October, 2022 | últimas notícias - Part 34

Takeaways from the dramatic first day and opening statements of the Oath Keepers trial – CNN

With the historic case that they had brought against Oath Keepers accused of plotting to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, prosecutors framed up how the jury should think about the allegations with an hour-plus opening statement that kicked off the trial in earnest.

Five alleged members of the far-right militia, including its leader Stewart Rhodes, are on trial in Washington DC’s federal courthouse. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge of seditious conspiracy, a charge rarely brought by the Justice Department, and other charges.

The Justice Department’s opening statement featured messages and other communications among the defendants that prosecutors say show the Oath Keepers’ unlawful plotting to disrupt Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral win. As the prosecutors sought to use the words of the defendants against them, they also played video capturing the Oath Keepers’ actions in the Capitol and displayed maps and charts to help the jury follow along. Each juror has their own screen to see evidence.

“They said out loud and in writing what they planned to do,” Jeffrey Nestler, an assistant US Attorney, told the jury. “When the opportunity finally presented itself … they sprang into action.”

A lawyer for Rhodes, the first defense attorney to deliver an opening statement told the jurors that they will see evidence that will show that the defendants “had no part in the bulk” of the violence that occurred on January 6.

“You may not like what you see and hear our defendants did,” attorney Phillip Linder said, “but the evidence will show that they didn’t do anything illegal that day.”

Here are takeaways from Monday’s trial so far:

DOJ says defendants “concocted a plan for an armed rebellion”

The Justice Department began its opening statement with the accusation that the defendants sought to “stop by any means necessary” the lawful transfer of presidential power, “including taking up arms against the United States government.”

Nestler started with a reference to the “core democratic custom of the routine” transfer of power, which Nestler said stretched back to the time of George Washington.

“These defendants tried to change that history. They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy,” Nestler said.

The defendants got their opportunity two weeks before the Inauguration, Nestler said.

“If Congress could not meet it could not declare the winner of the election. and that was their goal – to stop by any means necessary the lawful transfer of power, including taking up arms against the United States government,” he said.

He said the defendants descended on DC to attack “not just the Capitol, not just our government, not just DC, but our country itself.”

Prosecutors use January 6 video footage

During the Justice Department’s opening, the jury was presented with video footage, maps and other audio-visual tools that prosecutors used to give an overview of their case.

Nestler’s presentation included iPhone footage from the attack that the prosecutor used to identify the defendants and other alleged co-conspirators. When video showing defendant Kelly Meggs was presented, Nestler noted the patch he wore, which said, according to Nestler: “I don’t believe in anything, I’m just here for the violence.”

As the video clips played, the jury also saw a map of the Capitol that Nestler used to situate the action that was recorded by video. Nestler also had a physical chart, perched on an easel in the courtroom, listing out the alleged co-conspirators.

Jurors were also presented with the messages that the defendants allegedly sent in the weeks after the election, including their calls for a violent response to former President Donald Trump’s loss.

“Its easy to chat here. The real question is who’s willing to DIE” Meggs wrote in one message shown by prosecutors.

The DOJ also showed video and photographs of the Oath Keepers participating in tactical training sessions. A map of the Washington Mall – showing the site of the rally that preceded the Capitol attack and its distance from the Capitol – was presented while Nestler ticked through communications, including on the walkie talk app Zello, between the defendants that allegedly occurred that day.

Prosecutors preemptively punch holes in Oath Keepers’ defense

Nestler used the opening arguments to also preview how the Justice Department will respond to defenses the Oath Keepers’ attorneys are expected to put forward.

“There is evidence that you will hear that they had more than one reason to be here in DC, in addition to attacking Congress,” the prosecutor said. The defendants may have been planning to attend the rally near the White House earlier in the day, Nestler noted, but so did thousands of others. Nestler also referenced to potential attempts by the defense to argue the Oath Keepers were preparing to come to DC to serve as security, noting that the defendants weren’t licensed, trained or paid for their security work.

“Even being bad security guards isn’t itself illegal.” Nestler said. However, according to the prosecutor, the goal they were actually preparing for was “unlawful.”

Additionally, Nestler alluded to the belief that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act; the defense has signaled it plans to argue that the Oath Keepers were preparing to respond to such an invocation.

“President Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act,” Nestler said. “These defendants needed to take matters into their own hands. They needed to activate the plan they had agreed on.”

The Justice Department also emphasized the backgrounds of some of the defendants and how that fit into the department’s theory of the case. Rhodes, as Nestler repeatedly noted, is a graduate of Yale Law school. He knew to be careful with his words and told his co-conspirators to be careful with theirs, Nestler said.

Thomas Caldwell, another defendant, served in the military, Nestler said. “Based on that water experience, he planned to use boats to get across the Potomac.”

DOJ detail “desperate” focus on January 6

The Justice Department detailed the preparations the Oath Keepers allegedly undertook before January 6 as well as what they’re accusing the defendants of doing during the Capitol breach.

In December 2020, Rhodes told others that January 6 presented a “hard constitutional deadline,” according to prosecutors, and that they would need to “do it ourselves” if Trump didn’t stop the certification of the election.

“With time, as their options dwindled and it became more and more likely that power would be transferred,” Nestler said Monday, “these defendants became more and more desperate and more and more focused on that date that Rhodes referred to as a constitutional deadline.”

According to Nestler, the group organized a caravan of Florida members to drive up to Washington for January 6, and made preparations for where the organization could store firearms in Virginia, just outside DC. Some members of the group, according to prosecutors, brought weapons into DC that day, including chemical spray, thick pieces of wood, dressed in paramilitary gear.

Nestler’s opening described the “stack” formations the defendants allegedly used to enter the Capitol. He played a video of defendant Jessica Watkins, who allegedly led the first group, pushing against a crowd outside the House chamber shouting “push, push, push! Get in there, they can’t hold us.”

The second group positioned themselves outside of a suite of offices belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nestler said. Nestler said that Meggs had a “keen interest in Speaker Pelosi,” and later told associates that “we looked for her.”

At first, the defendants saw the breach as a success, Nestler said, describing them as “elated,” “boastful” and “proud.” But, according to DOJ’s account, the defendants quickly realized they were in legal jeopardy, and instructed one another to flee town, delete messages and keep quiet.

“Let me put it in infantry speak: SHUT THE F**K UP,” Rhodes said in one Signal message, as presented by prosecutors.

Even with their criminal exposure, Nestler said, Rhodes continued to plot. On January 10, Rhodes met with someone in Texas to try and get a message to former President Trump. The meeting, which had not previously been reported, was secretly recorded by an attendee.

“My only regret is that they should have brought rifles… we could have fixed it right then and there.” Rhodes said of January 6, according to the Justice Department’s opening.

Oath Keepers attorney: Defendants “had no part in the bulk of” January 6 violence

Rhodes attorney Linder told the jurors that they will see evidence that will show that defendants “had no part in the bulk” of the violence that occurred on January 6.

He suggested that there will be gaps in the evidence, such as video, that the Justice Department will show the jury. He said that, once the prosecutors put on their case, the defense will fill in those gaps.

“You may not like what you see and hear our defendants did, but the evidence will show that they didn’t do anything illegal that day,” Linder said.

