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Putin Proclaims He https://digitalalaskanews.com/putin-proclaims-he/ Russian President Vladimir Putin used a speech in Moscow on Friday to falsely proclaim four Ukrainian regions were now part of the Russian Federation, a move that comes amid Moscow’s growing battlefield setbacks in its war in Ukraine and a decision to call up tens of thousands of reservists.  Putin claimed the illegal annexations were “the will of millions of people” to huge applause during a signing ceremony in the Kremlin’s  St. George’s Hall despite widespread reports of voter coercion and people being pressured at gunpoint.  The illegal occupation could potentially raise the stakes of Russia’s seven-month-old war in Ukraine because Putin vowed to defend the annexed territories with “all available means,” a veiled reference to his insistence he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons if Russia’s territory is threatened.   Russia is incorporating the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas of Ukraine – representing roughly 15% of Ukraine’s territory – following widely discredited referenda that mirrored a similar move to annex Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014. During his wide-ranging address Putin called on Ukraine to negotiate over the war Russia started and restated a laundry list of complaints against the West, such as that it “doesn’t want us to be a free society” and it wants Russia to be a “colony.” His address was full of historical inaccuracies about the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin also accused the U.S. and Britain of sabotaging Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.  Other developments: ► The U.S. imposed broad new sanctions on Russia in response, with President Joe Biden saying that Putin’s action lack legitimacy. “We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically,” the U.S. leader said in a statement. ►Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he has asked NATO to fast-track the country’s membership application to the military alliance. ►To celebrate the incorporation, which Ukraine and U.S. officials have called illegal and illegitimate, an evening concert in Moscow’s Red Square is also expected. ►Overnight, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office said at least 25 people were killed after a Russian missile hit a convoy of civilian vehicles in Zaporizhzhia attempting to deliver humanitarian aid. ►Western nations, including Canada, also imposed new sanctions on Russian oligarchs, financial elites and Russian-installed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine. White House: Referendums in Ukraine ‘pre-staged and falsified’ White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan characterized Russia’s illegal annexation of sections of Ukraine as a flagrant violation of international law and part of Vladimir Putin’s playbook of “deceit, disinformation and aggression.” “Based on our information, every aspect of this process was pre-staged and falsified,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Friday. Earlier Friday, Putin falsely proclaimed four Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine were now part of the Russian Federation following forced elections in those provinces last week. Putin vowed to defend the annexed territories “with all available means” – a veiled reference to nuclear weapons – and accused the West of “Satanism.” Sullivan said Putin’s threats and “saber-rattling” in Ukraine pose a risk but that there’s no indication of the “imminent use of nuclear weapons.” Putin’s reference to Satanism amounts to “over-the-top rhetoric and ranting” and further illustrates that he has no basis to justify what was essentially “a colonial and imperial land grab” in Ukraine, Sullivan said. “Rather than fill in any kind of logic or moral defense of what he has done, he has to resort to these kinds of absurd arguments,” Sullivan said. – Michael Collins and Joey Garrison Watc: ‘Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying’: US will protect NATO domain, Biden says Biden calls pipeline leaks ‘deliberate act of sabotage’ President Joe Biden said Friday that leaks in a pair of natural gas pipelines between Russia and Europe were caused by a “deliberate act of sabotage.” The U.S. and its NATO allies are working to find out exactly what happened to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, Biden told reporters at the White House. Two underwater explosions were recorded in the Baltic Sea shortly before the leaks were found on Monday. European officials also said the explosions appear to be the result of a deliberate act, although it remains unclear who was responsible for the leaks. Biden said the Russians are “pumping out disinformation and lies” about the leaks, an apparent reference to Putin accusing the U.S. and its allies of blowing up the lines. Biden said the U.S. already has begun to help its allies protect the critical infrastructure. “At the appropriate moment, when things calm down, we’re going to be sending divers down to find out exactly what happened,” he said. “We don’t know that yet, exactly,” Biden said. But, “just don’t listen to what Putin is saying. Because what he’s saying, we know is not true.” – Michael Collins U.S. imposes new sanctions The Biden administration sanctioned 278 Russian legislators, 14 individuals closely associated with Vladimir Putin’s military on Friday following Putin’s declaration that he’s announcing four regions in Ukraine. Sanctioned individuals included two international suppliers, three key leaders in Russia’s financial architecture and immediate family members of Russian senior officials, U.S. officials said. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the sanctions are part of an “aggressive and coordinated effort to hold Putin and his enablers accountable for his unprovoked invasion, and limit their ability to prop up their economy.” The Department of Commerce also said it would punish 57 entities in violation of U.S. export controls, and the State Department put visa restrictions on Ochur-Suge Mongush, a Russian national accused of torturing a Ukrainian prisoner of war. State also said that it was taking steps to impose restrictions on a total of 910 individuals including members of Russia’s military, Belarusian military officials and Russian proxies in Ukraine. – Francesca Chambers Biden on Putin: ‘He doesn’t intimidate us’ President Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin on Friday that the U.S. and its allies will not be intimidated by the Russian leader’s “reckless words and threats.” “He’s not going to scare us, and he doesn’t intimidate us,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Biden’s remarks came just hours after Putin falsely proclaimed four Ukrainian regions were now part of the Russian Federation and vowed to defend the annexed territories “with all available means.” Earlier, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons if Russia’s territory is threatened. Directing his remarks directly to Putin, Biden said the world would never accept Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian provinces and that the U.S. and its allies are prepared to defend “every single inch of NATO territory.” “Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying: Every inch,” Biden said. – Michael Collins Menendez: Putin getting desperate Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez said Friday that the U.S. will not recognize Russian authority over Ukrainian territory. “We will demand accountability for the atrocities in places under Russian illegal occupation like Bucha and Izyum. And we will never entertain Putin’s delusional attempts to rewrite the map of Europe,” Menendez, D-N.J., said in a statement. Menendez reiterated Putin’s attempt to fold parts of Ukraine into Russia over losses on the battlefield were pushing the leader to take riskier and desperate measures. Congress was on the verge of approving legislation that includes an additional $12.4 million in Ukrainian aid, and Menendez  pledged the support would continue. – Francesca Chambers Ukraine asks for fast-track NATO application Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video statement Friday shortly after President Vladimir Putin proclamation urging NATO to fast-track the country’s membership application to the military alliance. “We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO,” Zelenskyy said in comments that were also published on the social media app Telegram. Ukraine was granted NATO “aspirant” status in March, a month after Russia invaded Ukraine. All 30 NATO-member countries would have to agree for Ukraine to join the alliance and normally this is a process that takes years to complete. In a news conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sidestepped a question from a reporter about whether now was the time to admit Ukraine to NATO, saying only that “consensus” from existing members was needed for that to happen. –Kim Hjelmgaard Annexation follows widely discredited referendums Ukraine and Western officials have characterized the move as little more than a land grab and desperate tactic by Putin to disguise growing battlefield losses to Ukraine. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Only a handful of countries, such as North Korea and Syria, have recognized that annexation. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced legislation on Thursday that would prohibit countries that recognize Russia’s annexation of the four new regions from receiving economic or military assistance from the United States. The bipartisan pair is also pushing for passage of legislation that would designate Russia a state sponsor of terror for over its actions in Ukraine. Just four countries — North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran — have the designation. – Francesca Chambers and Kim Hjelmgaard Russia calls in its reservists Ever since Putin on Sept. 21 announced a call-up of reservists to fight in Ukraine, te...

Imran Should Be Tried Under Official Secrets Act : Maryam Nawaz | World https://digitalalaskanews.com/imran-should-be-tried-under-official-secrets-act-maryam-nawaz-world/ Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N leaders said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan should be tried under the Official Secrets Act for stealing a cipher from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), local media reported. In a press conference, they said that Parliament will decide to invoke Article 6 against Imran Khan and his abettors after consultations. They said that audio leaks of the Prime Minister’s Office are a serious security breach. They said that Imran Khan had taken away the cipher from the Prime Minister’s Office by concealing it in his diary, The News reported. PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said in the US, law enforcement agencies raided Trump’s house and similarly, it should also be done here, and Banigala should be searched for the recovery of cipher. Maryam said that she was surprised at the country’s system because the person (Imran), who should be in jail, was roaming free. She said that Imran Khan was deliberately making the appointment of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) controversial by talking about this issue in his public meetings. Declaring Imran Khan as the biggest liar in the history of Pakistan, Maryam said if she starts exposing him, it will take hours. “Many elected prime ministers and dictators came but the label of treason only suits Imran Khan,” said Maryam. Talking about the audio leaks, Maryam Nawaz said the more people listen to Imran Khan’s audios, the more they will understand how big conspiracy he had planned.  (IANS) Read More Here

Wetlands Case Tops Court Agenda https://digitalalaskanews.com/wetlands-case-tops-court-agenda/ When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its fall term on Monday, a few things will be different. A Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will hear oral arguments for the first time ever. And the public will be allowed into the room for the first time since early 2020. The content of the term’s first case, though, will be familiar to many who have followed federal water policy for the past several years. The case is a challenge to the definition of “waters of the United States,” which delineates which wetlands the federal government can regulate under the Clean Water Act. The case, brought by an Idaho couple, could further restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate environmental protections, just as one of the last decisions by the conservative majority in the most recent term curbed the agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases. A history-making day at the U.S. Supreme Court Monday will be the first day Jackson joins the ritual of oral arguments in the ornate chamber as one of nine Supreme Court justices. Jackson, a Harvard Law School grad and former federal judge who grew up in Miami, took the oath of office in June following an often–contentious Senate confirmation process. On Friday, she took part in an investiture ceremony, which mirrors stylistic aspects of the swearing-in. The investiture, though, is purely symbolic. Jackson has been a member of the court since taking her oath of office. Although the event was only symbolic, President Joe Biden and a handful of top White House staff members, along with several members of Congress, including Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, all Democrats, attended the six-minute event. Booker, who is Black, brought tears to Jackson’s eyes at a fraught time in the confirmation hearing when he spoke of the importance of Jackson’s role in history and as a role model to young Black people. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was the only senator who voted against Jackson’s confirmation to attend Friday’s ceremony. His presence seemed intended to make a point about the need to respect institutions, even amid good-faith disagreement with individuals. In a statement, Sasse said that he disagreed with Jackson’s judicial philosophy but that their disagreement was respectful and impersonal. He urged members of both parties not to attack the court itself. “Right now, there’s a lot of sound and fury about whether or not the Supreme Court has lost legitimacy,” Sasse said in the statement. “It’s a load of bunk. The Court’s legitimacy comes from its constitutional role, not the popularity of its opinions. I’m certain that I won’t agree with all of Justice Jackson’s opinions, but I’m not going to attack the credibility of the Court when we see things differently, and I wish more of my colleagues would take a similar approach.” During the March hearings at the Judiciary Committee, Sasse avoided the most salacious attacks on Jackson launched by other Republicans and bemoaned publicity-seeking “jackassery” in the chamber. Polls report Americans’ opinion of U.S. Supreme Court has declined Jackson is not expected to affect the court’s ideological balance, as she replaced Stephen Breyer, who’d been among the court’s liberal minority before his retirement. With three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, the court’s last term was its most conservative in decades, culminating with a ruling overturning Roe. v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the right to an abortion nationally. The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and the since-retired Breyer, wrote a scathing dissent that the decision “undermines the Court’s legitimacy.” The court’s departure from its own precedent in the Dobbs case “calls into question this Court’s commitment to legal principle,” they wrote. “It makes the Court appear not restrained but aggressive, not modest but grasping. In all those ways, today’s decision takes aim, we fear, at the rule of law.” Americans’ opinions of the court have declined over the past two years, along with its rightward shift. A nationwide Marquette Law School poll conducted in September found 60% of respondents disapproved of the court, while only 40% approved. The results represented a 53-point drop in net favorability from the same survey in 2020, when twice as many respondents held favorable views as those with unfavorable views. Other events have also threatened the court’s reputation. Justice Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself from a case about the House Jan. 6 committee’s access to presidential records and was the sole justice to vote in favor of restricting those records. The records later showed that his wife, Nebraska native Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, had exchanged several texts with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spreading false claims that the election was stolen. Additionally, a draft of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to news media months before it was published in what several experts said was an “unprecedented” breach of the court’s protocol that launched an internal investigation. New court rules, old issue Monday will mark the first time since March 2020 that the court will allow the public to attend oral arguments. Masks will be optional. The court will continue to live-stream audio from oral arguments, a practice the staid court only adopted while it limited attendance during the pandemic. The first oral arguments made under the new rules involve the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate “waters of the United States.” The 1972 law changed the criteria for what constituted a federally protected waterway away from one that is navigable to any “waters of the United States.” That definition has shifted since the law was passed, and particularly as the last three presidential administrations have enacted rules to define it. In 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration issued a definition that some, especially Republicans, viewed as expanding federal jurisdiction. His successor, Donald Trump, took steps to loosen the definition in 2020, but a federal court vacated that move in 2021. Last year, under Biden, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers said they would interpret the phrase consistent with a pre-2015 definition while they worked on updating a more permanent version. A Supreme Court ruling will likely come before that rule is finalized. An Idaho couple, the Sacketts, own a parcel of land near Priest Lake in the state’s panhandle. Their land is within 30 feet of a tributary to the lake. The EPA has claimed that parcel is within its jurisdiction to regulate as a navigable waterway, and the Sacketts disagree. The Sacketts are among the many farmers and other private landowners seeking a reprieve from federal regulation of wetlands on their property. A federal appeals court ruled last year in favor of the federal agency, but the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case could mean it will overturn the lower court’s ruling. In this 2012 photo, Chantelle and Mike Sackett talk about their case after their property rights case was heard by the Supreme Court the year before. (File/courtesy PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION) Read More Here

