Florida judge to hold hearing Thursday on request to unseal Mar-a-Lago affidavit – CNN
Florida judge to hold hearing Thursday on request to unseal Mar-a-Lago affidavit – CNN

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice

Updated 12:01 PM ET, Tue August 16, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/politics/mar-a-lago-affidavit-request/index.html

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Trump’s midterms revenge campaign takes aim at lawmaker Liz Cheney – Reuters
Trump’s midterms revenge campaign takes aim at lawmaker Liz Cheney – Reuters

Aug 16 (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s campaign to oust congressional Republicans who supported his impeachment gets its last major test of the U.S. midterm primary season on Tuesday, when Liz Cheney and Lisa Murkowski face challengers backed by the former president.

U.S. Representative Cheney, who has played a key role in the congressional probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters, is expected to lose her Wyoming primary to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, according to opinion polls.

The fate of U.S. Senator Murkowski of Alaska is less clear, as the state’s nonpartisan primary format allows the top four vote-getters to advance to the Nov. 8 general election, which could bring a possible rematch of Murkowski and Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka.

Both states are reliably Republican, making it unlikely that either will play a major role in deciding whether President Joe Biden’s Democrats lose their razor-thin majorities in Congress. Republicans are expected to easily retake the House and also have a good chance of winning control of the Senate.

A majority in either chamber of Congress would allow Republicans to bring Biden’s legislative agenda to a halt. Already they threaten to launch potentially damaging investigations into his administration should they win.

Alaska voters will also determine whether to pick Sarah Palin, a Republican firebrand and former governor who Trump has endorsed for the state’s only House seat.

CHENEY’S LONG GAME

Cheney, the daughter of Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney, has used her campaign – and her position on the Jan. 6 committee – to try to keep attention on Trump’s actions around the Capitol riot, and his continued false claims about fraud in the 2020 election, to try to persuade fellow Republicans the former president is a threat to democracy.

Terry Sullivan, a political strategist who managed Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, views a Cheney loss on Tuesday as a “foregone conclusion” but sees her efforts as part of a larger battle.

“Liz Cheney isn’t fighting for re-election, she’s fighting for the direction of the Republican Party,” he said, noting that some observers have discussed whether Cheney should mount a presidential campaign in 2024. “It’s more of a kind of a beginning, not an end.”

Two recent polls show the challenge facing Cheney, whose relentless criticism of Trump as an existential threat to democracy has turned off many Wyoming Republicans, despite a congressional voting record that supported Trump’s agenda.

Cheney trailed Hageman 52% to 30% in a survey of likely primary voters from July 7 to 11 published by Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune. A University of Wyoming poll released last week put Hageman’s lead at 29 points.

Supporters of Cheney believe she still has a shot if enough Democrats and independents cross over and vote for her, which is allowed in the state’s primary system and whose numbers may not be fully captured in the polls.

Jim King, professor of political science at the University of Wyoming, said Cheney’s opponents have painted her positions on impeachment and the Jan. 6 committee as adverse to the interests of Wyoming, where Trump won 70% of the vote in 2020.

“All of this plays into the same thing, that ‘She hasn’t represented us,'” King said, adding that the consistent distance in the polling indicates Cheney will lose. “I don’t see at this point there is any reason to question those results.”

Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Three others have already lost their primaries, four decided not to run again and two won their contests.

Most of the candidates Trump has backed this election season have triumphed in a sign, his supporters say, of his continued sway over the party as he considers whether to run for office again in 2024.

It is unclear yet what the impact on the midterm elections will be of the FBI’s retrieval of top secret documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act.

CROSS-OVER VOTES

Cheney’s backers have drawn some optimism from state voter data, which shows a 11,495 increase in the number of registered Republicans since the start of the year through Aug. 1, while registered Democrats have fallen by about 6,000.

Their hope is that those numbers represent Democrats registering as Republicans as a way to boost Cheney, although the Republican increase is only about 8% of the primary turnout in 2018 – not enough to make up for the polling gap.

Similar to Wyoming, Trump’s endorsements in Republican-leaning Alaska are unlikely to provide an opening for Democrats. But they have elevated Tshibaka, who is trying to take Republican Murkowski’s Senate seat.

Under new laws which eliminated partisan primaries and introduced ranked choice voting, Murkowski is expected to be among the top four vote-getters to advance to the general election, with Tshibaka as her most serious opponent.

Murkowski, a moderate who voted for Trump’s impeachment, is seen as the front-runner.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-revenge-campaign-takes-aim-key-wyoming-alaska-republicans-2022-08-16/

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Russia-Ukraine War News: Explosions Rock Russian Depot in Crimea – The New York Times
Russia-Ukraine War News: Explosions Rock Russian Depot in Crimea – The New York Times
Despite recent pronouncements by Ukraine’s leadership about the military’s success along the Kherson front, troops have barely moved for weeks. Credit…Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

MYKOLAIV REGION, Ukraine — In their summer campaign to drive Russian troops from the southern region of Kherson, Ukraine’s forces have decimated Russian command centers and ammunition depots, severed supply lines with precision strikes on key bridges, and sown terror among collaborationist officials with a spate of car bombings, shootings and, Ukrainian officials said, at least one poisoning.

But out in the sunbaked fields along the Kherson Region’s western border, the Ukrainian fighters who would be called on to deliver the knockout blow in any successful effort to retake territory remain pinned down in their trenches. Cuts to Russian supply lines have not yet eroded the overwhelming advantage of Moscow’s forces in artillery, ammunition and heavy weaponry, making it difficult if not impossible for Ukrainian forces to press forward without suffering enormous casualties.

“Without question we need a counteroffensive, I sincerely believe it will come,” said a 33-year-old lieutenant with the call sign Ada, who commands an outpost of trenchworks in the neighboring Mykolaiv region, a few miles from the Russian lines in Kherson.

But he added: “We need the advantage in numbers, we need the advantage in heavy weapons. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a problem for us.”

Even though Ukrainian troops have not moved forward for weeks in Kherson, their artillery campaign appears to have borne fruit, slowing the flow of Russian arms, equipment and troops into the region, Ukrainian officials say. Using high-precision weapons such as the American-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, Ukrainian forces have pounded the three bridges over the vast Dnipro River that connect thousands of Russians to their supply lines in occupied Ukrainian territory east of the river.

The strikes have rendered these bridges “inoperable,” said Nataliya Gumenyuk, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s southern command. Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces launched yet another strike on the Antonivsky bridge, the main supply artery into the city of Kherson.

