Tanks Divide, Will They Conquer?

Start your day smarter with the most important world news, plus intriguing and offbeat stories. www.ozy.com [OZY]( [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Presidential Daily Brief]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Jan 26, 2023 Today Germany’s parliament welcomed the government’s decision to provide Ukraine with tanks. Donald Trump is free to return to Facebook and Instagram, parent company Meta said in a blog post. Opposition lawmakers in Peru announced a motion to impeach President Dina Boluarte as protests continued. And high school students in Florida threatened Gov. Ron DeSantis with a lawsuit over plans to block a Black history course. All this and more in today’s PDB. IMPORTANT The Long Road Germany Split, Ukraine Grateful on Tank Supply Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the commitment of 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine proof that “Germany will always be at the forefront” of Ukrainian support. It has been welcomed in the Bundestag, with criticism from opposition parties that it should have come sooner. Germans are less convinced, with a near-even split for and against the sending of more weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy extended his thanks during his nightly televised address but pleaded with Germany to make a quick delivery. Across the border, Russia slammed the gift as a “blatant provocation” and promised the tanks will "burn like all the rest.” (Sources: [DW](, [BBC]() Unblocked Coming Back to Your Meta Timeline: Trump Former president Donald Trump will be back on Instagram and Facebook in a matter of weeks, Meta said Wednesday. It follows a petition from the 2024 candidate’s team disputing a ban in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection. “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying,” Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg wrote in a blog post, adding it’s crucial to voting. The American Civil Liberties Union executive director welcomed the decision: “While the government cannot force platforms to carry certain speech, that doesn’t mean the largest platforms should engage in political censorship.” (Sources: [The Verge](, [NYT]() Holding the Line Calls for ‘Truce’ in Peru Met with More Clashes Thousands took to the streets again in Lima Wednesday, hours after President Dina Boluarte called for a “national truce” nearly two months after the ousting of Pedro Castillo. Protestors chanted “Boluarte, murderer” as the death toll pushes past 50 — at least 46 were killed in direct clashes with law enforcement, according to Peru’s ombudsman. Boluarte has repeatedly linked protests to incitement from shadowy “drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling” groups. In Congress, where members last month voted to impeach Castillo, left-wing lawmakers tabled a motion to impeach Boluarte citing her “permanent moral incapacity” in handling the wave of protests. (Sources: [BBC](, [Al Jazeera]() Schooling the Gov. Fl. Students Prepare to Fight Back on DeSantis’ ‘Woke’ Classroom Ban Three high school students, supported by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, will sue Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over plans to ban a new course teaching Black history. Crump threatened a suit on behalf of the students if DeSantis blocked the course, still in the pilot program stage, claiming it “lacks educational value.” Crump is joined in his criticism by the NAACP and the ACLU, but DeSantis has held firm. “By rejecting the African American history pilot program, Ron DeSantis has clearly demonstrated that he wants to dictate whose history does — and doesn’t — belong,” Democratic state Rep. Fentrice Driskell said. (Sources: [NPR](, [Miami Herald]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: ‘Invasion day.’ Celebrations marking Australia’s “discovery” by Europeans on Jan. 26 are increasingly unpopular. This year, thousands took to the streets across the country to demand the national day be abolished or moved. (Source: [Reuters]() Brr. A cold snap across East Asia has killed at least four in Japan and created commuter chaos during the Lunar New Year holidays. Climate experts warn that it may be the “new norm” for the region. (Source: [CNN]() Suing. A Virginia teacher shot by a six-year-old student in class earlier this month has filed a suit against school administrators. Abigail Zwerner and colleagues repeatedly warned the school the student had a gun, her legal team alleges. (Source: [France24]() INTRIGUING Killer Diplomacy High on the US-China Agenda: Fentanyl U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken heads to Beijing next month “actively seeking to reengage” China on counternarcotic initiatives aimed at blocking the trafficking of fentanyl. China’s efforts to curb the production of chemicals used to make fentanyl have been successful, but U.S. officials say this process needs to be tightened further. A State Department spokesman said the government is quietly hopeful China will team up to “curb the diversion of precursor chemicals and equipment used by criminals to manufacture fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.” Fentanyl is the top killer of Americans aged between 18 and 49. (Source: [VOA]() GPA-I Trying to Pass Law School? There’s an App for That Sort of. ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered bot sparking fears of plagiarism in education, scraped through exams for the Minnesota University Law School. Professor Jonathan Choi fed the bot the same exam his students sat and found it received a passable C+. Answering 12 essay questions was a breeze for the bot, but it struggled with the 95 multiple-choice questions. ChatGPT has a knack for understanding basic legal concepts but “often struggled to spot issues when given an open-ended prompt, a core skill on law school exams.” Reassuringly for educators, two out of three exam markers correctly identified the bot-taken exam. (Source: [CBS]() Love Is Love Homosexuality Is no Crime, Says Pope Laws that criminalize same-sex relationships are “unjust” and clergy should welcome LGBTQ Catholics, Pope Francis said this week. It’s a reach for many bishops around the world, he conceded, but they should have “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.” Pope Francis’ relatively progressive views have previously sparked controversy, but he has taken on the view that the Church should welcome all with renewed zeal ahead of a visit to African nations where many colonial-era anti-sodomy laws remain. Francis maintains homosexuality is a sin, but stresses that “it’s also a sin to lack charity with one another.” (Source: [AP]() Networking Unvaccinated ‘Pure Bloods’ Turn to the Internet for ‘Clean’ Blood In some corners of the internet, the anti-vaccine movement has birthed a theory: the blood of a vaccinated donor “contaminates” an unvaccinated recipient, endangering the so-called “pure blood” status. The theory has prompted demands for health-care workers to provide “clean” donations. One Zurich-based blood-donor service is hoping to fill that gap, providing unvaccinated blood around the world. For a fee, the nonprofit promises to match “pure bloods” with donors for “fresh or canned” vaccine-free blood. The group predicts sperm and breast milk will be the next commodity in the space. Experts say vaccines cannot be passed via blood transfusion. (Source: [AFP]() Out of Bounds Police Question Rowdy Pro-Russia Fans at Australian Open Fans carrying Russian flags were questioned by police after allegedly harassing security staff, tournament organizers said Wednesday. The incident came at the end of a match between superstar Novak Djokovic and Russia’s Andrey Rublev, prompted by a Rublev fan revealing a shirt with the “Z” symbol frequently used in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian players are participating in the tournament but under a neutral, rather than national, banner. The incident prompted Tennis Australia to reverse a decision allowing all national flags in the venue and to ban all Russian flags and paraphernalia, explicitly including “Z” merchandise. (Source: [The Guardian]() NOW STREAMING FROM OZY STUDIO COMMUNITY What else are you curious about? Share your questions or thoughts with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on “the New and the Next.” OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. [www.ozy.com]( / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. That’s OZY! [TV]( | [PODCASTS]( | [NEWS]( | [FESTIVALS]( A Modern Media Company OZY Media, 800 West El Camino Mountain View, California 94040 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy](