CNN:" The Trump administration has put more than 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two US officials and another source familiar with the matter. ” .."

• REUTERS:"Shutdown puts jobs data on ice, fogs reading of economy"
• NYTIMES: "Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People"
• CNN: "Farmers make urgent plea to Trump to stave off 'farmageddon'"
• CNN: ‘It’s killing business’: Trump’s mass deportation push is crushing local economies
• CNN: "Arab states call on Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in unprecedented move"
• NYTIMES: "Russia Says It Will Stop Abiding by Missile Treaty"
• DEMOCRACY DOCKET:"... Judges Warn of Rising Threats As Trump Steps Up Attack on Courts"
• WASHINGTONPOST: "Paramilitary massacres unfolding in Sudan’s Darfur, videos show"
• CNN:Toxic algae bloom caused by pollution causes toxic poisoning of sea lions and other sea creatures
• NYTIMES: Police make arrests in Louvre heist
• CNN: "The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations "
• CNN: Aid cuts kill women and children in Afghanistan
• APNEWS: "Trump’s ‘paper tiger’ jab at Russia echoes Mao’s propaganda against the US"
• CNN: Trump calls off ICE surge in San Francisco
• REUTERS: Web Telescope confirms the universe is expanding at an unexpected rate
• WSJ: "The Attempted Assassination of a Russian Dissident Is Foiled in France"
• CNN: Russian teenagers imprisoned for dissent
• CNN:Video shows Russians may have executed surrendering Ukranian soldiers
• REUTERS: Famine ravages Sudan but the UN can't get food to the starving
• GEORGE F. WILL: "What killed print media — and what died with it"
• NYTIMES: The Kremlin is hunting down ordinary people in the world and nobody seems to care
• REUTERS: Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to temporary truce after airstrikes, fighting
• CNN: "Furloughed federal workers file for jobless benefits, but aid isn’t easy to get"

WASHINGTONPOST:"Justices appeared to be divided as the Supreme Court heard lengthy arguments Wednesday over whether President Donald Trump has the legal authority to impose most of his sweeping tariffs, a high-stakes test of his signature economic policy. The closely watched case could have major implications for global trade, the U.S. economy and the pocketbooks of Americans. It is also the first case in which the justices will examine the underlying legal merits of a piece of Trump’s second-term agenda. ...Oral arguments focused on President Donald Trump’s tariffs have concluded. The court scheduled 80 minutes for oral arguments, and, as expected, that turned out to be a very conservative estimate. Arguments lasted for two hours and 38 minutes before Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrapped things up."
SUPREMECOURT.GOV DOCKET FILES
WASHINGTONPOST:"Virginia elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger as the state’s first female governor, while voters in New Jersey are projected to elect Democrat Mikie Sherrill as their state’s next executive, according to AP. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is the projected winner in the New York mayor’s race. He topped former governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. California voters were projected to pass Proposition 50. The ballot measure, spurred by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), will allow the state to bypass its independent redistricting commission and temporarily adopt a new congressional map that could add up to five Democratic U.S. House seats..."
CNN:"“We have no inflation,” President Donald Trump said in his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday evening. “Our groceries are down.” And with those two false claims, Trump is repeating a political mistake that haunted his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and contributed to the Democrats losing the White House: Trump appears to be denying the economic reality that people are experiencing in their everyday lives..."
CNN:"What we're covering here • Day 34 of the shutdown: The impasse’s impact is deepening across the country, including for food stamp recipients and health care enrollees, as Republicans and Democrats remain divided on a plan to fund the government. The Trump administration said today it will provide only half of food stamp benefits in November — and recipients will not see the payments immediately. • Tomorrow’s elections: Candidates are hitting the campaign trail today as voters prepare to head to the polls for the first major elections of President Donald Trump’s second term, which are seen as a test for the president and Democrats looking to oppose him. Trump will participate in a tele-rally in Virginia and one in New Jersey tonight. Here are the key races we’ll be tracking tomorrow. • CNN poll: The elections come as a new poll shows the Democratic Party holds a sizable enthusiasm advantage as views of Trump dip further into negative territory. ..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"The Trump administration said Monday that it will release enough funds to pay for a half-month’s worth of food assistance benefits in November, days after two courts ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release the money to avoid forcing nearly 42 million Americans into food insecurity. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as SNAP or food stamps — lost funding after the Trump administration said it would not tap into a $5.5 billion contingency fund to pay for the benefit. On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the administration to release backup funds moments after another federal judge in Massachusetts directed the government to decide by Monday whether it would use the contingency funds for food aid..."
NYTIMES:"Uncertainty Persists for Americans Waiting for Monthly Food Stamps Judges on Friday ordered the federal government to continue providing food assistance during the shutdown. But benefits will still most likely be interrupted...The disruption to SNAP is just one example of how federal programs have been imperiled — not just by the month-old shutdown, but also by the administration’s efforts to curtail spending on social programs as part of the domestic policy and tax cut law that President Trump signed in July. ..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"States could get partial payments for the nation’s largest anti-hunger program a few days late, after two federal judges ruled Friday that the Trump administration must use backup funds to keep food aid running despite the ongoing government shutdown. The Agriculture Department had said last week it could not use a $5.5 billion contingency fund to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as SNAP or food stamps. But a federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday ordered the administration to release backup funds for the program, which feeds about 42 million Americans a month and is set to lose funding on Saturday. Another federal judge in Massachusetts directed the government to decide by Monday whether it would use the $5.5 billion in contingency funds for food aid..."
NYTIMES:"There is a battle raging across America (and soon in the halls of the Supreme Court) over what it means to be an American and what our nation should aspire to be. It’s part of a war between two stories of nationhood that we’ve been waging since the United States was created 249 years ago. One vision is civic. It says that we Americans may lack a common history, religion or ethnicity, but what we share are the ideals in the Declaration of Independence: Each human has a natural and equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To be American, in this tradition, is to create a society dedicated to making these ideals a reality. The other vision — an animating force inside the Trump administration — is exclusive and ethnonationalist. Vice President JD Vance laid it out explicitly in a speech this summer: a national identity based not on ideals, but on privileged heritage and bloodlines..."
NYTIMES:"The Ford Foundation, the nearly 90-year-old international philanthropy, is now in the cross hairs of the Trump administration, which has called for scrutiny of the organization as part of a broad crackdown on the left. In her first interview in her new role, the incoming Ford Foundation president, Heather K. Gerken, said Friday that the foundation, which has a long history of supporting social justice and civil rights initiatives, was undeterred. Her central priority, she said, was “defending the rule of law and protecting our election system.” Though she would not formally start until the next day, her spacious office, high above the soaring atrium garden in the foundation’s headquarters near the United Nations, was filled with markers of her priorities and mementos of her past. On one wall was a series of black-and-white photographs documenting the civil rights and suffragist movements. Another wall featured an unlikely image of Justice David H. Souter atop a human pyramid of his law clerks, including a young Ms. Gerken. Nearby, there was a photo of Ms. Gerken, who was until recently dean of Yale Law School, flanked by two of its more prominent graduates, Hillary Clinton and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Before her eight years as dean, Ms. Gerken specialized in election law, both as a litigator and a scholar. She is the author of an influential 2009 book, “The Democracy Index.” Vice President JD Vance, himself a Yale Law alumnus, has long been a harsh critic of philanthropies that he said support liberal causes, and of the Ford Foundation in particular. “Why don’t we seize the assets of the Ford Foundation, tax their assets and give it to the people who’ve had their lives destroyed by their radical open-borders agenda?” he mused in 2021 as a Senate candidate. He has not let up. In September, Mr. Vance denounced the foundation by name in the aftermath of the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, suggesting the administration could go after its nonprofit tax status..."
NYTIMES:"Xi Delivers Veiled Warning to Nations Not to Take the U.S.’s Side At an Asia-Pacific summit, the Chinese leader urged countries to “resist unilateral bullying,” an appeal that seemed at odds with his country’s recent actions..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"GYEONGJU, South Korea — President Donald Trump on Thursday morning said he had directed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, an apparent attempt to flex the United States’ military might ahead of a high-stakes trade meeting here with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Trump’s announcement on Truth Social signaled a reversal of decades of United States nuclear policy that could have far-reaching consequences for relations with U.S. adversaries, though his post included very few details about what the tests would entail. ..."
REUTERS:"LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russia has in recent months attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile whose secret development prompted Donald Trump to abandon a nuclear arms control pact with Moscow in his first term as U.S. president, Ukraine's foreign minister said. Andrii Sybiha's comments are the first confirmation that Russia has used the ground-launched 9M729 missile in combat - in Ukraine or elsewhere..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"As U.S. ramps up the pressure, Venezuela pleads with Moscow, Beijing for help Documents show Maduro drafted letter asking Russia for missiles, radars and upgraded aircraft as U.S. forces amass in the Caribbean.Amid a buildup of American forces in the Caribbean, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is reaching out to Russia, China and Iran to enhance its worn military capabilities and solicit assistance, requesting defensive radars, aircraft repairs and potentially missiles, according to internal U.S. government documents obtained by The Washington Post..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"A classified report by a U.S. government watchdog has found that Israeli military units committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of U.S. human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would take the State Department “multiple years” to review, according to two U.S. officials who relayed the details to The Washington Post..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Largest federal workers union calls for ‘clean’ bill to end shutdown The American Federation of Government Employees is calling for a stopgap funding measure to bring employees back to work with back pay.
WASHINGTONPOST:"The United States has a long record of fomenting regime change in Latin America, whether under the rubric of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th and early 20th centuries or the fight against communism during the Cold War. This strategy has seldom worked out well, even when successful, and it has led to deep-rooted resentment of “The Colossus of the North.” Yet, for some reason, President Donald Trump seems eager to reprise this ignominious history in Venezuela..."
APNEWS:"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its website saying federal food aid will not go out Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families nationwide as the government shutdown drags on. The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program..."
NYTIMES:"‘No Idea How Long People Can Hold Out’: Federal Workers Feel Brunt of Shutdown As more than one million government employees go without pay, many are turning to side jobs and food banks to make ends meet."
NYTIMES:"Food Banks Brace for Overwhelming Demand as SNAP Cutoff Looms Growing need and decreased resources are squeezing the charitable food system beyond its capacity, leaders say..."
NYTIMES:"Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. and Chinese Officials Reach Framework of a Trade Deal Where Things Stand China framework: Representatives from China and the United States met separately on Sunday to discuss trade between the two countries and came to a “very substantial framework” agreement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Final decisions about any deal, however, will be determined by President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, who are scheduled to meet face-to-face this week ..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"China’s trade bullying calls for an Article 5 Trade interdependence is a two-way street, and China is not the only one with leverage.It’s been a busy month for Chinese trade weaponization. Last week, Beijing slapped punitive sanctions on five U.S. subsidiaries of a Korean shipping company. This followed its Oct. 9 announcement imposing sweeping export controls on rare earth minerals. Chinese officials cited national security concerns for the moves and this week could agree to pause China’s restrictions for a year, but in truth they were just the latest act in a three-decade-long power play. As President Donald Trump tours Asia, he should consider a way to work with allies and partners to stop the bullying. Individually, the targets of Chinese economic pressure find it difficult, if not impossible, to hold their ground against the second largest economy in the world. But if they act collectively, they can deter China’s coercion once and for all.This is especially vital given how China deploys its economic might to achieve aims beyond the economic sphere. Leveraging its massive market, China uses tariff and nontariff barriers to infringe on the sovereign political choices of others. .."
REUTERS"AUCKLAND/LONDON - Last Christmas, the tanker Yug cruised out of the Chinese port of Qingdao after offloading 2 million barrels of sanctioned Iranian oil. Near the Arctic, a vessel carrying Russian crude churned through icy seas, bound for India. Six thousand miles away, a third ship unloaded its cargo of Iranian oil off the coast of Malaysia. The three tankers had different owners, different operators and different clients. But they shared one thing: a small insurer headquartered in New Zealand, backstopped by some of the world’s biggest reinsurance firms...."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Democracy’s crisis of faith When institutions feel biased, many people start to prefer ferocious partisans to neutral arbiters.If you watch the news these days and feel that, beyond the daily chaos, something seems broken in our politics, you are not alone. A recent Pew Research Center survey of 23 countries finds that a median of 58 percent of adults are dissatisfied with how their democracy works. In the United States, more than 60 percent share that view; in Italy and France, nearly 7 in 10. People still prefer democracy to autocracy, but dissatisfaction and despair have become widespread..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Russia acquired Western technology to protect its nuclear submarine fleet Russia secretly used front companies to buy Western technology and erect a surveillance net in the Arctic where its submarines operate, an investigation shows.Russia is protecting its nuclear submarine fleet in the Arctic with an undersea surveillance system built using high-tech equipment acquired from U.S. and European companies through a secret procurement network, according to newly uncovered financial records, court documents and Western security officials. .."
CNN:"Outrage over demolition of White House East Wing Outrage is piling up over President Donald Trump's demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for his $200-million dollar ballroom"
CNN:"A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Monday will allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in Portland, saying it is likely to succeed on its appeal of an order that blocked the deployment..." READ THE PER CURIAM ORDER
CNN:" Trump insists he can strike alleged drug traffickers without Congress declaring war.President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that he could continue to launch strikes against alleged drug traffickers abroad without Congress first passing an official declaration of war. “I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just doing to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.” Trump’s dismissal came as he suggested his administration would soon begin targeting those deemed as cartel members within countries like Venezuela, in addition to continuing to strike alleged drug boats in international waters.The president said he would notify Congress first before beginning any operations on “land,” but contended that the plan would not face any pushback from lawmakers.“We going to go. I don’t see any loss in going” to Congress, Trump said. “We’re going to tell them what we’re going to do and I think they’ll probably like it, except for the radical left lunatics.” .."RUMP AND HIS PSYCHOPHANTIC PSYCHOBABBLERS
NYTIMES:"Lower-Income Americans Are Missing Car Payments Inflation and a tough job market are making it harder for some people to pay back the car loans they signed in better times... Wealthy Americans Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling. Data show a resilient economy. But that largely reflects spending by the rich, while others pull back amid high prices and a weakening labor market..."
CNN:"A president steeped in constitutional lore might have been offended by claims he’s acting as a king. But Donald Trump and his entourage responded with mockery to weekend “No Kings” protests by millions of Americans — embracing the narrative in a way that explains his growing hubris and belief that he has unchecked power. The president and Vice President JD Vance this weekend both posted AI memes to social media depicting Trump in a crown. The one Trump shared was a mocked-up vision of the president flying a fighter jet emblazoned with “KING TRUMP” appearing to dump raw sewage on protesters. In Vance’s troll on Bluesky, a site popular with liberals, prominent Democrats knelt as supplicants in a royal court before Trump, the divine and absolute ruler. It was a clever political trick. MAGA supporters can blast anyone who takes offense to the posts as lacking a sense of humor and being prim. The posts also trivialize protesters’ gravely serious claims that America is witnessing a wannabe autocrat. But they also subtly advance the thesis that Trump is all-powerful and immune from dissent, an attractive proposition to voters who like a strongman.Trump’s post is not only juvenile but also betrays striking contempt for tens of millions of Americans he ostensibly leads and for the concept of democratic free speech. He’s far from the first major political figure to express disdain for voters they don’t agree with. Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, all had their moments... The president shows no sign of changing course. He called Saturday’s mass protests a “joke” and described them as “very small, very ineffective.”The people who took part were “whacked out,” Trump said. .."
APNEWS:"WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds, in what is a potential warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way to hiring freezes and elevated inflation. High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey. Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very” or “not at all confident” they could find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question was last asked in October 2023. Electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults at a time when the expected build-out of data centers for artificial intelligence could further tax the power grid. Just more than one-half said the cost of groceries are a “major” source of financial stress, about 4 in 10 said the cost of housing and health care were a serious strain and about one-third said they were feeling high stress about gasoline prices. .. Trump’s popularity on the economy has remained low amid a mix of tariffs, federal worker layoffs and partisan sniping that has culminated in a government shutdown..."
WSJ:"A boy in a sports jersey stands with smaller girls on a court and then is seen, shirtless, inside a bathroom with them. A girl in a towel shrieks in terror. “Abigail Spanberger is as extreme as it gets,” says the narrator of the television ad that recently began airing in Virginia. A year after Donald Trump’s presidential campaign unleashed $37 million in transgender-themed issue ads against Democratic rival Kamala Harris, Republicans are returning to the cultural flashpoint ahead of next month’s elections, including Virginia’s race for governor, and plan to highlight it again in the 2026 midterm contests. “Where is our common sense?” Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor, said in an interview when asked about transgender athletes competing in female sports. “If I have to tell you that water is wet, we’ve got troubles.” Earle-Sears is trailing Spanberger, a Democrat, in polls. Her recent turn to gender issues exemplifies the potency Republicans see in replaying a line of attack that served them well in 2024."..
NYTIMES:"‘No More Trump!’: Protesters Denouncing the President Unite Across the Country Large numbers turned out at ‘No Kings’ rallies on Saturday that were scheduled in more than 2,600 cities and towns. Large crowds of protesters gathered in cities across the nation on Saturday to condemn a president they view as acting like a king, part of a daylong mass demonstration against the Trump administration. By noon, a massive crowd had flooded Times Square in New York amid a carnival-like atmosphere with colorful signs, one that announced “I Pledge Allegiance to No King.” Protesters sported costumes, including the inflatable frog ensemble that activists in Portland, Ore., began wearing to poke fun at the White House’s attempt to portray activists as anarchists or domestic terrorists. .."
NYTIMES:"What Trump’s War on Sanctuary Cities Is Really About A movement born in churches to help vulnerable immigrants has become a constitutional battleground in Chicago and Portland, Ore."
CNN::"The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and National Guard deployments have ignited searing conflicts between the federal government and local officials in Democratic-run cities. But those battles are only the most visible manifestation of a much broader effort by President Donald Trump to exert unprecedented control over the nation’s large urban centers. The administration is pressuring cities to adopt conservative policies on issues including racial diversity, transgender rights and immigration by moving to rescind their funding from a wide array of federal programs unless they do so...
CNN:"‘Everyone’s just getting destroyed’: MTG calls on Johnson to bring House back to DC and rails on GOP handling of health care GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene broke sharply with her party leaders on Wednesday as they tried to project a united front in the deepening standoff with Democrats over health care and the government shutdown, calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the House back into session and warning that Americans would be hammered by higher costs if her party doesn’t help right the ship. Greene, a staunchly conservative Georgia Republican, warned that her party would face backlash from voters if rising health care costs are not addressed, underscoring the growing rift between the prominent Trump ally and GOP leaders..." Never thought I'd say this but YOU GO GIRL
CNN:"New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia, as President Donald Trump’s Justice Department continues to pursue charges against his political opponents. James has been under investigation since May over a 2023 mortgage she took out to buy a home in Norfolk, Virginia. The grand jury returned two felony charges: bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. James’ first court appearance is scheduled for October 24 in Norfolk..."
WSJ:"President Trump escalated his battle with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying the Democratic leaders should be imprisoned for failing to protect ICE officers. “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!,” Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social. Trump didn’t specify what laws Johnson or Pritzker allegedly broke. “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested,” Johnson said on social media. “I’m not going anywhere.” Pritzker responded on social media by saying: “I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” .."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Opinion What my captivity taught me about Hamas and its hateful ideology My captors’ cruelty revealed an obsession with death. Lasting peace will demand more than diplomacy..."COMMENT: HAMAS HAS THE BACKING OF RUSSIA AND IRAN
WASHINGTONPOST:"A top Russian Foreign Ministry official cautioned President Donald Trump’s administration Wednesday against giving Ukraine access to long-range Tomahawk missiles that could hit targets deep within Russia in the latest in a series of warnings that suggest a degree of annoyance in Moscow toward the U.S. leader. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also declared that the boost toward resolving the conflict in Ukraine provided by Trump’s August meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska had been “largely exhausted.” The last few weeks have seen Trump considering the sale of new weapons to Ukraine and criticizing Russia as a “paper tiger.” The latest warning was part of a concerted Russian effort to deter Trump against enabling Ukraine access to the missiles, repeating a tactic Moscow has used throughout its war on Ukraine, declaring that providing advanced military technology to Ukraine would provoke a direct conflict between Russia and NATO countries..."
NYTIMES:"Where Things Stand Immigration crackdown: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said the Trump administration was sending 300 National Guard troops from his state to Portland, Ore., a decision he called a “breathtaking abuse of power.” The move came a day after a federal judge blocked the White House from deploying Oregon’s National Guard in response to protests over immigration enforcement in Portland. In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker condemned the actions of federal agents in Chicago, saying that administration officials wanted to create a “war zone so they can send in even more troops.”" ...COMMENT: LIKE LIVING IN A POLICE STATE
REUTERS:"WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration is mobilizing U.S. diplomats to lobby against a U.N. resolution calling on Washington to lift its decades-long embargo on Cuba, in part by sharing details of Cuba’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters. As part of the administration's campaign, U.S. diplomats will tell countries that the Cuban government is actively supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine with up to 5,000 Cubans fighting alongside Moscow's forces..." COMMENT: THE COMMUNISTS ARE THE NEW IMPERIALISTS
REUTERS:"KYIV, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Senior European Union officials who visited Ukraine have delivered a stern message to Kyiv that it has a lot more to do to secure membership, while they work on overcoming Hungary's opposition to Ukrainian accession. Ukraine needs the backing of all 27 EU countries to become a member, but Budapest is blocking it from moving to the next stage of accession negotiations, citing concerns including the language rights of ethnic Hungarians."...
CNN/AP"Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States that supplies of long-range missiles to Ukraine will seriously damage relations between Moscow and Washington but will not change the situation on the battlefield, where the Russian army is making slow but steady advances. .."
WASHINGTONPOST:"How concerned are Americans about the partial shutdown of the federal government and whom do they blame for causing it? The Washington Post texted a nationally representative sample of 1,010 people on Wednesday to ask. The Post’s poll finds significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though many say they are not sure. People express moderate concern about the shutdown’s impact at this early stage, with “somewhat concerned” the most common answer. A large majority support Democrats’ call to extend federal health insurance subsidies in general, though just under half support the party demanding this if it extends the government shutdown..."
CNN:"A federal judge on Tuesday delivered an extraordinary 161-page rebuke of President Donald Trump, ruling that the administration impermissibly chilled the protected political speech of university professors and students by targeting non-citizens on college campuses who have spoken out in support of Palestinians. Judge William G. Young lambasted Trump and his administration for attacking free speech “under the cover of an unconstitutionally broad definition of Anti-Semitism” used in efforts to deport non-citizen activists. Notably, Young devoted more than a dozen pages of his decision to discussing in stark terms the president himself, the First Amendment and the state of the country, in ways seldom seen by any federal judge – let alone in a formal ruling. Trump’s conduct, the judge wrote, violated the sacred oath of a president to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and the actions of his administration represented a “full-throated assault on the First Amendment.” Young cited President Ronald Reagan, who nominated him to the federal bench in Massachusetts in 1985, as saying that “freedom is a fragile thing” and must be fought for “constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.” That warning, Young said, has been ignored..."
READ THE COURT'S FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW
CNN:"President Donald Trump said in a social media post Saturday he will send troops to Portland, Oregon, a city he described as “war ravaged,” to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities he claimed are “under siege” by Antifa and “other domestic terrorists.”..."
NYTIMES:"Amid Political Violence, Moments of Grace Are Rare and Fleeting After an assassination attempt, Gov. George Wallace, the segregationist, got a surprise visitor: Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress. Could this happen today?...In times of national trauma or crisis, political leaders have tended to make appeals for unity and to a collective sense of values, hoping to bring down the temperature even when some Americans lust for revenge. In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for instance, President George W. Bush vowed to bring the attackers to justice but also visited an Islamic cultural center and declared, “Islam is peace.” It strains the imagination to picture what the analogue of that declaration or the Wallace-Chisholm moment would be today, as another spasm of political violence this month ripped open old cultural and political divisions. On Sept. 10, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated as he spoke on a Utah college campus. A sniper carried out a similar attack two weeks later in Dallas, the authorities said, firing indiscriminately at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office and killing one detainee. Even as there is open fear about further violence, President Trump has displayed little interest in fostering unity. He has ratcheted up his pugilistic rhetoric, drowning out the few gestures of humility and calls for healing that occasionally break through. At the memorial service for Mr. Kirk, Mr. Trump even brushed aside Erika Kirk’s expression of forgiveness toward her husband’s killer. “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” he said, adding, “I am sorry, Erika.” It seems to be more than rhetoric. On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who had infuriated Mr. Trump by investigating his ties with Russia. The president responded to the news by attacking Mr. Comey as “one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to.” Experts in civic discourse say Mr. Trump’s give-no-quarter language is unmatched by other modern American presidents..."
NYTIMES:"Trump Appointees Roll Back Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws Interviews and internal documents show that signature civil rights protections in housing are being dismissed...In one email, a Trump appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development described decades of housing discrimination cases as “artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary.”..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Black Christians confront Charlie Kirk’s religious legacy Conservative evangelicals’ embrace of Charlie Kirk’s legacy is forcing some Black Christians to reconcile the activist’s divisive comments on race with the Christian values of tolerance and empathy..."
CNN:"Erika Kirk appeared overcome when she said she forgives the man who allegedly shot and killed her husband, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. “I forgive him,” she says, in what has been the most powerful moment of the service so far. Kirk quoted Jesus on the cross, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.” It was a statement that resonated across the stadium, bringing the crowd of tens of thousands to its feet. “I forgive him because it is what Christ did,” she said, without naming the suspect, Tyler Robinson. “The answer to hate is not hate.”..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Trump officials shut down bribery probe of border czar Tom Homan Homan was caught on tape accepting a bag filled with $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in September 2024, according to people familiar with the matter and a government document..."
NYTIMES:"As one of the most influential right-wing activists in the United States, Charlie Kirk shaped much of the hard-right youth movement on key political issues. Mr. Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a political organization designed to rally young conservatives. He was answering questions about transgender politics and mass shootings from students at Utah Valley University this month when he was shot and killed. Here are some of the issues Mr. Kirk focused on and where he stood: Gender Identity Mr. Kirk appealed to conservative Christians who feared the growing acceptance of the L.G.B.T.Q. community in the United States. He was critical of gay and transgender rights and the separation of church and state. He encouraged students and parents to report professors whom they suspected of embracing what some on the right refer to as gender ideology. .. Gun Control Mr. Kirk was a strong supporter of gun rights. At a 2023 event by TPUSA Faith, a division of Turning Point USA, he defended the Second Amendment as a critical means to “defend yourself against a tyrannical government.” He said it would be impossible to avoid gun deaths in a society with an armed citizenry, but he believed the benefits of gun rights outweighed the costs. “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said. ... Mr. Kirk said the way to reduce gun violence was simple: Put guns into the hands of more Americans. “If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don’t our children?” he asked. Race Mr. Kirk believed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a destructive force in American politics, calling its passage a “mistake” that he said has been turned into “an anti-white weapon.” He also blamed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the law and was highly critical of the slain civil rights leader, calling him an “awful” person. Mr. Kirk said he desired a colorblind society but blamed the veneration of Dr. King for what he saw as America’s fixation on race. Mr. Kirk was also a staunch opponent of affirmative action and was highly critical of the Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling her a “diversity hire” who wasn’t qualified to serve on the highest court. His repudiation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as D.E.I., stretched to comments many denounced as racist. In 2024, he said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” In 2021, while delivering a speech in Mankato, Minn., Mr. Kirk called George Floyd — the Black man whose murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 provoked a broad racial justice movement — a “scumbag” who wasn’t worthy of the attention. Antisemitism Mr. Kirk was repeatedly accused of antisemitism, including by fellow conservatives..."
CNN:"Weaponize the levers of government for partisan political gain. Pressure privately owned media companies to toe the party line. Punish the owners who resist and reward the ones who acquiesce. That’s how Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán consolidated control of the media in his country, according to scholars who witnessed Hungary’s democratic backsliding firsthand. President Trump and his allies appear to be running the same playbook against media outlets in the US. .."
WASHINGTONPOST:" Opinion George F. Will A seamlessly unserious president Damage from Trump’s protectionism mounts domestically as danger abroad rises."
WSJ:"Workers across the country who’ve mocked Charlie Kirk’s death online have quickly learned their words can get them fired."
CNN:"Trump tramples Reagan’s tough-on-the-Kremlin legacy ahead of UK state visit"
WASHINGTONPOST:"The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”"COMMENT: YOU CAN'T WHITEWASH THE TRUTH
MSNBC:"In an interview with the New York Times, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly says his former boss told him more than once that “‘Hitler did some good things, too.’” Kelly also called Trump a fascist."COMMENT: YOU CAN'T UNRING THAT ALARM BELL
NYTIMES:"Trump Downplays the ‘Radical Right’ and Says the Left Is the Problem President Trump dismissed a suggestion that there were extremists on both sides of the political spectrum."
CNN:"A Black student was found hanging from a tree. Police say there’s no sign of foul play"
NYTIMES:"After Kirk Killing, Americans Agree on One Thing: Something Is Seriously Wrong"
COMMENT "PEACE BE STILL" Mark 4:39 NKJV Everybody just chill
WASHINGTONPOST:"At least five historically Black colleges and universities received violent threats on Thursday, prompting several of them to place their campuses on lockdown and cancel classes. .."
CNN:"Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that any Western troops in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets for defeat,” a day after it was announced that dozens of Western countries have pledged to contribute to a potential peacekeeping force there if a ceasefire deal is agreed. ..."

CNN"... Nearly five years after the 2020 election, the debunked conspiracy that Trump was robbed of the election due to massive voter fraud has become gospel in many corners of the Republican Party. Back in power, Trump has not only pardoned rioters but also rewarded the advisers, allies and attorneys who promoted the lie on his behalf. Some have new jobs at the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. And at the White House, Kurt Olsen, a lawyer behind one of Trump’s major lawsuits in 2020 seeking to throw out millions of votes, now reportedly has a role investigating issues from 2020 and other voting-related matters. Others are running for office with Trump’s endorsement. And some are helping advance Trump’s agenda on elections through their outside advocacy efforts. – Heather Honey, a self-styled election researcher, who seeded the 2020 conspiracy theory that there were more votes than voters in Pennsylvania, has been installed into a key election integrity position at the Department of Homeland Security. – Honey is a close ally of Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and is now running a national “election integrity” network that’s more powerful than ever and is pushing Trump’s election priorities on the ground in key states. – Trump is also endorsing figures who backed his election falsehoods, including Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a 2020 “fake elector”, who is running for the GOP nomination for governor in next year’s midterm elections. – And Sigal Chattah, a Republican lawyer who represented an indicted fake elector in Nevada, is now the state’s interim US attorney and is reportedly pushing for 2020-related probes. “The overall dynamic, which is a huge problem for the country no matter which party wins, is that people can lose faith in the reliability of elections,” said Ben Ginsberg, a top GOP election lawyer turned Trump critic. “And elections are the basic mechanism for the peaceful transfer of power that has always been the foundation of our country.” The president’s elevation of unrepentant election deniers into positions of power comes as he tries to assert new authority over elections. Trump sought to require voters to show proof of citizenship to vote, attempting an end-run around states and Congress. He recently pledged to act unilaterally to impose voter identification requirements on states and to end most mail-in voting, which would upend a safe and reliable voting method used by millions of Americans. This year, Trump also signed an executive order, seeking broad changes in how elections are run, although the Constitution primarily vests states with that power. (Parts of the order have been blocked in court.) The Justice Department is demanding that states hand over information about their voters – including sensitive personal data, such as partial Social Security numbers – as they hunt for examples of fraud. Mitchell even suggested recently that Trump could deploy “emergency” powers over future elections. Comments like these, coupled with Trump’s actions, have put current and former election officials on edge, with the midterms one year away and the 2028 presidential election on the horizon. “Russia, China and Iran are sitting back and laughing at us because we’re doing this to ourselves. Our leaders are planting distrust in our own elections and institutions,” said Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat who was Pennsylvania’s top election official during the tumultuous 2020 election. “Having election deniers in these positions of power adds stress to the system.” A White House spokesperson referred CNN to other agencies and did not respond to questions about the administration’s elevation of figures who have promoted debunked election conspiracies or whether the president was considering invoking emergency powers over elections..."

CNN:"A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law by using the US military to help carry out law enforcement activities in and around Los Angeles this summer. US District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that Trump’s use of thousands of federalized California National Guard members and US Marines to provide protection to federal agents during an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Los Angeles area ran afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th Century law that generally prohibits the use of troops for domestic law enforcement purposes. .. “The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act,” Breyer wrote." READ THE OPINION GRANTING INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

CNN:"President Donald Trump has notified Congress he is moving to cancel $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid using a rare “pocket rescission,” drawing criticism from Democrats and at least one top Republican senator who questioned the legality of the move..."

“The theme for this really is workers over billionaires. And so we are directly calling out the billionaires and their corporations that are driving the Trump agenda,” Saqib Bhatti, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, a nonprofit that helped plan May Day Strong’s national day of action..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Republicans eye next House carveout with Missouri special session The effort to create a new GOP-leaning state is part of a broader effort to keep control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Updated August 29, 2025 at 6:23 p.m. EDT Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) moved toward helping the Republican Party gain another seat in the U.S. House on Friday, announcing a special session to redraw the state’s congressional maps. The session, set to begin Sept. 3, follows a nationwide pressure campaign from President Donald Trump aimed at beefing up his party’s chances in the 2026 midterm elections with an aggressive and rare mid-cycle overhauling of congressional maps... Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday signed into law a new map that will create five new Republican-favored seats in the state. And Trump pushed Indiana’s top GOP lawmakers to redraw their state’s congressional maps this week in a private Oval Office meeting, as did Vice President JD Vance, who met with lawmakers at the White House and traveled to the state earlier this month. Republicans are also looking at changing the maps in Florida, and in Ohio — which was already set to redistrict this year..."
CNN:"Judge blocks removal of Guatemalan children in US custody, some of whom were already on planes"
CNN:"Why you should care about the experts Trump is firing"
CNN:"Why Trump enjoys a ‘presidential exemption’ to the conflict-of-interest law his aides must follow By Marshall Cohen ...“The presidential exemption in the law undermines public confidence in the government,” said Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the Bush White House, who later left the Republican Party. “Every other president since the Civil War voluntarily avoided conflicts. They understood how important this is.”...“It made a lot of sense in theory, and it has made a lot of sense for past presidents, until Trump,” said Fox, who was at OGE during the Bush and Obama administrations from 2008 to 2013. “Bush and Obama behaved and conducted themselves as if they were subject to the law. Trump has viewed it more as an opportunity to exploit a loophole.”..."
CNN:"FEMA workers put on leave after signing letter warning of Trump’s overhaul of the agency"
CNN:"Trump makes good on threat to impose 50% tariffs on India imports"
NYTIMES"Justice Dept. Broadens Inquiry Into Key Players in Russia Investigation"
Wearing a hat that said "TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING" Trump fauns over and boasts about a picture sent to him by Putin
NYTIMES:"Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge In its campaign of “uprooting the foot soldiers,” the Trump Justice Department has fired or demoted more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors, even as those they sent to prison walk free. .."
APNEWS:"Donald Trump ran on a promise to use the powers of the government for revenge against those he believed wronged him. He now appears to be fulfilling that campaign promise while threatening to expand his powers well beyond Washington..."
CNN:"‘It’s like one day everyone left’: How immigration crackdowns are reshaping America"
APNEWS:"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation ..."

CNN:"Six months into Donald Trump’s second term, his administration is at war with the federal judiciary, evading court orders blocking its agenda, suing judges for alleged misconduct, and veering toward what multiple current and former federal judges say could be a constitutional crisis.
CNN:"In case there was any doubt that President Donald Trump and his administration are on a legal retribution tour, this should just about settle it. Trump has often been under investigation during his political career — a fact owing to his near-constant efforts to push boundaries. But perhaps the four biggest examples? The Russia investigation; his Ukraine impeachment; January 6, 2021; and his personal legal troubles after leaving office (including those stemming from January 6). Less than seven months into Trump’s second term, key people from every one of these efforts have now apparently faced investigations of their own. More than 10 people who played key roles in these investigations or ran afoul of Trump have faced some kind of significant legal scrutiny. These are steps that go beyond Trump merely accusing them of misdeeds or suggesting they should be probed. Trump and top administration officials have also targeted foes with firings and stripped them of security clearances, but the effort to apply legal scrutiny to some of the most prominent adversaries appears to be ratcheting up. ..."
CNN:"Trump and his allies mount a pressure campaign against US elections ahead of the midterms...Next year’s midterms hold enormous stakes for Trump and his opposition. Democrats need to net just three seats in the US House in 2026 to flip control of the chamber from Republicans. A Democratic-led House could block Trump’s legislative agenda and launch investigations of the president in the second half of his second term. Samantha Tarazi, CEO of the nonprofit Voting Rights Lab, which has closely tracked state developments, said she believes Trump is gearing up “to use the power of his office to interfere in the 2026 election.”..."
NYTIMES:"Donor List Suggests Scale of Trump’s Pay-for-Access Operation A new disclosure shows how corporations and individuals, including many in the crypto business, wrote big checks while seeking favor from the president..."
CNN:"The Trump administration takes a very Orwellian turn Back in March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeted at the Smithsonian Institution ... Despite the high-minded rhetoric, many worried the order was instead a thinly veiled effort to rewrite history more to Trump’s liking. The order, for example, cited a desire to remove “improper ideology” – an ominous phrase, if there ever was one..."

