Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky day-tripped to Washington, DC, yesterday for his first foreign visit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. Zelensky skipped Georgetown Cupcake, but he did meet with President Biden and addressed Congress, thanking “every American” for their support.

Leaders hyping each other up and handshake photo ops are great, but why was Zelensky really in DC? Well, it’s quite simple: weapons. His trip is part of an effort to convince allies to supply the sophisticated weapons needed to fend off Russia’s intense attacks on Ukraine’s cities and its energy grid.

What Zelensky has and what he wants

Zelensky’s DC trip comes amid major Ukraine aid announcements from the US.

• Biden said yesterday that the US will give Ukraine an additional $1.85 billion in aid. It includes a battery of the much-desired Patriot air defense missiles, which the US previously refused to supply, citing the extensive training needed to operate the system.
• A massive spending package that Congress announced on Tuesday includes $45 billion in Ukraine aid through September of next year.

But Zelensky hopes that the visit will also help him snag commitments to provide Ukraine with powerful weapons like tanks, fighter jets, and longer-range artillery.

Not everyone wants to play host

While many US politicians on both sides of the aisle have been vocal in their support of Ukraine, some Republicans have questioned the amount of aid the US provides. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked Zelensky’s visit and called him a “shadow president,” while Donald Trump Jr. referred to him as a “welfare queen.”

But if a minority is concerned about the cost of sending aid to Ukraine, there’s one segment of the US economy it has definitely helped: defense contracting. Weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Technologies are receiving billions of dollars in military contracts aimed at arming Ukraine.—SK

SBF’s associates are cooperating. In a major twist in the FTX saga, Carolyn Ellison and Gary Wang, two top lieutenants in Sam Bankman-Fried’s orbit, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges yesterday and are “cooperating” with authorities, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said. These guilty pleas were announced while SBF was being extradited to the US from the Bahamas to face fraud and conspiracy charges in New York.

The WALL-E sequel just got too real. The InSight lander, a robot that spent the last four years on Mars taking photos and detecting 1,000+ marsquakes, finally died, NASA said yesterday. The solar panels that generate the electricity to keep it going had slowly gotten covered with Martian dust since it landed in November 2018. Scientists expected the little bot to only make it to summer 2022, but because of good weather on the planet, InSight got a few more months to work and sent the saddest farewell tweet you’ve ever read.

The DEA has seized a lot of Fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Agency said it confiscated more than 379 million doses of the synthetic opioid this year—enough to kill every person in the US. The number of fentanyl-laced pills it seized was double that of last year, the DEA said, pinning the blame on two Mexican drug cartels for driving the influx. The powerful drug was involved in the deaths of more than 70,000 Americans in 2021, according to the CDC.

There’s finally going to be a free activity in Washington, DC, that isn’t looking at a statue: riding the bus. The DC council voted Tuesday to waive the city’s two-dollar bus fares starting in July.

DC is joining a growing fare-free movement. In 2020, Los Angeles and Kansas City, MO, suspended bus fare collection, and KC’s zero-fare program has no planned end date. Politicians in NYC and several other cities are also trying to get your bus ride down to $0.

Fans of the newly passed measure in DC think fare-free rides may incentivize more people to take the bus instead of driving cars, speed up stops (since no one is swiping or tapping), give lower-income residents a break, and reduce confrontations between riders and law enforcement. One data point: KC officials say they have seen a 13% increase in ridership since they ditched fares.

The other side: Fare-free opponents argue that, among other things, scrapping fares takes money out of already cash-strapped transit systems and that the money used to cover riders (DC may spend $43 million for it in 2024) should go toward improving the sometimes unreliable systems instead.—MM

A woman named Kelly Conlon told NBC that facial recognition tech cued security to escort her out of Radio City Music Hall last month, before she could see the Rockettes with her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. Conlon wasn’t identified by the biometric scanners as a security threat, but rather as a lawyer at a firm that’s involved in litigation against the venue’s owner, MSG Entertainment.

The company defended its use of the tech, saying it has a “straightforward policy” barring attorneys who work at adversarial firms from attending its events. Conlon’s not the first lawyer to be impacted by the policy, and there’s already an active suit from dozens of lawyers and firms trying to dismantle it.

But there may be a bigger issue here

MSG has been quietly analyzing its attendees’ buccal fat at venues like Madison Square Garden since at least 2018, scanning faces and comparing them to entries in a database. MSG’s pretty mum on exactly who they’re ID’ing, but it clearly goes beyond the FBI’s most wanted.

Zoom out: Privacy advocates are concerned that, unless everyone joins the Faceless Men, their biometric data is up for grabs—not just to kick out security threats and shoplifters (like Walmart’s tried in the past), but to target people with ads and much more.—JW

Stat: Got laid off from your tech job? Try switching from product management to produce management. The USDA expects farmers’ earnings to grow 14% this year from last year, largely thanks to how much the rest of us are paying at the grocery store. Meanwhile, farmland in the Midwest is also at a premium. Prices shot up 20% in the third quarter from a year earlier even as the residential real estate market sagged, marking the eleventh straight quarter of growth, per Bloomberg.

Quote: “I just did basic asset management. Citigroup was in the beginning of my career and Goldman Sachs. Nothing fancy, nothing super ooh-la-la.”

Incoming Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, played down what he did during his stint in investment banking in an interview with Bloomberg while running for office, but now it appears even that may have been overplaying it. The New York Times has reported that the soon-to-be Congressman likely fabricated most of his resume, including his employment at both banks. This is probably worse than that time you said you knew Photoshop. Besides his supposed time on Wall Street, the NYT says he may have invented his college experience and his work at a tax-exempt animal rescue. His lawyer, though, says the Times is “attempting to smear” the politician.

Read: The possible connection between startups and cat poop. (Insider)

Dig it. The best archaeological finds of the year.

Top scientist admits “space telescope image” was actually chorizo: That’s just one of the most absurd headlines of 2022.

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Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than a thank-you card for an unscented candle. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. New study finds eating 12 olives a day could make you a better swimmer
2. Spinach causing hallucinations sparks health warning
3. Demand for lemons surges as Chinese seek immunity against Covid
4. Deputy dressed as Grinch gives onions to speeding drivers

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On Imposters, Alyson Stoner tells Alex how fame impacted her childhood and how her road to healing led to the creation of her business, Movement Genius.

Want to stay up to date on the latest tech developments? Emerging Tech Brew is your free guide to the world of tech.

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