Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories…

The Dispatch: Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters yesterday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had placed about 8,500 U.S. military personnel on “a heightened preparedness to deploy” to Eastern Europe in case NATO activates its response force. The Washington Post reports that, in another effort to stave off a Russian reinvasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration is threatening Moscow with rarely used export controls that would cripple Russian industry by inhibiting the country’s ability to import semiconductors—manufactured around the globe—that rely on American software or tools in any way. U.S. Central Command announced yesterday that American forces at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates—with the help of Emirati armed forces—intercepted two incoming ballistic missiles early Monday morning. A Houthi military spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, adding the Iran-backed militia will continue launching missiles “as long as attacks on the Yemeni people continue.” Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that 39 Chinese aircraft—including 34 fighter jets, four electronic warfare aircraft, and one bomber—flew into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone on Sunday, the largest such incursion since October. Momentum for updating the Electoral Count Act of 1887 continues to grow, with 16 senators—including nine Republicans and 7 Democrats—meeting on Monday to chart a path forward on bipartisan legislation that could earn at least 60 votes. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced yesterday he plans to combat rising gun violence in the city by launching new NYPD Neighborhood Safety Teams, putting more police officers on patrol, and increasing coordination between NYPD and New York State Police, among other initiatives.

Whose Side is Germany On, Anyway?

The Dispatch: (Photo by Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung via Getty Images.) In a Monday morning press conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that several members of the military alliance were stepping up their efforts to deter a Russian reinvasion of Ukraine. Denmark will send a frigate to the Baltic Sea and fighter jets to Lithuania. Spain is dispatching ships to the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Netherlands is committing aircraft to Bulgaria, and France is prepared to send troops to Romania. President Joe Biden said last week the United States has already shipped $600 million worth of arms to Kyiv, and the United Kingdom has airlifted thousands of short-range antitank missiles to Ukraine in recent days, plus 30 “elite British troops” to train Ukrainians to use them. Germany—the third-largest NATO member by population—has been notably absent from this unified show of force. Citing the country’s long-standing, “very clear stance on weapons exports,” Olaf Scholz—the country’s new chancellor—told reporters late last week Germany would likely abstain from supporting Ukraine militarily. A few hours later, The Wall Street Journal reported Berlin had blocked Estonia from doing so as well, because the Cold War-era howitzers the small NATO ally had planned to supply Kyiv originated in East Germany. The British planes carrying antitank missiles to Ukraine last week took a long detour through Denmark to avoid German airspace. (Initial reports indicated Germany had denied the planes’ request to take a more direct route, but both German and UK officials later clarified the UK didn’t bother to ask permission in the first place.) Berlin’s reluctance to export weapons—or be even tangentially associated with exporting weapons—is just one sliver of Germany’s broader caginess toward the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Scholz is saying many of the right things—“Borders must not be moved by force,” a Russian invasion of Ukraine will “have a high cost”—but he has proven unwilling to publicly commit to hardline sanctions on Russia’s prized (but not-yet-operational) Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the event of an incursion. “It is clear that there will be a high cost and that all this will have to be discussed if there is a military intervention against Ukraine,” Scholz said last Tuesday when pressed on the nearly-finished natural gas pipeline, which connects Russia and Germany while bypassing Ukraine. A few weeks earlier, he described Nord Stream 2 as a “private-sector project” and sought to de-link its regulatory approval from the Ukraine situation—a position Germany’s defense minister echoed earlier this month. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has opposed the pipeline in the past, but dodged a question on it in a joint press conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. Yesterday, she said the “hardest stick” may not always yield the best results. Why all the equivocation? Two main reasons: Germany’s increasing reliance on Russian energy, and the long and fraught history between the two countries.

Russian Amphibious Preparation for Ukraine Invasion…

THOMAS NEWDICK View Thomas Newdick's Articles @CombatAir A group of Russian amphibious warfare vessels — three of which left the Baltic Sea region yesterday, preceded by another three the day before — have started to enter the English Channel. Some expect that their journey will eventually take them to the Black Sea to participate in an invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. Multiple reports confirm that all six of the Russian Navy warships have begun their passage through the English Channel, after which they will enter the Atlantic Ocean. The vessels comprise the Project 775 Ropucha class amphibious warfare ships Olenegorskiy Gornyak and Georgiy Pobedonosets, as well as the Project 11711 Ivan Gren class landing ship Pyotr Morgunov, from the Northern Fleet, plus three other Ropuchas, the Korolev, Minsk, and Kaliningrad, from the Baltic Fleet.