“We clearly understand that the occupiers depend on those arteries to keep bringing in reserves and ammunition and military equipment,” Ms. Gumenyuk said.

The question now is whether this pressure on Russia’s supply lines will be sufficient to cripple the fighting capacity of Russian troops and perhaps force the Kremlin to order at least part of the force to withdraw from Kherson and fall back across the river. Several Ukrainian officials in the region said this week that some Russian field commanders had already begun to move their headquarters east of the river, although two senior Ukrainian military officials said there was no evidence of this.

At the front, a withering barrage of Russian strikes inevitably kills a handful of Ada’s troops each day, the lieutenant said. A near miss by a grad rocket a day earlier charred the grass around one dugout position, and in the field nearby, the tail section of another rocket was visible sticking out of the ground. Periodically, a low-decibel thud reverberated across the plains.

It is the same all across the roughly 50-mile Kherson front, which cuts roughly north to south through fertile fields. Ukraine’s commanders and military analysts say that any lunge forward would require vastly more troops and equipment than Ukraine has in the Kherson theater at the moment.

Refugees from Kherson cutting up clothing to be used as camouflage for Ukrainian troops, near Mykolaiv last month.Credit…Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Russia, meanwhile, has shifted resources from fighting in the eastern Donbas to reinforce its positions in the south.

Maj. Gen. Dmytro Marchenko, the commander of Ukraine’s forces in the region, recently acknowledged bubbling frustrations with the slow pace of Ukraine’s efforts to retake Kherson, but he said he could give no timetable for the start of major offensive actions.

“I want to tell the people of Kherson to be a little patient — that it will not be as long as everyone expects,” General Marchenko said in an interview last week with RBK-Ukraine. “We have not forgotten about them, no one will abandon our people and we will come to help them, but they need to wait a little longer.”

If the Ukrainians can fully sever the bridges over the Dnipro and keep them cut, the Kremlin will have no choice but to withdraw some forces or force Russian troops to fight with limited supplies and “hope they cope,” said Phillips P. O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

“If they haven’t built up considerable depots on the west bank, one would think they would run into major problems in a matter of weeks,” he said.

— Michael Schwirtz

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/16/world/ukraine-russia-news-war

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Justice Department asks judge to keep Trump’s search warrant affidavit sealed, citing investigation – NBC News
Justice Department asks judge to keep Trump’s search warrant affidavit sealed, citing investigation – NBC News
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Steep water cuts are coming for the Southwest as Colorado River shrinks and Lake Mead’s level plummets – CNN
Steep water cuts are coming for the Southwest as Colorado River shrinks and Lake Mead’s level plummets – CNN

Officials reveal new details about the 3 sets of human remains found at Lake Mead

The West’s historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam

Experts say the term ‘drought’ may be insufficient to capture what is happening in the West

Steep water cuts are coming for the Southwest as Colorado River shrinks and Lake Mead’s level plummets

The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people. As its supply dwindles, a crisis looms

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/us/colorado-river-water-cuts-lake-mead-negotiations-climate/index.html

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Alaska special election: Sarah Palin’s comeback bid faces voters : Live Coverage: 2022 Primaries – NPR
Alaska special election: Sarah Palin’s comeback bid faces voters : Live Coverage: 2022 Primaries – NPR

U.S. House candidate former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets the crowd during a rally held by former President Donald Trump on July 9 in Anchorage.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


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U.S. House candidate former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets the crowd during a rally held by former President Donald Trump on July 9 in Anchorage.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Alaskans go to the polls Tuesday to decide, among other things, whether to send former governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin to Congress.

The right-wing Republican is among three candidates in a special election for Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat. Palin is up against Republican Nick Begich III and Democrat Mary Peltola in the first test of Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system.

The winner will serve until the end of the year, finishing the term of GOP Rep. Don Young. He died in March after serving 49 years.

Begich is a wealthy tech entrepreneur. He was co-chair of Young’s 2020 campaign but turned on the incumbent the next year and ran to Young’s right. He comes from a family of prominent Democrats and is named for his grandfather, the congressman who held the seat before Young.

With two conservatives splitting the vote, Peltola, a salmon advocate and former state legislator from western Alaska, is likely to gain the most first-choice ballots. But the winner of the special election won’t be known until the end of August, after all the mailed ballots arrive. That’s when the Alaska Division of Elections will tabulate the rankings. The third-place finisher will be eliminated and the ballots that went to the candidate will be reallocated according to the voters’ second choices.

Palin has called it the “screwiest system” that “makes no sense to most voters.”

A slim majority of Alaska voters adopted the new method in 2020. It pairs a nonpartisan primary with ranked choice voting in the general.

To win the special general, one of the conservatives would have to get enough second-choice votes from the other to overcome Peltola’s likely lead in the first round of counting.

The two Republicans have been attacking each other for weeks while leaving Peltola alone.

Palin recently called the Democrat a “sweetheart,” even as she attacks Begich for supporting Democrats in past races.

Begich has called Palin a “quitter,” tapping into the disappointment many Alaska Republicans felt when she resigned as governor in 2009 in the wake of her unsuccessful campaign as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate in 2008.

“We picked her to do a job, and she didn’t bother to finish it. Because she wanted to go out there and get rich and famous,” a Begich ad says.

While they need second-choice votes, Begich and Palin have a more immediate concern.

“Game No. 1 has to be that you don’t come in third,” said Art Hackney, a Republican consultant working for Begich. “Because if you come in third, you are, you know, moot to the whole thing, and it becomes your second-choice votes that are the things that matter.”

To complicate this election day for voters, it is also the day of the regular primary.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who supports abortion rights, is on the ballot for reelection with 18 challengers. Among them is attorney and evangelical pastor Kelly Tshibaka. She, like Palin, has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

The Alaska Republican Party would like to punish Murkowski for voting to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, but the new system eliminates the partisan primary. The top four vote-getters will advance to the November ballot. Murkowski and Tshibaka are both sure to make the cut, along with Democrat Pat Chesbro, a retired educator.

