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Post Politics Now: Biden To Plug Campaign Finance Bill, Head To New York For Fundraiser https://digitalarizonanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-to-plug-campaign-finance-bill-head-to-new-york-for-fundraiser/ Today, President Biden plans to plug a Senate bill that would require super PACs and so-called “dark money” groups to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle. After the event at the White House, the president is scheduled to head to New York ahead of his address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly. Biden’s schedule Tuesday night includes an appearance in New York at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. In the House, the Rules Committee is expected to advance legislation that aims to prevent future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress. The full House could vote on the bill later this week. The Senate is expected to consider its own version of the legislation, inspired by President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election results. Your daily dashboard Noon Eastern time: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan brief reporters. Watch live here. 1:45 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers remarks on the Disclose Act. Watch live here. 1:55 p.m. Eastern: Vice President Harris delivers remarks at South Carolina State University’s Fall Convocation in Orangeburg, S.C. 7:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden participates in a DNC fundraiser in New York. Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers. Analysis: House to move quickly on Electoral Count Act bill. When will Trump weigh in? Return to menu The House is moving quickly on a bill to overhaul the Electoral Count Act, the 19th-century law governing the certification of presidential elections. Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer say that Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) unveiled their bill Monday, and the House is expected to vote on it on Wednesday, where it is expected to pass with the support of Democrats and at least a few Republicans. Our colleagues write: The Senate released its version in June, but the earliest it would be brought up for a vote is after the midterm elections during the “lame duck” session. The speed at which it is being ushered through the House is, in part, to put Republicans on the record ahead of the midterms. Then-President Trump tried to exploit the law’s ambiguities in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by pressuring Vice President Pence to reject electors from certain states. Pence declined, but Trump’s effort culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters backing his false claims of widespread election fraud attacked police and ransacked the Capitol. You can read the full analysis here. On our radar: Biden to tout bill requiring disclosure of super PAC donors Return to menu President Biden on Tuesday is seeking to give a boost to legislation that would require super PACs and s0-called “dark money” groups to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that his chamber would vote on the legislation, branded as the Disclose Act, later this week, saying it is needed to address a “cancer” in the nation’s campaign finance rules. Citizens United and subsequent Supreme Court rulings permit super PACs and certain types of tax-exempt groups, such as 501(c)(4) nonprofits, to spend unlimited sums in elections. Under current law, many of those groups are not required to disclose their donors. The latest: Biden’s claim that ‘pandemic is over’ complicates efforts to secure funding Return to menu President Biden’s surprise declaration that the coronavirus pandemic is “over” has thrown a wrench into the White House’s efforts to secure additional funding to fight the virus and persuade Americans to get a new booster shot, while fueling more Republican criticism about why the administration continues to extend a covid “emergency.” The Post’s Dan Diamond reports that Biden’s comments, which aired Sunday on “60 Minutes,” reflect growing public sentiment that the threat of the virus has receded even as hundreds of Americans continue to die of covid each day. Dan writes: On our radar: A landmark Supreme Court fight over social media now looks likely Return to menu Conflicting lower court rulings about removing controversial material from social media platforms point toward a landmark Supreme Court decision on whether the First Amendment protects Big Tech’s editorial discretion or forbids its censorship of unpopular views. The Post’s Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow write that the stakes are high, not just for government and the companies, but because of the increasingly dominant role that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook play in American democracy and elections. Per our colleagues: Take a look: In Nevada, Democrats seek to link Laxalt to ‘Big Oil’ Return to menu The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is out with a new 30-second ad Tuesday linking the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, Adam Laxalt, to deep-pocketed oil companies. A man in a T-shirt sitting inside a garage says Laxalt “tried to block a fraud investigation into a Big Oil company” and that “oil executives” spent “millions on his campaign.” The man also says Laxalt “made millions” at a “fancy” lobbying firm “that works for Big Oil.” The ad broadly echoes attacks made earlier by the Democratic senator Laxalt is trying to unseat, Catherine Cortez Masto. When Laxalt was Nevada’s attorney general, he joined Republican attorneys general in opposing a probe by New York’s attorney general, who, according to PolitiFact, looked into “whether oil companies had made fraudulent disclosures about climate change.” Noted: Video appears to undercut Trump elector’s account of alleged voting-data breach in Georgia Return to menu On Jan. 7, 2021, a group of forensics experts working for lawyers allied with President Donald Trump spent eight hours at a county elections office in southern Georgia, copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines. The Post’s Jon Swaine and Emma Brown report that under questioning last month for a lawsuit, a former Georgia Republican Party official named Cathy Latham said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County that afternoon. She said she stayed in the foyer and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter at the front desk. The latest: Trump lawyers acknowledge Mar-a-Lago probe could lead to indictment Return to menu The Justice Department and lawyers for Donald Trump filed separate proposals Monday for conducting an outside review of documents seized at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, with key disagreements over how the process should work and Trump’s team acknowledging that the criminal probe could lead to an indictment. The Post’s Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett report that both sides referenced a “draft plan” given to them by Judge Raymond J. Dearie, the newly appointed special master. Per our colleagues: Read More Here

GOP-Led Voting Changes Are On The Rise, Making Elections More Vulnerable To Meddling: Analysts – Deltaplex News https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-led-voting-changes-are-on-the-rise-making-elections-more-vulnerable-to-meddling-analysts-deltaplex-news/ (WASHINGTON) — There’s a tension between voter access and voting security, but that balance has been tipping decidedly one way in the recent political environment in which false claims that Donald Trump didn’t lose the 2020 election have muddied the waters, according to many experts who are raising alarms about proposed election-related laws. Since the last presidential election, conservative state legislators across the country have enacted or introduced a flurry of bills that would increase restrictions to the election system — with a focus, in 2022, on changing how races are run and regulated — according to several nonpartisan organizations who describe themselves as advocating for democracy. Experts from the States United Democracy Center, the Brennan Center for Justice and other groups who spoke with ABC News tied this growing amount of legislation to the false election fraud allegations that Trump and his supporters’ have been spreading since Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Since Trump was defeated by Biden, Trump has continued to claim — without evidence — that his election was marred by ineligible voters, fake votes cast by mail and other problems. The pro-democracy groups told ABC News that hundreds of GOP-authored bills on voting and elections have already been considered during the 2022 legis­lat­ive sessions in various states, consistent with a similar trend seen in 2021. The measures from the past two years would purge some people from voter rolls, restrict mail-in ballot access and early voting — which was heavily emphasized by many states during the COVID-19 pandemic — as well as tighten ID require­ments to vote, allow politicians to oversee local election boards and more, according to pro-democracy watchdogs. The bills introduced at the state level would generally make it harder for eligible Amer­ic­ans to register to vote, cast their ballots and stay on voter rolls in comparison to existing laws, according to the Brennan Center. Joanna Lydgate, the co-founder and CEO of the States United Democracy Center, also specified that restrictive bills introduced over the past two years touch every aspect of current voting systems. “Through these bills, legislators are kind of trying to take control over practically every step of the electoral process,” she said. Only a fraction of proposed legislation typically gets signed into law, according to experts. But the “political bluster” of bills churning through statehouses will have an impact on expert-run elections systems that have successfully operated for decades, Lydgate told ABC News. “In a lot of cases these are really poorly designed bills … it can lead to a lot of really unworkable situations. It