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Category: Politics

How Russia’s FSB recruits former ISIS fighters — and tries to plant them in Ukrainian battalions

How Russia’s FSB recruits former ISIS fighters — and tries to plant them in Ukrainian battalions

Lilia Yapparova and Vera Mironova report: In January 2014, when Baurzhan Kultanov first joined the Islamic State, he wasn’t surprised by almost anything he encountered in Syria and Iraq’s occupied territories. While recounting his experiences there, he compared Raqqa, ISIS’s then-capital, to Istanbul, where he had met his recruiters, as well as to his hometown of Astrakhan, Russia. “People live their lives there, just like anywhere,” Kultanov told Meduza. “The women sit at home, they go to the bazaar —…

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Why Trump wants the U.S. to default on debt

Why Trump wants the U.S. to default on debt

Dennis Aftergut writes: Lest you have any doubt, the three exclamation points are Trump’s. You could be excused for thinking he wants a default. He loves chaos. But he also has a purely self-serving reason to seek an economic catastrophe. You don’t need to be a stable genius to know that a bad economy typically hurts the incumbent in a presidential race. And Trump is desperate to get the immunity from prosecution that being elected president would provide him. He’s…

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Concerns about Biden’s reelection swamped by fear of Trump in swing voter focus groups

Concerns about Biden’s reelection swamped by fear of Trump in swing voter focus groups

The Washington Post reports: Nearly all of the 15 gathered swing state voters described feeling negative emotions when they saw President Biden on a television or computer screens — “confused,” “concern,” “worry,” “sad,” “sorry” and even “panicked.” Every single one said they wished Biden and his old Republican foe Donald Trump were not running for reelection. Several offered dire assessments of Biden’s mental and physical capacities, calling him too old or speculating about the possibility of dementia. But as the…

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Texas forced this woman to give birth to a stillborn son. She’s suing

Texas forced this woman to give birth to a stillborn son. She’s suing

Rolling Stone reports: After multiple miscarriages, Kiersten Hogan thought she would never be able to carry a pregnancy to term. She’d nearly given up hope when in June 2021 she learned she was pregnant. But at just 19 weeks — days after Texas’ Senate Bill 8 went into effect — Hogan woke up at 5 a.m. in excruciating pain. She called 911 and was instructed to unlock her front door and lay on the ground until EMTs arrived. “It was…

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Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans advance into Russia’s Belgorod region in surprise raid

Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans advance into Russia’s Belgorod region in surprise raid

Michael Weiss and James Rushton report: Russia may have taken the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut Sunday, but forces aligned with Ukraine apparently took a tiny part of Russia on Monday — or so video and photograph footage suggested as of just after noon local time. Ukrainian armored vehicles, including at least one tank, were seen attacking a border post, in the town of Kozinka, in the Belgorod region of southern Russia. Drone footage, taken from the Ukrainian side of the…

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Trump or DeSantis? Neither, say Ukrainian-American voters angry at war stance

Trump or DeSantis? Neither, say Ukrainian-American voters angry at war stance

Reuters reports: George Stawnyczyj voted for Donald Trump twice. On domestic policy, he gives the former president top marks. But he’ll stay home on Election Day should Trump win his party’s nomination to take on Joe Biden in 2024. Stawnyczyj is an official in the Republican Party in rural Carbon County, Pennsylvania. He’s also Ukrainian-American and can’t stomach Trump’s criticism of aid payments to war-torn Ukraine nor his habit of complimenting Vladimir Putin. “The way Trump is talking right now,…

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Most January 6 defendants (who are mostly white) are getting off easy

Most January 6 defendants (who are mostly white) are getting off easy

Rolling Stone reports: The first time Gina Bisignano ran afoul of the law in Washington, D.C., she was recorded standing on a ledge in front of a broken window on the U.S. Capitol Building’s West Terrace, adorned in a Louis Vuitton sweater and Chanel boots. “We the people are not going to take it anymore. You are not going to take away our Trumpy Bear!” the Beverly Hills cosmetologist bellowed through a bullhorn on Jan. 6. “Everybody, we need gas…

