United States (1)

Rudy Guiliani is broke. Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss wish Trump’s top legal adviser wasn’t. A US court has ruled that Guiliani has ruined their lives when he publicly and falsely accused them of tampering with Georgia election ballots.

This Friday a jury of eight was considering whether or not to grant their request for $43 million in damages. An award, which will almost certainly be academic.

Three divorces, a lavish lifestyle and backing Donald Trump’s election lie has destroyed the 79-year-old’s fortune.

The former Mayor of New York was a presidential  candidate in 2007. As such he had to reveal his assets. He said he was worth $18 million. Court accountants believe the figure was probably closer to $70 million. In 2017 he was earning $10 million a year in speaker’s fees alone, and had been doing so for more than 10 years.

He enjoyed the money. According to court documents, Rudy Guiliani in 2017 owned six homes, belonged to 11 country clubs and spent $12,000 a month on cigars.

The fall started with divorce from his wife Judith.  She took a big chunk of his assets and alimony payments of $43,000 per month. But Giuliani’s biggest mistake was joining Donald Trump’s personal legal team in 2018.

By 2020 he was his top lawyer and closely connected with Trump’s election lie. This led to a $10 million defamation suit by an ex-employee and additional law suits from election computer manufacturers Smartamatic and Dominion Voting.

In 2022 the Internal Revenue Service took out a lien on his Florida condo because he had failed to pay $500,000 in taxes. In August of this year his own lawyers sued him $1.4 million in unpaid legal bills. His current net assets are $1 million. His known current liabilities (and there are more to come) are $1.9 million. He is bust. Backing Trump has a price.

United States (2)

Republicans may be shooting themselves in the foot over their planned impeachment of President Joe Biden.

There seems to be little doubt that the president’s son Hunter is guilty of a number of bad things. But despite months of deep digging by Republican congressmen, no one has been able to uncover a shred of hard evidence linking the president to his son’s business dealings.

Nevertheless, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives appears determined to start impeachment proceedings against President Biden.

Impeachment is a serious business. It takes a lot of time and effort. While an impeachment is in progress Congress is focused on little else. That means debates over government spending, immigration, Ukraine, Israel and climate change are all put on the legislative backburner.

These are all important issues for the American electorate. They will not thank Republican congressman for ignoring their interests to pursue a political vendetta without evidence to back it up.

Ukraine

It has been a bad week for Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky. In Washington he hit a brick wall in an attempt to release $61 billion in aid.

And at the EU heads of government summit, Hungary’s Viktor Orban proved himself a friend of Russia by blocking $55 billion of European Union aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky’s wife, Olena, said Ukrainians are in “mortal danger” of being left to die.

President Vladimir Putin couldn’t agree more. In his end of year public press conference this week he declared: “Russia is winning the war.”

Ukraine’s summer counter offensive, he said, has failed. Russia is now successfully dug in and preparing for its counter to the counter offensive and the West is growing tired of supporting Ukraine.

Putin said Russia was in sight of its objective – the “de-Nazification” and “demilitarisation” of Ukraine.  In Putin-speak this means the removal of  the elected government, complete disarmament of Ukraine and a ban on it joining the EU or NATO. This in turn would lead to Ukraine either being  absorbed into the Russian Federation or turned into a toothless puppet state.

The battle for Ukraine in the corridors of Washington and Brussels is not over. President Biden is still committed to the promised $61 billion which Republicans have tied to tougher immigration laws. Biden will either have to find a way to untie or loosen the knot or agree to the link.

In Brussels. Council President Charles Michel said that that the other EU heads of government were determined to circumvent Orban’s block. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told Ukrainians: “Don’t worry, we will be there to support you. We just need to figure out a few details.”

There was some good news for Ukraine from the European Council summit. They agreed to start negotiations with Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova on EU membership. Georgia was given candidate status. To achieve that breakthrough, the other heads of government had to persuade Viktor Orban to leave the room during the vote.

Israel

It’s official: Netanyahu totally rejects the two-state solution

The Biden Administration, the European Union, Japan and Britain had all been hoping that the Hamas attack and the unfolding tragedy of Gaza would persuade the Israeli prime minister that the only chance for peace was the two-state solution agreed at the Oslo Accords in1993 and 1995.

But in an interview this week, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was grateful for American support, especially for the role that the Biden Administration played in the release of hostages. But, he added: “We disagree on the day after Hamas.”

Post-war Gaza, Netanyahu went on to say, will be governed neither by Hamas or Fatah (the ruling party in the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority). Netanyahu would not reveal further details of his plans for Gaza other than to stress: “It will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”

A clearly exasperated Biden shot back: “You cannot say that there is no Palestinian state in the future. We have to bring Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of a two-state solution.”

Netanyahu left it to his Communications Minister, Shlomo Karhi, to respond to the response. He said: “We live here. This is our country. The historical property of our ancestors. There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established the Jordan and the Mediterranean.”

Myanmar

Congratulations to world-beating Myanmar. It is now the number one producer of opium.

The title was until recently held by Afghanistan. Decades of war provided Afghan poppy farmers with the absence of law needed to grow their crops. It also supplied insurgent groups with ready cash to spend on weapons.

The war in Afghanistan is over. The governing Taliban is imposing its authority on the countryside and that authority includes a Sharia law against the production of opium.

The political situation is reversed in Myanmar. The country has long suffered from feuding ethnic and tribal groups. And it is historically a big opium producer. The famed Golden Triangle includes the border areas of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

But since the military coup in 2021, the ethnically-based civil war has intensified dramatically. Myanmar’s jungles have become as lawless as Afghanistan’s mountain valleys were.

Opium production in Afghanistan is down 98 percent. It is up 38 perceent in Myanmar. It is estimated that last year, Myanmar’s opium lords produced 154 tonnes of opium which netted them $2.2 billion.

COP 28

Cop 28 IS over. And the big dispute now is whether it was a success, a failure or something in between.

As with most political events, the answer depends on with whom you speak.

The fossil fuel producing countries reckon it was a success. The small developing world countries that are disappearing under the waves say that it was a dismal failure. Europe, Japan and the US are sitting on the fence.

The differing diplomatic interpretations relate to an argument over the phrases “phase out” vs. “transition away from.”

The EU and US and all the small island states wanted the final communique to commit countries to “phase out” fossil fuels. But the oil-producing  countries objected and so the term “transition away” from was used instead.

The Association of Small Island states (AOSIS) were furious, especially as there was no target date set for transition. Europe, US and Japan were not happy with the words but pleased that oil and coal producers had finally agreed to be named and shamed in a climate change communique.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. He also contributes to “The New World” magazine and lectures on world affairs. He is the author of “America Made in Britain,” two editions of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “The Falklands Crisis.”