challenge is a generational challenge. two things, one, i was just in taiwan, we need to make sure that taiwan has defense capability. all the parties in taiwan want that. we need to make sure we are getting them the $18 billion of arms so that they can actually help deter china. and second, we need to make sure our manufacturing is coming back here and we are reducing the trade deficits with china. john: of course one of the big items yesterday was the assessment from the energy department z division at the national laboratories that the wuhan lab is the likely culprit for the origins of covid. echoed by the fbi director chris wray on special report. fbi has assessed origins of the pandemic are likely a potential lab incident in wuhan. john: anybody said that three years ago would have been on the
there were any casualties at all but certainly stops far short of the admission of the tens of thousands of casualties estimated by u.s. official said and others that russia has actually suffered in this war so far, wolf. and those estimates probably are low. they re probably a lot higher than that. matthew chance, thank you very much. let s get more on tonight s very high profile hearing on the threat from china. congressman ro khanna. congressman, thanks for joining us. amid heightened tensions over potential support for putin s work, what do you see as the top priority in tonight s hearing? reporter: wolf, two things. one we need to ambulance our economic. we need to make sure twiwan has the defense capability to have
because of its role in world war ii, had never built up its defense industry or own defense capability in the way nato partners have and still behind some of the still economic contribution of other nato partners. some of this is technical as well. and that was another thing the german defense minister was saying. that some of these versions of the leopard 2 tank. and he sprouted out into the leopard 2 version 4 and 6, and we need to get these into brigades and units that can work together. for example, the leopard 2 tank of the type that i think that the poles are giving to the ukrainians, version 4, he said germany hasn t actually made ammunition for that particular tank for a couple of decades so you need to go out and restart it. so, it s not easy. and you have to find the money within budgets. and in germany s case, when you re trying not only to supply
year ago. at the time poland was willing to offer mig 29s. everybody said let s be careful not to step too far ahead of this. we ve seen what s taken place since that time, just a savage assault, criminal assault upon the ukrainian people. i think what they need is more air defense, more missiles, more sands, all that defense capability. but i think aircraft falls into the category that they re going to need. whether it s an f-16 or some other aircraft, the real question is what is the capability they need? and can we provide that through other means? are other aircraft that might be available? f-16 is one of the finest in the world. that may be the one ultimately we decide and others decide upon. but there are others in the meantime that could fulfill the need on a quicker basis, less training, less maintenance, and less sustained problems with the f-16. to be clear, you would advise united states, nato, anyone to get those jets to ukraine now if
perhaps, one city, probably kyiv, you know, it certainly contributes to the air defense in that location. it doesn t affect the air defense in the rest of the nation. by the way, the ukrainian ukraine is the size of the state of texas. it s difficult to put up an air defense shield, especially with a number of a small amount of missiles like the patriot provides. at the same time, the patriot missiles, other air defense systems are relatively high demand and low density in the armies of the world. most armies use air defense as part of an integrated defense capability of both airplanes and ground systems. it s very difficult to protect an entire nation with these kinds of capabilities. lieutenant general hertling, thank you so much. amid the war, ukrainians are helping each other out, banding together to survive and keep hope alive.