CNN:"President Donald Trump made a series of false claims about elections in a Monday social media post in which he pledged to “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS” and voting machines – including an inaccurate assertion that states have to run elections in the manner the president tells them to. Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s comments. “We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.” False. Dozens of other countries use mail-in voting, as CNN and others have pointed out when Trump has made such claims before. These countries include Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland. The specifics of different countries’ policies vary, but it’s simply not true that every other country has abandoned mail-in voting. “WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.” Trump’s claim about Democrats is nonsense. There is simply no basis for the assertion of massive cheating. US federal elections are free and fair; there has generally been a tiny quantity of ballot fraud representing a minuscule percentage of votes cast. “…Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM. ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS.” More fiction. Mail-in voting is a legitimate method used by legitimate voters to cast legitimate ballots. Elections experts say the incidence of fraud tends to be marginally higher with mail-in ballots than with in-person ballots .."

NAT'L WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST

NOAA:GOES EAST CNN:"Caribbean islands reel from Hurricane Melissa’s devastating impact as storm heads north"

CNN" For the first time, scientists have quantified the causal links between worsening heat waves and global warming pollution from individual fossil fuel and cement companies, pushing the boundaries of extreme weather event research in multiple surprising ways. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, looks at a far more expansive series of heat waves than previous research. It also incorporates the causes of climate change into the calculations. Instead of looking at one or two localized extreme heat events, the new study encompasses 213 heat waves around the world from 2000 to 2023. It finds, not surprisingly, that heatwaves became much more likely and severe during that period, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels. .."

NYTIMES:"The nation’s leading scientific advisory body issued a major report on Wednesday detailing the strongest evidence to date that carbon dioxide, methane and other planet-warming greenhouse gases are threatening human health. The report, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, is significant because it could complicate the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke a landmark scientific determination, known as the endangerment finding, that underpins the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is driving climate change. The finding dates to 2009, when the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare and so should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants and other industrial sources of pollution. But in July, the Trump administration proposed to rescind the endangerment finding and contended that subsequent research had “cast significant doubt” on its accuracy. The proposal is one of President Trump’s most significant steps yet to derail federal climate efforts. If the move is held up in court, future administrations would have no authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The new National Academies assessment contradicts the administration’s claims. The 136-page report, assembled by a committee of two dozen scientists, concludes that the original endangerment finding was accurate..."

APNEWS:"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel gave final approval Wednesday for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that would effectively cut the territory in two, and that Palestinians and rights groups say could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state. Settlement development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank to be illegal and an obstacle to peace. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, cast the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks. ..

NYTIMES:" Two of the best-known Israeli human rights groups said Monday that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, adding fuel to a passionately fought international debate over whether the death and destruction there have crossed a moral red line. The two groups were B’Tselem, a rights monitor that documents the effects of Israeli policies on Palestinians, and Physicians for Human Rights — Israel. Their announcement was the first time major Israeli rights groups have publicly concluded that the Gaza war is a genocide, an assessment previously reached by some organizations like Amnesty International. In a report titled “Our Genocide,” B’Tselem cited the devastating effects of Israel’s war on ordinary Palestinians to support their claim: the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza; the razing of huge areas of Palestinian cities; the forced displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s two million people; the restriction of food and other vital supplies. All together, the Israeli campaign has amounted to “coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” the organization wrote. “In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel rejected the accusations as “baseless.” David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman, said that Israeli troops were targeting Palestinian militants, not civilians. If Israel truly intended to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, the country would not have facilitated nearly two million tons of aid to the territory, he said. The debate over whether the war in Gaza constitutes genocide has also played out at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel. The court has yet to rule on the matter. Speaking at the International Court of Justice in January 2024, Tal Becker, a member of Israel’s legal defense, said that Israel was fighting Hamas, not targeting Palestinians wholesale. “What Israel seeks by operating in Gaza is not to destroy a people, but to protect a people, its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts, and to do so in accordance with the law,” Mr. Becker told the court. Genocide has a specific definition in international law: particular acts carried out with intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The accusation hits a painful nerve for Israel, a state founded after Nazi Germany’s attempt to exterminate European Jewry. Israel vigorously denies that its war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide, countering that Hamas seeks to destroy the Jewish state. Israeli officials have also pointed to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, which prompted the devastating Israeli response. .."

APNEWS:"LONDON (AP) — The leaders of Britain, France and Germany demanded Israel allow unrestricted aid into Gaza to end a “humanitarian catastrophe,” after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will become the first major Western power to recognize a Palestinian state. The joint statement, issued after a call between Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, called for an an immediate ceasefire and said that “withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” though it broke no new diplomatic ground..."

REUTERS:"PARIS/WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - France intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday in hopes of bringing peace to the region, but the plan drew angry rebukes from Israel and the United States. Macron, who unveiled the decision on X, published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming France's intention to press ahead with Palestinian recognition and work to convincing other partners to follow suit..."

APNEWS:"Just months after President Donald Trump returned to office amid a wave of anti-immigration sentiment, the share of U.S. adults saying immigration is a “good thing” for the country has jumped substantially — including among Republicans, according to new Gallup polling. About 8 in 10 Americans, 79%, say immigration is “a good thing” for the country today, an increase from 64% a year ago and a high point in the nearly 25-year trend. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now, down from 32% last year. During Democratic President Joe Biden’s term in office, negative views of immigration had increased markedly, reaching a high point in the months before Trump, a Republican, took office. The new Gallup data suggests U.S. adults are returning to more pro-immigrant views that could complicate Trump’s push for sweeping deportations and other anti-immigration policies. The poll shows decreasing support for the type of mass deportations Trump has championed since before he was elected......"

AXIOS:"A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Trump's executive order attacking birthright citizenship, nearly two weeks after the Supreme Court curbed lower courts' power to freeze federal policies. The big picture: The high court's ruling last month imposed new limits on lower courts but left room for broader relief through class-action lawsuits. Thursday's order could be a critical new legal defense as judges navigate the restrictions to check nationwide policies. Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante granted a request from immigration rights advocates to certify a nationwide class of all children born after Trump's order went into effect who would be deprived of citizenship and ordered a preliminary injunction..."ORDER GRANTING PROVISIONAL CLASS CERTIFICATION" ; ORDER GRANTING CLASSWIDE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION"

USA-TODAY:" See the Good Trouble protests across the US in opposition of Trump People line Cedar Street in front of the Ingham County Health Department during the 'Good Trouble Lives On' protest on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Lansing, Mich. People line Cedar Street in front of the Ingham County Health Department during the 'Good Trouble Lives On' protest on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Lansing, Mich. Nick King, Lansing State Journal Via USA TODAY NETWORK People line Cedar Street in front of the Ingham County Health Department during the 'Good Trouble Lives On' protest on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Lansing, Mich. People line Cedar Street in front of the Ingham County Health Department during the 'Good Trouble Lives On' protest on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Lansing, Mich. Nick King, Lansing State Journal Via USA TODAY NETWORK Protesters with "Good Trouble Lives On" during a national anti-Trump rally at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix on July 17, 2025. Protesters with "Good Trouble Lives On" during a national anti-Trump rally at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix on July 17, 2025. Rob Schumacher, The Republic Via USA TODAY NETWORK Good Trouble protestors hold up signs to passing cars from the pedestrian bridge crossing Route 18 in New Bedford, N.J. .."

CNN:" The first test images from a groundbreaking observatory named for trailblazing astronomer Vera Rubin have captured the light from millions of distant stars and galaxies on an unprecedented scale — and are expected to reveal thousands of previously unseen asteroids. While the National Science Foundation has so far released only a couple of images and a brief video clip of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s first imagery, more images and videos taken using the largest camera ever built are expected to be shared at 11:30 a.m. ET Monday on the agency’s YouTube channel. The facility is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science......"

CNN:"Astronomers have used mysterious fast radio bursts, or millisecond-long bright flashes of radio waves from space, to help them track down some of the missing matter in the universe. Dark matter and dark energy make up most of the universe. Dark matter is an enigmatic substance that shapes the cosmos, while dark energy is a force that accelerates the expansion rate of the universe, according to NASA. Both are impossible to directly observe but can be detected due to their gravitational effects. But the rest of the universe is made of cosmic baryons, or ordinary matter, which can be found in tiny particles called protons and neutrons. “If you add up all the stars and planets and cold gas that you see with your telescopes, it only amounts to less than 10% of ordinary matter in the universe,” said Liam Connor, assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard University. While astronomers thought most of the universe’s ordinary matter was floating in the spaces between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium, or within the extended halos of galaxies — vast, spherical regions including stars and hot gas — they couldn’t measure this foglike matter. That’s because ordinary matter emits light at different wavelengths, but much of it is so diffuse that it’s like trying to spot fog, astronomers say...."

CNN:"This is the showdown the White House has been waiting for. Unrest sparked by federal immigration raids in Los Angeles provided a questionable catalyst for President Donald Trump to stage a demonstration of military force. His deployment of National Guard troops, against the wishes of California’s governor and LA’s mayor — both Democrats — appears at this point to be mostly for show, intended to create the perception of the administration getting tough. ..."

BBC:"The Kremlin claimed Donald Trump was showing signs of "emotional overload" after he called Vladimir Putin "absolutely crazy" following Moscow's largest aerial assault on Ukraine. The US president said on Truth Social on Sunday that "something has happened" to Putin, after Russia killed 13 in Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles. "He has gone absolutely crazy," Trump said. "Needlessly killing a lot of people." Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said the comments were "connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved". Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, meanwhile said that Ukraine's allies had removed all range limits on supplied arms, amid reports he would give Kyiv Taurus missiles. Trump's comments followed Russia's largest combined aerial attack since its full-scale invasion of February 2022. At least 13 people were killed and dozens injured in Ukraine during the night between Saturday and Sunday after Russia fired 367 drones and missiles. Between Sunday evening and Monday morning, Russia launched 355 drones against Ukraine, killing 10. The Ukrainian air force said it was the largest attack yet conducted with drones alone. Peskov said the latest aerial assaults were a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia's "social infrastructure". The Russian defence ministry said that air defence systems destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, said on Sunday there was no "military sense" to Russia's aerial attacks - rather they were "an obvious political choice... by Putin, a choice by Russia... to continue the war and destroy lives." In an apparent response to the Russian attacks over the weekend, German chancellor Merz said there were "no longer" range restrictions on arms supplied to Ukraine. "This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia... with very few exceptions, it didn't do that until recently. It can now do that," Merz said. Reuters reported that Zelensky was due to travel to Berlin on Wednesday, although this has not been confirmed. .."

CNN:" The spectacular rise and swift erasure of Black Lives Matter Plaza By Chelsea Bailey ...“Nobody should die like that.” It was Starlette Thomas’ first thought when she watched a bystander’s video on social media of George Floyd dying under the knee of a White police officer. And it was the spark that propelled her out of her office and into the streets of Washington, DC, where she joined the throngs in chanting three words that almost instantly galvanized into both a plea and a rallying cry: Black Lives Matter. In the days after the murder on Monday, May 25, 2020, along a Minneapolis road, hundreds of thousands flooded streets across the nation in protest. Most had been isolating for months as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. But the death of yet another Black person at the hands of police seemed to shatter a dam in the American conscious...On June 5 – just 11 days after Floyd took his last breath – the district officially unveiled Black Lives Matter Plaza. The date happened to coincide with the birthday of Breonna Taylor, the Black American whose life had been cut tragically short that March in an encounter with police. “We know what’s going on in our country,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We had the opportunity to send that message loud and clear on a very important street in our city … And that message is to the American people that Black Lives Matter, that Black humanity matters, and we as a city raise that up as part of our values.”...Then, after nearly five years of the plaza hosting moments both horrifying and holy, a Republican congressman from Georgia introduced a bill that would have withheld federal funding from Washington, DC, unless the mural was erased. Facing political pressure unlikely to soon relent, Bowser’s office ultimately announced the artwork – with the plaza’s official designation – would be removed. On a Sunday this March, dozens of visitors paused at the intersection of 16th and I Streets NW to take final photos before construction crews pulverized Black Lives Matter Plaza into dust and piles of rock..."
NYTIMES:"After a police officer killed George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner in 2020, millions of people flooded the streets of American cities demanding an end to brutal police tactics that too often proved fatal to those in custody. Yet five years later, despite the largest racial justice protests since the civil rights era of the 1960s and a wave of measures to improve training and hold officers more accountable, the number of people killed by the police continues to rise each year, and Black Americans still die in disproportionate numbers..."

CNN:"...The military is one of the few large institutions left in America where citizens voluntarily form close relationships with people of different religions, socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities — all in service of a common national purpose. Combat veterans in particular talk about the brotherhood, and sisterhood, formed in battle. “The enduring emotion of war, when everything else has faded, is comradeship,” William Broyles Jr., a combat veteran in Vietnam, wrote in a classic essay. “A comrade in war is a man you can trust with anything, because you trust him with your life.” But now some of America’s leaders are telling a different story. The Trump administration has launched a purge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives throughout the armed forces and military academies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a culture of “wokeness and weakness” has made the military less lethal. Pete Hegseth testifies during his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on January 14, in Washington, DC. Pete Hegseth testifies during his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing on January 14, in Washington. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Hegseth, who wrote in a book published last year that “America’s white sons and daughters are walking away” from military service, says he wants to restore the “warrior” mentality to America’s military. “I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘Our diversity is our strength,” Hegseth said in February in a speech at the Pentagon. But the strongest rebuttal to Hegseth’s argument is military history itself. Many of the nation’s biggest military blunders occurred because there wasn’t enough diversity in the armed forces..."

CNN:" President Donald Trump’s effort to do as much as possible as quickly as possible to remake the federal government would gut agencies that have existed for decades or longer. His larger plans would remake elements of the government infrastructure that have been around for centuries. From Benjamin Franklin to John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, it took all of US history to build up some of what Trump has talked about trying to tear down, privatize or remake. And that’s not counting the reforms he plans for safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare, which he says, without evidence, are full of fraud, but which are also on objectively unsustainable paths..."

NYTIMES"Donald Trump, who was well on his way to becoming one of the most corrupt presidents in American history even before he said it would be “stupid” for the United States not to accept a plane worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to replace Air Force One, repeatedly attacks his adversaries in part to mask his own violations of the law and the Constitution. ..“Trump,” Dallek wrote by email, is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis. Trump 2.0 is emboldened on many fronts. He now feels liberated to wear his corruption on his sleeve. There is a logic to Trump’s behavior. After all, he returned to office after having faced countless hurdles, including the Russia probe, two impeachments (Ukraine and Jan. 6), two assassination attempts and dozens of criminal indictments and felony convictions. Trump also considers himself anointed by God to save America, furthering his faith that he can do no wrong. Feeling more imbued with power and more liberated from constraints than at any time in the past decade, he no longer feels the need to hide from the fact that he uses his public position to enrich his family. ..Trump’s self-dealing, Dallek argued, has become part and parcel of his overwhelming assault on American laws and traditions: Whether the president is slapping large tariffs on allies, trying to suspend habeas corpus or threatening to make Canada the 51st state, he is pushing past limits and celebrating his shock and awe approach to governing. In this light, using his office to sell meme coins and promote his crypto ventures is just another day in the Trump White House. It’s become normalized..."

CNN:" President Donald Trump has been personally involved in discussions inside the administration over potentially suspending habeas corpus, a legal procedure that allows people to challenge their detention in court, two people familiar with the consideration told CNN. One of Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, confirmed publicly Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, adding that it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”..." The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote "...In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump’s presidency. These policies include reportedly setting arrest quotas for undocumented immigrants, an executive order effectively banning immigration from five Muslim-majority countries and a policy of family separation at refugee resettlement facilities that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General said is causing “intense trauma” in children."
The Suspension Clause states"...The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it..." Article I Section 9: Powers Denied Congress. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote an article on "The Suspension Clause" for the NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER Based on the plain meaning of the clause and prior precedent, the administration is not likely to prevail on the merits.

CNN:" When the Justice Department lifted a school desegregation order in Louisiana this week, officials called its continued existence a “historical wrong” and suggested that others dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered...Civil rights activists say that’s the wrong move. Many orders have been only loosely enforced in recent decades, but that doesn’t mean problems are solved, said Johnathan Smith, who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during President Joe Biden’s administration. “It probably means the opposite — that the school district remains segregated. And in fact, most of these districts are now more segregated today than they were in 1954,” said Smith, who is now chief of staff and general counsel for the National Center for Youth Law...The dismissal has raised alarms among some who fear it could undo decades of progress. Research on districts released from orders has found that many saw greater increases in racial segregation compared with those under court orders. “In very many cases, schools quite rapidly resegregate, and there are new civil rights concerns for students,” said Halley Potter, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation who studies educational inequity...Ending the orders would send a signal that desegregation is no longer a priority, said Robert Westley, a professor of antidiscrimination law at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. “It’s really just signaling that the backsliding that has started some time ago is complete,” Westley said. “The United States government doesn’t really care anymore of dealing with problems of racial discrimination in the schools. It’s over.” Any attempt to drop further cases would face heavy opposition in court...

CNN:"The math Trump’s administration used to calculate tariff rates stuns economists"
NYTIMES:"...Mr. Trump’s first four years in the White House were filled with false or misleading statements — 30,573 of them, or 21 a day on average, according to one tally. Back then, though, aides often tried to play down or contain the damage of egregious falsehoods. This time, Mr. Trump is joined by a coterie of cabinet officials and advisers who have amplified them and even spread their own. Together, they are effectively institutionalizing disinformation..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"It’s impossible to pin down the essence of an entire generation. Still, as members of Gen Z, we spend a lot of time thinking about what makes us different from those born before and after us. Boomers can’t navigate technology. Millennials walk their “doggos” and despise “adulting.” Gen Alpha is doomed. As for Gen X? No one really knows. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. 1:20 Is the generation born between 1997 and 2012 allergic to driving, glued to their headphones, and obsessed with the digital camera revival trend? Well, it seems (Video: Amber Ferguson, Abigail Walker, Ethan Beck, Jade Tran/The Washington Post) Now it’s us sitting in the hot seat, facing bafflement from both sides. Our generation was born between 1997 and 2012, so our oldest might remember the presidency of George W. Bush, while our youngest could’ve grown up reaching for an iPad while at a restaurant. You might know some of us for our unsettling stare or our preference for subtitles. What’s universal is that people outside our generation can’t seem to figure us out. We’re here to help. The Washington Post managed to scrounge together its Gen Zers for important commentary: a non-exhaustive list of our most defining quirks. Skip to end of carousel The Style section Style is The Washington Post’s place for news from the front lines of culture — arts, politics, trends and fashion. For more Style stories, click here. To subscribe to the Style Memo newsletter, click here. End of carousel Gen Z’s strained relationship with greetings Return to menu As technology has made it easier to talk to anyone, communication has become increasingly blunt. For better or worse, the phone call is a thing of the past, mostly helpful for talking to family members who struggle with texting. Otherwise, a random call signals a problem. Those surprise calls are necessary for when something so important arrives that a text can’t be sent. When your pocket starts buzzing, there’s one burning question: What’s the issue? The answer is often nothing. But that moment of panic brings up many possibilities: Is someone in the hospital? Did I forget about plans? Am I getting fired/hired? The natural response is to cut to the chase. The “hellos” are replaced with a direct, occasionally curt tone and a no-nonsense response. Those fraying social cues are replaced, even in text messages, with something more immediate. It might seem rude, but today, it’s just the pace of information..."

CNN:" The US Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday it is cutting 10,000 full-time employees across health agencies, the department told CNN. This comes on top of 10,000 employees who’ve left voluntarily, shrinking the workforce from about 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000. The cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. In its announcement, HHS said it will consolidate from 28 to 15 divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America, and will reduce regional offices from 10 to five. The workforce reduction will save $1.8 billion per year, the agency said. HHS’ new priority will be to end “America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins,” the agency said. .."

NYTIMES:"President Trump’s intensifying conflict with the federal courts is unusually aggressive compared with similar disputes in other countries, according to scholars. Unlike leaders who subverted or restructured the courts, Mr. Trump is acting as if judges were already too weak to constrain his power. “Honest to god, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and coauthor of “How Democracies Die” and “Competitive Authoritarianism.” “We look at these comparative cases in the 21st century, like Hungary and Poland and Turkey. And in a lot of respects, this is worse,” he said. “These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.” ..."

APNEWS:"WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has paused offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, rolling back some efforts to contend with a key adversary even as national security experts call for the U.S. to expand those capabilities. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, on Monday confirmed the pause. Hegseth’s decision does not affect cyberoperations conducted by other agencies, including the CIA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But the Trump administration also has rolled back other efforts at the FBI and other agencies related to countering digital and cyber threats. ..."

CNN:" Las Vegas — Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI,” fears the technology he helped build could wipe out humanity — and “tech bros” are taking the wrong approach to stop it. Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist and a former Google executive, has warned in the past that there is a 10% to 20% chance that AI wipes out humans. On Tuesday, he expressed doubts about how tech companies are trying to ensure humans remain “dominant” over “submissive” AI systems. “That’s not going to work. They’re going to be much smarter than us. They’re going to have all sorts of ways to get around that,” Hinton said at Ai4, an industry conference in Las Vegas. In the future, Hinton warned, AI systems might be able to control humans just as easily as an adult can bribe 3-year-old with candy. This year has already seen examples of AI systems willing to deceive, cheat and steal to achieve their goals. For example, to avoid being replaced, one AI model tried to blackmail an engineer about an affair it learned about in an email..."

CNN:"'A coward who is Vladimir Putin's puppet': Rep. Moulton on Trump's meeting with Zelensky Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) called President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance cowards and puppets after their meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky devolved into a tense shouting match...""
YOUTUBE/MSNBC:'A coward who is Vladimir Putin's puppet': Rep. Moulton on Trump's meeting with Zelensky..."THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF 0:22 THE END, THAT PUTIN STARTS NOT 0:24 ONLY WALKING ALL OVER UKRAINE, 0:26 BUT WALKING ALL OVER EUROPE. AND 0:27 THIS GETS A LOT WORSE ON DONALD 0:29 TRUMP'S WATCH. WHY? BECAUSE HE 0:31 SOMEHOW BEHOLDEN TO PUTIN, 0:33 SOMEHOW BEHOLDEN TO THE KREMLIN, 0:34 ECHOING THEIR TALKING POINTS, A 0:37 TRUE PUPPET OF VLADIMIR PUTIN. 0:39 RATHER THAN STANDING UP FOR OUR 0:41 ALLY, STANDING UP FOR OUR VALUES 0:43 AND STANDING UP FOR NATO IN ITS 0:46 DEFENSE OF EUROPE. .." BIBLEGATEWAY: "Revelation 21:8 New King James Version 8 But the cowardly, [a]unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

CNN:"A remarkable shouting match broke out in the Oval Office on Friday between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who was hoping to appeal to the US for continued security assistance during his trip to Washington. Raising their voices, Trump and Zelensky — along with the Vice President JD Vance — engaged in a tense back-and-forth about the nature of US support, and whether Zelensky had demonstrated enough gratitude. “You’re not really in good position right now,” Trump scolded Zelensky, raising his voice. “You’re gambling with World War III,” the US president went on. Vance called Zelensky “disrespectful” for trying to litigate the conflict in public...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump will no longer hold a joint news conference on Friday, a White House official confirmed. The Ukrainians are about to leave the White House. " COMMENT: PUTIN'S POODLES ARE BETRAYING UKRAINE AND THE WEST
YOUTUBE/FOXNEWS:"President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sparred during their meeting at the White House to end the Russia-Ukraine War, including Trump telling the Ukraine leader that he's "gambling with World War III." "We signed a deal with Putin. He did not keep it, what kind of diplomacy are you talking about?" Zelenskyy told Vance. Vance told Zelenskyy his remarks were "very disrespectful." "I think it's disrespectful to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance said. "Have you said thank you once?" Vance asked Zelenskyy. "What you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that's backed you," Trump said to Zelenskyy. "Have you said thank you once?" Vance asked Zelenskyy. "You've talked too much," Trump said to Zelenskyy. "You're country is in big trouble. You're not winning this," Trump said. "You have a damn good chance at coming out okay because of us." "If you didn't have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks," Trump said to Zelenskyy.. "In three days, I heard it from Putin, in three days," Zelenskyy responded. "It's going to be very hard to do business like this," Trump added. .." COMMENT: ZELENSKYY AND UKRAINE DESERVE THE RESPECT OF TRUMP AND VANCE WHO ARE COWARDS AND TRAITORS TO DEMOCRACY BY BOWING TO PUTIN; UKRAINE AND ZELENSKY FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY WHILE TRUMP ET AL DESTROY AMERICA
CNN:"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged US President Donald Trump against accepting any peace deal in Ukraine that would “reward” Russia or its allies. “Mr. President, I welcome your deep and personal commitment to bring peace and stop the killing,” Starmer said at a joint news conference after a meeting between the two leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday. “But we have to get it right. There’s a famous slogan in the United Kingdom from after the Second World War that is ‘we have to win the peace,’ and that is what we must do now, because it can’t be peace that rewards the aggressor, or that gives encouragement to dangerous regimes like Iran,” he added. .."

CNN:" First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose much more than expected last week, a likely indication of some “noisy” data, but also a potential worrisome hint that cracks may be forming in America’s long-solid labor market. There were an estimated 242,000 jobless claims filed last week, according to seasonally adjusted data released Thursday by the Department of Labor. That’s an increase of 22,000 from the prior week’s tally and a figure that landed well above economists’ expectations for 220,000 claims. It’s the largest weekly spike in claims in more than four months and the weekly claims — a proxy for layoffs — are at their highest level since early December, Labor Department data shows..."

YOUTUBE/CNN":"Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) faced angry voters in Roswell, Georgia, who were upset about President Trump attempting to expand his own power using executive orders"

YOUTUBE/JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE :"Trump addressed a joint session of Congress, he got quite an intro from the Sergeant at Arms, many of Donald’s closest allies were in attendance, he laid out his agenda for the next four years, Elon was in the house tonight in his official capacity as America’s highest-ranking DOGEbag, a new poll from CNN said 52% of Americans do not approve of the way Trump is handling his job as President, the Dow dropped 1300 points in two days, Trump touted that he has made English the official language ..."

NYTIMES:"President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shocked the audience at the annual security conference in Munich in 2007 by demanding the rollback of domineering American influence and a new balance of power in Europe more suitable to Moscow. He didn’t get what he wanted — then. Nearly two decades later, during the very same conference, top officials from President Trump’s cabinet made one thing clear: Mr. Putin has found an American administration that might help him realize his dream. Comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance raised fears among attendees that under the new administration the United States. might align with Russia and either assail Europe or abandon it altogether. Such a shift, analysts say, would give Mr. Putin a previously unthinkable victory far more momentous for him than any objectives in Ukraine..."

CNN:" Vladimir Putin is riding high ahead of critical US-Russia talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia on ending the Ukraine war. Donald Trump’s administration has ended the Russian president’s international isolation, shattered Western unity on the conflict and cast doubt on how far the US would go to defend Europe, signaling a stunning shift toward Putin and away from America’s traditional allies. With a flurry of conflicting statements in their first forays into Europe, Trump aides also fueled concerns that the US president will embrace just about any deal with Putin — even if it’s a bad one for Ukraine and a continent whose borders are again threatened by Russian expansionism. .."

APNEWS:"ROME (AP) — Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.” Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops in which he appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance’s defense of the deportation program on theological grounds. U.S. border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back, noting that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave border enforcement to his office..." MATTHEW 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’44 “Then they also will answer [b]Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

WASHINGTONPOST:"By Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan and Alex Horton Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has decided to remove retired Gen. Mark A. Milley’s security detail, suspend his security clearance, and order an inspector general inquiry into his behavior as the Pentagon’s top officer, senior defense officials said Tuesday, taking extraordinary action against a frequent target of President Donald Trump. The move comes after years of Trump criticizing Milley for perceived disloyalty and Milley acknowledging in congressional testimony that he had served as a source for several unflattering books about the first Trump administration. Milley, 66, retired in 2023 following four tumultuous years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both Trump and President Joe Biden.Hegseth’s plan, first reported by Fox News, is part of the new defense secretary’s effort to reestablish “warfighter culture” in the Pentagon, one senior defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid backlash....While Trump selected Milley for the chairman’s post, the two men had a bitter falling out over issues that included Trump’s desire to use active-duty military forces to quell protests in America’s streets and Milley’s efforts to reassure Chinese officials that Trump wasn’t looking to attack Beijing as his time in office ended. Though Milley and other officials said that the general coordinated those calls with Trump administration officials, Trump attacked the general, saying at one point that the calls to China were “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.” More recently, the retired general told Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward that Trump is “fascist to the core” and that Milley had faced a series of death threats he attributed to Trump’s steady drumbeat of verbal attacks. “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward in a book published last year. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”..."

WASHINGTONPOST:" By Spencer S. Hsu, Tom Jackman and Mariana Alfaro Two newly freed leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups called for investigations into the prosecution of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, assailing judges, jurors and prosecutors as they sought “retribution” after being granted clemency from President Donald Trump. The statements by Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, released from sentences of 22 years and 18 years for seditious conspiracy, came before House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Wednesday announced formation of a new Judiciary subcommittee led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) to investigate the House’s own investigation of the Capitol riot four years ago. The moves underscored how the punishments of Jan. 6 defendants have become a rallying cry for parts of Trump’s base, and how his pardons of all of nearly 1,600 defendants — including, controversially, those convicted of political violence and assaults against police — have fed into GOP efforts to punish Democrats for what they call the “weaponization” of the Justice Department. They also mark a deeper fight over how the history of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach will ultimately be written. On Wednesday, several federal judges granted the Justice Department’s pardon-based requests to dismiss cases while saying in their rulings that the true story of Jan. 6 could not be whitewashed. “Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions, and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in dismissing one riot defendant’s case. The record in these cases — thousands of videos, trial transcripts, verdicts and legal opinions analyzing the evidence through a neutral lens — “are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies,” the judge said..."

CNN:" Republican senators struggled to defend Donald Trump’s decision to commute and pardon hundreds of January 6 protesters, including those who were charged and convicted of crimes against police officers, just hours after the president entered office Monday. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, who has warned before about giving a blanket pardon to the rioters, said, “I just can’t agree” with Trump’s decision..."

CNN:"As President Donald Trump this week sought to rewrite the history of his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol, a database detailing the vast array of criminal charges and successful convictions of January 6 rioters was removed from the Department of Justice’s website. The searchable database served as an easily accessible and up-to-date repository of all January 6, 2021, cases prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The US attorney’s office declined to comment.The removal of the comprehensive website cataloguing the largest criminal investigation in modern department history coincides with Trump’s decision to pardon all convicted January 6 defendants. The president also released early from prison 14 people convicted of seditious conspiracy and asked the federal courts in Washington to dismiss the more than 300 cases that hadn’t yet been resolved. .."

WASHINGTONPOST:" Red-state leaders emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidential victory are not waiting for him to take office to advance far more conservative agendas at home. ..."

CNN:"President-elect Donald Trump is reveling in his victory and the subsequent celebration, being described as having a much different mentality than he did in 2017 and feeling like his popular vote win gives him a mandate as he speaks with world leaders, top aides and allies, business CEOs and his transition team. Sources who have spoken to Trump in the last 24 hours describe him as forward-looking and grateful. He has lavished praise on his campaign co-chairs, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles – who Trump named as his White House chief of staff on Thursday evening. Trump has boasted about his numbers with minority voters and winning the popular vote, sometimes with disbelief, and asked what they need to do to get started on some of his agenda items..."COMMENT: LESS THAN 50% OF THE POPULAR VOTE DOES NOT GIVE YOU A MANDATE

APNEWS:"Former Trump aide Steve Bannon warns prosecutors: ‘the hunted are about to become the hunters’ Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon appeared in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing in his New York criminal case. Bannon is accused of defrauding donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border..."

CBSNEWS:" U.S. Ohio governor, other leaders condemn neo-Nazi march in Columbus: "Your hate isn't welcome in our city" By Lucia Suarez Sang Updated on: November 18, 2024 / 9:02 AM EST / CBS News Leaders in Ohio condemned a group of neo-Nazis parading around part of Columbus carrying flags with swastikas on Saturday afternoon. Columbus public safety dispatchers told CBS affiliate WBNS on Saturday that they received multiple 911 calls around 1:30 p.m. about a group of individuals marching in the city's Short North. Video sent to the station showed nearly a dozen people wearing black pants, shirts and head coverings and red masks covering their mouths marching down the street. Three of the people were carrying black flags with red swastikas. It was not immediately clear who was in the group. On Monday, the White House weighed in, issuing a statement saying the "hateful poison of Nazism" is "hostile to everything the United States stands for, including protecting the dignity of all our citizens and the freedom to worship."..."

APNEWS:"Transgender youth in the United States have been flooding crisis hotlines since the election of Donald Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign. Many teens worry about how their lives could change once he takes office. During his presidential bid, Trump pledged to impose wide-ranging restrictions and roll back civil rights protections for transgender students. And his administration can swiftly start work on one major change: It can exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms. One ad that aired over 15,000 times crystallized Trump’s stance on rights for transgender and nonbinary Americans: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"In Worcester, Massachusetts, police officers enforcing anti-prostitution ordinances coerced women to touch their genitals and perform sex acts. In Phoenix, officers clearing homeless encampments illegally disposed of personal belongings of the people who lived there, including tents, sleeping bags, identification cards and medicine.In Lexington, Mississippi, officers jailed those unable to pay fines for minor offenses and added more fees, a scheme one federal prosecutor likened to a “debtor’s prison that Charles Dickens wrote about.” These abuses, and others like them, are documented in exhaustive Justice Department reports that followed sweeping police misconduct investigations in those three cities and five others — Minneapolis; Louisville; Memphis; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York.The Biden administration launched the probes in the wake of the national outcry over the police killings in 2020 of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Reports issued over the last two years have focused largely on excessive use of force and the kind of racial profiling associated with those high-profile cases. But beyond the most shocking examples of police violence, the reports have highlighted something else: the pernicious ways that other patterns of unlawful policing can disrupt and cause deep harm to local communities. Investigators detailed how officers sexually assaulted women, mistreated the homeless, exploited poor people, threatened and abused minors, taunted and arrested people suffering from mental and behavioral health episodes and punished protesters exercising their constitutional rights to free speech — especially those who denounced police violence..."

NYTIMES:" Eight years ago, conservative Christians wondered if Donald J. Trump, who had just been elected president, would truly be their champion. They were weary, and angry, after wandering in the wilderness of the Obama years when liberal values seemed ascendant and they felt powerless. Mr. Trump delivered. A promise to “my beautiful Christians” came true even after he left office, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion. Now, as Mr. Trump’s sweeping re-election victory brings them to new heights of power, they believe his return is more than an electoral mandate: they believe it is a divine one. Mr. Trump has repeatedly invoked a religious anointing since he survived an assassination attempt in July. And when he claimed victory on Tuesday night, he did so again. “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Mr. Trump told supporters. “And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.” It is a remarkable claim for a president who claimed to be a “dictator” — if only on Day 1..." COMMENT: TRUMP IS A SERIAL LIAR;THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM JOHN 8:44 NKJV HIS POLICIES VIOLATE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES: MATTHEW 25:41-43 NKJV; 1 JOHN 4:8; MATTHEW 7:15

CNN:" Not since 69 has a number caused this much disruption. “6-7,” pronounced “six-seveeeeen,” is haunting school halls across the country (including South Park Elementary), making it the Gen Alpha nonsense phrase of the moment. Kids are shouting it in classrooms when a teacher turns to page 67, when lunchtime is 6 to 7 minutes away or for no reason at all.“It’s like a plague — a virus that has taken over these kids’ minds,” said Gabe Dannenbring, a seventh-grade science teacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “You can’t say any iteration of the numbers 6 or 7 without having at least 15 kids yell, ‘6-7!’.It’s a joke without a punchline (or a setup, for that matter). 6-7 means nothing, but using it can make a student feel like a member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers.“It becomes a language game to them that, it would seem, only folks in their group know how to play,” said Gail Fairhurst, a University of Cincinnati professor..."

CNN:" A “worldwide catastrophe” is imperiling Pacific Islands and the world must respond to the unprecedented and devastating impacts of rising seas “before it is too late,” the United Nations chief has warned. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a global SOS – “Save Our Seas” – from the Pacific Island nation of Tonga on Tuesday with a plea to the world to “massively increase finance and support for vulnerable countries” in grave danger of the human-caused climate crisis."

FORBES:"...Scientists have repeatedly warned rising global temperatures could bring “catastrophic” consequences if no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting in 2022 that, by 2030, those emissions will rise over 10% above 2010 levels. Increased emissions could drastically reduce the chances of meeting a monumental goal laid out at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, scientists said. By 2033, U.N. scientists have warned the world could pass that 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, likely triggering more intense droughts, flooding and water security issues, according to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change..."

NYTIMES:"The authorities in New Delhi closed schools and urged people to stay indoors as toxic smog, which has plagued neighboring Pakistan for weeks, choked India’s capital in what officials called a medical emergency. ..."

CNN:" High above Earth, a cutting-edge satellite is zooming around the planet 15 times a day. It is hunting for leaks of methane — an invisible, super-polluting gas that is dramatically warming the planet. Its measurements are precise enough to plot heatmaps of the biggest offenders, lighting up all the places they are venting the gas into the atmosphere at a staggering rate, unbeknownst to regulators, as the planet careens toward what scientists warn could be irreversible climate change impacts. MethaneSAT’s early findings are that the oil and gas industry is belching the gas at a rate three to five times higher on average than what the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated, and way beyond the rate the industry itself agreed to in 2023. The Permian Basin, one of the most productive oil and gas basins in the world, is leaking methane to the tune of 9 to 14.5 times the limit the industry agreed to — nearly 640,000 pounds per hour. The Appalachia Basin is leaking at four times the industry-set rate. And in Utah’s Uinta Basin, the leak rate is an astonishing 45 times the industry-set limit. Although it’s leaking less overall than the Permian Basin, for example, it’s an older basin — with older, leaky equipment — that’s producing far less oil and gas..."