Frustrated by the Senate’s “Filibuster Vote” Marxist Socialist Democratic Party will not be able to control the National Vote & legality continue using sleazy tricks, dodgy mail-in voting & criminal activities used in the 2020 Presidential Election to seize control of the United States. They now seek to accuse the various States of rigging elections by requiring Voter Identification, Proof of Citizenship & other measures to insure the integrity of the Vote.

ANDREW TRUNSKY POLITICAL REPORTER January 19, 2022 10:52 PM ET FONT SIZE: The Senate late Thursday rejected a Democratic effort to alter the filibuster in order to pass their long-sought voting bills over unanimous Republican opposition, capping one of the most consequential days in the history of the chamber. The change, had it been adopted, would have established a “talking filibuster,” allowing any senator to speak for or against the bill for as long as they wanted but lowering the 60-vote threshold for passage to a simple majority. Democrats’ attempt to change Senate rules concluded a marathon day of debating in the chamber that saw nearly half of the body speak about the voting bills. They failed, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved to change the rules soon after. Though senators engaged in genuine debate throughout the day, most expressed disdain for how deliberation seemed to have faded from the world’s greatest deliberative body. “I don’t know what happened to the good old days,” said West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, “but I can’t tell you they aren’t here now.” The Senate late Thursday rejected a Democratic effort to alter the filibuster in order to pass their long-sought voting bills over unanimous Republican opposition, capping one of the most consequential days in the history of the chamber. The vote failed 48-52 after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voted as they said they would for months, joining a unanimous Republican caucus in opposition and denying their party the necessary support for the change to take effect. The change, had it been adopted, would have established a “talking filibuster” pertaining to the voting bills only, allowing any senator to speak for or against them for as long as they wanted but lowering the 60-vote threshold for passage to a simple majority. “What we have now … is not a filibuster,” Maine Sen. Angus King, and independent who caucuses with Democrats, said ahead of the vote. “It doesn’t require any effort. It doesn’t require any speeches. It doesn’t require to hold the floor.” “Strom Thurmond would have loved this filibuster,” King added, invoking the late segregationist senator who set the record for the longest filibuster speech ever while speaking against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. (RELATED: Democrats Double-Down On Sure-To-Fail Strategy To Pass Voting Bills) Activists gather to support Democrats’ voting bills Wednesday. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) Democrats’ attempt to change Senate rules concluded a marathon day of debating in the chamber that saw nearly half of the body speak either for the John Lewis Voting Rights Reauthorization Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, the twin bills that passed the House Thursday with a quirk that prevented Senate Republicans from blocking debate on them as they had in the past. (RELATED: House Passes Two Democratic Voting Bills – With A Quirk That Allows Them To Skirt One Filibuster Vote) The voting bills failed to garner 60 Senate votes earlier Wednesday night even though Manchin and Sinema voted in favor, sparking Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s motion to change Senate rules to allow them to pass without GOP support. “For those who believe bipartisanship is possible, we have proven them wrong,” Manchin said ahead of the vote. “Ending the filibuster would be the easy way out. I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation when elected leaders are sent to Washington to unite our country by putting politics and party aside.” Democrats have said the bills are necessary to counter election reform laws that Republican state legislatures across the country have passed in the wake of the 2020 election that allegedly suppress people’s ability to vote. As a result, nearly all have endorsed altering the filibuster to ensure their passage even if done on a partisan basis. “I share with many of you … a vision of the Senate that collaborates and negotiates the most important issue of our time,” Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock said. “I believe in bipartisanship. But at what cost? Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship and is liberty itself the cost?” (RELATED: ‘A Perilous Course For This Nation’: Manchin Breaks With Democrats, Reaffirms Support For The Filibuster Ahead Of Critical Vote) Sen. Tim Kaine speaks to the press about Wednesday’s votes and Democrats’ plan to push for a “talking” filibuster. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Republicans, however, have countered that the federal legislation, which sets uniform voting standards and outlaws partisan gerrymandering, will invite voter fraud and infringe on states’ rights to oversee their own elections. “The president and his party will try to use fear and panic to smash the Senate, silence millions of Americans and size control of our democracy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. (RELATED: McConnell Blasts ‘The Left’s Big Lie’ As Schumer Prepares Another Voting Bill Push) McConnell said hours later that while the day was one of the most consequential in the history of the Senate, it really boiled down to a simple question: “Will it take 60 votes to pass massive changes or a simple majority to ram them through? That’s what’s at stake here.” Though senators engaged in genuine debate throughout the day, most expressed disdain for how deliberation seemed to have faded from the world’s greatest deliberative body. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican who backed the John Lewis voting bill, said Wednesday that the rhetoric surrounding voting has become very concerning. “I was part of a very troubling conversation last evening,” she said. “It was shared depending on which side you’re on in this body today on this issue, you’re either a racist or a hypocrite. Really, is that where we are?” Manchin echoed her hours later in his speech, criticizing the lack of bipartisanship as he has time and time again throughout his filibuster defenses. “I don’t know what happened to the good old days,” he said, “but I can’t tell you they aren’t here now.”

