It’s Thursday, March 3rd, and this is your Morning Wire. Listen to the full podcast:
1) Death Toll Rises In Ukraine Invasion
The Topline: As the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine comes to a close, more information is coming in regarding casualties on both sides, all while international partnerships emerge.
Quote Of The Day: “Today at the United Nations, light has won over darkness. 141 states voted to support this amendment.”
– Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the U.S. to the U.N.
Photographer: Erin Trieb/Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images
The Updates
The resistance of the Ukrainian government and citizens to the attack is solid, a far cry from the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, when they took the region without any opposition.
Russia is ramping up the viciousness of their attacks, and broadening the range of targets to include non-military areas and residential neighborhoods. Now, President Biden says Russia is intentionally targeting civilian areas.
One example of a non-military target – given Putin’s claim that Ukraine is dominated by neo-Nazis who must be extinguished – is the Russian bombing of a TV tower in the vicinity of a Holocaust memorial site where more than 30,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
As of Wednesday, the United Nations reported that 136 Ukrainian civilians have been killed so far, including 13 children. 400 more have been injured, but these numbers are expected to rise as more information comes in. Ukraine is claiming that the numbers are closer to 2,000 killed, but this hasn’t been verified.
The death toll is rising every day, which is triggering more Ukrainians to flee. The number of refugees leaving the country is currently rising exponentially, and could reach 1 million people soon. More than 874,000 have already left.
According to the Ukrainian government, Russian forces are also looking at massive casualty numbers. As of yesterday, Ukrainian authorities say almost 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, while 30 aircraft and 31 helicopters have allegedly been shot down, and 211 tanks destroyed.
Russian state media admitted that almost 500 Russian troops had been killed, with almost 1600 injured, though many speculate these numbers are being downplayed.
International Response
While there is hope about the next round of peace talks, which were agreed to begin last night, a main issue of concern is still the role of China.
Yesterday, China’s bank regulator said they won’t be joining western governments in sanctioning Russia.
Remember: China is a top buyer of Russian energy, and they’ve stated they plan to “keep normal economic, trade and financial exchanges” with Russia.
On Wednesday, the United Nations voted on a resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. ambassador to the UN said that members should “vote yes if you believe Russia should be held to account for its actions.”
This is not legally binding. Five countries voted against the resolution – Belarus, which is a Russian ally in the attack, North Korea, Eritrea, Russia, and Syria.
There were 34 countries who abstained, which included China and India, which are both major economies who could continue to be an importer of Russian energy.
China passed U.S. intelligence shared by Biden on to the Russians, and the New York Times reported that China asked Russia to delay the invasion of Ukraine until the Winter Olympics were over.
Gado/Contributor/Getty Images
2) COVID Relief Program Fraud
The Topline: In 2020, the federal government created several programs to help businesses impacted by mandatory COVID-19 lockdowns, but the programs were rife with fraud and President Biden is now promising to prosecute the worst pandemic crimes.
Quote Of The Day: “We’re going to go after the criminals who stole billions of relief money meant for small business and millions of Americans.”
– President Joe Biden, State of the Union
What Happened
The Small Business Administration, which administered these programs, signed off on 1.7 million loan applications worth $343 billion in two weeks, meaning the SBA processed as many loans in 14 days as it normally approves in 14 years. The agency admitted that, in the process, it “lowered the guardrails.” They say they didn’t have the resources to vet every application, so people filed for businesses that don’t exist, claimed to have more employees than they did, or engaged in identity theft. The government quickly knew something was wrong because, during the first 18 months of the program, calls to the SBA’s fraud line increased by 37,000%.
Two years into the program, officials say they have no idea of the full scope of fraud.
Alleged Fraud
The SBA says by last February in the EIDL program alone, they had received more than 845,000 complaints of identity fraud. The SBA had already paid approximately one in four of those applications, totaling $6.7 billion. This doesn’t include the much larger PPP or other COVID relief programs.
One allegation is that a Florida woman fraudulently used her PPP loan to pay for a contract killing.
In another instance, two brothers and their wives defrauded the government of more than $20 million, which they used to purchase luxury homes in California. A Connecticut man confessed that he spent $4 million in PPP funds to buy a Porsche, a Mercedes, and a BMW.
Reality TV star “Arkansas Mo,” who starred in “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” admitted to defrauding the PPP program of $3.7 million to cover the costs of a Ponzi scheme he’d been running. A judge sentenced Mo — whose real name is Maurice Fayne — to 17 years in prison.
Some of these schemes allegedly involved massive numbers of people. On the first of the month, the Justice Department announced it charged 22 people in Atlanta in a grand conspiracy to defraud the program of nearly $3.9 million. Prosecutors say the ringleader asked people how much money they’d like to receive from PPP; created fraudulent tax documents to obtain that amount; and then took a portion of the proceeds as what he called a “success fee.”
Last December, the Secret Service estimated there’s still $100 billion in total fraud from all COVID relief programs that hadn’t been prosecuted yet.
Saul Loeb – Pool/Pool/Getty Images
3) Americans React To State Of The Union
The Topline: Instant polling to President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union shows his remarks received a less enthusiastic response than both Obama’s and Trump’s first speech, but the majority of Americans who watched still had a somewhat positive reaction.
Public Reaction
A 71% majority of Americans who watched Biden’s State of the Union had a positive reaction to the president’s speech, according to a CNN poll. Of those, 41% of those polled said they felt very positive about Biden’s remarks. According to CNN, that’s the lowest “very positive” score CNN has seen in around 15 years of instant polling after the State of the Union. For comparison, when Biden gave his address to a joint session of Congress in April of last year, 78% of Americans polled had a positive reaction and 51% had a very positive reaction.
These polls only take into account people who tuned in to watch the State of the Union, which tend to skew towards supporters of the President in office.
In 2018, when Trump gave his first State of the Union address, 48% of Americans who watched his speech said they felt very positive about it. Obama received the same 48% positive results in his first State of the Union in 2010.
Remember: Biden’s job approval has been sinking. Currently, his job approval sits under 41%, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. Around 54% of Americans disapprove of the way Biden is doing his job right now.
A previous version of this story reported in error that a Holocaust memorial site was bombed. It has been corrected to note that a TV tower in the vicinity of a Holocaust memorial site was bombed.