CNN:" Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election. The NAACP president warned Thursday of possible broader implications of the hate-filled rhetoric reported in more than 20 states from New York to California, and the District of Columbia. Attorneys general of both parties are condemning the messages and vowing to root out their senders. “The unfortunate reality of electing a president who, historically, has embraced and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”..."

YOUTUBE/CNN:
"Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci reacts to John Kelly, the retired Marine general and former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, publicly commenting that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had.”"

NYTIMES:"When the history of the 2024 election is written, one of the iconic images illustrating it will surely be the mug shot taken of Donald J. Trump after one of his four indictments, staring into the camera with his signature glare. It is an image not of shame but of defiance, the image of a man who would be a convicted felon before Election Day and yet possibly president of the United States again afterward. Sometimes lost amid all the shouting of a high-octane campaign heading into its final couple of weeks is that simple if mind-bending fact. America for the first time in its history may send a criminal to the Oval Office and entrust him with the nuclear codes. What would once have been automatically disqualifying barely seems to slow Mr. Trump down in his comeback march for a second term that he says will be devoted to “retribution.” In all the different ways that Mr. Trump has upended the traditional rules of American politics, that may be one of the most striking. He has survived more scandals than any major party presidential candidate, much less president, in the life of the republic. Not only survived but thrived. He has turned them on their head, making allegations against him into an argument for him by casting himself as a serial victim rather than a serial violator. His persecution defense, the notion that he gets in so much trouble only because everyone is out to get him, resonates at his rallies where he says “they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you, and I’m just standing in the way.” But that of course belies a record of scandal stretching across his 78 years starting long before politics. Whether in his personal life or his public life, he has been accused of so many acts of wrongdoing, investigated by so many prosecutors and agencies, sued by so many plaintiffs and claimants that it requires a scorecard just to remember them all..."

NYTIMES:"Donald J. Trump on Friday tried to revise the history of the deadly attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, as new details in the federal prosecution against him were made public by the judge in the case. His attempt to recast the events of Jan. 6, 2021, came on the same day that he compared his supporters who were arrested, convicted and imprisoned for their actions at the Capitol to the victims of the Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War II. And it followed a recent remark in which Mr. Trump declared Jan. 6 a day of “love.”... On Friday, on his website Truth Social, Mr. Trump amplified a conspiracy theory that the attack on the Capitol was staged by the federal government, and he promoted his false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election...... "...The January 6th Select Committee found that the words “peacefully and patriotically” were drafted by Trump’s speechwriters – not Trump. Those two words were also completely at odds with the rest of Trump’s highly inflammatory remarks, during which he retold multiple lies about the election and directed the crowd’s anger at Vice President Pence and lawmakers. While Trump uttered the word “peacefully” just one time during his speech, which lasted more than an hour, he used variations of the word “fight” 20 times. That was Trump’s authentic voice. Though Trump knew the assembled crowd was “angry,” he ad-libbed the word “fight” on approximately 18 occasions. Trump also personally added multiple incendiary lines, including this one: “We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” JUSTSECURITY NYU LAW SCHOOL

CNN:"Former President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US military should be used to deal with “the enemy from within” on Election Day has reignited concerns about what he might ask US forces to do if he wins a second term as commander in chief. And it is senior military leaders who served under him that have most clearly sounded the alarm about Trump. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told Bob Woodward in his new book “War” that the former president “is the most dangerous person to this country … A fascist to the core.” And on Thursday on The Bulwark podcast, Woodward said Gen. Jim Mattis, who served as Trump’s defense secretary, had emailed him to say that he agreed with the assessment that Milley had provided Woodward. On the podcast, Woodward said the thrust of Mattis’ email about Trump was “Let’s make sure we don’t try to downplay the threat, because the threat is high.” Trump has long had a boyish fascination with the military, idolizing World War II generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. As a teenager, he reveled in his stint at a military-style boarding school in New York. Despite that fascination, Trump took multiple deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War. When he became president, Trump staffed his cabinet with senior generals. He appointed Mattis, a retired four-star general to head the Pentagon; his chief of staff John Kelly was another retired four-star general, and two of his national security advisers were three-star generals, Michael Flynn and H. R. McMaster. Trump loves the pomp and ceremony of the military and lobbied for a massive Kremlin-style parade in Washington, DC while, he was in office. In the end, the parade never happened. Despite Trump’s bromance with the military, senior retired generals and admirals haven’t loved him back. Some even seem to think that it is the former president who is the real “enemy within.” Going back as far as four years ago, Mattis, provided a statement to The Atlantic magazine that “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.” Similarly, Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper last year that Trump is “a person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.” In McMaster’s book, “At War with Ourselves,” a memoir of his time working at the Trump White House, McMaster wrote that in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat, Trump’s “ego and love of self… drove him to abandon his oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ a president’s highest obligation.” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who revolutionized Joint Special Operations Command, the unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden in 2011, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times three weeks ago saying he is voting for Vice President Kamala Harris because of her “character.” Unstated in his op-ed was McChrystal’s assessment of Trump, though in the past, McChrystal has said Trump is “immoral” and “dishonest.” The leader of the bin Laden operation was Adm. Bill McRaven, who in 2020 wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about Trump, saying, “when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.” ..."

APNEWS:"MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (AP) — The U.S. military trained him in explosives and battlefield tactics. Now the Iraq War veteran and enlisted National Guard member was calling for taking up arms against police and government officials in his own country. Standing in the North Carolina woods, Chris Arthur warned about a coming civil war. Videos he posted publicly on YouTube bore titles such as “The End of America or the Next Revolutionary War.” In his telling, the U.S. was falling into chaos and there would be only one way to survive: kill or be killed..."

CNN:"The arrival of a new Bob Woodward book has a well-established choreography; enterprising reporters get hold of copies of the heavily embargoed volume a week or so ahead of its publication date and mine it for the news it contains. Both CNN and The Washington Post, where Woodward retains the honorific title of associate editor, covered the news in the latest book, “War,” last week. And news there was: At the height of the pandemic, President Donald Trump sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment, and since he has left office, Trump has called Putin as many as seven times. Ahead of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden blamed former President Barack Obama for not doing more to counter the Russian leader when he invaded Crimea in 2014, telling a friend, “That’s why we are here. We fucked it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.”..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"Donald Trump and his campaign have waged an aggressive campaign against fact-checking in recent months, pushing TV networks, journalism organizations and others to abandon the practice if they hope to interact with Trump. Trump nearly backed out of an August interview with a group of Black journalists after learning they planned to fact-check his claims. The following month, he and his allies repeatedly complained about the fact-checking that occurred during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, berating journalists and news executives in the middle of the televised debate. And this month, Trump declined to sit down for an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” because he objected to the show’s practice of fact-checking, according to the show. Campaign advisers also expressly asked CBS News to forgo fact checking in its vice-presidential debate with Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — who then complained on air when a moderator corrected him..."

FOXNEWS: Trump said :" I've been on a mission to rescue our nation from a failed and corrupt 3:16 political establishment and to give you back the country you believe in the country you were born in and the country 3:23 you deserve you're going to get it back we're all getting it back in that mission I will never quit I will never 3:30 Bend I will never break and I will never not ever under any 3:37 circumstances even in the face of death we will never give up never going to give up we're 3:44 going to turn it around we're going to have the four greatest years we've ever had I'm putting everything on the line...we're doing well everywhere because people are looking at the people 5:45 that are destroying our country and they say we're not going to take it anymore if we win Pennsylvania we win the whole 5:52 thing it's over right the whole thing ..." COMMENT: SAME OLD ATTACKS ON MIGRANTS AND OTHER RACIAL SLURS; STRAIGHT OUT OF THE NAZI PLAYBOOK MEIN KAMPF

CNN:" Donald Trump lashed out at E. Jean Carroll and several other women who have accused him of sexual assault following a hearing in New York where the former president’s attorneys tried to convince a federal appeals court that he should get a new trial after a jury found he sexually abused and defamed the onetime columnist....

CNN:"...Trump’s lying is most exceptional in its relentlessness, a never-ending avalanche of wrongness that can bury even the most devoted fact-checkers. But it’s also notable for its repetitiveness. He has found his hits, and he’ll keep playing them no matter how many times they are debunked...As Trump enters the post-Labor Day sprint of his 2024 campaign for the presidency, his commentary is filled with many of the same false claims he made as president from 2017 to 2021. He’s even repeating some of the false claims he used during his 2016 presidential campaign..." "THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM" JOHN 8:44 NKJV

YOUTUBE/CNN:"CNN's Kaitlan Collins speaks with former Trump national security adviser John Bolton about former President Donald Trump’s remarks in Detroit, in which he bragged about his willingness to abandon NATO allies in the face of Russian aggression"

AP:" Inside Washington’s federal courthouse, there’s no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb the chilling sights and sounds from television screens of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers as democracy lay under siege. But as he seeks to reclaim the White House, Donald Trump continues to portray the defendants as patriots worthy of admiration, an assertion that has been undercut by the adjudicated truth in hundreds of criminal cases where judges and juries have reached the opposite conclusion about what history will remember as one of America’s darkest days..."

Stephanie Grisham used her remarks to condemn Trump’s behind closed doors statements, telling the audience that he mocks his supporters in private and has called them “basement dwellers. “He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth He used to tell me, it doesn't matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough and people will believe you." COMMENT: TRUMP'S STATEMENT TO HER IS A PART OF "THE BIG LIE", THE NAZI PROPAGANDA THAT LED TO THE HOLOCAUST: WIKIPEDIA: THE BIG LIE TRUMP'S ACCUSATIONS THAT DEMOCRATS ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY (WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE WHAT SO EVER) AND SIMILAR FALSE STATEMENTS ARE A PART OF NAZI PROPAGANDA AS WELL WIKIPEDIA: ACCUSATION IN A MIRRORTHESE ARE TECHNIQUES THAT TRUMP, VANCE, AND THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN ARE CURRENTLY USING

CNN:" A group of Republican state attorneys general are suing the Biden administration over a federal effort to expand access to voter registration. The lawsuit targets an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in March 2021 that directed the heads of all federal agencies to submit proposals for their respective agencies to promote voter registration and participation through various points of contact with the public. The president issued the order as GOP-led statehouses were pushing voter suppression legislation in the aftermath of the 2020 election..."

CNN: In response to an FBI threat assessment of possible retaliatory attacks against Democrats CNN interviewed Joe Moore a former Army sniper and undercover operative who infiltrated the KKK. Moore stated that nationally the KKK was decimated but many joined like minded alt right groups. They use the First Amendment to cover their real intent which is to take over the government by force.

CNN:" Former President Donald Trump said that he feels like he is “entitled” to make personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m very angry at her that she’d weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her,” Trump said at a news conference in New Jersey on Thursday. “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”...COMMENT: THERE IS NO WEAPONIZATION OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. THIS IS THE JUSTICE SYSTEM DOING ITS JOB.

WASHINGTONPOST: "...On Wednesday, the Justice Department published an indictment targeting two employees of RT, the media entity controlled by the Russian government that was formerly known as Russia Today... Unsurprisingly, both efforts aligned with America’s political right. The company appears to have been Tenet Media, which published videos from popular right-wing commentators... " COMMENT: RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE HAS NEVER BEEN A "HOAX"

HUFFPOST:"On Tuesday, an official social media account of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign posted a racist meme implying that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency in November, nice suburban neighborhoods will be overrun with hordes of Black people and immigrants. “Import the third world. Become the third world,” read the post on X, the former Twitter..."MORE RACIST FASCIST FEAR MONGERING PROPAGANDA FROM THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN

CNN: Russell Vought, one of the key authors of Project 2025 and a former Trump cabinet member, was recorded on a hidden camera talking to what he believed to be relatives of a wealthy conservative donor about a right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term."THESE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. THEY ARE OUTRIGHT FASCISTS.MATTHEW 25:31-46

FORBES:"Harris's profile as you know 1:43 the first 1:45 African-American woman who could be the 1:47 president that could make it appealing 1:49 to a lot of 1:50 Voters I always just said put the best 1:53 player in I mean we've got a Dei hire in 1:55 here and Biden said first off he said 1:58 he's going to hire a a black female for 2:01 vice president and that not he just 2:04 skipped over what about what about white 2:06 females what about any other group it 2:09 just when you go down that route you you 2:12 um you take mediocrity and that's what 2:14 they have right now as a vice president 2:16 so are you suggesting she's she was a 2:17 Dei hire 100% she was a Dei hire he said 2:21"COMMENT: TYPICAL RACIST WHITE SUPREMACIST SLUR

AP:"WASHINGTON (AP) — “Mass Deportation Now!” declared the signs at the Republican National Convention, giving a full embrace to Donald Trump’s pledge to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history. Some Republicans aren’t quite ready for that. Lauren B. Peña, a Republican activist from Texas, said that hearing Trump’s calls for mass deportations, as well as terms like “illegals” and “invasion” thrown around at the convention, made her feel uncomfortable. Like some Republicans in Congress who have advanced balanced approaches to immigration, she hopes Trump is just blustering..."COMMENT: NOT VERY CHRISTIAN IS IT:"41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’"MATTHEW 25:41-43 NKJV

CNN/YOUTUBE:"Our panel is back. Stephen Collinson, you write. this morning, I, under the headline Trump Conviction heralds a somber and volatile moment in American history that the danger is acute because with his attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, Trump has already shown he'll do what it takes to save himself, even if his actions catastrophically hurt democratic institutions..."

NYTIMES:"This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power...."

INSTAGRAM:"sjp.columbia 1d A message from the children of Gaza to the national student movement 🥺💗 Please remember what we are fighting for and remember that the resilient people of Gaza want us to keep protesting and keep disrupting."COMMENT: ISRAEL AND HAMAS AND OTHER MILITANT FACTIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTINUING BLOOD LETTING AND IT HAS TO STOP. HAMAS STATED IT WOULD DISARM IF A PALESTINIAN STATE WAS ESTABLISHED. THE RACIST FASCIST JEWISH RIGHT WANT TO KICK THE PALESTINIANS OUT AND NEITHER ISRAELIS NOR PALESTINIANS TRUST EACH OTHER. THE CONTINUING VIOLENCE IS NOT HELPING ANYONE EXCEPT THOSE WHO FEED OFF IT

CNN:" A federal judge on Wednesday blasted a convicted January 6 rioter for downplaying the US Capitol attack and using the kind of revisionist rhetoric that former President Donald Trump often uses on the campaign trial. “This cannot become normal… We cannot condone the normalization of the January 6 US Capitol riot,” US District Judge Royce Lamberth said while sentencing Taylor James Johnatakis to more than seven years in prison.The judge warned of a “vicious cycle … that could imperil our institutions” if Americans, upset with future election results, resort to the “vigilantism, lawlessness and anarchy” that occurred on January 6, 2021.“There can be no room in our country for this sort of political violence,” Lamberth said.”

If anyone remembers what happened on the day of this picture:
NPR..."The plaza between St. John's Church and Lafayette Park was full of people nonviolently protesting police brutality late Monday afternoon when U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops, with the use of tear gas, suddenly started pushing them away for no apparent reason.And then it became clear. ..."
Lest we forget, Donald J Trump serial liar and demagogue is responsible for interfering with the January 2020 election by conspiring to put forth fake electors, intimidating State officials and finally inciting the January 6 insurrection.
His constant lies constitute a continuing insurrection and coup to establish a dictatorship.

• CNN: Trump acknowledges he was told his 2020 election lies were false
• Trump's lies that the 2020 election was stolen
• Fake electors and intimidation of state officials by Trump
• The January 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol
• Trump's threats of violence if he loses this election

CNN:" Take them seriously as well as literally. There is no precedent for two dozen former White House officials coming out so strongly against the fundamental fitness of the man they served with on a day-to-day basis...... Republican voters should keep in mind the words of the one-time conservative hero (and liberal villain) former Vice President Dick Cheney: “There has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”"

ABCNEWS:"According to what sources said Scavino told Smith's team, Trump was "very angry" that day -- not angry at what his supporters were doing to a pillar of American democracy, but steaming that the election was allegedly stolen from him and his supporters, who were "angry on his behalf." Scavino described it all as "very unsettling," sources said. ....”
COMMENT: TRUMP INCITES THE INSURRECTION PRECEEDED BY A MULTI-STATE CONSPIRACY TO INTIMIDATE STATE OFFICIALS AND INSTALL FAKE ELECTORS. HE CONTINUES HIS INSURRECTION WITH LIES ATTACKING THE INTEGRITY OF OUR DEMOCRACY STOKING VIOLENCE WITH HIS VITRIOL

ABCNEWS:"...On Saturday, on the third anniversary Jan. 6, Trump is spending the day in Iowa, delivering his closing message before the Jan. 15 GOP caucuses, continuing to use the events of Jan. 6 as a rallying cry. ..On the campaign trail, Trump has downplayed the violence that ensued that day and has called those charged and convicted in attack "hostages." Trump's claims of widespread election fraud have been rejected in at least 60 court cases, according to PolitiFact... "COMMENT: TRUMP EVER THE SERIAL LYING DEMAGOGUE PANDERS TO THE WHINING GRIEVANCE CROWD AND ALSO THE WHITE SUPREMACIST NEO-NAZI ELEMENTS TO CONTINUE HIS PLAN TO RE-TAKE THE PRESIDENCY. ALL OF AMERICA IS BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY HIS SHIT SHOW NEO NAZI WHITE SUPREMACIST NARRATIVE

MSNBC:"Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold joins Ali Velshi to discuss her reaction to the the state’s Supreme Court deeming Trump ineligible to run for higher office after finding Trump engaged in insurrection and the death threats she and other judges have received in the aftermath of the ruling. “It’s one of the reasons Trump is so dangerous to this country. In this country, people win and lose court cases and elections [but] we have to agree the systems have the outcomes that are correct,” Griswold says. “The use of violence to try and intimidate us is unacceptable in a democracy.”.."COMMENT: TRUMP'S ENTIRE CAMPAIGN IS AN ONGOING INSURRECTION: HE CONSTANTLY ATTACKS THE INTEGRITY OF THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL SYSTEM WITH HIS LIES AND PROPAGANDA AND INCITES VIOLENCE EVERYWHERE HE GOES JUST LIKE HITLER DID IN NAZI GERMANY

MSN/CNN:"‘Frankly stunned’: Jake Tapper reacts to Trump invoking Putin at campaign rally Former President Donald Trump echoed comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a campaign rally attack on President Joe Biden..."PUTIN'S POODLE QUOTES HIS BOSS STALIN HITLER (SHITLER), THE POODLE'S AUTHORITY ON DEMOCRACY

CNN:" Former President Donald Trump on Saturday quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack President Joe Biden as a “threat to democracy” and doubled down on language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric, saying at a campaign event in New Hampshire that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”..." PUTIN'S POODLE IS A NEO-NAZI

WASHINGTONPOST:"Former president Donald Trump denigrated his domestic opponents and critics during a Veterans Day speech Saturday, calling those on the other side of the aisle “vermin” and suggesting that they posed a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China or North Korea. That language is drawing rebuke from historians, who compared it to that of authoritarian leaders....”COMMENT: Putin's poodle fauns over communist marxist and fascist dictators. The evidence shows that he and his co-conspirators tried to overturn a valid legal election and he continues to lie that the election was stolen. He knew he lost the election but as Hitler said if you say a lie long enough people will believe it. Trump the wannabe dictator is using Hitler's playbook.

NYTIMES:"How a Group of Students in the Pacific Islands Reshaped Global Climate Law They watched climate change ravage their home countries as rich, polluting nations did nothing. Then they had an idea.The group of students who logged in to Justin Rose’s class on international environmental law in February 2019 were spread out across thousands of miles of ocean. Many were based at the Port Vila campus on Éfaté, a small but mountainous island of vivid tropical green in the middle of Vanuatu’s archipelago of volcanoes, where the University of the South Pacific’s school of law is based. But U.S.P. also had campuses in Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, Kiribati and other island nations — places that were experiencing some of the most pronounced impacts of the planet’s fast-changing climate. Listen to this article, read by Kirsten Potter It was always a tough class to teach, Rose, an Australian expert in Pacific Island law, told me in July. There are few classes in which the profound impacts of climate change feel less theoretical or the power of the students more constrained. As the class began, rising seas meant that villages across the South Pacific were already being compelled to move to higher ground, forcing people to abandon their homes and the livelihoods that once sustained them. Often, the graveyards left behind slid into the sea, scattering bones into the surf. Some countries were so low-lying that they were in danger of erasure. “It’s a pretty grim thing to have to do, year after year — to tell young Pacific Islanders that the best available science says they won’t have habitable sovereign territory within their lifetimes,” Rose says..."

CNN:" Artificial intelligence is coming for your job: 41% of employers intend to downsize their workforce as AI automates certain tasks, a World Economic Forum survey showed Wednesday. Out of hundreds of large companies surveyed around the world, 77% also said they were planning to reskill and upskill their existing workers between 2025-2030 to better work alongside AI, according to findings published in the WEF’s Future of Jobs Report. But, unlike the previous, 2023 edition, this year’s report did not say that most technologies, including AI, were expected to be “a net positive” for job numbers...."

CNN:"For about 50 years, the scientific community has been grappling with a substantial problem: There isn’t enough visible matter in the universe. All the matter we can see — stars, planets, cosmic dust and everything in between — can’t account for why the universe behaves as it does, and there must be five times as much of it around for researchers’ observations to make sense, according to NASA. Scientists call that dark matter, because it does not interact with light and is invisible..."

ABCNEWS:"One of nature's most awe-inspiring creatures, the rare and giant blue whale, was seen off the coast of Massachusetts in a rare back-to-back sighting. Cape Ann Whale Watch, a touring group based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, took to Facebook on Monday to share footage of one of two blue whale sightings that day. "We got to see this 'largest animal on our planet' on both of our trips today," the group wrote alongside footage of the blue whale spouting water and breaching to the surface..."

CNN:"For Māori conservationist Mere Takoko, “losing one whale is like losing an ancestor.” The animals “taught our people about navigation across the Pacific, particularly across the Milky Way… And this is information that was given to our ancestors.” The environmental activist from the small town of Rangitukia, on New Zealand’s east coast, is spearheading a movement of Indigenous groups in the Pacific pushing to protect the magnificent marine mammals, inking a groundbreaking treaty to make them legal persons with inherent rights."

CNN:"Rare footage shows deep-sea creature attacking camera Scientists from Australia and the UK captured unique footage of the rare deep-sea hooked squid, one of the largest deep-water squids in the world."

CNN:" A US Navy and Coast Guard operation on Tuesday rescued three mariners stranded on a tiny Pacific Ocean islet for more than a week after the trio spelled out “HELP” using palm fronds laid on a white-sand beach. The mission also unexpectedly turned into a family reunion. .."

WASHINGTONPOST:"When conservationists began efforts to save the Iberian lynx, a wild cat that had long been considered a symbol of the Iberian Peninsula, they felt the lynx would be extinct in roughly five years if their efforts failed...."

CNN:" Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, never experienced a ruinous population collapse, according to an analysis of ancient DNA from 15 former inhabitants of the remote island in the Pacific Ocean. The analysis also suggested that inhabitants of the island, which lies about 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) from the South American mainland, reached the Americas in the 1300s — long before Christopher Columbus’ 1492 landing in the New World."

CNN:"Sea otters aren’t just cute to look at, they also play a critical role in preserving the environment. By hunting invertebrates like clams and sea urchins, sea otters help preserve kelp forests, which in turn sequester carbon, protect coastlines and provide food and shelter for other marine life. " COMMENT: BE RESPECTFUL AND CAREFUL

AP:"Taters the cat stars in NASA's first video sent by laser from deep space Associated Press 2.51M subscribers Subscribed 300 Share Download 32,184 views Dec 19, 2023 An orange tabby cat named Taters stars in the first video sent by laser from deep space, stealing the show as he chases a red laser light. Thumbnail source: NASA

CNN: YANKEES announcer called a foul that later hit him in the head. He received kudos for keeping it clean and like a Timex watch just kept ticking

CNN:"Arnold Schwarzenegger says going to the gym is all about 'survival' CNN's Chris Wallace joins actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a visit to Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, California, Schwarzenegger's regular workout spot since he first moved to the United States in 1968."

:"YOUTUBE/60-MINUTES:"Once bound for extinction, giant pandas were saved by their one evolutionary advantage: they're adorable. Scott Pelley reported on their resurgence in 2019." Two giant pandas from China arrived at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and made their debut January 24,2025 "

POINT DEFIANCE ZOO & AQUARIUM:" Leaf it to Willow to redefine fall fun! 🍂 Watch as our adorable and spunky muskox calf joyfully dives headfirst into her very first pile of maple leaves and turns her leafy playground into a zoomie extravaganza. 🍁😍 .. "

"WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Fresh corroboration of the perplexing observation that the universe is expanding more rapidly than expected has scientists pondering the cause - perhaps some unknown factor involving the mysterious cosmic components dark energy and dark matter.Two years of data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have now validated the Hubble Space Telescope's earlier finding that the rate of the universe's expansion is faster - by about 8% - than would be expected based on what astrophysicists know of the initial conditions in the cosmos and its evolution over billions of years. The discrepancy is called the Hubble Tension..."

NASA.GOV:"The latest image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the dense center of our galaxy in unprecedented detail, including never-before-seen features astronomers have yet to explain. .."

CNN:" The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, is spinning rapidly and altering space-time around it, a new study has found. Space-time is the four-dimensional continuum that describes how we see space, fusing one-dimensional time and three-dimensional space together to represent the space fabric that curves in response to massive celestial bodies...."

CNN:"Astronomers have observed a massive pair of jets releasing from a supermassive black hole 7.5 billion light-years from Earth. The megastructure spans 23 million light-years in length, making these black hole jets the largest ever seen, according to new research. Black holes are viewed as the garbage disposals of the universe, gobbling up nearly everything that comes close to them. But a fraction of material is ejected before an object falls in, forming a jet on either side of the black hole, said Martijn Oei, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and the lead author of a new study describing the discovery."

NASA.GOV:"From our cosmic backyard in the solar system to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the universe like never before in its first year of science operations..."

NYTIMES:"When NASA’s next-generation space observatory launches in a few years, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will expand the search for exoplanets as well as rogue planets, or worlds that travel through space without orbiting stars... ”"

CNN:"...OpenStar is one of a constellation of fusion companies has sprung up over the past five years, pursuing diverse technologies, said Gerald Navratil, a professor of fusion energy and plasma physics at Columbia University. “The maturity of the field is such that now private venture capitalists are willing to put up money to try to see if they can get to fusion a little faster,” he told CNN. One of the largest commercial ventures, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which uses high-temperature superconducting magnets within a tokamak, has raised more than $2 billion. Others, like OpenStar, are exploring more unusual tech. Seattle-based Zap Energy is trying to build a compact, scalable reactor that doesn’t use magnets at all, but instead fires pulses of power into a stream of plasma..."

CNN:" It feels as if America has emerged from a viral medical pandemic only to be consumed by a moral pandemic, fueled by hate that is poisoning our hearts and minds. It is making people hate and turn against one another, to fear and punish that which makes us different rather than embracing what makes us unique and our common humanity. ..."

"CNN:" The Florida Board of Education approved a new set of standards for how Black history should be taught in the state’s public schools, sparking criticism from education and civil rights advocates who said students should be allowed to learn the full truth of American history. The curriculum was approved at the board’s meeting Wednesday in Orlando......"

CNN:"Holocaust survivor Michael Bornstein reacts to comments made by Fox News host Greg Gutfeld about the work skills of concentration camp inmates during World War II... "

CNN:"Emails shared with CNN by the Texas Department of Public Safety detail a trooper-medic expressing concerns to a supervisor over the inhumane treatment of migrants along the border in Eagle Pass, Texas...”

WASHINGTONPOST:
"HARTWELL, Ga. — At night, the worn sign looks like a beacon in the darkness out front of the modest, red-brick Mt. Hebron Baptist Church. The tired, it reads. The poor. And huddled masses. Welcome home. In this small town in the rural northeast corner of Georgia, it’s the kind of message that assures Teri Massey she is loved for being who she is — a message 180 degrees from the one she heard in the Baptist church where she spent her teens into her 40s, where her grandfather, father and brother all held leadership positions."

CNN:" A Saudi court has sentenced a retired teacher to death over his comments online, say his brother and advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, was sentenced “following 5 tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations,” his brother Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi tweeted last week. According to Human Rights Watch, Muhammad al-Ghamdi was arrested last year and given little access to a lawyer before his conviction in July..."

CNN:" Hundreds of families gathered in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina on June 15, plotting their escape from what had become a hellscape of blown-out buildings scrawled with racist graffiti and streets strewn with corpses. The state governor had just been executed and mutilated by Arab militia groups, leaving civilians with no choice but to flee. What followed was a gruesome massacre, eyewitnesses said, believed to be one of the most violent incidents in the genocide-scarred Sudanese region’s history..."

CNN:"After being a Nazi leader for two and a half decades, he says he regrets his past beliefs Reality Check's John Avlon speaks with former NSM leader Jeff Schoep about the nationwide increase in extremism and what led him to change his neo-Nazi beliefs..."

CNN:"Survivors give horrific accounts of 'parade' of sexual abuse at Catholic high school Four survivors shared their stories more than 50 years after they were brutally physically and sexually assaulted by priests at an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore."

CBSNEWS:"Two decades ago, the 9/11 Commission found al Qaeda acted alone in the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, but victims' families say that isn't true. They point to a newly-released video filmed outside the U.S. Capitol two years before the attacks, and other evidence, as proof. The families are now suing Saudi Arabia, claiming its government provided crucial assistance to the hijackers and planners of the attacks. .."

CNN:"The latest United Nations report on the Taliban published Friday is a blistering indictment of the delusions that surrounded the US withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that was negotiated by Donald Trump’s administration in 2020. President Joe Biden followed through on that agreement almost two years ago when he withdrew all US troops from Afghanistan in a chaotic evacuation that marked the end of the US’ longest war. The withdrawal agreement was supposed to be predicated on the Taliban negotiating with the elected Afghan government about some kind of power-sharing arrangement and cutting their ties to terrorist groups like al Qaeda. But none of that happened..."

CNN:"When the US withdrew from Afghanistan years later, the presidential palace quickly overrun by the Taliban, all I could think was, “How could my husband die, and his death didn’t break me, yet the fall of the country he died in did? How could this be worse than the knock at the door?” But this time, everything I loved and everything I had invested in was broken alongside me in pieces on the floor. The country I cherished, the people I treasured. The girls in the school in Paktya – the village Chris died in – who made me pillowcases and gifts, the children at the Kabul orphanage I had just carried, there was no more hope for them. I wanted to hold those babies and never let them go. How could America let it get to this? We are better than this. How cruel to empower Afghan women and little girls for years..."

CNN:" Two Indianapolis police officers had spent the day searching in vain for a missing baby in a stolen vehicle when they stopped to eat and gather their wits. A woman suspected of stealing the 2010 black Honda Accord had been taken into custody earlier that day...but the vehicle was still missing. More urgently, baby Kason Thomass... had yet to be found... “It was time for us to decompress because we were disappointed that we could not find him,”... “And then God opened up the heavens to us and almost took him and put him right in our hands.”... "

"The FBI is engaged in a nationwide effort to build public awareness of hate crimes and encourage reporting to law enforcement. .. The FBI is the lead investigative agency for criminal violations of federal civil rights statutes. .. The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s biasagainst a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. The FBI works to protect all victims of crimes, regardless of their country of national origin or immigration status. The FBI encourages victims and witnesses of any hate-related incident to report it to law enforcement... If you believe you are victim or a witness of a hate crime, we encourage you to report it to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI ..."

