CC0 / /
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A group of US House and Senate Republicans have opposed a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would allow Washington to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine in aid, American newspaper reported on Friday, citing people involved with the negotiations.
According to the report, Republican staffers claim that the provision has not been “fully litigated” and questioned the effectiveness of the proposed measure. Moreover, Republicans believe that the provision should be reviewed by the US House and Senate judiciary committees.
Laura Peavey, a spokesperson for Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, told the newspaper that the provision had faced broad opposition even though it had already passed in the House with bipartisan support.
A Democratic staffer close to the NDAA told the newspaper that “it is possible that these Republican staffers are blocking the provision because they think we will engage in some kind of horse trading down the road.”
The US defense budget is set to be adopted by the end of 2022. First, the House of Representatives and the Senate approve their defense budget drafts and then consolidate them into one document. If the necessary number of congressmen vote for the document, it will be sent to US President Joe Biden for signing.
Science & Tech
Discover the latest science and technology news from Sputnik including the inventions and scientific breakthroughs that are shaping the world.
CC BY 2.0 / /
The impact that produced the crater in question was registered as a magnitude 4 quake by NASA instruments.
A massive crater left by a meteoroid impact was discovered on Mars by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The impact apparently occurred on December 24 last year when another NASA craft, the InSight lander detected a magnitude 4 quake on the Red Planet.
Having compared the images take by the Mars Reconnaissance Lander before and after that event, scientists were able to spot the crater in question which is located in the region known as Amazonis Planitia and measures about 150 meters across and 21 meters deep.
“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” said Ingrid Daubar, planetary scientist from Brown University who leads InSight’s Impact Science Working Group. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”
According to a statement released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this discovery is now believed to be “one of the largest craters ever witnessed forming any place in the solar system”.
Kyra Naya