Ice Dogs Close Road Trip With A Loss, Head To Fairbanks For Home Opener https://digitalalaskanews.com/ice-dogs-close-road-trip-with-a-loss-head-to-fairbanks-for-home-opener/ 41° Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Overcast with showers at times. High around 45F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy. Low near 35F. Winds light and variable. Updated: October 1, 2022 @ 11:45 pm Full Forecast By Olivia Olsen For the Daily News-Miner Oct 1, 2022 1 hr ago Jack Olson The Monroe Catholic Lady Rams basketball team went defeated and took first place in the regional tournament in Valdez, propelling them to the state competition in Anchorage. The All Tournament team was Shannel Kovalsky, Sophia Stepovich and Miranda Wilkerson, with All Conference MVP awarded … Articles Images Videos Images Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Let us know what you’re seeing and hearing around the community. Read More Here

Biden Says ‘we Can Afford’ Student Debt Forgiveness After GOP Lawsuit https://digitalalaskanews.com/biden-says-we-can-afford-student-debt-forgiveness-after-gop-lawsuit/ Biden assures that student loan forgiveness will continue despite recent scale it back. AFP via Getty Images President Joe Biden touted his historic student loan forgiveness order despite significantly scaling it back just two days earlier — and bashed Republicans who opposed it. Biden called the cancellations a “game changer” before slamming members of the GOP during remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards. “We can afford to cancel $10,000 in student debt and 20,000 bucks if you had a Pell Grant for Americans making under $125 grand,” Biden said. “I don’t want to hear a word from those members of Congress, you notice, whose families got 10s of thousands of dollars and several-million dollars in pandemic relief loan forgiveness, same ones criticizing. Give me a break. Come on.” Biden also commented on Republicans for trying to block other legislation the administration is backing. AFP via Getty Images On Thursday, the White House announced it would not forgive debt from borrowers whose student loans are owned by private entities as it faces several lawsuits led by Republican attorneys across the country. House Republicans could sue over the order next year to cancel the forgiveness, should they win enough seats in Congress. Bident also took aim at Republicans for trying to block other legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the George Floyd Policing Act, but namely pointed to their effort to keep pricing caps off prescription drugs. “Republicans blocked it,” Biden said. “Imagine being the parent of a child with Type One Diabetes knowing that if you don’t get that drug, if they don’t get that insulin, if they don’t get it on time, their health can be permanently damaged or they could die… It’s wrong!” Student loan borrowers stage a rally in front of The White House to celebrate President Biden canceling student debt on Aug. 25, 2022. Getty Images for We the 45m In passing the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices for prescription drugs, such as insulin, which was capped at $35 for out-of-pocket costs. Biden also trumpeted his championing of the Child Tax Credit and increased funding for small, minority-owned small businesses. “We’re gonna do all this while reducing the deficit,” Biden said. “I’m so sick of Republicans saying we’re the big spenders, give me a break. Give me a break.” Read More Here

PM Pierre Promotes Youth Economy At UN General Assembly! – St. Lucia News From The Voice https://digitalalaskanews.com/pm-pierre-promotes-youth-economy-at-un-general-assembly-st-lucia-news-from-the-voice/ “Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther.” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Harris at Large by Edward Harris The just concluded United Nation General Assembly held in New York, was an opportunity for nations who are concerned about what is happening today as it relates to world peace, climate change, hunger, inflation, etc. to vent their views and highlight the plight and opportunities of friendly nations. It was an opportunity for developing nations such as Saint Lucia who was present at the meeting to bring to the attention of the Assembly, not only their own problems and recommendations for a better world but to highlight the plight of friendly nations such as Taiwan, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela. Apart from international relations and the respect for the rights of each nation under the UN Charter, PM Pierre took the opportunity to introduce his government’s much promoted initiative – The Youth Economy to the Assembly. This project can be a model for the world to follow as we have done with other institutions. Our Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is one such example. This has been a very busy week for news professionals with lots of competing breaking stories. I will attempt to do a round up. 1. Hurricane Ian touched down in Florida and wreaked havoc, leaving substantial damages in its wake. I guess the telephone lines linking the Caribbean to the USA were extremely busy as relatives and friends tried to establish contact with their loved ones to ensure that they were safe. 2. Russia is ready to annex parts of Ukraine and advance the war, hoping to bring the fighting to a conclusion. It is important to note that young Russian recruits are absconding in droves. This is definitely not a good sign for Russia, and it exposes the fact that the people of Russia are not in favour of the war their country is waging against Ukraine. It is time for the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to sit at the table and bring closure to this horrible war. 3. Great success was achieved this week in Space, while the majority of people in our world thought that the USA was asleep in Space and that nothing was happening on that front. The USA sprang a surprise as NASA DART Mission hits Asteroid in first ever Planetary Defence Test which was an unprecedented success. I am confident that America has lots of surprises in store. No wonder, many people feel it is the strongest military in the world. 4. This week, Italy got its first female Prime Minister, Ms. Giorgia Meloni from the right wing Brothers of Italy party. Many in the free world fear that this move can be the beginning of a return to the fascist era as was under Benito Mussolini who headed the National Fascist Party, from 1922 to 1943. 5. The 6th of January Committee was scheduled to hold its final public hearing this week before the 2022 midterm elections, and hopefully will get down to finalising a report for the Department of Justice in due course. However, the Public Hearing was postponed due to Hurricane Ian. Recent developments that were drawn to the public’s attention are all further nails in the coffin of former President Donald Trump. Be careful what you wish for others and if given the opportunity, will like to do to them. He wanted to LOCKUP Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and plans to impeach President Biden if he wins the 2024 Presidential Election. 6. It will be difficult to tell President Biden not to run in 2024, based on all the gains he has made in recent weeks. He did it on his own terms, staying the course and in the end causing Senators Manchin and Sinema to do the right thing. Former President Donald Trump has committed to the Presidential Race in 2024. Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Governor DeSantis are two likely early contestants in the Presidential Primary. DeSantis will have to win in November to become a serious contender. Only time will tell. This opportunity is taken to share with my readers a long held dream of mine which became a reality this week. I am now the Creator of a FREE Business Course titled “STOP PROCRASTINATING, BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS”. It will be free for a limited time. “Everyone may not be a practising Businessperson, but Everyone needs to know about Business.” Here is my gift to the world. Please check out the link at: eaharrisdestiny.mastermind.com/masterminds/40245 Have a blessed weekend. Stay safe! Edward Harris Freelance Journalist/Realtor/Business Consultant Facebook: www.facebook.com/eaharrisdestiny Email: eaharrisdestiny@gmail.com Join my Email Community Website: https://stluciagreatpropertydeals.com Read More Here

GOP Attacks Georgia’s Abrams On Voting As Judge Rejects Suit https://digitalalaskanews.com/gop-attacks-georgias-abrams-on-voting-as-judge-rejects-suit/ FILE – Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams poses for a portrait in front of the State Seal of Georgia on Aug. 8, 2022, in Decatur, Ga. Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, a group focused on fair elections, that filed a wide-ranging federal lawsuit alleging “gross mismanagement” of Georgia’s elections. That lawsuit sputtered out Friday, Sept. 30, with Fair Fight losing its last remaining arguments, more than a year after the judge had tossed most earlier claims. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File) ATLANTA (AP) — When Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost the Georgia governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp four years ago, she didn’t go quietly. She ended her campaign with a nonconcession that acknowledged she wouldn’t be governor, while spotlighting her claims that Kemp had used his post as secretary of state to improperly purge likely Democratic voters. Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, a group focused on fair elections, which within weeks filed a wide-ranging federal lawsuit alleging “gross mismanagement” of Georgia’s elections. That lawsuit sputtered out Friday with Fair Fight losing its last remaining arguments, more than a year after the judge had tossed most earlier claims. People are already voting by mail in a Georgia governor’s race that again pits Abrams and Kemp against each other, with fewer than 40 days remaining before voting ends on Nov. 8. And Republicans are now using the loss to attack what they see as the “big lie” that underlies Abrams’ career. They label her claims that Georgia’s election system has been discriminatory as a fraud she used to enrich herself and aggrandize her political career after her 2018 loss. “This is existential to who Stacey Abrams has become as a public and political figure,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican who defended the case, told The Associated Press on Saturday. “She put herself in the political spotlight nationally, potentially globally, all over the narrative that she lost the governor’s race because of voter suppression. And here you have a federal judge saying, it’s all untrue. It didn’t happen.” Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are among a faction of Georgia Republicans who say that Democratic President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump fair and square in 2020 for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes and that Kemp also beat Abrams fairly in 2018. They argue that Trump’s claims about voter fraud in 2020 and Abrams’ claims about voter suppression in 2018 both corrode faith in democracy. “Stolen election and voter suppression claims by Stacey Abrams were nothing but poll-tested rhetoric not supported by facts and evidence,” Raffensperger said Friday in a statement. Abrams, though, has said from the dawn of her current campaign that her actions in 2018 are not equivalent to what Trump did. “I will never ever say that it is OK to claim fraudulent outcomes as a way to give yourself power,” Abrams told news outlet The 19th last month. “That is wrong. I reject it and will never engage in it. But I do believe that it is imperative, especially those who have the platform and the microphone, to talk about the access.” She is far from backing down from her position, and says she won a number of victories that made elections fairer. In 2019, less than six months after the Fair Fight lawsuit was filed, legislators passed a law that addressed some of the issues. The law’s biggest change was to replace the state’s antiquated, paperless touchscreen voting machines with a new system that uses touchscreen machines to print paper ballots that are scanned. The plaintiffs also count as wins the reinstatement of 22,000 voters who were removed from the rolls in 2019, an end to people being excluded from voting rolls if their records didn’t exactly match their driver’s license, an audit that identified people wrongly excluded because of incorrect citizenship information, and improvements to a voter’s ability to cancel a mailed ballot and vote in person. “As the judge says in his first sentence, ‘This is a voting rights case that resulted in wins and losses for all parties,’” Abrams said in a Friday statement. “However, the battle for voter empowerment over voter suppression persists, and the cause of voter access endures. I will not stop fighting to ensure every vote can be cast, every ballot is counted and every voice is heard.” And despite the loss, the idea that Republicans are trying to restrict voting is a powerful current running through the most bitter disputes in Georgia politics — not only Abrams’ 2018 loss, but also a 2021 Republican election law that shortened the period to request an absentee ballot and limited ballot drop boxes, and harsh clashes over redrawing election districts this year that led one Democrat to accuse Republicans of seeking to preserve “white power.” Jermaine House, director of communications for political research firm HIT Strategies, said that “because there’s been so much energy and excitement and conversation” around voting rights in Georgia, it’s an issue that drives Democrats, especially African Americans, to the polls. His firm has done work for liberal voter mobilization group New Georgia Project, the NAACP and Democratic efforts to reelect Sen. Raphael Warnock. “If you look at polls across the country about voter suppression, you may find that voter suppression may not reach the top 10 issues among Black voters,” House said. “But one exception that is the case is definitely Georgia. Georgia voters are well aware of voter suppression efforts, very attuned to it, and Black voters are really mobilized by the issue.” Newsletter Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Read More Here