can lead to confusion and chaos,” Lydgate said. Fair Fight Deputy Executive Director Esosa Osa said that in her group’s view, there was a “new dynamic of shifting power over election administration from state and local election officials to more partisan actors, and there’s hyper criminalization of voting.” Fair Fight was founded by Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in 2014. “If you consider the ability to vote, the ability to register to vote, to cast a ballot, and to have that ballot counted fairly — we are seeing all three aspects of that attack,” Osa told ABC News. But John Fortier, a voting and elections expert for the conservative-aligned American Enterprise Institute, noted that some of the election bills come with nuance such as attempts to return elections back to in-person models after the COVID-19 pandemic rather than to create entirely new sets of restrictions. “Do I think that some of the major bills that are being considered and passed through are really aimed at cutting down turnout? I don’t think they are aimed that way,” he told ABC News. State legislatures are “not as interested in moving to kind of a Washington state, Oregon, 100% voting-by-mail model,” Fortier said. In his view, increasing election security doesn’t always involve tightening access to elections themselves. “I think it is true that Republicans have a lens of looking at elections where they prioritize more integrity issues,” he said. “You can imagine cases where that gets in the way of access, but I don’t think they’re always as contradictory as one thinks.” For example, Georgia enacted a sweeping 2021 election bill that was criticized by some advocates for increasing regulations on mail voting. But the law also imposed requirements to try and keep poll lines shorter and increase the availability of poll workers. By the numbers Fair Fight said that in 2022 they have counted almost triple the amount of election-related legislation they’d tallied during 2011, the last year they marked a highpoint for restrictions on who can vote and how. In the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 — before the crescendo of unsupported claims by Trump and his allies about problems with elections — the Brennan Center had tallied more pro-voter reforms than anti-voter restric­tions. In 2018, the Brennan Center counted at least 12 states that advanced a combined total of at least 20 bills expand­ing voting access in comparison to five states that advanced a combined total of at least six bills restrict­ing voting access. In 2019, 46 states intro­duced or carried over 688 bills expand­ing access compared to 29 states intro­ducing or carrying over at least 87 bills restrict­ing voting access. And in 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and with many people in isolation, the Brennan Center counted 57 restrict­ive bills before state legis­latures, while 29 states had intro­duced at least 188 bills to expand access. Another report, published through a partnership between the nonpartisan voter organizations States United Democracy Center, Law Forward and Protect Democracy, echoed what Fair Fight and the other groups assessed as increasing restrictions on elections. This new report tallied at least 244 bills introduced in 33 states that would interfere with election administration as of July 31. Twenty-four of those bills have become law, or adopted, across 17 states. That’s up from 229 bills identified in May and 216 bills spanning 41 states during the entirety of the 2021 legislative year. Arizona and Wisconsin were the two states identified in the report with more than 30 anti-democratic bills introduced or under consideration, according to the report. Every other state An additional analysis, published in May 2022 from the Brennan Center, reported similar findings for 2022 but tallied additional bills in 2021 — 440 in 49 states — that carried provisions to restrict voting access during the legis­lat­ive sessions. “The sheer volume and certainly the growth of the trend is cause for concern,” Lydgate, with the States United Democracy Center, said. “This is a national trend.” These bills, Osa said, “highlight the broader political ecosystem that we are in following the 2020 election and the big lie” about Trump’s loss. Opposing views Simple conclusions about the entire country are hard to draw, however. Despite the influx of restrictive voting legislation moving through Statehouses across the country, there are some efforts to expand voting access as well. Many state legislatures this year also took steps to broaden voting rights and election access, according to the Brennan Center. The group counted at least 596 of what they termed “expans­ive” bills in 44 states and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Most of those proposals would allow for easier voter regis­tra­tion, a process to seek voting rights restoration for those convicted of crimes and easier mail-in voting in states like Arizona, Connecti­cut, New York and Oregon. Elsewhere, however, some states have tightened their regulations — though supporters of such moves say it’s about security and smooth election administration. In 2021, states like Georgia, Florida and Iowa passed sweeping omnibus bills that included election measures like shortening the period for requesting an absentee ballot or adding ID requirements for absentee ballots. After Georgia saw record-breaking turnout during the March 2021 primary elections — the first test of Democratic predictions that the heightened requirements would actually turn people away from the polls — members of the GOP denounced the attacks as so much smoke. “[Stacey] Abrams and President Biden lied to the people of Georgia and the country for political gain,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “From day one, I said that Georgia’s election law balanced security and access, and the facts have proved me right.” Osa from Fair Fight, and the Brennan Center, however, said that as primary turnout grew in Geor­­­gia, so did the turnout gap between white and Black voters. What worries experts now The experts who spoke with ABC News called attention to certain kinds of standalone state bills being proposed this year: those that would shift election oversight to partisan legislatures instead of nonpartisan election officials; those that would require political reviews of elections that might delay their certifications; and those that would create “unworkable burdens” or even threat of criminal penalties for election officials. The democracy experts who spoke with ABC News also expressed concern over the rise of 2020 election deniers — including those, as state legislators, who spearheaded new voting rules — who are now high-profile GOP candidates in the 2022 midterms. In Arizona, for example, state Rep. Mark Finchem introduced a bill to decertify Arizona’s 2020 election, which Biden won. Finchem also introduced legislation to require hand tabulation of ballots and audits of election systems. He...

Opinion | An Oral History Of How The QAnon Theme Played At A Trump Rally https://digitalarizonanews.com/opinion-an-oral-history-of-how-the-qanon-theme-played-at-a-trump-rally/ “The fake news, in a pathetic attempt to create controversy and divide America, is brewing up another conspiracy about a royalty-free song from a popular audio library platform.” — A spokesman for former president Donald Trump, after attendees at a Trump rally raised their fingers in a QAnon salute in response to the song that played as he spoke As usual, this was a big mix-up! Just a case of someone playing a totally innocuous royalty-free song from a popular audio library platform, as the spokesman said! Here, I think, is an oral history of exactly how this mistake occurred. Kevin Greg, venue music coordinator: I was in charge of picking the song that played while Donald Trump gave his long rant. Bob helped. Bob Robert, helped: It was just one of those classic accidents where you play an innocuous royalty-free song from a popular audio library platform. Kevin: I was excited to be the music guy at this Donald Trump rally because my passion is playing “Tiny Dancer,” but my other passion is never under any circumstances obtaining the rights to play “Tiny Dancer,” and this job allowed me to combine the two. Follow Alexandra Petri’s opinionsFollow Add Bob: Likewise, I got into it because I love to play Adele but also love to receive cease-and-desist letters from Adele. Kevin: My second reason for getting into the Trump rally music biz was that I personally can never listen to “Nessun Dorma” too many times. Play it for me right now and I’ll tell you, play it again. N+1 times, that’s the number of times I want to listen to “Nessun Dorma.” Bob: So for this, they said you have to play something that will get all the rally listeners into the right mood. Kevin: And we said, “What mood is the right mood, though?” And they said, “You know, kind of, if Donald Trump suggests that they should grab a pitchfork and go to a second location, a good soundtrack for that.” Bob: And no lyrics because then he has to talk over them, and it can get mixed up. He’s sitting there saying, “The press is the enemy of the people,” and in the background James Taylor is singing “You’ve got a friend,” or Kelis is making statements about milkshakes; it muddies it. Kevin: So then they said, “There are a lot of songs on SoundCloud. Just be sure that of the millions of free songs, you don’t choose one that might cause the people in attendance to do something weird,” but I said, “Relax, this is a Trump rally, when was the last time people who heard Donald Trump speak went off and did something weird?” Bob: Anyway, at this point, we were panicking because he had already started and was getting closer and closer to the where he rants about how he won the election really and the FBI is bad now. Kevin: And I was trying to think, what song would be perfect? And then I thought: “Nessun Dorma”! But just as I was reaching for the phone to play it, a mouse ran up my leg, knocking me slightly to the left, and I hit a row of dominoes Bob had lined up on the desk … Bob: Gotta have my dominoes. Kevin: … which in turn hit a small decorative set of clacking, swinging pendulum balls I have on the desk, which knocked the phone over into a tub of water … Bob: Gotta have my tub of water. Kevin: … and when it hit the water, the phone somehow went back up to the M’s and selected this song “Mirrors,” which sounds a ton like the QAnon song. But we didn’t change it, because it went really well with the speech! But then people got weird. Bob: Which I feel like is on the speech! I think if the speech sounds like it should have the QAnon theme song playing behind it, you have got a larger problem. If you are delivering a nice, normal speech and somebody starts playing QAnon-adjacent music in the background, people will say, “Yikes! Turn that thing off!” Kevin: You play that for your average crowd, you know, they’re not going to start nudging each other and waving their fingers in the air and going, “Oh, it’s the QAnon song! Finally, mainstream recognition for the conspiracy theory we know and love!” Bob: You’re saying it’s on the crowd. Kevin: You’re saying it’s on the speech. Bob: Maybe a little bit on the SoundCloud app and the mouse, dominoes, balls and tub of water. But mostly the speech. Kevin: And the crowd. Bob: Just not the music. You know, you’d think based on the speech and the crowd and everything else that the music might have been intentionally QAnon-y, too. But nope. Pure accident. Kevin: Pure accident. Bob: Come on, let’s go get you some “Nessun Dorma.” Read More Here

