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Ravil Maganov is the eighth Russian oil executive to die under mysterious circumstances since war began

Ravil Maganov is the eighth Russian oil executive to die under mysterious circumstances since war began

Forbes reports: Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia’s biggest private oil company, Lukoil, died after falling through the window of a hospital in Moscow, Russian media reported on Thursday, a death which comes under mysterious circumstances just months after his company emerged as a rare high profile voice of dissent against the invasion of Ukraine. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Maganov died from his injuries after falling out of the window of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow….

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Insiders reveal how Erdogan controls Turkey’s newsrooms

Insiders reveal how Erdogan controls Turkey’s newsrooms

Reuters reports: When President Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law suddenly quit as finance minister in late 2020, four staff in Turkey’s leading newsrooms said they received a clear direction from their managers: don’t report this until the government says so. The resignation of Berat Albayrak, which he announced in a Sunday evening Instagram post, was reported by international and independent Turkish news outlets. The lira soared on hopes of a new direction for the beleaguered economy. But for more than 24 hours,…

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An anthropologist schooled in spiritual healing offers wisdom for troubled times

An anthropologist schooled in spiritual healing offers wisdom for troubled times

Anna Badkhen writes: Once upon a time, in a thatched spirit hut in the Nigerien village of Tillaberi, the Songhay master sorcerer Adamu Jenitongo told the American anthropologist Paul Stoller that the bush was angry. “People who speak with two mouths and feel with two hearts anger the spirits of the bush,” Adamu Jenitongo said. “When the bush is angry there is not enough rain. When the bush is angry there is too much rain. When the bush is angry…

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Are Trump’s passports the FBI’s smoking gun?

Are Trump’s passports the FBI’s smoking gun?

Barbara McQuade writes: When the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this month, they didn’t find a smoking gun, but they did find some smoldering passports. On August 8, agents removed from Trump’s home 33 boxes of sensitive government documents, including more than 100 records classified at the highest levels. In a 36-page brief responding to Trump’s motion to appoint a special master to review the material seized by the FBI, the Justice Department explained that three…

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Trump’s lawyers may become witnesses or targets in documents investigation

Trump’s lawyers may become witnesses or targets in documents investigation

The New York Times reports: Two lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump are likely to become witnesses or targets in the investigation into how he hoarded documents marked as classified at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate — and secretly held onto some even after the lawyers claimed all sensitive materials had been returned, legal specialists said. The lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb, handled Mr. Trump’s interactions with the government over a subpoena in May seeking additional material marked…

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DOJ likely to wait past midterms to reveal any charges against Trump as advisers urge him to delay 2024 decision

DOJ likely to wait past midterms to reveal any charges against Trump as advisers urge him to delay 2024 decision

Bloomberg reports: Federal prosecutors are likely to wait until after the November election to announce any charges against Donald Trump, if they determine he broke laws, according to people familiar. The unprecedented prospect of bringing charges against a former US president is creating intense scrutiny of the Justice Department in the aftermath of its search of his home at Mar-a-Lago. A separate DOJ probe is focused on his effort to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe…

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Gorbachev never realized what he set in motion

Gorbachev never realized what he set in motion

Anne Applebaum writes: The one time I saw Mikhail Gorbachev in public was on November 9, 2014. I can pin the day down because it was the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We were in a very large, very crowded Berlin reception room, and he was sitting at a cocktail table, looking rather lost. Gorbachev had been invited to this event as a trophy, a living, breathing souvenir of the 1980s. He was not expected to…

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U.S. war-gamed with Ukraine ahead of counteroffensive and encouraged more limited mission

U.S. war-gamed with Ukraine ahead of counteroffensive and encouraged more limited mission

CNN reports: In the buildup to the current Ukrainian counteroffensive, the US urged Kyiv to keep the operation limited in both its objectives and its geography to avoid getting overextended and bogged down on multiple fronts, multiple US and western officials and Ukrainian sources tell CNN. Those discussions involved engaging in “war-gaming” with Kyiv, the sources said — analytical exercises that were intended to help the Ukrainian forces understand what force levels they would need to muster to be successful…

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To ease the world food crisis, focus resources on women and girls

To ease the world food crisis, focus resources on women and girls

Elizabeth Bryan, Claudia Ringler, and Nicole Lefore write: In the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the global community is scrambling. The World Bank, the G7 group of the world’s largest developed economies, the European Union and the United States have collectively pledged more than US$40 billion to avert food and humanitarian crises (see Supplementary information). Yet these massive funds are unlikely to get women and girls the help they need. The investments might even exacerbate inequalities. Crises hit women…

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U.S. life expectancy falls again in ‘historic’ setback

U.S. life expectancy falls again in ‘historic’ setback

The New York Times reports: The average life expectancy of Americans fell precipitously in 2020 and 2021, the sharpest two-year decline in nearly 100 years and a stark reminder of the toll exacted on the nation by the continuing coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the average American could expect to live until the age of 76, federal health researchers reported on Wednesday. The figure represents a loss of almost three years since 2019, when Americans could expect to live, on average,…

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More than 40% of Americans think civil war likely within a decade

More than 40% of Americans think civil war likely within a decade

The Guardian reports: More than two-fifths of Americans believe civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next 10 years, according to a new survey – a figure that increases to more than half among self-identified “strong Republicans”. Amid heated rhetoric from supporters of Donald Trump, the findings, in research by YouGov and the Economist, follow similar results in other polls. On Sunday night, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham predicted “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted…

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‘Trump is a gangster,’ says longtime GOP consultant

‘Trump is a gangster,’ says longtime GOP consultant

S.V. Date writes: America can have peace and tranquility. Or it can have a criminal prosecution of Donald Trump. It cannot have both. Presenting this mob-like ultimatum appears to have become the former president’s strategy as the FBI and the Department of Justice close in on Trump’s possession of and refusal to return top secret documents he took with him to his Florida social club when he left the White House following his failed coup attempt. “Nice store you got…

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Trump hires lawyer who was a registered lobbyist for the Venezuelan government

Trump hires lawyer who was a registered lobbyist for the Venezuelan government

NBC News reports: Chris Kise, Florida’s former solicitor general who served on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transition team, inked a contract to represent Donald Trump in the criminal case that resulted in the FBI search of the former president’s home in Mar-a-Lago, according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions. Kise, who declined to comment, began negotiations with Trump shortly after the FBI’s search of his Palm Beach estate Aug. 8. Numerous other criminal defense attorneys have said they couldn’t…

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The flooding in Pakistan is a climate catastrophe combined with a political crisis

The flooding in Pakistan is a climate catastrophe combined with a political crisis

The Washington Post reports: A third of Pakistan is now underwater amid an unprecedented amount of rainfall since June, Pakistan’s climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, said Monday. That would mean an area about the size of Colorado is underwater. Pakistan, home to about 220 million, has a land mass of 307,000 square miles. Flooding caused by eight consecutive weeks of rainfall has killed more than 1,100 people. “This is a huge humanitarian disaster, and I would call it quite apocalyptic,”…

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