As the defense attorney delivered his opening, he was told by the judge to avoid topics that had been deemed out of bounds for the trial – with at one point, Judge Amit Mehta bringing him up to the bench for a private discussion.

Among the off-limits topics brought up by Linder that prompted the interventions were comments about the amount prison time the charges bring, the congressional narrative around January 6, remarks about defendants sitting in jail, and certain details about the Insurrection Act.

Mehta told Linder to keep his opening within the parameters of the relevant subject matter that has been established before the trial.

Linder went on to preview other aspects of the Oath Keepers’ defense.

“The real evidence is going to show you that our clients were there to do security for events for the 5th and the 6th,” Linder said, while calling his client a “extremely patriotic” and a “constitutional expert.”

“Stewart Rhodes meant no harm to the Capitol that day,” Linder said, as he described some of the rhetoric among the defendants “free speech and bravado.”

The attorney said that the evidence will show that there was no plan like the one that the Justice Department is alleging.

Linder said that Rhodes is planning to testify in his own defense to explain what he believed would happen on January 6. At least one cooperating Oath Keeper, William Todd Wilson, is also scheduled to testify during the trial, Linder said Monday. Linder said that he intends to ask Wilson about his plea agreement, including an allegation that Wilson witnessed Rhodes attempt to contact Trump on the evening of January 6.

Linder suggested that allegation, which was sworn in Wilson’s plea agreement, was untrue.

Specific DOJ accusations picked apart by defense attorneys

David Fischer, the attorney for Caldwell, zeroed in on how the Justice Department is pointing to the so-called QRF – a military term for Quick Reaction Force – that Caldwell allegedly organized that day.

He stressed the word “reaction” in that term, and said that QRFs are organized to respond “to emergency situations,” describing a QRF as “a break the glass emergency team.”

Of the hundreds of witnesses, including several Oath Keepers, that the Justice Department has interviewed in its investigation, “not one single solitary person they have interview[ed] has said that the QRF was meant to attack the United States Capitol,” Fischer said. He ticked off other events, including protests taking place in other states across the country, where the Oath Keepers organized QRFs.

The seditious conspiracy charge from DOJ addresses agreements to hinder the government’s ability to conduct its business, and Fischer previewed for the jury a defense that would argue that the Justice Department had not proven Caldwell organized the QRF with that goal in mind.

Fischer also launched an extensive critique of how the FBI handled its investigation into his client, calling what happened to Caldwell and his wife “an absolute outrage.” Fischer said that the Facebook messages the FBI used to justify Caldwell’s arrest were actually lines from the movie “The Princess Bride.”

“There was some other powerful evidence … the agent had an issue with a Facebook message that said … ‘I’m such an instigator’ … he also said ‘storming the castle,’” Fischer said.

“The evidence is going to show that those phrases in context were” lines from ‘The Princess Bride,’” he added.

Jonathan Crisp, an attorney for Watkins, made similar assertions about the QRF, and he told the jury that the Justice Department’s case against his client was missing context in other respects.

“The Zello chats sound incredibly damming if you listen to them in a vacuum,” he said, while suggesting to the jury that his client did not hear a lot of what was said on the walkie talkie application through the noise of the riot. He also pointed to her attempts to engage the FBI in its investigation

“These are not the actions of somebody who was trying to overthrow the government.”

Senators were crying, FBI agent says

The first prosecution witness, FBI agent Michael Palian, testified that he witnessed senators crying as they hid from rioters who entered the Capitol on January 6.

Palian is one of the lead case agents who investigated the Oath Keepers during the course of the almost two-year investigation.

Palian told the jury that on January 6, he was sent to the Capitol in the late afternoon and assigned to guard a group of over 80 senators sheltering in the Capitol complex.

“It was chaotic,” Palian said of the scene when he arrived. “I think shock would be the best word to describe what the senators were feeling. There was some crying.”

“Did you actually witness senators, or members of Congress, crying?” prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy asked.

“I did,” Palian said.

Palian and approximately 70 other agents escorted senators back to the Senate chamber later that night where they resumed counting electoral college votes, he testified. Inside the Capitol, “it looked like a bomb had gone off,” Palian said, recounting “windows broken, doors broken, lots of debris in the hallways” to the jury.

“If you took your mask off you started to inhale the pepper spray,” Palian said.

Judge stresses that jury is unbiased

Early into Monday’s proceedings, before the jury was brought in, Mehta went to great lengths to emphasize that the jury had “no preconceived” prejudices towards the Oath Keepers and the defendants specifically.

He did so while explaining why he was denying a request from the defendants that the case be transferred to Virginia. Mehta ticked through statistics from the jury selection process that shed light on how the jurors had responded to questions meant to test their impartiality.

None of them reported having strong feelings against January 6 that would affect their ability to be fair. While about half of the jurors said they had heard of the Oath Keepers before, none of them reported having strong feelings about Oath Keepers that would threaten the jurors’ impartiality, nor had any of the jurors heard of the specific defendants, according to Mehta’s account of their answers on the jury questionnaire.

“What that means is voir dire has done its job,” Mehta said, referring to the jury selection process.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Sara Sidner contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/03/politics/takeaways-oath-keepers-sedition-opening-arguments-january-6-us-capitol/index.html

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Trump Sues CNN for Defamation, Seeking $475 Million – The New York Times

Former President Donald J. Trump sued CNN on Monday, claiming that the network defamed him and demanding $475 million in damages.

Over the course of his business and political career, Mr. Trump has frequently threatened to sue media organizations over news coverage that he deems unfair or disrespectful. Although he rarely followed through, his attacks on the media became a staple of his political messaging and have often been cited in fund-raising entreaties in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections.

In 2020, his re-election campaign sued The New York Times and The Washington Post over opinion articles that linked Mr. Trump to Russian interference in American elections. His suit against The Times was dismissed; the suit involving The Post is pending.

Mr. Trump’s complaint against CNN was filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The lawsuit alleges a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that, Mr. Trump asserts, has recently escalated “as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/business/media/trump-cnn-lawsuit.html

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The Nord Stream gas leak emitted up to 500,000 tons of methane – NPR

This is one of several leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines running between Russia and Germany. Methane from the leaks could have a powerful warming effect on the Earth’s atmosphere.

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This is one of several leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines running between Russia and Germany. Methane from the leaks could have a powerful warming effect on the Earth’s atmosphere.

AP

On Sunday, the Danish Energy Agency announced that a series of leaks in natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea had been stopped. But the rupture, preceded by multiple explosions last week, appears to be the single largest discharge of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas.

“It dwarfs the previous known leaks,” says Ioannis Binietoglou, who works on monitoring methane emissions for the Clean Air Task Force, a non-profit environmental organization.

Methane is the main component in natural gas. When released into the atmosphere, it’s initially more than 80 times better than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, although that effect tapers off over time.

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were not actively carrying natural gas when explosions rocked the pipelines off the coast of Denmark, though there was some gas in the lines. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of sabotaging the Russia-built pipelines, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies.

There were at least three separate leaks. While the exact amount of the gas released is still not known, as much as half a million metric tons of methane was leaked from the pipelines, according to an Associated Press analysis of estimates from the Danish government.