Supreme Court Poised To Keep Marching To Right In New Term https://digitalalaskanews.com/supreme-court-poised-to-keep-marching-to-right-in-new-term/ In this image provided by the Supreme Court, members of the Supreme Court pose for a photo during Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. From left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Fred Schilling/U.S. Supreme Court via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) — With public confidence diminished and justices sparring openly over the institution’s legitimacy, the Supreme Court on Monday will begin a new term that could push American law to the right on issues of race, voting and the environment. Following June’s momentous overturning of nearly 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights, the court is diving back in with an aggressive agenda that seems likely to split its six conservative justices from its three liberals. “It’s not going to be a sleepy term,” said Allison Orr Larsen, a William and Mary law professor. “Cases the court already has agreed to hear really have the potential to bring some pretty significant changes to the law.” Into this swirling mix steps new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black woman. Jackson took the seat of Justice Stephen Breyer, a member of the court’s liberal wing, who retired in June. She’s not expected to alter the liberal-conservative divide on the court, but for the first time the court has four women as justices and white men no longer hold a majority. The court, with three appointees of President Donald Trump, could discard decades of decisions that allow colleges to take account of race in admissions and again weaken the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. In a separate elections case, a Republican-led appeal could dramatically change the way elections for Congress and the presidency are conducted by handing more power to state legislatures and taking it away from state courts. Also on the agenda is a clash over the rights of a business owner with a religious objection to working with same-sex couples on their weddings. In the term’s first arguments Monday, the justices are being asked to limit the reach of the Clean Water Act, nation’s main law to combat water pollution. The case involves an Idaho couple who won an earlier high court round in their bid to build a house on property near a lake without getting a permit under that law. The outcome could change the rules for millions of acres of property that contain wetlands. A Supreme Court decision for the couple could strip environmental protections from 45 million acres and threaten water quality for millions of people, said Sam Sankar, senior vice president of the Earthjustice environmental group. “It’s going to help a lot of industries. It’s going to hurt real people,” Sankar said. But Damien Schiff, representing the couple, said a favorable court ruling could free ordinary property owners from worrying about large fines and years of delays. “You don’t have to be a large industrial company or large property owner to have a problem,” Schiff said. There’s little expectation that the outcomes in the highest-profile cases will be anything other than conservative victories, following last term’s outcomes. In their first full term together, the conservatives ruled not only on abortion, but expanded gun rights, enhanced religious rights, reined in the government’s ability to fight climate change and limited Biden administration efforts to combat COVID-19. Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, underscored the long odds facing defenders of affirmative action in college admissions. “It is most certainly an uphill climb. We’re in a scary place where we are relying on Justice Roberts,” Archer said. Her assessment stems from Chief Justice John Roberts’ long-standing support, both as a judge and a White House lawyer in the 1980s, for limits on considerations of race in education and voting. “It’s a sordid business, this divvying us up by race,” Roberts wrote in a 2006 redistricting case from Texas. Last term’s epic decisions might have produced bruised feelings among the justices anyway. But the leak of the abortion decision in early May, seven weeks before it was released, exacerbated tensions on the court, several justices have said. The court has apparently not identified the source of the leak, Breyer said in a recent interview on CNN. Justice Elena Kagan delivered a series of talks over the summer in which she said the public’s view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law. “It just doesn’t look like law when some new judges appointed by a new president come in and start just tossing out the old stuff,” Kagan said in an appearance last month at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito both took issue with Kagan, if obliquely. Roberts said it was wrong to equate disagreement with the court’s decisions with questions of legitimacy. In a comment Tuesday to The Wall Street Journal, Alito didn’t name Kagan. “But saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line,” he said, according to the newspaper. Separately, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, was interviewed on Thursday by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. She stood by the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, according to the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, texted with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election. In January, her husband was the only justice to vote to keep documents from the National Archives out of the committee’s hands. Polls have shown a dip in approval for the court and respect for it. The latest Gallup Poll, released last week, reflected Americans’ lowest level of trust in the court in 50 years and a record-tying low approval rating. In a talk to judges and lawyers in Colorado last month, Roberts reflected on the last year at the court, calling it an “an unusual one and difficult in many respects.” Following the leak, the court was ringed with an 8-foot security fence, and Roberts called it “gut-wrenching” to drive to work past the barricades. He also said it was “unnatural” to hear arguments without the public present, a concession to the coronavirus pandemic. Now the barricades are down and the public will be allowed inside the courtroom for arguments for the first time since March 2020. The court will keep one pandemic practice, broadcasting live audio of arguments. Roberts seemed eager to look ahead. “I think just moving forward from things that were unfortunate in the year is the best way to respond to it,” he said. Last term, the court moved “firmly in a rightward direction,” said Irv Gornstein, executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University’s law school. “There is no reason to think this coming term or any term in the foreseeable future will be any different.” ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court Newsletter Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Read More Here

Ukraine Celebrates Capturing Key Town, Putin Ally Mulls Possible Nuclear Response https://digitalalaskanews.com/ukraine-celebrates-capturing-key-town-putin-ally-mulls-possible-nuclear-response/ Military uniform lays next to an abandoned Russian infantry fighting vehicle BMD-4 in the village of Kurylivka, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine October 1, 2022. REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi Ukraine’s recapture of Lyman deals Moscow major setback Chechen leader suggests use of low-yield nuclear weapon Lyman is key logistics hub in eastern Donetsk region Donetsk is one of four regions Putin says are now Russian KYIV, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops said they had taken the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of low-grade nuclear weapons. The capture on Saturday came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukraine – including Donetsk, where Lyman is located – and placed the regions under Russia’s nuclear umbrella. Kyiv and the West condemned the ornate ceremony as an illegitimate farce. Ukrainian soldiers announced the capture in a video recorded outside the town council building in the centre of Lyman and posted on social media by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “Dear Ukrainians – today the armed forces of Ukraine … liberated and took control of the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk region,” one of the soldiers says. At the end of the video, a group of soldiers throw Russian flags down from the building’s roof and raise a Ukrainian flag in their place. Hours earlier, Russia’s defence ministry had announced it was pulling troops out of the area “in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement”. Russia had used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its capture is Ukraine’s biggest battlefield gain since the lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month. Seeking to capitalise on Ukraine’s recent gains, Zelenskiy promised more quick successes in the Donbas, which covers the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are largely under Russian control. “Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags in Donbas has increased. There will be even more a week’s time,” the president said in an evening video address. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cheered Lyman’s capture, saying it would create new problems for Russia’s military. “We’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing right now,” Austin told a news conference on Saturday. Austin noted that Lyman was positioned across supply lines that Russia has used to push its troops and materiel down to the south and to the west, as the Kremlin presses its more than seven-month-long invasion of Ukraine. “Without those routes, it will be more difficult. So it presents a sort of a dilemma for the Russians going forward.” Austin did not say whether he thought Ukraine’s capture of Lyman might prompt Russian escalation, although U.S. officials have widely denounced Russia’s nuclear rhetoric in recent days and President Joe Biden has publicly urged Putin not to use nuclear weapons. Ukraine’s successes have infuriated Putin allies such as Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s southern Chechnya region. “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram before Zelenskiy spoke. Other top officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov’s call was the most urgent and explicit. Putin said last week that he was not bluffing when he said he was prepared to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” with all available means, and on Friday made clear this extended to the new regions claimed by Moscow. Washington says it would respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons. Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern forces, said before the capture that Russia had 5,000 to 5,500 troops at Lyman but the number encircled could be lower. Reuters could not verify either side’s battlefield assertions. LOGISTICS HUB Ukraine says taking Lyman will allow it to advance into the Luhansk region, whose full capture Moscow announced in early July after weeks of grinding advances. “Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas,” Cherevatyi said. “It is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important.” The Donbas has been a major focus for Russia since soon it launched the invasion on Feb. 24 that Putin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its smaller neighbour. The areas Putin claimed as Russian – the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – form a swath of territory equal to about 18% of Ukraine’s total surface land area. Kyiv vowed to continue liberating its land of Russian forces. Retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges said a Russian defeat in Lyman represented a major political and military embarrassment for Putin. “This puts in bright lights that his claim is illegitimate and cannot be enforced,” he said. Germany said it will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine in coming days to help ward off drone attacks. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Felix Light, Mark Trevelyan and David Ljunggren; Writing by Tom Balmforth and Kim Coghill; Editing by Daniel Wallis and William Mallard Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