Disturbing videos emerge as 13 million remain in China’s lockdown

China is hellbent on achieving what no other country has: Covid-zero. Desperate to stamp out the mutating coronavirus ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month, the Chinese government has kept more than 13 million people in the northwestern city of Xi'an under strict lockdown conditions. Residents are confined to their home and are not permitted to leave to buy food or supplies, instead having to rely on patchy deliveries. Residents were reportedly removed from their homes at midnight and ushered into quarantine. Source: Weibo Reports circulating on Chinese social media site Weibo claim as many as 1000 people were removed from their home at midnight and led away into quarantine. Locals have taken to social media to complain about the drastic measures. While it is not known how many people were forced from their home, one account said they saw as many as 30 buses evicting the residents in the early hours of the morning. Residents were removed from the Mingde 8 Yingli housing compound on January 1, the BBC reported, because it was believed locals had mixed while getting tested for Covid. One person later complained about the quarantine conditions on Weibo. "There is nothing here, just basic necessities... Nobody has come to check up on us, what kind of quarantine is this? They did a big transfer of us, more than a thousand people, in the night and many of us are elderly people and children," they wrote, according to the BBC. Due to the harsh lockdown measures, "anti-epidemic" workers have been supplying food to residents. Staff members in protective suits conduct Covid tests at a residential area in Xi'an on January 2. Source: Getty Images Video showing long lines of workers in hazmat suits delivering bundles of food have been going viral on Chinese social media. But so too have more disturbing clips, Manya Koetse, a Chinese social media trend watcher and editor of What's on Weibo, says.

Suppression of Free Speech in Hong Kong

Independent Hong Kong news site Citizen News says it will shut down on Tuesday, citing the deteriorating media environment in the city and the need to protect its staff. Citizen News was the largest remaining independent news outlet in Hong Kong following the shuttering of Apple Daily in June and Stand News last Wednesday. The news outlet announced the decision on Facebook, saying it was made to protect the safety of everyone involved. "Unfortunately, the major changes in our society in the last two years, and the deteriorating media environment, have made it impossible for us to realize our mission without worries," it wrote. "At the centre of a brewing storm, we found ourself in a critical situation. In the face of a crisis, we must ensure the safety and well-being of everyone who are on board.” Citizen News was founded in 2017 by a number of veteran Hong Kong reporters and is supported entirely by crowdfunding. The statement said its website will cease to be updated from Tuesday and will be removed "after a period of time." Since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, pro-democracy groups have dissolved, activists and journalists have been arrested, and independent media outlets have shut down. Last summer, Apple Daily, Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy publication, closed after the arrests of multiple journalists and the freezing of millions of dollars of assets under the national security law. And Stand News shuttered after police raided its office last Wednesday, arrested seven people associated with the publication and froze about 61 million Hong Kong dollars ($7.8 million) worth of assets from the company. While an initial government notice referenced a "conspiracy to publish seditious publications" — allegations that stem from a colonial-era crimes ordinance — the police involved with the Stand News case were national security officers. Police said the arrests were connected to multiple "seditious" articles published by the outlet between July 2020 and November 2021. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam defended the raid, claiming it had nothing to do with what they wrote. "This was purely enforcement work. This has nothing to do with journalistic or media work," Lam said Thursday. — By CNN's Eric Cheung and Tara John ---------- Around Asia ---------- An unidentified man who crossed the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea on Sunday is presumed to be a North Korean defector who made the journey in the opposite direction more than a year ago, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has again admitted there is a "food problem" in the country, during a speech which brought an important five-day meeting of his Korean Worker's Party to a close. Seven states in Malaysia were hit by floods on Sunday and thousands of people were evacuated, taking the total affected by heavy rain in the past two weeks to more than 125,000. A stampede at one of India's holiest shrines left at least 12 people dead on New Year's Day, a local official said.

