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Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/20/even-day-after-jan-6-trump-balked-condemning-violence/

That statement is proving costly. In a Republican Party where a candidate’s viability is measured in degrees of fealty to the former president, the crowded field of primary opponents is insisting Timken has failed a key test.

Days after entering the Senate race in February, Timken changed gears and called on Gonzalez to resign. But despite that — and despite calling both Trump impeachments a “sham” — Timken’s foes and two dozen conservative activists penned an open letter this weekend to the state Republican Party that called on primary voters to reject her candidacy.

“Timken is everything that President Trump stood against: politicians who say one thing and do another,” read the letter, a hard copy of which was also sent to Trump and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Timken defended Anthony Gonzalez’s vote to impeach President Trump, then called for his resignation the moment it became politically toxic for her to stand with Gonzalez.”

The letter, signed by many supporters of Josh Mandel — who ran unsuccessfully against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2012 and made a brief Senate run in 2018 — was drafted as Timken’s campaign began door-knocking, advertising and racking up endorsements from the state GOP’s 66-member central committee. She currently has support from 38 of them, six shy of the total needed to force a committee vote to issue a formal state party endorsement.

The focus on Gonzalez has ramped up as Timken critics have grown increasingly concerned that Trump might wade into the race and endorse her — which would make her virtually unbeatable in the primary. While the letter was designed to remind MAGA supporters of Timken’s initial position on Gonzalez, it was also meant to highlight her heresy to a primary of one — Trump.

Trump’s outsize role was underscored two months ago when he hosted what was referred to as a “Hunger Games” exercise, forcing Timken, Mandel, technology company executive Bernie Moreno and investment banker Mike Gibbons to sit at the same table and make their case for the Senate nomination in his presence at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The Senate contenders were there for a fundraiser for Gonzalez’s congressional opponent — a cause Trump has championed.

At the meeting, Trump reminded Timken — who served one term as his handpicked state party chair — that she didn’t initially condemn Gonzalez for his impeachment vote.

“On the merits, he should’ve endorsed her already. She was nothing but completely loyal and supportive of him, and she was doing her job as party chair. But that’s not good enough. It’s not about doing your job. It’s about being loyal to him 100 percent all the time,” said Doug Preisse, a veteran Republican strategist in the state.

“This is different from what Ronald Reagan said, which is that someone who is with you 80 percent of the time is not your enemy, they’re your friend,” he said.

Jason Miller, a Trump spokesperson, said the former president has no plans right now to endorse in Ohio.

“It’s still too early,” Miller said. “There might be that goal of appealing to the primary of one. But that person sees multiple candidates with strong pathways to victory.”

One Republican who is neutral in the Senate race and has discussed it with Trump said the letter “would seem effective in slowing down an endorsement” from Trump. The Republican said that the letter-writers are not just doing Mandel a favor, but “are also doing the whole field a favor.”

Timken’s campaign has fired back at Mandel for doing too little to help Trump after essentially disappearing from public life once Mandel dropped out of the 2018 Senate race. A Mandel spokesperson said he had fundraised for Trump and advocated for him among Jewish and military voters — and that Timken’s “disloyalty and squishiness have consequences.”

Others in the field are also contending with their own Trump loyalty issues. Moreno called Trump a “maniac” in 2016 and refused to say in a 2019 TV interview whether he supported Trump. Yet another candidate, best-selling author J.D. Vance, trashed Trump in 2016 but drifted back into the Trump fold.

“While Jane fought tirelessly for the Trump agenda,” said a Timken spokesperson, “other candidates are now trying to overcompensate because they either didn’t vote for President Trump, publicly trashed President Trump and belittled his supporters, or were totally MIA with their head in the sand now trying to play pretend.”

Beth Hansen, a veteran Republican strategist in Ohio, thinks the hit will be survivable for Timken, but acknowledged its resonance.

“She has done so much for Donald Trump that most people will be able to get beyond this,” Hansen said. “It will influence some people, but not enough to make up for the margin of victory.”