That’s approximately five times more than what had been the largest leak up to that point, in Aliso Canyon in California in 2015 and 2016. The Aliso Canyon leak had about the same impact on the climate as burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Scientists have separately estimated different amounts for the Nord Stream leak, ranging from 100,000 tons to almost 400,000 tons.

“There are contradicting estimates, but all of them point to something really, really huge,” says Binietoglou.

The leak is equal to a few days of methane emissions from fossil fuel production

Scientists say reducing methane emissions is a critical part of tackling climate change in the short term, because the gas has such a strong warming effect when in the atmosphere. Major leaks make that work harder, but are not the main culprit.

“It is important to put it in context of a larger problem that we have, that we need to fix,” says Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the International Methane Emissions Observatory with the United Nations Environment Programme.

In 2021, the energy sector emitted around 135 million metric tons of methane, most from oil and gas production, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency. That means even though the Nord Stream leak is likely the single biggest emission event, it’s only equivalent to a day or two of regular methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry, Caltagirone says.

Adds Binietoglou: “This doesn’t mean that the leak is small. It means that oil and gas is really leaky, and really emitting a lot of gas.”

Research into the size and damage caused by the leaks is ongoing. On Monday, the Swedish government sent a dive team to the site of the leaks, Reuters reported.

Binietoglou says the global scientific community has invested in more technology to detect emissions, and he’s hopeful these tools will be applied not just to major international incidents, but also to target smaller leaks and bring overall methane emissions down.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126562195/the-nord-stream-pipelines-have-stopped-leaking-but-the-methane-emitted-broke-rec

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See aerial pictures that show Hurricane Ian’s toll – NPR

The devastation on Fort Myers Beach is clear in a view south of Matanzas Pass Preserve.

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The devastation on Fort Myers Beach is clear in a view south of Matanzas Pass Preserve.

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Hurricane Ian destroyed several portions of the Sanibel Causeway, the series of bridges that connects mainland Florida to Sanibel Island — which is home to some 6,500 people and located just south of where the storm made landfall. The Category 4 storm caused severe damage and flooding to Fort Myers and other gulf coast cities. ⁠

Take a look at the photos.

Hurricane Ian destroyed several portions of the Sanibel Causeway.

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Hurricane Ian destroyed several portions of the Sanibel Causeway.

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Boats are piled off on the marina of Fisherman’s Wharf.

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Boats are piled off on the marina of Fisherman’s Wharf.

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The Causeway leading to Fort Myers Beach and at the end, the Times Square area, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian.

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The Fort Myers Beach Lighthouse was left standing after Hurricane Ian.

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This is the view farther south on Estero Boulevard, the main drag on Fort Myers Beach.

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Sanibel beaches eroded as storm surge cut inlets into the island. It’s unknown what happened to nesting turtles.

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Sanibel beaches eroded as storm surge cut inlets into the island. It’s unknown what happened to nesting turtles.

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Buildings on Sanibel didn’t fare well in the storm surge of Hurricane Ian.

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Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/10/04/1126674721/see-aerial-pictures-that-show-hurricane-ian-toll

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U.S.: Oath Keepers, Rhodes attacked ‘bedrock of democracy’ on Jan. 6 – The Washington Post

Four others are on trial with Rhodes, including three who have served in the military. Kelly Meggs, 53, is an auto dealer from Dunnellon, Fla. Kenneth Harrelson, 42, of Titusville, Fla., and Ohio militia leader and bar owner Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock are Army veterans. Thomas Caldwell, 68, of, Berryville, Va., is a retired Navy intelligence officer.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/03/oath-keepers-trial-openings-rhodes/

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Ukraine forces break through Russian defences in south, advance in east – Reuters UK

SVIATOHIRSK/KYIV, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian defences in the south of the country while expanding their rapid offensive in the east, seizing back more territory in areas annexed by Russia and threatening supply lines for its troops.

Making their biggest breakthrough in the south since the war began, Ukrainian forces recaptured several villages in an advance along the strategic Dnipro River on Monday, Ukrainian officials and a Russian-installed leader in the area said.

Ukrainian forces in the south destroyed 31 Russian tanks and one multiple rocket launcher, the military’s southern operational command said in a nightly update, without providing details of where the fighting occurred.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts.

The southern breakthrough mirrors recent Ukrainian advances in the east even as Russia has tried to raise the stakes by annexing land, ordering mobilisation, and threatening nuclear retaliation.

Ukraine has made significant advances in two of the four Russian-occupied regions Moscow last week annexed after what it called referendums – votes that were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

In a sign Ukraine is building momentum on the eastern front, Reuters saw columns of Ukrainian military vehicles heading on Monday to reinforce the rail hub of Lyman, retaken at the weekend, and a staging post to press into the Donbas region.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s army had seized back towns in a number of areas, without giving details.

“New population centres have been liberated in several regions. Heavy fighting is going on in several sectors of the front,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.

Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk – one of two regions that make up the Donbas – said Russian forces had taken over a psychiatric hospital in the town of Svatovo, a target en route to recapturing the major cities of Lysychansk and Sivierodonetsk.

“There is quite a network of underground rooms in the building and they have taken up defensive positions,” he told Ukrainian television.

In the south, Ukrainian troops recaptured the town of Dudchany along the west bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects the country, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson province, told Russian state television.

“There are settlements that are occupied by Ukrainian forces,” Saldo said.

Dudchany is about 30 km (20 miles) south of where the front stood before Monday’s breakthrough, indicating the fastest advance of the war in the south. Russian forces there had been dug into heavily reinforced positions along a mainly static front line since the early weeks of the invasion.

While Ukraine has yet to give a full account of the developments, military and regional officials did release some details.

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 128th Mountain Assault Brigade raised the blue and yellow national flag in Myrolyubivka, a village between the former front and the Dnipro, according to a video released by the defence ministry.

Serhiy Khlan, a Kherson regional council member, listed four other villages recaptured or where Ukrainian troops had been photographed.

“It means that our armed forces are moving powerfully along the banks of the Dnipro nearer to Beryslav,” he said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the developments.

‘ABILITY TO ATTACK’

The southern advance is targeting supply lines for as many as 25,000 Russian troops on the Dnipro’s west bank. Ukraine has already destroyed the river’s main bridges, forcing Russian forces to use makeshift crossings.

A substantial advance down river could cut them off entirely.

“The fact we have broken through the front means that … the Russian army has already lost the ability to attack, and today or tomorrow it could lose the ability to defend,” said Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst based in Kyiv.

Ukraine appears to be on course to achieve several of its battlefield objectives, giving it “a much better defensive position to ride out what probably will be a tamping down of the hot fighting over the winter”, Celeste Wallander, a senior Pentagon official, said on Monday.

Just hours after a concert on Moscow’s Red Square on Friday where Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian territory forever, Ukraine recaptured Lyman, the main Russian bastion in the north of Donetsk province.

Billionaire Elon Musk on Monday asked Twitter users to weigh in on a plan to end the war which included proposing U.N.-supervised elections in the four occupied regions and recognising Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, as Russian.

The plan drew immediate condemnation from Ukrainians, including President Zelenskiy. read more

Russia’s flagging fortunes have led to a shift in mood on state media, where talkshow hosts have been acknowledging setbacks and searching for scapegoats.