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He became convinced the school board was pushing ‘transgender bullshit.’ He ended up arrested — and emboldened

He became convinced the school board was pushing ‘transgender bullshit.’ He ended up arrested — and emboldened

ProPublica reports: An image of a shooting target — with two bullet holes to the head and five scattered around the chest — serves as a warning to visitors who climb the brick steps and pass the American flag to reach Eric Jensen’s front door. “If you can read this you’re in range,” the sign says. Another warning, posted near the doorbell, states: “No Solicitation. … This property charges $50 per minute to listen to any vaccine/medical advice.” He ordered…

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NAACP issues travel advisory for Florida, saying the state is ‘openly hostile toward African Americans’ under Gov. DeSantis’ administration

NAACP issues travel advisory for Florida, saying the state is ‘openly hostile toward African Americans’ under Gov. DeSantis’ administration

CNN reports: Another advocacy group is warning people of color about traveling to Florida – but for different reasons. The NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state “in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools,” the group said in a written statement Saturday. The announcement came days after LULAC – the League of United Latin American Citizens – issued a travel advisory for…

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Christian nationalists worship God, guns and Trump

Christian nationalists worship God, guns and Trump

Susan Stubson writes: I first saw it while working the rope line at a monster-truck rally during the 2016 campaign by my husband, Tim, for Wyoming’s lone congressional seat. As Tim and I and our boys made our way down the line, shaking hands and passing out campaign material, a burly man wearing a “God bless America” T-shirt and a cross around his neck said something like, “He’s got my vote if he keeps those [epithet] out of office,” using…

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How Russia and Iran maintain their grip in Syria under the shadows of the Ukraine war

How Russia and Iran maintain their grip in Syria under the shadows of the Ukraine war

Omar Abu Layla writes: When assessing the effects of the Russia–Ukraine war on Syria, it is first necessary to mention that the former is the military ally with the single greatest impact on the course of the conflict. Russia seeks to maintain not only its influence in Syria but also its diplomatic and military ambitions in the Middle East, taking advantage of the withdrawal of American troops in 2019, which greenlit the way for Turkey to penetrate deep into Syrian…

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The long battle for Bakhmut isn’t over

The long battle for Bakhmut isn’t over

The New York Times reports: Ukrainian soldiers were waiting for just the right moment to attack. Then they received critical intelligence: Russian mercenaries on the other side of the front line outside Bakhmut were about to rotate out and be replaced by other soldiers. It was time to go. “We all felt the adrenaline,” said an infantry soldier who identified himself by his call sign, Face, in accordance with military protocols. Ukrainian soldiers were told to get their kits ready,…

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How Democrats ended up where they swore they wouldn’t be: Negotiating on the debt limit

How Democrats ended up where they swore they wouldn’t be: Negotiating on the debt limit

Politico reports: Looking back on the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, Tim Kaine has one big regret about a largely successful stretch of Democratic rule: That his party didn’t try to raise the debt ceiling on its own last year. The Virginia senator believes that if Democrats had tried to hike the debt limit before the House GOP swept into a majority, even Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) might have gone along with it. But Biden’s party never moved…

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U.S. joins major effort to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, other jets

U.S. joins major effort to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, other jets

Politico reports: The U.S. will support a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on modern fighter aircraft, including F-16s, President Joe Biden informed G-7 leaders on Friday in Japan. The training will take place outside Ukraine at a site in Europe and will require months to complete. Officials hope to begin the training in the coming weeks, according to a senior administration official, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss the matter before it was announced. The move…

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Ukraine races to forge new army ahead of offensive

Ukraine races to forge new army ahead of offensive

The Wall Street Journal reports: In a valley far from the front lines last week, several men practiced dropping a half-full bottle of water from a small aerial drone, as though it were a grenade. Others fired rifles at targets 100 yards away. A third group set off for a trek through the surrounding hills, which burst with white and yellow flowers. Almost none of them had military experience before last year. The Ukrainian military is racing to turn civilians…

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