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE:"Dear Ukrainians! A meeting with leaders in London has already taken place – this is the third positive development for Ukraine in just a few days. More sanctions against Russia are coming – and they will be aligned with the decision of the United States. This is a very right move by the U.S. President – sanctions against two Russian oil companies that export large volumes of oil. Today, all participants, without exception, in the Coalition of the Willing agreed that this is exactly how pressure should continue – on Russian oil: Russian oil companies, terminals, Russian tanker fleet, and the entire infrastructure of the aggressor. Today we agreed on decisions that can help us a lot. We will not disclose all the details yet, to make things harder for Putin. And even though Russia is now signaling to the world that sanctions supposedly don’t affect its economy, everyone can see the truth: gas station lines inside Russia, bankrupt Russian regions, and Russia’s federal budget deficit. Sanctions remain one of the most painful blows for Putin, personally for him. Second, there are very important agreements on financial support for Ukraine. Europe is politically ready to channel frozen Russian assets into comprehensive support for Ukraine and Ukrainians, and yesterday the European Council reached a political decision – the clear framework for using the assets, and this framework has been defined. We now also agreed in Europe that this framework must be implemented by the end of the year. Overall, the mood in Europe is such that we understand: funding for Ukraine, for our people, will be secured for next year. Third – everything related to weapons, air defense, and positions on the frontline. There are already new packages from our partners; our approach to long-range capabilities is also gaining more support. And this means there will be more precise long-range sanctions – direct-action sanctions against Russia’s war machine. And it works over thousands of kilometers. I also want very much to thank everyone supporting us in the issue of air defense, of systems: we are working with countries to increase the number of Patriots and compatible missiles. There is also a decision from Italy today – they are preparing a support package for our energy sector. Thank you. There is a decision from Norway to fund gas purchases – thank you very much! We have good agreements with other countries, our European partners, and teams are now working to implement them. And we will continue addressing energy issues with the new Japanese Government– the new Prime Minister of Japan took part in the Coalition of the Willing meeting today. And we expect that each G7 member – from the U.S. and Canada to Japan – will continue their steps to support us, support Ukraine, and support our people. And of course – Sweden. There is a new and major agreement for our combat aviation: we are working on the Gripen fleet, excellent combat aircraft. We have signed the first document, and we are counting on 150 aircraft. And this is a long-term security guarantee for a strong and modern independent Ukraine. This is a historic step. We thank everyone who is helping us! Glory to Ukraine! "
CNN:"Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile and will work towards deploying the weapon, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday, which comes as Moscow launched its second deadly attack on Ukraine in two nights. The timing of the missile test is notable, coming the same week that a potential summit with US President Donald Trump broke down, and the White House placed sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies – some of the Trump administration’s most tangible actions against Russia to date.Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces, claimed the Burevestnik missile remained airborne for about 15 hours and covered a distance of around 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles). During the test, the weapon demonstrated “its high capabilities in evading anti-missile and anti-aircraft defences,” Gerasimov said.Meanwhile, Putin said, “We need to determine the possible ways of using it and start preparing the infrastructure for deploying this weapon,” adding that it’s a product “no one else in the world has.” Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev said that the details of the “successful” missile testing had been conveyed to the Trump administration during his visit to the US, as well as recent battlefield updates. Last week, Russia also held a “planned” strategic nuclear forces drill under Putin’s supervision. The Kremlin said the drill tested staff skills and the readiness of military command-and-control systems, adding that all objectives were met..."
APNEWS:"MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold. The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles. The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement. The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin via video link that the drills were intended to “practice procedures for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons.” Putin, sitting alone at a round white table, faced big screens showing Gerasimov and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. All three men would be involved in launching nuclear weapons in case of conflict..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"U.S. imposes sanctions on Russian oil companies after strikes on Ukraine kill 7 Renewed Russian attacks, following the apparent collapse of a planned Trump-Putin meeting, show that a negotiated solution to the war remains distant..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Putin says U.S. sanctions are ‘serious’ but won’t make Russia stop war"
NYTIMES:"On Feb. 24, 2022, as Russia invaded Ukraine and Moscow turned overnight into a pariah city, Emmanuel Carrère, one of France’s most acclaimed nonfiction writers, boarded a plane bound for the Russian capital. His agent had warned him: You don’t fly to a country on the day it invades its neighbor. But Mr. Carrère had a professional commitment there and, more important, he needed to grasp what had become of the country he had long loved, and which had inspired some of his best sellers. Mr. Carrère spent 10 days in Moscow, long enough to watch a world collapse around him. New laws punished anyone who dared call the war a war, and his friends scrambled to flee. Perhaps most disquieting for a man whose passion for Russia once had led him to spend weeks in a backwater 440 miles east of Moscow — an experience he recounted in “My Life as a Russian Novel” — was realizing how many Russians either backed the war or simply looked away. “Something inside me was shattered, and still is, and my love for Russia has taken a serious blow,” Mr. Carrère said in a recent interview in his Paris loft, its all-white walls lined with rows of books. He noted that all that had once drawn him to Russia — its rich literature, tragic history and larger-than-life personalities — now seemed to have culminated in a brutal war.“There’s a kind of dizzying depreciation of Russian values,” he said. This reckoning pulses through his latest book, “Kolkhoze,” released in France in August and slated for U.S. publication next year. A best seller in France and one of four finalists for this year’s Goncourt Prize, the country’s most prestigious literary honor, it is a kind of autobiography that explores Mr. Carrère’s Russian roots and his relationship with his mother, who during her lifetime was France’s leading historian of Russia. .."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Trump is ignoring the real threat matrix A puzzling pivot to the Caribbean increasingly leaves Europe to answer Putin’s aggression on its own.“Why America Slept.” That might be the title of a future book examining the Trump administration’s shift of national security focus away from a mounting Russian threat against Europe and toward a noxious but relatively impotent network of drug gangs in Venezuela. The best of The Post’s opinions and commentary, in your inbox every morning This misallocation of priorities is evident across the Trump administration. The FBI’s most experienced national security agents have been purged; cyber defenses at several agencies have been slashed; scores of veteran CIA analysts and operations officers have quit or been forced out; alliances with friendly intelligence services have weakened. Meanwhile, according to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly: “The President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.” President Donald Trump said last week he had “authorized” CIA covert action against Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro. “We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela,” he explained. “Great-power suicide” is how former CIA director William J. Burns described the self-inflicted damage to national security resources in a recent article for the Atlantic. “We’ve put at risk the network of alliances and partnerships that is the envy of our rivals. We’ve even gutted the research funding that powers our economy,” he wrote.Trump’s reluctance to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin militarily, even as he chases Maduro, confounds U.S. allies in NATO. Germany’s intelligence agencies have warned in recent briefings that “Russia is now highly active in infiltrating the German armed forces and undermining the stability of NATO,” German defense analyst Nico Lange posted on X last week. European leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday warning about Russia’s threat to the continent. “We must ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defense industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,” the statement said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited the White House on Wednesday to make the same argument. After meeting with Rutte, Trump announced new sanctions against two of Russia’s biggest energy companies. “These are tremendous sanctions. These are very big,” Trump declared in the Oval Office. But the sanctions are well short of the Tomahawk missiles and other military steps that Ukraine had sought. And there’s no sign that more sanctions, by themselves, will force Putin to the peace table. European countries now feel they’re directly in the firing line, without an adequate American shield. “Multiple European countries have suffered successive waves of clandestine attacks organised and directed by Moscow,” noted a recent analysis of Russian “mayhem” by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. Though the United States hasn’t been hit by sabotage, such attacks would be easier because of “the dismantling of U.S. federal agencies previously tasked with detecting and preventing such attacks,” the report noted. While the administration surges military and intelligence resources to the Caribbean to confront Maduro, it is slashing funding for more basic national security priorities. The staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, for example, has been cut from 3,300 when Trump became president to 2,200, according to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Hardly a day goes by without another political arrest in Russia. Under Vladimir Putin, the scale of repression against those who disagree with the Kremlin has surpassed anything seen in our country since the death of Joseph Stalin. According to a recent United Nations report, some 60 politically motivated criminal cases are opened against Russian citizens every month. The number of known political prisoners in Russia (more than 1,700) already exceeds the respective figure for the whole of the Soviet Union — that is, 15 present-day countries together — in the mid-1980s. And the leading cause of political imprisonment in Russia is continuing protest against the war in Ukraine. Every new arrest comes as a shock — another reminder of the oppressiveness and injustice of Putin’s system. But the emotional impact is all the greater when the news concerns a personal acquaintance or a friend. Earlier this month, Russian authorities arrested Maxim Kruglov, former member of the Moscow City Duma and deputy leader of Yabloko, Russia’s last remaining opposition (and anti-war) party...."
CNN:"Russia is carrying out a “massive attack” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, top Ukrainian officials said early Friday, with parts of the capital Kyiv left without power. Workers are “taking all necessary measures to minimize the negative consequences,” Ukraine’s energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk said in a statement. The Kremlin appears to again be using a tactic deployed in previous years, depriving Ukrainians of power and heat ahead of the bitter winter months. .."
BBC:"Estonia has requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russian warplanes violated its airspace on Friday morning. Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered the Estonian skies "without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes" over the Gulf of Finland, the government said. Italy, Finland and Sweden scrambled jets under Nato's mission to bolster its eastern flank. A Nato spokesperson said it was "yet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and Nato's ability to respond". Russia denied violating Estonian airspace. But tensions have been escalating recently, after Poland and Romania - both Nato members - said Russian drones breached their airspace. Article 4 of the Nato treaty formally starts urgent consultations within the 32-member alliance, which ties the US and many European nations together on collective defence. It is the second time this month that a Nato member has requested Article 4 consultations. Poland did so on 10 September after Russian drones entered its airspace. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said "Nato's response to any provocation must be united and strong". "We consider it essential to consult with our allies to ensure shared situational awareness and to agree on our next joint steps," Michal said. US President Donald Trump said on Friday: "I don't love it. I don't like when that happens. Could be big trouble." Czech President Petr Pavel on Saturday said Nato should respond to such provocations by shooting down planes. Pavel, a former chairman of Nato's military committee, said: "Unfortunately, this is a balancing act bordering on the edge of conflict, but one simply cannot retreat in the face of evil." Estonia, which shares a border with Russia to the east, says this was the fifth Russian violation of its airspace this year. Officials said the Russian aircraft entered its airspace from the north-east and were intercepted by Finnish jets over the Gulf of Finland. Once inside Estonian airspace, Italian F-35 jets, based in Estonia, were deployed under Nato's Baltic Air Policing mission to escort the aircraft out. The government said the Russian jets had no flight plans, had their transponders turned off and also did not have two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic control. Russia's defence ministry said the jets were on a "scheduled flight... .."
REUTERS:"BERLIN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of murder and trying to destabilise the West by testing its limits and sabotage, speaking at a parliamentary debate where he clashed with the far-right opposition. Merz said recent Russian incursions into Polish and Romanian airspace were part of a long-running trend of testing the West's boundaries. The Reuters Gulf Currents newsletter brings you the latest on geopolitics, energy and finance in the region. Sign up here. "Putin has long been testing the borders, he is sabotaging. He is spying, he is murdering, he is trying to unsettle us. Russia wants to destabilise our societies," Merz said. He said a Ukrainian surrender to Russia was unacceptable. "A dictated peace, a peace without freedom, would encourage Putin to seek his next target," he said. Merz has previously also criticised Putin as a war criminal, prompting the Kremlin to say that the German leader's views on the Ukrainian peace talks should be disregarded. The Kremlin denies its forces have committed any war crimes in Ukraine and has also dismissed as nonsense claims by Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, that her husband was murdered in prison. German support for Ukraine has drawn criticism from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose leader Alice Weidel on Wednesday accused Merz of "posing as a global politician and warlord". Jens Spahn, a Merz ally, in turn said Weidel was turning into a "fifth column" for Russia..."
THEGUARDIAN:"12.27 EDT UK fighters to fly air defence missions over Poland as part of Nato's Eastern Sentry UK Typhoon fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland as part of Nato’s new Eastern Sentry mission, the UK government has confirmed. A Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. A Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA The jets will join other allied forces – including from Denmark, France and Germany – in patrolling the Polish skies after last week’s Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace. The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Typhoons will operate out of RAF Coningsby base in Lincolnshire, and will be supported by air-to-air refuelling aicraft RAF Voyager. Up until July, six Typhoons had been based in Poland as part of air policing mission. UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that “these aircraft are not just a show of strength, they are vital in deterring aggression, securing Nato airspace, and protecting our national security and that of our allies.” He added: “Russia’s reckless behaviour is a direct threat to European security and a violation of international law, which is why the UK will support Nato’s efforts to bolster its eastern flank through Eastern Sentry..."
NYTIMES:"The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Sunday accused Moscow of “reckless escalation” after a Russian drone flew through Romania’s airspace, the second incursion over a NATO country in less than a week. Tensions have run high in Eastern Europe’s skies since more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week, prompting NATO to scramble fighter jets to shoot some of them down. That incident drew condemnation from Western officials who called it an escalation of the war in Ukraine. Taken together, the episodes further underscore how drones are making the Ukraine war felt outside the country’s borders. Kaja Kallas, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief, echoed those sentiments on Sunday after the incident a day earlier in Romania. “The violation of Romanian airspace by Russian drones is yet another unacceptable breach of an E.U. member state’s sovereignty,” she wrote on social media. “This continued reckless escalation threatens regional security.” Romania, a NATO member, had said late Saturday that its air force had detected a Russian drone in the country’s air space. Its Defense Ministry said in a statement that the country had deployed two F-16 aircraft shortly after 6 p.m. local time to monitor Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian infrastructure near the Romanian border. About 20 minutes later, they detected the drone in Romanian airspace..."
APNEWS:"WHY THIS MATTERS: Polish airspace has been violated several times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on the scale of Wednesday’s violations in Poland or in any other NATO country. WOHYN, Poland (AP) — Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace. The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed. However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia’s assault against Ukraine. “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer,” and it should result in stronger sanctions.Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory. Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday.It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered. Polish authorities said nine crash sites were found, with some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border. “There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. “These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.”...Dutch fighter jets came to Poland’s aid and intercepted some drones. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski later thanked the Dutch government “for the magnificent performance of Dutch pilots in neutralizing” the drones. NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began. Poland says some drones came from Belarus Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace. “What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus,” Tusk said in parliament..."
CNN:" President Donald Trump is mad that China is palling around with his strongmen friends. Trump erupted on social media late Tuesday night — US time — as television footage aired of Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosting the authoritarian leaders of Russia and North Korea at a stunning military parade in Beijing. “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump wrote in a message to Xi. The Truth Social post heard around the world means one thing: If China’s two big gatherings of authoritarian leaders, US adversaries and erstwhile allies this week was intended as a personal affront to the US president, it worked perfectly. And it underscored the futility of his attempts to subject the true global hard men to his art-of-the-deal charms and his claims that his supposedly close relationships with such leaders can be decisive.Trump met with Putin in Alaska last month, but his gushing red-carpet welcome has so far failed to unlock any progress toward ending the war in Ukraine. Putin has defied Trump’s hopes by escalating attacks on civilians and is stalling on talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The US president’s first-term summits with Kim were similarly unsuccessful. The North Korean leader has more nuclear weapons now than he did before taking part in Trump’s photo-op diplomacy. The president’s online tirade went on to point out that Americans had suffered heavy losses in the struggle against a common enemy, imperial Japan, the 80th anniversary of whose defeat was marked in Beijing on Wednesday. “Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!” Trump wrote.China’s big celebration comes at a tense international moment as the new Asian superpower seeks to capitalize on Trump’s erratic foreign policy, which has shattered America’s reputation as a reliable great power. Trump’s fury was ironic, since the last few days in China have seen the kind of performative spectacle that he loves. But the gathering of anti-Western powers in Tianjin and Beijing is about more than trolling. It’s an early warning that Trump’s second-term policies based on tariff coercion, the bullying of lesser powers and “America First” nationalism may be backfiring..."
WASHINGTONPOST"By Niha Masih and Lyric Li China is awash in nationalist fervor ahead of its celebration of the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, which Beijing will mark Wednesday with a grand parade showcasing its military prowess. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Alongside the spectacle, a quieter campaign is unfolding: one to recast wartime history in service of today’s geopolitical tensions with Washington. In the run-up to the anniversary, several state-aligned scholars, media outlets and think tanks have downplayed the significance of American assistance to China during World War II, casting the U.S. as a self-serving power then and now. The effort has spilled into popular culture: from highly anticipated films dramatizing China’s role in the Korean War against American forces to AI-generated videos of World War II soldiers marveling at modern-day China, which have gone viral on social media. “The fundamental purpose of U.S. ‘aid’ to China was to protect its own interests in China; it was by no means assistance based on an equal relationship,” a piece in the Historical Review, affiliated with the state-run Chinese Academy of History, said in its August issue. A commentary published by state-backed, nationalist Red Culture Institute read: “Even without U.S. aid … China would have a chance of winning [against Japan].” But historians say American assistance was crucial for China to survive the war. Large parts of China were occupied by Imperial Japan and war broke out in 1937, in the lead-up to World War II. Japan’s defeat in 1945, following the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, led to China’s liberation. Japan officially surrendered its territory in China in a ceremony in Nanjing on Sept. 9, 1945.“China and the United States needed each other,” said Rana Mitter, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and author of “Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II.” “Without China’s continued resistance, the U.S. would have had a much bigger problem in the Asia-Pacific region, and without American financial assistance and military advice, China would have had it much harder to last till the end of the war.” Mitter’s book argues that China’s wartime contribution was not given proper credit in the West for decades. But now, China is picking and choosing the parts of history that best suit its current political needs. “It’s not necessarily the details are wrong — sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not — but they are made to add up to a story that fits your present-day needs,” he said. Tensions between the world’s superpowers, the U.S. and China, have intensified this year, coming close to a full economic rupture spurred by President Donald Trump’s trade war. Beijing, bristling at what it sees as U.S. efforts to contain its rise, has sought to position itself as a stabilizing counterweight to the disruption caused by Trump’s confrontational and unpredictable approach to geopolitics..."
CNN:"Kyiv was bombarded overnight by Russia’s second-biggest aerial attack since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with at least 19 people killed, including four children, according to officials. Buildings belonging to the European Union and the British Council were damaged in the strikes into Thursday, causing both the EU and the United Kingdom to summon the top Russian diplomats in their capitals. Among those killed are children aged 2, 17 and 14, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Ukraine’s air force said that the Kremlin unleashed 629 air attack weapons on the country overnight, comprising 598 drones and 31 missiles. Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for the air force, told CNN that the strikes comprised “one of the largest combined attacks” on the country..."
WSJ:"BEIJING—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to join Russia’s Vladimir Putin at China’s grand military parade in Beijing next week, in a show of unity and defiance of the West. The parade on Wednesday will be hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and is set to be the trio’s first event together, providing powerful optics as Beijing asserts itself as a leader of countries seeking to upend the U.S.-led international order. Yet the potential for the three countries to build on the moment faces limits, as each pursues its own agenda with the U.S. A summit between President Trump and Xi before the end of the year is possible, as China seeks a reduction of U.S. tariffs. Trump is also holding out the possibility of better ties with both Russia and North Korea. He met Putin recently in Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine and earlier this week said he would like to meet Kim again, after meeting the North Korean leader three times during his first term. Beijing revealed Kim’s inclusion on Thursday when it unveiled the guest list for the parade. Trump won’t be attending, nor will most European leaders. Instead, Xi is set to be joined by the leaders of countries including Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. South Korea will be represented by the speaker of the country’s National Assembly. The parade will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II and is an opportunity for China to show off its growing military might, as thousands of troops march past Tiananmen Square alongside some of China’s latest weapons. For Kim, the event marks a shift as it would be his first time joining a multilateral gathering of leaders and his first visit to China since 2019. While Xi attended Putin’s Victory Day gathering in Moscow in May, North Korea sent a handful of military officers..."
REUTERS:"MOSCOW/LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Russian oil exports to India are set to rise in September, dealers said, as New Delhi defies U.S. punitive tariffs designed to force the country to stop the trade and push Moscow towards a peace deal with Ukraine. India has become the biggest buyer of Russian oil supplies that were displaced by Western sanctions after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. This has allowed Indian refiners to benefit from cheaper crude. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. But the purchases have drawn condemnation from the government of U.S. President Donald Trump, which increased U.S. tariffs on Indian imports to 50% on Wednesday. New Delhi says it is relying on talks to try to resolve Trump's additional tariffs, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also embarked on a tour to develop diplomatic ties elsewhere, including meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials have accused India of profiteering from discounted Russian oil, while Indian officials have accused the West of double standards because the European Union and the U.S. still buy Russian goods worth billions of dollars. "The tariffs are part of a broader trade discussion between India and the U.S., and given India’s increasing domestic refinery runs amid discounted Russian barrels, we don’t see India scuppering its Russian imports in meaningful volumes," BNP Paribas said in a note. The Indian oil ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Without India, Russia would struggle to maintain exports at existing levels, and that would cut the oil export revenues that finance the Kremlin's budget and Russia's continued war in Ukraine. Three trading sources involved in oil sales to India said Indian refiners would increase Russian oil purchases in September by 10-20% from August levels, or by 150,000-300,000 barrels per day. The sources, who cited preliminary purchases data, could not be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the issue. The two biggest buyers of Russian oil for India, Reliance and Nayara Energy, which is majority Russian-owned, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia has more oil to export next month because planned and unplanned refinery outages have cut its capacity to process crude into fuels...."
NYTIMES:"Here’s the latest. President Trump said on Tuesday that American troops would not be sent to protect Ukraine as part of any peace agreement with Russia, as European leaders met for urgent talks over what a postwar security arrangement could look like. In an interview on Fox News, Mr. Trump said that at no point will there be American troops on the ground in Ukraine as part of any security guarantee. The hosts asked him about any “assurances” he could make that there would be no U.S. “boots on the ground,” and he replied, “Well, you have my assurance, and I’m president.” The shape of postwar security arrangements for Ukraine dominated discussions among European leaders the day after hastily arranged meetings with Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at the White House, which showcased solidarity with Kyiv but yielded few details of how the war with Russia could end. The White House meetings produced smiles and warmth among Mr. Trump, Mr. Zelensky and European allies — but few public signs of tangible progress toward an end to the war. That will require follow-through from Mr. Trump, potentially sweeping concessions from Mr. Zelensky and a willingness by Russia to stop attacking Ukraine. Overnight, Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine, causing injuries and damage to infrastructure and energy facilities, Ukrainian officials said, a day after at least 14 people were killed in Russian strikes. Mr. Zelensky, whom Mr. Trump greeted more warmly than in their previous Oval Office meeting, where he berated the Ukrainian leader as insufficiently grateful, pointed to progress with the United States on security guarantees to keep Russia from invading again, though he left without a formal agreement. He said Ukraine would purchase $90 billion in American weapons through Europe as part of the security guarantees. In return, the United States would buy drones from Ukraine, he said. But wide gaps remained between Russia’s demand for territorial concessions and Ukraine’s insistence on a cease-fire to stop Moscow’s deadly attacks. Mr. Trump, who is pressing for a quick peace deal, says one can be reached without a cease-fire. After Monday’s gathering, Mr. Trump said on social media that he had begun “the arrangements” for a face-to-face meeting between Mr. Zelensky and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But on Tuesday, the Kremlin played down the prospect of such a meeting. Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin held a “frank and very constructive,” 40-minute call after the meeting with Mr. Zelensky and the European leaders, according to Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy aide. The two men had agreed that more senior negotiators would be appointed for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, Mr. Ushakov told Rossiya 24, a state-run news channel, but he made no mention of Mr. Putin participating. When he met with Mr. Trump in Alaska last week, Mr. Putin refused to accept a cease-fire. Here’s what else to know: Cease-fire push: At Monday’s meeting, some European officials gently pressed Mr. Trump on the need to secure an urgent cease-fire, which they argued would help stop the mounting civilian death toll in Ukraine and create stability for genuine peace negotiations. But aware that Mr. Trump dislikes the term “cease-fire,” they are calling it a “truce” instead. U.S. military aid: The $90 billion in American weapons that Mr. Zelensky said would be part of sweeping security agreements with Western allies could include sophisticated weapons that are in short supply in Ukraine: air defense systems and war planes. How Ukraine would pay for them remains unclear. Peacekeeping force: Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said proposed security guarantees would include an international force stationed in Ukraine after a cease-fire or peace agreement. That contingent could be as small as a few hundred observer troops, or a defensive force in the tens of thousands. Russia has already objected to the idea. ...Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and the country’s state-run news media on Tuesday played down the prospect of a direct meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, a day after President Trump said that he had initiated steps for a bilateral meeting between them. Russian state news media barely mentioned the possible meeting in coverage of Monday’s talks between Mr. Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and European leaders at the White House. Instead, reporters and commentators largely portrayed the meetings as proof that Mr. Trump was nudging Mr. Zelensky and European leaders to accept Russia’s terms to end the war. In an interview on state-run television on Tuesday, Mr. Lavrov said that while Russia was not against a bilateral meeting between Mr. Zelensky and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in principle, “any contacts involving top officials should be prepared very carefully.” Mr. Lavrov also referred to Mr. Zelensky dismissively as “this character” and “this man,” and suggested that the Ukrainian president must repeal laws that the Kremlin believes curtail the rights of Russian speakers in the country before entering into direct negotiations with Mr. Putin. Mr. Lavrov’s comments suggested that Moscow may be treading a fine line to make sure it doesn’t offend Mr. Trump or undermine his efforts to bring the war to an end, and offer at least a semblance of progress..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will help defend Ukraine after its war with Russia but that there will not be U.S. troops on the ground. “You have my assurance,” Trump said in a Fox News interview, a day after hosting a White House summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders. Trump said during the meetings Monday that the United States would be “involved” in security guarantees for Ukraine after the war but did not elaborate. He added more clarity in the morning interview with “Fox & Friends.” “When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,” Trump said, referring to the European nations. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially probably … by air because there’s nobody that has the kind of stuff we have.” The issue of security guarantees for Ukraine — and potential U.S. involvement in them — has proved to be a sticking point as Trump works to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. European leaders have been encouraged that Trump appears open to a U.S. role in peacekeeping in Ukraine, but that could complicate negotiations with Russia, which has spent years working to counter increased military support for Ukraine by its allies. After his day of meetings with European leaders, Trump posted on social media a message addressing the topic of security guarantees, saying they “would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America.”.."
NYTIMES:" Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with 270 drones, as well as missiles, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders held talks with President Trump aimed at finding a path toward a peace deal. The Russian attacks targeted energy and transport infrastructure in the industrial city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine’s Poltava region, where dozens of explosions were heard, according to the city’s mayor, Vitalii Maletsky. He said that more than 1,400 residences and more than 100 businesses had been left without power as a result. There were no immediate reports of fatalities from the attacks, which came a day after Ukrainian authorities said that 14 people had been killed and dozens injured in Russian attacks on large Ukrainian cities and villages near the front line. Before this week’s strikes, Russia appeared to have scaled back its air attacks on Ukraine, in what Ukrainian officials and analysts described as an attempt by the Kremlin to curry favor with Mr. Trump amid peace efforts. But Mr. Maletsky said on social media that the attacks showed that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia “wants to destroy Ukraine.” .."
THEGUARDIAN:"European Union leaders made a rallying call to defend Ukraine’s freedom to decide its own future in advance of their virtual summit with Donald Trump – convened to discuss US strategy before the president’s talks with Vladimir Putin on Friday. With the exception of Hungary, all EU leaders signed a joint statement, with Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, also calling for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to attend the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday. Trump insists his meeting with Putin is a “feel-out” to gauge the Russian leader’s willingness to compromise, but European leaders fear Trump will be lured into a joint declaration with Moscow that involves irretrievable concessions before substantive talks between Ukraine and Russia. Putin may also use the meeting to advance a wider agenda of normalisation of relations between the US and Russia, a development that would start to lock Trump into economic cooperation with Moscow rather than confrontation. The EU leaders said: “Meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities,” adding: “We share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests."
REUTERS:"MOSCOW, July 15 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, three sources close to the Kremlin said.e Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, the sources said. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. The three Russian sources, familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believes Russia - which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West- can endure further economic hardship, including threatened U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine - including the Americans - so he will continue until he gets what he wants," one of the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. Despite several telephone calls between Trump and Putin, and visits to Russia by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Russian leader believes there have not been detailed discussions of the basis for a peace plan, the source said. "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else," the person added. The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Putin's conditions for peace include a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand eastwards, Ukrainian neutrality and limits on its armed forces, protection for Russian speakers who live there, and acceptance of Russia's territorial gains, the sources said..."
APNEWS:"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks as Moscow intensifies its aerial and ground assault in the three-year war, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major attacks that include increasing numbers of decoy drones. The most recent one appeared aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s vital supply of Western weapons..."
WSJ:"SUMY, Ukraine—Russian forces are just 12 miles from this northern Ukrainian regional capital, a new target for Moscow, as the Kremlin presses its manpower advantage at a growing number of places along the front. Having almost entirely ejected Ukrainian forces from the Russian Kursk region earlier this year, Russian forces have now poured over the border in the opposite direction toward Sumy. With 50,000 troops in the area, they outnumber the Ukrainians roughly 3-to-1, according to soldiers fighting there. .."
CNN:" — Russia launched waves of drones and ballistic missiles at multiple targets across a broad swath of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least four people in the capital and wounding around 40 across the country. A CNN producer in the Kyiv region reported hearing at least two explosions in the pre-dawn hours and images from the capital showed flames rising over apartment buildings and firefighting crews at work. As daylight broke, residents picked through debris in damaged apartments, with images showing entire walls ripped away and windows shattered. Several cars parked in the streets below were covered with pieces of glass and masonry. Ukraine is hit by nightly barrages of Russian drones and missiles. But the country has been bracing for a major retaliatory strike promised by President Vladimir Putin following its daring raids on airfields deep inside Russia. Four people had been killed in Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram early Friday morning local time, adding that search and rescue operations were ongoing. Ukraine’s emergency services also said three firefighters were killed in Kyiv. It was unclear whether that death toll given by the mayor included the three firefighters. The strikes also hit Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus, which was rocked by 14 explosions from drones and ballistic missiles, including cruise missiles and Iskander-M missiles, according to Vyacheslav Chaus, the head of Chernihiv regional military administration. In the northwestern city of Lutsk – around 60 miles from the border with Poland – Russian strikes wounded .. .."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russia launched a mass missile and drone attack against Ukraine overnight on June 6, targeting the capital, major cities, and the country's far-western regions. The attack comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to retaliate against Ukraine for its drone strike against Russian air bases in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump. Air raid alerts were activated in all Ukrainian regions, following Russia's latest mass attack. Ukraine's Air Force warned during the night that multiple Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers had taken flight and likely already launched cruise missiles. Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Lviv, Lutsk, and other cities as drones and missiles targeted all regions of the country. Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia launched 452 drones overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type suicide drones, along with 45 missiles of various types. Air defenses intercepted 199 drones, while another 169 dropped off radars — likely used as decoys to overwhelm Ukrainian systems. Ukrainian forces also intercepted 36 missiles, including the Iskander-M ballistic missile. "Russia doesn't change its stripes — another massive strike on cities and ordinary life. They targeted almost all of Ukraine — Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, Kyiv, Sumy, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the morning after the attacks. "Russia must be held accountable for this. Since the first minute of this war, they have been striking cities and villages to destroy life." Multiple fires broke out across Kyiv as drones struck residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure..."
AP:"ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — The first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s 2022 invasion ended after less than two hours Friday, and while both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, they clearly remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement. The Kremlin has pushed back against such a truce, which reKYIV — President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened new sanctions against Moscow after Russia launched another massive missile and drone attack across Ukraine overnight, casting further doubt on Moscow’s intentions in an already shaky peace process brokered by the Trump administration. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Trump had in recent days appeared to have abandoned the threat of harsh financial sanctions after a phone call May 19 with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he touted potential new trade deals with Russia. Trump’s remarks after the attacks Sunday indicated a growing sense of frustration with his Russian counterpart. “I’m not happy with what Putin is doing. He’s killing a lot of people,” Trump told reporters Sunday before he boarded Air Force One. “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” Trump said. Asked if he would consider more sanctions on Russia, the U.S. president said: “Absolutely.” ..
REUTERS:PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he was in favour of imposing new sanctions on Russia in coming days if Moscow failed to agree to a ceasefire, mentioning financial services and oil and gas as possible targets. "Our intention is to impose new sanctions against Russia in the coming days" if Moscow refuses to implement a ceasefire, Macron said in a prime-time interview on TF1. "We are coordinating in this regard. Macron's comments echoed those by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier on Tuesday, who said European allies would roll out "a significant tightening of sanctions" on Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire. Merz also cited sectors including energy and financial markets as possible targets. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday the European Commission had been asked to propose new sanctions in those areas. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland said on Saturday that Russia would be hit by new punitive measures if it did not heed calls for a 30-day ceasefire within days. .."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:" Dear friends! Thank you to all of you who represent countries that believe in international law! I’m glad to see you all here in Ukraine – not just supporting us from afar, but actually standing with us. It shows that we’re all Europe, all democracies – united not just by borders or institutions, but by shared values and hopes. You’ve come with strong decisions, real support for our people, and a readiness to increase pressure on Russia for the sake of true peace. I know that today a decision is prepared for new support for our defense – for producing weapons in Ukraine – worth one billion euros. In total, it’s about four billion euros in new support decisions from Europe as of today. Thank you very much for this. Russia must feel our shared – and most importantly, growing – strength. That’s what’s needed for peace. The desire to end this war has to grow inside Russia, and that begins with a feeling – the feeling that they are losing, losing from this war as any aggressor should – that is what is needed. I ask you to keep working for exactly that. And it’s very symbolic that our meeting is taking place during these days when we honor the memory of those who defeated Nazism 80 years ago, and when we celebrate Europe Day – the day of a new Europe, a day directly linked to the victory of the Allies in World War II. Our continent has a long and rich history, but today we are most proud of our new Europe – a Europe that knows how to live and stands up for the right to life. We must save this Europe. We’re proud of a Europe that does not kill. That is united. That stands for international law. A Europe that respects the individual – and if we ask who that individual is, it’s definitely not some ruler or a tsar. At the heart of today’s Europe is respect for every human being, for each person’s individuality and identity – the character of each nation, each individual, and each family. A united Europe together with our democratic friends around the world stands for exactly that. And it must be protected. .."
CNN:"Some US allies are highly alarmed by the framework the Trump administration is pushing to end the Ukraine war and Europeans are bracing for the outcome of another round of high-level talks between the US and Russia, multiple diplomatic sources told CNN. The administration’s framework, presented in Paris last week, proposes significant sacrifices from Kyiv, including US recognition of Crimea as Russian territory and Ukraine ceding large swaths of territory to Russia, according to an official familiar. Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called “to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today.” Asked what concessions Russia was offering on Thursday, Trump replied, “stopping the war,” suggesting that not “taking the whole country” is a “pretty big concession.” Multiple allied diplomats said they are rattled by what the Trump administration is proposing, because they believe such a framework sends a dangerous message to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, that illegal conquest could be rewarded, multiple diplomats said. “This is about the fundamental principles of international law. This is very much about our own existence and the weakening of any safeguards that my or other countries have for our own independence,” an Eastern European diplomat told CNN. They and other sources spoke on background to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters. “If one country in Europe is currently under pressure or being forced to give up parts of its own legal territory, territory that has been that has been recognized as part of Ukraine … if one country in Europe is forced to do that, no country in Europe or elsewhere can feel safe, NATO or no NATO,” the diplomat said..."
CNN/REUTERS:" President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Sunday that Russia had sufficient strength and resources to take the war in Ukraine to its logical conclusion, though he hoped that there would be no need to use nuclear weapons. Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Europe’s biggest ground conflict since World War II and the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed or injured and US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the “bloodbath” that his administration casts as a proxy war between the United States and Russia. .."
THEGUARDIAN:"Sumy is situated a mere 16 miles (25km) from the Russian border. It is home to soldiers and civilians. Residents are used to frequent drone and rocket attacks, and to the constant wail of air raid sirens. Sunday’s double-tap strike, though, was terrible. It was the most egregious Russian attack this year, leaving 35 dead and 129 injured. Eleven people remain in a critical condition. There are 15 wounded children.Asked for his reaction, Donald Trump appeared to downplay the latest Russian atrocity, calling it “a mistake”. Subsequently, he blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and Joe Biden, the previous US president, by falsely claiming they “started” the war with Russia. Serhii Khvostov, the head of the damaged conference centre in Sumy, was unimpressed. “Trump is a mistake. This is an act by stupid and angry Russians. There’s no logic to it,” he said. “It’s easy to look away. But the world has to understand what is happening here.” KYIVINDEPENDENT:"A full ceasefire can end the hot phase of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine "in the coming weeks" if Western countries put sufficient pressure on Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a visit to Chernihiv on April 3. Kyiv on March 11 said it was ready to begin a complete 30-day ceasefire, proposed by the U.S., as long as Russia accepted the same terms. Russia has so far refused, only agreeing to partial ceasefires in exchange for restored access to international markets. Russia and the U.S. are continuing to hold private talks on the possibility of an unconditional ceasefire, Zelensky told a group of entrepreneurs during a working visit to Chernihiv. "Then in Saudi Arabia, you know, we agreed to an unconditional ceasefire," he said. "Russia has not agreed to it yet, we see that. Although we know that there are conversations between Americans and Russians on this topic. There are non-public conversations." The U.S. and Europe need to work in concert to pressure Moscow into a full ceasefire as quickly as possible, Zelensky said. "The issue now is putting pressure on the Russians to get there," he said. "I think it is possible to do this as soon as possible in the coming weeks, maybe months, or maybe in different ways: sometimes it happens at the same time. Especially with this phase of the end of the war. A full ceasefire is the right step and one that Ukraine has agreed to and supports." Earlier in the day, Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev confirmed that he had arrived in Washington to hold talks with U.S. officials on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin between April 2 and 3. Dmitriev reportedly met with Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, at the White House on April 2. The content of their discussions remains unclear..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Strong statements made after a summit of European leaders in Paris on March 27 demonstrated two things — France and the U.K. are determined to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, but the plans are currently hostage to the whims of the Kremlin. "You cannot trust the Russians any further than you can throw them today, and that really is going to be the blockage in the negotiation process for all parties," Dr. Ian Garner, assistant professor in totalitarian studies at Poland’s Pilecki Institute, told the Kyiv Independent. In the face of a retreating U.S., several European countries have moved forward with plans to send troops to Ukraine as part of a "reassurance force" in case of the ceasefire with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the Paris summit. Any potential force deployed would be "a force designed to deter, in order to send that message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that this is a deal that is going to be defended," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer added. But at the same time, Starmer acknowledged the obvious impediment to what is needed in order to put the plan into action — an actual peace deal. "We agreed here in Paris today that it’s clear the Russians are filibustering. They are playing games, and they’re playing for time," he said. "It is a classic from the Putin playbook, but we can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion." .."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a phone conversation with President of France Emmanuel Macron to coordinate their positions. The Ukrainian President expressed gratitude for France’s support and joint efforts in achieving a just and lasting peace. The parties specifically discussed the outcomes of the online meeting of leaders regarding support for Ukraine, held on Saturday under the joint chairmanship of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. The Presidents of Ukraine and France noted that the number of countries willing to contribute to advancing peace is growing. A separate topic of discussion was the U.S. proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Ukraine immediately agreed to it, but for its implementation to begin, Russia must stop setting conditions. .."
CNN:"“Do you think you can trust Putin?” German Brig. Gen. Ralf Hammerstein asks with a wry smile. It’s a rhetorical question to which most of Europe would give the same answer – no. As the Trump administration continues to pursue a deal to end the war in Ukraine — one that may end up being more favorable to Moscow than Kyiv — Europeans, for the first time in decades, are focusing on their own military might. Nowhere is that shift as prominent as in Germany. Its armed forces, known as the Bundeswehr, have been the victim of years of underinvestment – but that is set to change. Presumptive Chancellor Friedrich Merz has decided that now is the moment for Germany to invest in its military, on levels not seen since the Cold War..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree threatening Ukrainians with deportation from occupied territories and Russian territory violates international law, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on March 21. "We emphasize that these systematic deportations and persecutions are part of Russia's genocide policy against the Ukrainian people," Tykhyi said. According to the decree, Ukrainian citizens residing in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories must leave by Sept. 10 or "regulate their legal status." The decree intensifies Moscow’s efforts to Russify conquered areas by pressuring Ukrainians to accept Russian passports or forcing them out while encouraging Russian citizens to move in." Putin's decree also mandates that all "foreign citizens and stateless persons" residing in the occupied territories must undergo medical screenings for drug use and infectious diseases by June 10. Tykhyi denounced the decree as null and void, calling it another step in Russia’s campaign of discrimination, persecution, and forced displacement of Ukrainian citizens. The spokesperson also said it contradicts Moscow's claims of readiness for a peaceful settlement and undermines initiatives to establish peace..."
CNN:" A Russian presidential aide has cast doubt on a US ceasefire proposal for Ukraine, as American special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to brief Kremlin officials on the peace plan. As the Trump administration emphasizes that the ball is now in Russia’s court, Kremlin aide Yuriy Ushakov said Thursday that Moscow doesn’t want a temporary ceasefire, claiming it would give a break to the Ukrainian army. Ushakov said he explained Russia’s stance to US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in a Wednesday phone call. “(I) outlined our position that this is nothing more than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military and nothing more,” Ushakov said in an interview with Russian state media, pouring cold water on the proposal before Thursday’s talks began..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has announced that alliance members are ramping up their defense investments and preparing additional financial support for Ukraine. His remarks came after a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 27. "Great to talk with Donald Trump. US & NATO are getting stronger. NATO Allies are moving quickly to invest more in defense. Big increases announced & others to follow," Rutte said in a post on X. He also emphasized NATO's continued support for Ukraine, adding that "on Ukraine, Allies are preparing billions more in aid and contributions to security guarantees." .."
REUTERS:"LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer greeted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with a warm embrace on Saturday after the Ukrainian leader flew to London for talks following his clash at the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump. In an extraordinary Oval Office meeting on Friday, Trump threatened to withdraw support for Ukraine, three years after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour. In London, a crowd cheered as Zelenskiy arrived for talks with Starmer at his Downing Street office before a summit of European leaders that the Ukrainian president will attend on Sunday to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine..."
CNN:"Russian opposition politician sends message to people who say Ukraine-Russia war doesn’t involve the US Newsroom Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician and one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, joins CNN’s Jessica Dean to discuss President Donald Trump’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. " Jessica Dean posed the question what do you say to Americans who say the war in Ukraine doesn't concern us? Vladimir Kara Murza stated when large countries like Russia become dictatorships no one will be safe. There cannot be security and economic prosperity without democracy and respect for human rights. This is not a theory; it is a basic principle of civilized law, and its violation is happening now
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale war, Costa announced on Feb. 20. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to hold a summit for Ukraine's partners in Kyiv on Feb. 24 to discuss the next joint steps on peace and security. The visit aims to reaffirm the EU's "support to the heroic Ukrainian people and to the democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelensky," Costa said on X. The statement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced Zelensky as a "dictator without elections," reiterating Kremlin talking points about the Ukrainian president's legitimacy..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:" President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back at the U.S.’ demand for a $500 billion fund to be financed with Ukrainian natural resource revenue, saying that the U.S.’s aid grants are not debts, during the Ukraine: Year 2025 forum in Kyiv on Feb. 23. Negotiations on a deal to entrench U.S. interests in Ukraine's reserves are ongoing, with the latest draft presented by the White House demanding $500 billion of Ukraine’s natural resources, including critical minerals, to recuperate American aid to Ukraine. Zelensky said that he will not recognize such a large sum since it vastly outweighs the $100 billion the U.S. has sent to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden. The president added that the aid given to Ukraine cannot be counted as debts since they are grants and stressed that security guarantees need to be included in the deal. So far no such guarantees have been put in place, he said. “I am not signing something that will be paid by 10 generations of Ukrainians," Zelensky said, adding that he wants a dialogue with Trump..."
CNN:" UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to join an emergency summit in Paris on Monday, Britain’s PA news agency reported, as European leaders scramble to respond to the Trump administration’s push to work with Russia to end the war in Ukraine – potentially without them at the negotiating table. “The UK will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together,” Starmer was quoted as saying in a statement released by Downing Street on Saturday. “We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”..."
REUTERS:"PARIS/RIYADH, Feb 17 (Reuters) - European leaders meeting in Paris on Monday for emergency talks called for higher spending to ramp up the continent's defence capabilities but remained split on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine to back up any peace deal. The Paris meeting was called by French President Emmanuel Macron after U.S. leader Donald Trump arranged bilateral peace talks with Russia, excluding European allies and Ukraine from negotiations to end the war that are scheduled to begin in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday..."
NYTIMES:"As an anxious Europe sought clarity on President Trump’s approach to Russia and Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance instead used a speech in Munich on Friday to signal support for far-right parties, including Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which Moscow has backed through misinformation campaigns. Addressing European leaders at the Munich Security Conference, Mr. Vance scolded them for not sufficiently upholding democratic values — an accusation many of them have leveled at the Trump administration — and offered what amounted to White House political backing for Europe’s far right. He urged the Europeans to end their opposition to anti-immigration parties such as the AfD, parts of which have been classified as extremist by German intelligence, and said the effort to marginalize them and their radical ideas amounted to antidemocratic action..." COMMENT: MATTHEW 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
CNN:"Vice President JD Vance reiterated on Friday that NATO remains an important alliance for the United States, as the Munich Security Conference kicked off in Germany with the Russia-Ukraine war expected to be a focal point of discussions. “Europe is of course a very important ally to the United States, NATO is a very important military alliance … but we want to make sure NATO is actually built for the future, and part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden-sharing in Europe so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia,” Vance said, speaking to reporters beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte..."
CNN:" Europe’s American century is over. Two geopolitical thunderclaps on Wednesday will transform transatlantic relations. Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin brought the Russian leader in from the cold as they hatched plans to end the war in Ukraine and agreed to swap presidential visits. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, went to Brussels and told European allies to “take ownership of conventional security on the continent.” The watershed highlights Trump’s “America First” ideology and his tendency to see every issue or alliance as a dollars and cents value proposition. It also underscores his freedom from establishment advisors steeped in the foreign policy mythology of the West, who he thinks thwarted his first term. Although Hegseth recommitted to NATO, something fundamental has changed. America’s interventions won two world wars that started in Europe and afterwards guaranteed the continent’s freedom in the face of the Soviet threat. But Trump said on the campaign trail he might not defend alliance members who haven’t invested enough in defense. He thus revived a perennial point posed most eloquently by Winston Churchill in 1940 about when “The New World, with all its power and might” will step “forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”..The US-Russia call and a future summit with Putin in Saudi Arabia, which Trump said would happen soon, may be a hint that he’s not just cutting Zelensky out of the deal – but Europe too. In a statement, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, the European Union, the European Commission, plus the United Kingdom and Ukraine, warned “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.” And they warned Trump, who seems to want a peace deal at any cost, that “a just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security.” Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt is worried by the cozy call between Trump and Putin. “The disturbing thing is of course that we have the two big guys, the two big egos … believing that they can maneuver all of the issues on their own,” he told Richard Quest on CNN International. Bildt evoked the most damning historical analogy possible — the appeasement of Adolf Hitler by Britain that allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland. “For European ears, this sounds like Munich. It sounds like two big leaders wanting to have peace in our time, (over) a faraway country of which they know little. They are preparing to make a deal over the heads of that particular country. A lot of Europeans know how that particular movie ended.”.."
REUTERS:"MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Russia's point man for relations with the United States said on Monday that all of President Vladimir Putin's conditions must be met in full before the war in Ukraine can end, suggesting Moscow is playing hardball with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly after hundreds of thousands of deaths, said on Sunday he thought he was making progress though he has not set out how he hopes to end the conflict. "
REUTERS:"...Zelenskiy said it was important for him to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump before Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin:"It is very important, otherwise it will look like a dialogue about Ukraine without Ukraine. It is still important for partners to discuss their issues first, and then have a conversation with the enemy." "I don't know what compromises can be discussed at the negotiating table, we have not reached that point ... It is important for people to understand that Ukraine is negotiating, not accepting ultimatums from Russia."
APNEWS:" Russian President Vladimir Putin had a call Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing the two countries’ close ties, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president. The two leaders have developed strong personal links that helped bring relations between Moscow and Beijing, growing even closer after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. China has become a major customer of Russian oil and gas and a source of key technologies amid sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. In Tuesday’s call with Xi, Putin emphasized that Russia-China relations are based on shared interests, equality and mutual benefits, noting that they “don’t depend on internal political factors and the current international environment.” “We jointly support the development of a more just multipolar global order and work to ensure indivisible security in Eurasia and the world as a whole,” Putin told Xi in remarks carried by the Russian state TV. “Joint efforts by Russia and China play an important stabilizing role in global affairs.” .."
APNEWS:"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — For weeks, Ukrainian troops braced for an unfamiliar enemy: North Korean soldiers sent to bolster Moscow’s forces after Ukraine launched a lightning-fast incursion and seized territory in Russia’s Kursk region over the summer. ..."
"KYIV, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Russia attacked Ukraine's energy system and some cities with cruise and ballistic missiles plus drones on Wednesday in an "inhuman" Christmas Day assault, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Nearly three years into the war, the strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governors there said. Half a million people in Kharkiv region were left without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital Kyiv and elsewhere...."
BLOOMBERG:"Russia rebuffed incoming US President Donald Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, while saying it’s ready to hold negotiations on a long-lasting peace agreement to end almost three years of war. “A ceasefire is a road to nowhere” that Ukraine will use to build up its military capacity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an online news conference on Thursday. “We need conclusive, legally-binding agreements which will create all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbors.” With Ukraine on the defensive as Russia makes grinding progress on the battlefield, Trump and his advisers have given signals that President Vladimir Putin could keep de facto control of the almost 20% of Ukrainian territory his forces occupy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also softened his stance by suggesting his government could use diplomatic means to recover its territory..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said during a Defense Ministry meeting on Dec. 16 that Moscow aims to seize the entirety of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in 2025. Speaking at a Defense Ministry meeting, Belousov reiterated Russia's commitment to achieving what he described as the "goals announced by President Vladimir Putin in June." "In 2025, Moscow plans to achieve victory in the war," he added. On June 14, Putin stated that Russia would agree to a ceasefire and peace talks only if Ukraine withdrew from the four Ukrainian oblasts and formally abandoned its aspirations to join NATO. A separate priority is, without a doubt, the European Union and everything necessary for Ukraine’s full EU membership. At all levels within the EU – from the highest institutions to civil society leaders – Ukraine’s voice must be strong, clear, and persuasive. We need EU membership. Next year, we must do our utmost to achieve this in the course of negotiations and in building relations with our partners in the EU. This is why Poland's presidency in the EU, and Denmark's in the second half of the year, must become historic for Ukraine..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"President Volodymyr Zelensky met with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris for a trilateral meeting on Dec. 7, as world leaders visited France for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The three leaders reportedly spoke for about 35 minute at the Elysee Palace. Zelensky praised the meeting as "productive and meaningful" in a post on social media.. .."
CNN:" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants to work “directly” with US President-elect Donald Trump and is open to his ideas, highlighting Kyiv’s eagerness to keep its most important ally onside as Russia intensifies its attacks. ..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly held multiple phone conversations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban since Nov. 5, sources speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Hungarian Service acknowledged. Hungarian government insiders revealed that Trump sought Orban’s opinion on strategies to end the Ukraine war."
NYTIMES"...How is it that Mr. Trump’s open admiration for Mr. Orban was not enough to warn away more American voters? Beyond showering praise on him, Mr. Trump has already ripped pages from Mr. Orban’s playbook: threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of news channels he derides as “fake,” striving to bypass the Senate’s confirmation process and appointing lackeys to high positions. Expect much more along lines that Mr. Orban has followed as he’s turned Hungary from a fledgling democracy into one of the world’s new authoritarian regimes. Even as American journalists debate whether to take Mr. Trump seriously or literally, I recall Voltaire’s warning, “He who can persuade you to believe absurdities can persuade you to commit atrocities.”..."
YOUTUBE/FREE DOCUMENTARY-HISTORY:"Russia – the largest country on Earth. Misunderstood by many and feared by even more. For the past century, Russian history has been intertwined with the history of its security services, which were used by the Soviet state to crush dissent. Millions suffered at the hands of the most extraordinary and dangerous security network the world has ever known – mass executions, clandestine wars, coups d’état, spies who were capable of stealing the atomic bomb from America, and hacking and poisoning scandals. While many things have changed in modern Russia, the security network is arguably as strong as ever. The reason behind this is the rise of a lowly lieutenant colonel to President of this vast country, Vladimir Putin..."
CNN:"What we're covering • President Vladimir Putin has escalated his threats to countries that allow Ukraine to use their weapons to target Russian territory. He said Moscow was entitled to strike military targets belonging to those countries. • Putin’s warning came after Russia struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new medium-range ballistic missile that carried multiple warheads. Experts said it was likely the first time that such a weapon had been used in combat. • Putin also said that the regional conflict had taken on “a global nature” after Ukraine targeted Russia this week with missiles made in the US, UK and France. ... Western air defense systems would be able to shoot down warheads from Russia’s new missile, a military analyst told CNN, casting doubt on President Vladimir Putin’s claims that it “cannot be intercepted.” However, Ukraine does not currently possess those air defense systems.In televised comments Friday, Putin claimed the hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik — fired for the first time at Ukraine on Thursday — could not be intercepted by air defenses. “There are currently no means of countering such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world,” Putin said... Britain’s armed forces would be ready to fight Russia “tonight” if Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded another eastern European country, according to a top UK military official...China has called for restraint in the aftermath of Moscow using a nuclear-capable ballistic missile in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, and said all parties need to “cool down the situation.”...
CNN:"Top telecom executives met with US national security officials at the White House on Friday as concerns mount over a long-running Chinese cyber-espionage campaign that has targeted some of the most senior US political figures in the country. The hackers burrowed deep into some major US telecom providers to spy on phone calls and text messages and have proved difficult to kick out of some networks, people briefed on the matter said. The meetings were a chance for telecom executives to advise the government on how it could boost its defenses against sophisticated hacks, according to the White House. The groups also shared intelligence on the operation with one another. The hack is shaping up to be one of the biggest cyber and national security challenges facing the incoming Trump administration. ..."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"Thank you so much. Thank you very much, dear Roberta, Madam President! Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, our friends, friends of Ukraine! I thank you for supporting Ukraine. Thank you, Roberta, for calling this extraordinary session of the European Parliament to mark 1,000 days of full-scale war. Thank you for ensuring that not a single one of the thousand days of this terrible war became a day of betrayal of our shared European values.... "
"MOSCOW, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks, and Moscow said Ukraine had struck deep inside Russia with U.S.-made ATACMS missiles. Putin approved the change days after two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.Russia had been warning the West for months that if Washington allowed Ukraine to fire U.S., British and French missiles deep into Russia, Moscow would consider those NATO members to be directly involved in the war in Ukraine. The updated Russian nuclear doctrine, establishing a framework for conditions under which Putin could order a strike from the world's biggest nuclear arsenal, was approved by him on Tuesday, according to a published decree.Analysts said the biggest change was that Russia could consider a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack on Russia or its ally Belarus that "created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity". "The big picture is that Russia is lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a possible conventional attack," said Alexander Graef, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.The previous doctrine, contained in a 2020 decree, said Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatened the existence of the state. The U.S. National Security Council said it had not seen any reason to adjust the U.S. nuclear posture. Together, Russia and the U.S. control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin is the primary decision-maker on the use of Russia's nuclear arsenal..."
..."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"Prime Minister Orban! President Michel! Dear Leaders! I am glad for this opportunity to meet and work together for Europe and for our nations. Yesterday, I spoke with President Trump, as many of you did. It was a productive conversation, a good conversation. Of course, we cannot yet know what his actions will be. But we do hope that America will become stronger. This is the kind of America that Europe needs. And a strong Europe is what America needs, to my mind. This is the connection between allies that must be valued and cannot be lost. There are many challenges. Since our last meeting in this format, Russia’s war has escalated significantly. And it was Russia that caused this escalation. North Korea is now, in effect, waging war in Europe. North Korean soldiers are attempting to kill our people on European soil. "SOCHI, Russia, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. election, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect. In his first public remarks since Trump's win, Putin said Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July." Reuters headline states Putin said the new world order is underway
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"In his speech declaring victory in the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 6, Donald Trump made no mention of Ukraine yet alluded to just how consequential his second term in office will likely be for the country ravaged by Russia’s invasion. "We had no wars, for four years, we had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS," Trump said in comments referring to his first term as president. "They said ‘he will start a war.’ I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop the wars," Trump added. How does Trump plan to stop Russia's war against Ukraine? That's the million-dollar question that is undoubtedly being discussed in capitals worldwide, not least in Kyiv and Moscow..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Beijing was fast at claiming that it had no knowledge of Russia's deepening partnership with North Korea. The U.S. had jumped on the opportunity, hoping to pressure China to dissuade North Korea from taking an active part in Russia's war against Ukraine. Observers, however, are skeptical about China's signals, believing that the deal to deploy North Korean troops on Ukrainian battlefields couldn't have passed without Beijing's knowledge."

