new generation of Donald Trump supporters. The voting rounds halted the start of the new Congress, and forced Kevin McCarthy to make concessions to Trump supporters. After balking at a package of changes to House rules that enshrine concessions the speaker made to ultraconservative members, Republicans ultimately united to get them through. The approved changes will allow any single lawmaker to call a snap vote to oust McCarthy and make it more difficult to raise the debt limit. The changes will also permit lawmakers to use spending bills to defund specific government programs and fire or reduce the salaries of federal government officials. NEWS WRAPConcerns in the US over capability to deliver on AUKUS submarine pact
ANALYSISArsenal of democracy rises for UkraineStephen Loosley, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre Certainly, President Joe Biden refers approvingly to both the concept and the reality of an American arsenal of democracy. This arsenal, along with those of America’s allies around the world, including Australia, now sustains the courageous fight of Ukraine for sovereignty and liberty. Ukraine may be a fledgling democracy, but it exhibits all the strength of character which Britain, its dominions and the empire, together with its allies, exhibited in those dark times of 1940. Nothing illustrates this better than President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent visit to Washington and his address to the US congress after meeting with Biden in the White House. This is an excerpt of an article first published in The Australian on 10 January 2023. "Sometimes democracy is messy, but I would argue that’s exactly how the Founders intended it" - Rep. Jim Jordan in response to the House Speaker voting process. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) | 8 January BY THE NUMBERS Ukraine gets dozens more US infantry fighting vehiclesUkraine has said it needs as many as 700 infantry fighting vehicles plus 300 tanks from from the west in order to give its military a chance of breaking through the increasingly fortified Russian positions along the frontline. It comes as the United States says it will provide around 50 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, with Germany also stating it would provide Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The United States has already pledged hundreds of military vehicles to Ukraine including Humvees and several hundred M113 APCs, about half the number on Ukraine's wish list. Dozens of tanks have also been provided to Ukraine by former Soviet-bloc states within NATO, though well short of the 300 Ukraine said it needs. France has also pledged to supply Ukraine's armed forces with an unspecified number of the AMX 10-RC 'tank killer' armoured fighting vehicle. Manage your email preferences | Forward this email to a friend United States Studies Centre |