“For a certain period of time, things won’t be easy for us. We shouldn’t be expecting good news right now,” said Vladimir Solovyov, the most prominent presenter on state television.

The commander of Russia’s western military district, which borders Ukraine, has lost his job, Russian media reported on Monday, the latest in a series of top officials to be fired after defeats.

(This story refiles to correct spelling of Saldo in paragraph 13)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-forces-break-through-russian-defences-south-advance-east-2022-10-03/

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North Korea fires apparent ballistic missile over Japan: Ministry of Defense – ABC News

North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday, the country’s Ministry of Defense.

The apparent ballistic missile was launched at 7:22 a.m. local time and passed over Japan at 7:29 a.m., the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced.

The government of South Korea confirmed that the Japanese government warned citizens to take shelter. The missile likely flew over Japan, but it is still unknown whether the missile fell into the sea.

A U.S. defense official confirmed to ABC News that North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday local time but didn’t offer other specifics.

Residents in Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures, toward the northern end of Japan, were advised to be on alert and to notify police or fire officials if debris is seen.

People were also warned by officials not to touch or pick up any debris.

The office of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida began to gather members to analyze the situation.

A government spokesperson said no damage has been reported so far and a search is underway for debris. Officials are gathering information and will work with South Korea and the U.S.

“North Korea’s actions threaten Japan and the international community,” the spokesperson said. “Missile launches like this go against the U.N. resolutions. Japan will launch a strong protest against North Korea in light of this. All new information will be shared promptly.”

The White House said in a statement late Monday local time in Washington, D.C., that “the United States strongly condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) dangerous and reckless decision to launch a long-range ballistic missile over Japan.”

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on Monday night local time, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.

“In both calls, the National Security Advisors consulted on appropriate and robust joint and international responses,” Watson said, “and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reinforced the United States’ ironclad commitments to the defense of Japan and the ROK [South Korea].”

The last time a missile flew over Japan was in August 2017. This year alone, North Korea has shot 21 ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles.

ABC News’ Joohee Cho, Guy Davies, Anthony Trotter and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/International/north-korea-fires-apparent-ballistic-missile-japan-ministry/story?id=90941767

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U.S.: Oath Keepers, Rhodes attacked ‘bedrock of democracy’ on Jan. 6 – The Washington Post

Four others are on trial with Rhodes, including three who have served in the military. Kelly Meggs, 53, is an auto dealer from Dunnellon, Fla. Kenneth Harrelson, 42, of Titusville, Fla., and Ohio militia leader and bar owner Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock are Army veterans. Thomas Caldwell, 68, of, Berryville, Va., is a retired Navy intelligence officer.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/03/oath-keepers-trial-openings-rhodes/

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Hurricane Ian: Death toll surpasses 100 as the search for survivors continues in Florida – CNN

The number of people killed in Florida by Hurricane Ian rose to at least 101 on Monday, days after the storm made landfall at Category 4 strength, decimating coastal towns and leaving rescue crews searching for survivors while communities face the daunting task of rebuilding.

At least 54 people died in Lee County alone, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said Monday – up from the county’s previously announced death toll of 42 – and officials there are facing questions about whether evacuation orders should have been issued earlier. Twenty-four deaths were recorded in Charlotte County – up from 12.

Hurricane Ian also contributed to the deaths of eight people in Collier County, five in Volusia County, three in Sarasota County, two in Manatee County and one each in Lake, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Polk counties, officials said. Four other people died in storm-related incidents as Ian churned into North Carolina.

More than 1,600 people have been rescued from Hurricane Ian’s path in parts of southwest and central Florida since last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said Sunday.

Now, as blue skies return, Floridians who took shelter while the hurricane raged have emerged – many of them still without power or clean drinking water – to find their communities unrecognizable.

More than 491,000 homes, businesses and other customers in Florida still did not have power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us. In Fort Myers Beach, where search crews are going through the rubble one house at a time, power may not be restored for 30 days due its electrical infrastructure being destroyed, Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais said.

The National Guard will be flying power crews to Sanibel and Pine islands to assess the damage and start working on restoring power, DeSantis said.

Many residents are without clean tap water, with well over 100 boil-water advisories in places around the state, according to Florida Health Department data.

LIVE UPDATES

In Naples, Hank DeWolf’s 4,000-pound boat dock was carried through a condo complex by the powerful hurricane, landing in his neighbor’s yard. And the water brought someone’s car into his own backyard. He doesn’t know who it belongs to or how to remove it.

As crews in Naples comb through the wreckage to make sure no one is still trapped, residents face the enormous task ahead of cleaning up and restoring the city, Jay Boodheshwar, city manager of Naples, told CNN.

“People need to take care of their emotional and mental health, because we’re really going to need to work together on this,” Boodheshwar said.

Naples received record-high storm surge, when the hurricane sent rising ocean water flooding into the city’s streets and tearing through its infrastructure.

“The amount of water that we received and the height of the surge affected a lot of the infrastructure,” Boodheshwar said. “So there are transformers that are fried. It is not simply rehanging lines. There are things that may need to be replaced.”

In Lee County, Desjarlais said officials cannot stop residents from coming home, but with no water or electricity and with extensive damage, it’s not safe.

Similar scenes are playing out in other communities. Hurricane Ian – expected to be the most expensive storm in Florida’s history – devastated neighborhoods from the state’s western coast to inland cities like Orlando.

In some cases, emergency workers out searching for signs of life are at the same time contending with losing their own homes.

“Some of the guys on Pine Island, they lost everything, but they’re doing what they can,” said emergency physician Dr. Ben Abo, who was preparing to join first responders on a rescue mission Sunday near decimated Sanibel Island and Pine Island.

And the flooding isn’t over yet.

Seminole County continues to experience significant flooding in certain neighborhoods, with families being rescued from waist-high waters over the weekend.

Days after the hurricane left, flooding continues to increase in areas near the St. Johns River, Lake Monroe, and Lake Harney, with an additional 100 homes suffering floodwater damage over the last 24 hours, Seminole County emergency management officials told CNN affiliate WESH.

Questions over timing of evacuation orders as deaths mount

Lee County officials have faced criticism about why the first mandatory evacuations weren’t ordered until a day before Ian’s landfall, despite an emergency plan which suggests evacuations should have happened earlier.

DeSantis has said Lee County officials acted appropriately when they issued their first mandatory evacuations on Tuesday, less than 24 hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall on the barrier island Cayo Costa, and a day after several neighboring counties issued their orders.

Desjarlais said the county made the decision to evacuate at the earliest time possible.

“It’s unfortunate that so many people chose not to evacuate,” he said. “You know, I think I told you the other day we had room for 40,000 people in our shelters, but only 4,000 showed up, which means that people made the conscious choice not to evacuate, and it is regretful and you know, no one feels worse than we do about all that.”

But people are “used to longer evacuation orders,” Shawn Critser, a pastor in Fort Myers Beach, told CNN Monday. “But we got it the day before.”

In the days leading up to the storm, Critser believed – like many others – that the heaviest impacts would be felt farther to the north, near Tampa Bay. But then the forecast was revised, showing the storm’s track shifting to the south.

