WASHINGTONPOST:" President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that requires federal agencies to work with the U.S. Doge Service to cut their existing workforce and limit future hiring — the most explicit statement yet by the president that he supports “large-scale” cuts to the federal workforce. The executive order gives billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE, tasked with finding government inefficiencies, even more power than it has amassed in the first three weeks of the new administration. The order installs a “DOGE Team Lead” at each agency and gives that person oversight over hiring decisions. DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency. The directive instructs agency heads, after the hiring freeze expires, to recruit no more than one employee for every four who depart from the federal government, with exemptions for personnel and functions “related to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.” And it orders agency heads to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force, consistent with applicable law.” .."

• REUTERS: Trump aid freeze sparks mayhem around the world
• REUTERS: Orban Le Pen hail Trump at far right summit in Madrid
• CNN: Trump freezes aid to South Africa in support of Afrikaners who imposed Apartheid
• CNN: "‘World’s first’ grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant announced in the US"
• CNN: Indians protest against ICE shackling Indian deportees like criminals
• NYTIMES: "The New Climate Gold Rush: Scrubbing Carbon From the Sky"
• REUTERS: Google says it has cracked a quantum computing challenge with a new chip
• REUTERS: Web Telescope confirms the universe is expanding at an unexpected rate
• CNN: Traffic in space and space junk are a serious problem
• REUTERS: Putin kicks off nuclear training exercise 2nd one in 2 weeks
• CNN: "Trump appoints speechwriter fired for attending conference with White nationalists to top State Department role"
• CNN: Russian teenagers imprisoned for dissent
• CNN: NASA chief calls for investigation into report Musk and Putin talk regularly
• CNN:Video shows Russians may have executed surrendering Ukranian soldiers
• REUTERS: Famine ravages Sudan but the UN can't get food to the starving
• CNN: Russian fighter buzzes US F-16 in Alaska provocation
• CNN: Knesset votes 68 to 9 against the establishment of a Palestinian state
• NYTIMES: The Kremlin is hunting down ordinary people in the world and nobody seems to care
• NYTIMES: End convict slavery in America
• ABCNEWS: The growing crisis in Sudan is horrific
• POLITICO: Haiti gang violence reignites calls for international aid
• CNN: FBI statistics show violent crimes are down in the US
• CNN: North Korea summer camp where kids are indoctrinated to hate America and glorify their leader
• WASHINGTONPOST: A young doctor’s final words offer a mental health warning for others

CNN:"Americans opposed to the early actions of President Donald Trump and his allies, including ally Elon Musk, took to the streets in protest across the country Monday. Among the demonstrations organized by the 50501 Movement and other activists included a gathering outside of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. Rally attendees sang “solidarity forever, our unions make us strong” and held signs that read “immigrants make America great.” The loosely organized event had an open mic feel as participants were invited to step up and share stories of why they felt compelled to push back in this moment. Virginia-based Jacqui Olkin, who works at a nonprofit assisting refugees, said she thinks lawmakers has been “alarmingly quiet” in their response to Trump. “The new administration is making judgments illegally about what money, that’s been congressionally allocated, should actually be spent on what it was budgeted for. That’s illegal, and Congress is being alarmingly quiet about that right now,” said Olkin. “That scares me and concerns me, and I feel like people need to come out and say that’s wrong and stand up for democracy,” she added. Though she is a Democratic voter, she expected elected members of Congress regardless of party affiliation to follow the constitution. “I think I’ve always believed that people in Congress, they take an oath to the Constitution, and so I’ve always believed that they would, in the end, stand up for the Constitution, and the separation of powers and the rule of law. And I haven’t seen anything from the Republicans in Congress that suggests that they are willing to challenge Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who wasn’t even rightly elected,” said Olkin... "

YOUTUBE/CNN:" CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig and CNN senior political commentator Ron Brownstein join CNN’s Paula Reid to discuss the latest in politics, including Elon Musk’s DOGE and the crisis at the Department of Justice as multiple prosecutors quit over Trump’s order to drop Eric Adams’ case. .."

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. Suggestions that the US will exclude its European friends from peace talks on Ukraine — despite demanding they provide security guarantees and troops as part of any deal to end the war — also triggered alarm in capitals on the continent, with France calling key leaders to an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday. .."

NAT'L WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST-2-17-25

NOAA:GOES EAST 2-17-25 12:10 UTC NYTIMES: Kentucky residents face more destruction WASHINGTONPOST: Subzero forecast

REUTERS:" WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The campaign by President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk to radically cut back the U.S. bureaucracy spread on Friday, firing more than 9,500 workers who handled everything from managing federal lands to caring for military veterans. Workers at the departments of Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Health and Human Services had their employment terminated in a drive that so far has largely - but not exclusively - targeted probationary employees in their first year on the job who have fewer employment protections..."

REUTERS:"WILMINGTON, Delaware, Feb 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge said on Monday she hoped to rule within 24 hours in a lawsuit that aims to protect information systems at major government agencies from Elon Musk's DOGE team, which President Donald Trump has tasked with overhauling the government. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., heard arguments on Monday, the Presidents Day holiday when federal courts are closed, to consider an emergency request by 13 Democratic state attorneys general seeking to block Musk and DOGE from accessing government systems and firing employees at seven agencies..."

CNN:" Federal agencies across Washington are finding ways to keep funding frozen even after judges last month temporarily blocked the White House’s effort to pause trillions of dollars in federal assistance. FEMA has clawed back $80 million intended to help New York City house migrants. The EPA has paused more than 30 grant programs, including some providing money for schools to buy electric buses. And USAID contractors say hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts have not been paid. Trump officials say the suspensions are lawful and comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, arguing he has broad powers over federal spending as president. But multiple lawsuits now accuse the administration of violating Congress’ powers over government spending, as well as a federal judge’s orders to turn funding back on after the White House freeze late last month. Interviews with more than two dozen administration officials, government contractors and activists – as well as court filings in lawsuits alleging the government is failing to fulfill funding lawfully appropriated by Congress – reveal the degree to which federal spending remains in a state of chaos as Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency move rapidly to axe spending, even as judges tell the government to continue letting money out the door. That’s left US contractors in a state of upheaval, and in many cases led to furloughs and layoffs of workers at organizations that rely on government funding. .."

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. History’s first Latin American pope has long made caring for migrants a priority of his pontificate, citing the biblical command to “welcome the stranger” in demanding that countries welcome, protect, promote and integrate those fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis has also said governments are expected to do so to the limits of their capacity..." 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.’

NYTIMES:" A federal judge said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal workers could move forward, allowing the White House to advance a key part of its plan to reduce the federal work force through mass payouts. Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Massachusetts, did not weigh in on the program’s legality. The judge instead ruled that the plaintiffs, which included unions representing federal workers, were not directly affected by the incentive plan, known as “Fork in the Road,” and lacked standing to challenge it. “The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork directive,” Judge O’Toole wrote, adding that they were “challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees.” “This is not sufficient” for standing, he wrote in his five-page decision.. ." The Judge also held that the acts complained of fell within the "Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute’s (“FSL-MRS”) scheme and therefore the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case". READ THE ORDER HERE

APNEWS:"WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a Trump administration push to reinstate a sweeping pause on federal funding, a decision that comes after a judge found the administration had not fully obeyed an earlier order. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, the latest in a string of court losses that is increasingly frustrating top administration officials as it slows President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging agenda. The appeals court also said it expected the lower court judge to clarify his original order. The Trump administration quickly pushed to withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency money sent to New York City to house migrants, saying it had “significant concerns” about the spending under a program appropriated by Congress. The Justice Department had previously asked the appeals court to let it implement sweeping pauses on federal grants and loans, calling the lower court order to keep promised money flowing “intolerable judicial overreach.”

CNN:" The vast and opaque power of Elon Musk is only growing as he seeks new targets for his federal government shredding machine. The head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is closing in on his latest victim — an independent government agency set up to shield Americans from the Wall Street excesses that caused the Great Recession. Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were abruptly told Sunday afternoon that the watchdog’s Washington, DC, headquarters will be closed this week and they should work remotely, a day after Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, took over as acting director and told staff to stop fighting financial abuse. “CFPB RIP,” Musk wrote on X on Friday. The agency, which has long been in GOP sights, seems to be following a similar path to doom as the US Agency for International Development, which has saved millions of lives around the world and promoted democracy for decades, but that Musk has eviscerated. On Sunday, Trump called USAID “crazy” and “a big scam.” ..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"In 1999, then-presidential candidate George W. Bush called for the funding of religious groups that fed the hungry and housed the homeless, part of what he called the “armies of compassion.” During his first month in office, in 2001, the Republican unveiled an office to help faith-based groups partner with government, calling them “some of the finest America has got to offer.” One Republican president later, high-level members of the Trump administration and allies of the president are leveling attacks on religious groups, including Catholics and Lutherans, who do the same work Bush praised, questioning their efforts to help migrants. These attacks may signal a new political approach toward religion, some experts say, one comfortable belittling faith groups — despite President Donald Trump’s self-described brand as a champion of Christians. More broadly, it has aligned some Republicans against religious groups that in some cases propelled their rise to power, Trump’s included. Several religious groups working overseas say they are facing a cash crisis after the Trump administration ended funding for programs to resettle refugees from around the world in the United States. World Relief, the country’s largest evangelical refugee resettlement program, told its members in an email Wednesday that it is facing “an urgent $8 million funding gap.” The group said the funding lapse would immediately impact 4,000 refugees it works with..."