Also at stake this election season: Who will serve the next full term in the U.S. House. Begich, Palin and Peltola are all in that race, too.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/2022-live-primary-election-race-results/2022/08/16/1117642645/sarah-palin-faces-alaska-voters-again-in-a-special-election-for-congress

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Pennsylvania man arrested, accused of threatening to kill FBI agents – The Washington Post
Pennsylvania man arrested, accused of threatening to kill FBI agents – The Washington Post

Bies’s arrest came days after FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8, sparking a firestorm among conservative politicians and commentators. As Trump supporters protested outside the resort that night, Fox News host Sean Hannity distilled many of their criticisms, denouncing the search as “a dark day for our republic, the Department of Justice, the rule of law,” The Post reported.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/16/adam-bies-fbi-death-threats/

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Raila Odinga calls Kenya election results null and void, calls for calm – The Washington Post
Raila Odinga calls Kenya election results null and void, calls for calm – The Washington Post

In Kibera, a slum in Nairobi that is considered a stronghold for Odinga, crowds that had in previous days gathered to watch live broadcasts ahead of the results had dispersed. “The announcement was disappointing; whatever Odinga says is what we will do, he is our leader. We trust his judgment for the way forward,” said Job Owino, a supporter.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/16/kenya-election-odinga-ruto/

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Justice Dept. Objects to Releasing Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home – The New York Times
Justice Dept. Objects to Releasing Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home – The New York Times

In a statement late Monday, the F.B.I. said that it “follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes.”


<!–

Behind the Journalism

–>

What we consider before using anonymous sources.
How do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.

Mr. Garland agreed last week to release the warrant used to search Mr. Trump’s private club, but has resisted attempts to make public the underlying affidavit, a far more sensitive document that should contain, among other things, the reasons prosecutors believe there was probable cause that evidence of a crime could be found at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

The investigation into the mishandling of government documents, while known for months, was not considered to be as significant as the department’s sprawling investigation into the attack on the Capitol, which has been moving closer to Mr. Trump and his top advisers.

Federal agents removed top secret documents when they searched Mr. Trump’s residence last week as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws, according to a search warrant made public on Friday.

At least one lawyer for Mr. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said.

Even as the former president counterattacked, new details emerged of how Mr. Trump and his inner circle flouted the norms, and possibly the laws, governing their handling of government records.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/us/politics/trump-search-affidavit.html

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Rudy Giuliani told by prosecutors he is a target in Georgia 2020 presidential election probe – CNN
Rudy Giuliani told by prosecutors he is a target in Georgia 2020 presidential election probe – CNN

By Sara Murray, Jason Morris and Gloria Borger, CNN

Updated 7:57 PM ET, Mon August 15, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/15/politics/rudy-giuliani-georgia-presidential-election-probe/index.html

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Afghanistan marks 1 year since Taliban seizure as woes mount – The Associated Press
Afghanistan marks 1 year since Taliban seizure as woes mount – The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Monday marked a year since they seized the Afghan capital in a rapid takeover that triggered a hasty escape of the nation’s Western-backed leaders, sent the economy into a tailspin and fundamentally transformed the country.

Bearded Taliban fighters, some hoisting rifles or the white banners of their movement, staged victory parades on foot, bicycles and motorcycles in the streets of Kabul. One group marched past the former U.S. Embassy, chanting “Long live Islam” and “Death to America.”

A year after the dramatic day, much has changed in Afghanistan. The former insurgents struggle to govern and remain internationally isolated. The economic downturn has driven millions more Afghans into poverty and even hunger, as the flow of foreign aid slowed to a trickle.

The U.N. humanitarian chief for Afghanistan warned that unless donors provide $2.6 billion very soon the country faces “pure catastrophe” over the coming winter with millions of lives at stake.

Ramiz Alakbarov told a virtual news conference from Kabul that the U.N.’s $4.4 billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan this year has received only about $1.8 billion, leaving a $2.6 billion gap in funding for desperately needed food and other aid.

He said over 90 million people in Afghanistan are “food insecure,” around 35 million are living in poverty, and 6.6 million are classified in the emergency level just one step from famine.

Alakbarov said he just visited several hospitals and saw “heartbreaking scenes” of malnourished children who will not survive the winter without additional support.

While the Afghan people are known for their resilience and ability to survive, he said, unfortunately “negative coping strategies” including the selling of organs and the selling of children will be seen again “if support is not provided.”

Meanwhile, hard-liners appear to hold sway in the Taliban-led government, which imposed severe restrictions on access to education and jobs for girls and women, despite initial promises to the contrary. A year on, teenage girls are still barred from school and women are required to cover themselves head-to-toe in public, with only the eyes showing.

Some are trying to find ways to keep education from stalling for a generation of young women and underground schools in homes have sprung up.

Natalia Kanem, executive director of the U.N.’s sexual and reproductive health agency, said in a statement that Afghan females must not be forgotten.

“As the world faces multiple, overlapping crises, we must not forget the women and girls of Afghanistan. When women’s and girls’ basic rights are denied, we are all diminished,” she said.

A year ago, thousands of Afghans had rushed to Kabul International Airport to flee the Taliban amid the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul after 20 years of war — America’s longest conflict.

Some flights resumed relatively quickly after those chaotic days. On Monday, a handful of commercial flights were scheduled to land and take off from a runway that last summer saw Afghan men clinging to the wheels of planes taking off, some falling to their death.

Schoolyards stood empty Monday as the Taliban announced a public holiday to mark the day, which they refer to as “The Proud Day of Aug. 15” and the “First Anniversary of the Return to Power.”

“Reliance on God and the support of the people brought this great victory and freedom to the country,” wrote Abdul Wahid Rayan, the head of the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency. “Today, Aug. 15, marks the victory of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan against America and its allies occupation of Afghanistan.”

During a gathering to mark the anniversary, the Taliban deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, offered congratulations to “the entire nation on the day of the conquest of Kabul, which was the beginning of the complete end of the occupation.”

In remarks broadcast live by state radio and TV, he boasted of what he described as “great achievements” under the Taliban, such as an alleged end of corruption, improved security and banned poppy cultivation.

On the eve of the anniversary, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani defended what he said was a split-second decision to flee, saying he wanted to avoid the humiliation of surrender to the insurgents. He told CNN that on the morning of Aug. 15, 2021, with the Taliban at the gates of Kabul, he was the last one at the presidential palace after his guards had disappeared.

Tomas Niklasson, the European Union’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said the bloc of nations remains committed to the Afghan people and to “stability, prosperity and sustainable peace in Afghanistan and the region.”

“This will require an inclusive political process with full, equal and meaningful participation of all Afghan men and women and respect for human rights,” Niklasson wrote.

___

Faiez reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-poverty-economy-kabul-taliban-cc5a327e607fd5fa1f64eae0e152e973

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Trump world’s shifting narrative on the Mar-a-Lago docs – POLITICO
Trump world’s shifting narrative on the Mar-a-Lago docs – POLITICO

It’s a “witch hunt.”