Obituaries In Phoenix, AZ | The Arizona Republic https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituaries-in-phoenix-az-the-arizona-republic-19/ Lynda Katherine Munson (Nee’ Jones) 82, was peacefully taken into our Lord’s arms on September 16, 2022. Lynda was born in Vincennes, IN, on March 19, 1940, the youngest of five children, to Marceline and Robert Jones. Her family came by train to Phoenix, AZ in 1944, and settled in downtown Phoenix, near many families new to Arizona. Lynda graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1957, where she met her first husband Bill Bass. They married in 1962 at St. Francis Xavier Church. They had three children: Stephanie (John), Patrick, and Kristina (George). After raising her children, Lynda returned to school and graduated from ASU in 1985 with a degree in Social Work. Nothing was more important to Lynda than her Catholic faith and her family. She has lifelong friends through the St. Francis Xavier community, the Theresians International, and in Prescott. Lynda’s greatest joy was her nine grandchildren, Katherine, Jack, Jacqueline, Lindsay, Connor, Ryan, Nina, Grant, and Greta. Lynda is also survived by her sister Jane Bertocchi (Dick), her brother David Jones (Aileen) and many nieces and nephews. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 5:00pm at Brophy Chapel, 4701 N Central Ave., Phoenix. A reception to follow at Arizona Country Club. Condolences may be expressed at www.whitneymurphyfuneralhome.com Posted online on September 19, 2022 Published in The Arizona Republic Service Information Funeral Mass Brophy Chapel, 4701 N Central Ave., Phoenix September 22, 2022 at 5:00 PM Read More…

Violence Erupts In Iran After Woman Dies In ‘morality Police’ Custody https://digitalarizonanews.com/violence-erupts-in-iran-after-woman-dies-in-morality-police-custody/ Security forces cracked down on protesters demonstrating across Iran over the death of a young woman in the custody of its so-called morality police, allegedly killing five. The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from western Iran, during a visit to the capital this month has stirred outrage over the government’s increasingly strict enforcement of ultraconservative dress codes for women. The case has drawn worldwide interest with condemnations from the United States and the United Nations. Amini was detained as she exited a metro station, and she suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma while in custody, state-affiliated media said. Her family insisted that she had no previous health problems, and activists asserted that she may have been beaten by police. Monday marked the third day of unrest across Iran, with protests in numerous places, including Tehran, the capital. Two people were killed as security forces fired on protesters in the Kurdish city of Saqez — Amini’s hometown — while two more died in the town of Divandarreh and a fifth was killed in Dehgolan, according to Hengaw, a rights watchdog. The claims could not immediately be independently verified by The Washington Post. In Tehran, photos from the scene of one protest showed demonstrators crowded around a burning motorcycle. Videos posted on social media appeared to show protesters injured after clashing with authorities. Internet access was restricted in parts of the country. Iran hasn’t confirmed any deaths during the protests. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that security forces dispersed demonstrators in a number of cities, and that police arrested the leaders of some of the protests. A senior morality police official, Col. Ahmed Mirzaei, was suspended after Amini’s death, according to Iran International, a London-based news channel. Officials denied those claims, the Guardian reported. The Interior Ministry previously ordered an investigation into Amini’s death at the behest of archconservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The police commander of the greater Tehran area told reporters that Amini was wearing a hijab that was not suitable. He said she didn’t resist detention and even made jokes in the police van. The headscarf and other conservative dress have been compulsory for women since Iran’s 1979 revolution. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the Iranian government “to end its systemic persecution of women and to allow peaceful protest,” in a tweet Tuesday. The acting high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, Nada Al-Nashif, issued a statement Tuesday expressing alarm at her death and calling for an independent investigation. “Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority, that ensures, in particular, that her family has access to justice and truth,” she said in a statement. “The authorities must stop targeting, harassing, and detaining women who do not abide by the hijab rules,” she added, calling for a repeal of mandatory hijab regulations. Raisi is in New York this week, where he will address the U.N. General Assembly about the country’s relations with the West. He told reporters at the Tehran airport that he has no plans to meet with President Biden on the sidelines of the event, the Associated Press reported. Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal appear to be close to stalling. Raisi, a hard-line cleric who assumed office last year, has called for strict enforcement of the dress codes. Last month, a video appeared to show a woman detained by Iran’s increasingly assertive guidance patrols being thrown from a speeding van. The government crackdown sparked a protest movement over the summer by Iranian women, who photographed themselves without headscarves and posted the pictures on social media. Kareem Fahim in Istanbul and Paul Schemm in London contributed to this report. Read More Here

Gerold Wayne Radcliffe Obituary (2022) https://digitalarizonanews.com/gerold-wayne-radcliffe-obituary-2022/ Gerold Wayne Radcliffe, age 84, of Ogallala, died Sunday, September 18th, 2022 at the Medical Center of Aurora. Gerold was born on April 4, 1938 in Holyoke, CO to Dwight and Helen (Greer) Radcliffe. He grew up on a farm near Lamar, NE and attended District #4 rural school before entering High School at Imperial, NE, graduating in 1956. He attended Hasting College and receive is BA Degree in 1961. He finished his formal education at what was then Kearney State College with an MA Degree in 1969. On December 27, 1959 he was united in marriage to his high school sweetheart, Mona K. Bauerle of Imperial. To this marriage was born a daughter, Renae and a son, Burke. Gerold belonged to the United Methodist Church for over 60 years and served on various committees in churches in Chappell, Sidney, and here in Ogallala, as well as being a member of the Elks, Ogallala Garden Club, RSVP and Kiwanis. He was very interest in community service and was a member of Kiwanis International for over 45 years and loved involvement in youth through the teammates program and the Key Club. Sports played a big part in his life, not only through participating in high school and college, but by coaching at Roseland, Lexington, and Chappell all in Nebraska. He enjoyed attending about any sporting event and he and his “traveling buddies” attended every away football venue while NU was in the Big 12. He attended the college baseball World Series in Omaha for 37 consecutive years. This group also enjoyed many baseball games and track meets at NU as well. He also loved playing golf, as well as playing pool at the Senior Center in Ogallala. In 1969, he entered the life insurance business as an independent agent. In later years, he also worked with investments and came to Ogallala in 1993 as the Investment Representative at the Investment center located in what was then the First National Bank and worked there until he retired in 2001. While in Sidney, he was very active in many Kiwanis projects, officiated high school sports for over 20 years and served on the Sidney Public School Board of Education for 10 years. Gerold is survived by his wife, Mona, of Ogallala; a daughter, Renae (Stephen) Parra, of Highlands Ranch, CO; a son, Burke (Nicky) Radcliffe, of Sidney; grandchildren; Clark Parra, Jacqueline Parra, Byron (Bethany) Parra, Brady (Madi) Radcliffe, Natalie Radcliffe;Great grandchildren, Scottie Keith, Hudson Parra, and Lily Jane Para; three sisters; Arlene Kivett, Marilyn Pierce, Jolee Radcliffe, all of Mesa, AZ; a brother, Larry (Dianne) Radcliffe of Imperial; as well as several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. Services will be Saturday, September 24th, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Ogallala. Reverend Curt Magelky will be officiating. The family as chosen cremation. Inurnment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery in Imperial, NE at a later date. Memorials have been suggested to the Champion Community Center, the Champion Museum, or the First United Ogallala Methodist Church. Online condolences may be shared at www.drauckerfh.com by clicking the share a memory button. Services will be live streamed at www. drauckerfh.com and at htpp:// methodistchurchogallala.com. Draucker Funeral Home of Ogallala has been entrusted with arrangements. To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store. Published by Draucker Funeral Home on Sep. 20, 2022. Read More Here