23 States Represented In ‘Far Thro’; First Time Axe Throwing Tournament In Fargo https://digitalalaskanews.com/23-states-represented-in-far-thro-first-time-axe-throwing-tournament-in-fargo/ FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – This weekend has been filled with the sounds of axes thudding into targets. This is all part of the first ever ‘Far Thro’, an axe throwing tournament in Fargo. A growing sport with competitors of all shapes and sizes. “The fact that anybody can just walk up and compete with anyone if they can just throw an axe 12 feet,” said Vail Cook, an axe thrower from Texas. “You can do it, anybody can walk out and do this.” Niki and Dustin Knight, who won the U.S. Axe in S. Fargo, brought their dream to fruition. By bringing in top-tier talent from across North America to Fargo. 23 states are represented at the events which includes Florida and Texas. Even a woman from Anchorage, AK came down to North Dakota for the tournament. “I definitely think it’s the community that made me go to my second tournament. The first one I was like yeah I’ll try it out. Then everybody was so nice and so welcoming.” said Marie-Sophie Boggasch, an axe thrower from Alaska. Some throwers at the event said there has been a lot of growth in the community and culture around the sport of axe throwing. Even 10-year-old Ella Campbell from Iowa travels to different states to compete in tournaments. “Meeting other people, seeing my favorite people and just sticking it into the board because that’s all that counts in axe throwing.” said Campbell. The finals will be aired on Valley News Live starting at 11 a.m. on Channel 11. Copyright 2022 KVLY. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Biden Will Visit Puerto Rico And Florida To Assess Damage From Storms. https://digitalalaskanews.com/biden-will-visit-puerto-rico-and-florida-to-assess-damage-from-storms/ U.S.|Biden will visit Puerto Rico and Florida to assess damage from storms. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/us/biden-florida-puerto-rico.html Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. President Biden at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington on Thursday. The agency’s administrator, Deanne Criswell, is at right.Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times Oct. 1, 2022 Follow the latest updates on Ian. WASHINGTON — President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to Puerto Rico on Monday to survey damage to the island from Hurricane Fiona and will go on Wednesday to Florida, where Hurricane Ian left parts of the state in ruins, the White House announced on Saturday night. White House officials did not provide details of the president’s visits to the sites of the two natural disasters. But Mr. Biden had said in the past several days that he expected to travel to both places to reassure residents that the federal government will help in their recoveries. “In addition to what we’re doing for Florida and South Carolina, we remain focused on recovery efforts in Puerto Rico as well,” Mr. Biden said Friday at the White House. “We’re going to stay with and stay at it as long it takes.” The president’s visit to Florida will be the first since he and Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, have spent months clashing over transgender rights, abortion, immigration and other issues that are at the center of congressional elections next month. Mr. DeSantis has said that the storm, which made landfall on the state’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4, will go down in history as one of the strongest to hit Florida because of the catastrophic flooding that wiped away whole towns and killed dozens. As the hurricane approached in the last week, however, Mr. Biden and Mr. DeSantis have stayed away from political attacks. Asked by a reporter in Washington about his relationship with Mr. DeSantis, the president called it irrelevant. “In fact, very fine. He complimented me,” Mr. Biden said. “He thanked me for the immediate response we had. He told me how much he appreciated it. He said he was extremely happy with what’s going on.” The president added: “This is not about anything having to do with our disagreements politically. This is about saving people’s lives, homes, and businesses.” Mr. DeSantis has changed his tone as well in recent days. In the past, he criticized federal hurricane assistance as a “boondoggle” and a “put it on the credit card mentality.” But last week, Mr. DeSantis urged the federal government to come to his state’s aid. “You know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything — if you can’t put politics aside for that, then you’re just not going to be able to,” the governor said. There is a long history of presidents from both parties visiting disaster areas, in part to demonstrate that they understand the magnitude of the crisis and that political affiliation will not determine how much help the state gets. Former President George W. Bush was criticized for flying over the devastation wrought in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and not, initially, touring the damage on the ground. But the reality is that it can be difficult for presidents to visit too soon after a disaster strikes. Their presence — along with the large number of vehicles, secret service officers, local police protection and other staff — can distract from the efforts to recover and rebuild. After a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters on Thursday, just after Hurricane Ian made landfall, Mr. Biden said he would travel as soon as possible to support the local first responders and federal officials who were already rescuing people from rooftops. “When the conditions allow it, I’m going to going to Florida to thank them personally so we don’t get in the way.” Mr. Biden said at the time. “I’ll do our best — we’re going to do our best to build Florida back as quickly as possible. But we’re not going to be leaving.” “We’re going to build it back with the state and local government,” he added. “However long it takes, we’re going to be there. That’s my commitment to you.” The hurricanes wrought devastation in both places. But the damage in Puerto Rico may prove especially difficult to recover from since the island had yet to fully recover from Hurricane Maria almost five years ago. Ten days after Hurricane Fiona struck on Sept. 16, more than 365,000 people on the island remained without power, raising questions about the inability of the federal and local efforts to rebuild the island’s fragile electric grid. Mr. Biden noted the island’s difficult history with hurricanes on Sept. 22, just days after the storm swept through the island. “To the people of Puerto Rico, who are still hurting from Hurricane Maria five years later, I know that we’re — they should know that this — we are with you,” he said. “We’re not going to walk away. We mean it.” Read More Here

Trump Appointed Florida Judge May Be Removed From Mar-A-Lago Case https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-appointed-florida-judge-may-be-removed-from-mar-a-lago-case/ By Ashe O Washington, Oct 2 (IANS): The chances of removing Florida Judge Aileen Cannon from the Trump classified documents case of Mar-a-Lago are now wide open considering her series of pro-Trump judgements have not gone down well with the Department of Justice which considers it as an interference on FBI investigations and their concerns for national security. Former federal prosecutor Robert Katzberg made the case that US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s continued interference in the work being done by special master Raymond Dearie in the matter of government documents allegedly stolen by Donald Trump could lead to the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals stepping in and taking the case from her, media reports here said. Earlier in the week, the Trump-appointed Cannon gave Donald Trump’s legal team an assist by ruling that they did not need to comply with an order from Dearie and reply in a filing whether they believe the FBI agents lied about documents recovered at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort almost two months ago. As Katzberg sees it, the Department of Justice could appeal, which they did late Friday, and that they may have a compelling case to ask for Cannon’s removal — although such moves rarely occur. Adding that the 11th Circuit has already stepped in to curb some of Cannon’s excesses, Katzberg claimed it might be open to stepping in in a more forceful way. “The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals has already filed a stinging opinion that contains ample criticism of Cannon to quote in support,” he wrote. “Appeals courts are hesitant to remove judges from a case, but here, there is a clear record of questionable decisions that have stymied an extremely significant criminal investigation and, per the DOJ, undermined national security. Under these unusual circumstances, reassignment might well be an appropriate solution,” he said. Read More Here

'Saturday Night Live' Gets A Manningcast For Its Season Premiere Episode https://digitalalaskanews.com/saturday-night-live-gets-a-manningcast-for-its-season-premiere-episode/ CNN — “Saturday Night Live” kicked off its 48th season on Saturday night with host Miles Teller as former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and Andrew Dismukes as his brother, Eli. In the sketch, the two were doing an analysis of the season premiere of the NBC variety show. “Ok, we got an establishing shot of Mar-a-Lago,” Dismukes’ Eli said. “Oh good! Trump sketch,” Teller’s Peyton said. “Way to mix it up.” This led to the two watching a Trump sketch starring James Austin Johnson as the former president. Peyton (Teller) and Eli (Dismukes) were not happy with the sketch. “Okay, time out,” Dismukes’ Eli said, pausing the sketch. “What the hell was that?” Teller’s Peyton asked why there were no fun impersonations of Anthony Fauci or Rudy Giuliani. “Those were all Kate McKinnon,” Dismukes’ Eli informed Teller’s Peyton. McKinnon left the show last season. Bowen Yang then entered the sketch and flubbed a line, which the two former faux quarterbacks called out. “He was supposed to take a step up this year,” Dismukes’ Eli said. “But you can tell the pressure is getting to him.” Teller’s Peyton said that the show is in a “rebuilding year for sure.” The two then went over the show’s stats so far, which were “14 attempted jokes, 1 mild laugh and 3 chuckles.” “Thank God they have Kendrick Lamar because that’s the only reason anyone is tuning in,” Teller’s Peyton said — the joke being that Teller is also the host. The two then brought out former host Jon Hamm as a guest and asked him what he’s seen so far tonight. “I don’t know, but it’s not comedy,” Hamm said. Hamm, Teller’s co-star in “Top Gun: Maverick,” then remarked that the show can’t even get famous hosts anymore. “Well, I heard they rarely put the host in the cold open, so when they do… it’s special,” Teller’s Peyton said. The whole cast then said the show’s signature catch phrase, “Live… from New York. It’s Saturday Night!” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

‘SNL’ Cold Open Successfully Goes Full Meta With Some Donald Trump, Jon Hamm, Shaun White & Self-Deprecation Galore In Season 48 Premiere https://digitalalaskanews.com/snl-cold-open-successfully-goes-full-meta-with-some-donald-trump-jon-hamm-shaun-white-self-deprecation-galore-in-season-48-premiere/ With a smorgasbord of greatest hits past and perhaps present, Saturday Night Live went successfully mega-meta tonight in the sometime bubbling over cold open of its Season 48 debut. “I got to point out, where’s the balance politically?” asked host Miles Teller in his best Payton Manning impersonation. “They’re making Trump Columbus jokes, meanwhile Joe Biden’s lost his damn marbles,” the Top Gun: Maverick actor added to the Andrew Dismukes portrayed Eli Manning on the split screen as  James Austin Johnson reprised his POTUS 45 role from last year “They’re not even going to mention that.” Using the NFL siblings and Payton’s ESPN perch as the podium, the cold open leaned into the easy but effective Trump, a lament of the exit of Kate McKinnon and embraced cast old and new with tropes galore. “The show’s in a rebuilding year for sure,” quipped Teller’s Payton Manning, effectively saying the quiet thing out loud as one new cast member after another showed up for a nanosecond. The very cable news and sports stats graphic of “14 Attempted Jokes, 1 Mild Laugh, 3 Chuckles”  might have been the best therapy and gag SNL has pulled off in a cold open since …well the last time Kate McKinnon showed up. “Thank God they got Kendrick Lamar, because that’s the only reason anyone is tuning in,” Teller tossed out to a huge studio audience laugh in NBC’s Rockefeller Plaza. With its own up and downs, tonight’s cold open fortunately took the opportunity to break the show’s habit over  past several seasons to use the cold open for a general approach in order to spotlight individual talents – and not just because three-time SNL host Jon Hamm showed up halfway through. “I don’t know, but it’s not comedy,” the Mad Men and 30 Rock vet responded when asked for his hot take on the cold open. “They haven’t even used Kenan yet. That’s like putting a whole team of Elis on the field and you’ve got Payton sitting on the sidelines.” Oh yeah and Olympian Shaun White showed up in self-described “gratuitous stunt casting” as the court appointed special master overseeing part of the fallout from the FBI raid of Trump’s Florida palace earlier this summer. “Sometimes they need to bring in a real celebrity when the host isn’t that famous,” Hamm burned Maverick co-star Teller. Yep, meta on meta, with more meta. And it really worked. Now, certainly, over the past few months SNL had a lot of news to pluck from with the primetime January 6th committee hearings, the very heated travails of  the new Cold War of the increasingly isolated Russia’s invasion of NATO-backed Ukraine and the pivotal upcoming U.S. midterm elections. In the last week alone, the first few days of King Charles III’s reign, the revelations of Elon Musk’s texts to deep pocketed and dim witted bros, the plunging stock market and rising gas prices, and Joe Biden’s callout to a deceased Congresswoman all had potential for a hot cold open. Of course, with the horrors of Hurricane Ian the past five days, there is always Trump, and the ceaseless dumpster fire the former SNL host presents amidst GOP rivalries, DOJ and FBI Mar-a-Lago raids and probes and more insider book full of queasy revelations and anecdotes. So Lorne, give a raise to who ever had the notion to throw it all into the blender for the start of Season 48 Fronted tonight by first time host Teller, with Emmy, Grammy, and Pulitzer Prize winner Lamar as musical guest, the latest SNL season comes with a lot of changes from last year. Long time cast members and cold open regulars McKinnon and Pete Davidson have left the show. Also heading through the out door at Studio 8H are Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, Aristotle Athari, Alex Moffat, Chris Redd and Melissa Villaseñor. With Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, and Cecily Strong among the cast still on board,  Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker were officially unveiled as SNL featured players last month. Over the decades, SNL has seen a revolving door of once-in-a-generation talent like Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, and Tina Fey break-out, dominate and then leave the show. Exits that have often forced the show to spend a year or two regrouping, discovering a new groove and a new focal point. In that context, as tonight’s cold open made very apparent, the loss of MVP McKinnon will surely be a struggle to overcome this season, if not into next year too. But tonight, to lean into the NFL motif from the network home of SNL and SNF, touchdown! Read More Here