Right out of the gate on Aug. 8, with a lengthy statement confirming the FBI search, Trump used all the key words: “dark times,” “under siege,” “Radical Left Democrats,” “weaponization of the Justice System,” “prosecutorial misconduct,” “political persecution” and “witch hunt.”

Trump cast the search as a potential threat to Republican success in the midterm elections and his chance at a 2024 reelection bid. He called the law enforcement action corrupt, and posed this question: “What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”

First Hillary Clinton, then Barack Obama.

It was no surprise Trump immediately brought up Hillary Clinton’s handling of her emails while she was secretary of State, but in the days following the search, he invoked another name: former President Barack Obama.

As more information was published about the material Trump possessed, and Garland moved to unseal the search warrant, the former president released a statement accusing Obama of keeping 33 million pages of documents, “much of them classified.”

“How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” he said.

The National Archives and Records Administration quickly responded with its own statement on Friday, noting it obtained “exclusive legal and physical custody” of Obama’s records when he left the White House in 2017. Roughly 30 million pages of unclassified records were transferred to a NARA facility in the Chicago area, NARA said, and this material is maintained “exclusively” by the federal agency.

I did nothing wrong.

On the day the search warrant was unsealed, Trump put forth a new explanation about why he kept highly classified documents — and it’s likely to be at the center of his legal defense moving forward.

Trump’s office provided a statement to John Solomon, the conservative journalist who is one of the former president’s authorized representatives to the National Archives. The statement said Trump regularly took classified material to Mar-a-Lago, and that he had issued a never-before-revealed “standing order” that documents removed in this fashion “were deemed to be declassified.”

“The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States,” the statement read. “The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

Trump kept his Saturday statement short. He proclaimed he has “TRUTH” on his side, and “when you have TRUTH, you will ultimately be victorious!”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/15/trump-worlds-shifting-narrative-on-the-mar-a-lago-docs-00051935

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Trump executive Weisselberg expected to reach plea deal – The Washington Post
Trump executive Weisselberg expected to reach plea deal – The Washington Post

The Justice Department’s criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election is investigating his actions as part of that effort. And in Georgia, prosecutors conducting a criminal probe into efforts to overturn the election have said former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has served as Trump’s lawyer, is a target of that inquiry, his attorney said Monday.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/15/allen-weisselberg-trump-plea/

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Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails – Los Angeles Times
Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails – Los Angeles Times

A second effort to force Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón into a recall election fizzled out Monday after officials determined that the campaign to boot him from office failed to gain enough valid signatures.

To put Gascón’s job on the ballot, the campaign seeking his ouster needed to gather 566,857 valid signatures by mid-July; the figure reflects 10% of the people who were eligible to vote in the election cycle when he won office in November 2020. The L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office said Monday that about 520,000 of the signatures submitted were valid.

While the campaign submitted roughly 715,000 signatures, some were inevitably going to be disqualified if they were signed by people who were not properly registered to vote in L.A. County or if a registered voter’s signature didn’t match the one on file with the registrar. In California, most recall drives see at least 20% of collected signatures disqualified, said Joshua Spivak, an expert on recall elections and senior research fellow at UC Berkeley Law School’s California Constitution Center.

On Monday, the registrar’s office said 195,783 of the signatures submitted — roughly 27% — were invalid. Most that were tossed out were either duplicates or submitted by people who were not registered to vote, officials said.

In the final weeks of its signature drive, the recall campaign sought signatures through a mass mailing blitz, sending petitions to roughly 3.6 million L.A. County voters. Some observers expressed concern that this might lead to a surge in duplicate signatures, a fear that was borne out Monday. The recall failed by about 46,000 signatures, and 43,593 of the disqualified signatures were duplicates, according to the registrar’s office.

Loathed by his own prosecutors and with Los Angeles facing a 15-year high in homicides, Gascón was particularly vulnerable to a recall, observers said. They saw Monday’s result as an indictment of the campaign rather than a victory for the embattled district attorney.

“That’s a major screw-up on their part. They missed by a lot, and they raised more than enough money to have collected more than enough signatures,” said Roy Behr, a Democratic political consultant who was not involved in the effort. “With enough money, you can get 10% of signatures on just about anything, and there’s no doubt at all that over 10% of voters in L.A. County would support a recall.”

Gascón said he was “grateful” in a statement on Twitter and vowed “to move forward from this attempted political power grab — rest assured L.A. County, the work hasn’t stopped. My primary focus has been & will always be keeping us safe & creating a more equitable justice system for all.”

In a statement, the recall campaign called the results “surprising and disappointing” and vowed to conduct a thorough legal review of the disqualified signatures. Earlier this year, campaign spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Times that the campaign would not pursue a third recall if this one failed and would instead focus on defeating Gascón in 2024.

Gascón has faced criticism from law enforcement and business leaders since his election. Many were quick to blame his reform-minded policies for rising crime in Los Angeles, despite the fact that similar surges in violence have occurred in California cities with traditional law-and-order prosecutors.

Proponents of a push to recall L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón blame him for a dramatic rise in crime. But other factors also have played a role.

Gascón’s moves to severely limit when prosecutors can try juveniles as adults or seek life sentences have stoked the ire of victims’ rights groups and left him in untenable positions in a number of high-profile cases. In the case of Hannah Tubbs — a 26-year-old transgender woman who sexually assaulted a child — Gascón’s policies on youth justice allowed her to receive a short sentence in juvenile court because she was 17 when the crime occurred. The case garnered national outrage and has haunted the district attorney for months.

The vast majority of Gascon’s own prosecutors supported the recall and, after Monday’s results, vowed to keep fighting him.

“The residents of L.A. County cannot afford two years of George Gascón’s dangerous policies. The lives of so many innocent residents are at risk,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said. “So we all must come together to help and stand up for one another until George is gone.”

An initial attempt to recall Gascón last year failed miserably, largely because of a lack of fundraising and organization.

But this second effort, launched late last year, raised millions of dollars and drew support from a wide swath of police unions and politicians, including Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.

With Bay Area voters recalling San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin in June, Gascón seemed at risk of facing a similar fate. But Monday’s results spared Gascón from having to defend his record in an election just two years after he won office, even as some challengers were already lining up to face him.

Brian Van Riper, a political consultant who has worked on recalls in the past, questioned the decision to focus on mail-in petitions in the final few months of the campaign.

“Typically, you shovel money at the signature gatherers, and they sit out in front of Ralphs in perpetuity until they hit their number. The mailing out of the petitions was irregular,” he said. “Did they light money on fire with those mailers?”

