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Welcome to the Bullwork Podcast. I'm Trele Sykes. It is January 26, 2023 and Joe Biden

and the Germans have finally gotten around to giving the Ukrainians the tanks they need

to actually win this war. So we are very fortunate to welcome back on the podcast, Michael

Weiss, who is the senior correspondent for Yahoo News, host of the podcast, Foreign Office,

and one of the most reliable sources on what's happening and not actually happening in Ukraine.

So welcome back, Michael. Thanks, Charlie. Happy to be here.

Let's just start with the tanks because we have had this very elaborate kabuki dance where

the United States was saying, well, we could give the tanks, but maybe we should keep them

there. The Germans appear to be dragging their feet. Rather significant turnaround over

the last 48 hours. So the leopards are now released. The Abrams are on their way. You

had a great story with your colleague, Jimmy Rushden, how the US and its allies finessed

coaxed and convinced the Germans to send the leopards to Ukraine. So let's just walk through

how that decision was made. I should preface this by saying that one of the sources for

that story is a Bungerstog member. And prior to that, a general staff officer in the German

Army, who's very well versed in German politics much more so than myself. And I asked him, essentially,

what you've just asked me. And the conversation lasted an hour and a half and went all the

...