-Elaine Chao on the McConnell Morning Routine in December 2020

Russian President Vladimir Putin may have failed to forcibly bring Ukraine under Russian control, but at least he also seems to have accidentally made NATO stronger!
 

• Finland and Sweden have both taken major steps towards applying for NATO membership, suggesting that Putin’s effort to weaken the alliance has thoroughly backfired. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s resulting security crisis have driven a surge of support for joining NATO in the two countries, and their membership would bring NATO even closer to Russia’s doorstep. 
   
• In spite of Ukraine’s own offer to rule out NATO membership in exchange for peace, Putin said on Tuesday that peace talks with Ukraine had hit a “dead end,” falsely called the evidence of Russian atrocities in Bucha “fake,” and pledged that Russia’s “military operation will continue until its full completion.” The war’s main goal, Putin specified, was to “help the people who live in the Donbas,” another signal that Russia now plans to limit its assault to eastern Ukraine.
   
• While peace negotiations have floundered (or, y’know, were never real to begin with), Ukraine may have picked up a new bargaining chip when it captured Putin’s close ally Viktor Medvedchuk on Tuesday. Medvedchuk, who led a pro-Kremlin party in Ukraine, was facing treason charges and escaped house arrest in the early days of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainians now held captive by Russian forces. 

The U.S. on Wednesday announced new measures to help Ukraine defend itself in this phase of the war, as authorities continued to examine the atrocities that Russia’s already committed.
 

• President Biden has announced $800 million in additional military assistance to Ukraine, including artillery and helicopters. The new package will be “tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement. The U.S. has also expanded its intelligence sharing to allow Ukrainian forces to more effectively target Russian forces in the Donbas and Crimea, and to better predict their movements.
   
• An initial report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe concluded that Russia had broken international humanitarian law by deliberately targeting civilians, and that those who ordered attacks on a maternity hospital and theater in Mariupol had committed war crimes. The report said that Ukrainian forces were guilty of some abuses as well, but that Russia’s violations were “by far larger in nature and scale.” Meanwhile, civilians in eastern Ukraine face worsening conditions: More than 1.4 million people in the region now have no access to piped water, according to the UN.

However ugly the next phase of the war, it’s increasingly evident that Putin has in most respects pied himself in the face: NATO has united and may be about to expand further east, while Ukraine’s sense of identity has been admired around the world, rather than extinguished.

This week on Keep It, icon Michelle Yeoh joins to discuss Everything Everywhere All At Once, her roots in Hong Kong action films, and more. Plus, Ira and Louis talk about their favorite films, Ira’s Coachella itinerary, Spirit Halloween, and David Mamet’s turn as a Fox News commentator. New episodes of Keep It drop every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

Consultants at McKinsey & Co. were simultaneously advising Purdue Pharma and the FDA during the opioid crisis, according to a bananas New York Times report that seems to at least partially explain how drug companies evaded tougher regulation. Since 2010, at least 22 McKinsey consultants have worked for both the FDA and Purdue, according to a report by the House oversight committee, and some of them did so at the same time. In 2017, McKinsey partner Jeff Smith was advising both Purdue as it sought to launch a new line of drugs, and the FDA, which was responsible for approving them. McKinsey never disclosed that conflict of interest to the FDA, but did brag about it as a sales pitch: In 2014, a consultant highlighted the firm’s work for the FDA in an email to Purdue’s CEO and touted “who we know and what we know.” A real blow to McKinsey’s otherwise sterling reputation.

• The CDC has extended the federal mask mandate on planes and public transportation for another two weeks, citing the spread of BA.2.
   
• Rudy Giuliani helped investigators unlock devices that were seized by the FBI as part of an investigation into his Ukraine-related foreign lobbying efforts, marking the first time anyone has asked Rudy Giuliani to give them a hand with technology. 
   
• Disgraced former president Donald Trump’s Save America PAC has made its first major investment in a midterm race, vengefully transferring $500,000 to a PAC dedicated to defeating Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA).
   
• Trump told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all about his plans to overturn the election in the weeks after he lost, according to the upcoming book, Stuff We Probably Should’ve Reported At The Time, by New York Times Political Reporters.
   
• North Carolina election officials have removed former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows from the state’s voter rolls, amid an investigation into his alleged voter fraud.
• 
  Police have arrested Frank James, the suspect in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway shooting. The motive remains unclear, but James had posted a number of rambling YouTube videos discussing violence and mass shootings. 
   
• Democrats have largely opted to ignore the recent wave of GOP pedophilia smears, once again hoping that a dangerous culture war will simply go away if they focus on kitchen table issues. 800th time’s the charm!
   
• California police blasted Disney music during an investigation in a bid to stop a YouTuber from filming them with the threat of copyright infringement.
   
• Brazil’s military reportedly purchased 60 penile implants (the army insists it only bought three) and more than 35,000 boner pills, a revelation that’s fittingly gotten Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s political rivals all horned up. 
   
• An NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s very first tweet pulled in a top bid of $280, after selling for $2.9 million last year. A very funny disparity, but don’t let it distract from the real story that $280 is still much too high.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) dumbass new border inspections policy caused “significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. Abbott implemented the new policy, which required state inspections of commercial vehicles entering from Mexico, to rile up the anti-immigration base after the Biden administration moved to end a Trump-era ban on asylum-seekers at the southern border. Not only was the order pointless—those trucks were already subject to federal inspections—it left long lines of vehicles stalled at the border, delaying manufacturing and holding up shipments of fresh produce. Later on Wednesday, Abbott scaled back the inspections on one of twelve border crossings, while blaming the Biden administration for the delays he created.  Abbott has also followed through on his promised publicity stunt, sending a busful of migrants to Washington, DC, and conveniently dropping off his human props right outside Fox News’ office. Anywho, here's where you can help Texas get an actual governor.

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The Brooklyn Public Library has launched a Books UnBanned campaign will provide free library e-cards to 13- to 21-year-olds nationwide, making banned books available online.

The Welcoming Schools program, run by the Human Right Campaign Foundation, in the past year trained over 16,000 teachers in 37 states on creating a more LGBTQ+ inclusive learning environment.

San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken on Tuesday night became the first woman to coach on the field during a Major League Baseball game. 

The University of Southern California has begun accepting applications for a new scholarship aimed at diversifying the video game industry.