Farmer Boys Announces Second Arizona Location Coming To Tolleson This Fall | RestaurantNews.com https://digitalarizonanews.com/farmer-boys-announces-second-arizona-location-coming-to-tolleson-this-fall-restaurantnews-com/ Farmer Boys has announced its second Arizona location to open this fall in the city of Tolleson at 1220 South 83rd Ave. The Brand Continues Expansion Plans Across California, Nevada and Arizona Tolleson, AZ  (RestaurantNews.com)  Farmer Boys®, the Southern California-based fast casual restaurant chain known for its award-winning burgers and exceptional service, has announced its second Arizona location to open this fall in the city of Tolleson at 1220 South 83rd Ave. The restaurant is slated to open in October and will serve all day breakfast, award-winning burgers, hearty salads and sandwiches, colossal onion rings and zucchini sticks, hand-scooped frosty milkshakes, and more. Tolleson-S. 83rd Ave. will be operated by new Farmer Boys franchisee, Chrystalla Herry. Herry first joined Farmer Boys as a General Manager in the LA market. Her role expanded to multi-unit manager and operations project manager for the brand before receiving her MBA from ESCP Business School in France. “I started my career with Farmer Boys at the age of 16,” said Chrystalla Herry. “Opening my own franchise location is very exciting. Tolleson is a diverse community with an appreciation for agriculture and the right mix of residential, schools and other local businesses. I’m thrilled to be bring approximately 50 full and part time jobs to the community and look forward to partnering with local schools and Phoenix Children’s Foundation in the coming months.” Farmer Boys currently operates 101 locations in California, Nevada and Arizona. A third Arizona location is slated to open in 2024 in Gilbert, Arizona. Farmer Boys has set the standard for serving high quality, farm fresh food in a fast casual setting. The menu consists of award-winning burgers, cooked-to-order breakfast served all day, hand-chopped salads, which can all be prepared as a wrap, specialty sandwiches, and more, all prepared with quality ingredients that are locally sourced whenever possible. Produce is delivered fresh and whole to each restaurant every morning, meaning it doesn’t sit in a warehouse for weeks and can be enjoyed at its pinnacle of crispness and flavor. Having fresh ingredients that are hand-chopped on site daily has been a cornerstone of the Farmer Boys mission and this goes the same with these limited-time offerings. By going the extra mile for delicious, flavorful food, Farmer Boys’ guests can count on fresh, cooked-to-order meals every time they visit. The restaurant will initially offer drive-thru, dine-in service, phone and take-out. Delivery will be offered a few weeks after opening. To learn more about Farmer Boys, view their menu of farm fresh fare, or find the restaurant nearest you, visit www.farmerboys.com and follow the brand at @FarmerBoysFood on Instagram and Facebook, and @FarmerBoys on Twitter. Farmer Boys fans are encouraged to download the Very Important Farmer (VIF) app to enjoy personalized offers, birthday treats, early alerts about new menu launches, and information on local events. Farmer Boys’ VIF app is available in the App Store and Google Play. About Farmer Boys® Farmer Boys® is a farm-to-table fast casual restaurant chain serving award-winning burgers and all-day breakfast, stacked sandwiches, hand-chopped salads, and signature hand-breaded zucchini sticks and colossal onion rings. At Farmer Boys, Farm Food Ain’t Fast Food®. Farmer Boys is annually recognized with ‘Best Of’ food awards, voted by consumers who value generous portions of farm fresh food at a fair price. The burger concept has also been recognized by notable industry publications, including being named one of Fast Casual’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers. Farmer Boys currently operates restaurants in California, Nevada, and Arizona. For more information, visit www.farmerboys.com. Media Contact: Hannah Koury Ajenda Public Relations hannah@ajendapr.com 650-922-4936 More from Farmer Boys Read More Here

Cryptoverse: After Merge, Ether Heads For A $20 Billion Shanghai Splurge https://digitalarizonanews.com/cryptoverse-after-merge-ether-heads-for-a-20-billion-shanghai-splurge/ Souvenir tokens representing cryptocurrency networks Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple plunge into water in this illustration taken May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Sept 20 (Reuters) – The Merge came, saw and conquered. Not that you’d guess from crypto prices. The Ethereum blockchain’s mega-upgrade finally went live on Sept. 15, moving it to a less energy-intensive “proof of stake” (PoS) system with hardly a hiccup. read more Even though anticipation of the event had seen ether rise about 85% from its June doldrums, it has since sunk 19%, hit along with bitcoin and other risky assets by investor angst over inflation and central-bank policy. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Nonetheless, many market players are bullish about the long-term prospects of Ethereum and its native cryptocurrency. “Previously, we have talked to sovereign wealth funds and central banks to help build their digital asset allocations… but direct investment has been voted down due to energy concerns,” said Markus Thielen, chief investment officer at asset manager IDEG Limited. “With Ethereum moving to PoS, this clearly solves this last pillar of concern.” Some crypto investors are now turning their attention to the next event that could shake up prices. The next significant upgrade for Ethereum is the “Shanghai”, expected by market participants in around six months’ time, which is aimed at reducing its high transaction costs. It would allow validators, who have deposited ether tokens on the blockchain in exchange for a yield, to withdraw their staked coins, to hold or sell. There’s a lot at stake: over $20 billion of ether deposits are currently locked up, according to data provider Glassnode. The staked ether crypto coin – viewed as a bet on Ethereum’s long-term success as it cannot be redeemed until Shanghai happens – is trading at nearly parity with ether at 0.989 ether, according to CoinMarketCap data, indicating confidence in future upgrades. The coin had dropped as low as 0.92 in June. PURGE AND SPLURGE Beyond Shanghai, a slew of other upgrades are planned for Ethereum, which co-founder Vitalik Buterin has nicknamed “the surge”, “verge”, “purge” and “splurge”. The primary focus of future upgrades is likely to be on the blockchain’s ability to process more transactions. “Because the Merge was delayed for several years, investors, traders, and end-users have a great deal of trepidation around when Ethereum will meaningfully scale,” said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at blockchain-focused bank Galaxy Digital. Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY, said: “Ethereum’s future needs to, and will, scale to hundreds of millions of transactions a day.” Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics ETHEREUM KILLERS The Merge’s primary goal was to reduce Ethereum’s energy usage as cryptocurrencies come under fire for their massive carbon footprint. The blockchain’s energy consumption was cut by an estimated 99.95%, the developers claim, which could tempt powerful institutional investors, formerly constrained by environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. The Merge and future upgrades also dent the investment appeal of so-called “Ethereum killer” blockchains like Solana and Polkadot, said Adam Struck, CEO of venture capital firm Struck Crypto. However, institutional investors aren’t jumping in just yet, as a fearsome macro environment chills the waters of risk appetite. Longer-term, though, the switch to PoS is expected to decrease the rate at which ether tokens are issued – potentially by up to 90% – which should drive up prices. Additionally, annual yields of 4.1% for staking ether tokens to validate transactions could prove tempting for investors. However, while the proof-of-stake method allows for these lucrative yields, many crypto purists point out that it moves Ethereum away from a purely decentralized model as the biggest validators could exercise greater influence over the blockchain. For the time being, however, the Ethereum world might be advised to enjoy the Merge moment. “There may be volatility in the days to come,” said analysts at Kaiko Research. “But for now the community can take a well-earned victory lap.” Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pravin Char Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Read More Here