“When that evacuation order came, we’re like, ’24 hours, that’s not a lot. But we’ll still kind of make it,’” Critser said. “And it wasn’t until Wednesday morning when we woke up and saw that it had made another adjustment. And at that point, it’s just too late.”

Sheriff Marceno stood by the handling of the evacuation orders Monday, saying he was “confident in our county manager, our leaders, our governor, all of us in law enforcement that we got that message out at the right time.”

Hard-hit Sanibel Island will be ‘out of commission’

Hurricane Ian wiped away parts of the Sanibel Causeway, which connects Sanibel Island to the mainland, stranding residents as their only link became impassable.

Search and rescue personnel have been going door-to-door searching properties for anyone who may need to be evacuated, and nearly 100 members of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue continue to conduct rescue efforts along Southwest Florida’s Barrier Islands like Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island.

The fire rescue team is helping evacuate residents, dispensing medicine, treating injuries, helping people get in touch with family and just providing hard-to-come-by information, said Capt. Michelle Steele, a medical specialist.

“People aren’t getting a whole lot of information right now. So whatever we can offer, that’s what we’re here for,” Steele said.

About 400 people evacuated from Sanibel Island over the weekend, City Manager Dana Souza reported Sunday evening, adding authorities will begin turning their attention to providing medical services to the people who are choosing to stay on the island, rather than evacuations.

Abo “wouldn’t be surprised” if the death toll significantly increases, he told CNN, as rescue and recovery efforts continue on Sanibel Island.

US Coast Guard Commander Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson offered a stark assessment of the damage to Sanibel Island, saying the “area is going to be out of commission for some time.”

“It was hit very hard,” he said. “It does not have water. It doesn’t have the basic infrastructure.”

Amy Lynn was at her friend’s home on Sanibel Island when Ian hit, forcing her to hide in a closet with seven dogs, praying and holding the door shut as the hurricane roared outside.

When she came out, the home had been badly damaged, with walls blown off, video showed.

“I prayed for 6 solid hours and came to peace that it may be my time to go. It wasn’t. God is good. We made it out alive,” Lynn wrote on Facebook. “We lost everything. My car is gone. I haven’t seen my home on Sanibel. I’ve been told it’s destroyed.”

Lynn was thankful to be alive, but, she wrote, “This is so much more than devastating. The heart of the (Southwest Florida) coast is forever changed.”

Authorities will allow residents to return Wednesday by private boat but said they should look online first. Sanibel officials plan to post photos and information on whether the property is deemed destroyed or damaged.

The bridge to Pine Island was knocked out by the storm and the transportationdepartment hopes to have a temporary bridge in place by the end of the week, the governor said Monday.

“This is not necessarily going to be a bridge you’re going to want to go 45 miles per an hour over, maybe, but at least you’ll have connectivity to the mainland,” DeSantis said.

Officials said food is being dropped at fire stations on Pine Island.

Power could be out for weeks

Some residents and businesses in storm-damaged counties may not be back on the grid for “weeks or months” because of the structural damage caused by the hurricane, said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of Florida Power & Light Company.

FPL expects to have power restored by Sunday to 95% of its 126,700 customers in Charlotte County, which includes Punta Gorda, Patrick Fuller, the county emergency management director said Monday. About 45% of its customers have had power restored already.

In the meantime, much of the county remains under a boil water advisory, and Punta Gorda, the county seat, will be operating under the notice for at least three days, the city said on Facebook.

In Cape Coral, just southwest of Fort Myers, 98% of the city’s power structure was “obliterated” and will need complete reconstruction, Fire Department Chief and Emergency Management Director Ryan Lamb told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Florida is also working with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to use his company’s Starlink satellite Internet service to help restore communication in the state, according to DeSantis. “They’re positioning those Starlink satellites to provide good coverage in Southwest Florida and other affected areas,” DeSantis said.

CNN’s Amy Simonson, Jamiel Lynch, Michelle Watson, Aaron Pellish, Sonnet Swire and Andy Rose contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/03/us/hurricane-ian-florida-recovery-monday/index.html

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Trump sues CNN for defamation – CBS News

Former President Donald Trump is suing CNN for defamation and asking for compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 and punitive damages of $475 million, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

He is claiming that the cable news giant has harmed his reputation with “false, defamatory, and inflammatory mischaracterizations of him” and that CNN’s conduct “is intended to interfere with [his] political career.”

In particular, Trump argues that he’s entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damages because of CNN’s use of the term the “Big Lie” to describe Trump’s “stated concerns about the integrity of the election process for the 2020 presidential election.” Trump’s lawyers say that the “Big Lie” “is a direct reference to a tactic employed by Adolf Hitler and appearing in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

“‘If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,'” Trump’s lawyers stated, noting it was used by Hitler to generate hatred against Jews and to justify their genocide.

The lawsuit says, “CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the [Trump] has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears [he] will run for president in 2024.”

The former president has been claiming since November 2020 that the election was rigged, despite dozens of lawsuits and recounts that found it was not. He is being investigated by Congress and the government for trying to overturn the election results, and two years later, he still claims that he won the 2020 election.

CNN had no comment.

The case has been assigned to Trump-appointed Judge Raaj Singhal, in the Southern District of Florida.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-sues-cnn-for-defamation/

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Ketanji Brown Jackson grabs the spotlight in first Supreme Court session – POLITICO

“Why is it that your conception of this does not relate in any way to Congress’s primary objective?” Jackson asked Damien Schiff, a lawyer defending landowners seeking a narrow interpretation of federal power. “Do you dispute that the primary objective as stated in the statute … is that Congress cared about making sure that the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters was protected?”

Jackson remained an active questioner throughout the argument, scoring assists from several colleagues, including Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who pressed Schiff to respond to her queries.

Indeed, Jackson was so vocal that her questioning helped extend the planned one hour of arguments to two hours. Jackson seemed to realize she was testing Chief Justice John Roberts’ patience. After Roberts called on her well into the argument, she looked a bit sheepish and prefaced one of her questions with, “Sorry. …” Then she asked two follow-ups.

Later, during what was supposed to be a two-minute rebuttal argument, Jackson interrupted Schiff to ask another question — followed by at least three follow-ups. As the lawyer responded, Roberts could be seen writing a note, folding it and handing it to a page, who delivered it to Jackson. She opened and read the message. What it said is unclear, but the arguments in that case concluded moments later.

Despite the public tensions in recent months among some members of the court, as well as the stresses brought on by security scares and a leak investigation, the justices seemed fairly relaxed. The seating for most of the justices was reshuffled as a result of Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement.

Justice Neil Gorsuch smiled broadly as the session got underway and casually chatted with one of his new neighbors, Sotomayor. He also deferred to Jackson once, who replied with some praise, sort of.

“I just wanted to follow up on Justice Gorsuch’s very fair points, which were my points,” she said.

Kavanaugh also tried at least once to get Roberts’ attention for a question from Jackson, who sits to Kavanaugh’s left.

Kavanaugh and Justice Elena Kagan shared a private joke at one juncture, although her reaction was harder to assess since she joined Sotomayor as the only justices to wear face masks during the arguments.

There were fewer signs of chumminess between two other new neighbors, Kagan and Justice Samuel Alito. Alito looked pained at times during Monday’s arguments, and sometimes rested his forehead on his index fingers or his chin on his thumbs.

