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Yakov feels betrayed, but Barley convinces him that the manuscript can still be published, and is given another volume of the manuscript after assuring Yakov he is sympathetic to the scientist's cause. Some U.S. lawmakers said coming to Ukraine’s aid now had helped avert sending a dangerous signal of U.S. weakness to Moscow. U.S. and Ukrainian officials said resupply efforts could take place relatively quickly, because of supply chains and logistical networks established early in the more than two-year-old conflict. As President Joe Biden targets Russia's elite and their families with sanctions that aim to minimize their financial footprint, pockets of Georgia and New York may also be worried about their assets. A tiny beach town north of Miami is home to a large concentration of Russians, but Little Moscow isn't the only place this wealthy set calls home.
Movie Info
To judge by this film, the life of a Cold War spy consists of sitting for endless hours in soundproof rooms with people you do not particularly like, waiting for something to happen. President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a statement of appreciation moments after the vote, which occurred late Saturday evening Ukraine time. He thanked by name House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who had been heavily lobbied by Ukraine’s supporters to bring the measure to a vote despite bitter opposition from his party’s far-right flank. It also contained a measure to help pave the way to selling off frozen Russian sovereign assets to help fund the Ukrainian war effort, and a new round of sanctions on Iran.
Ukraine and Russia trade fresh accusations of targeting a major nuclear power plant
The House passed a foreign aid package Saturday as well as what's called the REPO Act, which would allow the Biden administration to confiscate billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets sitting in U.S. banks and transfer them to Ukraine for reconstruction. The House voted resoundingly on Saturday to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line to advance the long-stalled aid package by marshaling support from mainstream Republicans and Democrats. Several months later in Moscow, a woman named Katya seeks Barley out at an audio fair, hoping to convince him to publish a manuscript for her friend Yakov which details Soviet nuclear capabilities and atomic secrets. The manuscript has a cover letter to Barley, saying that Yakov is trying to serve his country by hastening the day when democracy will come to the Soviet Union.
Russia-Ukraine War
The Senate plans to take the matter up Tuesday, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement emailed to The Post. European allies, for their part, had watched the drawn-out aid drama with mounting anxiety and exasperation. But most quickly pivoted to public expressions of optimism and unity.
There is, overall, a simulated sense of peril promising suspense that never comes. Barley returns to the Soviet Union to seek out Dante and confirm he is a genuine informant. Through her, he confirms that Dante is indeed Saveleyev, and he also denies to Katya that he is a spy. Bartholomew "Barley" Scott-Blair, head of a British publishing firm, arrives in Moscow on business. At a writers' retreat near Peredelkino, he speaks of an end to tensions with the West, heard by the mysterious "Dante", who demands that Barley promise to do the right thing if the opportunity arises.
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There is the same overwhelming aggressiveness to the first 30 minutes of "The Russia House." The aim in this case is apparently to convince the audience that the film is far more complex than, in fact, it ever becomes. "The Russia House," the screen adaptation of John le Carre's post-Cold War spy novel, comes on like a drill sergeant who talks fast and feeds the recruits more information than they can possibly absorb, the aim being to intimidate them into woozy submission. The BBC produced a radio play of the novel adapted in seven episodes.
Oh, Zendaya knows all about that ‘Spider-Man’ female lead-to-tennis player ‘prophecy’
House approves bill to divest TikTok, freeze Russian assets - POLITICO
House approves bill to divest TikTok, freeze Russian assets.
Posted: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 19:46:13 GMT [source]
But since then, a number of senators have come out in favor of the proposal and plans to tuck it into the foreign aid package. Cantwell announced Wednesday that she now supports the legislation after lawmakers agreed to give ByteDance more time to sell off TikTok. The REPO Act, which would authorize Biden to confiscate the frozen Russian assets in U.S. banks and transfer them to a special fund for Ukraine, is part of the foreign aid package that was stalled for months in the House. More than $6 billion of the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets are sitting in U.S. banks. Most of the $300 billion in assets are in Germany, France and Belgium.