At Least 129 Killed In Stampede After Soccer Game In Indonesia, Police Say https://digitalalaskanews.com/at-least-129-killed-in-stampede-after-soccer-game-in-indonesia-police-say/ MEDAN, Indonesia — At least 129 people were killed and about 180 others were injured in a stampede following a Saturday evening soccer game in Indonesia, police said. They suffered breathing problems and suffocated as they tried to exit the stadium, he said. At least two police officers were among the dead, East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta told reporters. Thirty-four people died at the scene, Afinta said, and the rest died at hospitals. “Mass commotion” followed the match, the soccer league, Liga 1, said in a statement, calling the episode a “heartbreaking incident.” The tramplings occurred after the home team, Arema FC, lost to Persebaya Surabaya at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, at which point dozens of fans stormed the field, according to videos on social media and reports by local media. Videos showed fans charging toward the center of the field before they scattered, beat back by uniformed officers carrying batons and riot shields, as loud bangs and clouds of smoke erupted in the arena. People jumped over barriers and leaped onto railings as they fled, with the officers beating and kicking those on the field, as spectators looked on from the still-crowded stands. Although the stampede was among the deadliest mass-casualty events at a soccer game in the country’s history, violence at matches is common in Indonesia. Stadiums often only allow fans of the home team to attend to prevent fights. “Sampai mati,” or “until death,” is a common refrain among many dedicated Indonesian soccer fans. Violence associated with soccer spectating is so intense in Indonesia that teams often travel to games in armored vehicles to avoid being pelted with rocks and other projectiles. Zainudin Amali, Indonesia’s sports minister, said he was heading to Malang after the incident. He called for a full investigation and said he hoped this “disaster” would be the last of its kind. The Indonesian president’s office and the chairman of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI), Yunus Nusi, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Matches were suspended for a week, the league said. “Hopefully this will be a valuable lesson for all of us,” said the head of the league, Akhmad Hadian Lukita. Pietsch reported from Denver. Read More Here

Trump, Michigan Republicans Put Faith In https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-michigan-republicans-put-faith-in/ Warren — Former President Donald Trump encouraged Michigan voters to support his slate of Republican candidates during a rally in Macomb County on Saturday, saying they could “save the day” in the battleground state. Speaking inside the Macomb County Community College Sports and Expo Center in Warren, Trump was briefly joined on stage by Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon, attorney general hopeful Matt DePerno and Kristina Karamo, the GOP’s nominee for secretary of state. “These people hate our guts because they are terrified of this political movement,” Karamo said as Trump stood nearby. “There is nothing they can do to stop this MAGA movement,” Karamo added. Trump said his political movement was standing up to “menacing forces.” He spoke in front of a crowd of a few thousand people for about an hour and 40 minutes. He criticized Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling her a “radical abortionist,” he targeted a handful of investigations into his actions and he even labeled some fellow Republicans as weak. “Too many Republicans are weak and they’re afraid,” Trump said at one point. “And they better get strong fast, or you’re not going to have a Republican Party.” Trump discussed rising prices, energy costs and crime rates. He drew loud applause from the audience when he mentioned his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton and his false claim that he won the 2020 election. “Now, we might just have to do it again,” the former president said, referencing the possibility he could run for the White House again in 2024. Talking to reporters, Dixon said her campaign was “within striking distance” of Whitmer. The event took place 38 days before a pivotal election, in which the GOP is hoping to unseat three Democrats who control the executive branch of state government. Dixon, a political commentator and businesswoman from Norton Shores, spoke for about 25 minutes before Trump took the stage at 7:15 p.m. Dixon used her speech to criticize Whitmer for running what she described as a “basement campaign” and vowed to make Michigan’s schools the best in the nation. “After all of the spending, we’re still within striking distance,” Dixon told reporters afterward. “I think it means that our message is resonating and she doesn’t really have a message.” More:Whitmer, Dixon present voters with diverging visions for Michigan’s schools Karamo said she was planning to use the event with Trump to energize supporters to go out and knock doors and talk to voters in her bid to unseat Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “It galvanizes the troops,” said Karamo, an educator from Oak Park. “It gets people involved. It helps spread the message.” Karamo, Dixon and DePerno, the Republican candidate facing Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel in the Nov. 8 general election, have all been endorsed by Trump and spoke at Saturday’s rally. The Democratic candidates have maintained leads in public polling. Whitmer was up by 13 percentage points, according to an Aug. 29 through Sept. 1 survey by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Dixon’s running mate, former state Rep. Shane Hernandez, participated in a tailgate in a parking lot outside the rally Saturday afternoon. Hernandez, R-Port Huron, said Trump’s appearance would bring excitement to the Michigan campaigns and get the grassroots of the party involved. “The message is what people are talking about at their kitchen table: education, public safety, the economy,” Hernandez said. Ads promoting Dixon would ramp up soon, Hernandez predicted. So far, Democrats have spent millions of dollars on TV commercials promoting Whitmer and criticizing Dixon’s opposition to abortion in almost all cases, but Dixon’s side has been relatively quiet. Trump won Michigan by less than 1 percentage point over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 but lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 3 points in 2020. Trump has repeatedly made unproven claims that fraud cost him the 2020 race in Michigan. However, bipartisan boards of canvassers, a series of court rulings and investigation by the GOP-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee have upheld the result. On Saturday night, Trump urged Dixon to be “careful.” He claimed the U.S. was headed toward becoming a third-world country. “If you look at the way they counted the ballots, remember the ballot counter is far more important today in our country than the candidate,” Trump said. In a statement Saturday, the Michigan Democratic Party accused Dixon, whom Trump has endorsed, of having “a long history of pushing baseless lies about the integrity of the 2020 election.” “For years, Dixon has stoked public distrust in the democratic process and spread lies about Michigan’s elections with absolutely no proof to back up her claims,” the party’s statement said. Ammar Moussa of the Democratic National Committee said the event was “a reminder of how beholden today’s Republican Party is to Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) agenda.” “Every single Republican on stage with Trump has endorsed his Big Lie that incited an attack on our Capitol in an attempt to defy the will of nearly 3 million Michiganders,” Moussa said, referencing deniers of the 2020 election outcome. But Jack Lodato of Eastpointe said he came to Saturday’s rally to support Trump, whom he described as “my president.” He was wearing a shirt that suggested Trump would run again, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate, in 2024. “I believe he’s going to run. And I think he’s going to win,” Lodato said. Also, waiting to enter the venue Saturday was Sharon Anderson, a retiree who traveled from Tennessee. Anderson said it was her 29th Trump rally and she camped outside three nights in anticipation of the event. Anderson said she came to support “the best president in the history of this country.” There were other Trump allies from out of state, including My Pillow founder Mike Lindell and Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, in Macomb County on Saturday. “I am traveling to as many of these rallies and to as many states as I can to support Republicans because I cannot believe what has happened to our country in less than two years,” Taylor Greene told reporters. DePerno predicted the Trump’s rally would have a “significant impact” on the Michigan races. Trump coming to the state would provide “at least a 4-point swing in terms of public perception or polling,” DePerno said. “It will energize the base to get out there over the next 39 days or so and work very hard, knocking on doors, making phone calls, passing out literature and connecting with the voters,” DePerno said. Trump last visited Michigan on April 2 for a rally in Washington Township. cmauger@detroitnews.com Read More Here

Tesla Robot Slowly Walks On Stage At AI Day | CNN Business https://digitalalaskanews.com/tesla-robot-slowly-walks-on-stage-at-ai-day-cnn-business/ Washington, DC CNN  —  Tesla revealed on Friday a prototype of a humanoid robot that it says could be a future product for the automaker. The robot, dubbed Optimus by Tesla, walked stiffly on stage at Tesla’s AI Day, slowly waved at the crowed and gestured with its hands for roughly one minute. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the robot was operating without a tether for the first time. Robotics developers often use tethers to support robots because they aren’t capable enough to walk without falling and damaging themselves. The Optimus’ abilities appear to significantly trail what robots from competitors like Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics are capable of. Boston Dynamics robots have been seen doing back flips and performing sophisticated dance routines without a tether. “The robot can actually do a lot more than we just showed you,” Musk said at the event. “We just didn’t want it to fall on its face.” Tesla also showed videos of its robot performing simple tasks like carrying boxes and watering plants with a watering can. Musk claimed that if the robot was produced in mass volumes it would “probably” cost less than $20,000. Tesla maintains that Optimus’ advantage over competitors will be its ability to navigate independently using technology developed from Tesla’s driver-assistance system “Full Self Driving,” as well as cost savings from what it has learned about manufacturing from its automotive division. (Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” requires a human that is alert and attentive, ready to take over at any time, as it is not yet capable of fully driving itself.) Tesla has a history of aggressive price targets that it doesn’t ultimately reach. The Tesla Model 3 was long promised as a $35,000 vehicle, but could only very briefly be purchased for that price, and not directly on its website. The most affordable Tesla Model 3 now costs $46,990. When Tesla revealed the Cybertruck in 2019, its pick-up truck that remains unavailable for purchase today, it was said to cost $39,990, but the price has since been removed from Tesla’s website. Tesla AI Day is intended largely as a recruiting event to attract talented people to join the company. Musk claimed the robot could be transformative for civilization. The robot displayed Friday, despite its limitations compared to competitors, was significantly ahead of what Tesla revealed a year ago, when a person jumped on stage in a robot suit and danced around. “‘Last year was just a person in a robot suit,” Musk said before the robot walked on stage. “We’ve come a long way. Compared to that, it’s going to be very impressive.” Tesla is not the first automaker to develop a humanoid robot. Along with Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics, Honda worked on robots dubbed “Asimo” for nearly 20 years. In its final form, Asimo was a child-size humanoid robot capable of untethered walking, running, climbing and descending stairs, and manipulating objects with its fingers. Read More Here

Trump Defends 'great Woman' Ginni Thomas After Jan. 6 Testimony – Local News 8 https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-defends-great-woman-ginni-thomas-after-jan-6-testimony-local-news-8/ By Gabby Orr Former President Donald Trump praised the “courage and strength” of Ginni Thomas at a rally Saturday, days after the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas met with congressional investigators about her efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In a four-and-a-half hour meeting with investigators on Thursday, Thomas discussed her marriage to the conservative justice, claiming in an opening statement obtained by CNN that she “did not speak with him at all about the details of my volunteer campaign activities.” Thomas, who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021 landed on the radar of the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol after text message exchanges she had with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about election fraud claims surfaced during the ongoing congressional probe. Thomas had “significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election. And, as she told the Committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated,” her attorney Mark Paoletta said after her closed-door testimony. During a campaign appearance in Michigan, Trump claimed that Thomas told the House panel “she still believes the 2020 election was stolen,” commending her because “she didn’t wilt under pressure.” “Do you know Ginni Thomas?” the former President polled the crowd. “She didn’t say, ‘Oh, well I’d like not to get involved. Of course, it was a wonderful election.’ It was a rigged and stolen election. She didn’t wait and sit around and say, ‘Well let me give you maybe a different answer than [what] I’ve been saying for the last two years.’” “No, no,” Trump continued, “She didn’t wilt under pressure like so many others that are weak people and stupid people… She said what she thought, she said what she believed in.” Thomas, who has previously criticized the House probe into January 6, has long been a prominent fixture in conservative activism — even becoming a persistent annoyance to some Trump White House officials as she tried to install friends and allies into senior administration roles throughout his presidency. She and her husband attended a private lunch with Trump and his wife Melania at the White House shortly after the 2018 midterms, though CNN has previously reported that her direct interactions with the former President were fairly limited beyond that meeting. But on Saturday, Trump praised Thomas as “a great woman,” comparing her to countless former aides and allies who have admitted in their own depositions with the House panel that they themselves didn’t believe Trump’s claims about voter fraud following the 2020 election. Thomas said she “never spoke” with her husband about “any of the legal challenges to the 2020 election,” addressing ethical questions that were raised in the wake a Supreme Court ruling last year on a January 6-related case. Thomas and Meadows texted repeatedly about overturning the election results. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, said that Thomas did confirm during her testimony that she still believes the election was stolen, adding that “at this point we are glad she came in.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