CNN:"North Korea said it conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test on Thursday morning, a launch believed to have achieved the longest flight time yet for a North Korean missile. The test comes just days ahead of the United States presidential election on Tuesday, and follows warnings from South Korea’s intelligence agency that Pyongyang was planning to launch an ICBM testing its reentry technology around the time of the election. The test also comes as North Korea appears to have intensified its nuclear production efforts and strengthened ties with Russia, deepening widespread concern in the West over the isolated nation’s direction..."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"First, I want to thank the Prime Minister of Iceland for hosting this Summit. Thank you so much for the invitation. The Fourth Ukraine – Nordic Countries Meeting in such a format. It is a successful format to my mind and I’m glad that it is developing. Dear friends! Thank you for your strong support for Ukraine and for upholding the highest standard of principled assistance from your nations. The first thing dictators attack is that – principles. Different 'Putins' around the world undermine principles within their own societies, using propaganda and repression, so that people cannot stand up for what they believe in. And then, when the dictatorship gains strength and has enough resources, it tries to export its lack of principles, creating a gray zone without values next to itself. Europe has had to face this many times. Now, we are at another defining moment. Russia is trying to convince nations that giving up principles is easy – that they can ignore international law and turn a blind eye to injustice, as if this will bring stability. This is the main message from Moscow – Putin tells everyone to forget their principles, not to be decisive and to hand over Ukrainian land and people, and then, supposedly, Russian bombs will stop. ..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"KYIV — Russian forces are summarily killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers in increasing numbers on the battlefield, often shooting them point blank just after they have been taken prisoner, Ukrainian officials say. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, authorities have opened 43 criminal investigations into 113 possible arbitrary killings, with more than a third of those cases registered since the beginning of the year, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general office. But that does not take into account the more recent spike. “Since the end of last year, the number of such crimes has been steadily increasing,” the prosecutor general’s office said in written comments to The Washington Post...."
"MOSCOW, Oct 27 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia's defence ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles. The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War, and Russian officials say the war is now entering its most dangerous phase.Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation. Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean "the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles..."
CNN:"The thousands of North Korean troops US intelligence says arrived in Russia for training this month have sparked concern they will be deployed to bolster Moscow’s battlefront in Ukraine. They’ve also turned up alarm from the United States and its allies that growing coordination between anti-West countries is creating a much broader, urgent security threat – one where partnerships of convenience are evolving into more outright military ties. ..."
"LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - As U.S. election jitters hung over this week's meeting of global finance chiefs in Washington, a smiling Vladimir Putin was in the Russian city of Kazan welcoming leaders of countries which together make up nearly half the world's population. The BRICS club of emerging economies may be a long way from rivalling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or challenging U.S. dollar dominance. But the first summit with its new batch of members showed clear signs of its growing weight. The final communique was long on words and short on detail about creating new payment and trade mechanisms which could by-pass Western-dominated structures - including, notably in Russia's case, sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine. But the summit scored a series of diplomatic wins: the presence of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and of Tayyip Erdogan, president of NATO member Turkey, which has expressed interest in joining the BRICS group. India and China chose the summit to profile new efforts to nurture ties.For Putin, the simple fact that so many leaders travelled to Russia for the talks was useful in countering the narrative that his country faces isolation from the global economy. "They (Western capitals) are not getting the importance of this thing," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at the Bruegel economic think tank. "It's all signalling that the West is losing power."..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT"Russia is helping Pyongyang evade sanctions and develop its nuclear capabilities in return for North Korean troops and missiles, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told The Economist in comments published on Oct. 22. Budanov previously revealed that close to 11,000 North Korean troops are already in Russia and will be ready to fight by Nov. 1. The move would signal deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, with North Korea already providing Russia with artillery shells and ballistic missiles for war against Ukraine. Russia's support in nuclear capabilities includes providing technologies for smaller tactical nuclear weapons and submarine missile-launch systems, Budanov claimed. The sanctions evasion can also be vital for North Korea, which faces heavy economic restrictions over its nuclear program. Russia has blocked the renewal of a U.N. monitoring program overseeing Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile development..."
"KAZAN, Russia, Oct 22 (Reuters) - India's Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the BRICS summit that he wanted peace in Ukraine and that New Delhi was ready to help achieve a truce to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two. Putin, who ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, wants the BRICS summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world after the United States and its European and Asian allies tried to isolate Russia over the war."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Close to 11,000 North Korean troops are in Russia and will be "ready to fight" in Ukraine by Nov. 1, Ukrainian military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov said in comments published by the War Zone on Oct. 17. Budanov said the first group of 2,600 soldiers will be deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine began a cross-border incursion in August and still holds significant swathes of territory. The troops will be using Russian equipment and ammunition, but further information is currently unknown. "We don't have the full picture right now," Budanov said. Concerns about North Korea's direct involvement in Russia's full-scale war have reached a fever pitch in recent days. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Oct. 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is planning to train and engage not only infantry but also North Korean specialists in various branches of the military. "We know about 10,000 soldiers from North Korea they are preparing to send to fight against us," he added. The Kyiv Independent contacted the President's Office to ask about the discrepancy between Budanov's and Zelensky's figures, but had not received a response at the time of publication. South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Oct. 18 that Pyongyang had recently decided to deploy 12,000 North Korean soldiers, including special forces, to support Russia's war effort. The NIS did not say if the troops had already been sent into the field or where they might be deployed. At the same time, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said on Oct. 17 that he "can't confirm whether there are North Korean forces that have gone to Russia" but added that the U.S. would "continue to monitor" the situation. If the reports were true, it would "demonstrate the situation that Russia finds itself in, the dire situation that it finds itself in, in terms of its forces on the battlefield." "And so it just demonstrates the desperation in terms of identifying additional forces for their military," Ryder added. .."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"North Korea has sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia to boost its war efforts against Ukraine, a Western diplomat familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 15. Concerns over the deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang have escalated dramatically this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 13 that Russia's plans for supporting its full-scale invasion of Ukraine would this autumn include "the actual involvement of North Korea in the war." The Western diplomat told the Kyiv Independent that it’s unclear what kind of soldiers they are or what their roles were. The Kyiv Independent contacted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry but did not receive a reply at the time of publication. Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) declined to comment. As Russia and North Korea deepen military ties, Western diplomats and experts stress that it shows Moscow's increasing need for resources to continue waging its costly war in Ukraine. “It’s a clear indicator how far Russia and its military have fallen over the last 2.5 years that it’s having to beg, borrow and buy support from North Korea,” John Foreman CBE, the U.K.’s former defense attache in Moscow from 2019 to 2022, told the Kyiv Independent.Earlier this year, the two countries signed a mutual defense pact during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Pyongyang. .."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"President Volodymyr Zelensky on Oct. 14 said that Russia plans to involve North Korea directly in the full-scale war against Ukraine over the coming months. ... The previous day, Zelensky warned of Russia's "increasing alliance" with North Korea, stressing it had moved beyond the supply of just weaponry and was now "actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces." The president's warning followed reports that several North Korean officers had been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in occupied Ukraine, raising speculation about just how involved Pyongyang currently is in Russia’s full-scale invasion.."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russian pro-war milbloggers have reacted to yet more reports of Ukrainian POWs being executed by Moscow’s forces by seeking to justify the killings, while some have even called for more. In the latest case of what appears to be an increasingly common occurrence, Russian troops reportedly shot dead nine Ukrainian drone operators who surrendered near the village of Zeleny Shlyakh in Russia’s Kursk Oblast on Oct. 10..."
"MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Russia's Vladimir Putin held talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday in Turkmenistan, where the two leaders hailed their countries growing economic ties and similar views on world affairs, an entente viewed with concern by the United States. At odds with Washington and the European Union over Russia's war in Ukraine, something he casts as part of a wider existential struggle against an arrogant and self-interested West - Putin is keen to deepen ties with what he calls the Global East and Global South.Putin, whose country is hosting a summit of the BRICS nations in Kazan on Oct. 22-24, invited Pezeshkian to come to Russia on an official visit, a proposal the Iranian leader accepted according to Russia's state RIA news agency...."
KYIVINDEPENDENT: "Ukraine should receive the first Mirage 2000 fighter jets from France in the first quarter of 2025, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Oct. 8. French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled in June that Paris would provide Kyiv with an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5 planes to boost its airpower. The planes "will be equipped with new equipment: air-to-ground combat capabilities and anti-electronic warfare defense," Lecornu noted. .."
CNN/REUTERS:"President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack. The decision to change Russia’s official nuclear doctrine is the Kremlin’s answer to deliberations in the United States and Britain about whether or not to give Ukraine permission to fire conventional Western missiles into Russia. Putin, opening a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, said that the changes were in response to a swiftly changing global landscape which had thrown up new threats and risks for Russia."
CNN:" The North American Aerospace Defense Command says it detected four Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska on Monday, less than two weeks after US Army soldiers were deployed to the area as part of a “force protection operation” amid an increase in Russian and Chinese military exercises in the region..."
CNN:"...Dubbed “Ocean-2024,” the seven days of drills that ended Monday are the latest in a recent slew of military exercises and joint patrols between Russia and China that come on the heels of vows from Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to tighten military cooperation, even as the Kremlin wages its war against Ukraine. China sent several warships and 15 aircraft to waters off Russia’s Far East coast for Ocean-2024, according to the Russian military. In addition, Chinese and Russian forces this month touted deepened strategic coordination during joint naval drills in waters near Japan and held their fifth joint maritime patrol in the northern Pacific..." Meanwhile, ..."The North American Aerospace Defense command intercepted Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska four times over the last week in what appears to be an uptick in activity amid tensions between the US and Russia."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"“Russian intelligence is everywhere. And its propaganda is everywhere, not only in Estonia but all over the world,” Estonian President Alar Karis told the Kyiv Independent during an interview on the sidelines of the 20th annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) Conference in Kyiv. Russia has been actively meddling in the domestic affairs of the Baltic states."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"While the Russian advance on Pokrovsk had slightly slowed down in recent days, Vuhledar, in the southern part of Donetsk Oblast, became a new focal point of the ongoing Russian offensive. Located 50 kilometers south of Pokrovsk, Vuhledar is often referred to as a "fortress" among the military and has been under consistent Russian attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. As part of the most recent wave of offensives in Donetsk Oblast, Russian troops resumed their assault on the city...."
"MOSCOW, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responding to a question about the potential delivery of long-range U.S. missiles to Ukraine, warned the United States on Wednesday not to joke about Russia's "red lines". Lavrov said the U.S. was losing sight of the sense of mutual deterrence that had underpinned the balance of security between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, and that this was dangerous. It was the second time in just over a week that Lavrov has cautioned the U.S. that a third world war would not be confined to Europe...." COMMENT: THE PUTIN REGIME IS A CRIMINAL TERRORIST IMPERIALIST FASCIST ORGANIZATION THAT HAS CROSSED ALL LINES OF HUMAN DECENCY
CNN:" A Russian strike against a military educational facility in Poltava, central Ukraine, has killed 41 people and injured more than 180 others, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. The incident is one of the deadliest single attacks on Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Zelensky said that according to preliminary information, two ballistic missiles hit the facility and a nearby hospital on Tuesday morning. .."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"At least seven civilians were killed and 47 were wounded in Lviv in the early hours of Sept. 4 amid Russia's attack against Ukraine, Lviv Oblast authorities reported. Children were among the casualties. Several explosions were heard in the city amid a nationwide air raid alert as Russia launched drones and missiles against the country. Multiple casualties were reported also in Kryvyi Rih. Explosions were heard in other cities overnight, including Kyiv, Sumy, Lutsk, and Rivne. The fatalities in Lviv included two girls aged 9 and 14, another child, a 50-year-old nurse at a local clinic, and a man, authorities said. There are seven children among the wounded, including a 10-year-old boy. Some 47 people have been hospitalized as a result of the attack, of whom seven are in critical condition, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi reported."
"KYIV, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Loud explosions rocked Ukraine's capital Kyiv early on Monday as Russia launched a barrage of missiles, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said. Residents across the city were awoken by a quick succession of bangs and the sound of air defence missiles blasting off skyward to intercept targets."
"WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as "invincible." Putin has said the weapon - dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO - has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik's strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap."
"KYIV, Aug 29 (Reuters) - One of Ukraine's F-16 fighter jets crashed while repelling a major Russian attack on Monday, Kyiv's military said, the first such loss reported since the long-awaited arrival of the U.S.-made planes this month. The jet came down and its pilot died while it was approaching a Russian target, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday on Facebook.... "
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"The Kursk operation is Ukraine's right of self-defense, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Aug. 29. As Kyiv's incursion into Kursk Oblast entered its fourth week, Ukraine is in control of 1,294 square kilometers (around 500 square miles) and 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims. According to Braze, Ukraine's right of self-defense is covered by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter the UN Charter includes Kyiv's right to strike at military targets on Russian soil. "And Ukrainians have been very, very careful and very, very diligent in not going after civilians (in Kursk Oblast), in not doing what Russians have been doing on the Ukrainian territory," the minister said. "This is the normal military counteractions, so this counteroffensive, in our view, is also covered by the right of self-defense."
"MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Russia said the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles and cautioned the United States on Tuesday that World War Three would not be confined to Europe. Ukraine attacked Russia's western Kursk region on Aug. 6 and has carved out a slice of territory in the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two. President Vladimir Putin said there would be a worthy response from Russia to the attack. Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin's foreign minister for more than 20 years, said that the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was "asking for trouble" by considering Ukrainian requests to loosen curbs on using foreign-supplied weapons.Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much broader war involving the world's biggest nuclear powers, though he has said Russia does not want a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance."We are now confirming once again that playing with fire - and they are like small children playing with matches - is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. "Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively," Lavrov said..."COMMENT: THE PUTIN REGIME IS AN IMPERIALIST FASCIST TERRORIST GANGSTER ORGANIZATION WORKING WITH ITS ALLIES AND PROXIES TO SPREAD ITS MURDEROUS CANCER IN UKRAINE, EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA
"KYIV, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Russia launched several waves of missile and drone attacks targeting scores of Ukrainian regions and killing at least four people, Ukraine's military said early on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest air attack of the war on its neighbour. Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said. Two died in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, east of Kryvyi Rih. Kyiv region's air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, the region's military administration said on Telegram. Reuters' witnesses reported at least three rounds of explosions overnight in Kyiv. On Monday, Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones, killing at least seven and damaging energy infrastructure in an attack condemned by U.S. President Joe Biden as "outrageous"
CNN:"...“The bombing was everywhere around us, all night. Our house is still intact, but it won’t be for long. Everything else has been damaged,” Halyna told CNN. “Our soldiers came and took us away,” she added. A nurse and a miner, the couple are among tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Pokrovsk and the surrounding towns as it becomes more and more likely that the city could become the next key battleground of the war in Ukraine. Russian forces have been inching toward the city for weeks, but the situation has become critical in recent days. Moscow has been pushing hard to capture Pokrovsk even as it struggles to contain the Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk border region.Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pokrovsk sits on a key supply road that connects it with other military hubs, and forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk region that is still under Kyiv’s control..."
CNN:"US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and accelerated the arrival of a carrier strike group to the region ahead of an anticipated Iranian attack against Israel, the Pentagon said in a statement Sunday evening. The USS Georgia, a nuclear-powered submarine armed with cruise missiles, was operating in the Mediterranean Sea in recent days, according to the Navy, having just completed training near Italy. Austin ordered the submarine into the waters of the Middle East, the Pentagon said. The movement of US missile submarines is rarely revealed publicly, and the nuclear-powered vessels operate in near-complete secrecy. The announcement of a submarine’s movement is a clear message of deterrence to Iran and its proxies, who the US and Israel believe are preparing for a potential large-scale attack on Israel..."
KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"Russia will receive hundreds of Fath-360 and other ballistic missiles from Iran in the near future following an agreement signed in December 2023 between Moscow and Tehran, intelligence sources revealed to Reuters on Aug. 9."
TIMES OF INDIA:"Russia has reportedly transferred advanced missile systems to Iran amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. This significant arms deal includes Iskander missiles and Murmansk-BN systems, capable of suppressing satellite communications over vast distances."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russian sovereign territory is once again under attack after Ukrainian forces launched an ambitious operation across the state border in Kursk Oblast in large numbers on Aug. 6. This time, the attack is led not primarily by small units of pro-Ukraine Russian nationals and other assorted foreign formations, like in the numerous incursions conducted over 2023 and early 2024. As of the second day of the incursion, a mix of sources, including the Russian Defense Ministry itself have reported a larger offensive involving a Ukrainian force likely numbering hundreds of troops and dozens of vehicles strong. The attack comes at a tumultuous stage in the war, as, hundreds of kilometers to the south, Ukrainian forces continue a desperate defense against relentless Russian attacks on multiple sectors of the front line in Donetsk Oblast..."
CNN:" The US is sending a carrier strike group, a fighter squadron and additional warships to the Middle East as the region braces for an Iranian retaliation to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran earlier this week. It is perhaps the largest movement of US forces to the region since the early days of the Gaza war, when the Pentagon sent two carrier strike groups toward the Middle East in a very public warning to regional militant groups not to expand the fighting...."
WASHINGTON-POST:"When President Biden said he was dropping his reelection bid, the sudden upheaval in U.S. politics came as a blow for many in the Russian elite who closely track relations between Moscow and the West. Biden’s withdrawal in favor of Vice President Harris has upended a race that the Kremlin and its backers believed Donald Trump could win, creating “a window of opportunity” to settle the war in Ukraine on Russia’s aggressive, expansionist terms, according to analysts and current and former Russian officials."
"LONDON/WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - North Korean hackers have conducted a global cyber espionage campaign in efforts to steal classified military secrets to support Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons programme, the United States, Britain and South Korea said in a joint advisory on Thursday."
"SEOUL, Aug 1 (Reuters) - North Korea wants to reopen nuclear talks with the United States if Donald Trump is re-elected as president and is working to devise a new negotiating strategy, a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea told Reuters. The escape of Ri Il Gyu from Cuba made headlines globally last month. He was the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to the South since 2016. In his first interview with international media, Ri said North Korea has set Russia, the U.S. and Japan as its top foreign policy priorities for this year and beyond.While bolstering relations with Russia, Pyongyang was keen to reopen nuclear negotiations if Trump - who engaged in both fiery brinkmanship and unprecedented diplomacy with North Korea during his previous term - won re-election in November, Ri said. "
"WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - The United States will start deploying longer range missiles in Germany in 2026, the two countries announced at a meeting of the NATO alliance on Tuesday, a major step aimed at countering what the allies say is a growing threat Russia poses to Europe. The decision will send Germany the most potent U.S. weapons to be based on the European continent since the Cold War, in a clear warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A U.S.-German statement said the "episodic deployments" were in preparation for longer-term stationing in Europe of capabilities that would include SM-6, Tomahawk and developmental hypersonic weapons with greater range. The move would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987 but that collapsed in 2019. "We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity," the allies said in a communique released on Wednesday..."
ABCNEWS:"UNITED NATIONS -- Russia’s foreign minister accused the United States on Tuesday of holding the entire West “at gunpoint” and impeding international cooperation, a claim the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations denounced as “hypocrisy” by a country that invaded neighboring Ukraine...."
SWISSINFO.CH:"July 11, 2024 - 10:22 1 minute MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday denounced NATO’s summit promise to grant eventual membership to Ukraine and said Russia should work towards the “disappearance” of both Ukraine and the military alliance....”
"
"GENEVA, July 9 (Reuters) - A lethal strike on a children's hospital in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, the head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission said on Tuesday, citing its own analysis. The strike in broad daylight was part of a series of attacks that killed at least 41 people across Ukraine, including children. The Kremlin said it was Ukrainian anti-missile fire, not Russia, that struck the hospital."
CNN:" A court in Moscow has ordered Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, to be arrested in absentia, her spokesperson said Tuesday. The Basmanny District Court in Moscow accused Navalnaya of “participation in an extremist organization,” her spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said in a post on social media. She has also been added to an international wanted list, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti."
MSN/NEWSWEEK:"Belarus on Sunday issued a nuclear threat amid rising tensions at its border with Ukraine. The country will be prepared to use nonstrategic nuclear weapons if its sovereignty and independence are threatened, said Pavel Muraveiko. He was appointed chief of the general staff of country's armed forces and first deputy minister in May."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian official heading the Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said on June 27 that it is time to burn everything Ukrainian down to the root" so that "there is no trace left."(Emphasis added) Rogozin's comments were the latest in a long series of genocidal comments directed at Ukraine made by Russian officials and propagandists, a trend that has only increased since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The genocidal intent of Russia's aggression toward Ukraine has manifested in war crimes and indiscriminate violence directed at Ukrainian civilians, but also in the denial and distortion of history, attempts to erase Ukrainian culture, and the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children."
THEGUARDIAN:"Trump handed plan to halt US military aid to Kyiv unless it talks peace with Moscow(Emphasis added) Two key advisers to Donald Trump have presented him with a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine - if he wins the presidential election - that involves telling Ukraine it will only get more US weapons if it enters into peace talks. The United States would at the same time warn Moscow that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased US support for Ukraine, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, one of Trump’s national security advisers, said in an interview...However, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said only statements made by Trump or authorised members of his campaign should be deemed official, Reuters reported. The strategy outlined by Kellogg and Fleitz is the most detailed plan yet by associates of Trump, who has said he could quickly settle the war in Ukraine if he beats President Joe Biden in the November election, though he has not discussed specifics. The proposal would mark a big shift in the US position on the war and would face opposition from European allies and within Trump’s own Republican party..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 14 that Moscow would only cease fire and enter peace talks if Ukraine withdraws from the four Ukrainian regions claimed – but not fully controlled – by the Kremlin. Speaking on the eve of the global peace summit in Switzerland on June 15-16, Putin said his terms were "very simple," before saying Ukraine's troops must leave Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and Kyiv must abandon any ambition to join NATO. The demands also include the recognition of Crimea and Sevastopol as "subjects of the Russian Federation."
REUTERS:"SEOUL/MOSCOW, June 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Tuesday to deepen trade and security ties with North Korea and to support it against the United States, as he headed to the reclusive nuclear-armed country for the first time in 24 years. The U.S. and its Asian allies are trying to work out just how far Russia will go in support of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose country is the only one to have conducted nuclear weapon tests in the 21st century..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"...The Kyiv Independent spoke with Nad about Slovakia’s turn away from Ukraine, political processes inside the country, and the future of pro-Russian political advances across Europe...Jaroslav Nad: It is extremely difficult to fight against Russian involvement, which is illegal and non-democratic, using whatever tools it can. If you try to ban a Russian channel, or any propaganda with Russian connections on a European or national level, Russia will scream that it is against human rights and freedom of speech...which in reality means that they would like to see Russian propaganda spread across the country because that means support for their parties...The whole of Europe should be very careful; many of those parties have clear links to Russia. For example, Le Pen's party: in the past, it was proved that they were receiving millions and millions of euros from Russia, and other parties with similar links are also present in the election campaign. There were several examples of politicians from Western European countries and also from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, and other countries, who were meeting with Russian officials. Some of them were receiving illegal campaign money from Russia, that's the reality we have to face. If we want to keep the European continent free from injustice and achieve peace, we need to fight Russian hybrid warfare as much as we can, using all the tools that we have..."
MSN/BUSINESS INSIDER:"Although they are members of NATO and the EU, the Baltics are in a precarious position. Bordering Russia or its ally Belarus, they are small and were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse. Furthermore, over 20% of the population of Estonia and Latvia and 5% of Lithuania are ethnically Russian. All of this has put them in Moscow's crosshairs. Russia seems to be employing unconventional methods against them that blur the line between war and peace and fall into what is called the "gray zone." . .."
AP: "ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory. Putin also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty. The recent actions by the West will further undermine international security and could lead to “very serious problems,” he said, taking questions from international journalists — something that has become extremely rare since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. “That would mark their direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act the same way,” Putin added."