Van Riper said the recall campaign failed to shake the perception that it was a partisan, Republican effort in deep-blue L.A. County. The campaign’s top two fundraisers were major donors to President Trump or to California GOP causes; its chair was former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a Republican; and surrogates often made appearances on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show or the conservative outlet Newsmax.

“They took the path that they went down, and that allowed them to be branded as Trump-loving extremists, even if there is sincere distrust and disdain of the George Gascón policies,” Van Riper said.

In early August, recall organizers began arguing that the review process was unfair. Former Deputy Dist. Atty. Marian Thompson, who has a background in election law, sent a letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors claiming that the registrar’s office was using out-of-date processes to verify signatures.

She argued that the registrar was ignoring a 2020 change to the law meant to make it harder to disqualify mail-in votes or petitions if the signature submitted did not match the one on file with the registrar. She also said the recall campaign had been barred from sending observers to monitor the verification process.

But only 9,490 signatures were disqualified because of a mismatch, less than 2% of all submitted and far less than the number by which the recall failed, according to the data released by the registrar Monday.

Energized by the ouster of San Francisco’s D.A.,opponents of George Gascón in Los Angeles County are close to putting his recall on the ballot.

In mid-July, the registrar’s office performed verification tests on 28,000 signatures collected by the campaign and disqualified 22% of them. While Thompson described that rejection rate as “shockingly large,” San Francisco election officials tossed roughly 34% of all signatures submitted during the process that led to Boudin’s recall, according to Spivak, the recall election expert.

In a statement last week, L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan dismissed Thompson’s letter, denied that officials were using outdated training materials and noted that the California Election Code does not give recall organizers any legal right to monitor the verification process.

Spivak wondered whether the campaign’s tactics meant that its leaders were fearful they would fail and had begun setting the stage for a distraction.

“The question is, were they just throwing up dust into the air to try and confuse things?” he asked.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-15/recall-effort-la-district-attorney-george-gascon-fails

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Three people injured in shooting at Six Flags theme park near Chicago – USA TODAY
Three people injured in shooting at Six Flags theme park near Chicago – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/15/shooting-six-flags-theme-park-chicago/10326658002/

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Justice Department opposes unsealing Trump FBI search warrant affidavit – CBS News
Justice Department opposes unsealing Trump FBI search warrant affidavit – CBS News

The Justice Department said in court documents Monday that it opposes the release of the FBI affidavit used to justify the search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s primary residence at Mar-a-Lago.

In Monday’s filing, prosecutors indicated that the affidavit contained sensitive information regarding the testimony of witnesses in the investigation, adding later they feared that releasing the requested documents would “chill” the future testimony of other potential witnesses.

While the Justice Department did not oppose the release of the search warrant last week, the department argued Monday in a court filing to the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida that the affidavit should remain sealed “to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security.”

A judge will make the final decision about whether the affidavit should be unsealed.

The search warrant was unsealed on Friday, and it revealed that federal law enforcement officials are investigating the former president for violations of laws governing the removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and a provision of the Espionage Act related to gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. 

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 22: Aerial view of Mar-a-Lago, the oceanfront estate of billionaire Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Fla. 

John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images


The documents unsealed Friday included a property receipt from the Aug. 8 search stating that the FBI had seized 11 sets of classified documents, including four sets that were marked “top secret.” The FBI also seized photos and information about the president of France, among other things. 

Several media outlets, including CBS News, filed requests with the court last week to obtain access to all documents — including any underlying affidavits — related to the search warrant. The affidavit is likely to have key details about the government’s investigation into Trump. 

But while the Justice Department has “carefully considered whether the affidavit can be released subject to redactions,” it said in Monday’s court filing that “the redactions necessary to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of meaningful content, and the release of such a redacted version would not serve any public interest.”

“Nevertheless, should the Court order partial unsealing of the affidavit, the government respectfully requests an opportunity to provide the Court with proposed redactions,” the Justice Department continued. 

The Justice Department said it would be permissible to to unseal other papers connected to the search warrant, the government’s motion to seal the search warrant and cover sheets associated with the search warrant.

In January, officials from the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago, some of which contained classified information. In July, a lawyer for Trump certified to investigators that all classified material had been handed over to the National Archives.

Trump claimed last week that he had declassified all the material seized at Mar-a-Lago while he was still in office. While a sitting president does have broad declassification ability, Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence committee, said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he has seen no evidence Trump declassified the material while in office. Further, Schiff said that the authority to declassify material does not extend to a former president, and he called it “absurd” for Trump to claim “18 months after the fact” that he had retroactively declassified the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton told CBS News’ Robert Costa that Trump’s handling of classified documents “worried” him. 

According to Bolton, intelligence briefers would bring pictures or graphs for the president to see and hand them to him.

“Often, the president would say, ‘Well, can I keep this?’ And in my experience, the intelligence briefers most often would say, ‘Well sir, we’d prefer to take that back,'” Bolton said. “But sometimes they forgot.” 

Earlier this year, the National Archives asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of records. The National Archives also said then that some of the documents Trump turned over to them had been ripped up and taped back together.    

Trump’s allies on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday sent letters to top officials in the Biden administration demanding they send to Congress documents and communications about the FBI search of Trump’s residence.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-warrant-affidavit-justice-department-oppose-unsealing-court-filing-today-2022-08-15/

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Afghans in a battle-scarred valley welcomed Taliban rule, but expect more – NPR
Afghans in a battle-scarred valley welcomed Taliban rule, but expect more – NPR

A boy stands amidst trees in the Tangi Valley where a river and irrigation ditches water crops of tomatoes, sunflowers, grapes and apricots. During the war the remote mountain valleys were the scene of brutal combat and attacks on civilians.

Claire Harbage/NPR


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A boy stands amidst trees in the Tangi Valley where a river and irrigation ditches water crops of tomatoes, sunflowers, grapes and apricots. During the war the remote mountain valleys were the scene of brutal combat and attacks on civilians.

Claire Harbage/NPR

TANGI VALLEY, Afghanistan — One year after the Taliban captured Afghanistan, people see their new rulers one way in the city — and another way in the countryside.

The urban-rural divide was apparent during the war, when Kabul became a center of media, commerce, women’s rights and education, while remote mountain valleys were the scene of brutal combat and attacks on civilians.

Today, many Afghans in Kabul face fear and uncertainty. The radical religious movement has abolished democracy but hasn’t fully clarified the new rules of society. As an NPR team was leaving the country recently, a Kabul airport security officer learned we were bound for Washington, D.C., and said, “I wish I could come with you.”