YOUTUBE/PBSNEWS:"President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will “take over” Gaza and rebuild it in the aftermath of Israel’s war against Hamas. The president’s comments came during a joint news conference at the White House with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump, calling the Gaza Strip “a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades” and “an unlucky place for a long time,” said the area “should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it … and lived a miserable existence there.” Instead, the president called on “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts” to build “various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”.."
WASHINGTONPOST:" BEIRUT — U.S. allies on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza, displace Palestinians and turn the enclave into a “Riviera” of the Middle East, arguing that such a plan would worsen the conflict and could constitute a violation of international law. Saudi Arabia said it will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, hardening its posture on a long-term U.S. foreign policy goal. Officials from Moscow to London, without naming Trump, reaffirmed commitments that Palestinians be allowed to stay on their land and to the two-state solution. Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, said the plan would exacerbate regional tensions. In Israel, far-right leaders and settlers lauded the idea. ...Hours before President Donald Trump’s meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and comments on Gaza, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council and stopping funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the primary U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees..."

CNN:" Donald Trump’s apparent plans to shutter the US Agency for International Development without congressional authority represent another unprecedented move by a president who, since taking office two weeks ago, has been testing the limits of his office by defying longstanding legal and political principles, legal experts told CNN. The decades-old agency appeared to be in a freefall on Monday after Elon Musk, a top Trump aide and tech billionaire, said that Trump – without pointing to any specific executive order issued by the president – had signed off on shutting it down. Hours later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was USAID’s acting administrator. “We’re really in uncharted territory here,” said CNN Supreme Court analyst and Georgetown University of Law professor Steve Vladeck. “We’ve never seen a president try to basically destroy an agency that Congress has stood up.” On Monday, Trump claimed he doesn’t need Congress at all to scrap USAID altogether. “Not when it comes to fraud. If there’s fraud, these people are lunatics,” Trump said when asked by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny about his capacity to exact major changes to USAID. “We just want to do the right thing. It’s something that should have been done a long time ago.”..."

NYTIMES:"In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in government, his lieutenants gained access to closely held financial and data systems, casting aside career officials who warned that they were defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter specific programs — and even an entire agency that had come into Mr. Musk’s cross hairs. They bombarded federal employees with messages suggesting they were lazy and encouraging them to leave their jobs. Empowered by President Trump, Mr. Musk is waging a largely unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy — one that has already had far-reaching consequences. Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursions into at least half a dozen government agencies have challenged congressional authority and potentially breached civil service protections. .."

CNN:" The Trump administration is set to expand a purge of career law enforcement officials, with dozens of FBI agents who worked on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and Trump-related investigations as well as some supervisors being evaluated for possible removal as soon as the end of Friday, according to people briefed on the matter. The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back at the Justice Department and FBI that he claims have been weaponized against him. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters. Interim leaders at the Justice Department have spent the past week drawing up lists of people whose work at the bureau has earned disfavor with Trump for a variety of reasons. Agents and analysts have been warned by FBI leadership that they may be asked to resign or face termination. Agents who worked the investigation of Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, and those who investigated the roughly 1,600 rioters charged or convicted connected to the violent Capitol attack have been concerned they could face retribution for doing work they were assigned to do. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. ..."

WASHINGTONPOST:" A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from imposing a sweeping pause on trillions of dollars in federal spending, capping a frenetic day of disruption to government programs that fund schools, provide housing and ensure low-income Americans have access to health care. The order prevented the new restrictions from taking effect until at least Feb. 3, buying time for a coalition of public health advocates, nonprofits and businesses — represented by the left-leaning group Democracy Forward — to proceed with a case that may test Trump’s claims of expansive power over the nation’s fiscal trajectory. The decision arrived amid a wave of chaos and confusion in Washington, where few appeared to understand the scope and intention of a White House memo that had directed agencies to “temporarily pause” the disbursement of key federal funds. Even before it could officially take effect at 5 p.m., thousands of government services — many dedicated primarily to Americans’ health, safety and well-being — appeared to be at risk of interruption or shutdown, at least temporarily. For hours, states reported issues accessing funds under Medicaid, even though the White House later said it wasn’t supposed to be affected by the spending halt. Preschool centers struggled to obtain reimbursements..."

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.”..."

CNN:" A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it. Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge. “I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said.“Where were the lawyers” when the decision to sign the executive order was made, the judge asked. He said that it “boggled” his mind that a member of the bar would claim the order was constitutional. The Democratic-led states are seeking a temporary restraining order, as they argue that Trump’s executive order is a blatant violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all children born on US soil “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” An attorney for the state of Washington, Lane Polozola told the judge that “births cannot be paused” while the court considers the case. “Babies are being born today here, and in the plaintiff states and around the country, with a cloud cast over their citizenship,” Polozola said. Children denied citizenship under Trump’s order will face “longterm substantial negative impacts,” he added. Polozola also argued that the Trump administration not only ignored those harms in the filings it has submitted so far in the dispute, but that harm “appears to be the purpose” of the executive order. ..."

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. .."

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY:" Just two days before Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration for a second term, a large rally took place in Washington, D.C. on January 18. The event, known as the People’s March 2025, brought together a diverse coalition of groups advocating for women’s and minority rights, immigration reform, climate action, and other social issues. The large protest highlighted widespread opposition to the incoming administration, uniting activists across various causes in a powerful display of dissent. The march underscored the growing tensions surrounding Trump’s inauguration and the deep divisions in American society.”..."

WASHINGTONPOST:"Greeted with loud cheers, Elon Musk virtually delivered a short speech Saturday at a rally for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, where he urged the crowd to not be ashamed of their country’s history. Musk’s appearance comes amid debate over whether a gesture he made twice during an inauguration rally was a Nazi-style salute, which he denies. He was introduced by Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor. At the rally in Halle, Musk encouraged the roughly 4,500 attendees to be proud of their German heritage ..."

CNN:"President-elect Donald Trump can be sentenced Friday in his New York hush money case, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 ruling. The high court on Thursday rejected Trump’s emergency request to delay the proceeding, setting the stage for him to be sentenced just days before he is inaugurated on January 20 for a second term. Four conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – said they would have granted Trump’s request. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberals to side against Trump. Judge Juan Merchan, the New York judge who oversaw Trump’s trial, had ordered sentencing in the case for Friday morning but has signaled that Trump will face neither penalties nor prison time. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m...

CNN:"Musk calls some Trump supporters ‘contemptible fools,’ escalating tension with MAGA hardliners CNN's Katilan Collins and Jonah Goldberg discuss the escalating tension between Elon Musk and members of a MAGA faction..."

CNN:" One of the world’s most active volcanoes erupted on Monday after a three-month hiatus, spewing bright orange lava as high as 300 feet, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Kilauea volcano on Hawaii island, also known as the Big Island, began erupting at roughly 2:20 a.m. and continued throughout the day –– bringing packed crowds to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is open to the public 24 hours a day..."
CNN:" Mount Tambora changed the world. In 1815, the Indonesian volcano exploded in the most powerful eruption in recorded history, sending an enormous plume of tiny sun-reflecting particles high into the atmosphere, cooling the planet and ushering in disaster. What followed was called the “year without a summer:” global temperatures plunged, crops failed, people starved, a cholera pandemic spread and tens of thousands died. Some even credit the volcano with inspiring Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, while sheltering from unusually cold weather in Switzerland in 1816..."

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. Idaho lawmakers want to allow school staff to carry concealed firearms without prior approval and parents to sue districts in library and curriculum disputes. Lawmakers in Oklahoma plan to further restrict abortion by limiting the emergency exceptions and to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, while their counterparts in Arkansas are moving to create the felony offense of “vaccine harm,” which could make pharmaceutical companies or their executive officers potentially criminally liable.But few states have bigger, more aggressive plans than Texas. Ahead of their biennial session, which begins Jan. 14, the Republican legislators who control both House and Senate have proposed a multitude of measures that would push the state further right. ..."

CNN:" Judge Juan Merchan wrote Monday that Donald Trump’s hush money conviction should not be dismissed because of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, ruling that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official actions as president. The judge did not, however, rule Monday on a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the conviction because Trump has now been elected president. Instead, his 41-page decision focused on the question of presidential immunity. Merchan wrote that the evidence contested by Trump’s lawyers related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and should receive no immunity protections. “This Court concludes that if error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Merchan wrote..."

CNN:"The high price of bread and eggs doomed her. Nope, it was raw racism and sexism. Well, maybe she should have gone on Joe Rogan’s show. If you’re looking for a reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there are plenty to choose from. Many of Harris’ reeling supporters are still trying to understand the forces behind Trump’s win. Trump won less than half of the popular vote, where his margin of victory was smaller than President Biden’s in 2020. Still, he swept all seven swing states and he has forced Democrats to ask what they must do to reach more working-class and Latino voters. One prominent evangelical pastor offers some insight. The Rev. William J. Barber II has long been one of America’s most persistent and eloquent spokespersons for poor and working-class Americans. Barber, who has been called “the closest person we have to MLK” in contemporary America, has organized coalitions of the poor, working-class Whites and people of color around such causes as raising the minimum wage, expanding health care and strengthening unions. Barber is the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” and helps lead the Poor People’s Campaign, which seeks national solutions to ongoing poverty. Barber also done something else: He’s shown Democrats how they can win political victories in red states. ..."