APNEWS:"Russian warships conducted drills in the Atlantic, the military said Tuesday, as they were heading to visit Cuba, part of Moscow’s efforts to project power amid the tensions with the West over Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the Kazan nuclear-powered submarine conducted the exercise that was intended to simulate a missile strike on a group of enemy ships. The ministry said the drills involved computer simulation of an attack on sea targets more than 600 kilometers (over 320 nautical miles) away. The Admiral Gorshkov is armed with new Zircon hypersonic missiles. The weapon has been designed to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines and could be used against both enemy ships and ground targets. Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted Zircon as a potent weapon capable of penetrating any existing anti-missile defenses by flying nine times faster than the speed of sound at a range of more than 1,000 kilometers (over 620 miles). The Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan are accompanied by two support vessels on their visit to Havana, which Cuban officials said reflected “historically friendly relations” between Russia and Cuba.The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the Russian warships will be in Havana between Wednesday and June 17, noting that none will carry nuclear weapons and assuring their presence “does not represent a threat to the region. ..."
CNN:"The USS Helena, a fast-attack nuclear submarine, surfaced in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a day after Russian naval forces arrived in Havana to conduct drills with the island nation, a Russian ally. In a statement posted on X, US Southern Command said, “The fast-attack submarine USS Helena is in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as part of a routine port visit as it transits the U.S. Southern Command geographic area of responsibility while conducting its global maritime security and national defense mission.” The specific movements of Navy submarines are highly classified and are rarely disclosed publicly..."
NYTIMES:"A senior Biden administration official warned on Friday that “absent a change” in nuclear strategy by China and Russia, the United States may be forced to expand its nuclear arsenal, after decades of cutting back through now largely abandoned arms control agreements. The comments on Friday from Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the National Security Council, were the most explicit public warning yet that the United States was prepared to shift from simply modernizing its arsenal to expanding it. They were also a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about the likely U.S. reaction if the last major nuclear arms control agreement, called New START, expires in February 2026 with no replacement..."
WASHINGTONPOST:Russia’s Foreign Ministry has been drawing up plans to try to weaken its Western adversaries, including the United States, and leverage the Ukraine war to forge a global order free from what it sees as American dominance, according to a secret Foreign Ministry document. Russia is seeking to subvert Western support for Ukraine and disrupt the domestic politics of the United States and European countries, through propaganda campaigns supporting isolationist and extremist policies, according to Kremlin documents previously reported on by The Post. It is also seeking to refashion geopolitics, drawing closer to China, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to shift the current balance of power..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that it was “absolutely true” that some Republican members of Congress were repeating Russian propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine instigated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.Turner did not specify which members he was referring to, but he said he agreed with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), who said in an interview with Puck News last week that Russian propaganda had “infected a good chunk of my party’s base” and suggested that conservative media was to blame..."
WASHINGTONPOST:"Former president Donald Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory, according to people familiar with the plan. Some foreign policy experts said Trump’s idea would reward Russian President Vladimir Putin and condone the violation of internationally recognized borders by force."
" KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"French President Emmanuel Macron was left on his lonesome by his fellow European allies after saying that the possibility of sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine should not be “ruled out” in the future. Macron made the remarks on Feb. 26 at a gathering of 20 European heads of state and other Western officials at an allied conference in Paris to reaffirm support for Ukraine as Russia’s war against the country enters its third year. ...

CNN:"It’s a scenario that’s playing out up and down the front lines in Ukraine. As the United States Congress stalls on US President Joe Biden’s request for an additional $60 billion in security assistance for Kyiv, Ukrainian commanders are facing tough choices on how to use the dwindling stockpiles of ammunition. Kyiv suffered its most significant loss in recent months last week when its troops abandoned Avdiivka..."
KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"Almost immediately following the end of the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine in February 2014, Russia swiftly moved to annex and occupy the Crimean Peninsula. Within a couple of months, unrest erupted in eastern Ukraine followed by Russian-backed militias taking over administrative buildings. The events mark the start of Russia's 10-year invasion and occupation of Ukraine that continues to this day. .."
NEWSWEEK:"The head of Polish military counterintelligence has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is already prepared for a small operation against NATO frontier states in northeastern Europe, as the alliance seeks to deter aggression from Moscow while bolstering Ukraine against the ongoing Russian invasion. "Putin is certainly already prepared for some mini-operation against one of the Baltic countries," Jarosław Stróżyk, who was appointed to lead the Polish military counterintelligence service in March—told the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna publication..."
BLOOMBERG:"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of the dangers of a Russian victory if Ukraine’s allies don’t increase military support and financial aid, ahead of a meeting with US President Joe Biden. “Make no mistake: A Russian victory in Ukraine would not only be the end of Ukraine as a free, democratic and independent state, it would also dramatically change the face of Europe,” Scholz wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. "COMMENT:SEND NATO FORCES IN AND PUSH THE RUSSIANS OUT
CNN:"President Joe Biden on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump after the former president said he would encourage Russia to invade countries that don’t meet their NATO obligations, saying such comments amount to bowing down to Vladimir Putin."

WASHINGTONPOST:"...Capturing Avdiivka would mark Moscow’s most significant battlefield victory since the failure of a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year — and would be the clearest sign yet that Russian forces are regaining the initiative as Kyiv runs short of soldiers, weapons, ammunition, morale and money..."COMMENT: THIS IS ON TRUMP AND HIS MINIONS
BBC:"The UN's top court has said it has jurisdiction to hear a case brought against Russia by Ukraine. Kyiv brought the case at The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv accuses Moscow of falsely using genocide law to justify its brutal invasion which continues..."
THE-GUARDIAN:" Rishi Sunak pledges £2.5bn in military aid to Ukraine during Kyiv visit UK prime minister also signs multi-year security treaty with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calling it ‘a strong signal to Putin’ "
THE-KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"As sanctions bite, Russia eyes Ukraine’s mineral resources to fund its invasion. Russia's 2024 federal budget brought little in the way of surprises, the country is gearing up for a long war...."
MSN/NEWSWEEK:"A top Ukrainian military official has issued a desperate plea for resources as Russia gains momentum in its war against Ukraine...."
BUSINESS-INSIDER:"The Kremlin has been painting a rosy picture of the country's economy even amid a swathe of Western sanctions — but "the real situation is bad," Igor Lipsits, a prominent Russian economist, told Reuters. ..."
THE-KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"Along with war crimes, such as torture, rape, and executions, Russia has also taken civilian hostages in the areas it has occupied, at times transferring them to prisons both in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and Russia for reasons unknown. The hostages include people taken off the streets, psychiatric patients, and inmates of Ukrainian prisons now under Russian-occupied territories..."
THE-KYIV-INDEPENDENT:"Russia launched a record number of drones into Ukraine over the course of six hours on Holodomor Memorial Day on Nov. 25. According to the Kyiv City Military Administration, "this was the largest drone attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.".."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"...Ladies and gentlemen! Next Monday will mark the six hundredth day of our resistance to Russia's full-scale aggression against our people, against Ukraine. And today, no one can say for sure how many more days we will have to defend our independence and identity. But we can already say several things, which are important. First: Putin will not achieve Ukraine. Second: Russia cannot afford a new arms race. And third: democracy can win this battle. It is necessary not only for our country, but for every nation, for the whole world...."

CNN:"All 27 EU member states have dispatched officials to a key meeting in Kyiv on Monday, a European Union official told CNN. .. The bloc convened in the Ukrainian capital to reaffirm their support for Kyiv amid Russia's invasion...."

"Sept 7 (Reuters)
...Rudenko, a former Russian military psychologist, was arrested for a sixth time on July 21 - this time for allegedly justifying terrorism on the internet, a more serious crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, according to court records, which give no further details about his alleged offence pending a trial.Three Russian human rights lawyers described Rudenko's experience as an example of "carousel arrests" ..."
CNN:"Russia's conditions to revive the Black Sea grain deal amount to "blackmail," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told national news agency Ukrinform on Monday. The deal "must be restored," but not "at the expense of blackmail and fulfilling Russia’s whims," he said. "
NYTIMES:"Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, plans to travel to Russia this month to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin to discuss the possibility of supplying Russia with more weaponry for its war in Ukraine and other military cooperation, according to American and allied officials. "
CNN:"“What is going on now is simply the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Both Ukrainian and Russian. The motivation for my action was to not contribute to these crimes. Ukraine will unequivocally win this war simply because the people are very united. Before they were not like this, but now they are very unified. The whole world is helping them, because first and foremost, human life should be valued." The pilot also urged other Russians in the military to defect to Ukraine." The pilot, Maksim Kuzmov was found shot dead in Spain "...Ukrainska Pravda and other outlets reported on Feb.19..."
CNN:" Ukraine’s Security Service says it has identified a Russian commander who is accused of giving orders to shoot civilians. The SBU announced in a statement on Thursday that it is investigating Vadym Ovchinnikov, the commander of a Russian intelligence group, who it alleges ordered the shooting of a Ukrainian family during the occupation of the town of Bucha in March of 2022.
CNN:"...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put it bluntly on Monday, when he thanked Denmark for pledging to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, which the Netherlands also agreed to give Ukraine. “All of Russia’s neighbors are under threat,” he said, “if Ukraine does not prevail.” He will find few who disagree among those neighbors....”
..."
CNN:"NATO allies on Tuesday reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s push for membership of the alliance, according to a final declaration issued by the 31-member group at a summit in Lithuania. “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” it said. "We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met," the communiqué added..."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"In the Republic of Lithuania, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska took part in an event organized as part of the "Raising the Flag for Ukraine in NATO" campaign...”
CNN:"US President Joe Biden and his British counterpart, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, touted their "unwavering support" for Ukraine and shared condemnation of Moscow's "brutal aggression" as they met in Washington, DC, Thursday..."
NEWSWEEK:"British officials are now a "legitimate military target" for Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday, responding to remarks from the U.K.'s foreign secretary that Ukraine has the right to strike military targets inside Russian territory..."
CNN:"The Russian Foreign Ministry called on senior US diplomats on Friday to express "strong protest" over US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan's remarks about Ukrainian strikes on Crimea, after he said the US has not placed limitations on Kyiv to hit its territory. The ministry called Sullivan's remarks in an interview with CNN on Sunday "unacceptable."
CNN:"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Biden Sunday for the “powerful” financial assistance provided by the US, which totals $37 billion, and for the new military assistance package, according to a readout from the president’s office. "
CNN:"British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has underscored his country’s support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia, saying “Ukraine’s security is our security.” .."
CNN:"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United Kingdom to meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, 10 Downing Street said in a statement Monday.. .."
CNN:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with his French counterpart in Paris on Sunday, the latest stop on his tour of European capitals providing Kyiv with weapons.
CNN:"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that Russia is seeking to destroy values of freedom in Ukraine because it is afraid of the country’s path to the European Union. "We Europeans cherish our liberty, our democracy, our freedom of thought and speech," von der Leyen said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv to mark Europe Day.
CNN:"Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said NATO countries must prepare for a long war in Ukraine, calling on allies to increase defense spending. “Russia has prepared for a long confrontation and so must we,” Kallas tweeted on Wednesday.... "
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"The leaders condemned in the strongest possible terms the illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked aggression by Russia against Ukraine..."
Meanwhile,"[a] day after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a harsher crackdown on internal “enemies,” authorities raided the homes of activists from the Russian human rights organization Memorial, which was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year."
ICC:"Today, 17 March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.... "
WASHINGTONPOST:"Poland plans to give Ukraine Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets, becoming the first NATO country to provide long-sought warplanes since the Russian invasion began last year, Polish President Andrzej Duda said at a news conference Thursday.
The first four are set to arrive in the coming days. Western governments had thus far declined to send fighter jets out of concern over escalating tensions between NATO and Russia."
CNN:"US President Joe Biden made an unannounced trip to Kyiv early Monday for the first time since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago..."
EUROPEAN-PARLIAMENT:
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed MEPs in a formal sitting in Brussels on 9th of February 2023. In his speech, President Zelenskyy stressed how Russia is trying to annihilate not only sovereign Ukraine, but also the European “way of life”. ..."
CNN:"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has voted unanimously to demand the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russian and Belarusian political and military leaders “for the crime of aggression in Ukraine,” according to a statement published Thursday. PACE, composed of members appointed by the national parliaments of the Council's 46 member states, proposes a tribunal in The Hague “to prosecute Russian and Belarusian political and military leaders who planned, prepared, initiated or executed Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
CNN:"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska that the alliance's support for her nation is "unwavering," as world leaders and policymakers gathered at the World Economic Forum Tuesday..."
"KYIV, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Ukraine accused the Kremlin on Saturday of reviving the "genocidal" tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33."
CNN:"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has plunged Europe into an era of insecurity, Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the world faces the ”the most dangerous decade” since the end of World War II. .."
CNN:"Former Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev told CNN Tuesday that “terror is the only thing left” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, “like for any miserable terrorist in the world.” CNN:"Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda speech and "'crazy rhetoric against the West.'.. After 22 years under Putin there is absolute hopelessness for the future of the country. Things are turning into a dystopian novel divorced from reality.
ALJAZEERA:"A police monitoring group says more than 1,300 people have been arrested at demonstrations across Russia against President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation of civilians to fight in Ukraine."
CNN:"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg that "Europe's solidarity with Ukraine will remain unshakeable," and that she would be visiting Kyiv on Wednesday. Von der Leyen said European sanctions against Russia would remain in place and that the European Union's (EU) 27-nation bloc would continue to offer financial support to Ukraine. .. "
CNN:"Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin's war effort in Ukraine-...Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan's riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow's war effort in Ukraine. The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan's beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue. In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan's increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country's pro-democracy movement..."
CNN:"A new report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe documents the discovery of torture chambers at a summer camp in Bucha, Ukraine. This report — OSCE's second one — covered the period between April 1 to June 25... "
CNN:"Russia's actions in Ukraine provide enough evidence to conclude that Moscow is inciting genocide and committing atrocities intended to destroy the Ukrainian people, according to the first independent report into allegations of genocide in that country. "
BBC:"Kira Glodan, a three-month-old baby, is one of the latest victims in the war in Ukraine. She was killed along with her mother and grandmother in a Russian missile strike in Odesa..”
BBC:"Russian forces executed civilians in various locations in the Kyiv region "In recent weeks,.. [W]e have gathered evidence that... Russian forces have committed extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings which must be investigated as likely war crimes" says Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard. .."
"REUTERS:A woman carries her cat as she walks past buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Borodyanka the Kyiv region Ukraine, April 5, 2022 REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra ..."

WASHINGTONPOST:" The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, after Democrats in Congress failed to reach a deal with Republicans and President Donald Trump to extend funding for federal agencies. The lapse in finances means crucial government functions — from small business loan services to national parks to job training for veterans — will shutter until lawmakers approve more money. Federal work vital to national security will continue, though employees, including many service members and law enforcement officers, will go unpaid. The shutdown is the first since January 2019, and the fourth of Trump’s two terms. White House officials this time, though, have signaled plans to use the closed agencies as a way to vastly reshape the federal government and consolidate power under the presidency... "

• CNN: "Trump said he’d bring prices down on Day One. That hasn’t happened"
• NYTIMES: "Trump Hosts Dinner for Wealthy Donors to White House Ballroom"
• WASHINGTONPOST:"With shutdown cuts, Trump moves closer to eliminating Education Department"
• NYTIMES:"He Fled Putin’s War. The U.S. Deported Him to a Russian Jail."
• NYTIMES: "Wildfire fighters unmasked in toxic smoke are sick and dying"
• REUTERS: Global hunger crisis deepens as nations skimp on aid
• CNN: "What happens to American kids when their parents are deported"
• REUTERS: Former Israeli defense minister accuses Israel of war crimes and ethnic cleansing
• NYTIMES: India: How the world's largest democracy slid into authoritarianism
• REUTERS: The Guardian quits X citing racism and conspiracy theories
• WASHINGTONPOST:"National Weather Service at ‘breaking point’ as storm approaches"
• CNN: More than 130 Israeli reservists refuse to fight in Gaza and Lebanon
• THE-HILL:In and out of Israel radicalization runs both ways
• CNN: Doomsday Glacier spells potential disaster
• CNN: China taking the lead in the nuclear fusion race
• WASHINGTONPOST: Taliban to enforce Draconian laws, women despair
• WASHINGTONPOST: The microplastics we breathe and are in us
• CNN: "No survivors found after a massive blast at a Tennessee explosives plant ..."
• WASHINGTONPOST: The climate refugee crisis is here
• LIVE SCIENCE: James Webb Telescope captures huge jets from M87*
• NYTIMES: Faith based groups helping migrants attacked by extremists
• CNN: Oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor, Warren "Red" Upton dies at 105.

BLOOMBERG:"At a time when every dip in stocks is perceived as an opportunity, buyers emerged after a brief pullback led by some of the biggest winners of the artificial-intelligence boom. Bitcoin rallied. Bonds fell. While Wall Street didn’t see a buying stampede, equities were able to bounce after a slide that underscored worries over how stretched the market has become and how sensitive it is to unfavorable news. Chipmakers, which bore the brunt of the recent selling, led gains on Wednesday. Stock Movers AMD, Super Micro, Humana 4:39 Subscribe to the Stock Movers Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other Podcast Platforms. Traders On The Floor Of The New York Stock Exchange As Fed Chair Powell Holds New Conference Dip buyers emerge.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg “For investors with cash on the sidelines, the recent market pullback seems like a good time to buy, especially for investors with a longer time horizon,” said Robert Edwards at Edwards Asset Management. “Earnings are crushing it and growing faster than revenues, and that often leads to multiple expansion.” Bonds slid as data showed US services activity expanded at the fastest pace in eight months. Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran described the latest increase in employment at companies as “a welcome surprise,” but reiterated rates need to be lower. While the Treasury indicated it’s not looking to boost sales of notes and bonds until well into next year, dealers had widely expected the move. The S&P 500 reclaimed its 6,800 mark. A key gauge of semiconductors jumped 2.8%. The Russell 2000 of small companies rose 1.5%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed seven basis points to 4.16%. Bitcoin gained 3.5%. The dollar wavered. Read: Latest Stock Pullback Shows How Stretched This Market Has Become Wall Street Buys the Dip in Stocks After AI Rout Source: Bloomberg Read: Trump Sees Shutdown Hitting Stocks, But Expects New Records Concerns about an ever-narrowing cohort of stocks driving the gains have become louder, while a hawkish pivot in Federal Reserve commentary has put a dent in optimism over rate cuts. Technical indicators are increasingly flagging reasons for caution just as Wall Street chief executives warn about frothy valuations. “Traders looking for fresh reasons to justify the lofty valuations that have carried markets this far were not finding too many compelling reasons. But they don’t want to sell either,” said Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com. “With dip-buying being a major theme in equity markets all this time, the downside has been limited after each pullback.” The recent equity pullback looked healthy after a strong rally, but stocks are still set for a solid year-end as easing signals from the Fed, strong AI momentum and contained geopolitical risks support sentiment, according to Barclays Plc strategists led by Emmanuel Cau. They expect dips to be bought as positioning is high but not extreme, systematic funds have already de-risked, dry powder remains elevated despite retail flows, seasonality is typically positive and buybacks have resumed. “Some consolidation should not come as a surprise,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management. “While political uncertainty and shifting investor sentiment could inject further volatility into the market, we continue to believe that the fundamentals supporting the rally remain intact.” She noted that high valuations do not necessarily signal an imminent correction. Instead, declines are more likely when profit growth disappoints, with forward returns more correlated with changes in earnings expectations over the next 12 months. In addition, the tech sector’s core metrics remain robust. “The 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratios for today’s tech giants are far lower than those at the peak of the dotcom bubble,” she said. “Leading companies continue to report stronger-than-expected demand for AI compute and services, while maintaining robust cash positions and balance sheets.” The key lesson of the last 25 years is that valuations are a function of investor confidence in the stability of the global financial system, predictable economic and corporate earnings growth, and the value of human ingenuity, according to Nicholas Colas at DataTrek Research. “While it has recently become fashionable to call a top in US equity valuations, history says it takes a macro catalyst to change investor perceptions,” he said. “We remain positive on US large caps because we do not see a clear and present danger to the current bullish setup for domestic equities.” Source: DataTrek Research.Source: DataTrek Research. Apollo Global Management Inc. President Jim Zelter warned that the rush of capital into AI and data centers is fueling high valuations and increasing risk for investors. “Whenever you see massive impulse and infusion of capital into a sector” such as AI “you have to think about debt and equity returns on invested capital,” Zelter said Wednesday on Bloomberg TV, in response to a question about whether it’s necessary to hedge exposure to data centers. The flip side is that profits have been solid, with Deutsche Bank AG strategists led by Binky Chadha this week saying earnings growth in US stocks has “broadened across several dimensions” — allaying concern that it was concentrated in just a handful of big-tech companies. “Earnings season has been spectacular, the Fed is still likely in a cutting phase, and most money managers are trailing their benchmarks,” said Ryan Detrick at Carson Group. “There are many reasons to expect a strong year-end chase, but we might need a little more choppy action in November first.” Earnings momentum looks set to continue, and the key question now is the sustainability of the US consumer, that’s going to determine whether this momentum can carry through into next year, according to George Maris at Principal Asset Management. “A lot of the strength we’re seeing in markets is being fueled by secular growth in technology, particularly in AI,” he said. “Earnings today are increasingly driven by advanced tech, which has created a very different market dynamic than in past cycles. We’re in a place we haven’t been very often, where innovation and profitability are intersecting in a powerful way.” Take our Markets Pulse survey How much longer does the shutdown have to run to end the rally in US stocks? Take our survey. .. Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 12:05 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.8% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2% The MSCI World Index rose 0.4% Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.9% The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.5% Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index rose 2.8% AMD rose 0.8% Currencies The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was unchanged at $1.1482 The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.3046 The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 154.10 per dollar Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin rose 3.4% to $103,697.51 Ether rose 6.5% to $3,423.03 Bonds The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced seven basis points to 4.16% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.67% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 4.46% The yield on 2-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.63% The yield on 30-year Treasuries advanced seven basis points to 4.74% Commodities West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.4% to $59.74 a barrel Spot gold rose 1.4% to $3,985.77 an ounce..."

WSJ:"The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates at its second consecutive meeting on Wednesday, extending an effort to prevent a recent slowdown in hiring from turning into something more serious. The latest quarter-point cut will reduce the Fed’s benchmark short-term interest rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest setting in three years and down from a peak of around 5.4% that the central bank maintained for much of last year..."
READ THE FOMC STATEMENT

WSJ:"Amazon.com plans to lay off as many as 30,000 employees starting as early as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest cost-cutting move for the tech giant that is seeking to slim down and conserve cash. The job cuts, which won’t all happen this week, would amount to roughly 10% of the online giant’s corporate workforce, the people said. Thousands of corporate pink slips are expected to go out Tuesday, cutting across the organization and hitting human resources, cloud computing, advertising and a number of other business units, the people said. The total number of reductions hasn’t been finalized, one of the people said. Amazon’s job cuts come as large companies in the U.S. are looking at ways to reduce or slow the growth of their head count, including by employing artificial intelligence. Rising prices, a tighter labor market and the ebb and flow of President Trump’s trade war have led corporate leaders to look at ways to tighten belts without hurting growth..."

CNN:"Newly released inflation figures show that President Donald Trump was wrong when he repeatedly claimed this month that grocery prices are “down” or “way down.” They were up, again, last month. And they have increased since the start of his presidency. Average grocery prices rose 0.3% from August to September, according to Consumer Price Index figures released Friday. That increase followed a 0.6% jump from July to August, which was the biggest month-to-month jump in three years. Average grocery prices in September were about 2.7% higher than they were a year prior and about 1.4% higher than they were in January, the month Trump returned to office. The grocery price increases have been broad, spanning the vast majority of product categories tracked by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices in four of the six major grocery categories increased from August to September. The cereals and bakery products category was up 0.7%; the nonalcoholic beverages category was also up 0.7%; the meats, poultry, fish and eggs category was up 0.3%; the “other food at home” category was up 0.5%. The fruits and vegetables category was unchanged, while the dairy and related products category was down 0.5%. Prices in all six categories have increased over the past year. Since September 2024, the nonalcoholic beverages category was up 5.3%; the meats, poultry, fish, and eggs category was up 5.2%; the “other food at home” category was up 1.9%; the cereals and bakery products category was up 1.6%; the fruits and vegetables category was up 1.3%; and the dairy and related products category was up 0.7%. There have been particularly sharp increases since September 2024 in the prices of coffee (up 18.9%) and beef and veal (up 14.7%). Overall consumer prices are up 3.0% since September 2024. Repeated false claims about grocery prices Trump campaigned on a promise to reduce grocery prices. Since returning to the White House, he has claimed over and over that he has actually done so – ignoring the federal data that shows he has not. He continued to make such claims even after the September release of the previous Consumer Price Index report that showed the 0.6% increase in average grocery prices from July to August. “Grocery prices are way down,” he said Tuesday.  “Groceries are down,” he said October 16. “Now, as you know, groceries are down,” he said October 14. “We’ve gotten prices way down for groceries,” he said October 10. “Under my leadership…grocery prices are down,” he told world leaders at the United Nations on September 23. It’s normal for grocery prices to rise over time, as overall prices tend to do, and there is always a complicated mix of domestic and international factors at play. This year’s inflation in grocery prices is markedly lower than the 2022 spikes that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s important to note that food prices can be volatile for reasons like severe weather, unexpected supply chain snarls and other temporary disruptions. But food economists like Michigan State University professor David Ortega say two of Trump’s signature policies – tariffs on imported goods (including food) and a crackdown on undocumented immigrants (who make up a large percentage of the US farm workforce) – have clearly contributed to the increases in grocery prices this year. “This uptick in food prices is consistent with what we would expect the effects of some of the administration’s policies to have on food,” Ortega said. Ortega noted that there have been recent spikes in the average consumer prices of coffee and bananas, two products that are almost entirely imported in the US, as well as other grocery items sometimes subject to significant tariffs, including beef. “You can’t attribute all of” those price hikes to the tariffs, he said, “but I’m pretty confident in saying the tariffs and the current trade policy is contributing to these increases that we’re seeing.”..."

WSJ:"The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter. A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors, some of the people said. The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations, officials said. The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Shapley has told people that he is going to replace Guy Ficco, the chief of the investigative unit, who has been at the agency for decades, and that Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at. Among those on the list are the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups, according to a senior IRS official and another person briefed on the list. It couldn’t be determined upon what grounds Shapley would seek to begin such an investigation. The effort within the IRS coincides with a larger administration effort to probe left-leaning groups for helping to finance organizations that the president says are creating anarchy in Democratic-led cities. Trump has directed Bessent, who is also acting IRS commissioner, to identify financial networks that the president says are fomenting political violence. Democrats say the effort is politically motivated and not based on real evidence. “Scott will do that. That’s easy for Scott,” Trump said during a recent cabinet meeting about Bessent’s helping with the investigation..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"Leaders from Congress will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday afternoon, as both parties blame each other for a looming federal government shutdown set to begin in less than 48 hours. If Congress fails to approve a funding extension by the end of Tuesday, spending laws will expire and the U.S. government will become a bare-bones operation, continuing only functions that are necessary to protect life or public property. The Senate is expected to vote on two proposals Tuesday that, if passed, would avert a shutdown. But Republicans and Democrats remain steadfastly opposed to the other party’s plan, and neither proposal is expected to get enough votes. Republicans are proposing to extend current funding through Nov. 21 to buy more time for bipartisan negotiations over full-year appropriations bills. They have rejected Democrats’ requests for health care changes along with the extension, arguing that Democrats should accept the bill because it does not include any controversial policy priorities and would keep the government running..."
CNN:"...Is this the right time for the fight? Still, lacking decisive leverage, the question remains: Is this the smartest time for Democrats to have this fight, given a political deck that is weighted against them? If they don’t fight, they will look weak to their supporters and only invite more intimidation from Trump. But are political conditions any different now than in March, when Senate Democrats promised their supporters a fight and then caved? The capitulation only exemplified the party’s toothlessness. Standing down again would be a bad look when the first hints of resistance to Trump are emerging nationwide. Democrats in California mobilized in a bid to match his grab for extra House seats in Texas with a mid-cycle redistricting plan. Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s tough talk seemed to postpone Trump’s plan to send federal troops to Chicago in an extension of his crackdown on crime. The dispatch of troops to Portland was triggered by the city’s attempts to frustrate Trump’s mass deportation drive..."

CNN:"Cuts to social protection for people living in poverty have created “fertile ground” for far-right movements around the world, according to a United Nations report. Popular support for the far right has grown globally in recent years. In Europe, Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s most far-right leader since Benito Mussolini in 2022, while the far-right Alternative for Germany is now Germany’s largest opposition party. The Trump administration has endorsed far-right parties in Europe, and in Argentina far-right libertarian Javier Milei won the presidency in 2023. The UN report, unveiled Wednesday, says changes to welfare systems have made it harder to access benefits by tightening eligibility rules or imposing stricter conditions, contributing to the kind of economic precarity and alienation that drives people to the far right. “These punitive welfare systems increase economic insecurity, erode trust in public institutions and leave millions feeling humiliated and abandoned by mainstream politics,” the report’s author, Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said in a press release. “It is in this void that far-right populists thrive, presenting themselves as champions of those left behind by the ‘elite.’” But he warned: “Their agenda is not to empower people in poverty – it is to further dismantle protections for their own gain.” ..."

NYTIMES:"The Trump administration on Thursday announced a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine wilderness in the United States. The decision was the latest twist in a long-running fight over the fate of the refuge’s coastal plain, an unspoiled expanse of 1.56 million acres that is believed to sit atop billions of barrels of oil but is also a critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife. During his first term, President Trump signed a 2017 tax bill that required two oil and gas lease sales in the coastal plain, but the Biden administration later suspended and then canceled those leases..."

REUTERS:"Divers off the coast of Sapientza Island in southern Greece have launched a determined effort to remove "ghost nets" — abandoned fishing gear that silently strangles marine ecosystems.Divers off the coast of Sapientza Island in southern Greece have launched a determined effort to remove "ghost nets" — abandoned fishing gear that silently strangles marine ecosystems. Draped like curtains over the seabed, these nets trap unsuspecting sea creatures and slowly disintegrate into microplastics, poisoning the waters and suffocating life. Attaching inflatable lift bags to the heavy, tangled nets, the divers worked with precision and urgency. "The ghost net basically creates a dead zone — a dead zone in which nothing lives," said volunteer Alexander Stavrakoulis, scanning the horizon. "Life is becoming obsolete. This is why it is so important for these ghost nets to be removed as soon as possible.”..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"As President Donald Trump makes plans to send the National Guard to cities beyond Washington, he is facing a public critical of his handling of crime and his use of the military to combat it, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll. The survey finds that Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance on crime by a 10-percentage-point margin and oppose him ordering the National Guard to other cities by a four-point margin. However, Americans say they trust Republicans over Democrats on crime by a 2-to-1 margin, showing how the issue is not a clear-cut political winner for the president’s critics. Republicans also hold advantages over Democrats on the economy and immigration, though a majority still say they want Democrats to control the next Congress “as a check on Trump.” The findings come in a poll that, overall, paints a downbeat picture of Trump’s presidency eight months into his second term. Despite a slight uptick in his overall approval rating compared with April, Americans disapprove of his performance on a broad range of issues — the economy, immigration, foreign wars — and all by double-digit margins...."

REUTERS:"UNITED NATIONS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly voted to endorse a declaration outlining "tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps" towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of a meeting of world leaders. The seven-page declaration is the result of an international conference at the U.N. in July - hosted by Saudi Arabia and France - on the decades-long conflict. The United States and Israel boycotted the event. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. A resolution endorsing the declaration received 142 votes in favor and 10 against, while 12 countries abstained. The vote comes ahead of a meeting of world leaders on September 22 - on the sidelines of the high-level U.N. General Assembly - where Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium are expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state. The declaration endorsed by the 193-member General Assembly condemns the attacks against Israel by Palestinian militants Hamas on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza. It also condemns the attacks by Israel against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, siege and starvation, "which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis." French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the resolution secured the international isolation of Hamas. "For the first time today, the United Nations adopted a text condemning it for its crimes and calling for its surrender and disarmament," he said in an X post..."

CNN:" Qatar’s prime minister excoriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an exclusive interview with CNN on Wednesday, calling Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Doha “barbaric.” “We were thinking that we are dealing with civilized people,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told CNN’s Becky Anderson. “That’s the way we are dealing with others. And the action that (Netanyahu) took – I cannot describe it, but it’s a barbaric action.” Al-Thani added that he believes Israel’s strike on Doha on Tuesday “killed any hope” for the hostages remaining in Gaza. “I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Al-Thani said. “They are counting on this (ceasefire) mediation, they have no other hope for that.” “I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” the prime minister said. .." OPINIOJURIS: THERE ARE ARREST WARRANTS FOR PUTIN AND NETANYAU

CNN:"What we're covering here • The US economy added just 22,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from 4.2%. • Friday’s report is the first data under a new leader at the BLS, after President Donald Trump fired the previous one for producing data that Trump baselessly claimed must be “a scam.” Just 73,000 positions were added in July and previous monthly totals were substantially revised down. • Friday’s data was far worse than expected, with economists having forecast around 76,500 jobs added in August. • It’s the latest snapshot of the US economy under Trump’s aggressive trade agenda, as inflation continues to tick up and there are now more unemployed people than jobs for them..."

WSJ:"As President Trump sat with top donors at his New Jersey golf club this month, he made a private admission: He believed the coronavirus vaccine was one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency, but he couldn’t bask in it. Trump told donors at a dinner—who were paying $1 million to be there—that he wished he could talk more about Operation Warp Speed, the government program he initiated that helped expedite the development of the vaccine, attendees said. The guests included Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla, whose company developed one of the first Covid-19 vaccines. Trump’s private comments illuminate the fraught politics around vaccines that the White House is confronting, which reached a boiling point Wednesday after the administration fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top officials quit their jobs in the midst of disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy. The agency is now facing a crisis. Longtime officials there said Kennedy is ignoring scientific findings to pursue an antivaccine agenda, threatening public health as the calendar gets closer to winter and seasonal outbreaks of Covid and other viruses. A spokesman for HHS didn’t respond to requests for comment..."

WSJ:"U.S. companies have an unwelcome message for inflation-weary consumers: Prices are going up. Companies including Hormel Foods, J.M. Smucker and Ace Hardware said this week they would raise prices for reasons ranging from higher meat costs to tariffs. Large retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy said some tariff-related price increases are already in place. More are on the way. “Some vendors are clearly communicating cost increases. Some are adjusting promotions. Some are planning to potentially increase prices with new product introductions, which always happens,” Best Buy Chief Executive Corie Barry said on an analyst call Thursday. She said price increases are much lower than the overall tariff rate. The escalating prices offer a glimpse of how President Trump’s trade policy is starting to trickle down to American shoppers. For consumers fatigued by recent bouts of heavy inflation, the announcements portend another round of sticker shock when buying groceries and household goods. Inflation has eased in recent months, but job growth has also slowed, and there are signs shoppers worry that tariffs could further increase prices..."

BLOOMBERG:"Applications for US unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since June and continuing claims climbed, adding to evidence the US labor market is slowing. Initial claims increased by 11,000 to 235,000 in the week ended Aug. 16. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 225,000 applications. Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose to 1.97 million in the week ended Aug. 9, the highest since November 2021, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. US Jobless Claims Rise, Signaling Labor Market Slowing Recurring filings climb to highest level since November 2021 Source: US Labor Department A sustained pickup in new filings risks adding to concerns about the labor market after the most recent US jobs report showed subdued hiring and higher unemployment. The latest rise in continuing claims indicates out-of-work Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to find another job. The four-week moving average of new applications, a metric that helps smooth out fluctuations from week-to-week, climbed to 226,250 — the highest in a month..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"OpenAI’s latest chatbot model, GPT-5, is an improved artificial-intelligence tool: faster, more capable, more accurate. But it’s not the technomagic wand some AI optimists hoped for. The leap to “superintelligence,” the prize behind $400 billion in Big Tech investment this year, now looks later rather than sooner, if even possible. Get first-person illustrated stories about how work is changing It’s not the end of the world if Silicon Valley adjusts its dreams of miracle cures, super-materials and warp-speed growth down toward steady office-automation efficiencies for now. Progress is often uneven, with periods of rapid innovation followed by plateaus in which new technology is incorporated. And tempering our immediate hopes for scientific wonders at least means diminishing our fears of rogue machines and mass job extinction. But this slowdown comes at a dangerous time in which investors are running one step ahead of a populist backlash that could shackle AI with regulation before the technology can reach its next breakthrough. There’s now substantial risk that the industry’s critics turn the public narrative toward its visible harms — whether it’s fears of lost jobs, environmental harm or a broader upheaval of daily life — without enough visible benefits to counteract them. Americans already tell pollsters they are more concerned than excited about AI. Their doomscrolls bring stories of chatbot addiction, celebrity deepfakes and synthetic voices cloning loved ones to scam the elderly. Older generations worry that younger ones are cheating their way through school...."
REUTERS:"WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to halt key parts of a judge's order requiring Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google to make major changes to its app store Play, as the company prepares to appeal a decision in a lawsuit brought by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games...The justices turned down Google's request to temporarily freeze parts of the injunction won by Epic in its lawsuit accusing the tech giant of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps...A federal appeals court in July upheld the judge’s sweeping order against Google. The injunction issued last year by U.S. District Judge James Donato requires Google to allow users to download rival app stores within its Play store and make Play's app catalog available to competitors. Those provisions do not take effect until July 2026. The judge also said Google must allow developers to include external links in apps, enabling users to bypass Google's billing system. That part of the injunction is due to take effect later this month..." READ THE SUPREME COURT'S ORDER;
READ THE NINTH CIRCUIT'S OPINION

CNN:"A recruitment poster recently shared on the Department of Homeland Security’s social media pages depicts Uncle Sam at a crossroads. In one direction point the words “homeland” and “opportunity.” Toward the other, “invasion” and “cultural decline.” In its caption, the agency overseeing the country’s immigration system presents these choices as an existential national struggle: “Which way, American man?” It’s a sentiment that the agency is trying to wield to recruit new employees. Many of its posts implore viewers to apply for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been infused with a windfall of cash from President Donald Trump’s landmark policy bill and hopes to hire 10,000 additional personnel to help with the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. But underlining the new strategy are undertones that historians and experts in political communication say are alarmingly nationalist — and fraught with appeals to a specifically White and Christian national identity. “Persuaders succeed when they connect to emotional archetypes,” said Nicholas J. Cull, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California and historian of the role of mass communication in foreign policy. “Fear is often the most prominent in propaganda, but nostalgia runs a close second.” “Often they land like one/two punches in a classic boxing attack,” Cull said. “That seems to be the intent here.”..."