One of the Mandel backers who signed the open letter to the state party and Trump, Thea Shoemake, pointed out that the letter lays out myriad reasons to oppose Timken. Still, the Gonzalez episode might be enough on its own.

“She said there was a ‘rational reason’ to vote for impeachment but there wasn’t,” Shoemake said. “That impeachment was a shame. You can’t draw a line from it to the U.S. Constitution.”

Ohio Republicans “want someone consistent and who does not put their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/24/jane-timken-trump-senate-490504

U.S. military leaders strive to maintain open lines of communication even with potential adversaries such as China to prevent accidents and other miscalculations that could turn into a full-blown conflict.

But the last call Milley had with his Chinese counterpart, Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Li Zuocheng, was on July 7, the Pentagon said. The two spoke by secure video teleconference about the need to maintain open lines of communication, as well as reducing risk, according to a readout from Milley’s office. Austin, meanwhile, met in person with Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe in June on the sideline of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“The secretary has repeatedly emphasized the importance of fully open lines of communication with China’s defense leaders to ensure that we can avoid any miscalculations, and that remains true,” Todd Breasseale, the Pentagon’s acting press secretary, told POLITICO in an email.

China on Friday announced that it was halting certain official dialogues between senior-level U.S. military commanders, including the regional commanders, as well as talks on maritime safety. The announcement does not specifically apply to Austin and Milley’s counterparts, and officials said they are still open to communication between those leaders.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said while the announcement “does not completely eliminate the opportunities for senior members of our military to talk,” it increases the risk of an accident.

“These lines of communications are actually important for helping you reduce the risk of miscalculation and misperception,” Kirby said Friday. “You have this much military hardware operating in confined areas, it’s good, especially now, to have those lines of communication open.”

China is conducting military drills around Taiwan that have broken multiple precedents and fundamentally changed the status quo in the region. Beijing this week launched missiles into Taiwan’s territory, including at least one that appears to have flown over the island, and has sortied ships and aircraft across the median line separating Taiwan’s territorial waters from mainland China.

The U.S., which does not officially recognize Taiwan’s independence but sells weapons to the island, wants to avoid a situation such as on April 1, 2001, when a U.S. Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese J-8 fighter collided in mid-air, prompting an international dispute.

The risk of such an incident is increasingly high. China has recently ramped up aggressive activity in the Pacific, particularly the East and South China seas, alarming U.S. officials. Chinese aircraft and ships have buzzed and harassed U.S. and allied pilots, even conducting an “unsafe” intercept with a U.S. special operations C-130 aircraft in June.

Yet canceling military dialogue is significant, but not unprecedented, experts said.

“Historically this is definitely part of the playbook,” Schriver said. “Mil-mil [communications] historically is on the chopping block when we have problems with China.”

But Kirby condemned the move as “irresponsible” at a time of escalating tensions.

“We find the shutting down of military communications channels at whatever level and whatever scope and at a time of crisis to be an irresponsible Act,” Kirby said.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/05/pentagon-china-calls-taiwan-00050175

The US will announce new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in coordination with Group of 7 nations and the European Union, according to an administration official.

The official said the sweeping package “will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation.”

The new sanctions package will ban all new investment in Russia, increase sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia, and sanction Russian government officials and their family members.

A Western official familiar with the plans said the US could apply sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children – he has acknowledged two daughters – as early as Wednesday. The Biden administration is also eyeing an expansion of sanctions on Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, and Alfa Bank, another large lender, that official said.

The new sanctions package will mark the latest escalation in efforts by the US and its allies to impose costs on Russia for its invasion and, over time, cut off critical economic sectors the country utilizes to wage the ongoing war. They also follow new revelations of further atrocities committed by Russian forces in northern Ukraine, with the images of the atrocities committed in Bucha serving as an accelerator to ongoing discussions between the US and its European allies to ramp up the economic costs, officials said.