YOUTUBE/CNN:" The Wall Street Journal reports that President-elect Donald Trump is likely drafting an executive order to purge “woke” generals from the military. Republican strategist Scott Jennings argues there’s some “utility” to Trump reviewing the people at the top of the military but panelist Nikole Hannah-Jones calls the move “ahistoric” and “dangerous,” arguing Trump really wants to “purge any generals who might actually stop him from using the military against the American people."

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.”..."

CNN:"Dec 2 (Reuters) - Since winning the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has gone quiet on his false claims of voter fraud. But the election denial movement he spawned isn’t going away – and appears to be strengthening in some areas of the country. A faction of local and national Republican officials who amplified Trump’s claims of a rigged 2020 election say they will keep pushing for stark changes to how Americans vote ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. In interviews, they said they are responding to legitimate concerns about election integrity and suggesting appropriate reforms..."

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:" 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. New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to about 55 million people, had the world’s worst air pollution on Monday, according to IQAir, a Swiss company that measures air quality. The reading on its index rose to over 1,600...."

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.”..."

CNN:" This election cycle — in which a former president who tried to overturn his 2020 loss is topping the Republican ticket — has featured an unprecedented amount of pre-election litigation, with the GOP touting that it’s been involved in 130 cases. The GOP’s aggressive approach in court goes hand in hand with former President Donald Trump’s strategy of using the courts to preemptively cast doubt on the 2024 results. Republicans counter any criticism by saying that they’re focused on making sure the rules are clear and that election officials are on notice that they must follow the law. Democrats have rushed to court as well — to defend the election policies under GOP attack.. “If we measure success in terms of favorable results or winning lawsuits, the effort has been basically a total failure,” Tulin said. “There are still a lot of those cases pending, but they haven’t really moved, and we don’t expect most of them to move, or certainly to have favorable results in them before the election.”..."COMMENT: TRUMP FALSELY DISPARAGES THE EXECUTIVE, JUDICIAL AND LEGISLATIVE FUNCTIONS OF OUR DEMOCRACY. HE IS A CONVICTED FRAUD WHO HAS INCITED VIOLENCE AND CONTINUES TO THREATEN VIOLENCE AGAINST THE REPUBLIC. "THE FIRST AMENDMENT DOES NOT SHIELD FRAUD". ILLINOIS EX REL MADIGAN V TELEMARKETING ASSOCIATES 538 US 600,612 (2003). THE INCENDIARY VITRIOL OF BOTH TRUMP AND VANCE CONSTITUTE A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE REPUBLIC. BRANDENBURG V OHIO 395 US 444(1969)

CNN: In the inteview with Joe Rogan "...Trump also said he believed what he called “the enemy from within” poses a greater threat to the US than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, whom he said he had “no problem with” while president. “I got to know him very well. We had no problem with him. If you have a smart problem, if you have a smart, really the right president, the smart president, you’re not going to have a problem. And I say it to people, we have a bigger problem, in my opinion, with the enemy from within, and it drives them crazy when I use that term. But we have an enemy from within. We have people that are really bad people that I really think want to make this country unsuccessful,” Trump said. Trump has repeatedly argued that there are people within the United States — including Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as examples — who pose a greater threat than foreign adversaries..." COMMENT: THE NATION WOULD NOT BE DEALING WITH TRUMP'S SHENANIGANS BUT FOR THE FAILURE OF CONGRESS TO FIND HIM GUILTY OF HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, AND THE FAILURE OF THE US SUPREME COURT TO FIND HIM INELIGIBLE TO HOLD OFFICE DUE TO HIS ATTEMPTED COUP AND CONSPIRACY TO OVERTURN A VALID ELECTION

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..."

POLITICO:"President Donald Trump took to the White House briefing room and encouraged his top health officials to study the injection of bleach into the human body as a means of fighting Covid. It was a watershed moment, soon to become iconic in the annals of presidential briefings. It arguably changed the course of political history...“For me, it was the craziest and most surreal moment I had ever witnessed in a presidential press conference,” said ABC’s chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl, who was the first reporter at the briefing to question Trump’s musings about bleach..." NYTIMES:"...Across the country on Friday, health professionals sounded the alarm. Injecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol “causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, said in an interview. “It can definitely be a fatal event.” Even the makers of Clorox and Lysol pleaded with Americans not to inject or ingest their products..."

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

"HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk promised on Saturday to give away $1 million each day until November's election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution. And he wasted no time, awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff. "By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you're welcome," the Tesla founder said as he handed Dreher the check. The money is the latest example of Musk using his extraordinary wealth to influence the tightly-contested presidential race between Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Musk started America PAC, a political action organization he founded in support of Trump's presidential campaign. The group is helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states, but there are signs it is having trouble meeting its goals.The Harrisburg event is the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November's election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same. He said on Saturday that if Harris wins, it will be "the last election," suggesting the U.S. will no longer exist...."COMMENT: THE MAN WHO LIKE TRUMP, IS FASCIST TO THE CORE TRUMP AND MUSK HAVE BEEN SUED BY THE UAW FOR ATTEMPTING TO INTIMIDATE AND THREATEN WORKERS;MUSK HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING A WHITE SUPREMACIST; MUSK HAS FAMILIAL TIES TO NAZI IDEOLOGY; MUSK PERMITS RACIST AND ANTI-SEMITIC RANTS ON X Trump, Vance and Musk once again using WIKIPEDIA: THE BIG LIE WIKIPEDIA: ACCUSATION IN A MIRROR ; STRAIGHT OUT OF THE NAZI PLAYBOOK MEIN KAMPF MIT PRESS

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.” In early June 2020, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen wrote in The Atlantic that he was “sickened” to see peaceful protestors who were protesting the recent murder by police of George Floyd “forcibly and violently” removed from around the White House. It’s hard to think of any American president who has earned the opprobrium of so many senior officers..."

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..."

YOUTUBE/CNN:"Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joins CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and shares his concerns about former President Donald Trump’s comment that the US military should handle “the enemy from within” on Election Day"

WASHINGTONPOST:"Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley warned that former president Donald Trump is a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country” in new comments voicing his mounting alarm at the prospect of the Republican nominee’s election to another term, according to a forthcoming book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward. Milley, 66, served for more than a year as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump before continuing in the role under President Joe Biden. Upon stepping down in September 2023 after more than 40 years in the military, Milley laid out his apparent concerns about Trump in a pointed retirement speech. “We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, to a tyrant or dictator or wannabe dictator,” he said. Woodward’s new book, “War,” due out Tuesday, follows Milley in the years after the Trump administration as he wrestles with escalating fears over the president he once served..."

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

AP:" SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump hurled insults at his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other women Wednesday — saying he had no interest in stopping his attacks even if they turn off female voters — as Hurricane Milton made landfall, lashing Florida with rain, tornadoes and tropical-storm-force winds. “I don’t want to be nice,” Trump said at his first of two rallies of the day in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania. “You know, somebody said, ‘You should be nicer. Women won’t like it.’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’” He later refuted the idea that his rhetoric was a problem, even as polls show Trump is viewed less favorably by women than by men. “The women want to see our country come back,” he said. “They don’t care.” Trump was campaigning even as the storm threatened to overshadow the presidential race with fears that it would cause catastrophic damage in Tampa and other parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Harris flew to Nevada for a Western campaign swing, but first attended a briefing on the storm and the federal response with President Joe Biden at the White House... ."

NYTIMES:"In a sprawling legal brief partly unsealed on Wednesday, the special counsel, Jack Smith, laid out his case for why former President Donald J. Trump is not immune from prosecution on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The redacted brief, made public by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington, adds new details to the already extensive public record of how Mr. Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power." The brief is enitled "GOVERNMENT'S MOTION FOR IMMUNITY DETERMINATIONS" and argues that the defendant Trump's conduct was not official conduct, but was private conduct and therefore not immune. In addition,even if the acts are official, immunity will be rebutted. Read the motion HERE COMMENT: THE MOTION DESCRIBES THE CONSPIRACY WITH DETAILED EVIDENCE. IT IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE. THE CONSPIRACY CONTINUES TO THIS DAY.

CNN:
"The threat environment in the United States “remains high” ahead of the November presidential election and conflict in the Middle East, according to a new assessment by the Department of Homeland Security. The annual assessment released Wednesday warns of possible threats from violent extremists driven by the heated political environment in the US as well as foreign and domestic threats from terrorist groups and others inspired by conflicts abroad. It also comes amid a wider conflict in the Middle East after Israel assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and began a ground offensive in Lebanon. Iran retaliated on Tuesday by launching nearly 200 missiles at Israel. ..."

CNN:" Former President Donald Trump has escalated his long-running assault on the integrity of US elections as the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stretch, using a new series of lies about ballots, vote-counting and the election process to lay the groundwork to challenge a potential defeat in November. Nonpartisan democracy experts say they’re seeing many of the same warning signs that were blinking red before Election Day four years ago, when Trump flooded the zone with election lies and conspiracy theories that he amplified after losing to Joe Biden. His campaign of deception culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. “The threats have not abated; they have only increased,” said Lindsay Daniels, a senior director at the nonpartisan Democracy Fund, which works to strengthen US democracy. “We saw a lot of activity in 2020 around peddling false claims and frivolous lawsuits. We are already seeing signs now, stage-setting, that these things may be attempted again.” Trump has made at least 12 distinct false claims over the last two months that raise baseless doubts about the validity of a potential victory by Vice President Kamala Harris. (Recent polls suggest the race is very close, and Trump could certainly still win.) Trump, who wrongly insists the 2020 election was marred by massive fraud, said at a debate in June that he will accept the 2024 results regardless of who wins “if it’s a fair and legal and good election.” A majority of Trump supporters in battleground states like Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania now say they’re “not at all confident” or only “just a little” confident the results will be accurately tallied, according to recent CNN polling. Trump has lied about the legitimacy of the vote counts in key states, the reliability of mail-in and overseas ballots..."