CNN:"At least six people were killed and several injured on Monday after two attackers opened fire on a busy bus stop in Jerusalem, Israeli officials said, marking the deadliest attack in the city in more than two years. The gunmen, who arrived at the junction in a vehicle carrying weapons, ammunition and a knife, shot at dozens of people waiting near buses in the area. “I saw people falling or getting hurt while trying to escape,” eyewitness Elazar Toledano told Reuters. Toledano said it took people a few seconds to understand what was happening after the first burst of gunfire. “Someone suddenly shouted ‘Terror attack!’ and people started running.” The suspected attackers were killed by an Israeli combat soldier and a civilian at the site, prompting calls by far-right ministers for the arming of more civilians in Israel. Police identified the gunmen as Muthanna Omar, 20, and Muhammad Taha, 21, who are both from villages just outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank..."

APNEWS:"WHY THIS MATTERS: Protests in Nepal have revealed the extent of young people’s frustration with the lack of opportunity in the Himalayan nation, as they spiraled into a broader challenge to the government. While around a fifth of young people are unemployed, many note that the children of the political elite seem to enjoy luxury lifestyles and numerous advantages. KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s government responded to escalating violent protests over a ban on popular social media platforms with deadly force. The public outrage over the ban and the deaths of 19 protesters on Monday led to the resignation of the prime minister and exposed deep discontent over corruption."

REUTERS:"Several districts of Gaza City hit Gaza health officials report more deaths from hunger Egypt making latest push for ceasefire talks CAIRO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Israeli forces demolished houses in eastern areas of Gaza City overnight, killing at least 11 people in aerial and tank fire, local health authorities said, as the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas told mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks. Residents and medics said eight people were killed when Israeli tank shelling hit a house in Zeitoun neighbourhood, while a man was killed in an airstrike on a building in the nearby Shejaia suburb. Two other people were killed in tank shelling in Tuffah, a third Gaza City suburb. Local health authorities said they had received desperate calls from families trapped in the Zeitoun area, including from people saying they were wounded, and that ambulance vehicles could not reach them. "The explosions are almost non-stop in eastern Gaza areas, mainly Zeitoun and Shejaia. The occupation (Israel) is erasing homes there, as we hear from some friends who live nearby," said Ismail, 40, from Gaza City..."

APNEWS:"MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s far-right finance minister announced approval of contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts. The announcement comes as many countries, including Australia, Britain, France, and Canada said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September. “This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a ceremony on Thursday. “Anyone in the world who tries today to recognize a Palestinian state — will receive an answer from us on the ground,” he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not publicly comment on the plan on Thursday, but he has touted it in the past..."

WSJ:"U.S. job growth slowed in July, a signal that pockets of weakness that had been marring the labor market are starting to take hold. The U.S. added a seasonally adjusted 73,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department reported Friday, below the gain of 100,000 jobs economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected to see. Revisions cut down the jobs growth originally reported for May and June by a combined 258,000. That left May as having added just 19,000 jobs and June just 14,000. A perfect storm of changes is keeping business leaders cautious. Tariffs are weighing on manufacturing. Workplace raids are hurting immigrant-dependent sectors like landscaping and meatpacking. And cutbacks to the federal workforce are squeezing government hiring. .. President Trump on Friday afternoon said he had directed his team to fire the top official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a social-media post, he said the BLS commissioner would be “replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.” He asserted without evidence that the government’s jobs numbers have been manipulated for political purposes. . .."

CNN:"...He said he’s built up a loyal seasonal workforce for his Wasco County operation called CE Farm Management, about 90 minutes from Portland, with the same people coming year after year and staying in touch with birth announcements and Christmas cards in between. But this year half of them did not arrive, and many of his neighbors were scrambling for pickers too. All told, Chandler said he will lose $250,000-$300,000 of revenue, left to rot on the trees..."

NYTIMES:"Long before President Trump harnessed a working-class coalition to win last November’s election, leaders of the nation’s biggest labor unions, in public and private, were warning Democrats that those voters could defect. In the months since, their admonitions have grown only more pointed. Their calculus is simple. Despite campaign promises to improve working people’s lives, and Mr. Trump’s appeal among the rank and file, top union officials do not view the president, whose signature policy law benefits the wealthy, as a true ally of organized labor. And if Democrats regain the ground they’ve lost with blue-collar voters, many of whom are union members, it could help leaders with their own struggles, including flagging membership and criticism that they are losing touch with everyday workers. But it is not likely to be easy..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to rescind the landmark legal opinion that underpins virtually all of its regulations to curb climate change. The move would end EPA regulations on greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles from lightweight cars to heavy-duty trucks, while also undercutting rules that limit power plant emissions and control the release of methane by oil and gas companies. The EPA’s new proposal argues that Congress, in the Clean Air Act, does not give the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Ask your climate questions. With the help of generative Al, we'll try to deliver answers based on our published reporting. If the rule takes effect, it would immediately reverse the vehicle regulations and spark a legal battle that probably would take years. Should the Trump administration prevail in court, the rule would severely limit the ability of future presidents to curb fossil fuel emissions. Advertisement “If finalized, today’s announcement would amount to the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday at a truck dealership in Indianapolis. Follow Trump’s second term Follow The EPA released what is known as the “endangerment finding” in 2009. It concluded that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, establishing a legal basis to regulate them as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA’s latest proposal seeks to revise the agency’s own past interpretation of the Clean Air Act. “We do not have that power on our own to decide as an agency that we are going to combat global climate change because we give ourselves that power,” Zeldin said, referencing Congress’s ability to enact laws. “This is not just an attack on science but on common sense,” said Zealan Hoover, a former senior adviser to the EPA administrator under President Joe Biden. “The National Climate Assessment provides over 2,000 pages of detailed evidence that climate change harms our health and welfare, but you can also ask the millions of Americans who have lost their homes and livelihoods to extreme fires, floods and storms that are only getting worse.” ... "

REUTERS:"American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era This neo-Nazi group is changing the face of U.S. white extremism.HOCHATOWN, Oklahoma - Wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops and a baseball cap shading his eyes from the sun, Dalton Henry Stout blends in easily in rural America. Except for the insignia on his hat. It bears the skull and crossbones of the infamous “Death’s Head” SS units that oversaw Nazi Germany’s concentration camps – and the initials “AFN,” short for Aryan Freedom Network, the neo-Nazi group Stout leads with his partner..."

CNN:"What we're covering • Funeral processions: Crowds have gathered in Gaza to mourn Al Jazeera journalists who were among seven people killed by Israel in a military strike on Gaza. The UN called the strike a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”. • Journalist targeted: The IDF said it targeted correspondent Anas Al-Sharif, 28, a prominent reporter who extensively covered the war from inside Gaza, after previously accusing him of leading a Hamas cell, an allegation Al-Sharif denied. • Media access: Israel does not allow international journalists to enter the Gaza Strip to report independently..."

CNN:"For the past month Chinese aircraft carrier strike groups have been operating further from home shores and in greater strength than ever before, testing state-of-the-art technology and sending a message they are a force to be reckoned with, analysts and officials say. Since early May, a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) flotilla led by the carrier Shandong has conducted exercises north of the Philippines; its newest carrier, the soon-to-be commissioned Fujian, has been on sea trials in disputed waters west of the Korean Peninsula; and its oldest carrier, the Liaoning has led exercises in the Pacific waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. During the drills the Fujian for the first time conducted aircraft take-off and landing operations at sea using its advanced electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS), regional defense officials said. ..."

APNEWS:" UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world’s nations are gathering in France next month to tackle what the United Nations calls a global emergency facing the world’s oceans as they confront rising temperatures, plastic pollution choking marine life, and relentless overexploitation of fish and other resources. The third U.N. Ocean Conference aims to unite governments, scientists, businesses and civil society to take action and raise money to address these and other crises facing the oceans and the people who rely on them for their survival. Conference Secretary-General Li Junhua told reporters on Tuesday he hopes it will not be another routine meeting but “the pivotal opportunity” to accelerate action and mobilize people in all sectors and across the world. The conference, co-sponsored by France and Costa Rica, takes place in Nice on the French Riviera from June 7 to June 13. It is expected to bring together more than 60 world leaders, dozens of ministers, about 4,000 government officials and 6,000 members of civil society, Li told The Associated Press. ..“What is different this time around?,” she said. “Zero rhetoric. Maximum results.” Valverde said she expects participants to make commitments totaling $100 billion in new funding to address the crisis facing the oceans. France’s U.N. Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont said his country’s priorities for the conference include obtaining 60 ratifications for the treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas adopted in March 2023 so it goes into effect. The treaty’s mission is to ensure sustainable fishing, mobilize support to protect and conserve at least 30% of the oceans’ waters, fight plastic pollution, “accelerate decarbonization” of maritime transportation and mobilize financing. ..."

REUTERS:"TURKU, Finland/BERLIN, May 27 (Reuters) - Germany's foreign minister threatened unspecified measures against Israel on Tuesday and said Berlin would not export weapons used to break humanitarian law, as he and Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered their most severe rebuke yet over Gaza. Germany, along with the United States, had long remained in support of Israel's conduct since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, even as Israel became increasingly isolated internationally. Its about-turn comes as the European Union is reviewing its Israel policy and Britain, France and Canada also threatened "concrete actions" over Gaza. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Speaking to broadcaster WDR, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned Germany's historic support for Israel must not be instrumentalised, as massive air strikes and shortages of food and medicines had made the situation in Gaza "unbearable". Earlier, Merz criticised air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and "no longer comprehensible", in comments at a press conference in Finland. While not a complete rupture, the shift in tone is significant in a country whose leadership follows a policy of special responsibility for Israel, known as the Staatsraeson, due to the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust. It also reflects a broader shift..."

NYTIMES:"The Israeli military announced on Sunday that its forces had begun “extensive ground operations” throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip, advancing its plan to move farther into the enclave and seize more land in an intensified campaign likely to displace more civilians there. This new stage in the 19-month war is aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing the hostages it is still holding and ultimately destroying the group or forcing it to surrender, according to the Israeli government and military officials. But details were scarce, and it was not immediately clear how far the Israeli forces would go at this stage, or which areas of Gaza would be most affected. Israeli warplanes have been pounding Gaza in recent days to prepare the way for the expansion of ground operations, the military said, adding that the wave of strikes had hit what it described as more than 670 “Hamas terror targets.”..."

CNN:" President Donald Trump threatened legal action against The New York Times, calling the newspaper’s citation of legal experts’ opinion of his lawsuit against CBS “likely unlawful.” The Times reported Tuesday evening that legal representatives for Trump and Paramount are set to begin mediation on Wednesday over Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit alleging “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris before the election. (CBS said they simply aired different portions of the same answer.)..."
CNN:" The agency charged with policing federal campaign finance laws is losing its enforcement and policy-making powers with the resignation of a Republican commissioner. Allen Dickerson’s departure Wednesday — combined with President Donald Trump’s February firing of long-serving Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub — leaves the Federal Election Commission with just three members and lacking a quorum. .."

NYTIMES:"Jewish Groups and Synagogues Defend Students Detained by ICE More than two dozen are joining a legal effort to free a Tufts University student the Trump administration is trying to deport because of her pro-Palestinian views. .. They are a group of progressive Jewish organizations and congregations, and they are coming to the defense of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Muslim graduate student at Tufts, who faces deportation after she helped write an essay critical of Israel. The coalition includes synagogues in places like West Newton, Mass., San Francisco and the Upper West Side of New York, along with J-Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group. On Thursday, they filed a brief in federal court in Burlington, Vt., objecting to the tactics the government was using against Ms. Ozturk in the name of combating antisemitism. In the brief, the groups argued she should be released from the Louisiana immigration detention center where she has been held for over two weeks, after masked immigration agents surrounded and arrested her on a street near her home in Somerville, Mass. “Jewish people came to America to escape generations of similar predations,” the brief says. “Yet the images of Ozturk’s arrest in twenty-first century Massachusetts evoke the oppressive tactics employed by the authoritarian regimes that many ancestors of amici’s members left behind in Odessa, Kishinev, and Warsaw.” There have been reports of almost 1,000 international students and scholars at universities across the country who have lost their legal status since mid-March, according to the Association of International Educators. ..."

CNN:" At least 22 people, including seven children, were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a school compound sheltering thousands of displaced people in the Al Bureij camp in central Gaza, hospital officials said. Dozens more were injured in the strike, they said. At the site of the attack, video from the scene showed a large crater where people searched through the rubble of the school for survivors, the remnants of tents and belongings littering the ground. Safaa Al Khaldi, who was sheltering at the school, said that her son was injured in the strike. “Our children are starving, our children cannot find a piece of bread,” she said, referring to Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza, now in its third month. “What did we do wrong?” .."

REUTERS:"JERUSALEM/CAIRO, April 2 (Reuters) - Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were seizing an area he called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, some 3-4 kilometres from the southern border. .."

"WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - Food banks across the country, already strained by rising demand, say they will have less food to distribute because of at least $1 billion in federal funding cuts and pauses by the Trump administration, according to Reuters interviews with organizations in seven states. Hunger in the U.S. has ticked up in recent years with rising inflation and the end of pandemic-era programs that expanded food aid. President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to lower inflation by cutting back on government spending, including two U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that helped schools and food banks buy food from local farms. .."

CNN:"...The number of Israeli herding outposts has dramatically increased since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition took power in 2022 on a platform of settlement expansion. The government includes ministers who are themselves settlers and want to annex the occupied territory to Israel. In the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, which triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza, settlers have accelerated land grabs with support from the state. Israeli herding outposts have ballooned by nearly 50% since the war broke out, according to a joint report shared exclusively with CNN by Peace Now and Kerem Navot, two Israeli advocacy groups that oppose settlements and track their development, covering data up to the end of December 2024. Settlers established 49 new illegal shepherding outposts between October 7, 2023, and December 2024, seizing large swathes of surrounding land, according to the report which was corroborated by a CNN analysis of satellite imagery of the area..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"JERUSALEM — Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” was attacked Monday by a group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and later arrested by the Israeli army, according to activists and a neighbor who spoke to The Washington Post. Ballal was in his home village of Susya, part of the cluster of rural Palestinian communities known as Masafer Yatta, when settlers approached the village and tried to graze their sheep on private Palestinian land just before iftar, the sundown meal at which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan, according to Nasser Nawaj’ah, who lives in the small village and reports on settler violence for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. He spoke with Ballal’s wife, who described the attack. A video taken by Khamudi Mahmoud, a resident of the village, shows a tall man wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap aggressively approaching Ballal in a rocky clearing as Ballal backs away and a crowd of villagers shout behind him. Dozens of masked settlers wielding batons, knives and a rifle then attacked property and residents, activists focused on documenting settler attacks in the area said in a statement afterward..."

CNN:"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced fury from protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, a day after he resumed the war in Gaza, shattering the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas. On Highway 1 – the main road connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – some protesters held a banner reading: “The future of the coalition or the future of Israel.” The banner alludes to how, over nearly 18 months of war and fragile ceasefires, Netanyahu has been accused of prioritizing the solidity of his governing coalition over the security of his country, as well as the lives of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza. Those accusations have been made with fresh anger after Israel bombarded Gaza overnight into Tuesday and killed more than 400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, in one of the war’s deadliest days..."

CNN:" Palestinians demonstrated against Hamas in northern Gaza on Tuesday, in what appeared to be the largest protest against the militant group since its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Video obtained by CNN showed large crowds, estimated to be thousands of people by a CNN journalist on the ground, marching through the streets of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, chanting “For god’s sake, Hamas out,” “Hamas terrorists” and “We want an end to the war.” A message shared on social media appeared to call for nine anti-Hamas demonstrations across Gaza on Wednesday, with the protest organizers saying, “our voices must reach all the spies who sold our blood.”.."

CNN:" A federal appeals court will allow the Trump administration to implement directives from the president cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as an appeal of a ruling pausing those orders plays out. Two of the three judges on the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel wrote concurring opinions raising concerns about the anti-DEI directives, even as they concluded that the administration had met the bar for putting the trial judge’s ruling on hold. The circuit order is a major win for President Donald Trump, who has made the elimination of DEI programs a centerpiece of his administration..." COMMENT: THIS IS A STAY PENDING APPEAL, NOT A FINAL DETERMINATION OF THE LEGALITY OF THE ORDERS MEMORANDUM OPINION OF DISTRICT COURT JUDGE; DISTRICT COURT PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION; DISTRICT COURT CLARIFIED PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION; 4TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS STAY PENDING APPEAL
The concurring opinion of Chief Judge Diaz stated:
"...The Executive Orders charge that DEI (and the related DEIA, which also denotes Accessibility) policies include “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” that “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” See Exec. Order No. 14,173, 90 Fed. Reg. 8633 (Jan. 21, 2025). The Orders seek to terminate all “‘equity-based’ grants or contracts” that apparently have led to “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.” Exec. Order No. 14,151, 90 Fed. Reg. 8339 (Jan. 20, 2025). But neither Order ever defines DEI or its component terms.2 1Like my colleague, I too reserve judgment on how the administration enforces these executive orders, which may well implicate cognizable First and Fifth Amendment concerns. See Concurring Op. at 7–8 (Harris, J., concurring). I likewise reserve judgment on the extent to which the government relies on the Orders’ savings clause provisions as it enforces the Orders’ directives against federal contractors, grantees, and private entities. See, e.g., City & Cnty. of San Francisco v. Trump, 897 F.3d 1225, 1239–40 (9th Cir. 2018) (declining to give effect to savings clause where that clause “in [] context” would “override clear and specific language,” and render “judicial review a meaningless exercise”). 2 As a result, it’s unclear what types of programs—formal or informal—the administration seeks to eliminate, and it could not respond to the district court’s (Continued) 4 And despite the vitriol now being heaped on DEI, people of good faith who work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion deserve praise, not opprobrium. For when this country embraces true diversity, it acknowledges and respects the social identity of its people. When it fosters true equity, it opens opportunities and ensures a level playing field for all. And when its policies are truly inclusive, it creates an environment and culture where everyone is respected and valued. What could be more American than that?..." COMMENT: The government alleges DEI programs are discriminatory. DEI is designed to remedy past and present discrimination against minority groups. What the government under Trump and the MAGA movement is doing is reasserting racist white supremacist ideology and targeting minority and disenfranchised groups. This is inspite of the fact that "In the United States, the wealthiest families are overwhelmingly white, and white households hold a significantly larger share of total wealth compared to other racial groups, with white families having six times the average wealth of Black and Hispanic families..." GOOGLE" Therefore Trump and the MAGA movement are attempting to maintain white supremacy and hegemony During the election Trump et al belittled Kamala Harris as a DEI hire who was incompetent. "The latest attack on Harris is that she is a “DEI Vice President” Specifically, Tennessee Congressman Timothy Burchett, who is incidentally exactly the same age as Harris and arguably possesses a thinner resume, claims that because she is a woman of color chosen for such a high office, she is just another example of the kind of “mediocrity” that you get when you make a “DEI hire.” “DEI hire” is a disparaging term that refers to quotas or targets for hiring racial and ethnic minorities, women, and/or people with disabilities for positions of authority and/or power. Because it refers to all of the above groups, the term “DEI hire” actually implies that only heterosexual, white men are qualified for such high leadership positions. Indeed, the same people who use the term also tend to extol the idea of “meritocracy.”"FORBES "...The formation of unity struggles among people of color widely emerged in the 20th century and have been identified as an attempt to forge a united struggle by emphasizing the similar forms of oppression black and brown people confront under white supremacy, including shared experiences of subjugation under colonial capitalism, Jim Crow laws, de jure and de facto school and community segregation, voter disenfranchisement, economic oppression, exclusion from white-owned establishments, and the perception by white people that black and brown people are biologically and racially predisposed to be inferior, criminal, disorderly, and degenerate.[4][5]"WIKIPEDIA"

" WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the new White House website said. The website said Trump rescinded Executive Order 14115 issued on Feb. 1, 2024, which authorized the imposition of certain sanctions "on Persons Undermining Peace. Security, and Stability in the West Bank." Trump's decision is a reversal of a major policy action by former President Joe Biden's administration which had slapped sanctions on numerous Israeli settler individuals and entities, freezing their U.S. assets and generally barring Americans from dealing with them. As much of the world's attention has focused on the war in Gaza, growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concern among some of Israel's Western allies..."
ATLANTIC:"Did Elon Musk actually toss off a Sieg heil! at Donald Trump’s inauguration rally today? A lot of people online seem to think he did, based on data from their eyeballs. Freeze-frame images of Musk on social media show the world’s richest man at a podium in Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena engaging in what could definitely be construed as a Nazi salute..."

CNN:" The US Treasury Department notified lawmakers on Monday that a China state-sponsored actor infiltrated Treasury workstations in what officials are describing as a “major incident.” In a letter reviewed by CNN, a Treasury official said it was informed by a third-party software service provider on December 8 that a threat actor used a stolen key to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and unclassified documents. “Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management at the US Treasury, wrote in the letter. A Treasury spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that the compromised service has been taken offline and officials are working with law enforcement and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). “There is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” the Treasury spokesperson said..."

CNN:"Body-worn camera footage released Friday shows correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York punching and kicking a handcuffed inmate in a fatal beating that is now under investigation by the New York attorney general. Robert Brooks was pronounced dead on December 10 at Wynn Hospital in Utica, according to Attorney General Letitia James. Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault, prison documents show. CNN has reviewed the footage, parts of which show surrounding officers kicking and punching Brooks, who has his hands handcuffed behind his back in a medical examination room. Brooks’ face appears bloody in some of the footage. At one point, an officer appears to shove something in Brooks’ mouth before repeatedly hitting him in the face. Another officer then punches Brooks in the groin before using a shoe to strike him..."

CNN:" A newborn baby died from the cold in a tent encampment in Al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza, a health official said Wednesday, highlighting the stark challenges to survival faced by Palestinian children displaced from their homes amid Israel’s ongoing assault on the strip. Sela Mahmoud Al-Fasih “froze to death from the extreme cold” in Al-Mawasi, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, posted on X on Wednesday. In the past week, at least four infants have died of hypothermia from low temperatures and a lack of access to warmth while living in tents, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, the head of pediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, said on Thursday. Among them were a three-day-old and a one-month-old who also died in Al-Mawasi, he said. Staff in the neonatal ICU see at least five cases of hypothermia per day, added Al-Farra. Reduced breastfeeding and limited availability of infant formula has severely compounded the risk of hypothermia among babies, he told CNN. Meanwhile, health workers are struggling to treat young patients due to shortages of electricity, diesel and other fuel. “This is one of the disastrous results of this criminal war,” said Al-Farra..."

APNEWS:" Democrats in North Carolina were celebrating big wins in the swing state after the November election, including victories in races for governor and other top statewide offices. But the political high didn’t last long. Republican lawmakers are stripping away some core powers of the newly elected officials through a series of wide-ranging changes, anticipating that the result of a yet-to-be-called state legislative race will cost them their veto-proof majority next year. Critics say the moves, which were rushed through without any chance for public comment or analysis, undermine the voters and are simply undemocratic, but they have few options for undoing them. “Let us speak plainly: This bill is nothing more than a desperate power grab,” said Courtney Patterson, vice president of the NAACP’s North Carolina chapter...."

NYTIMES:"Amnesty International on Thursday became the first major international human rights organization to accuse Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, drawing a rebuke from Israeli officials who denied the claim. Amnesty’s contention, outlined in a 296-page report, comes as the International Court of Justice, the principal court of the United Nations, is reviewing similar allegations by South Africa, claims that have been at the heart of difficult debates about the war around the world. “Israel committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the Amnesty report said. “Israel’s unlawful conduct throughout its military offensive resulted in unprecedented harm to Palestinians in Gaza that resulted in the massive scale of killings and serious injuries over an extremely short time,” it added. Lawyers say that genocide is among the most difficult crimes to prove in international law because it requires demonstrating the specific intent to destroy a group, “in whole or in part,” something that Israeli leaders have persistently denied is their intent in Gaza. In a rare move, the Israel chapter of Amnesty International protested the findings of the report, saying “the majority” of local members “holds that the claim that Israel is committing a genocide is not sufficiently substantiated.” Still, the local chapter said that it was worried “serious crimes” were being perpetrated in Gaza and that the killing and destruction in Gaza was at “catastrophic proportions and must cease immediately.” The chapter later said that four members of its board resigned over differences of opinion on the report. The organization didn’t clarify whether those who resigned were in favor or against the report..."

THE ICC:" Today, on 21 November 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (‘Court’), in its composition for the Situation in the State of Palestine, unanimously issued two decisions rejecting challenges by the State of Israel (‘Israel’) brought under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute (the ‘Statute’). It also issued warrants of arrest for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant...."

NYTIMES:"We Americans live in faith with our Constitution and with the past generations of Americans who swore to protect it and fought to defend it. One week from today, we will decide whether Donald Trump is fit to be president of the United States again. He is not. When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us. Campaigning for the presidency again, he now promises to exact vengeance against his fellow Americans whom he deems “the enemy from within,” those who have dared to challenge his betrayal, an enemies list that includes Republicans and Democrats alike. There could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate a man who betrayed the nation when he was previously entrusted with the highest office in the land and now threatens the persecution of American citizens who have crossed him. In the almost 250 years since the founding of the nation, no president before Donald Trump has ever so betrayed America..."

THEGUARDIAN:" World must act to prevent ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Gaza, António Guterres warns Secretary general makes appeal as civilian casualties mount amid intensive Israeli strikes on north Patrick Greenfield in Cali, Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Julian Borger in Jerusalem Wed 30 Oct 2024 14.05 EDT Share The UN secretary general, António Guterres has warned Israel could carry out the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza if the international community does not make a determined stand to prevent it. Guterres made his appeal at a time of mounting civilian casualties from the Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza. A strike on Tuesday in Beit Lahiya district killed at least 93 people, in what the UN said was just one of at least seven “mass casualty incidents” across Gaza in the past week. At the same time, aid deliveries to Gaza are reported to have fallen to their lowest level since the start of the war, leading to growing allegations that Israel’s true intention is to drive the remaining Palestinian population out of at least part of Gaza. The UN secretary general, speaking on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, suggested that the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza had been prevented until now by its people’s refusal to succumb to the intense pressure to flee their homes and by Arab resolve not to accept mass population transfers...."

"JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Israel's parliament passed a law on Monday to ban the UN relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel's Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israeli officials cited the involvement of a handful of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees' thousands of staffers in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and a few staffers' membership in Hamas and other armed groups."

WASHINGTONPOST:"Is Israel carrying out de facto ethnic cleansing? A pro-settlement Israeli group and some Israeli lawmakers gathered a couple miles from northern Gaza’s blasted neighborhoods to rally around settling Gaza.Just a couple miles from Gaza, top Israeli politicians gathered earlier this week and declaimed their grand visions for its future. “If we want it, we can renew settlements in Gaza,” said far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, telling a gathering of a major settler organization that he would encourage the “voluntary transfer” of Palestinians living in war-stricken Gaza out of the territory and the return of Jewish settlers, including those who were forced out of Gaza by their own government in 2005. “What we have learned this year is that everything is in our hands,” Ben Gvir said, before identifying what he considered the major legacy of militant group Hamas’s terrorist strike on southern Israel more than a year ago. “We are the owners of this land. Yes, we experienced a terrible catastrophe on October 7. But what we need to understand, one year later, is that so many Israelis have changed their thinking. They have changed their mindset. They understand that when Israel acts like the rightful owners of this land, this is what brings results.” The mindset that he was extolling was a certain streak of ruthlessness in cracking down on its enemies, from Palestinian group Hamas to Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel was doing “whatever we want,” as Ben Gvir put it, in its ongoing military operations. It underscores the conviction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who still speaks of achieving a “total victory” against Israel’s foes even when myriad Western leaders want him to agree to deals ceasing hostilities over both Gaza and Lebanon..."

CNN:"Israel has been on the receiving end of scathing criticism from European leaders who are trying to restrain the Jewish state from pressing on with its wars in Gaza and southern Lebanon. From calls for a complete halt of weapons sales to Israel and considering sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers, to talks among EU members on reviewing Israel’s Association Agreement with the bloc, European leaders are trying to use their leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into negotiating ceasefires. Adding impetus to their effort is the fact Israeli military strikes are now hitting UN peacekeeping bases in southern Lebanon, which house European troops."

AP:"Army Gen. Mark Milley delivered a full-throated defense of democracy and not-so-subtle swipes at former President Donald Trump during a packed ceremony as he closed out his four, often tumultuous years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I'm deeply honored to have worn the cloth of this nation for 43 and a half years and I'm humbled to have served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but today is not about anyone up here on this stage it's not about the president the Secretary of Defense May CQ it's not about us it's about something much larger than all of us it's about our democracy it's about our Republic we are unique among the world's armies we are unique among the world's militaries we don't take an oath to a country we don't take an oath to a tribe we don't take an oath to a religion we don't take an oath to a king or queen or they're Tyrant or dictator that we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator we don't take an oath to an individual we've taken oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America and we're willing to die to protect it ..."

CNN:" John Kelly, the retired Marine general who was Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, entered the 2024 fray in stunning fashion, saying the former president fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had” in a series of interviews published Tuesday. Kelly’s comments, two weeks from Election Day, are the latest in a line of warnings from former Trump White House aides about how he views the presidency and would exercise power if returned to office. In addition to the fascist comments, Kelly — who was Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019 — told The New York Times that the former president “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.” He also confirmed to The Atlantic that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II, and recounted the moment...

"WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start that nation's war with Russia, a comment that further suggests Trump is likely to radically shift U.S. policy toward Ukraine if he wins the Nov. 5 election. The Republican former president has frequently criticized Zelenskiy on the campaign trail, repeatedly calling him "the greatest salesman on Earth" for having solicited and received billions of dollars of U.S. military aid since the war broke out in 2022.Trump has also slammed the Ukrainian leader for failing to seek peace with Moscow, and he has suggested Ukraine may have to cede some of its land to Russia to make a peace deal, a concession Kyiv considers unacceptable...." COMMENT: ONCE AGAIN PUTIN'S POODLE, A DE FACTO RUSSIAN PET, BARKS. RUSSIA HAS ALWAYS SOUGHT TO CREATE DIVISION AND MAKE AMERICA TURN ON ITSELF WHICH IS WHAT TRUMP HAS BEEN DOING, AND CONTINUES TO DO

NYTIMES:"...An investigation by The New York Times found that Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents, throughout the war in Gaza, have regularly forced captured Palestinians like Mr. Shubeir to conduct life-threatening reconnaissance missions to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk on the battlefield...""...Deadly strikes in central Gaza overnight killed or injured dozens of Palestinians, health officials and the United Nations said on Monday, as the Israeli military hit a hospital complex where it said Hamas fighters were hiding and a separate attack damaged a school turned shelter..."

CNN:"Israel’s widening military operations in Gaza and Lebanon – and looming response to Iran’s missile attack – are testament to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for political survival, a former Israeli diplomat told CNN. “Netanyahu does not want to end the war,” Israel’s former consul general to New York Alon Pinkas told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade. “He wanted to extend, to prolong the war in order to create … a war-like atmosphere which is important to him politically and expedient to him politically,” said Pinkas, who was speaking from Tel Aviv..."

CNN:"No food has entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of going hungry, the World Food Programme told CNN on Friday. In August, approximately 700 hundred aid trucks entered northern Gaza. In September, only 400 aid trucks entered, after commercial operations ceased at the Allenby Crossing on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, the WFP added. No food trucks have entered northern Gaza in October, the WFP told CNN. On Wednesday, the WFP said in a report that the aid entering the strip has plummeted to its lowest level in months, forcing the organization to stop the distribution of food parcels in October..."

NYTIMES:"...The story Netanyahu wants to tell the world is that Iran and its proxies are the main obstacle to the world of inclusion stretching from Europe, through the Middle East, and over to the Asia-Pacific region. I beg to differ. The keystone to this whole alliance is a Saudi-Israel normalization based on reconciliation between Israel and moderate Palestinians. If Israel now moved ahead and opened a dialogue on two states for two peoples with a reformed Palestinian Authority, which has already accepted the Oslo peace treaty, it would be the diplomatic knockout blow that would accompany and solidify the military knockout blow Israel just delivered to Hezbollah and Hamas...."

WSJ:"In less than two years, OpenAI has gone from a little-known nonprofit lab working on obscure technology to a world-famous business whose chief executive is the face of the artificial-intelligence revolution. That change is tearing the company apart. On Wednesday, OpenAI’s chief technology officer became the latest high-profile executive to announce an exit, departing as the company prepares to become a for-profit corporation. The exits are public eruptions of tensions that have been growing in the company behind ChatGPT since CEO Sam Altman returned following his brief ouster last year. Some tensions are related to conflicts between OpenAI’s original mission to develop AI for the public good and new initiatives to deploy moneymaking products. Others relate to chaos and infighting among executives worthy of a soap opera. CTO Mira Murati is one of more than 20 OpenAI researchers and executives who have quit this year, including several co-founders..."

NYTIMES:" On the Trail, Trump and Vance Sharpen a Nativist, Anti-Immigrant Tone From calling for mass deportations to spreading false claims about migrants eating pets, former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, are taking a hard line... Mr. Trump then took a broad swipe at several corners of the globe. “They’re coming from the Congo. They’re coming from Africa. They’re coming from the Middle East. They’re coming from all over the world — Asia,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of it coming from Asia. “What’s happening to our country is we’re just destroying the fabric of life in our country,” Mr. Trump continued. “We’re not going to take it any longer. You got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot.” Kathleen Belew, an associate professor of American studies at Northwestern University and the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America,” said Mr. Trump’s campaign was taking a page from “an old playbook.” “It’s straight-up fear-mongering,” Ms. Belew said. “It’s incredibly efficient to demonize people and make others scared of them, and it’s always carried a huge and violent cost.” " COMMENT: THE ONLY TRUE NATIVISTS ARE THE NATIVE AMERICANS. THE REST OF YOU ARE IMMIGRANTS AND SOME OF YOU ARE DECENDANTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PUSHING "MANIFEST DESTINY" MURDER AND BRUTALITY

WOKEPREACHERTV: Billy Graham's grand daughter spoke about why she became involved in politics. It started in 2016 when a man bragged about assaulting women. Various leaders propped up this man as a poster boy for Godly manhood and leadership. She watched pastors overlook his actions and continued supporting him. These same pastors looked the other way concerning the assaults, the name calling and January 6. The reason why she got involved in politics is to go against faith leaders who support a man who destroys everything that Jesus stands for: Justice Mercy and Humility citing Micah 6:8.

CNN:" The father of an American hostage still being held in Gaza by Hamas criticized the deadly attacks in Lebanon that caused pagers and walkie-talkies to explode killing dozens, stating “this pager, mission-impossible action, it’s like treating agony with more agony.” Adi Alexander, whose son Edan Alexander is being held, said in an interview on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” that “this vicious cycle of violence needs to stop.” Israel has not officially taken credit for the attacks, but CNN has reported that Tuesday’s operation was a joint effort between the IDF and Mossad..."COMMENT: THE VIOLENCE MUST STOP

CNN:"US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called for “fundamental changes” to the way Israeli forces operate in the occupied West Bank after the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi at a protest last week. Blinken’s sharply worded rebuke came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire.”"

CNN:"Many are feared killed and wounded after Israeli forces struck a humanitarian zone created to shelter displaced people in southern Gaza, in what Israel said was an attack on Hamas terrorists in the area. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday evening that it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center embedded inside the humanitarian area” in Khan Younis, Gaza. Hamas denied it had placed fighters in the area. Gazan authorities said dozens of Palestinian families had been buried in the strike on a crowded displacement camp and that a search was underway to locate victims."

CNN:" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July effectively spiked a draft hostage and ceasefire deal by introducing a raft of new, 11th-hour demands, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth citing a document it obtained. The report lends credence to charges often leveled at the prime minister – most notably by hostage families – of purposefully prolonging the war and torpedoing deals for his political benefit. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have pledged to bring down the government should he end the war. Several news outlets, including CNN, have reported on the late July demands made by Netanyahu, but this is the first time the Israeli document has been obtained in full. According to the newspaper, at least three of six hostages found dead in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend were due for release as part of the May draft agreement – Carmel Gat, Aden Yerushalmi, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin."
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “there will be a strong reaction” to the deaths of the six hostages whose bodies were found in Gaza this weekend, and plans “to hurt Hamas in a way Israel hasn’t done before,” according to an Israeli official. “The intention of the PM now is to hurt Hamas in a way Israel hasn’t done before,” the official told CNN. The official also spoke about the Israeli cabinet’s decision on Thursday to demand that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remain in the Philadelphi corridor.."

