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| Presented By Climate Power |
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| Axios Sneak Peek |
| By the Axios Politics team ·Mar 17, 2022 |
| ☘️ Welcome back to Sneak. We hope you're having a festive St. Patrick's Day! 🔮 A reminder to sign up for Axios' inaugural What's Next Summit on April 5. Register here to attend livestream sessions with discussions on trends that'll revolutionize our future. Smart Brevity™ count: 905 words ... 3½ minutes. Edited by Glen Johnson. |
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| 1 big thing: Scoop - Ukraine's resistance plea |
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| Civilians trained with Ukrainian reserve officers before Russia's invasion last month. Photo: Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images |
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| Ukraine's top national security official asked earlier this month for the U.S. to go beyond traditional military aid and provide the country with the funding, training and weaponry to support a long-term resistance movement, according to a letter obtained by Axios' Zachary Basu. Why it matters: Russia's advances on the battlefield have largely stalled, prompting fears of a long, grinding war of attrition. Ukraine is seeking more formal and robust backing for its whole-of-society defense against Russia. - The latest package of $800 million in U.S. military aid includes rifles and pistols for possible civilian use, but the bulk of the weaponry is for official military operations.
- The letter was addressed to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA director Bill Burns, but Axios could not independently confirm it was received by their agencies.
- None of the agencies would comment on the record when contacted by Axios.
Context: Ukraine's parliament last year codified a plan to fight back against a potential Russian invasion and occupation with its Law on the Fundamentals of National Resistance. It came into effect Jan. 1. - The law sets out the role of the Territorial Defense Forces, a reserve unit that supports the military, as well as irregular partisan forces and local volunteer formations comprised of civilians.
- If necessary, the law would "allow for the involvement of the entire population of Ukraine in the protection of their homeland, their land and their families," Maria Mezentseva, a Ukrainian member of Parliament, tells Axios.
Driving the news: The letter was dated March 6 and signed by Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council secretary. - It asked the U.S. "to allocate additional funds for the organization of the resistance movement and voluntary formations of territorial communities throughout Ukraine."
- Danilov said Ukraine needs "additional supplies of weapons to defeat the enemy, training materials and training of experienced instructors."
- Axios obtained the letter from a reliable source in direct contact with the Zelensky administration.
Keep reading. 👓 Go deeper: See the letter (written in Ukrainian). |
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| 2. Congress sounds digital alarm bells |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| Seeking to protect veterans from cyberattacks and to teach kids about disinformation, lawmakers are introducing legislation to address heightened homeland security concerns after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Why it matters: Since the start of the war, much of the attention has been on how to supply humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Now, lawmakers are thinking about nonmilitary attacks Russia could unleash on the United States, Axios' Sophia Cai writes. Driving the news: Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster cybersecurity at the Department of Veterans Affairs. - It would require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to obtain an independent cybersecurity assessment of VA information systems and submit to Congress a plan to address weaknesses found in the assessment.
- Companion legislation in the House will be introduced by Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.), chairman of the Technology Modernization subcommittee on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
To help Americans recognize Russian disinformation, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) introduced legislation that would establish a commission to support information and media literacy, as well as promote disinformation education. - Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said he's also planning to press social media companies about how they plan to handle Russian disinformation on their platforms.
- This adds to the pressure from lawmakers about falsehoods ranging from pandemic science to voting fraud.
Keep reading. |
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| 3. Mapped: Most-Irish counties |
 Data: American Community Survey; Map: Will Chase/Axios 9% of Americans — 30.4 million of them — claim Irish heritage, Axios' Stef Kight reports. - The county with the highest percentage may surprise you: Blount County, Alabama — at nearly 30%, according to census data as of 2019.
By the numbers: 112,000 people living in the U.S. in 2019 were born in Ireland. - Of the top 10 counties with the largest percentage of residents claiming Irish ancestry, three are in Massachusetts and three are in West Virginia.
- As of 2020, the five states with the largest percentage of Irish residents were New Hampshire (20%), Massachusetts (20%), Rhode Island (18%), Vermont (17%) and Maine (17%), according to the census data.
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| A message from Climate Power |
| We can't drill our way to real energy independence |
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| We can't drill our way to real energy independence. We must accelerate the production of cheaper, cleaner energy — like wind, solar and electric vehicles — that isn't impacted by conflicts overseas and will lower costs for consumers and businesses. Congress, it's time to act. |
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| 4. Worthy of your time |
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| Caroline Kennedy was back in the White House to attend a St. Patrick's Day event hosted by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images |
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| ✉️ Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce, obtained by Axios' Sarah Mucha, urging them to identify businesses in his district that continue to do business with Russia even after its invasion of Ukraine, as part of a "campaign to shut off all commerce with Russia," Axios' Andrew Solender reports. 💉 The Congressional Caucus on Addiction, Treatment and Recovery held a briefing with actor Michael Keaton, star of the Hulu series "Dopesick," on "how the Opioid Epidemic has shifted and what challenges remain going forward," according to an outline obtained by Axios. ⏰ Many senators were caught by surprise earlier this week when a bill to make daylight saving time permanent passed unanimously, according to BuzzFeed News. It reported some senators hadn't been made aware by their staffs. 🗳️ Veterans of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) presidential campaign are pushing Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to run as a progressive standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential race, if President Biden chooses not to run, Politico reported. 🍀 During the Friends of Ireland lunch at the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read a poem by Irish musician and philanthropist Bono about the war in Ukraine that reads, in part, "Ireland's sorrow and pain is now the Ukraine, and Saint Patrick's name now Zelensky." |
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| 5. Pics du jour |
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| Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images |
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| From Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Jen Psaki and Antony Blinken, the Biden administration wore the green today. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images Photo: Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images |
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| A message from Climate Power |
| We can't drill our way to real energy independence |
| |
| |
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| We can't drill our way to real energy independence. We must accelerate the production of cheaper, cleaner energy — like wind, solar and electric vehicles — that isn't impacted by conflicts overseas and will lower costs for consumers and businesses. Congress, it's time to act. |
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| 🥂 Thanks for reading this week! We'll be back Sunday evening. Subscribe to Sneak or any of Axios' other free local and national newsletters through this link. |
 | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | |
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