National Archives Says It Hasn't Received Some Trump Administration Records – Vigour Times https://digitalalaskanews.com/national-archives-says-it-hasnt-received-some-trump-administration-records-vigour-times/ The National Archives and Records Administration says that it is missing records from the Trump administration that it says were supposed to be turned over at the end of his term. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter to the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Wall explained that the National Archives does not have some messages sent and received by members of the Trump administration that were sent on unofficial accounts while doing business for the president. “NARA has been able to obtain such records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of Presidential records from former officials,” the letter said. “As appropriate, NARA would consult with the Department of Justice on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,’ as established under the Federal Records Act.” DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SEEKS EXPEDITED APPEAL OF SPECIAL MASTER APPOINTMENT FROM 11TH CIRCUIT Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates on Sept. 3, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) The letter declined to answer whether Trump surrendered all of his presidential records and instead directed that question to the Justice Department. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said the Constitution and Presidential Records Act are on the former president’s side. “The National Archives didn’t seem to have a problem when previous presidents stored records at abandoned unsecured furniture warehouses across the street from a McDonald’s,” Harrington said, “but they do seem to have a problem with the Constitution which they put a ‘harmful content’ warning label on, and the Presidential Records Act, both of which are on President Trump’s side.” JUDGE OVERRULES SPECIAL MASTER ORDER FOR TRUMP TO GIVE ‘FINAL’ OBJECTIONS ON FBI SEARCH INVENTORY Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 9, 2022. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images) “Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, said in a statement Saturday. “I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that all presidential records from the Trump White House are returned to the custody of the government and to make sure these abuses never happen again,” Maloney added. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and redacted by in part by the FBI (Department of Justice via AP) Trump is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the Department of Justice over documents that resulted in the FBI raiding his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida in August. Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected] Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours. Read More Here

I https://digitalalaskanews.com/i-6/ South African comic Trevor Noah said he’s leaving America’s “The Daily Show” as host, after seven years of a Trump and pandemic-filled tenure on the weeknight Comedy Central show. Noah surprised the studio audience during Thursday’s taping, dropping the news after discussing his “feeling of gratitude” that it was the seventh anniversary of when he took over for Jon Stewart. “I realized, after the seven years, my time is up,” Noah said. Neither Noah nor Comedy Central offered a timetable for his departure. The network said it was “grateful to Trevor for our amazing partnership” and indicated that it was excited “for the next chapter” of “The Daily Show.” Television late-night comedy’s ranks have been shrinking, with Conan O’Brien pulling the plug on his show last year and Samantha Bee ending hers this year. Noah was a bold choice to replace the popular Jon Stewart in 2015. But he slowly made the show his own and built a dedicated audience. “So many people didn’t believe in us,” he said. “It was a crazy bet to make. I still think it was a crazy choice — this random African.” He said hosting the show has been one of his greatest challenges and joys. “I wanted to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years,” he said. “It’s been wild. It’s been truly wild.” Like most of his fellow comedians, he dealt with the firehose of material during Donald Trump’s presidency and, when the pandemic started, found himself suddenly thrust into the challenge of producing a program without an audience. He said he realised there was more that he wanted to do recently when he was able to travel again. “I miss learning other languages,” he said. “I miss going to other countries and putting on a show.” Read More Here

Archives: Trump's Records Are Not All Delivered https://digitalalaskanews.com/archives-trumps-records-are-not-all-delivered/ Archives: Trump’s Records are not all delivered Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP) The National Archives and Records Administration informed lawmakers that a number of electronic communications from Trump White House staffers remain missing, nearly two years since the administration was required to turn them over. The nation’s record-keeping agency, in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said that despite an ongoing effort by staff, electronic communications between certain unidentified White House officials were still not in their custody. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Debra Steidel Wall, the acting U.S. archivist, wrote in a letter to Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. FILE – Incumbent candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) The letter went on to specify that the National Archives would consult with the Justice Department about how to move forward and recover “the records unlawfully removed.” It has been widely reported that officials in President Donald Trump’s White House used non-official electronic messaging accounts throughout his four years in office. The Presidential Records Act, which says that such records are government property and must be preserved, requires staff to copy or forward those messages into their official electronic messaging accounts. The agency says that while it has been able to obtain these records from some former officials, a number remain outstanding. The Justice Department has already pursued records from one former Trump official, Peter Navarro, who prosecutors accused of using at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails while he worked as the president’s trade adviser. The legal action in August came just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The House committee has jurisdiction over the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that requires the preservation of White House documents as property of the U.S. government. The request is the latest development in a monthslong back-and-forth between the agency and the committee, which has been investigating Trump’s handling of records. The letter on Friday also comes nearly two months after the FBI recovered more than 100 documents with classified markings and more than 10,000 other government documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Lawyers for Trump had provided a sworn certification that all government records had been returned. Maloney and other Democratic lawmakers on the panel have been seeking a briefing from the National Archives, but haven’t received one due to the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the matter. Read more U.S. news Read More Here

Latvian PM's New Unity Party Ahead In Vote, Exit Poll Shows https://digitalalaskanews.com/latvian-pms-new-unity-party-ahead-in-vote-exit-poll-shows/ RIGA, Oct 1 (Reuters) – The centre-right New Unity party of Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins was set to win Saturday’s national election, an exit poll showed, after a campaign dominated by security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If confirmed, the result should mean Latvia remains a leading voice alongside its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia in pushing the European Union for a decisive stance against Russia. But it could widen a rift between the country’s Latvian majority and its Russian-speaking minority over their place in society, amid widespread national anger over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The first Latvian head of government to serve through a full four-year term, Karins, a 57-year-old dual U.S. and Latvian citizen, has benefited from his Moscow policy, which included restricting the entry of Russian citizens travelling from Russia and Belarus. “We have known Russia’s politics for years, we had been trying to warn our neighbours for years before the war started,” Karins told reporters after exit polls were published. Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins reacts at “New Unity” party headquarters while addressing fellow party members during national elections in Riga, Latvia October 1, 2022. REUTERS/Janis Laizans “We will continue to invest in our own defence … to ensure that Latvia and the Baltic region remains as secure in the future as it is today.” An LETA/LSM exit poll showed New Unity at 22.5%, twice the number of votes as nearest competitor, the United List of smaller parties. The Greens and Farmers Union, a coalition of conservative groups closely knit around Aivars Lembergs, the long-term mayor of Ventspils who was put on a U.S. sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2019, was in third place with 10.9%. Exit polls showed falling support for parties popular with Latvia’s Russian-speaking minority, which makes up about a quarter of the country’s population of 1.9 million. The left-leaning Harmony party saw its support decline to single digits, with observers saying this was driven in part by ethnic Latvian voters turning away. Some Russian speakers were also disappointed by the party leadership criticizing the Kremlin over Ukraine. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans; Editing by Justyna Pawlak and David Holmes Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Donald Trump Likely To Announce 2024 Presidential Run In Weeks https://digitalalaskanews.com/donald-trump-likely-to-announce-2024-presidential-run-in-weeks/ Former President Donald Trump “wants his old job back” and will announce within weeks his run for the presidency in 2024. Trump is eager to get back to the White House, and wants to announce his 2024 run in the coming weeks. Stating this, Kellyanne Conway, his 2016 campaign manager and close ally, said she had advised him to wait until after the midterms in November, according to Business Insider. . Speaking on Friday with CBS News, Conway was asked whether Trump would announce his candidacy after the midterm elections and before Thanksgiving. “Well, he would like to,” said Conway, as per CBS News. “He’s as active as anybody in these midterm elections. That’s important to the calculus also, Catherine, because we have the most ironic, if not unprecedented situation right now,” Conway continued. “We have a president, a current president, whose party doesn’t really want him to campaign with them.” Trump will assess the timing of his announcement after the midterms, which take place on November 8, Conway said. “I will tell you why he wants to run for president,” she said. “Donald Trump wants his old job back.” Also Read | Donald Trump wins ruling in rape accuser Carroll’s defamation lawsuit In July, Conway described Trump as “champing at the bit” to announce his third presidential bid. Speaking to CBS News, she said she advised him to wait until right after the midterms. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also said he lobbied the former president not to announce a 2024 presidential run before the midterms. “My point to him has always (been), ‘Let’s go win ’22,'” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol in July. That same month, a top Republican strategist told Insider that a pre-midterm announcement from Trump would be a “train wreck for the party” and “a complete mess.” Meanwhile, how Democrats, who aren’t named Joe Biden, are running for president – without running for president. Joe Biden plans to seek reelection in 2024, even though voters are souring on him. Democrats aren’t expected to primary Biden, but questions linger about a backup plan. Would-be candidates have been seeking the national spotlight. President Joe Biden has been clear that he plans to run for a second term in 2024. His political team is even getting ready for a spring reelection announcement, according to the Washington Post. But that hasn’t stopped the “will he really?” chatter, particularly after a New York Times poll found that 61 per cent of Democrats said they hoped someone other than Biden would be their nominee in 2024, largely because of his age and job performance. Democratic insiders are questioning whether Biden, 79, can mount a vigorous campaign in 2024 – especially if former President Donald Trump decides to run again. Despite the doubts, Biden is not expected to face a primary challenge given that it would alienate other people in the party as well as the donor class, said Mark Jones, Rice University (Houston, Texas) political science professor and Baker Institute fellow, the Insider said. “The norm is that you do not challenge a sitting president from your party,” Jones said. “That’s a major political faux pas. It either isn’t done, or if it is done it’s done more for political ambition – not to actually win, but to put the spotlight on yourself for other reasons.” A key factor helping Biden’s staying in power is Trump. The New York Times poll found that Biden would be favoured to win in another contest against Trump. “The belief is that if Biden beat Trump before, he can beat him again,” Jones said. If a Democrat were to try to primary Biden – and weaken him in the process – then that person would be blamed if a Republican, even Trump, were to win in 2024. But none of these factors rule out politicians’ making under-the-radar moves. If Biden somehow reverses his plans, that’ll mean the party will need to find a backup. Some ways that candidates begin to test the field through “invisible primaries” are by campaigning for other Democrats to build loyalty, particularly in swing districts. They also may appear at events in potential early voting states and offer noncommittal responses about whether they’ll support Biden in 2024, said Shawn Donahue, a University at Buffalo (New York) assistant professor of political science. Other ways are through grabbing headlines through weighing in on national debates, holding leadership roles in the party, and raising huge sums particularly from out-of-staters. In the case of governors interested in the White House, they’ll need to crush the opposition if they’re up for reelection this year, in November, the Insider said. “There will be a host of people who want to be waiting in the wings so the moment Biden says he’s not running they can sort of jump in,” Jones said. Even if Biden doesn’t change his mind, 2028 isn’t much further off. There are 15 politicians who are taking actions or gaining interest that might position them for a 2024 White House run if Biden changes his mind. And this includes the three top contenders, VP Kamala Harris, Florida Governor Gavin Newsom and senator Elizabeth. Read More Here