Donald Trump Slams Fani Willis After Prison Comments: “witch Hunt!” https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-slams-fani-willis-after-prison-comments-witch-hunt/ Donald Trump has once more attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after the Georgia prosecutor warned her 2020 Election investigation may result in prison sentences. In a statement, the former president reverted to his usual tactic of describing his phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where the former president asked him to “find” 11,780 votes to reverse the state’s results, as “perfect” and the investigation into whether the call amounted to election interference as a “political witch hunt.” Trump also criticized the crime rate in Atlanta, adding that the city leads the country in “murders and heinous crimes, especially on a per capita basis—even worse than now-fabled Chicago.” “Yet the District Attorney there is spending almost all of her waking hours, which aren’t many, on attempting to prosecute a very popular president, Donald J. Trump, who got more votes in 2020 than any sitting president in the history of the United States,” the former president said. “She is basing her potential claims on trying to find a tiny word or phrase (that isn’t there) during an absolutely PERFECT phone call, concerning widespread Election Fraud in Georgia, with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and many lawyers and other officials who were knowingly on the line, had no problems with the call, and didn’t voice any objections or complaints about anything that I said on the call which could be construed as inappropriate. A strictly political Witch Hunt!” Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images In July, Georgia news site 11 Alive reported the murder and assault rates per 100,000 people are higher in Atlanta than Chicago. Trump’s remarks came as Willis warned at least 17 people already being investigated as part of her probe are facing jail, as her team has collected evidence to suggest serious crimes were committed in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. “The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences,” Willis told The Washington Post. As well as Trump’s phone call with Raffensberger, Willis’ investigation is also looking into a “multi-state, coordinated plan” by the Trump campaign to influence and overturn the results of the 2020 election. Among those targeted as part of the investigation include Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 16 other people who were part of the plot to create false documents wrongly declaring the former president had beaten Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020. Dozens more people have also been subpoenaed to give evidence in front of a special grand jury that convened as part of the inquiry, and have been hearing from witnesses for the past few months. Willis did not state whether she intends to charge the former president in connection to her probe. Trump could be forced to testify in front of the special grand jury, with a decision possibly made “late this fall,” Willis told The Post. Newsweek has contacted the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for comment. Read More Here

Trump’s ‘big Lie’ Fueled A New Generation Of Social Media Influencers https://digitalarizonanews.com/trumps-big-lie-fueled-a-new-generation-of-social-media-influencers/ Accounts that rose to prominence spreading disinformation about the 2020 election now drive other polarizing debates, a Washington Post data analysis found September 20, 2022 at 6:32 a.m. EDT (Natalie Vineberg/Washington Post illustration/iStock) Three days after the 2020 election, Kyle Becker, a former Fox News producer with a modest 15,000 Twitter followers, began tweeting feverishly about election fraud. “BOMBSHELL,” he wrote on Nov. 6, sharing purported revelations that software glitches could have tipped millions of votes from President Donald Trump to challenger Joe Biden. Becker’s tweetstorm quickly went viral, drawing more than 5,000 additional followers to his account in just four hours. By the time a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol two months later, Becker had vaulted into influencer territory, supercharging his Twitter audience to 177,000. Since Becker, 46, left Fox in fall 2020, he has built his brand as a right-wing pundit. These days, he curates his own online news site; appears as a guest on conservative podcasts and TV shows; and writes a steady stream of viral, often misleading tweets on a range of topics including coronavirus vaccines, the war in Ukraine and the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Spreading election fraud claims helped Kyle Becker become an influencer Becker’s following skyrocketed in the six-month period before the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. 20 tweets with the most retweets 180k Followers declined after Jan. 6 as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users. 120k All of Becker’s most popular tweets were focused on the election. 60k Becker’s “BOMBSHELL” tweet on Nov. 6. July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June Note: Follower data is unavailable for Kyle Becker before October 2020. Number of retweets may be undercounted on deleted tweets. Spreading election fraud claims helped Kyle Becker become an influencer Becker’s following skyrocketed in the six-month period before the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. 20 tweets with the most retweets 240k followers 180k Followers declined after Jan. 6 as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users. 120k All of Becker’s most popular tweets were focused on the election. 60k Becker’s “BOMBSHELL” tweet on Nov. 6. July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June Note: Follower data is unavailable for Kyle Becker before October 2020. Number of retweets may be undercounted on deleted tweets. Spreading election fraud claims helped Kyle Becker become an influencer Becker’s following skyrocketed in the six-month period before the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. 20 tweets with the most retweets 240k followers Followers declined after Jan. 6 as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users. 180k 120k All of Becker’s most popular tweets were focused on the election. 60k Becker’s “BOMBSHELL” tweet on Nov. 6. July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June Note: Follower data is unavailable for Kyle Becker before October 2020. Number of retweets may be undercounted on deleted tweets. Becker is not alone. The 2020 election and its turbulent aftermath fueled a powerful generation of online influencers, a Washington Post data analysis has found, producing sky-high follower counts for an array of conservatives who echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, known as the “big lie.” Some doubled or tripled their audiences on Twitter, while others saw even larger gains — catapulting, like Becker, from relative obscurity to online fame. These accounts amassed followers despite vows by Big Tech companies to police election disinformation, The Post found. And they have gone on to use their powerful megaphones to shape the national debate on other subjects, injecting fresh waves of distortion into such culture-war topics as transgender rights and critical race theory. “Once they’ve gained a level of influence, they can continue to leverage that influence going forward,” said Kate Starbird, a leading expert on disinformation at the University of Washington. “Manipulation becomes embedded in the network.” To conduct its analysis, The Post identified 77 of the biggest spreaders of disinformation about the 2020 election, tracked how they built large audiences online and then analyzed how they used their new power to fuel debate on other divisive topics. The list of 77 was drawn from research by disinformation experts at Stanford, Harvard and Cornell universities, as well as the University of Washington. While the details of their methodologies differed, the researchers all culled Twitter for posts that spread misperceptions about the election and then determined which accounts had racked up the most retweets, spreading the “big lie” most widely. The list includes many well-known figures, such as Trump himself, his sons Eric and Donald Jr., Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon and others close to the administration. It includes Trump allies who gained fame specifically for their false claims of voter fraud, such as attorneys L. Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, and prominent media figures such as Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Josh Caplan of Breitbart News. But it includes many lesser lights as well — conservative pundits, self-described citizen-journalists and others famous mainly for being online. Commentator Candace Owens, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec and YouTuber Tim Pool are on the list. So are QAnon proponent Tracy Diaz (a.k.a. “Tracy Beanz”), the anonymous @catturd2 account and an Arizona man who went by the handle @prayingmedic before Twitter suspended him following the Jan. 6 insurrection. By tracking follower counts on Twitter and Facebook, The Post found that this group rose steeply in popularity in the six months before the Jan. 6 riot, gaining a stunning 25 million followers on the two platforms. For those who already boasted massive audiences, most grew their followings by at least 50 percent by posting about election fraud. For those with more modest audiences — about 1 in 5 on the list — the payoff for sowing doubt in the election was even bigger. Some surged in status: Becker’s Twitter audience grew by more than 1,000 percent. Like him, some have turned selling outrage into a day job or lucrative side hustle, collecting ad dollars, donations and speaking fees for disseminating their views. How the ‘big lie’ created a new class of mega-influencers that outlasted Trump Follower counts stagnated after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but jumped again when Elon Musk announced his Twitter purchase. 1m more 500k more Average 500k fewer Many lost followers as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users after Jan. 6. 1m fewer 1.5m fewer July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June How the ‘big lie’ created a new class of mega-influencers that outlasted Trump Follower counts stagnated after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but jumped again when Elon Musk announced his Twitter purchase. 1m more 500k more Average 500k fewer Many lost followers as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users after Jan. 6. 1m fewer 1.5m fewer July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June How the ‘big lie’ created a new class of mega-influencers that outlasted Trump Follower counts stagnated after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but jumped again when Elon Musk announced his Twitter purchase. Stagnating followers 1m more 500k more Average 500k fewer Many lost followers as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users after Jan. 6. 