In a series of public appearances in recent weeks, Kagan has repeatedly raised doubts about the court’s methodology and said the court’s reputation is being undermined by perceptions that it isn’t being driven by legal principles.

Both Alito and Roberts have pushed back against such critiques, arguing that disappointment or disagreement with any decision shouldn’t affect the legitimacy of the court.

The overall tenor of Monday’s arguments was less confrontational and caustic than some of last year’s arguments, including in the pivotal abortion case where Sotomayor charged that the court might not “survive the stench” of overturning Roe v. Wade, which it did in June by a 5-4 vote.

The first arguments of the new term had a folksy tone at times, often feeling like Old Home Week as at least three justices invoked their roots while trying to make points or pose questions in the water regulation case, which turns on when certain wetland properties near rivers or lakes are subject to federal regulation.

“I grew up in an apartment building in New York City,” Kagan shared as she explained that she’d consider two buildings across the street from one another to be “adjacent” even if they didn’t touch.

“I grew up in low country Georgia and you had standing water. That was normal,” Justice Clarence Thomas declared as he pressed Deputy Solicitor General Brian Fletcher to explain whether frequently flooded land was or was not covered by the Clean Water Act.

Barrett, who now lives in Northern Virginia and came by way of Indiana, also got in on the action.

“I grew up in New Orleans,” said Barrett. “The whole thing is below sea level. So, you know, there are aquifers that run right underneath it. … We have no basements because, you dig far enough in anybody’s yard, you hit water, and all of that runs into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River navigable waters.”

Although she may have been tempted, Jackson offered no similar anecdote about being raised in Miami, which only is about six feet above sea level on average and regularly gets flooded by storms.

However, some of Jackson’s questions both in the water case and a subsequent one about money order-like products seemed to pay homage to her predecessor and mentor on the court, Breyer, who often sought to interpret federal laws based on congressional intent or purpose.

Roberts may not be the only one who was eager to see the arguments wrap up Monday. Thomas, who at 74 is now the court’s oldest member, briefly stepped behind the curtain at one point as the session stretched on. And Gorsuch barely made it off the bench before he yanked off his black judge’s robe and handed it to an aide.

The justices are scheduled to return to the courtroom Tuesday for arguments on voting rights cases from Alabama, before holding a closed-door conference Friday to discuss this week’s cases as well as other matters.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/03/ketanji-brown-jackson-grabs-the-spotlight-in-first-supreme-court-session-00060143

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National Archives notified Trump lawyers in May 2021 it was missing Kim Jong Un correspondence and Obama letter – NBC News

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Ukraine’s forces gain ground in the south as counteroffensive builds; Russia acknowledges advances – CNBC

LIVE UPDATES

This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the success of Ukraine’s soldiers is not limited to the recapture of Lyman, a key logistics hub for the occupying Russian forces, in the northeast of the country. He said in his nightly address that more settlements around Kherson have been liberated.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had withdrawn its forces from Lyman on Saturday to prevent them from being encircled.

Ukraine is continuing its counteroffensive in the northeast of the country as it tries to reclaim more occupied land from Russia, which last Friday announced it was annexing four regions in Ukraine, a move branded as illegitimate and farcical by the international community.

The Russian defeat in Lyman in northeast Ukraine and other parts of the Kharkiv region, combined with the Kremlin’s failure to conduct a partial military mobilization effectively and fairly “are fundamentally changing the Russian information space,” according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War.

“The Russian information space has significantly deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense that things are generally under control,” analysts at the defense and foreign affairs think tank said Sunday.

More than 253 vessels carrying agricultural products have left Ukrainian ports

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said that so far 253 vessels have left the besieged country since ports reopened in July.

The Joint Coordination Center, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the ships transported a total of 5.7 million metric tons of grain and other food products.

In July, three of Ukraine’s ports were reopened to exports under the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative.

— Amanda Macias

Elon Musk is publicly rebuked by Zelenskyy over his Twitter poll

American tech billionaire Elon Musk drew public ire from Ukraine’s top officials after the Tesla CEO posted a Twitter poll asking the public to agree or disagree with what he claimed is the most likely outcome of Russia’s invasion.

“F– off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, wrote in response to Musk’s tweet.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy responded with a Twitter poll of his own. “Which Elon Musk do you like more,” Zelenskyy asked. “The one who supports Ukraine” or “The one who supports Russia.”

What Musk calls a “highly likely” outcome presumes that Russia accomplishes several of its major goals, including permanently annexing Crimea, using referendums to determine the fates of 4 other attempted annexations, and prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO.

For Ukrainians, these outcomes would never, ever be acceptable.

— Christina Wilkie

Photos show destroyed Russian armored vehicles left behind in Izium, Kharkiv

Over the weekend Ukrainian forces seized the strategic city of Lyman and continued a stunning counteroffensive in the northeast of the country.

The following photos show destroyed Russian armored vehicles and tanks left behind as Ukrainian forces battle for Izium, Kharkiv and continue to push east through Russian lines.

— Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Tehran denies that Iranian-made drones are being used by Russians in Ukraine

Iran denied reports that Iranian-made drones were being used by Russian forces on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Nasser Kanaani, an Iranian spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told NBC News that press reports about the use of drones in Ukraine are fake.

“The Islamic Republic considers this news baseless,” Kanaani said, adding that Iran has declared a stance of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Last week, the Pentagon said it observed Russian forces using Iranian drones in Ukraine.

“We do assess that the Russians are using the Iranian drones in Ukraine,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a Sept. 27 press briefing.

“We’ve also seen reports of Ukrainians shooting down some of these drones,” he added, without providing more detail.

— Amanda Macias

A Russian court will hear WNBA star Brittney Griner’s appeal this month

A Russian court will hear WNBA star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession on Oct. 25.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted in August on accusations that she was smuggling vape cartridges with cannabis oil into Russia.

The 31-year-old, who plays professional basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage but testified that she accidentally packed them because she was in a rush.

The Biden administration has referred to her as “wrongfully detained” and has attempted to broker deals with the Kremlin for her release.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine’s first lady christens newest Ukrainian warship in Turkey

Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov shared a video on Twitter of the newest warship to join Ukraine’s fleet.

“With a ship like this, our Black and Azov seas will be safe,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter. He added that the future base port for the warship will be in Sevastopol. The ship was launched in Turkey and is expected to join Ukraine’s fleet by 2024.

The anti-submarine corvette, named “Hetman Ivan Mazepa,” was christened by Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska.

— Amanda Macias

More than 4.2 million Ukrainians have applied for temporary resident status in other countries

More than 4.2 million Ukrainians have applied for temporary resident status in other countries since Russia’s invasion in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

The majority of refugees from Ukraine have relocated to Poland.

According to data collected by the agency, more than 7.5 million people have become refugees and moved to neighbor European countries.

“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance,” the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

— Amanda Macias

Russian forces release Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant official, IAEA chief says

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Russian forces released an employee from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Ihor Murashov, the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was released and returned to his family.

Last week, Murashov was allegedly detained by Russian troops upon leaving the power plant facility in the town of Energodar.

— Amanda Macias

Five vessels carrying 116,123 metric tons of corn and wheat leave Ukraine

The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said it approved five vessels to leave the besieged country on Sunday.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the vessels are carrying 116,123 metric tons of corn and wheat.

