Trump: "This is Biden's War, Not Mine!"
Presidential Narrative Shifts as History Gets Rewritten for the Base
President Trump on Monday sought to distance himself from the war between Russia and Ukraine as his promise to end the conflict quickly has proven difficult to accomplish. “The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, and everyone else, respected your President!” Trump also blamed President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing this travesty to begin…There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST,” Trump added. In comments to reporters in the Oval Office late Monday morning, Trump added Putin to the list of those at fault. “Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” Trump told reporters. “Everybody’s to blame.” Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after massing troops on the border. The unprovoked invasion took place nearly a decade after Russia took over Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 - The Hill
Earlier today, Tuesday, just before my return journey to Ukraine, I joined CNN’s John Vause to respond to Trump’s absurd statements that this isn’t his war and that it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who started it.
One of Russia’s most outspoken generals, sacked and detained after a withering attack on the Defense Ministry two years ago, is returning to the front, according to his lawyer. But according to Russian state media, he’s been handed a poisoned chalice: front-line command of a notorious battalion of ex-prisoners that has suffered massive casualties in Ukraine. Two years ago, Major General Ivan Popov was the decorated commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army in southern Ukraine, receiving plaudits for his leadership. Then he made a mistake – sending a voice note to colleagues excoriating the leadership of the Defense Ministry, and saying he’d been fired for complaining. “The armed forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, (but) our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment,” Popov said in the message, sent in July 2023. - CNN
The Trump administration acted quickly on Monday to punish Harvard University after it refused to comply with a list of demands from the federal government that the school said were unlawful. On Monday afternoon, Harvard became the first university to refuse to comply with the administration’s requirements, setting up a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest university. By the evening, federal officials said they would freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard, along with a $60 million contract. Other universities have pushed back against the administration’s interference in higher education. But Harvard’s response, which called the Trump administration’s demands illegal, marked a major shift in tone for the nation’s most influential school, which has been criticized in recent weeks for capitulating to Trump administration pressure. A letter the Trump administration sent to Harvard on Friday demanded that the university reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is “viewpoint diverse,” among other steps. The administration did not define what it meant by viewpoint diversity, but it has generally referred to seeking a range of political views, including conservative perspectives.
Junta airstrikes during Myanmar’s New Year celebrations have killed five civilians and injured 26 others, including several monks, according to residents who spoke with Radio Free Asia. The attacks, which took place on Sunday and Monday, targeted monasteries at the start of Thingyan – Myanmar’s traditional New Year festival, a time of deep cultural, spiritual, and social importance for the Burmese people. Despite ceasefire announcements by both the junta and various resistance groups – some aligned with the exiled National Unity Government – fighting has continued. Rebel forces have claimed gains in new territories, prompting retaliatory airstrikes from the military, often resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Monasteries, which have become shelters for many of the country’s displaced people, have increasingly come under attack, drawing condemnation for the targeting of religious sites.
Junta restrictions on aid activities following central Myanmar’s devastating 7.7 earthquake have driven some to postpone aid efforts, despite many communities being in critical need of support, volunteers told Radio Free Asia. Junta authorities have been accused of blocking search and rescue teams and aid groups from entering affected areas in Sagaing and Mandalay regions, as well as Shan state, by using security checkpoints and strict registration requirements. “They [aid groups] can’t do anything. We’re very upset that those who could help are being treated like this. Now, it’s just the public looking out for each other,” said an official from a volunteer group in Mandalay assisting in earthquake recovery, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. “This isn’t working for us, so we want to say that we have stopped.” Myanmar’s March 28 earthquake killed more than 3,600 people and injured another 5,000, with 148 people still missing, the junta said in a statement published on Tuesday evening. The earthquake coincided with violent clashes between insurgent groups and junta battalions that escalated in the years following the 2021 coup, causing the military to implement stricter policies around growing insurgent hotspots nationwide - RFA
Singapore will head to the polls on May 3, after President Tharman Shanmugaratnam dissolved the city-state’s parliament on Tuesday. The Nomination Day will be on April 23, according to the country’s election department. Prospective candidates will file their election papers on Nomination Day, after which there will be nine days of campaigning and one “cooling-off day” before polling day. This will be Singapore’s 14th general election since independence, and Lawrence Wong’s first as prime minister. Wong took over from Lee Hsien Loong who had helmed the Singapore government since 2004. According to local media outlet CNA, the ruling People’s Action Party is expected to be challenged for all 97 parliamentary seats. Voter concerns heading into this election include the cost of living, jobs, as well as unemployment, CNA reported, citing a January survey. The PAP has governed Singapore since its independence in 1965. In the last general election in 2020, the party won 61.24% of the vote, and captured 83 of the 93 parliamentary seats available. The election comes at a time of heightened global turmoil, as U.S. president Donald Trump charges ahead with hefty tariffs on friends and foes alike - CNBC
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