1m fewer 1.5m fewer July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June How the ‘big lie’ created a new class of mega-influencers that outlasted Trump Follower counts stagnated after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but jumped again when Elon Musk announced his Twitter purchase. Rapid gain in followers Stagnating followers 1m more 500k more Average 500k fewer Many lost followers as Twitter removed QAnon adherents and other users after Jan. 6. 1m fewer 1.5m fewer July 2020 Jan. 2021 July Jan. 2022 June Most members of the 77, including Trump, either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to be interviewed. Of those who did respond, several defended their behavior online, saying they merely raised questions about complex topics worthy of public scrutiny. Some criticized the tech companies for banning users who tried to engage in public debate about controversial topics. Pool, for example, sidestepped questions about a litany of tweets pointing out instances of election fraud. In an email exchange, he noted that he has said he believes Biden won the election and that he has repeatedly stated on his podcast “that [Trump is] wrong, that the claims are unproven, and many are easily debunked.” He added: “Evidence of fraud is not proof that fraud changed the election.” Becker defended his messages online and denied knowingly spreading misinformation about the election or other topics. Via LinkedIn messages, he criticized The Post’s efforts to scrutinize influencers who discuss election fraud, saying it “furthers the persistent media bias that ‘right is bad’ while ‘left is good.’ ” “I never used the words the ‘election was stolen’ or that ‘Trump won, Biden lost’ or anything like that. I highlighted articles that appeared to be evidence of election malfeasance,” Becker wrote. “ ‘Rigging an election’ can mean many things, by the way, and that includes changing laws without the proper legal channels.” The tech companies say they took action to penalize spreaders of election misinformation, especially those who promoted the insurrection. But Twitter banned only 12 of the 77 “big lie” influencers in the period around the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riot, The Post found, including Trump. (Eight others already had been banned or were banned later.) YouTube — the only major tech com...

The State Of Hate: Extremism Is On The Rise In Florida https://digitalarizonanews.com/the-state-of-hate-extremism-is-on-the-rise-in-florida/ Extremism is on the rise in the Sunshine State as new white supremacist groups have sprung up in the nearly two years since Donald Trump lost the presidential election. Per a new Anti-Defamation League report on the state of extremism and anti-semitism in Florida, new groups like White Lives Matter, Sunshine State Nationalists and Florida Nationalists have begun recruiting and demonstrating, while more established extremist Florida groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been shifting their focus to local politics. Driving the news: The ADL Center on Extremism report’s top-line finding is that Florida is home to an extensive and interconnected network of white supremacists and other far-right extremist groups you’ve probably never heard of. And extremist-related incidents in Florida rose 71% between 2020 and 2021. Zoom in: The report notes a slew of extremist incidents in the Tampa Bay area over the last two years, including: Swastikas spray-painted on the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Pete Neo-Nazi propaganda distributed in Sarasota A private New Year’s Eve party in Lakeland for the Vinlanders Social Club, “a racist skinhead crew.” The latest: The Center for Extremism says there was “a significant increase” in Florida-centric violent rhetoric in right-wing online spaces this past August, after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Read the report Support local journalism by becoming a member. Learn more More Tampa Bay stories No stories could be found Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Tampa Bay. Support local journalism by becoming a member. Learn more Read More Here

Latino Voters Are Being Flooded With Even More Misinformation In 2022 https://digitalarizonanews.com/latino-voters-are-being-flooded-with-even-more-misinformation-in-2022/ Gabriella Trujillo for Vox Democrats blamed misinformation for some of their losses with Latino voters in 2020. But the problem is getting more entwined with the party’s failures with Latinos. Part of The power and potential of Latino voters, from The Highlight, Vox’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world. Esta historia también está disponible en español. The distortion begins by using Joe Biden’s own words against him: “I’m going to go down as one of the most progressive presidents in American history,” the then-presidential candidate says at the start of the video. Emblazoned across Biden for those three seconds is a Spanish translation of his statement: “Seré uno de los presidentes más progresistas de la historia Americana.” “Progresistas” — or progressives, in English — remains onscreen. But the next four people to invoke the word in this 30-second campaign ad for Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection effort were meant to inspire fear: Hugo Chávez, the socialist former leader of Venezuela, his successor Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and the now-president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. As the spot closes, the word remains — but now it’s followed by “progresistas=socialista.” Biden, of course, is no socialist. And this ad, published on YouTube in August 2020, was a sampling of one of the Trump campaign’s most successful political messages aimed at Latino voters. Painting Biden as a radical leftist by invoking the specter of Latin American socialism struck at the immigrant heritage of many voters in South Florida who had fled those countries. But the ad is also an example of a larger phenomenon Latino communities continue to face: the spread of misleading, exaggerated, and false information, online and in traditional media. Some variation of the Trump socialism ad reached over 1.5 million people on Facebook, fueled WhatsApp group chats, and, inevitably, sparked fact–checks from liberals, activists, and journalists. In 2020, millions of Latinos living in the United States faced a deluge of false political and health information that they often had to vet on their own. Now, as the 2022 midterm elections pick up, researchers and academics tell me that the problem of false and misleading information in the Latino community is becoming more widespread — and that it’s getting harder to separate misinformation from standard political speech. Democrats, who have blamed misinformation for their party’s recent underperformance with Latino voters, risk further misunderstanding Latino voters by confusing the problem of misinformation with their own lack of strategy. Republicans, meanwhile, have been happy to weaponize misinformation and propagate these very same bogus claims. Throughout 2020 and 2021, researchers and academics tracked lies, conspiracy theories, and false information as they spread across social media, local and mainstream news sources, and through statements from politicians and influencers. Their conclusion? A wave of misinformation enveloped Latino communities and Spanish-language spaces in 2020, reaching prospective voters and Covid-anxious Americans during a year of crisis, and potentially affected the results of the 2020 election by boosting Trump and Republican candidates. Many of these researchers tell me they are already seeing new conspiracy theories, claims, and distortions spreading among Latino communities. The latest wave of misinfo, they say, has been fueled by culture war battles about gender identity and abortion, economic fears pegged to inflation and climate policy, voter fraud conspiracy theories, and, more recently, investigations into Trump’s post-election conduct. “Many millions of Latinos voted for the first time in 2020, and 2022 is going to be the first time that many millions more will vote,” Jerónimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told me. “You have the perfect storm for Latinos to be involved in this whole misinformation aspect, and they represent a new constituency that can be swayed toward one political party.” Democrats are especially worried, given the signs of weakening Latino support in 2020. But for Democrats in campaign mode, tackling misinformation may be less about policy and regulation, and more about winning the age-old persuasion game of politics. Misinformation has come to mean a lot of things, but a consensus academic definition is a good place to start: “the sharing of inaccurate and misleading information in an unintentional way,” “Misinformation” is the most all-encompassing term for misleading, hyperpartisan, or incorrect statements. Intent isn’t required to make something misinformation; some of it spreads organically, through social media memes and satire, misreporting of real news, and polarized and politically charged speech. It is different from “disinformation,” “information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.” The Trump campaign’s Biden-is-a-socialist ad is an example of how disinformation — or something that’s intentionally wrong or misleading — can turn into misinformation as it spreads through social feeds and becomes something people believe. The story of misinformation in 2020 can be divided into two general categories: lies and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic, and political misinformation around the 2020 presidential election. False and misleading information about the coronavirus, masking and vaccines, and the severity of Covid-19 continued to spread well into 2021, but researchers told me that these kinds of falsehoods have since died down a bit as the country has moved into a new phase of the pandemic. Political misinformation is harder to identify and