Three ships are destined for Spain and are carrying 32,700 metric tons of corn and 50,500 metric tons of wheat. Another ship will depart from Ukraine’s port of Chornomorsk for Tunisia and is carrying 10,000 metric tons of wheat. The fifth vessel is carrying 22,923 metric tons of wheat and will sail to Italy from Ukraine’s port of Odesa.

Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.

— Amanda Macias

A look inside Russia’s partial mobilization in Rostov, Russia

Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization begin their military trainings in Rostov, Russia after a military call-up for the Ukraine war.

— Arkady Budnitsky | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

UN says more than 6,000 killed in Ukraine since start of war

The United Nations has confirmed 6,114 civilian deaths and 9,132 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay fatality reports.

The international organization said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.

— Amanda Macias

Russia’s Parliament approves annexations, but boundaries remain unclear

Russia’s Duma, or lower house of Parliament, unanimously approved the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson although the borders of what Russia now claims is its territory remain unclear.

A statement from the Duma on Telegram said “the entry of the Donetsk, Luhansk people’s republics [self-proclaimed separatist regions], Zaporozhzhia and Kherson regions into the Russian Federation is the only way to save millions of people’s lives from the criminal Kyiv regime,” the Duma said, repeating baseless accusations against the government in Kyiv.

Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine has been almost internationally condemned with Ukraine and its allies calling the move, after sham referendums in those occupied regions, illegitimate and illegal.

It’s also unclear where the boundaries are of Russia’s new so-called “territory” with none of the regions fully occupied by Russian forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that the DPR and LPR (so-called “people’s republics in eastern Ukraine) will accede to the Russian Federation as they are but that Russia will consult with the residents of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia over where the borders of those regions are set.

Asked whether the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that are now under control of the Ukrainian army are Russian or Ukrainian territory, Peskov said “I have nothing more to add to what I said right now.”

Ukraine has vowed to retake all of its lost territory, with around 18% of the country currently occupied by Russian forces.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia concedes Ukraine is making gains in parts of the Kherson region

Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged that Ukrainian forces were making ground in a renewed counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region.

“Superior enemy tank units succeeded in wedging into the depth of our defence towards Zolotaya Balka and Aleksandrovka,” the ministry said in an update, referring to villages along the Dnipro river around Kherson.

The ministry claimed that Russian forces had repelled attacks in nearby Mykolaiv, in the Kherson region, and Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.

Russia’s admission that Ukraine is making slow but steady advances comes after a humiliating retreat in the northeast with Russian forces withdrawing from one of their logistics hubs, Lyman, at the weekend in order to avoid encirclement.

On Monday, there have been various reports citing gains in the southern Kherson region, however, with officials remarking that several Russian-occupied settlements have been retaken.

“In the last days, we have seen the first photo of Osokorivka … we have seen our troops near the entrance to Mykhailivka, we have seen our troops in Khreschenivka, next to the monument. This means that Zolota Balka also is under the control of our armed forces, and it means that our armed forces are moving powerfully along the banks of the Dnipro nearer to Beryslav,” Serhiy Khlan, a Kherson regional council member, told Reuters, naming villages in the Kherson area.

“Officially, there is no such information yet, but the (Russian) social media pages which are panicking … absolutely confirm these photos,” he said, according to the news agency.

— Holly Ellyatt

Recaptured town of Lyman has to be thoroughly demined after Russian retreat

Ukrainian forces are having to demine the area in and around Lyman, a logistics hub for occupying Russian forces that was recaptured by Ukraine’s troops at the weekend.

“The city itself has been cleared from [Russian] invaders. Of course, some of them are still running somewhere on the outskirts, and they are now being actively hunted down. But, stabilization measures continue there. First of all, there is a very dangerous situation with mines,” eastern command spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi said Monday, according to comments reported by Ukrinform news agency.

“The occupiers left lots of anti-personnel mines, the so-called trip wires, ‘butterfly mines’ that are not visible behind the leaves,” he added.

He said foreign journalists had asked to enter the de-occupied town but it was still too dangerous with “deminers are doing everything to make it safe,” Cherevatyi said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian forces gaining a foothold in southern Kherson region

Ukraine’s forces are gaining a foothold within liberated areas of the southern Kherson region, according to a spokeswoman for the southern military command.

Southern command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk told reporters Monday that Ukraine’s forces in the south are “conducting battles and gaining a foothold within the areas which have already been liberated and those that are still keeping the defense.”

“Also, we continue working with local residents along the contact line, along the front line, in those settlements that are under enemy fire. About 45 settlements have been shelled over the past day,” Humeniuk told reporters, according to comments reported by news agency Ukrinform, with efforts underway to evacuate civilians.

Humeniuk also said that Russian troops are inspecting households in occupied areas of the region for men aged between 18 and 35 in order to call them up and replenish their military units.

CNBC was unable to verify Humeniuk’s comments.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian-installed official admits Ukraine has made ‘breakthroughs’ in Kherson region

Ukrainian forces appear to be making progress in a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region, one of four regions that Moscow “annexed” last week, with one Russian-installed official conceding that Kyiv’s forces were making gains around Kherson.

“It’s tense, let’s put it that way,” Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said on state television, Reuters reported. He said Ukraine’s forces had made some breakthroughs in the region and taken control of some settlements.

Ukraine has continued to make advances in both the northeast of the country, in the Kharkiv region, and around Kherson in the south, seemingly undaunted by President Putin’s announcement last week that Moscow was “annexing” four regions in Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the separatist and pro-Russian Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed “republics” in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its allies condemned the move, calling it illegitimate and illegal.

— Holly Ellyatt

Pro-Russian groups are raising funds in crypto to prop up paramilitary operations

Pro-Russian groups are raising funds in cryptocurrency to prop up paramilitary operations and evade U.S. sanctions as the war with Ukraine wages on, a research report published Monday revealed.

As of Sept. 22, these fundraising groups had raised $400,000 in cryptocurrency since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, according to TRM Labs, a digital asset compliance and risk management company.

The research revealed that groups, using encrypted messaging app Telegram, are offering ways for people to send funds which are used to supply Russian-affiliated militia groups and support combat training at locations close to the border with Ukraine.

One group TRM Labs identified raising funds is Task Force Rusich which the U.S. Treasury describes as a “neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has participated in combat alongside Russia’s military in Ukraine.” The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFCA) has sanctioned Task Force Rusich.

On a Telegram channel, TRM Labs discovered this group was looking to raise money for items such as thermal imaging equipment and radios.

Read more on the story here

The only way to end the war is on the battlefield, lawmaker says

Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia unless it agrees to withdraw all its troops from Ukrainian territory — but with that increasingly unlikely, the resolution to the conflict currently lies on the battlefield, one Ukrainian lawmaker told CNBC.

“Ukraine is ready for negotiations at any moment, but negotiations about what? About the retreat of Russian troops from our territory? Sure,” Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, told CNBC Monday.

“But Putin is not going to do this. He claimed that the territories he invaded are Russian … so clearly he has chosen the way of escalation and that’s why the only answer is on the battlefield and Ukraine is doing this.”