Because of the growing tensions stemming from the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russian oligarchs that own homes in London's high-end property market are now under pressure from the UK government. It added that this was more likely of foreign buyers living abroad rather than in the US. For those living in the US, they were more likely to obtain mortgage financing. Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia who has been lobbying for the REPO Act for months, clapped back at Caldwell’s assertion and said the use of Russian assets for Ukraine would send an important message to autocratic nations around the world. Saturday's vote marked the first time the House had approved billions of dollars in Ukraine aid since December 2022, when Democrats still controlled the chamber. The bill is widely expected to pass the Senate in the coming days, as it generally mirrors a $95.3 billion national security bill passed by the upper chamber in February.
The idea to confiscate the Russian assets, which emerged last year, has been hotly contested by economists and foreign policy experts. “I’m going to a allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will on this,” Johnson told reporters, defending his decision to allow the vote to go forward Saturday. "If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job," Johnson told reporters this week. "History judges us for what we do. This is a critical time right now."
As the political infighting dragged on in Washington, Ukrainian officials expressed particular alarm over the systematic destruction of crucial energy infrastructure, such as a power plant wrecked by missiles outside Kyiv this month. In some parts of the country, the targeting of electricity-generating plants has caused power cuts of a scope and duration comparable to those seen much earlier in the war. US home prices have climbed because of a lack of housing inventory that has increased buyer competition. While many US buyers grapple with affordability woes, data from NAR shows that Russian buyers typically pay for their homes in cash. Matt Bradley is a London-based foreign correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. “Other G7 countries will only act to confiscate Russian assets if the U.S. leads,” he Epshtein.
Barley admits he traded the shopping list to the Soviets, in exchange for the release of Katya and her family to the West. He admits his actions might be unfair, but tells Ned, "You shouldn't open other people's letters." The British run the operation through its first phase while apprising the CIA of its results. The CIA team, headed by Russell, is concerned at the manuscript's description of the Soviet nuclear missile programme in complete disarray and suggests the United States has engaged in a pointless arms race.
The manuscript is intercepted by British intelligence, which pays a visit to Barley in the Lisbon flat where he often repairs for drinking bouts, and they quiz him about the book and the girl until in exasperation he agrees to go to Moscow and follow up on the transaction. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are supportive of the bill’s inclusion in the aid package, their offices confirmed. The two lawmakers had previously led separate legislative efforts to tackle concerns over the app.
Having read the book, I knew that Barley would have to be Sean Connery or perhaps Michael Caine (John Hurt would have been good, but is not a box office name). And so what develops is one of those infinitely gentle, sad le Carre plots in which men who have worked too long within the mole tunnels of intelligence come out into the sunlight and stand, blinking and disoriented, in the glare of beauty, romance, truth and fresh air. All of which needs to be talked about a great deal, especially by men who have been spies too long. These include the Americans (Roy Scheider and John Mahoney) who take over the case from the impotent British.
Amid the diplomatic maneuverings, one group in the background has been persistently applying pressure on members of Congress, the White House and G7 countries to move forward with the idea of confiscating the funds. “This could weaken the dollar’s status as the main global reserve currency. The dollar is probably the most valuable strategic asset the United States has,” Caldwell argued. In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, contributing opinion writer Christopher Caldwell argued that it’s a “terrible idea” to confiscate the Russian funds because other countries might stop investing in the U.S., which could negatively affect the economy in the long run. The new infusion of aid comes at a make-or-break moment for Ukraine, which has faced ammo shortages and insufficient air defenses.
Most spy movies are a male preserve, but Michelle Pfeiffer brings such lyrical tenderness to her role--she looks like a sorrowing Chekhov heroine--that Barley’s love for her has an almost mystical inevitability. She’s the emblem of all that’s worth saving in this spy-infested world. Most spy movies, including many of the best ones, are slinky, dark-toned affairs. Paranoia is integral to the spy genre but, in the glasnost era, the genre has rapidly become unmoored.
When Landau is unable to locate Barley, the manuscript is sent to the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Their Russia House is more than interested in it and ask Barley to contact Yakov with a list of verifying questions to determine the document's authenticity. Barley is content to stay out of the matter, but he is manipulated into undertaking the mission. He grows fond of Katya and begins thinking of a way to get her out of the Soviet Union. House lawmakers overwhelmingly advanced an earlier version of the legislation targeting TikTok last month, but tying the issue to the aid package, which has broad bipartisan support in both chambers, could expedite its passage through the Senate.
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