“These measures will degrade key instruments of Russian state power, impose acute and immediate economic harm on Russia, and hold accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and supports Putin’s war,” the administration official said. “These measures will be taken in lockstep with our allies and partners, demonstrating our resolve and unity in imposing unprecedented costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine.”

The official added, “We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, and the information from Bucha appears to show further evidence of war crimes. And as the President said, we will work with the world to ensure there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions – and we have been working intensively with our European allies on further sanctions.”

The expected sanctions come after the US Treasury announced it will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks. While Washington had imposed sanctions on the Russian Central Bank freezing their foreign currency at US banks, the Treasury Department had previously allowed Russia to use those reserves to repay its debt.

It’s a move that officials say will substantially raise the risk of default and undercut urgent efforts by the central bank to stanch the economic bleeding that immediately arrested the Russian economy in the wake of the Western response to the invasion.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started at the end of February, the US and its allies have sanctioned hundreds of Russian elites and lawmakers, restricted the country’s access to Western technology important to its defense and technology sectors, frozen roughly half of Russia’s foreign reserves and cut off specific Russian banks from the SWIFT banking network, among other steps. The US has also banned the import of Russian oil, natural gas and other energy products.

While the severity and swiftness of the Western sanctions against Russia have been unprecedented, key carve outs remain as US officials continue to monitor US and European supply chains and try to limit the impact of sanctions on Western economies that are grappling with record-high inflation levels.

CNN reported late last week that Russia faces a deep recession and high inflation as sanctions push the country toward having an increasingly closed economy, a shift which US officials believe the Kremlin will struggle to make since it has long relied on the sale of raw materials to buy sophisticated equipment and consumer goods.

Sanctions ‘will take time’ to ‘grind down’ Russian economy

While the US and its allies have imposed the most sweeping sanctions regime targeting a country of the size of Russia in history, officials acknowledge it has done little to shift Putin’s calculation.

The threat of the sanctions didn’t deter the invasion itself, and the piling on of economic penalties hasn’t brought Russia any closer to a withdrawal or negotiated settlement since.

Yet the administration’s sanctions policy, which is led by a bevy of veterans involved in the response to the last Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014, is calibrated to cut off critical components of the Russian economy over time and, perhaps most importantly, in a unified and multilateral way.

The overarching intent to maintain unity with the more than 30 countries across four continents that have joined in the sanctions has limited their reach on the central driver of the Russian economy: Energy.

The reliance of EU members on Russian oil and gas has constrained the scale of the sanctions targeting the energy sector, even as the US has moved on a unilateral basis to ban Russian oil imports. It has also created pressure to address rising energy prices across the world, which could create domestic tension that would undercut what has been a unified front up to this point.

Still, the brazen nature of the Russia attack has dramatically shifted the willingness of some European leaders to sign on to expanded economic penalties. The EU is now planning to ban Russian coal imports, and despite some continued resistance, a move to expand an embargo to include oil and gas has continued to gain steam, officials said.

Yet for all of the focus on the immediate impact on the sanctions, officials point to key pieces of their efforts as having the greatest effect as the conflict grows more protracted. Export controls targeting critical economic sectors are designed t cut ooff access to the technology necessary for the Russian industrial base to continue production in defense, aerospace and biotechnology.

Sanctions targeting the central bank will, over time, systematically undo years of Russian efforts to insulate its economy through foreign currency reserves that are now either frozen, or have to be urgently tapped in order to avoid a looming default.

Expanding individual sanctions beyond key Russian officials and financiers to include family members as well is intended to cut off key avenues to shield wealth from new penalties.

“It will take time to grind down the elements of Russian power within the Russian economy, to hit their industrial base hard, to hit the sources of revenue that have propped up this war and have propped up the … kleptocracy in Russia,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters on Monday. “But there’s no better time than now to be working at that so that the costs end up setting in and that ends up sharpening Russia’s choices.”