Thousands Regain Power In Virginia As Ian’s Remnants Sweep Through Region https://digitalalaskanews.com/thousands-regain-power-in-virginia-as-ians-remnants-sweep-through-region/ The remnants of Hurricane Ian dumped heavy rains onto parts of the Washington region Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of people without power in Virginia. Crews set out Saturday morning to assess damage, which included broken poles and power lines, and many homes in the southeastern part of the state had their power restored by the afternoon. Dominion Energy, which serves more than 2.5 million in Virginia, expects “nearly all” of its customers will have power by Sunday evening, said Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton, though some customers in Hampton and Virginia Beach may not get theirs back until Monday. Coastal flood warnings were in effect Saturday for counties along the Virginia coast, with lesser advisories in effect in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and stretching up closer to Washington. In Alexandria, businesses along the flood-prone waterfront area braced for the potential impacts of heavy rains. The staff at Mia’s Italian Kitchen, where similar conditions last October caused flooding, piled sandbags out front. But Kevin Songster, the restaurant’s managing partner, said the ultimately “misty” weather Saturday afternoon caused no problems. “The water was probably six inches deep on the street across from us, but it didn’t make it over,” Songster said. Southeastern Virginia was hit hardest, and, at one, point, about 30,000 Dominion customers there were without power. That number fell to about 9,900 as evening fell Saturday. Dominion reported nearly 12,000 of its customers were without power Saturday afternoon, down from more than 35,000 people Saturday morning. Roughly 400 customers in the Richmond area and 57 customers in Northern Virginia were also without power — down from about a thousand across both regions early Saturday. “Our crews are working as safely and quickly as possible to ensure that all of our customers have their power restored,” Slayton said. Meanwhile, Appalachian Power reported that roughly 17,000 of its Virginia customers also had power outages as of late Saturday afternoon, and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported more than 200 customers without power, according to outage maps. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm starting Friday, urging residents “to make a plan, have supplies on hand, and follow official sources for the latest forecast information and guidance.” This story has been updated with new information on storm impacts. Read More Here

National Archives Tells House Oversight Committee It Is Still Missing Records From Trump Officials – Mountain Top Media https://digitalalaskanews.com/national-archives-tells-house-oversight-committee-it-is-still-missing-records-from-trump-officials-mountain-top-media/ National Archives tells House Oversight Committee it is still missing records from Trump officials mountain top media Article Updated: October 1, 2022 Leave a comment The National Archives and Records Administration penned a letter to the House Oversight Committee on Friday revealing that it has not received certain records from the administration of former President Donald Trump. Post navigation Previous post Seven American detainees released from Venezuela Next post Biden marks five years since 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting Posted in: Global News More Articles By the same author What are coaches and players willing to sacrifice for a college football season? mountain top media Aug 5, 2020 Coaches at Penn State and Wake Forest are self-isolating from at-risk family members because of the… English Channel migrant death toll revised to 27; Macron demands action mountain top media Nov 25, 2021 The migrant death toll from a capsizing in the English Channel was revised downward to 27 Thursday as… Coronavirus devastated Moscow. Now it’s spreading across Russia mountain top media May 17, 2020 The Russian capital has been hardest hit. Of Russia’s total of 281,752 confirmed cases, over half –… Kriegel: Boxing is back! Now, please change mountain top media Jun 8, 2020 After months on the sideline, boxers return to the ring on Tuesday. But Mark Kriegel explains why the… A conversation about race and diversity in esports and gaming mountain top media Oct 20, 2020 ESPN reached out to Ezra “Samsora” Morris, Erin Ashley Simon, Amanda Stevens and Malik Forte to find… City of Buffalo, N.Y., holds moment of silence for mass shooting victims mountain top media May 21, 2022 The City of Buffalo, N.Y., held a 123-second moment of silence Saturday to mark one week since the mass… Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned mountain top media Dec 21, 2020 A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August… U.S. VP Kamala Harris vows to back Southeast Asia allies against China ‘coercion’ mountain top media Aug 24, 2021 Vice President Kamala Harris in Singapore on Tuesday reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to its… House subcommittee questions election security, voting rights mountain top media Jan 20, 2022 With the 2022 midterm elections 10 months away, members of a House homeland security subcommittee on… Read More Here

H https://digitalalaskanews.com/h-7/ Be sure to like HockeyBuzz on facebook! For the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter *******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.******* The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Pierre Engvall, and Justin Holl), but the club under GM Kyle Dubas has to keep replenishing the prospect pool to provide the Leafs with youngsters who can step up and replace veterans who retire, depart via free agency or are traded. As we did last year, we will rank the club’s top prospects over the upcoming weeks based on their progress in either the NCAA, CHL, Europe, ECHL or AHL and their potential to make the Leafs roster and make a contribution in the future. Players are eligible for the list if they have not played more than 40 NHL games: #40 – Vladislav Kara – LW (Yugra – VHL) #39 – Kalle Loponen – D (Koo Koo Kouvola/JyP HT – Finland SM-Liiga) #38 – Jeremy McKenna – RW (Wichita – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) #37 – John Fusco – D (Harvard – NCAA) #36 – Noel Hoefenmayer – D (Newfoundland – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) #35 – Ryan Chyzowski – LW (Newfoundland – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) #34 – Braeden Kressler – C (Flint – OHL) #33 – Nikita Grebyonkin – RW (Stalnye Lisy – MHL, Magnitogorsk – KHL) #32 – Vyacheslav Peksa – G (Ibris Kazan – MHL) #31 – Dryden McKay – G (Minnesota Duluth – NCAA) #30 – Bobby McMann – C (Newfoundland – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) #29 – Pavel Gogolev – LW (Newfoundland – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) #28 – Joe Miller – C (Chicago – USHL) #27 – Veeti Miettinen – RW (St. Cloud St. – NCAA) #26 – Brandon Lisowsky – LW (Saskatoon – WHL) #25 – Max Ellis – RW (Notre Dame – NCAA, Toronto – AHL) #24 – Axel Rindell – D (Karpat – Finland SM-Liiga) #23 – Mac Hollowell – D (Toronto – AHL) #22 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Ak Bars Kazan – MHL/VHL/KHL) #21 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev – C (Toronto – AHL) #20 – Curtis Douglas – C (Toronto – AHL) #19 – Mikhail Abramov – C (Toronto – AHL) #18 – Dennis Hildeby – G (Farjestad – SHL) #17 – Ty Voit – LW (Sarnia – OHL) #16 – Filip Kral – D (Toronto – AHL) #15 – Nick Moldenhauer – RW (Chicago – USHL) #14 – Rodion Amirov – LW (Ufa Salavat – KHL) #13 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Connecticut – NCAA) #12 – Joseph Woll – G (Toronto – AHL/NHL) #11 – Mikko Kokkonen – D (Pelicans – Finland SM-Liiga) #10 – Fraser Minten – C (Kamloops – WHL) #9 – William Villeneuve – D (Saint John – QMJHL) #8 – Dmitry Ovchinnikov – LW (Sibir Novosibirsk – MHL/KHL, Toronto – AHL) #7 – Roni Hirvonen – C (HIFK Helsinki – Finland SM-Liiga) #6 – Alex Steeves – C (Toronto – AHL/NHL) #5 – Nick Abruzzese – C (Harvard – NCAA/Toronto – NHL) #4 – Pontus Holmberg – LW (Vaxjo HC – SHL /Toronto – AHL) #3 – Topi Niemela – D (Karpat – Finnish SM-Liiga) #2 – Nick Robertson – LW (Toronto – AHL/NHL) #1 – Matthew Knies – LW (Minnesota – NCAA) The Toronto Maple Leafs had only three picks in the 2021 NHL Draft after dealing their first and fourth to Columbus for Nick Foligno, and third-rounder to Calgary for goalie David Rittich. With their first pick at #57 overall, the Leafs selected big winger Matthew Knies. The 6’3”, 205 lb winger was born in Arizona and played most of his youth hockey in the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes chain before two seasons in the USHL with the Tri-City Storm. Knies posted two straight 40+ point seasons and was committed to the University of Minnesota when the Leafs drafted him. Elite Prospects says Knies “establishes body positioning drives his value in every dimension of the game. He tries to be first on every puck at all costs, getting his leg in front of his opponent’s, then coming across their body with his hips to seal off the defender. “ The Hockey Prospect Black Book gave the Phoenix, AZ native an A grade and ranked 13th overall on their 2021 Draft Prospect list, calling the 6’3”, 210 lb. winger “a dynamic power forward with one of the most extensive tool kits out of any draft-eligible player featured in this class.” The 19-year-old made an impressive showing at the World Junior Summer Showcase in August with seven points (4 goals, 3 assists) in six games, which put Knies on the track for the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championships. The tournament was suspended less than a week in, but the big winger’s size and speed along with his success as a freshman with Minnesota put him on the radar for the NHL-less Olympic games in Beijing, where he scored a goal and assist in four games for Team USA. Knies finished his college season strong and his scoring helped the Golden Gophers reach the Frozen Four, but he chose not to turn professional and join the Leafs before the postseason. #LeafsForever prospect Matthew Knies scored a goal and an assist last night in Minnesota’s 4-1 win over Wisconsin. He has 4 goals and 3 assists in his first 10 games of college hockey. pic.twitter.com/Jds0DR7f20 — Nick Richard (@_NickRichard) November 7, 2021 This appears to have been a wise choice, as the young forward said during the summer development camp in Toronto that he did not feel his game was advanced enough to play in the NHL. Knies will return to Minnesota for his sophomore campaign, but all indications are that he will sign with Toronto after his year in the NCAA is complete. ******* Read More Here

Archives: Records From Trump White House Staffers Remain Missing https://digitalalaskanews.com/archives-records-from-trump-white-house-staffers-remain-missing/ WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Archives and Records Administration informed lawmakers that a number of electronic communications from Trump White House staffers remain missing, nearly two years since the administration was required to turn them over. The nation’s record-keeping agency, in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said that despite an ongoing effort by staff, electronic communications between certain unidentified White House officials were still not in their custody. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Debra Steidel Wall, the acting U.S. archivist, wrote in a letter to Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. The letter went on to specify that the National Archives would consult with the Justice Department about how to move forward and recover “the records unlawfully removed.” It has been widely reported that officials in President Donald Trump’s White House used non-official electronic messaging accounts throughout his four years in office. The Presidential Records Act, which says that such records are government property and must be preserved, requires staff to copy or forward those messages into their official electronic messaging accounts. The agency says that while it has been able to obtain these records from some former officials, a number remain outstanding. The Justice Department has already pursued records from one former Trump official, Peter Navarro, who prosecutors accused of using at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails while he worked as the president’s trade adviser. The legal action in August came just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The House committee has jurisdiction over the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that requires the preservation of White House documents as property of the U.S. government. The request is the latest development in a monthslong back-and-forth between the agency and the committee, which has been investigating Trump’s handling of records. The letter on Friday also comes nearly two months after the FBI recovered more than 100 documents with classified markings and more than 10,000 other government documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Lawyers for Trump had provided a sworn certification that all government records had been returned. Maloney and other Democratic lawmakers on the panel have been seeking a briefing from the National Archives, but haven’t received one due to the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the matter. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Donald Trump’s Latest Claim About Tell-All Books Written At His Expense Has Twitter Cracking Up – MsnNOW https://digitalalaskanews.com/donald-trumps-latest-claim-about-tell-all-books-written-at-his-expense-has-twitter-cracking-up-msnnow/ Donald Trump’s Latest Claim About Tell-All Books Written At His Expense Has Twitter Cracking Up  msnNOW Read More Here

Americans Captured By Russia Detail Months Of Beatings, Interrogation https://digitalalaskanews.com/americans-captured-by-russia-detail-months-of-beatings-interrogation/ Andy Tai Huynh, left, and Alex Drueke were released from captivity Sept. 21. In their first extensive media interview since their release, the pair say they were interrogated, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and given little food or clean water. (William DeShazer for The Washington Post) In their first extensive interview since being freed, Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh recount the physical and psychological abuse they endured over 104 days in captivity October 1, 2022 at 6:36 p.m. EDT TRINITY, Ala. — Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh evaded Russian forces for hours, slogging through pine forests and marshes in Ukraine to avoid detection. The U.S. military veterans were left behind — “abandoned,” they said — after their Ukrainian task force was attacked, and determined that their best chance of survival was to hike back to their base in Kharkiv. What followed was an excruciating, often terrifying 104 days in captivity. They were interrogated, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and given little food or clean water, Drueke and Huynh recalled. Initially, they were taken into Russia, to a detention complex dotted with tents and ringed by barbed wire, they said. Their captors later moved them, first to a “black site” where the beatings worsened, Drueke said, and then to what they called a more traditional prison run by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 27, met with The Washington Post for three hours at the home of Huynh’s fiancee, Joy Black, in this rural town of about 2,500 outside Huntsville. It was their first extensive media interview since being freed on Sept. 21 as part of a sprawling prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. Each man lost nearly 30 pounds during the ordeal, they said, suffering injuries most evident in the red and purple welts still present where their wrists were bound. Their account provides disturbing new insight into how Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine treat those taken off the battlefield. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. Drueke and Huynh went to Ukraine despite stern warnings from the U.S. State Department that taking up arms against Russian forces was unsafe and ill-advised. They joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a force comprising hundreds of Americans, Europeans and other foreign nationals who responded to public entreaties from the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Drueke and Huynh said they are grateful to be alive and free, and to have had each other’s support and friendship through their captivity. They expressed no regret. Their goals now, they said, are to draw attention to Ukraine’s military needs, and raise awareness about another American veteran with whom they were imprisoned, Suedi Murekezi, who shared a cell with them for weeks but was not included in the prisoner swap. He’s among the handful of U.S. citizens detained by Russia for whom a diplomatic breakthrough has so far proved elusive. “Alex and I never did this to become famous,” Huynh said. “We never wanted to become famous.” Drueke, a U.S. Army veteran, and Huynh, who served in the Marines, said they were compelled to act after seeing images, early in the war, of Ukrainian families fleeing their homes as Russian forces leveled cities in their savage but ultimately failed bid to seize the capital, Kyiv, and topple Zelensky’s Western-backed government. Drueke had been living with family members in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after being diagnosed as a 100-percent combat disabled veteran with post-traumatic stress, he said. He’d grown enthusiastic about long-distance mountain hiking. Huynh, a California native, had moved to northern Alabama to be with his fiancee, taking community college classes and working as a delivery driver for O’Reilly Auto Parts. Huynh left the United States on April 8 to join a humanitarian group helping in Ukraine, he said. Drueke left four days later, believing that his experience during the Iraq War and familiarity with Western weapons could prove helpful to Ukrainian forces, he said. Within days, they signed contracts with the foreign legion in Lviv, in western Ukraine near Poland’s border, joining the same battalion and receiving AK-74 rifles for training far from the fighting. They had brought their own camouflage uniforms and other equipment. Both adopted noms de guerre. Drueke was named “Bama,” in honor of his home state. Huynh went by “Hate,” a shortened version of “Reaper of Hate,” a moniker he used in online video games. “It was kind of a satire name because I’m not really a hateful person,” Huynh said. “Quite the opposite.” “We called him Care Bear,” Drueke interjected with a laugh. The men decided that “their skills could be better applied elsewhere” in the war, and requested a release from the contract they had signed with their first unit, Drueke said. For the next few weeks, they traveled the country by bus and train in what they called “vacation mode,” meeting with Ukrainian military officials about possible opportunities and marveling as civilians returned to their homes in and around the capital. With time running out on their 90-day visas, they connected in Kyiv with a representative from Task Force Baguette, a military unit affiliated with the foreign legion that included French soldiers and other Westerners. The unit promised a Ukrainian military contract, allowing them to stay in the country and fight. This time, they were sent east and issued Czech-made CZ 208 rifles, to a base close to Russia’s border. Their first mission, on June 9, would be their last. That morning, the unit left Kharkiv in a pickup truck and two small sport-utility vehicles, heading north. Their assignment was to launch small drones, watch for Russian military forces and report what they saw, Drueke said. But the unit was ambushed, and in the ensuing firefight everyone scattered, the Americans said. Drueke, Huynh and their team leader began searching for a machine-gunner and sniper who’d gone missing, only to learn that other members of the unit had taken their vehicles — and most of their food and water — and returned to base without them, Drueke said. A representative for Task Force Baguette denied that Drueke and Huynh were left behind, saying the team scattered in five groups and that each had to make it back to safety on their own “as nobody knew what happened to the others.” He declined to elaborate. In a tweet, the unit celebrated the Americans’ release, thanking them for their service and calling Drueke and Huynh “heroes.” Drueke and Huynh declined to detail the precise location or nature of their capture, but acknowledged opening fire during the ambush. After they were taken into custody, they were stripped of their gear and weapons, and bound. As they crossed the border into Russia, Drueke said, their captors noted their new location, slugged them in the gut, and said “Welcome to Russia.” The Americans were blindfolded for most of the next few days, they said. Occasionally, their captors would take them off, allowing them to catch a glimpse of their surroundings. The Russians hid their faces behind tan balaclavas. The camp, the Americans said, was a “tent city,” with six or seven prisoners of war held in each tent, Huynh said. Twin chain-link fences and barbed wire surrounded the compound. The interrogations there, Drueke said, were “horrible.” The Russians appeared to doubt that they were rank-and-file members of a Ukrainian military unit. They asked Drueke and Huynh repeatedly if they were with the CIA, the Americans recalled. They ordered them onto their hands and knees, leaving them like that until their feet grew numb. If they moved, they were beaten, they recalled. At night, Drueke and Huynh were forced to remain on their feet for hours at a time to prevent them from sleeping. “They really thought that we had been sent by our government, or had a large amount of government support,” Drueke said. “They really wanted to make sure we weren’t lying about that — and they had their ways of doing that.” Most of the prisoners appeared to be Ukrainian, the Americans said. One who spoke English appeared to possibly be a British national. In the Sept. 21 prisoner swap, five British citizens also were freed, along with individuals from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia, more than 200 Ukrainians, 55 Russian troops and a close acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Four days later, the Americans were on the move again, they said, taken to a black site detention center in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian separatists have power. The prisoners traveled for hours with bags over their heads, the Americans said, and swapped vehicles four times. Drueke realized Huynh was with him only because he was tossed on top of him in one of the vehicles, prompting Huynh to respond with an “ouch” that Drueke recognized, he said. In such a dire situation, it was a relief. Their treatment worsened at the next location, they said. Most of the detainees were kept in a cold basement divided into tiled cells, each about 5 feet long and 2 feet wide, Huynh recalled. They received a loaf of bread each day, along with water that often appeared to be contaminated. Huynh said he could hear screams — and cries of pain — as interrogations were conducted. “That was one of the worst parts,” Huynh said. “Hearing people being hurt and not being able to do anything about it.” Upstairs, a slightly larger room was used for solitary confinement. Huynh spent the first two days there before Drueke was put there for several weeks. About 80 songs of popular music, including from the rapper Eminem and the German metal band Rammstein, were pumped in...

Opinion | Trump’s Latest Attack On McConnell Sets A New Standard Of Despicable https://digitalalaskanews.com/opinion-trumps-latest-attack-on-mcconnell-sets-a-new-standard-of-despicable/ When you are dealing with someone for whom there is no bottom, it’s not exactly surprising to seem him hit a new low. Nonetheless, Donald Trump’s latest social media broadside against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stands out for its odious recklessness. On Friday, the former president posted on his Truth Social platform that McConnell has a “DEATH WISH” for having supported legislation to keep the government operating through mid-December — language that could easily be read by his highly combustible supporters as inviting violence against the GOP leader who seems to have taken up residence under Trump’s gossamer-thin skin. Indeed, Trump portrayed the spending legislation, which passed the Senate 72-25, as a personal affront, saying McConnell cut the deal to pass it “because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to” its provisions. Trump then went for a racial smear against McConnell’s Asian American power spouse, Elaine Chao, who served as transportation secretary in his own administration, referring to her as “his China loving wife, Coco Chow!” Follow Karen Tumulty’s opinionsFollow Add Outrageousness, of course, is Trump’s political brand, and ignoring his rants is usually the best thing to do. His spokesman insisted that his reference to a death wish referred to a political one, rather than literal one. But to dismiss all of this as just Trump being Trump is to ignore what is really going on here. The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his crazed followers, after a rally in which the then-president urged them to “fight like hell” to overturn the 2020 election result, should have put to rest any doubts that his words can summon violence. (Trump’s beef with Chao is fueled by the fact that she resigned from his Cabinet the next day.) Knowing all of this, you have to wonder: Where are McConnell’s Republican colleagues in the Senate? Why do they remain silent when Trump does something like this? Is this sort of behavior by their party’s de facto leader acceptable to them, particularly coming fewer than 40 days before an election in which they are trying to pick up the single additional seat that would give them control of the chamber? Their timidity has fostered the free-fire environment in which Trump operates. Also worth raising is the question of whether the stopgap spending bill was actually what triggered Trump’s eruption. It is probably no coincidence that Trump’s attack came just three days after McConnell threw his weight behind a badly needed piece of bipartisan legislation that would reform the antiquated Electoral Count Act of 1887. That old law lays out the process for tallying and certifying electoral votes in presidential elections; its language, however, contains ambiguities, which is what Trump and his forces were trying to exploit on Jan. 6 — the day Congress met to certify the tally of the 2020 election. Among other things, Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence, whose role in the exercise was supposed to be ceremonial, to throw out valid votes; Pence, properly, refused. McConnell’s honorable decision to support reforming the Electoral Count Act, despite the fact that opposing it has become a litmus test of support for Trump, has greatly increased its chances of passing, because it now appears likely to easily muster more than the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. “Congress’s process for counting their presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago. The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The Electoral Count Act ultimately produced the right conclusion … but it’s clear the country needs a more predictable path.” The right conclusion, in this case, was that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president of the United States. But by refusing to accept Trump’s lies to the contrary, McConnell has guaranteed himself a continued place in Trump’s crosshairs. No doubt Trump will escalate his dangerous and vile attacks on McConnell, because that is simply who he is. But let’s be clear that there is plenty of fault to go around. The Republican Party’s refusal to denounce him for it makes them complicit. Read More Here