refute because of the intrinsic link between politics, persuasion, and some degree of stretching the truth. Even though it’s provably false, it’s hard to classify political speech like the “Biden is a socialist” line that the Trump campaign used so effectively, partially because that claim suggests a moral judgment about Biden and liberal politics. That kind of claim is harder to disprove to many conservative-minded Latino voters. These kinds of politically charged, misleading speech continue to abound on social media, on television, and from public figures in the Latino community. In 2020, falsehoods flowed about divisive political and social issues: fearmongering about Black Lives Matter protests, conspiracy theories about illegal immigration and Biden’s progressive politics, and lies about voter fraud and mail-in voting. They spread to the Latino community through tweets, doctored photos and viral video clips, out-of-context quotes, and radio and YouTube broadcasts, and were shared in encrypted text apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, Facebook groups, and TikTok videos. Democrats began to take the phenomenon more seriously after Election Day, when vote-counting and validated voter surveys revealed that Republicans had performed much better than expected among Latino voters across the country, especially in South Florida, and in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. In South Florida, where Trump ended up significantly improving on his 2016 showing, helping to win the state and flip two majority-Latino Democratic House seats, conspiracy theories and blatant lies had filled the Latino media ecosystem. Those messages ramped up after Election Day. In December 2021, the Associated Press reported on misleading headlines and fabricated stories that spread in Spanish around the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, while anti-abortion messaging campaigns distorted Biden and Kamala Harris’s positions on abortion after the leak of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, a longtime Democratic strategist who tracks Spanish misinformation, told me she was one of the first researchers to call out the severity of the problem, including the spread of QAnon conspiracies through text chains on WhatsApp and Telegram. She’s since watched how those platforms have allowed newer waves of misinformation and conspiracy theories to spread. After the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, for example, Pérez-Verdía saw how rumors that the shooter was transgender or an undocumented immigrant lit up conservative Spanish-language chats on WhatsApp. It followed a theme: The right-wing culture war on gender identity that picked up earlier this year had made it to these Spanish-language internet platforms. And because so many Latino Americans use these forms of communication, these narratives could spread more easily. “We’re seeing a religious perspective on many social issues, attacks of the LGBTQ community, and focused on specifically the transgender community and transgender children,” she told me. Of course, many of these narratives aren’t unique to Latino communities. Accusing opponents of being groomers or socialists, or distorting their political or policy views, affects just about every community in an extremely online nation. What has changed is how quickly some of these falsehoods and twisted stories spread through social media. And Latinos in the United States spend a disproportionate amount of time on social media like WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube, when compared to other demographic groups in the United States. Worse, the fact-checking, vetting, and content moderation resources that are already stretched thin on English-language platforms aren’t applied with the same rigor in Spanish-language media. Though using encrypted text apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to spread political information and debate about American politics was relatively new in 2020, now politics is everywhere on these platforms, and so is misinformation. Inga Trauthig, a...

Congress Eyes Strongest Response Yet To Jan. 6 Attack https://digitalarizonanews.com/congress-eyes-strongest-response-yet-to-jan-6-attack/ Posted: September 20, 2022 – 5:41am WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are voting this week on changes to a 19th century law for certifying presidential elections, their strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. The vote to overhaul the Electoral Count Act, expected Wednesday, comes as a bipartisan group of senators is moving forward with a similar bill. Lawmakers in both parties have said they want to change the arcane law before it is challenged again. Trump and his allies tried to exploit the law’s vague language in the weeks after the election as they strategized how they could keep Joe Biden out of office, including by lobbying Vice President Mike Pence to simply object to the certification of Biden’s victory when Congress counted the votes on Jan. 6. Pence refused to do so, but it was clear afterward that there was no real legal framework, or recourse, to respond under the 1887 law if the vice president had tried to block the count. The House and Senate bills would better define the vice president’s ministerial role and make clear that he or she has no say in the final outcome. Both versions would also make it harder for lawmakers to object if they don’t like the results of an election, clarify laws that could allow a state’s vote to be delayed, and ensure that there is only one slate of legal electors from each state. One strategy by Trump and his allies was to create alternate slates of electors in key states Biden won, with the ultimately unsuccessful idea that they could be voted on during the congressional certification on Jan. 6 and result in throwing the election back to Trump. “We’ve got to make this more straightforward to respect the will of the people,” said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., whose committee will hold a vote on the legislation bill next week. “We don’t want to risk Jan. 6 happening again,” she said. The bills are a response to the violence of that day, when a mob of Trump’s supporters pushed past police, broke into the building and interrupted Biden’s certification. The crowd was echoing Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud and calling for Pence’s death after it became clear that he wouldn’t try to overturn the election. Democrats in both chambers have felt even more urgency on the issue as Trump is considering another run for president and is still claiming the election was stolen. Many Republicans say they believe him, even though 50 states certified Biden’s win and courts across the country rejected Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud. While the House vote is expected to fall mostly along party lines, the Senate bill has some Republican support and its backers are hopeful they will have the 10 votes they need to break a filibuster and pass it in the 50-50 Senate. But that could be tricky amid campaigning for the November midterm elections, and Republicans most aligned with Trump are certain to oppose it. The Senate Rules panel is expected to pass the measure next Tuesday, with some tweaks, though a floor vote will most likely wait until November or December, Klobuchar said. Even though they are similar, the House version is more expansive than the Senate bill and the two chambers will have some key differences that lawmakers will have to work out. The House legislation was introduced on Monday by House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both members of the House panel that has been investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Like the Senate bill, the House legislation would require that there is a single set of electors from each state submitted by the governor. The House bill would also narrow the grounds on which members of Congress could object to any state’s electoral votes and raise the threshold for how many objections would be needed. Currently, the House and Senate each debate and vote on whether to accept a state’s electors if there is just one objection from each chamber. The House bill would require instead that a third of the House and a third of the Senate object to a particular state’s electors in order to hold a vote. The Senate bill would require that a fifth of each chamber object. Two such votes were held on Jan. 6, 2021, after the rioters were cleared, because GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri joined dozens of House members in objecting to Biden’s victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Both the House and Senate voted to certify the legitimate results. Lofgren said the American people should be deciding the election, not Congress. People who wanted to overturn the election “took advantage of ambiguous language as well as a low threshold to have Congress play a role that they really aren’t supposed to play,” she said. The general similarities of the House bill to the Senate version could be a signal that House members are willing to compromise to get the legislation passed. Some House members had criticized the Senate bill for not going far enough. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of both the Jan. 6 and House Administration committees, had said this summer that the Senate bill was not “remotely sufficient” to address the challenges presented by current law. House members know they will have to give in some, though, to pass it through the 50-50 Senate. There are currently nine GOP senators and seven Democrats on the Senate bill, which is sponsored by centrist Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins said Monday, “I believe we can work this out, and I hope that we do so.” The bipartisan group of senators worked for months to find agreement on a way to revamp the process, eventually settling on a series of proposals introduced in July. Klobuchar’s Republican counterpart on the Senate Rules Committee, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, has also been supportive. “This is something we shouldn’t carry over into another election cycle,” Blunt said at a Senate hearing in August. Read More Here