LOCAL3/CNN:" CNN’s Michael Smerconish discusses how Americans are distracted by salacious headlines about the 2024 presidential election despite a new report from the Commission on the National Defense Strategy that warns about a "near-term major war" the US could face and numerous dangers abroad."

YOUTUBE/CNN:"CNN’s Michael Smerconish asked presidential historian Allan Lichtman about the October surprise and if it ever impacts his prediction for who will win the race for the White House.

NYTIMES:"The Republican Party and its conservative allies are engaged in an unprecedented legal campaign targeting the American voting system. Their wide-ranging and methodical effort is laying the groundwork to contest an election that they argue, falsely, is already being rigged against former President Donald J. Trump. The campaign involves a powerful network of Republican lawyers and activist groups, working loosely in concert with the Republican National Committee. Many of the key players were active in Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. ..."

NYTIMES:"Trump, Using Harsh Language, Urges Democrats to Tone Down Theirs The authorities have not provided information about the gunman’s motive in the apparent assassination attempt on Sunday, yet former President Donald J. Trump, who has his own history of using violent language, sought to blame Democrats.Former President Donald J. Trump on Monday morning claimed “inflammatory language” from Democrats had provoked what the authorities are investigating as an assassination attempt against him, urging his rivals to tone down their speech even as he called them the “enemy from within” and “the real threat.” He has suggested that some of his opponents should be subject to military tribunals for treason; urged his supporters to “go after” the New York attorney general, whose office filed a lawsuit against him for fraud; and said that Democrats are destroying the country. ..." COMMENT: TRUMP INCITES VIOLENCE WITH HIS INCENDIARY VITRIOL WHEREVER HE GOES; JAN 6, THREATS AGAINST JUDGES, JURIES AND ELECTION WORKERS, THREATS AGAINST IMMIGRANTS, THREATS OF CIVIL WAR, THE LIST GOES ON.

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..."

REUTERS:"May 31 - Supporters of former President Donald Trump, enraged by his conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution. After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president's own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit.Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection...."

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

THE-HILL:"The home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was swatted on Friday, making her the latest victim in a string of such incidents. Bellows said she’s become the victim of a series of threats in the wake of her decision to remove former President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment on Friday...”COMMENT: WHEREVER TRUMP GOES VIOLENCE FOLLOWS

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

MSNBC:"The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg joins Morning Joe to discuss the magazine's latest issue, which features 24 essays about the dangers of a second Trump term. "' A lot of writers who have covered Trump and Trumpism over the years and the consensus was that a second administration would be worse. Trump has told you in his various speeches to his followers what he is going to do. This is not partisan this is about Trump's predisposition to autocracy. He's stated he is going to terminate the Constitution, arrest political opponents, assassinate generals, that weren't loyal to him, controlling the FCC to say who could broadcast and who could not and trying the leaders of comcast for treason, and shutting them down. We have learned over the years to take Trump at his word and some of his followers will do what he says. He told some of his followers to go into deep blue states and watch the polls to protect the vote which sounds alot like voter intimidation.'

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.

CNN:" In her new book “Enough,” former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson paints the closing days of the Trump White House as even more chaotic and lawless than she previously disclosed in her shocking televised testimony last summer. Meadows emerges in the book as not only duplicitous but as a fall guy for folks who don’t want to admit that Trump had lost grip with reality...."

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. 🍁😍 .. "

CNN:"Microplastics are in many of your body’s organs and tissues. Why they’re so bad and what you can do to stay healthier"

CNN:" A lowly vegetable typically associated with flatulence has hit the big time. No longer will beans will be infamous only for their fiber content — as in the children’s song “Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot” — they’ll also be known for their role as a major source of protein."

"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..."

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, ensure they knew they could be anything they wanted in life, and after they became it, leave them to be hunted and killed for following their dreams? This precious land went up in flames after the American people barely noticed 20 years of war. Our war..."

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. ...There’s simply no place in this country for hate and intolerance. We in the FBI stand ready to use all the tools at our disposal to reduce the threat of hate crimes and fulfill our mission to protect every American. 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 bias against 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. After a report is submitted, the FBI will work with its law enforcement partners and use its resources and expertise to determine if an incident meets the criminal standard. 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 or submitting a tip at tips.fbi.gov. You may remain anonymous ..."

PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"There is no doubt that Europe must be at the negotiating table for ending the war in Ukraine, therefore it is important to appoint a special representative to be involved in this process. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a video conference with media representatives. The Head of State stressed that the United States is a strategic partner of Ukraine and a leader in providing assistance, but during the negotiations, the proposals from European countries regarding the format of support for our state and security guarantees should also be considered. That is why Volodymyr Zelenskyy supports the idea of appointing a special representative of Europe. “The specifics of what Europe offers or how it supports Ukraine, in what format, and what security guarantees Europe is ready to provide – all this will definitely be on the table, for sure. We will consider who that person will be. It is important for us that this person is not only a representative of Europe and is respected by Europe. It is critical that everyone at the table understands that this is a serious person,” the President said. The Head of State added that the negotiations should involve countries ready to assume responsibility for security guarantees, assistance, investments in Ukraine’s restoration and prevention of further aggression by Russia "
CNN:" Ukraine’s president has warned the days of guaranteed US support for Europe are over, as he urged the continent to band together to create a united army and foreign policy. Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in a week when a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump raised fears in Kyiv that it was being frozen out of negotiations, with the White House also downplaying the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO. “A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin. Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot,” Zelensky said in a robust speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “The old days are over – when America supported Europe just because it always had,” he added..."
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:"Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Saturday accused Vice President JD Vance of unacceptably interfering in his country’s imminent elections on behalf of a party that has played down the atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago. A day after Mr. Vance stunned the Munich Security Conference by telling German leaders to drop their so-called firewall and allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to enter their federal government, Mr. Scholz accused Mr. Vance of effectively violating a commitment to never again allow Germany to be led by fascists who could repeat the horrors of the Holocaust. “A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,” Mr. Scholz said at the conference on Saturday morning, in an address opening the gathering’s second day. Mr. Scholz said the AfD had trivialized Nazi atrocities like the concentration camp at Dachau, which Mr. Vance visited on Friday. The chancellor said Germany “would not accept” suggestions from outsiders about how to run its democracy — or directives to work with such a party. “That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies,” Mr. Scholz said. “Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.”..."
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:"President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine will not accept a peace deal struck between the United States and Russia without Kyiv’s involvement. “As an independent country we simply cannot accept any agreements without us. And I articulate this very clearly to our partners. We will not accept any bilateral negotiations on Ukraine without us,” Zelensky said Thursday during a visit to a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine. His comments came a day after US President Donald Trump spoke on the phone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, before he also held a call with Zelensky. Zelensky said that the fact that Trump spoke to Putin first was “not pleasant.” He added that talks with Russia should take place only after “a plan to stop Putin has been worked out.”"
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."
WASHINGTONPOST:"President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday that he had a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which they agreed to “start negotiations” toward ending Russia’s war with Ukraine. Trump and Putin also agreed to visit one another’s nations, Trump said. It was the first announced call between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House. Meanwhile, the Republican-led Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as Trump’s director of national intelligence. The Senate also voted to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. A final confirmation vote could come this week."
NYTIMES:"A return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is “an unrealistic objective” and an “illusionary goal” in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump wants to accomplish, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, said on Wednesday at a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine. In his first meeting that included NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Mr. Hegseth told them that Mr. Trump “intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table.” But for Ukraine to try to regain all of the territory Russia has seized since 2014, as it insists it must do, “will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said. “We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,” he said. Hours later, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that he had a long phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and they had agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the war. Mr. Hegseth, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said that Mr. Trump expected Europe to bear more financial and military responsibility for Ukraine’s defense. He is scheduled to take part in a meeting of NATO defense ministers there on Thursday. Europe, he said, must take more responsibility for its conventional defense and spend more money on its armed forces, up to 5 percent of national output, as the United States deals with its own security risks and the challenge of China. Mr. Trump, he added, does not support Ukraine’s membership in NATO as part of a realistic peace plan. .."
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.” .."
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"When We Come and Belong Together – No One Is Too Small to Make a Real Impact on History – Speech by the President at the Ramstein Meeting 9 January 2025 - 15:49 Thank you very much! Thank you for your words, strong words about our people and about us. Thank you very much, Secretary! And I’m grateful to you, for your personal leadership during all these years and your personal involvement, and the United States for coordinating this format and working together with us since the start of the full-scale war. Minister Pistorius, I dearly appreciate your help and Germany’s impactful support for all our people, for Ukraine. Ladies and gentlemen! Dear our friends! It’s clear that a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world – just 11 days from now, a time when we have to cooperate even more, rely on one another even more, and achieve even greater results together. And I see this as a time of opportunities. And in almost three years of full-scale war, we’ve shown that when we come and belong together – no one is too small to make a real impact on history. And we’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created – especially since they’re already helping us grow and strengthen what’s basically our shared defense power. No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map. That used to depend on a handful of big capitals, but now it’s on all of us – on how we work together, how ready we are to own our future, and how well we can convince our partners to stand with us. ... Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Secretary! Stay confident. Слава Україні! "
PRESIDENT.GOV.UA:"Dear People! Behind me stands Mother Ukraine. Ukraine that stands firmly on its feet, does not bow its head, looks ahead, believes in its future and victory over all the evil that Russia has brought us. Ukraine that is capable of achieving a just peace – having a shield and a sword. Defending its people, its colors, its Independence. Today I address all those who value Ukraine, cherish their state, and lovingly call it “Mine.” I thank you for 2024. Our people who endure all difficulties with dignity. People for whom being citizens of Ukraine is a source of pride. And for me, it is a pride to be the President of such people – Ukrainians who prove that no cruise missile can defeat a nation that has wings. Throughout this leap year, we have proven it every day. And we saw it yesterday. When we were uplifted with happiness because 189 Ukrainians returned from captivity to their native land. Because they will celebrate the New Year at home. Because we are bringing our people back. 1,358 people this year. 3,956 Ukrainians during this time. And I’m giving not estimates but precise numbers, because each one represents a person, our person, a very important person. And with each return – we bring life back to Ukraine. And every time this happens, we all cry. It doesn’t matter if it’s a moved mother, or it’s a child who finally has their father back, or the President of Ukraine – we all cry because we are all human, and we have kept the light within us. And it helped us endure through over 1,000 days. To be brave when it was needed most. To be strong when it was so vital. As did our teachers, our medics, our power engineers, our transport workers, as did all our air defense personnel, mobile fire groups. The guys who brought down 1,310 cruise and ballistic missiles this year, and 7800 Iranian “Shahed” drones. Bravo! We are proud! Thank you! We lived through this year together... I thank everyone thanks to whom Ukraine is standing and will stand. It will overcome its path to peace, to a strong Ukraine. And to a European Ukraine. And these are not just words, but a reality that began this June with the opening of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. And this is a historic result. And this path is irreversible. And Ukraine will be in the European Union. And one day Ukraine will be in NATO and will strengthen the Alliance. It will strengthen the stability of the world. The unity of Europe, which determines the destiny of every nation on the continent. And this unity must be respected by all. By both Budapest and Bratislava. I know the Hungarian and Slovak peoples are actually with us, with Ukraine, with Ukrainians, on the side of truth. The authorities of these countries should also acknowledge the truth. There is no need to be afraid of Ukraine being in Europe. We must do everything to prevent Russia from being in Europe. Its tanks, its missiles, and the evil it will surely spread further if Ukraine does not withstand. If Russia shakes your hand today, it does not mean that tomorrow, it will not start killing you with the same hand. Because Russians are afraid of the free people. And that is why it is so crucial today to support all peoples who defend freedom. Those who refuse to give it up in Chișinău. Those who are fighting for their future in Tbilisi. And I am sure that the day will come when we will all say: "Long Live Belarus!" Dear Ukrainians! May 2025 be our year. The year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift. But we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war. This is what each of us wishes for. Behind all of us stands Mother Ukraine. And she deserves to live in peace. I wish this to all of us. And as the President of Ukraine, as well as a citizen, I will do everything to achieve it in the coming year. Knowing that I will not be alone. I know that you stand shoulder to shoulder with me – millions of Ukrainians. Strong. Free. Beautiful. Independent. Happy New Year, dear people! Happy New Year, Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine! "
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. Their arrival marked a new and alarming phase in the war. And while initially inexperienced on the battlefield, North Korean troops have adapted quickly — a development that could have far-reaching consequences as they gain combat knowledge in the war against Ukraine. Unlike the Russian troops Ukraine has been battling for nearly three years, Kyiv’s forces were uncertain about what to expect from this new adversary, drawn into the war after Moscow and Pyongyang signed an agreement pledging military assistance using “all means” if either were attacked..."
CNN:" Russia has vowed retaliation after claiming to have shot down eight US-made ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine on Saturday morning. Moscow sees the use of such missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), as a major escalation. The country’s air defenses shot down the eight ballistic missiles alongside 72 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. It added that “these actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.” The statement said several drones were destroyed in the Leningrad region in the north-west and one in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack late last summer. The outgoing US President Joe Biden approved Kyiv’s use of ATACMS in November – saying in part it was in response to Russia expanding the conflict by deploying North Korean troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond to Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS with Russia’s new nuclear-capable ballistic missile “Oreshnik.” ..."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"More than 50,000 inquiries have been submitted by Russians seeking missing soldiers through Ukraine’s "I Want to Find" project, Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Coordination Center Secretariat, said in an interview with ArmyInform on Jan. 3. "These numbers only reflect those unafraid to contact us," Okhrimenko said, adding that there actual number of Russian soldiers missing in action can be much higher...U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's team has not presented anything "interesting" to Moscow regarding ending the war in Ukraine, Russia's envoy to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, said on Jan. 3. Earlier reports from the Wall Street Journal indicated that Trump’s team is considering a plan to delay Ukraine’s NATO membership by at least 20 years in exchange for continued Western arms supplies and the deployment of European peacekeepers to monitor a ceasefire..."
"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. "President Trump is, as always, resolute," Zelensky said. "I thank him. I also extend my gratitude to Emmanuel (Macron) for organizing this important meeting." The three leaders "spoke about our people, the situation on the ground, and a just peace," Zelensky said, without providing further details. The previously unannounced meeting comes ahead of Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. It also marks the first in-person encounter between Zelensky and Trump since Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November. While Trump has pledged to get the U.S. "out" of Russia's war and negotiate a quick peace deal, Ukrainian officials have urged the president-elect to maintain support and adopt a "peace through strength" approach in dealings with Russia — sentiments that Zelensky echoed in his statement following the meeting. "Peace through strength is possible," Zelensky wrote. "We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way." Zelensky and Trump previously met on Sept. 27 in New York, while Trump was still the Republican nominee for president. Zelensky used the occasion to present his five-part victory plan.. .."
CNN:" An armored vehicle belonging to the UN’s atomic watchdog was hit by a drone strike on its way to inspect a Ukrainian nuclear power plant on Tuesday, in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed on Russia. The strike took place as the vehicle traveled in a convoy to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, as part of efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to safeguard the facility amid fears it could be caught in the crossfire of Russia’s war on Ukraine, sparking a nuclear disaster..."
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. “Of course we will work with Trump. I want to work with him directly,” Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News released Friday, adding that he did not want people around Trump to “destroy” their communication. “I want to share with him ideas and I want to hear from him his ideas,” he added..."
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. It is “by far” the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history,” Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and chairman of the intelligence committee, told CNN. But the full scope of the hack, who it affects and its impact on national security are still being investigated..."
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...."
CNN:"...Russia is making gains at key spots along the frontlines of eastern and southeastern Ukraine, while unleashing wave after wave of aerial terror against Ukrainian cities. At the same time, Moscow is preparing to launch a counteroffensive in the southern Russian region of Kursk, the site of Kyiv’s only major military success this year. Moscow has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says, numbers that were boosted by recently arrived North Korean troops. “The Russians have the initiative across (the frontlines) right now, they have successfully exploited tactical gains and are reinforcing those tactical gains,” George Barros from the Institute for the Study of War told CNN."
APNEWS:"BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin leader’s first publicly announced conversation with the sitting head of a major Western power in nearly two years. Scholz urged Putin to be open to negotiations with Ukraine, his office said. The Kremlin leader responded that any peace deal should acknowledge Russia’s territorial gains and security demands, including that Kyiv renounce joining NATO...."
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. Since the European Political Community Summit in the UK in July, there has been much talk about the need to yield to Putin, to back down, to make some “concessions.” And really, even from Europe, some leaders were strongly advocating Ukraine making “concessions” to Putin. It’s unacceptable for Ukraine and unacceptable for all Europe. And what’s next? Should Europe seek the favor of Kim Jong Un in hopes that he, too, will leave Europe in peace? "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..."
CNN:" Ukraine’s army chief has warned that his forces are facing “one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since the start of the war as Russia claimed it captured more settlements on the eastern frontline. Russia has steadily been making gains in the eastern Donbas region, which Russia’s President Vladimir Putin aims to capture in full. Reuters, citing open source data, reported that Russia has been advancing at its fastest pace in at least a year. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said the situation on the front line “remains difficult” and certain areas “require constant renewal of resources of Ukrainian units” in a statement on Telegram Saturday morning...." COMMENT: NATO MUST ADMIT UKRAINE NOW AND SEND FORCES IN AND PUSH THE RUSSIANS OUT AS A DEFENSIVE MEASURE; THE US AND ALLIES MUST FORCE DERADICALIZATION OF GAZA AND THE WEST BANK AND IMPLEMEMT THE TWO STATE SOLUTION WHILE AT THE SAME TIME BOLSTERING ISRAEL'S SECURITY VIS A VIS ISLAMIC FASCISM.
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. ..."
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. “We receive reports of such killings almost every week.” Over the past weeks, the number of incidents has risen dramatically. ..."
"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. Hundreds of Iranian drones have also been part of Moscow’s onslaught on Ukraine, and last month the US said Tehran had sent the warring country short-range ballistic missiles as well. China, meanwhile, has been accused of powering Russia’s war machine with substantial amounts of “dual use” goods like microelectronics and machine tools, which can be used to make weapons. Last week, the US for the first time penalized two Chinese firms for supplying complete weapons systems. All three countries have denied they are providing such support. ..."
"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:"Key developments on Oct. 16: US announces $425 million in security aid for Ukraine, Zelensky says package includes long-range weapons Zelensky unveils Ukraine's victory plan, says it's doable but 'depends on our partners' Australia to give Ukraine almost 50 US-made Abrams tanks Ukraine reportedly reclaims territory in north of Kharkiv Oblast, almost entire Russian regiment destroyed U.S. President Joe Biden announced $425 million in new security assistance for Ukraine during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Oct. 16. Biden and Zelensky spoke on the phone after the U.S. president canceled foreign trips to handle the consequences of repeated hurricanes at home. The new package will consist of "additional air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions to meet Ukraine's urgent needs," the White House said in a statement. In the upcoming months, the U.S. will also provide Ukraine with "a range of additional capabilities, including hundreds of air defense interceptors, dozens of tactical air defense systems, additional artillery systems, significant quantities of ammunition, hundreds of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, and thousands of additional armored vehicles," the White House said. In a post on X, Zelensky thanked the U.S. for the new package and said that it also includes "long-range weapons." He did not specify which kind of weapons and did not mention the ongoing debate over allowing Western weapons to be used for long-range strikes into Russia. Biden and Zelensky also discussed the victory plan, which was presented to individual leaders, including Biden, behind closed doors in September but made public earlier on Oct. 16."...
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." .."
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...."
KYIVINDEPENDENT:"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasized the urgency of resolving Russia's war against Ukraine, stating that he and President Volodymyr Zelensky agree on the need to include Russia in future peace negotiations. As Russia's war stretches into its third year, Kyiv has said it aims to invite a Russian representative to the second conference to present a peace plan based on Zelensky's peace formula and international input. "There will certainly be a further peace conference, and the president and I agree that it must be one with Russia present," Scholz said during an interview with Germany's ZDF public television...."
"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....”
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"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." In July 2023, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna expressed his concern about the possibility of such Russian attacks. . .."
CNN: "

