1. Good News About Ukraine
Encouraging signs that someday Ukraine won't tolerate a Hunter Biden deal. There’s reason to believe indefensible deals like paying fortunes to unqualified sons of foreign politicians will someday be just as hard to pull off in Ukraine as in the U.S.
Encouraging signs that someday Ukraine won't tolerate a Hunter Biden deal. There’s reason to believe indefensible deals like paying fortunes to unqualified sons of foreign politicians will someday be just as hard to pull off in Ukraine as in the U.S.
2. Wall St. Journal reports that recent developments suggest Ukrainian leaders may help us improve American government even as they improve their own national governance.
3. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the alleged victim in the Trump impeachment case advocated by Democrats in the U.S. House, is still saying he wasn’t victimized.
4. And at least according to the declassified transcript of his famous phone call with President Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky is eager to help root out corruption.
5. On the call Mr. Zelensky said, “we are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government.”
6. The Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov reports that despite Ukraine’s many challenges—Russian aggression, for starters—Mr. Zelensky is leading an increasingly tolerant and prosperous society.
7. Ukraine’s economy, which recently began expanding again, posted 4.6% annualized growth in the second quarter of 2019. The currency has become one of the few in the world to strengthen against the dollar.
8. Ukraine is also currently experiencing a cultural boom, with new globally-minded bands, art centers, film production outlets and fashion design studios sprouting in Kyiv and other big cities.
9. One of Mr. Zelensky’s first decisions was to scrap the Independence Day military parade on Kyiv’s main avenue, instead showcasing the country’s young musicians—and a different vision of national pride.
10. Alina Pash, a 26-year-old whose eclectic style combines rap, hip-hop and folk, was the starring act. “Maybe it’s finally the time for us,” she said. “We are realizing that we don’t have to wait for a better life anymore, we can make it ourselves.”
11. In a saner political environment in DC, we would be highlighting Ukraine's accomplishments in a positive light, rather than have the two parties outdo each other on making the word Ukraine leave a bad taste in our mouths. Something stinks to high heavens in DC.
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