Unending cycle of lockdowns tests limits of China's zero-Covid policy

Meanwhile in China Nectar Gan and Steve George ---------- A drug store worker rides a bicycle to deliver medicine in Xi'an, a city under lockdown in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on December 31, 2021. For residents in China's northwestern city of Xi'an, the start of 2022 is looking a lot like 2020 — only worse. Since December, the ancient city known as the home of the Terracotta Warriors has been grappling with China's largest community coronavirus outbreak since Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic. To date, more than 1,600 cases have been reported in the city. While the number pales in comparison to those in many other countries, the outbreak pushed China's caseload in the final week of 2021 to the highest level since March 2020. For 12 days and counting, Xi'an's 13 million residents have been confined to their homes. The city, formerly a tourist hotspot, welcomed the new year with deserted streets, shuttered stores, sealed-off residential compounds and an empty airport. The lockdown is the strictest and largest since Wuhan, which sealed off 11 million people in early 2020. But it is also among the most chaotic, leaving residents short of food and other essential supplies and affecting access to medical services. A groundswell of anger and frustration at the local government has ensued, underscoring the growing challenge facing China's zero-Covid policy, which relies on a playbook of mass testing, extensive quarantines and snap lockdowns to stamp out any resurgence of the virus. For almost two years, these stringent measures have shielded the majority of the country from the worst aspects of the pandemic, winning overwhelming public support. But as local outbreaks continue to flare up, the outcry in Xi'an raises the question of just how long zero-Covid can be sustained before public support begins to taper off, with millions of residents trapped in an seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns. Over the past week, Chinese social media was inundated with cries for help and criticism over perceived incompetence of the local Xi'an government. Residents flooded a livestream of a government Covid news conference with demands for groceries — prompting embarrassed officials to disable all comments. Despite some censorship, the issue has continued to gain traction. On Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, the hashtag "Grocery shopping in Xi'an is difficult" has been viewed 380 million times as of Monday. Many expressed frustration they hadn't hoarded food in advance because local authorities had repeatedly reassured them food supplies were abundant and there was no need for panic buying. In the first few days of the lockdown, each household was allowed to send one designated person out to buy groceries every two days. But as cases continued to rise, Xi'an further tightened lockdown measures, requiring all residents to stay at home unless permitted to go outside for mass testing. "Previously I thought those panic buying folks were stupid. Now I've realized I am the stupid one," said a comment on Weibo. Faced with the public outcry, local officials pledged steady deliveries of groceries to residents, with state media carrying footage of food arriving at residential compounds. While the supply shortage was eased in some neighborhoods, other residents complained on social media — including in comments below state media posts — that they had not received such deliveries in their communities. Meanwhile, the heavy-handed approach adopted in some areas to enforce the lockdown has fueled further outrage. On Friday, footage emerged on Weibo of a man being beaten by Covid prevention workers at the gates of a residential compound when he tried to enter with a bag of steamed buns. The video, which immediately went viral, showed the buns scattered on the ground as the man tumbled. The ensuing outcry prompted a statement from police, which said the two attackers were punished with a seven-day detention and a fine of 200 yuan (about $30). For some, the cost of the lockdown was just too high. Last week, state media reported on two incidents of individuals going to extreme lengths to escape from Xi'an before restrictions kicked in. A man trekked for 100 kilometers (62 miles) across the Qinling mountain range from the Xi'an airport, avoiding multiple village checkpoints on the way before he was finally spotted and taken into quarantine on December 24, eight days into his journey, according to a statement from the Ningshan county police. In the other incident, a man cycled for 10 hours overnight in close to freezing temperatures in an attempt to return to his hometown, after he learned Xi'an would be locked down the next day. He was taken into quarantine and fined 200 yuan, according to a statement from the Chunhua county police. Despite the difficulties, Xi'an officials have repeatedly pledged their resolve to contain the outbreak in public. At a news conference Sunday, Liu Guozhong, the Communist Party boss of Shaanxi province, of which Xi'an is the capital, vowed to "further lift our spirits, entrench the awareness of achieving 100% prevention, control and isolation, prioritize epidemic prevention and control in urban villages, and achieve the goal of bringing cases back to zero in society as soon as possible." In a show of resolve, the party secretary of Yanta district, one of the worst-hit areas in the outbreak, was dismissed, joining a long list of local officials who were fired for failing to contain Covid flare-ups. The harsh lockdown measures appear to be working. On Sunday, Xi'an's daily case count dropped for the first time in more than a week to 122, followed by Monday's 90 cases. If the trend continues, it will likely be only a matter of weeks before Xi'an successfully contains its outbreak as other cities have in the past. But it won't be the last time the coronavirus — and the stringent response to eradicate it — causes significant disruption to daily life and the local economy. For now, it's a zero-Covid goal that China seems determined to achieve — even if it pushes public patience to the limit. Nectar Gan, Digital Producer, CNN International Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world. Steve George, Senior Editor Steve George is Senior Editor for CNN International in Hong Kong. He oversees coverage from across the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on China.