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the US intends to make use of seized Russian assets to provide funding for the reconstruction of Ukraine. ...
• During his visit to Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed the Biden administration's strong support of the beleaguered country amid Russia's recent advances in Kharkiv. Blinken focused much of his speech about building security and economic infrastructure in Ukraine to pave a path to NATO acceptance. ..
• French President Emmanuel Macron told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call on Tuesday that France will send more military aid to Ukraine “in the coming days and weeks.” During the call, Macron condemned the “intensification of Russian strikes on Ukraine, notably on its energy infrastructure” and reiterated “France’s determination to provide all the support necessary” to Kyiv in concert with its international partners..."

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. The Cuban statement followed a U.S. announcement that Washington had been tracking Russian warships and aircraft that were expected to arrive in the Caribbean for a military exercise...."
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-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. .."
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, according to new testimony published by Amnesty International.... 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. "Testimonies show that unarmed civilians in Ukraine are being killed in their homes and streets in acts of unspeakable cruelty and shocking brutality.".."
"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. .."

CNN:" The House voted on Wednesday to pass a GOP-led bill to require detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes, handing an early legislative win to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, who chose to bring up the measure as their first bill of the new Congress. The bill – called the Laken Riley Act – will next go to the White House to be signed into law after the Senate approved the measure earlier in the week. The House vote was 263 to 156 with 46 Democrats voting in favor. Republicans made the legislation a top priority after winning the House, Senate and White House, but the bill would not have been able to advance to final passage in the Senate without support from key Democrats as Republicans control only a narrow majority. .. "

• CNN: "Trump said he’d bring prices down on Day One. That hasn’t happened"
• REUTERS: Global hunger crisis deepens as nations skimp on aid
• NYTIMES: "Putin Apologizes for Kazakhstan Crash but Stops Short of Taking Responsibility"
• WASHINGTONPOST:"Finland seizes ship in probe of undersea cable damage"
• CNN:"These cities have big rat problems, and there’s one thing to blame"
• 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
• CNN:Eyeing Trump support Smotrich pushes West Bank annexation
• 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: US military withdraws from Niger; Russian presence increases.
• WASHINGTONPOST: The climate refugee crisis is here
• CNN: IDF soldier's PTSD suicides due to Netanyahu's "forever war"
• NYTIMES: Faith based groups helping migrants attacked by extremists
• CNN: The rule of law has made the US a glowing beacon; if Trump wins kiss it goodbye
• CNN: Oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor, Warren "Red" Upton dies at 105.

BLOOMBERG:"European bonds fell and shares in defense companies rallied on the likelihood of greater military spending, which could force governments to step up borrowing in the coming years. German, French and Italian bonds all slipped, with 10-year bund yields — the benchmark borrowing rate for the euro area — reaching the highest in more than two weeks. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index rose 0.3%, led by defense names, with Germany’s Rheinmetall AG jumping 8.9%. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. index of European defense shares topped a record high. US markets are shut for a holiday. Officials are working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and some EU leaders are planning to meet on Monday in Paris to start drawing up their response. The moves come as the US pushes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine and after Vice President JD Vance attacked longstanding European allies at a security conference Friday. “The goalposts are shifting, and the EU is realizing they can rely less and less on the US for protecting its borders. In lockstep, we’re going to have to see European countries spend more on defense,” said Aneeka Gupta, head of macro research at Wisdomtree UK Ltd. “That does warrant a bit more caution on bonds.” The developments have cemented the view that debt sales will need to increase as European nations shoulder the cost of a lasting peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Upgrading defense and protecting Ukraine may cost Europe’s major powers an additional $3.1 trillion over 10 years, according to Bloomberg Economics estimates. European stocks were also buoyed by improved sentiment over China, a key export market. Investors have been piling into technology shares, especially in China, amid optimism over DeepSeek’s AI app. Monday’s meeting between President Xi Jinping and business figures including e-commerce icon Jack Ma was also seen as a catalyst for gains. Goldman Sachs strategists raised their MSCI China index target on optimism over the country’s technological advancements. A gauge of Asian shares rose 0.6% to the highest level since November. Read more: Xi Hosts Summit With Jack Ma, Chinese Private Sector Leaders In currency markets, Japan’s yen strengthened against all its Group-of-10 peers after the economy grew faster than expected, bolstering expectations of interest-rate hikes from the Bank of Japan. Bloomberg’s dollar index traded steady after two days of losses. Some of the key events this week: Presidents Day holiday in the US; bond and stock markets are closed, Monday Australia rate decision, Tuesday UK jobless claims, unemployment, Tuesday Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Tuesday Canada CPI, Tuesday New Zealand rate decision, Wednesday Indonesia rate decision, Wednesday UK CPI, Wednesday South Africa CPI, retail sales, Wednesday US FOMC minutes, housing starts, Wednesday Australia unemployment, Thursday China loan prime rates, Thursday Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday G-20 foreign ministers meet in South Africa, Thursday - Friday Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock and officials testify to parliamentary committee, Friday Japan CPI, Friday Eurozone HCOB manufacturing & services PMI, Friday UK S&P Global manufacturing & services PMI, Friday US S&P Global manufacturing & services PMI, Friday Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks, Friday Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3% as of 10:59 a.m. London time S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3% Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6% The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.5% Currencies The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.0488 The Japanese yen rose 0.5% to 151.62 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2624 per dollar The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.2602 Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin fell 1.1% to $96,114 Ether rose 2.3% to $2,750.45 Bonds Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.49% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 4.55% Commodities Brent crude rose 0.3% to $74.94 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,902.79 an ounce ... "

REUTERS:"LONDON/PARIS, Feb 17 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has become the first European leader to say he is ready to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, making the commitment ahead of an emergency leaders' meeting in Paris to discuss Europe's role in a ceasefire. Starmer's comments underlined a growing realization among European nations that they will likely have to play a larger role in ensuring Ukraine's security as Washington works alone with Russia on a potential end to the three-year conflict. Sweden would consider contributing to post-war peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Monday, adding that negotiations would need to progress before any such decision was taken. U.S. President Donald Trump stunned Ukraine and European allies last week when he announced he had held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, without consulting them, to discuss bringing an end to war..."

CNN:"After a stunning week of foreign policy news driven by President Trump, Fareed says the White House is now like a royal court, with aides and supporters racing to defend and praise each new action. Meanwhile, Fareed argues, these actions are causing real harm..."

CNN:"In August 2024, then-candidate former President Donald Trump delivered a press conference surrounded by packaged foods, meats, produce, condiments, milk and eggs. “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” he said at the time. It was a pledge he repeated on the campaign trail, often followed by the phrase, “drill, baby, drill.” And to many voters, inflation was a justifiable target: Years of sharply rising prices had taken a toll on their hard-earned pay and their livelihoods. But Day One has turned into Day Seven, and those eggs are getting even more expensive. Despite a flurry of executive actions, Trump’s price-related promises have gone unfulfilled, Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter addressed to the president..."

"BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Chinese tech company Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max's release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition..."

"NEW YORK/LONDON/SINGAPORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Investors sold off a host of technology stocks from Tokyo to New York on Monday as they worried that the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model would threaten the dominance of current AI leaders such as Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab. Startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services and by Monday DeepSeek's assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's (AAPL.O), opens new tab app store..."Meanwhile, DeepSeek hit by cyberattack as users flock to Chinese AI startup

NYTIMES:"Millions of Europeans will go to the polls this year in a test of the right-wing movements that surged in 2024’s historic elections — and of the liberal order that so many disgruntled Europeans turned against. Voters in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands have shown the potency of this new populist wave. What’s behind their dramatic shift? We asked them. In more than two dozen interviews across the continent, Europeans who voted for far-right parties talked about casting their ballots in fury, in frustration, in protest, but perhaps most of all in a bid to bring change to a system they believe has failed to fulfill the contract between their democratically elected governments and the people..."

" 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..."

APNEWS:"Attorneys general from 22 states sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status. Trump’s roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he’s talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain amid what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle over the president’s immigration policies and a constitutional right to citizenship. The Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates say the question of birthright citizenship is settled law and that while presidents have broad authority, they are not kings. “The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said. The White House said it’s ready to face the states in court and called the lawsuits “nothing more than an extension of the Left’s resistance.” “Radical Leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump,” White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said..." " COMMENT: LESS THAN 50% OF THE VOTE IS NOT THE "OVERWHELMING WILL" OF ANYTHING. BESIDES ITS A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BEING PROTECTED BY 22 STATE ATTORNEY GENERALS NOT SO CALLED "RADICAL LEFTISTS".

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...."

"CAIRO/GAZA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 Palestinians in three separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, taking the weekend death toll to 102, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. and Arab mediators stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal. Health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months..."

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..."

APNEWS:" Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements. They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to address Trump’s desires to change how elections are run in the U.S., something he continues to promote despite his win in November. The main legislation that Republicans expect to push will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said GOP Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chair of the Committee on House Administration, which handles election-related legislation. The proposals are known as the ACE and SAVE acts, respectively..."

APNEWS:"As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He’s tuned out. “People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just taking some time off.” Television ratings — and now a new poll — clearly illustrate the phenomenon. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload, according to the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Smaller percentages of Americans are limiting their intake of news about overseas conflicts, the economy or climate change, the poll says. Politics stand out. Election news on CNN and MSNBC was taking up too much of Sam Gude’s time before the election, said the 47-year-old electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska. “The last thing I want to watch right now is the interregnum,” said Gude, a Democrat and no fan of President-elect Donald Trump..."

NYTIMES:"Five journalists were killed early Thursday when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat area of Gaza, according to the local authorities and Palestinian news media reports. The Israeli military said its air force had struck a vehicle overnight in Nuseirat with a “terrorist cell” from the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad inside. Reports about journalists being targeted were “fake claims,” Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said on social media. The media office of Gaza’s Hamas-run government said five journalists from Al Quds Today, a Palestinian television channel, were killed in an Israeli strike on their broadcast vehicle. The channel has regularly featured Islamic Jihad leaders and promoted the group’s ideology. The office said this brought the number of journalists killed in Gaza to 201 since the start of the war in October last year. The vehicle, bearing the word “Press” in red letters, was hit near the gates of Al Awda Hospital, according to a post on social media from Quds News Network, another Palestinian news outlet. The Reuters news agency published a photo from Nuseirat of a charred white van bearing the word “Press” on its rear doors, with smoke coming out of it..."

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..."

CNN:"...Nearly 30% of all US households this year said they spend more than 95% of their disposable income on necessities such as housing costs, groceries and utility bills, according to a Bank of America Institute report, up from 2019 levels. That share is higher, at around 35%, for households making less than $50,000 a year. “Lower-income households are always going to be the ones that feel the brunt of high inflation and high interest rates,” said Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet...Wage growth finally began to outpace inflation in early 2023, with US households on the lowest end of the income spectrum seeing their wages grow the second-fastest, according to Atlanta Fed data. But their earnings have slowed sharply since then, trailing the wage growth of the richest Americans as of November..."

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...."

WASHINGTONPOST:"More than 45,000 people have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza, the enclave’s Health Ministry said Monday, a grim milestone that underscores the bloody toll for Palestinians after 14 months of fighting. Gaza’s Health Ministry, which reported the death toll of 45,028 since October 2023, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. At least 106,962 people have also been injured in that time. Experts and observers have previously said that the official figure is likely an undercount. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered its war in Gaza, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 384 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza...In Syria, the Israel Defense Forces has destroyed much of the country’s military capabilities over the past week as the country fell to rebel forces. Huge explosions rocked an area near the port city of Tartus overnight. Israel’s Army Radio said that Israeli forces targeted large warehouses of rockets, mortars and mines. The IDF declined to comment. Here’s what else to know Turkey, Qatar, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates criticized a decision by the Israeli government to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel said it was acting “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria,” as it uses the power vacuum next door to consolidate security on its border and advance its aims of growing settlements. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Sunday statement that he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump and discussed the “need to complete Israel’s victory” and efforts to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The YPJ, a female unit that operates under the umbrella of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, denounced Turkey’s influence in Syria, accusing Ankara of empowering Islamist militants and vowing to fight against both “until the end.” In the Sunday statement, the YPJ also expressed concern for the security of Syria’s minorities who fought alongside the Kurds...”

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..."

"BERLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The German parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz's invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government on Monday, clearing the way for an early election on Feb. 23 necessitated by the collapse of his government. Scholz's three-party coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats quit in a row over debt, leaving his Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens without a parliamentary majority just as Germany faces a deepening economic crisis.Under rules designed to prevent the instability that facilitated the rise of fascism in the 1930s, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can only dissolve parliament and call an election if the chancellor calls, and loses, a confidence vote. The debate preceding the vote also opened serious campaigning for the election, with party leaders trading ill-tempered barbs...."

"TBILISI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Georgia's president, locked in a standoff with her own government, appealed to Western countries on Monday to back what she called a "national movement" in support of Georgia's integration with the European Union. President Salome Zourabichvili was speaking shortly before protesters and police resumed clashes for the fifth straight night since the governing Georgian Dream party said last week that it was suspending talks on joining the EU.Critics saw that announcement as confirmation of a Russian-influenced shift away from pro-Western policies and back towards Moscow's orbit, something the ruling party denies. Zourabichvili, who has personally remonstrated with riot police, told Reuters that she wanted European countries to send a "very clear message" that they would not recognise the outcome of an October election in which official results gave Georgian Dream 54% of the vote, and would push for a re-run...."

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...."

CNN:" Israel’s cabinet unanimously voted to sanction the nation’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, on Sunday citing its critical coverage of the war following the October 7 Hamas attacks and comments by the outlet’s publisher calling for sanctions on senior government officials. Haaretz, which is widely respected internationally, has provided critical coverage of Israel’s war following the Hamas attacks on October 7, including investigations into abuses allegedly committed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as military operations expanded across Gaza and into neighboring Lebanon. The proposal, put forward by communications minister Shlomo Kar’i, will end government advertising in the newspaper and cancel all subscriptions for state employees and employees of state-owned companies."

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.“The intention might be for the Palestinians to leave Gaza, for others to occupy it,” Guterres told the Guardian. “But there has been – and I pay tribute to the courage and the resilience of the Palestinian people and to the determination of the Arab world – [an effort] to avoid the ethnic cleansing becoming a reality. “We will do everything possible to help them remain there and to avoid ethnic cleansing that might occur if there is not strong determination from the international community,” he added. Jordan’s foreign secretary, Ayman Safadi, last week told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken that ethnic cleansing was already happening in Gaza. Israel’s military denies systematically trying to force Palestinians from the territory. There has been broad international condemnation of Tuesday’s bombing of a five-storey residential building in Beit Lahiya, in which there were many children among the 93 fatalities. The US called it “a horrifying incident with a horrifying result” and on Wednesday the French foreign ministry said it condemned the bombing and “recent Israeli strikes on hospitals in the north”. “The siege imposed on north Gaza must be ended immediately,” the French statement said..."

"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:"TEMPE, Ariz. — Former president Donald Trump painted a dark picture of the United States under the Biden administration at a campaign rally here Thursday, comparing the country to “a garbage can for the world” because of illegal border crossings. Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. “First time I’ve ever said ‘garbage can,’” Trump said. “But you know what? It’s a very accurate description.” The remark was a new rendition of a common refrain for Trump, who has repeatedly used dehumanizing language when talking about immigrants, accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country” and spreading falsehoods that some were eating people’s pets. He spent much of his insult-laced rally decrying a border “invasion” that he blamed on Vice President Kamala Harris. For roughly an hour, the Republican presidential nominee interwove attacks on illegal immigration and invective aimed at Harris — the Democratic nominee — other Democratic politicians and journalists. In Trump’s words, Harris’s “gross incompetence” at controlling illegal immigration disqualifies her from the presidency. Trump also called President Joe Biden “a stupid fool” and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) “crazy as a bedbug.” The former president slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) as “the worst” and accused Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) of being too “petrified” to deal with migrant-fueled gang violence. Earlier this month, Trump promoted false claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex in a Denver suburb. Despite Trump’s tendency to link migrants and crime during his rallies, there is evidence that immigrants — documented or undocumented — tend to be more law-abiding than people born in the United States. Crime, including homicides and assaults, is also falling nationwide. Trump repeated many of the same insults and attacks at a separate rally in Las Vegas, where he projected confidence that he’s “leading by a lot” in several swing states, despite polling showing razor-thin margins. He added that he’s “not allowed to say” that he’s way ahead and said he expects to be declared the winner on Nov. 5, despite the possibility that the result will not be clear that night. .." COMMENT: TRUMP IS A FASCIST RACIST SERIAL LIAR;THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM JOHN 8:44 NKJV HIS POLICIES VIOLATE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES: "MATTHEW 25:41-43 NKJV

WSJ:"Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions. At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request. Musk has emerged this year as a crucial supporter of Donald Trump’s election campaign, and could find a role in a Trump administration should he win. While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries. Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA. Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information...."

" BEIRUT, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Three journalists were killed in Lebanon by an Israeli strike on Friday morning, their colleagues said, drawing condemnation from rights advocates about the number of reporters who have lost their lives in the region over the past year. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it "strongly condemned" the attack, urging the international community to "stop Israel's long-standing pattern of impunity in journalist killings." .."

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."

CNN:"...Many Gazans today are afraid to publicly voice support for Sinwar and Hamas for fear of being targeted by the Israeli military — which launched its siege of Gaza with the stated aim of destroying Hamas after it led the October 7 terror attacks, and to save the hostages taken that day. Others fear condemning Hamas, which controls the Palestinian enclave. But Samah, 36, told CNN that she saw Sinwar’s acts as crimes, for which Gaza had borne the human cost. “Sinwar was a target for Israel and he was targeted and killed. He attacked Israel, and committed crimes that we have paid the price for … We paid with horrific tragedies, with the blood of our children, our money, and our homes.” She too said she had little hope that his death would be a turning point in the war. “The assassination of leaders seems to change nothing. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu wants more and more people to be killed. We wish to live in security, peace, and stability,” she said...."

:"Andrew Hitt, who signed a phony electoral certificate for former President Trump in 2020, tells 60 Minutes that he and other Wisconsin Republican electors were tricked. January 7th the Supreme Court ultimately declined to hear the Trump campaign's lawsuit in Wisconsin what do you think about Donald Trump continuing to claim that the 2020 election was stolen it I mean it wasn't stolen it wasn't stolen in Wisconsin this past December Andrew hit and Wisconsin's other Republican electors settled a civil lawsuit against them by some of the state's Democratic electors they admitted they signed a document that was used as part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results hit resigned as chairman of the Wisconsin Republican party in August 2021 he's cooperated with the January 6 committee using our electors in ways that we weren't told about um and we wouldn't have supported and he says he's also cooperated with Federal prosecutors he maintains he and the other fake electors in Wisconsin were tricked whenever anybody sees our text messages our emails our documents they understand they know they con their conclusion is we were tricked the January 6 committee saw it Jack Smith specifically in his indictment refer to some of the electors were tricked that was us the former president is known to watch 60 minutes if he's watching what would you want to say to him I would say that this country needs to move forward that we need a leader who is tackles serious problems and serious issues that this country faces and we need faith in our institutions again and the next president president of the United States needs to do that and in your opinion that's not him it is not him..."

60 MINUTES:"Republican election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, are working to restore faith in elections amid former President Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. ...Attorney Ben Ginsburg has 8:18 represented the Republican party in many 8:20 of its most important election cases in 8:24 2022 he joined conservative judges and 8:28 senators in Lost not stolen an 8:32 investigation that exposes election 8:35 fraud lies part of it centers on Trump's 8:39 swing state lawsuits Donald Trump and 8:42 his supporters brought 64 cases they 8:45 lost 63 of them outright there was one 8:48 that was uh a partial Victory involving 8:52 200 votes far from outcome determinative 8:55 and all of that told you what the 8:58 evidence to back up the allegations of 9:00 Fraud and elections being unreliable 9:04 simply does not exist the election 9:06 deniers in Arizona will say we did lose 9:09 all those cases but the judges weren't 9:11 fair under the rule of law you have 9:14 every right to submit your litigation 9:18 but under the rule of law a conservative 9:20 principle a republican principle for as 9:22 long as I've been practicing election 9:25 law you have to accept the rulings of 9:28 the court..."

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 those values and ideas are contained within the Constitution of the United States of America which is the moral North Star for all of us who have the privilege of wearing the cloth of our nation is that document that all of us in uniform Swear to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic those who sacrifice themselves on the altar of freedom in the last two and a half centuries of this country must not have done so in vain the millions wounded in our nation's wars did not sacrifice their limbs and shed their blood see this great experiment in democracy perish from this Earth no we the American people we the American Military must never turn our back on those that came before us and we will never turn our back on the Constitution that is our North Star that is who we are and that is why we fight thank you and may God bless our military and may God bless the United States of America [Applause]..."

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. Trump's comments on the PBD Podcast on Thursday with Patrick Bet-David went a step further than his previous criticism. He said Zelenskiy was to blame not just for failing to end the war, but for helping start it, even though the conflict broke out when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory. "That doesn't mean I don't want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. The war's a loser," Trump said. Zelenskiy presented his "victory plan" to end the war to Trump during a meeting in New York in September, an encounter both leaders described as cordial. Trump's public comments, however, suggest he could seek to wind down aid for Ukraine if he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, on Nov. 5. He has repeatedly said he could end the conflict before he takes office in January, but he has not said how..." 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:" The European Union joined the United Nations, the United States and others in criticizing Israel for attempting to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel and East Jerusalem. A bill calling for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to be banned from operating in Israel and for Israel to stop cooperating with the agency is making its way through the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The EU said the bill would prevent “all UNRWA’s operations in Israel and East Jerusalem, destroy UNRWA’s life-saving operations in Gaza, seriously hamper provision of health, education and social services in the West Bank, and revoke UNRWA’s diplomatic privileges and immunities.” Remember: Israel has been trying to dismantle the agency for months after it accused 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. The allegations initially prompted 16 countries to suspend their funding of the agency. However, most have since reinstated their funding... "

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 DECENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS

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...."

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The same Iranian hacking group believed to have targeted both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns tried to go after the WhatsApp accounts of staffers in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms said Friday...."

"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. OR ARE THE WARRING PARTIES TOO STUPID TO REALIZE VIOLENCE RESULTS IN MORE VIOLENCE AND DEATH. IT IS ALL VERY SUSPICIOUS HOW THE ASSASSINATION OF HANIYEH WAS REPORTED AND HOW THE ALLEGED BOMBING OF THE DRUZE OCCURRED.

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.

AP:"FILE - A man walks by Stars of David tagged on a wall in Paris, on Oct. 31, 2023. France says it has been the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used bots to whip up controversy and confusion about spray-painted Stars of David that appeared on Paris streets. French government officials accused Russia of operating a long-running online manipulation campaign against Ukraine’s Western backers. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)"

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.

WASHINGTONPOST:"Donors channeled tens of millions of dollars to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee in the days immediately following his May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, all but erasing the massive fundraising advantage that President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee once held."

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. "

NYTIMES:"...In January 2016, I warned what were then my fellow Republicans that if they nominated Mr. Trump, he would constitute a grave threat to the nation. But I added that there was an additional reason to oppose him: Mr. Trump’s nomination would pose a profound danger to the Republican Party, in ways that Hillary Clinton never could. “For while Mrs. Clinton could inflict a defeat on the Republican Party, she could not redefine it,” I wrote. “But Mr. Trump, if he were the Republican nominee, would.” And so he has. Few figures in American history have overhauled a political party as quickly and as fundamentally as Mr. Trump has..."

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...."

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.... In some ways, this is classic behavior from Trump and follows multiple previous social media threats to judges, political opponents and anyone who angers him. But the context of looming trials and the election is important. No other presumptive Republican nominee or former president has acted in anything like this fashion...."

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:"Tapper: Key members of Netanyahu’s cabinet ‘throwing fire on the flames’ CNN’s Jake Tapper breaks down the comments made by several members of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet that he says are increasing tensions amid Israel’s war with Hamas. #CNN #news "

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:" 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. He said the humpback then used a lunging feeding technique, where the whale opens its mouth wide and takes in small fish and water. But instead of remaining underwater afterward to filter through its baleen, it surfaced and began opening and closing its mouth. After the whale went back underwater, photographs and videos were checked by whale watchers..."

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..."

"SHANGHAI, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Adoring crowds are flocking to a zoo in Shanghai to watch Junjun, a bear cub just 11 months old, as he frolics in his enclosure playing with toys, such as a favourite tyre, or splashing in a water trough. Standing 1 m (3.3 ft) tall and weighing more than 35 kg (77 lbs), the brown bear's every move captivates fans, who exclaim at his resemblance to a playful puppy and admire his fluffy fur coat. Even on a cold weekday in December, when the zoo in China's commercial hub is mostly deserted, a crowd gathers at the outdoor enclosure where Junjun encounters his doting public every two days..."

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...."

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 appearing clumpy and chaotic like other early galaxies, the researchers said in a statement published October 7..."

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.”"

NYTIMES:"Susan Wojcicki, who helped turn Google from a start-up in her garage into an internet juggernaut, and who became one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent female executives with her leadership of YouTube, died on Friday. She was 56... Ms. Wojcicki’s more than two decades with Google began in 1998 in her house in Menlo Park, Calif., part of which she rented to her friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s founders. For $1,700 a month, the two used the garage as their office to build the search engine.Ms. Wojcicki, who had been working at Intel, soon joined Google as one of its earliest employees and was its first marketing manager. Over the years, she reached its executive ranks, becoming Google’s most senior woman employee. She eventually led YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, and which became one of the world’s largest social media companies. “She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said..."

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. “For me personally it is just the confirmation of something I did 48 years ago, and it is very satisfying to be proved right in some way,” the British scientist told Reuters at the time. “At the beginning, I had no expectation that I would still be alive when it happened.”..."

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. Because that song, to me, is a perfect example of how Q — who was not one to shy away from braggadocious-interview behavior — would hang on to his ego when it meant serving the artist. Less is more. This was Quincy the producer. This is the antithesis of the gun-waving, Phil Spector kind of studio monster. It is how the greatest producers (George Martin, Rick Rubin) make big decisions with barely a mention. In this case, Jones turned an unremarkable ditty into a song that you can never forget..."

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 planso that critical functions and operations can be kept running..."

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.. .”