Goncharenko noted that Putin’s partial military mobilization, in which 300,000 men are expected to be called up to fight in Ukraine, would only prolong the war instead of enabling Moscow to win it.

Likening Russia’s army and the state to a dinosaur, he said: “[It has] a massive body, tiny head and very tiny brains inside this head.”

“When Russia will realize [it can’t win] we’re ready to negotiate but it looks like Putin will never do it,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian mobilization marked by dysfunction and disorganization, UK says

The “partial military mobilization” announced by President Putin two weeks ago is showing itself to be dysfunctional and disorganized, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense.

President Putin announced the call-up on Sept. 21, leading to thousands of eligible fighting men trying to flee the country. Other reports have suggested the men going to fight in Ukraine are poorly trained and ill-equipped for war. There have been multiple reports of men being mistakenly conscripted.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said that even Putin had acknowledged problems with the draft, telling his National Security Council on Sept. 29 that “a lot of questions are being raised during this mobilization campaign, and we must promptly correct our mistakes and not repeat them.”

“Putin’s unusually rapid acknowledgement of problems highlights the dysfunction of the mobilisation over its first week. Local officials are likely unclear on the exact scope and legal rationale of the campaign,” the ministry said on Twitter.

“They have almost certainly drafted some personnel who are outside the definitions claimed by Putin and the Ministry of Defence. As drafted reservists continue to assemble at tented transit camps, Russian officials are likely struggling to provide training and in finding officers to lead new units,” the ministry added.

— Holly Ellyatt

Criticism of Ukraine invasion grows in Russia, even from pro-Kremlin figures

The Russian defeat in Lyman in northeast Ukraine and other parts of the Kharkiv region, combined with the Kremlin’s failure to conduct a partial military mobilization effectively and fairly, “are fundamentally changing the Russian information space,” according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War.

“The Russian information space has significantly deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense that things are generally under control,” analysts at the defense and foreign affairs think tank said Sunday, noting that Ukraine’s recapturing of Lyman in northeast Kharkiv this weekend is leading to mounting criticism of President Putin’s regime, top officials and the so-called “special military operation” (as Russia calls it) in Ukraine.

“Kremlin-sponsored media and Russian milbloggers – a prominent Telegram community composed of Russian war correspondents, former proxy officials, and nationalists – are grieving the loss of Lyman while simultaneously criticizing the bureaucratic failures of the partial mobilization,” the analysts noted in their latest assessment of the war.

“Kremlin sources and milbloggers are attributing the defeat around Lyman and Kharkiv Oblast to Russian military failures to properly supply and reinforce Russian forces in northern Donbas and complaining about the lack of transparency regarding the progress of war,” they added.

The ISW noted that it’s becoming more common for even the most pro-Kremlin TV shows in Russia to host guests that are critical of how the conflict is progressing and some have even criticized Putin’s decision to annex four Ukrainian regions last Friday “before securing their administrative borders or even the frontline, expressing doubts about Russia’s ability ever to occupy the entirety of these territories.”

“Kremlin propagandists no longer conceal their disappointment in the conduct of the partial mobilization, frequently discussing the illegal mobilization of some men and noting issues such as alcoholism among newly mobilized forces,” the ISW said.

“Some speaking on live television have expressed the concern that mobilization will not generate the force necessary to regain the initiative on the battlefield, given the poor quality of Russian reserves.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Successes of Ukrainian soldiers not limited to Lyman, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the success of Ukraine’s soldiers is not limited to the recapture of Lyman in the northeast of the country, with more towns around Kherson being liberated.

“This week, the largest part of the reports is the list of settlements liberated from the enemy within the scope of our ongoing defensive operation. The story of the liberation of Lyman in the Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media. But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman,” he said in his nightly address. Ukrainian forces are also liberating the small Arkhanhelske and Myrolyubivka settlements in the Kherson region, he said.

Ukraine is continuing its counteroffensive in the northeast of the country as it tries to reclaim more occupied land from Russia, which last Friday announced it was annexing four regions in Ukraine, a move branded as illegitimate and farcical by the international community.

Over the weekend, Ukraine announced that its forces had fully taken back control of the town of Lyman, which had been used as a key logistics hub by Russian forces, marking another significant win for Kyiv. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that it had withdrawn its forces from the town to prevent them from being encircled.

— Holly Ellyatt

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/03/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html

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Prosecution Makes Opening Arguments in Oath Keepers Sedition Trial – The New York Times

Another key aspect of the trial will be the Oath Keeper’s relationship to Mr. Trump, a man they often supported as president despite their traditional antigovernment beliefs.

In his own opening statement, Phillip Linder, Mr. Rhodes’s lawyer, said that Mr. Rhodes and his subordinates had never planned an illegal attack against the government on Jan. 6. Instead, Mr. Linder said, the Oath Keepers were waiting for Mr. Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act — a move, they claim, would have given the group standing as a militia to employ force of arms in support of Mr. Trump.

Calling the Oath Keepers a “peacekeeping force,” Mr. Linder also argued that the group did not go to Washington on Jan. 6 to storm the Capitol but instead to provide security for speakers and dignitaries at political rallies that week.

“Even though it may look inflammatory,” Mr. Linder told the jury, “they did nothing illegal.”

Because of the nature of the Oath Keepers’ defense — and because of the government’s wealth of evidence — the trial is less likely to focus on disputes over what the group did in the days and weeks leading up to Jan. 6 and more likely to hinge on the question of why they did it.

The government contends that Mr. Rhodes and his four co-defendants — Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — willingly planned to use force against the government and carried out their attack even though Mr. Trump never did invoke the Insurrection Act.

The defense maintains that the Oath Keepers could not have seditiously sought to stop the transfer of power because they believed that the Insurrection Act would allow them to legally come to Mr. Trump’s aid.

While the seditious conspiracy statute generally bars plots to overthrow the government, Mr. Rhodes and co-defendants have been accused of using force to block the execution of federal law — in this case, the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, both of which govern the transfer of presidential power.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/politics/jan-6-oath-keepers-trial.html

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Florida’s death toll from Hurricane Ian tops 100 as the search for survivors continues – CNN

The number of people killed in Florida by Hurricane Ian rose to at least 100 on Monday, days after the storm made landfall at Category 4 strength, decimating coastal towns and leaving rescue crews searching for survivors while communities face the daunting task of rebuilding.

At least 54 people died in Lee County alone, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said Monday – up from the county’s previously announced death toll of 42 – and officials there are facing questions about whether evacuation orders should have been issued earlier. Twenty-four deaths were recorded in Charlotte County – up from 12.

Hurricane Ian also contributed to the deaths of eight people in Collier County, five in Volusia County, three in Sarasota County, two in Manatee County, and one each in Polk, Lake, Hendry and Hillsborough counties, officials said. Four other people died in storm-related incidents as Ian churned into North Carolina.

More than 1,600 people have been rescued from Hurricane Ian’s path in parts of southwest and central Florida since last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said Sunday.

Now, as blue skies return, Floridians who took shelter while the hurricane raged have emerged – many of them still without power or clean drinking water – to find their communities unrecognizable.

Nearly 600,000 homes, businesses and other customers in Florida still did not have power as of early Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. Many are without clean tap water, with well over 100 boil-water advisories in places around the state, according to Florida Health Department data.