Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.

Just-departed head of DOE science wing discusses successes and barriers
Q: A number of your colleagues said they thought your appointment showed DOE’s interest in a more holistic approach to the science behind climate change. But President Joe Biden’s administration seems focused on big tech solutions such as fusion and advanced nuclear reactors. How much were you able to elevate the basic climate science?

A: I wouldn’t 100% agree with the premise. There’s been a significant effort to think big to address the climate crisis. But obviously, we’re faced with a very complex challenge. We’re trying to think about the scientific foundations in a fundamentally different way than we have historically, to bring in important pieces that have been missing in terms of people and urban environments, and to bring in resiliency as an important component of how we address the climate crisis. I would say that there’s been significant successes and victories across both the fundamental science and the large-scale technology deployment.
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UK Conservatives polling below 100 seats, survey shows
A seat-by-seat analysis based on a survey of 15,000 voters sees Sunak’s governing party winning in just 98 constituencies compared to Labour’s 468, the Sunday Times reports.

The poll, conducted by agency Survation on behalf of the Best for Britain campaign group, puts Keir Starmer’s Labour Party at 45 percent of the overall vote, a 19-point lead over the Tories.

Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party set up by Nigel Farage, would score 8.5 percent and win seven seats, with the Liberal Democrats getting 22 seats, according to the survey.

In Wales and Scotland, the Conservatives would see a complete wipeout, winning no seats, according to the report. The analysis gives the Scottish National Party 41 seats and Plaid Cymru two seats.
Ukraine’s Arms Industry Is Growing, but Is It Growing Fast Enough?
It is widely agreed that Ukraine needs to rebuild its domestic defense industry so that its military will not have to rely for years to come on the West, which has at times hesitated to send sophisticated weapons systems — including air defenses, tanks and long-range missiles. Whether that can be done in time to alter the trajectory of a war that would be all the more tenuous without more U.S. military aid remains to be seen.

But Ukraine’s military engineers have already shown surprising skill in jury-rigging older weapons systems with more modern firepower. And over the last year alone, Ukraine’s defense companies have built three times as many armored vehicles as they were making before the war and have quadrupled production of anti-tank missiles, according to Ukrainian government documents reviewed by The New York Times.

Funding for research and development is forecast to increase by eight times this year — to $1.3 billion from $162 million — according to an analysis of Ukraine’s military budget through 2030 by Janes, a defense intelligence firm. Military procurement jumped to a projected 20-year high of nearly $10 billion in 2023, compared with a prewar figure of about $1 billion a year.
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How Univision and the White House Reconciled After “Softball” Trump Interview
Enrique Acevedo, Vanity Fair has learned, was in Phoenix to prepare for an interview this week with Biden, a major get for the Spanish-language giant as it works to reestablish its footing as a fair arbiter during the 2024 cycle. The interview, set to be pretaped on Thursday at the White House, according to two Bidenworld sources familiar with the details, will be part of a coverage package from Acevedo that will also feature an interview with campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, as well as two questions he already asked Biden in Phoenix, where he was given a total of four minutes with the president. [...]

Acevedo came under fire after largely giving Trump free reign and failing to adequately push back on false claims and incendiary comments, such as one in which Trump compared migrants coming into the US to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs. Some Democrats close to the campaign now say it would only be fair for Univision and Acevedo to similarly give Biden a friendly interview, but Navarro-Cárdenas said she doesn’t believe that’s necessary. “Look, Enrique Acevedo’s interview of Trump was not good,” she added. “But I don’t want or expect a softball interview with Biden. I think all interviews should be the same and people should be asked the important questions.”

One major question in light of the planned Biden interview is how Democrats went from demanding Univision make amends with them in November to being comfortable moving forward and working with the network. That smoothing-over occurred in January during a previously unreported, high-stakes meeting between White House senior adviser Anita Dunn, one of Biden’s most trusted aides, and TelevisaUnivision Mexico co-CEO Bernardo Gómez Martinez, according to the two Bidenworld sources.

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