Blast walls can be seen on the roadside while driving on Highway 1 through Wardak province.

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Blast walls can be seen on the roadside while driving on Highway 1 through Wardak province.

Claire Harbage/NPR

We heard a different perspective barely 50 miles outside the capital when we drove Highway 1 into Wardak province. It was one of the places we traveled to ask who’s included in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The city’s blast walls and crowded streets gave way to dry mountains and green valleys. The pavement itself was cratered from 20 years’ worth of Taliban roadside bombs.

We traveled into the Tangi Valley, which is peaceful now. A river and irrigation ditches water crops of tomatoes, sunflowers, grapes and apricots. A closer look shows white Taliban flags marking graves in numerous cemeteries. For years this valley was a battlefield. Taliban forces resisted U.S. troops and their Afghan allies, once shooting down a U.S. helicopter with 38 people on board.

The now peaceful Tangi Valley was once a battlefield where Taliban forces resisted U.S. troops and their Afghan allies.

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The now peaceful Tangi Valley was once a battlefield where Taliban forces resisted U.S. troops and their Afghan allies.

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We met Taliban fighters in the breezy, open-windowed guest room of the home of a man named Mursalin Mohammadi. The valley has endured an ongoing drought, but Mohammadi is well off. He pumps water for himself and his neighbors using solar panels on the roof of his mud-walled home.

A poster on Mohammadi’s wall showed photos of several Taliban commanders, all of them dead now. One of the commanders held something that, Mohammadi claimed, was the severed leg of an American soldier. It was impossible to verify that; U.S. troops try never to leave their dead on a battlefield — but there’s no doubt that many Americans were killed here.

Mursalin Mohammadi, 34, said he lost two brothers in the war.

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Mursalin Mohammadi, 34, said he lost two brothers in the war.

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A surviving Taliban fighter showed us video of U.S. troops manning a base in the valley years ago, and seemingly firing indiscriminately at targets that are out of sight. Residents said they were less hostile to foreigners around the time that the U.S. installed a new government in 2001, but grew enraged at the U.S. and its allies in the following years for atrocities against civilians.

Hadiatullah Wahadat was the man with the video. “I did jihad against the U.S. forces,” he said. “Five times, I was wounded during the fight.”

Now 29, Wahadat said he began fighting when he was 16 years old. He said his side gained three things: “We expelled the foreigners. We triumphed. And we achieved an Islamic regime.”

Asked whether the Americans left behind any positive legacy, he mentioned the billions of dollars of U.S.-made weapons and military equipment that remain in the country.

Hadiatullah Wahadat, 29, says he fought through most of the war, and was injured five times.

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Hadiatullah Wahadat, 29, says he fought through most of the war, and was injured five times.

Claire Harbage/NPR

He drew a pistol from his loose clothing, with its maker stamped on the barrel: Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

The fighters led us to a hilltop overlooking the Tangi Valley. White flags shuddered at a shrine to the dead. A mosque offered shade near the grave of a Taliban commander, Fazel Rabie.

Mohammadi, 34, said he lost two brothers in the war, one of whom is buried next to Rabie. As we stood by the graves we asked if the sacrifice was worth it. He didn’t hesitate.

“Yes, why not?” he said. “Why not?”

He added, “We are Muslim. We are following an Islamic system of government. That has meaning for us.”

Wahadat holds a Smith & Wesson pistol.

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Wahadat holds a Smith & Wesson pistol.

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The Americans who once roamed this valley said they were bringing democracy and freedom. Mohammadi dismissed their way of thinking. He said Islam was made by God, and democracy by humans. It was obvious to him which was better. The idea that the two were once compatible in the former Islamic Republic was not how he saw it.

White flags stand over a shrine to the dead. Graves mark places for Mohammadi’s brother and the late Taliban leader, Fazel Rabie.

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White flags stand over a shrine to the dead. Graves mark places for Mohammadi’s brother and the late Taliban leader, Fazel Rabie.

Claire Harbage/NPR

Distant mountains can be seen from an archway of a mosque in the Tangi Valley.

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Distant mountains can be seen from an archway of a mosque in the Tangi Valley.

Claire Harbage/NPR

Yet as we left the Tangi Valley, we heard hints of disappointment. Local journalist Hekmatullah Waqid, who helped us meet the Taliban fighters, said that residents celebrated victory one year ago, but now worry about the ruined economy. They also want all girls to return to school. The Taliban have yet to allow many junior high and high school age students to study, though leaders insist they’re working toward it.

Farther south along Highway 1, we reached the village of Mali Khel, or what’s left of it. Gunfire has stippled the mud-walled houses that remain. Residents said the old Afghan government bulldozed many homes to clear a line of fire to the highway, where the Taliban planted roadside bombs.

Signs of rebuilding in the damaged village of Mali Khel.

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Signs of rebuilding in the damaged village of Mali Khel.

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Eighteen-year-old Mohamed Yosad said most families in the village had to flee during the war. His family moved to Kabul. Now that the war is over they have returned to one of the homes that is still standing.

He held a math notebook and was studying for an exam. “I want to be a very big man in the future,” he said.

Mohamed Yosad, 18, fled with his family to Kabul during the war but has since returned to Mali Khel.

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Mohamed Yosad, 18, fled with his family to Kabul during the war but has since returned to Mali Khel.

Claire Harbage/NPR

Sherif Nazari, 55, told us he’s glad for peace. But the former road engineer, who lives astride this bombed out highway, cannot find a job. He said the government should pay to rebuild the village.

In the past that demand would have gone to the United States or its Afghan allies. Now the only authority is the Taliban.

The old saying holds that to the victors go the spoils. And that may be true, though something else went to the victors in Afghanistan. They also face the expectations of the people and the responsibility of governing, if they can.

Wahadat (center) stands in the ruins of the village of Mali Khel.

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Wahadat (center) stands in the ruins of the village of Mali Khel.

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Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/08/15/1117498433/afghanistan-rural-wardak-tangi-valley-taliban

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Giuliani Is a Target in Georgia’s Trump Election Inquiry, Lawyer Says – The New York Times
Giuliani Is a Target in Georgia’s Trump Election Inquiry, Lawyer Says – The New York Times

“There is no way Giuliani is a target of the D.A.’s investigation and Trump does not end up as one,” Mr. Eisen said in an interview Monday. “They are simply too entangled factually and legally in the attempt to use fake electors and other means to overturn the Georgia election results.”