US sanctions Russia’s ‘most prominent’ dark web market

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned what it called Russia’s “most prominent” dark web market, a place where cybercriminals sold hacking tools and where millions of dollars in ransomware payments changed hands.

The sanctions coincided with a move by German police to shut down the computer servers of Hydra, as the dark web market is known, and seize $25 million in cryptocurrency.

The Justice Department on Tuesday also announced criminal charges against Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov, a 30-year-old Russian resident, for narcotics and money laundering conspiracy in connection with his alleged role in running Hydra’s computer servers.

Since emerging in 2015, the Hydra dark web market – an internet-based network accessible through specialized software – has been a haven for illicit commerce, according to researchers and US officials. Over $5 billion in Bitcoin transactions have taken place on Hydra, according to Elliptic, a firm that tracks cryptocurrency.

That includes about $8 million in ransom payments made to hackers that have deployed three prominent strains of ransomware in attacks on US companies.

“The global threat of cybercrime and ransomware that originates in Russia, and the ability of criminal leaders to operate there with impunity, is deeply concerning to the United States,” Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement.

After a spate of ransomware attacks on US critical infrastructure last year, the Biden administration has looked to choke off sources of funding for cybercriminal gangs. The Treasury Department in September sanctioned Suex, a cryptocurrency exchange that US officials accused of doing business with hackers behind eight types of ransomware.

This story has been updated with additional reporting Tuesday.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/russia-sanctions-wednesday/index.html

Family members and loved ones of victims of those who died on 9/11 attend the 20th anniversary commemoration ceremony on Saturday at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

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Family members and loved ones of victims of those who died on 9/11 attend the 20th anniversary commemoration ceremony on Saturday at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

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Twenty years to the day after a pair of hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center towers and another plane punched a gaping hole in the Pentagon and a fourth passenger jet crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers sought to regain control from hijackers, Americans nationwide reflected on the events that forever changed their country.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. The event not only sparked enormously costly and largely unwinnable wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but also spawned a domestic war on terrorism, rewriting the rules on security and surveillance in the U.S., the repercussions of which continue to reverberate.

To commemorate the day, hundreds of people on Saturday gathered in Lower Manhattan at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on the spot where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood. Three presidents — President Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — and their wives attended. They wore blue ribbons and held their hands over their hearts as a procession marched a flag through the memorial and stood somberly side by side as the names of the dead were read off by family members and stories and remembrances were shared.

Former President Bill Clinton (from left), former first lady Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his partner Diana Taylor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer stand for the national anthem at Saturday’s ceremony in New York City.

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Former President Bill Clinton (from left), former first lady Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his partner Diana Taylor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer stand for the national anthem at Saturday’s ceremony in New York City.

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The president and first lady also met with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his partner, Diana Taylor, according to the White House. They greeted FBI Director Christopher Wray, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the New York congressional delegation, and many other current and former state and local officials as they arrived at the memorial. Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York City at the time of the attacks, also attended the ceremony.

At a ceremony at Shanksville, Pa., former President George W. Bush remembered the day that “the world was loud with carnage and sirens. And then silent with voices.”

Bush lamented the current era of political division, seemingly alluding to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Former President George W. Bush pauses during his speech during the 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., on Saturday.

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Former President George W. Bush pauses during his speech during the 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., on Saturday.

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“We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come, not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within,” Bush said. “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home … [but] they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

Also in Shanksville, where a hijacked plane crashed after passengers fought back, Vice President Harris called the site “hallowed ground.”

United Flight 93 taught us “about the courage of those on board, who gave everything. About the resolve of the first responders, who risked everything. About the resilience of the American people,” she said.

Visitors line the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Memorial on Friday in Shanksville, Pa. The Luminaria Ceremony commemorates the 40 victims of Flight 93.

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Visitors line the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Memorial on Friday in Shanksville, Pa. The Luminaria Ceremony commemorates the 40 victims of Flight 93.