CNN:" With its announcement that militants guarding Israeli hostages in the buildings and tunnels of Gaza had “new instructions” to kill them If Israeli troops closed in, Hamas signalled the opening of a chilling new chapter in an already brutal war...."

"CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said on Wednesday, as the military said troops continued to target militants and seize weapons and ammunition. As last-ditch diplomatic efforts continued to halt the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.... The conflict churned on as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his latest visit to the Middle East with no clear sign over whether a deal to end the fighting is in sight."COMMENT: NETANYAHU WANTS TO STAY IN POWER WITH CONTINUAL WAR AS DOES HAMAS HEZBOLLAH ISLAMIC JIHAD BACKED BY IRAN AND RUSSIA. THE ONLY SOLUTION AT THIS POINT IS A UN PEACE KEEPING FORCE TO FORCE THE PARTIES TO DEMILITARIZE AND WORK OUT A PERMANENT CEASE FIRE

CNN:"Iran claims Hamas leader killed by ‘short-range projectile,’ contradicting reports it was hidden bomb"REUTERS: " For many of the Druze community in the Golan Heights mourning 12 youngsters killed in a missile strike at the weekend, the carnage came as a shock despite the months of daily rocket fire and air strikes between Israel and southern Lebanon." THENATIONAL:"After the attack, right-wing members of Israel’s security cabinet showed up in Majdal Shams to mourn, despite a request from Yasser Gadban, a local Druze community leader, for them to stay away. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was met by chants of "murderer" during his visit, while far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has repeatedly called for war against Lebanon, was surrounded by angry locals when he arrived in the area."COMMENT: THE WAR MONGERS WANT THE CARNAGE TO CONTINUE UNTIL WE ARE ALL DEAD. THE WHOLE WORLD IS SICK AND TIRED OF THIS CONSTANT STRIFE. WE MUST HAVE PEACE AND A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION WITHOUT VIOLENCE AND WAR.

CNN:" Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the United States’ and Germany’s decision to deploy US long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 is “reminiscent of the events of the Cold War” and could see Russia station similar missiles in response. “If the United States of America implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capabilities of the coastal forces of our Navy,” said Putin, speaking at Russia’s annual Navy Day in St. Petersburg. Putin added that the development of Russian medium and shorter-range strike weapons was “in the final stages,” and Russia would take “reciprocal measures to deploy them.”...COMMENT: YOU HAVE BEEN THREATENING THE WORLD WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS SINCE THE INVASION OF UKRAINE. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ASSHOLE.

REUTERS:"MOSCOW, June 23 (Reuters) - Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, could reduce the decision-making time stipulated in official policy for the use of nuclear weapons if Moscow believes that threats are increasing, parliament's defence committee chairman said. The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis..."BOTH THE KREMLIN AND NORTH KOREA HAVE BEEN THREATENING THE WEST WITH NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON FOR YEARS.

CNN:" A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that white supremacist and nationalist groups will have to pay a more than $2 million in punitive damages to people who suffered physical or emotional injuries from the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 2021, a jury ruled white nationalist leaders and organizations had to pay more than $26 million in damages to those who suffered injuries from the rally. "

CNN: Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and the MAGA mob are calling for revenge and retribution Andrew McCabe and James Comey were legally harassed by Trump for years but nothing came of it. In the interview with Anderson, McCabe stated that people in the Justice Department and Intelligence are worried that they and their families will be subjected to extra-judicial unconstitutional detentions or worse. "This level of absolutely anti-democratic rhetoric and behavior and ideation he says stands in direct contrast to the nation we think we are, the nation we have always been..."(emphasis added) "

WASHINGTONPOST:"The Justice Department on Wednesday charged two Russian media executives in an alleged scheme that authorities say illegally funneled millions of dollars to a Tennessee-based company to create and publish propaganda videos that racked up millions of views on U.S. social media...."

BLOOMBERG:"Almost two-thirds of Americans considered middle class said they are facing economic hardship and don’t anticipate a change for the rest of their lives, according to a poll commissioned by the National True Cost of Living Coalition. By many traditional measures, the US economy is strong, with robust labor, housing and stock markets, as well as solid gross domestic product growth. But the data don’t capture the financial insecurity of millions of households who worry about their future and are unable to save, according to the group, created this year to come up with cost-of-living tools that help gauge economic well-being...."

WASHINGTONPOST:"The United Nations Security Council approved, 14-0, a U.S.-sponsored resolution to support the American-backed cease-fire plan for Gaza. Russia abstained. The vote was a rare diplomatic victory for the Biden administration in the international body, where criticism has grown over what is seen by many as U.S. support for the war and Israeli intransigence..."

CNN:"The United Nations' top court has ordered Israel to halt its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," said Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court, which sits in The Hague, the Netherlands, made the ruling on Friday as part of the ongoing genocide case brought by South Africa. .."

NYTIMES:" Israeli Bulldozers Flatten Mile After Mile in the West Bank Videos from Tulkarm and Jenin show bulldozers destroying infrastructure and businesses, as well as soldiers impeding local emergency responders.Over two weeks, Palestinians watched as Israeli military bulldozers tore up mile after mile of their streets and alleys, sewage seeping into the dusty ruts left behind...."

BLOOMBERG:" Sundar Pichai, Google, and the AI Boom Ahead of Google's developer conference I/O, Google & Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sits down exclusively with Bloomberg Originals Host & Executive Producer Emily Chang to discuss the future of search, accelerating work on Google's AI models and how his upbringing prepared him for this moment. (Source: Bloomberg) ..”

WSJ:"CUPERTINO, Calif.—If I had a dollar for every time an executive said “Apple Intelligence” at its developer’s conference on Monday, I’d have a steak dinner with all the trimmings. (So, yes, about 60 times.) After nearly two years of sitting out the generative-artificial-intelligence frenzy, Apple finally jumped in the deep end. The company is injecting AI tools throughout coming versions of its biggest platforms: iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia. There’s a new and improved Siri you can even text with. There’s a new partnership with OpenAI that will bring ChatGPT into Apple apps. There are ways to generate new images and emojis on the fly...."

WSJ:"As the U.S. and some Arab nations try to persuade Israel to work toward resolving its conflicts with Palestinians for good, young Palestinians increasingly say they don’t see an independent state as viable given Israel’s deep footprint in the West Bank and Gaza. Their pessimism, coupled with a flatlining peace process, makes it less likely a two-state solution will be achieved. It could also force Palestinian, Israeli and international leaders to return to the drawing board. Palestinians under 25 are less optimistic about the future than their elders, according to polling from the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. They are also more supportive of using violence to fight for democratic rights than their parents and grandparents, a symptom of the past’s failed diplomacy, said Khalil Shikaki, the center’s director...."

THEGUARDIAN:"The provocative Jerusalem Day parade by thousands of Jewish nationalists celebrates Israel’s capture and occupation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites in the 1967 war, a move that is not internationally recognised. It has often featured violent clashes between marchers and Palestinian residents of the Old City, as well as anti-Arab hate speech and vandalism of Palestinian property, although last year’s march passed relatively peacefully......"
HAARETZ:"On December 4 , 1948, the New York Times published a letter by a group of Jewish dignitaries, including Albert Einstein and political theorist Hannah Arendt, protesting a visit to the United States “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”"(EMPHASIS ADDED)
PRINCETON ALUMNI WEEKLY:"Referring to the massacre of Arabs by Jews in the village of Deir Yassin, the letter said “the [Jewish] terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely. … The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.” Further describing the Freedom Party, the letter stated it includes “an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority” and that it bore the “unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a ‘Leader State’ is the goal.” The letter ended by saying that America should turn its back on Begin and not support “this latest manifestation of fascism.” "EMPHASIS ADDED
WIKIPEDIA:"The Nakba (Arabic: النَّكْبَة an-Nakba, lit. 'the catastrophe') was the ethnic cleansing[1] of Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine during the 1948 Palestine war through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society, and the suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.[2] The term is also used to describe the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel.[3] As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.[4][5]"WIKIPEDIA:"The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict traces back to the late 19th century when Zionists sought to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition.[1][2][3][4] The Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British government, endorsed the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which led to an influx of Jewish immigrants to the region. Following World War II and the Holocaust, international pressure mounted for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, leading to the creation of Israel in 1948..."

CNN:" Almost exactly six months ago, Israelis awoke to a nightmare. Civilians in the southern part of the country, areas near the border with Gaza, were under a brutal, ongoing attack. It would become the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust and a prelude to unspeakable suffering on both sides of the border.Six months after Hamas launched that deadly rampage, knowing that Israel’s response would be ferocious, there are only losers in this terrible war...."

CNN:"To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is “fantastic,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “brilliant,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “an OK guy,” and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did some good things,” a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN. ..”An undercurrent of implied violence has always been an essential ingredient of Donald Trump’s strongman persona. As the ex-president’s first trial and the general election approach, he is turning up the heat, creating a tense political atmosphere...."

REUTERS:"DEARBORN, Michigan, Feb 27 - The depth of Democratic Party anger over President Joe Biden’s handling of the Gaza war has caught his campaign off guard and could depress support in November’s election, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen senior party and campaign officials and five dozen voters and activists.... "

CNN:"Steven Spielberg had words of caution and hope on Monday while accepting an honor from the University of Southern California. '... The rise in extremist views has created a dangerous environment and radical intolerance (that) leads to a society that no longer celebrates differences, but to instead conspire to demonize those who are different to the point of creating the other.... Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...'..."

NYTIMES:"...They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years through isolation — some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had high-speed internet thanks to Elon Musk...."

WASHINGTONPOST:
"When Pedro Guerrero Mortero was growing up in California’s Central Valley, where one-quarter of the nation’s food is produced, he saw daily how undocumented agricultural workers such as his parents lived in a country that didn’t recognize them or the benefits it was reaping from their countless hours of toil in the blistering sun. .."

CNN:"... JPMorgan Chase now fights off about 45 billion attempts a day by hackers to infiltrate its systems. That’s double what it was last year, highlighting the escalating cybersecurity challenges the bank and other Wall Street titans are facing..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"The major cloud computing provider spun out of Hewlett-Packard said late Wednesday that it had been hacked by a suspected Russian intelligence team, the second such hack of a major U.S. internet company reported this month...."

CNN:"...In 2006, I opened the office of OneVoice Gaza in Gaza City to galvanize Palestinians behind the goal of a two-state solution reached through negotiation with Israel and our neighbors..."COMMENT: VIOLENCE IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. IT ONLY LEADS TO MORE VIOLENCE HATRED AND DEATH. ONE CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE HAVEN'T LEARNED THIS BY NOW

CNN:" Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi paid tribute to the Iranian people’s determination to “dismantle” the “despotism and obstruction” of the Islamic Republic’s regime in her Nobel Peace Prize lecture delivered by her children, Kiana and Ali, on Sunday. Her teenage twins, who have not seen their mother in years, accepted the award on her behalf at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital, Oslo..."

NYTIMES:" How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent By Anton Troianovski, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Oleg Matsnev, Alina Lobzina, Valerie Hopkins and Aaron Krolik Dec. 29, 2023 Just days after invading Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a censorship law that made it illegal to “discredit” the army. The legislation was so sweeping that even his spokesman acknowledged it was easy to cross the line into prohibited speech. In the first 18 months of the war, the law scooped up a vast array of ordinary Russians — schoolteachers, pensioners, groundskeepers, a carwash owner — for punishment..."

"LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin waited three days before commenting on Hamas' massacre of Israelis, which happened to take place on his 71st birthday. When he did, he blamed the United States, not Hamas. "I think that many will agree with me that this is a clear example of the failed policy in the Middle East of the United States, which tried to monopolise the settlement process," Putin told Iraq's prime minister."COMMENT: HAMAS stated Oct 7 was for 30 years of oppression and immediately called for shitler to act as mediator. Iran feigned surprise. Anyone with half a brain could see that the current war was precipitated by fascist imperialist Russia and its proxies. HAMAS attacked on Putin's birthday. The IDF was aware of the plan a year before but thought it was just "aspirational" NYTIMESThe current catastrophe was calculated and precipitated by Hamas, Iran and Russia. Netanyahu was aware of the plan and has used it to galvanize the right and conduct genocidal tactics creating more hatred towards Israel. At this point Israel Hamas Iran and Russia are responsible for every drop of blood spilled.

CNN:" Arab and Muslim leaders decried Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza at a summit in Riyadh where Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a first public meeting...."COMMENT:THE JEWS ARE INDIGENIOUS TO ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST. IRAN IS A FASCIST PROXY OF AN IMPERIALIST TERRORIST RUSSIA AS IS EVERY FASCIST TERRORIST ORGANIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST. IT IS HAMAS' STRATEGY TO USE CIVILIANS AS SHIELDS. ISLAMIC FASCIST THINKING VIEWS ALL INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AS SLAVES.(REUTERS:Arab militias scorn ethnic Africans as 'slaves'; hundreds of thousands flee Sudan) .HAMAS IRAN AND RUSSIA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS CATASTROPHE. SPARE US YOUR BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA

CNN:"Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas' founder who later became one of Israel's top informants, speaks with CNN's Jake Tapper about Israel's war on the terror group and the situation in Gaza" Yousef states that Hamas wants the total annihilation of Israel and Jews and wants to establish a global Islamic state. Yousef states that Israel is fighting for the Palestians to be free from Hamas.COMMENT: RUSSIA AND IRAN back Hamas and other terror organiations.CHINA also provides them weapons

CNN:" More than a billion Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists around the world are celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali, also called Deepavali, is one of the biggest festivals in India. It’s also widely celebrated in Nepal, Malaysia, Fiji and other countries with large South Asian diasporas. Homes, businesses and public spaces are lit up with diyas, or oil lamps made from clay, and fireworks displays abound. People gather with their families, eat sweets and exchange gifts. Despite its deep religious significance, Diwali today is also a cultural festival observed by people regardless of faith. Here’s what to know about the holiday..."

" CNN:" The North Shore attracts more than 3 million visitors each year. Surfers are drawn to test their abilities in taming “perfectly glassy waves,” as Cannon described them. Pacific waters roaring against the shores of Banzai Pipeline and Waimea Bay can reach staggering heights north of 30 feet."

METERORED:"These wonderful scenes were filmed at a depth of over 650 metres at the Winslow reef complex on Tokelau Ridge."

ABCNEWS:"Tennessee otter enjoys playing in the snow"

Cat Saves Dog Being Attacked by Coyotes KCAU-TV Sioux City 17.1K subscribers 218,688 views Jan 2, 2024 Cat Saves Dog Being Attacked by Coyotes

CNN:" A 2-year-old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family’s two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow, authorities said. Troopers were called to a house in rural Faithorn, Michigan, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday after the toddler, Thea Chase, had wandered away from the home, Michigan State Police Lt. Mark Giannunzio told CNN on Friday. Faithorn is a small town about a mile east of Wisconsin’s border in northern Michigan."

CNN:" An image of a napping polar bear curled up on an iceberg has captured the hearts of voters to become the winner of this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award. British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani called it an honor to win the award for the dreamy scene “Ice Bed,” captured off Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, saying that the image “stirred strong emotions,” such as hope, in those who saw it."

CNN:"Stunning photos spotlight vanishing ‘super tusker’ elephants By Anna Tunkova Updated 17 hr ago Federico Veronesi’s “Walk the Earth” is the result of years spent tracking Africa’s last super tuskers. In the book, he describes them as “the last guardians of Africa’s wild spirit, embodying the soul of the untamed wilderness.” Photo gallery: 'Walk the Earth' 6 photos Federico Veronesi’s “Walk the Earth” is the result of years spent tracking Africa’s last super tuskers. In the book, he describes them as “the last guardians of Africa’s wild spirit, embodying the soul of the untamed wilderness.” Federico Veronesi"

CNN:" It’s the body of water that instils fear and inspires sailors in equal measure. Six hundred miles of open sea, and some of the roughest conditions on the planet ...It is, of course, the Drake Passage..."

CNN:"World's largest species of fish spotted in rare appearance Researchers from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology Shark Research Lab say they spotted the whale shark a mile off the Kāneʻohe Bay."

CNN:" An orca pod in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico has devised a cunning strategy to hunt and kill whale sharks — the world’s largest fish that can grow up to 18 meters (60 feet) in length — new research has revealed..."

AP:"SEATTLE (AP) — It’s a good thing seals aren’t on a humpback whale’s menu. A photograph by a whale-watching naturalist captured a seemingly bewildered seal in the mouth of a humpback whale after the giant marine mammal accidentally gulped it last Thursday in the waters off Anacortes, Washington. The food mix-up began while a Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours boat spotted birds flying over a school of fish and a humpback whale swimming toward it, Captain Tyler McKeen said..."

NYTIMES:"When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again. The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground at Fishing Bridge R.V. Park but never found their 2-year-old male Siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” ..."

CNN:"Koalas are very hard to see at night. Their gray fur blurs with the bitumen on dimly lit roads, and they move deceptively quickly for a marsupial often seen languidly munching on leaves high in trees. But for an endangered species whose population numbers are said to be unreliable due to their elusive nature, koala sightings are becoming all too common during breeding season in some areas in and around Brisbane. And not just in trees. Day and night, they’re spotted close to busy roads, on fences, up power poles, in backyards, near swimming pools, in schools – places they aren’t safe..."

THEGUARDIAN:"...I’m not an ardent cat lover, and I don’t consider myself to be an especially soppy person, but his words send chills down my neck. I feel something open in my chest and my eyes start prickling. What I’m feeling is kama muta – an under-recognised emotion that has been the focus of Fiske’s work for more than a decade. According to Fiske and his colleagues, kama muta evolved to bind us to others and strengthen our relationships. “It motivates you to embrace and care for other people,” says Jon Zabala, a researcher at the University of the Basque Country. We experience it at some of the most important events of our lives – births, weddings, and funerals ..."

PHYS.ORG:"Fleeting blasts of energy from space, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), are a cosmic enigma. A Canadian-led international team of researchers has published new findings suggesting that supernovae are the predominant contributors to forming sources that eventually produce FRBs..."

CNBC:"CNBC’s Julia Boorstin and Dario Gil, IBM director of research, join 'Power Lunch' to discuss the new AI alliance between META and IBM. .."IBM, META, AMD, ORACLE, INTEL and about 50 other companies are forming the AI alliance to build vetted interoperable AI tools. They will develop and deploy benchmarks and evaluation standards, tools and other responsible development of AI systems at global scale. They're also talking about addressing social issues witb AI as well as educating policy makers.The IBM Director of Research Dario Gil stated that Open Source has become the modern way develop interoperable standards...

CNN:" Scientists in California shooting nearly 200 lasers at a cylinder holding a fuel capsule the size of a peppercorn have taken another step in the quest for fusion energy, which, if mastered, could provide the world with a near-limitless source of clean power. .”.."

CNNBUSINESS:
"...Silicon Valley startup ClimateAi is developing an artificial intelligence platform to evaluate how vulnerable crops are to warming temperatures over the next two decades. The tool uses data on the climate, water and soil of a particular location to measure how viable the landscape will be for growing in the coming years. Maharashtra, India, was one of its first case studies in 2021. ..."

THE-EUROPEAN-SPACE-AGENCY:"Euclid, our dark Universe detective, has a difficult task: to investigate how dark matter and dark energy have made our Universe look like it does today. 95% of our cosmos appears to be made of these mysterious ‘dark’ entities. But we don’t understand what they are because their presence causes only very subtle changes in the appearance and motions of the things we can see... "

CNN:"A glowing supernova remnant, a nebula shaped like a cat’s paw and the iconic “Pillars of Creation” are just a few of the celestial objects that shine in 25 never-before-seen images captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to mark the telescope’s 25th anniversary. Chandra, named in honor of the late Indian American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, launched to space aboard the space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. The crew, including STS-93 Commander Eileen Collins, deployed the telescope into its oval-shaped orbit, which takes Chandra on a path around Earth that is nearly one-third of the distance to the moon..."

CNN:"...Astronomers thought barred spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way didn’t appear until the universe reached at least half of its current age because it was believed that it took several billion years of galactic evolution before the massive collections of stars within galaxies could form central bars...

WASHINGTONPOST:"A group of U.S. scientists say they have repeated their landmark energy feat — a nuclear fusion reaction that produces more energy than is put into it. But this time, they say the experiment produced an even higher energy yield than one in December that got international attention for making a major step forward toward the long elusive goal of producing energy through fusion..."

"WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The peculiar wobble of a subatomic particle called a muon in a U.S. laboratory experiment is making scientists increasingly suspect they are missing something in their understanding of physics - perhaps some unknown particle or force. Researchers on Thursday announced new findings about the muon (pronounced MEW-on), a magnetic and negatively charged particle similar to its cousin the electron but 200 times more massive, in their experiment at the U.S. Energy Department's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois.The experiment studied the wobble of muons as they traveled through a magnetic field. The muon, like the electron, has a tiny internal magnet that causes it to wobble - or, technically speaking, "precess" - like the axis of a spinning top while in a magnetic field. But the wobble's speed, as measured in the experiment, varied considerably from what was predicted based on the Standard Model of particle physics..."

CNN:THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER: HOW TO UNSCREW A PLANET. Solving the pressing climate issues requires science and everyone's cooperation On https://play.max.com

WSJ:" An international team of astrophysicists has discovered hundreds of mysterious structures in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. These one-dimensional cosmic threads are hundreds of horizontal or radial filaments — slender, elongated bodies of luminous gas that potentially originated a few million years ago when outflow from Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, interacted with surrounding materials, according to a study published Friday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. .."

CNN:" The James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories witnessed a massive explosion in space that created rare chemical elements, some of which are necessary for life. The explosion, which occurred on March 7, was the second brightest gamma-ray burst ever witnessed by telescopes in more than 50 years of observations, over one million times brighter than the entire Milky Way Galaxy combined. ..

CNN:"What would be the ultimate solution to the energy problems of an advanced civilization? Renowned British American physicist Freeman Dyson theorized it would be a shell made up of mirrors or solar panels that completely surrounds a star — harnessing all the energy it produces. “One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star,” wrote Dyson in a 1960 paper in which he first explained the concept. If it sounds like science fiction, that’s because it is:.."

CNN:"Researchers have discovered a distant disc galaxy that has surprisingly similar characteristics to our own Milky Way, and it could change our understanding of how galaxies form. The galaxy, which has been named REBELS-25, is far more orderly than the existing science suggests it should be for its age, according to research led by astronomers from Leiden University in the Netherlands. REBELS-25 is much younger than our galaxy, but it already shares its rotation and structure, rather than appearent published October 7..."

CNN"Dick Cheney, America’s most powerful modern vice president and chief architect of the “war on terror,” who helped lead the country into the ill-fated Iraq war on faulty assumptions, has died, according to a statement from his family. He was 84. “His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the family said, adding that he died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family added. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.” The 46th vice president, who served alongside Republican President George W. Bush for two terms between 2001 and 2009, was for decades a towering and polarizing Washington power player. In his final years, however, Cheney, still a hardline conservative, nevertheless became largely ostracized from his party over his intense criticism of President Donald Trump whom he branded a “coward” and the greatest-ever threat to the republic..."

CNN:"Diane Ladd, the three-time Academy Award nominee whose roles ranged from the brash waitress in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” to the protective mother in “Wild at Heart,” has died at 89. Ladd’s death was announced Monday by daughter Laura Dern, who issued a statement saying her mother and occasional co-star had died at her home in Ojai, California, with Dern at her side. Dern, who called Ladd her “amazing hero” and “profound gift of a mother,” did not immediately cite a cause of death..."

CNN:"Space." CBS/Getty Images Los Angeles AP — June Lockhart, who became a mother figure for a generation of television viewers whether at home in “Lassie” or up in the stratosphere in “Lost In Space,” has died. She was 100. Lockhart died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said Saturday..."

REUTERS:"Oct 11 (Reuters) - Diane Keaton, the quirky U.S. actress who won an Academy Award and captured hearts with her endearing performance as Woody Allen's eccentric, insecure girlfriend in the 1977 romantic comedy "Annie Hall," has died at the age of 79, People reported on Saturday, citing a family spokesperson. .. ."

CNN:"Jane Goodall, whose lifelong work as a primatologist helped broaden the world’s understanding of animal behavior and emotions, has died, her institute said Wednesday. She was 91. Her field studies with chimpanzees not only broke barriers for women and changed the way scientists study animals, but documented emotions and personality traits within these primates that blurred the line between humans and the animal kingdom. She passed away due to natural causes in California during a speaking tour in the United States, according to her institute. “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” the institute said in a statement on social media..."

NYTIMES:"John H. Luckadoo, the last surviving pilot from the storied 100th Bombardment Group, a war-battered unit of B-17 heavy bombers that flew missions deep over German-held territory during World War II, died on Sept. 1 in Dallas. He was 103. His daughter, Elaine Abbott, said the death, in a hospice facility, was from congestive heart failure. Mr. Luckadoo, known as Lucky, was just 19 when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor triggered the United States to enter World War II. .. After more than a year of training, he flew his first mission in June 1943. By then his unit, a part of the Eighth Air Force, had earned the nickname “the Bloody 100th” because, even in a campaign that saw extensive losses of planes and crews, it stood out for its deadly turnover: During its 306 missions, the unit lost 757 men and 229 planes..."

NYTIMES:"Robert Redford, the big-screen charmer turned Oscar-winning director whose hit movies often helped America make sense of itself and who, offscreen, evangelized for environmental causes and fostered the Sundance-centered independent film movement, died early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah. He was 89. .. "

NYTIMES:"William H. Webster, the only person ever to lead both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, switching from lawman to spymaster while the bureau was investigating high crimes at the White House and the C.I.A., died on Friday in Warrenton, Va. He was 101. A family spokesman, Jim McGrath, confirmed the death, at a care center, but did not specify a cause. ..."

NYTIMES:"Connie Francis, who dominated the pop charts in the late 1950s and early ’60s with sobbing ballads like “Who’s Sorry Now” and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You,” as well as up-tempo soft-rock tunes like “Stupid Cupid,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Vacation,” died on Wednesday. She was 87..."

AP:""Sometimes there are strange symmetries in death, as in life. The twin passings of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson this week brought that into sharp relief. Both were musical geniuses who paid a high price for their gifts. They burned bright, with art they created at their peaks that became more moving and meaningful with time, only to see their creative lights extinguished suddenly through mental health and addiction issues. Both were 82 when they died — Stone on Monday and Wilson on Wednesday. “It’s such an unsettling coincidence,” said Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone. “These two figures, they were very different and massively influential, and each ran into a wall of their own problems in many ways. As much as they achieved, it’s hard not to think that they could have done more.” .."

NYTIMES:"Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who rose to fame as a teenager playing Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” in the mid-1980s, died on Sunday in Costa Rica. He was 54. Mr. Warner apparently drowned while swimming at a beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica near Limón, according to the country’s Judicial Investigation Department. The authorities said in a statement that he had apparently been swept away by a strong current, and that bystanders had tried to rescue him. The area is popular with surfers. “The Cosby Show,” which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1992, was a must-see-TV cultural touchstone whose final episode was covered as front-page news in The New York Times. That article began: “Theo Huxtable graduated from N.Y.U. yesterday, albeit on videotape, and like a lot of graduations it was a bittersweet occasion.” .."

NYTIMES:" Justice David Souter, touted as a steadfast conservative for the Supreme Court in 1990, soon revealed himself as the opposite. He valued constitutional privacy, individual equality and the separation of church and state. And in 1992, when the justices confronted a major test of abortion rights, he unflinchingly cast a vote to affirm Roe v. Wade. From the elevated courtroom bench that June 29, 1992, morning, as Souter read his portion of the opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, he emphasized regard for the 1973 precedent and the court’s “promise of constancy.” “Like the character of an individual,” the New Hampshire native said in his distinctive Yankee drawl, “the legitimacy of the court must be earned over time. … The court’s concern for legitimacy is not for the sake of the court but for the sake of the nation to which it is responsible.”. When I contacted Souter nearly three decades later, as the court was about to hear a new abortion case (one that would lead to the 2022 reversal of Roe), he asked, “to be excused from voicing recollections of Casey.” .."

CNN:"Val Kilmer, a movie star who throughout his career proved he was up for any task, from playing a cocky naval pilot to wearing the Batman suit, died on Tuesday, according to his daughter Mercedes Kilmer, who released a statement to the New York Times and the Associated Press. He was 65. The cause of death was pneumonia, Mercedes Kilmer told the media outlets"

CNN:" Former US Rep. Mia Love, the first Black woman elected to Congress as a Republican, passed away following a fight with an aggressive form of brain cancer, her family announced on X Sunday night. Love, who was 49, represented Utah’s 4th Congressional District from 2015-2019. “With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully today,” the Love family wrote on Mia Love’s X account. “She was in her home surrounded by family. In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her words and vision always did, soared heavenward. We are thankful for the many good wishes, prayers and condolences.”..."

NYTIMES:"George Foreman, a heavyweight boxing champion who returned to the sport to regain his title at the improbable age of 45, and who parlayed his fame and his amiable personality into a multimillion-dollar grill business, died on Friday night in Houston. He was 76. His family announced the death, in a hospital, on his Instagram account. Roy Foreman, George’s brother, said the cause was not known. .."

CNN:"Roy Ayers, the legendary American vibraphonist, composer and pioneer of jazz-funk, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 84. The producer passed away in New York City after a long illness, the family announced on Facebook. A specific cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Ayers “lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed,” his family said..." YOUTUBE/NORMAN CONNORS ROY AYERS STARSHIP

NYTIMES:"Roberta Flack, the magnetic singer and pianist whose intimate blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 88. She died en route to a hospital, according to Suzanne Koga, her manager and friend. The cause was cardiac arrest, she said. Ms. Flack revealed in 2022 that she’d been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which left her unable to perform. .."

CNN:" Ozzy Osbourne, the hellraising frontman of Black Sabbath and reality TV star, has died aged 76. The news was confirmed via the Associated Press on Tuesday, who included a statement from the Osbourne family: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.” Famed for his outrageous antics on stage, including biting the head off a bat, as well as substance abuse, Osbourne was respected by the rock establishment and reviled by the religious right, who believed him to be a devil-worshipper. In later life he had a second career playing himself in the popular TV show “The Osbournes,” a fly-on-the-wall family formula later maximized by the Kardashians. .."

NYTIMES:"Maggie Smith: A Life in Pictures She had a long, award-winning career as a screen and stage actress, finally becoming a household name with her memorable turn in “Downton Abbey.”"

WASHINGTONPOST:"Robert MacNeil, a Canadian-born broadcast journalist who built what is now “PBS NewsHour” and served for two decades as its urbane, evenhanded co-anchor, died April 12 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 93...."

CNN:" Physicist Peter Higgs, whose theory of an undetected particle in the universe changed science and was vindicated by a Nobel prize-winning discovery half a century later, has died aged 94, the University of Edinburgh said on Tuesday. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at the CERN research centre near Geneva was widely hailed as the biggest advance in knowledge about the cosmos for over 30 years, and pointed physics towards ideas that were once science fiction...."

WASHINGTONPOST:"Patti McGee, first women’s pro skateboarder, dies at 79 At age 19, she became an ambassador for the fledgling sport, performing demonstrations around the country and doing a handstand for the cover of Life magazine.When Patti McGee started skateboarding in the early 1960s, it was just a way to pass the time between surf sessions. A California teenager who loved riding big waves and racing down hills — she just “had to have some action,” she said — Ms. McGee had started surfing in the eighth grade, taking an old balsa wood board out to Windansea Beach near her home in San Diego. She was often one of the only girls in the lineup. And when she started skateboarding, or “sidewalk surfing,” she was one of only a few girls to join the boys in her neighborhood, flying down a hill on Loring Street atop a makeshift board her brother crafted in shop class, using wheels he had swiped off her roller skates..."

NYTIMES:"Teri Garr, the alternately shy and sassy blond actress whose little-girl voice, deadpan comic timing, expressive eyes and cinematic bravery in the face of seemingly crazy male characters made her a star of 1970s and ’80s movies and earned her an Oscar nomination for her role in “Tootsie,” died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 79. Her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, said the cause was complications of multiple sclerosis."

NYTIMES:"It was that combination of questions — a constant interrogation of heritage, inheritance and “dreaming as planning,” to use the Gloria Steinem phrase — that gave Nikki Giovanni’s work the kind of firepower that burned so brightly for more than 60 years, right up to her death on Monday at the age of 81. Change is a through line in her work. In “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day,” she wrote:
We are consumed by people who sing
the same old song STAY:
as sweet as you are
in my corner
Or perhaps just a little bit longer
But whatever you do don’t change baby
Baby don’t
change.
Something needs to change.
Her work, like her worldview, was never static. She changed and in the process, encouraged her readers to embrace the evolution of ideas and of self..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"I know Quincy Jones bridged the history of music, from Count Basie to Michael Jackson to Snoop Dogg. That he was the original hipster and had “Thriller” and “We Are the World” and the 22 girlfriends. But since he died on Sunday at age 91, I’ve been mesmerized by one clip. It’s the thing you replay endlessly at moments of great loss and send to your kids and your wife and plead, “Watch this,” because it’s the thing that shows it all. And it’s just one song...."

APNEWS:"CAMBRIDGE, New York (AP) — After he and his fellow monks sang morning prayers in their church nestled in a forest, Brother Luke walked back to his residence to be greeted by a different kind of choir. Lucy and Iso excitedly woofed as they spotted the Orthodox monk, who heads the monastery’s German shepherd breeding program, coming to take them and 10-week-old Pyrena for their morning walks. For nearly six decades, the monks of New Skete in upstate New York have financially supported their community and deepened their spiritual life by breeding German shepherds and running on-site, weekslong training programs for all kinds of canines..."

CNN:"Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects. These are just some of the abuses commonplace in North Korean prisons and other detention facilities, according to former detainees whose testimony forms the basis of a new report released by a human rights watchdog this week. .."

CNN:"Meet the women fighting for compensation for cancers they say were caused by France’s nuclear testing...In 2013, Hinamoeura Cross, a 25 year-old Tahitian lawyer and mother, received a phone call that would change her life forever.  After a routine blood test, the medical laboratory called and asked if she had been stung by a bee.  Confused, Cross said no. The technician explained that her test results showed an abnormally high white blood cell count, and recommended she see a doctor immediately. Soon after, Cross was diagnosed with leukemia..."

"LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - The global cost-of-living crisis is pushing an additional 71 million people in the world's poorest countries into extreme poverty, a new report published by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday has warned. Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, said an analysis of 159 developing countries showed that the surge in key commodity prices this year was already slamming parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans, Asia and elsewhere.Export volumes of aluminum oxide, which is used to make the metal aluminum, an important material in weapons production and aerospace, are 400 times higher than last year.The rise in reported export values may partly be explained by inflation. But the data shows that many Chinese tech sellers have continued to do business with Russia despite U.S. scrutiny."

CNN:"Anderson asks George Will if is he worried about democracy: Hear his reply. Contrary to the myth today Americans are quite willing to confront their mistakes. On balance our progress is stunning. The discord today is unsightly awful and childish but we've seen worse. I don't think our democracy is in danger of death but I do think it is in danger of being attenuated and weakened. Democracy depends upon above all else on a culture of persuasion of conversation .."

CNN:"Look back at Russia's armed conflicts since Putin took office Anderson Cooper 360 CNN's Matthew Chance takes a look at the career of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the parallels of a number of wars Russia has been involved in the past and the war in Ukraine today.Source: CNN”
NPR: Russian mercenaries are also active in Libya, Sudan, Mali and the CAR.

CISA:"This joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA)—authored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA)—is part of our continuing cybersecurity mission to warn organizations of cyber threats and help the cybersecurity community reduce the risk presented by these threats. This CSA provides an overview of Russian state-sponsored cyber operations; commonly observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs);detection actions;incident response guidance; and mitigations.This overview is intended to help the cybersecurity community reduce the risk presented by these threats. CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage the cybersecurity community —especially critical infrastructure network defenders to adopt a heightened state of awareness and to conduct proactive threat hunting, as outlined in the Detection section.Additionally, CISA, the FBI, and NSA strongly urge network defenders to implement the recommendations listed below and detailed in the Mitigations section.These mitigations will help organizations improve their functional resilience by reducing the risk of compromise or severe business degradation. Be prepared. Confirm reporting processes and minimize personnel gaps in IT/OT security coverage. Create, maintain, and exercise a cyber incident response plan , resilience plan, and continuity of operations plan so that critical functions and operations can be kept running if technology systems are disrupted or need to be taken offline. Enhance your organization’s cyber posture. Follow best practices for identity and access management protective control and architecture and vulnerability and configuration management. Increase organizational vigilance. Stay current on reporting on this threat Subscribe to CISA’s mailing list and feeds to receive notifications when CISA releases information about a security topic or threat. CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage critical infrastructure organization leaders to review CISA Insights..."

BBC:"Legendary British rock band Pink Floyd has released a song in support of Ukraine. The track is called "Hey Hey Rise Up". It features the vocals of Andriy Khlyvnyuk, from Ukrainian band Boombox. Pink Floyd band member David Gilmour said he was inspired by a video on Instagram by Khlyvnyuk, who is currently serving in Kyiv's defence, in which he sings in an empty Sofia Square in the Ukrainian capital. Gilmour wrote the music for the song, and then spoke by phone to Khlyvnyuk in hospital, where he is recovering from injuries. "I played a little on the phone and he gave me his blessing We both hope to do something together in person in the future,"said the British musician. This is Pink Floyd's first song since 1994, and all proceeds from the sale will go to humanitarian aid for Ukraine.. .”