Lawyers for Mr. Giuliani have said that he did nothing improper in Georgia, and that he has been willing to cooperate. But they have been sparring with Ms. Willis’s office over her efforts to get him to testify before the grand jury. Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers have said a doctor recommended that Mr. Giuliani not travel by air because of a procedure he underwent in early July to insert cardiac stents, and they have sought to delay his testimony or have it conducted by video conference, an idea the district attorney’s office has resisted.

Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court said last week that Mr. Giuliani could travel to Atlanta “on a train, on a bus or Uber,” and set a date for Wednesday, after agreeing to delay his appearance for more than a week. Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers indicated that in any case, their client would have little to say if he was designated as a target of the investigation.

“I think it would be meanspirited to make — as a target, to make him travel down here, particularly by these alternative means, when there likely would not be very much testimony before the grand jury,” another Giuliani attorney, William H. Thomas Jr., said after a court hearing.

At least 17 other people have already been designated as targets who could face charges in the investigation, including two state senators and the head of the state Republican Party.

Lawyers for Mr. Graham had based their argument that he should not be forced to testify on the Constitution’s speech and debate clause, which shields lawmakers from being questioned over things they say that are related to their official duties. Among other things, the lawyers argued that Mr. Graham, as a high-ranking official, could only be called under “extraordinary circumstances.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/us/graham-georgia-investigation-trump.html

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Taliban mark year in power that has given Afghanistan security but little hope – Reuters
Taliban mark year in power that has given Afghanistan security but little hope – Reuters

KABUL, Aug 15 (Reuters) – The Taliban and their supporters waved the group’s black and white flag on the streets of Afghanistan on Monday to celebrate a year since they marched into the capital and took power after a stunning series of battlefield victories.

In the 12 months since the United States’ chaotic withdrawal, some Afghans have welcomed improved security but struggled with poverty, drought, malnutrition and the fading hope among women that they will have a decisive role in the country’s future.

Some men fired into the air in Kabul and a few hundred people, including supporters, fighters, and officials gathered at the square in front of the U.S. Embassy to mark the day. They held banners including the slogan “death to the United States”.

“This day is the day of the victory of truth over falsehood and the day of salvation and freedom of the Afghan nation,” said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement.

In a ceremony attended by Taliban government ministers, acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said their rule had brought security where the United States had failed and said the group wanted positive relationships with the world.

“We want good relationship with all countries, we won’t let Afghanistan’s territory be used against anyone,” he said, adding they wanted to address the ongoing challenges in the country.

The country is physically safer than it was when the hardline Islamist movement was fighting against U.S.-led foreign forces and their Afghan allies, although a local offshoot of Islamic State has carried out several attacks.

Yet that relative security cannot mask the scale of the challenge the Taliban face in setting Afghanistan on a path of economic growth and stability. There are huge pressures on the economy, caused in large part by the country’s isolation as foreign governments refuse to recognise its rulers.

Development aid upon which the country relied so heavily has been cut as the international community demands that the Taliban respect the rights of Afghans, particularly girls and women whose access to work and education has been curtailed.

The Taliban is demanding that $9 billion in central bank reserves held overseas be returned, but talks with the United States face hurdles, including the U.S. demands that a Taliban leader subject to sanctions step down from his position as second in command at the bank.

The Taliban refuse to cede to these demands, saying that they respect all Afghans’ rights within the framework of their interpretation of Islamic law.

And until there is a major shift in either side’s position, there is no immediate fix in sight for spiralling prices, rising joblessness and hunger that would get worse as winter sets in.

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A Taliban fighter stands guard on a bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara

“We are all heading to darkness and misfortune,” said Amena Arezo, a doctor from southeastern Ghazni province. “People have no future, especially women.”

OVER HALF IN POVERTY

Roughly 25 million Afghans are now living in poverty – well over half the population and the United Nations estimates that up to 900,000 jobs could be lost this year as the economy stalls.

Fatima, who lives in Herat province in the west of the country, said she had noticed improved security during the past year, but noted with dismay that schools for girls had closed and there was a lack of job opportunities for women.

Like many Afghans, she asked that only her first name be used for fear of reprisal.

Jawed, from southern Helmand province, which saw heavy fighting in the past, said security had improved dramatically since the Taliban returned to power 20 years after they were ousted by U.S.-backed forced, but also noted rampant inflation.

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, women could not work, girls were banned from school and strict Islamic law was brutally enforced, including through public executions.

Civil society and independent media have also shrunk, with many of its members leaving the country. The U.N. mission to Afghanistan said in a recent review the group was limiting dissent by arresting journalists, activists and protesters.

A Taliban spokesman rejected the U.N. report and said arbitrary arrests were not allowed.

The country’s administration continues to be considered a caretaker government or “de facto” authority with acting ministers, whose decisions can be overturned by the group’s supreme spiritual leader, based in the city of Kandahar.

Some constitutional and legal experts say that it is not always clear how the legal and moral Islamic code of sharia will be interpreted and applied in practice.

“The most obvious problem is there is no uniformity of law,” said Zalmai Nishat, an Afghan constitutional expert who previously worked as a government adviser.

“Now it’s at the whims of the (Taliban) leader in Kandahar and also at the whims of those who are leading on his behalf … that’s the problem, it’s the unpredictability.”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/year-taliban-rule-gives-afghanistan-security-little-hope-2022-08-15/

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Vladimir Putin’s Bragging Show About Russian Weapons Reeks of Desperation – The Daily Beast
Vladimir Putin’s Bragging Show About Russian Weapons Reeks of Desperation – The Daily Beast

Nearly six months into a war in Ukraine that Russia can’t seem to decisively win, Russian President Vladimir Putin is bragging this week that Russia’s weapons are decades ahead of competitors.

“Many of them are years, maybe decades ahead of their foreign counterparts, and in terms of tactical and technical characteristics they are significantly superior,” Putin said at an annual arms show Monday, according to Interfax.

And in an apparent show of camaraderie, Putin vowed Monday that he wants to expand Russia’s arms trade with other countries around the world, claiming that foreign countries value Russian weapons for their efficiency and high quality.

“Russia sincerely cherishes historically strong friendly, truly trusting ties with the states of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and is ready to offer its partners and allies the most modern types of weapons—from small arms to armored vehicles and artillery, combat aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles,” Putin said.

Moscow is indeed, a top weapons exporter. Russia accounts for 20 percent of global arms exports and is the second-largest exporter of weapons in the world, ranking just after the United States, according to an analysis of exports tracked by the independent research entity the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) between 2016 and 2020. India, China, and Algeria are the top recipients of Russian weaponry, and Russia is also the main supplier of arms to Egypt, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Angola, according to the report. Russia exports major arms to 45 states in all.