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Echoing Bush, Harris said that in the days after the attacks, “we were all reminded that unity is possible in America. We were reminded, too, that unity is imperative in America. It is essential to our shared prosperity, our national security, and to our standing in the world.”

Claudia Castano touches the name of her brother that is etched at the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., on Saturday.

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Claudia Castano touches the name of her brother that is etched at the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., on Saturday.

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At ground zero in New York City, the national anthem was performed in a solemn ceremony, and then, in what has become an annual tradition, a moment of silence was observed at 8:46 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower.

The names of the victims were read allowed by family members, who shared anecdotes and remembrances of their loved ones.

Another moment of silence was observed at 9:03 a.m., when United Flight 175 hit the south tower, 9:59 a.m., when the south tower collapsed, and 10:28 a.m., when the north tower of the World Trade Center came down.

See more NPR coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than 2,600 people were killed in and around the World Trade Center buildings. At the Pentagon, 184 died, and 40 more were killed in Pennsylvania.

Among those who attended the ceremony in Manhattan was Bruce Springsteen, who with an acoustic guitar and harmonica, took the dais to perform “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” The New York Police Department pipes and drums band also played “Hard Times Come Again No More,” a U.S. folk song dating from the 1850s.

Biden made no remarks on Saturday in New York, but speaking on Friday, he said that in the days after the attacks in 2001, “we saw heroism everywhere — in places expected and unexpected.”

“We also saw something all too rare: a true sense of national unity,” the president said.

A man mourns Saturday at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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A man mourns Saturday at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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A moment of silence was also observed at 9:37 a.m., marking when American Airlines Flight 77 careened into the west face of the Pentagon. A ceremony there was hosted by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley.

The Bidens also attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Shanksville, and another later in the day at the Pentagon in northern Virginia. At the Pentagon, linked hand to hand, the Bidens, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff bowed their heads as they observed a moment of silence.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump released a video message Saturday morning, largely lambasting Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump, who visited Shanksville on Friday, visited a police precinct and fire department in New York City on Saturday, and is scheduled to deliver ringside commentary at a boxing match at a casino in Hollywood, Fla.

In London, acting ambassador to the United Kingdom Philip Reeker attended a special changing of the guard at Windsor Castle, at which the U.S. national anthem was performed. Reeker said Americans would be “forever grateful” for the “enduring friendship” between the two countries.

The 20th anniversary of the attacks comes just weeks after the chaotic final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.

Soldiers wait below an American flag prior to the start of the Pentagon 9/11 observance ceremony at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial on Saturday in Arlington, Va.

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Soldiers wait below an American flag prior to the start of the Pentagon 9/11 observance ceremony at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial on Saturday in Arlington, Va.

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Following the 2001 attacks, then-President Bush ordered “boots on the ground” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to root out al-Qaida and hunt for the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden. The war passed to his successor, Obama. Under Obama’s watch, bin Laden was located in Pakistan and killed in a covert U.S. military operation. But the war dragged on. The Trump White House negotiated directly with the Taliban for a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces, which was completed last month.

However, as U.S. troops were leaving, the Taliban were also gaining the upper hand against American-trained Afghan security forces, resulting in the quick collapse of the Afghan government.

Some families of the victims of 9/11 had asked Biden not to attend the 20th anniversary memorial events unless he ordered the declassification of documents they say will show that Saudi Arabian leaders lent material support to bin Laden.

People paid their respects at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., as well as in at memorials in New York and Pennsylvania and across the country.

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People paid their respects at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., as well as in at memorials in New York and Pennsylvania and across the country.

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During his campaign, Biden had promised that if elected, he would direct the Justice Department to release more information related to the attacks in a “narrowly tailored” way.

“The 9/11 families are right to seek full truth and accountability,” he said.

Earlier this month, Biden signed an executive order to begin declassifying those documents.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/11/1035528744/911-sept-11-september-anniversary-20-year-memorials-ground-zero-pentagon