But Putin’s claims about Russian weaponry and plans for trade appear to diverge from reality, as Russia’s weapons export business is starting to feel the cascading effects of waging war in Ukraine, according to military and intelligence assessments. Russia has lost 1,876 tanks, upwards of 4,000 armored vehicles, and 985 artillery systems, and more, in the war so far, according to data from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared Monday.

Adding to that, Russia’s ability to replenish its stocks is quickly dwindling as the bite of sanctions settles in. U.S. officials moved to sanction entities in Russia’s defense industrial base earlier this year, including a state-owned Russian defense conglomerate focused on airborne weapons and weapon systems, as well as anti-radar missiles, ammunition, and radar systems. And already high tech components aren’t funneling into the country anymore and manufacturing plants are shuttering, according to Reuters.

“The industry could struggle to meet many of these requirements, partially due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise,” a June British intelligence assessment states. “Russia’s production of high-quality optics and advanced electronics likely remain troubled and could undermine its efforts to replace equipment lost in Ukraine.”

Even before Putin chose to invade Ukraine again in February, the outlook for Russia didn’t look great. The balance of exports and imports was already bound to change in the coming years, namely due to China, as Beijing may soon not need to rely on Russia’s weapons as much in future years, according to SIPRI.

“Imports from Russia are likely to reduce in volume once China’s own industry manages to consistently produce the types of major arms that it has generally imported from Russia over the years,” the report notes.

Putin didn’t name any country as a particular focus for its weapons export business, but stressed that Moscow values all partners who have embraced Russia’s thinking in recent months. Putin added that weapons transfers from Russia will be key to shifting the world away from a unipolar world—in which the United States dominates—to a multipolar world.

“We highly appreciate that today our country has many allies, partners, like-minded people on different continents,” he said. “They choose a sovereign, independent path of development, they want to collectively resolve issues of global and regional security on the basis of international law, mutual responsibility and consideration of each other’s interests. Thus, they contribute to the protection of a multipolar world.”

It’s not the first time Putin has bragged about Russian weapons in recent months while waging war in Ukraine. In March, Putin bragged to Russia’s Federal Assembly that additions to Russia’s nuclear arsenal would make the United States’ defenses “useless”—even though some of the proposed additions to Russia’s stocks are “outlandish,” according to The Washington Post.

Putin’s claims at the army confab this week echo his earlier insistence that Russian arms development is lightyears ahead of other nations’ work.

“As you may have guessed, no other country in the world has anything like that,” he said of a nuclear-powered underwater drone in March. “Possibly, something similar will appear someday, but our guys will come up with something else by then.”

Source Article from https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladimir-putins-bragging-show-about-russian-weapons-reeks-of-desperation

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Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack – The Associated Press
Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack – The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian official Monday denied Tehran was involved in the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, though he sought to justify the attack in the Islamic Republic’s first public comments on the bloodshed.

The remarks by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came three days after Rushdie was wounded in New York state. The writer has been taken off a ventilator and is “on the road to recovery,” according to his agent.

Rushdie, 75, has faced death threats for more than 30 years over his novel “The Satanic Verses,” whose depiction of the Prophet Muhammad was seen by some Muslims as blasphemous.

In 1989, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, demanding the author’s death, and while Iran has not focused on Rushdie in recent years, the decree still stands.

Also, a semiofficial Iranian foundation had posted a bounty of over $3 million for the killing of the author. It has not commented on the attack.

“Regarding the attack against Salman Rushdie in America, we don’t consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for (Rushdie) himself and his supporters,” Kanaani said.

“In this regard, no one can blame the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added. “We believe that the insults made and the support he received was an insult against followers of all religions.”

Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad against dissidents in the years since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, though prosecutors and Western governments have attributed such attacks to Tehran.

Rushdie was attacked Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. He suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, according to his agent, Andrew Wylie. Rushdie is likely to lose the eye, Wylie said.

His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault.

Matar, 24, was born in the U.S. to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, according to the village’s mayor.

Matar had lived in recent years in New Jersey with his mother, who told London’s Daily Mail that her son became moody and more religious after a month-long trip to Lebanon in 2018.

“I was expecting him to come back motivated, to complete school, to get his degree and a job. But instead he locked himself in the basement. He had changed a lot, he didn’t say anything to me or his sisters for months,” Silvana Fardos said.

Village records in Yaroun show Matar holds Lebanese citizenship and is a Shiite, an official there said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said Matar’s father lives there but has been in seclusion since the attack.

Flags of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, hang across the village. Israel has bombarded Hezbollah positions near there in the past.

Police in New York have offered no motive for the attack, though District Attorney Jason Schmidt alluded to the bounty on Rushdie in arguing against bail during a hearing over the weekend.

“Even if this court were to set a million dollars bail, we stand a risk that bail could be met,” Schmidt said.

In his remarks Monday, Kanaani added that Iran did not “have any other information more than what the American media has reported.” He also implied that Rushdie brought the attack on himself.

“Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular anger and fury through insulting the sacredness of Islam and crossing the red lines of over 1.5 billion Muslims and also red lines of followers of all divine religions,” Kanaani said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while not directly blaming Tehran for the attack on Rushdie, denounced Iran in a statement Monday praising the writer’s support for freedom of expression and religion.

“Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life,” Blinken said. “This is despicable.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday, condemned the Iranian government for blaming Rushdie for the attack. “It’s despicable. It’s disgusting. We condemn it,” he said.

“We have heard Iranian officials seek to incite to violence over the years, of course, with the initial fatwa, but even more recently with the gloating that has taken place in the aftermath of this attack on his life. This is something that is absolutely outrageous.”

While fatwas can be revoked, Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who took over after Khomeini’s death, has never done so. As recently as 2017, Khamenei said: “The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.”

Tensions between Iran and the West, particularly the U.S., have spiked since then-President Donald Trump pulled America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

A Trump-ordered drone strike killed a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard general in 2020, heightening those tensions.

Last week, the U.S. charged a Guard member in absentia with plotting to kill one-time Trump adviser and Iran hawk John Bolton. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aide are under 24-hour security over alleged threats from Iran.

U.S. prosecutors also say Iran tried in 2021 to kidnap an Iranian opposition activist and writer living in New York. In recent days, a man with an assault rifle was arrested near her home.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/salman-rushdie-middle-east-iran-tehran-70f0ea8cc69bc2bf226cd3ac400f9db8

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