Stock Futures Dip With Fed Set To Kick Off September Meeting On Tuesday https://digitalarizonanews.com/stock-futures-dip-with-fed-set-to-kick-off-september-meeting-on-tuesday/ Stock futures slipped Tuesday as Wall Street looked to build on a modest rebound ahead of another rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures shed 0.3%, and those for the Nasdaq 100 traded 0.5% lower. The Federal Open Markets Committee kicks off its September meeting on Tuesday, and the central bankers are expected to announce a 0.75 percentage point rate hike on Wednesday. Stocks have tumbled in recent weeks as comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and an unexpectedly hot August consumer price index report caused traders to prepare for even higher rates until inflation cools. “I think last week a lot of the work was done to reset interest rate expectations,” said Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones. “The momentum in equity markets is to the downside. … Until we establish that pattern of lower [inflation] readings, it’s going to be hard to reverse that elevated uncertainty and volatility that we are seeing,” Kourkafas added. During a choppy trading session on Monday, stocks rose in the afternoon to snap a two-day losing streak and claw back some of their recent losses. The Dow rose 197 points, or about 0.6%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained roughly 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. However, after the market closed on Monday, Ford announced that supply chain issues would cost the automaker an extra $1 billion in the third quarter. Shares fell nearly 5% in premarket trading. On the economic front, investors will get a fresh look at the housing market on Tuesday morning with the August reports for housing starts and building permits. German producer prices soar 45.8% year-on-year in August German producer price inflation hit 45.8% year-on-year in August, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday, driven by soaring energy prices. The reading vastly outstripped a Dow Jones consensus forecast of 37.9%, while on a monthly basis, the producer price index rose 7.9% against a forecast of 1.6%. The PPI reading excluding energy, however, was 0.4% on the month and 13% on the year. – Elliot Smith Sweden’s central bank launches 100 basis point rate hike, says ‘inflation is too high’ Sweden’s Riksbank on Tuesday launched a 100 basis point hike to interest rates, taking its main policy rate to 1.75%, as it warned that “inflation is too high.” In a statement, the central bank said soaring inflation was “undermining households’ purchasing power and making it more difficult for both companies and households to plan their finances.” Read more here. – Elliot Smith European markets choppy as Fed meeting gets underway European markets were choppy on Tuesday, struggling to build on the previous session’s broadly higher trade. The pan-European Stoxx 600 hovered marginally below the flatline by mid-morning, having given back opening gains of more than 0.9%. Banks added 1.5% while retail stocks fell 1.8%. – Elliot Smith CNBC Pro: Fund manager says the bear market is going to get ‘nasty’ Fund manager Cole Smead believes the stock market is still in the early innings of a bear market — and warns that it won’t be a “garden variety” one. But, he is not losing any sleep over it. Here’s why: Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong China keeps key lending rates unchanged The People’s Bank of China kept its one-year and five-year loan prime rates (LPR) unchanged, in line with predictions in a Reuters poll. The one-year loan prime rate remains at 3.65%, and the five-year rate closely tied to home mortgages stands at 4.3%. China cut both those rates last month. — Abigail Ng Ford under pressure after supply chain warning Shares of Ford fell more than 4% in extended trading after the automaker warned it would take a $1 billion hit due to supply chain costs for the third quarter. Ford set that an inability get all the parts it needs could delay delivery for more than 40,000 vehicles to dealerships. The company did say it expects those vehicles to be moved during the fourth quarter and reiterated its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings before interest and taxes. — Jesse Pound Stock futures open higher U.S. stock futures opened modestly higher on Monday evening, suggesting that the late-day rise for equities may carry over into the next session. Nasdaq 100 futures were the early leaders, but were still up just 0.2%. — Jesse Pound Stocks break losing streak on Monday The three major indexes ended positive today — breaking multi-day losing streaks — as the markets came out of last week’s sell-off. SPDR S&P 500 and Invesco QQQ both surpassed their 30-day average volume. Approximately three stocks in the New York Stock Exchange advanced for every two that declined. Nine of 11 sectors were positive, with materials up the highest at 1.6%. Of those that fell, health care posted the greatest loss going down approximately 0.5%. The U.S. two-year, five-year and 10-year Treasury notes all hit highs not seen in more than a decade. DJ Transports gained nearly 2%, breaking a four-day losing streak. It was the largest gain of any of the major U.S. indices, which all were positive at the close. — Alex Harring, Chris Hayes Read More Here

New Trump Tome https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-trump-tome/ The Divider is the latest in what has become a procession of books about the Trump presidency, but there are reasons to think it arrives right on time. Even after several Cabinet-level advisors, family members and former staff at various levels have unloaded their recollections, and after some of the biggest names in journalism have weighed in, the husband-and-wife team of Peter Baker and Susan Glasser still tell a story that insists on attention like a fresh wound. Donald Trump may have lasted only four years in the White House but, unlike other one-term presidents, his era and aura seem unending. His grip on the Republican Party appear as viselike as ever, his insistence on his pre-eminence unabated. He cannot even acknowledge that he lost, and insists he has a right to act as if he hadn’t. And more than a third of the country professes to believe him. The threat to democracy detailed in these pages did not begin with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, nor did it end there. As the authors of The Divided themselves conclude in their Epilogue, Trump “emerged from a seven-million-vote defeat, two impeachments and the January 6 insurrection as the dominant force in the Republican Party.” And, as they observe a few pages earlier: “With Donald Trump, it was never over.” At this juncture, the only question about his running again in 2024 seems to be the date of his official announcement. That is ultimately why such a look back at his term seems as much a look forward to what may be in store. Baker and Glasser were leading lights at the Washington Post before moving on to The New York Times and The New Yorker, respectively. They have written two previous well-received histories, on Russia’s Vladimir Putin (Kremlin Rising) and America’s James A. Baker III (The Man Who Ran Washington). In taking on Trump, this team is less obsessed with nuggets of news or undisclosed revelations about Trump’s actions and words while in office. That lode has been mined and, well, in at least a dozen previous works including the hugely popular trilogies by revered reporter Bob Woodward and renowned magazine profiler Michael Wolff. Such salvos have been booming out from big-name authors since early 2018. Baker and Glasser have a different aim here, and they have produced the first comprehensive look at the full four years as a one-volume history worthy of being called a chronicle. Weighing in at more than 650 pages, the text and notes are daunting to behold. As a sumptuous feast of astonishing tales, it may hold wonderments indeed for those first contemplating the enormity of the Trump phenomenon. For them, this could be like a child’s first encounter with Harry Potter or an adolescent’s first taste of Tolkien. But even a reader steeped in years of Trump coverage and well-versed in the precedent literature may be surprised at how compelling this narrative proves to be. The more one reads, the more one wishes to read. Beginning with Day One The authors begin with Trump’s first day in the Oval Office, Jan. 20, 2017, the day of the inaugural address that became known as the “American carnage” speech. Upon first entering the Oval, Trump is reported to have been pre-occupied with the quality of the light available for picture taking. This leads to a discussion of Trump’s careerlong obsession with appearances in general and his own in particular, asking aides: “‘How’s the look.” The new president, we are told, “wanted to project himself as the hero America had been waiting for, a strong man for troubled times… Were these merely the weird quirks of a vain septuagenarian? Or the menacing affectations of an aspiring dictator?” Through this and 31 additional chapters, the authors leave little doubt as to their own conclusion. Their tour of the four years hits upon nearly every incident a reader is likely to recall of Trump’s term from the effort to bar arrivals in the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries to the government shutdown for the sake of a border wall to Trump’s final refusal to attend the inauguration of his successor. Each chapter has a title that may jog the memory, including Trump’s reference to the top Pentagon brass as “My Generals,” his boasting “I like conflict” and his mocking references to “Russia, Russia, Russia” — his derisive way of conjuring the “witch hunt” into Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign. They then walk us through a recounting of Trump’s non-stop controversies and crises from the initial effort to ban entrants from predominantly Muslim countries in his first days in office to his final flailing efforts to somehow derail the process of his removal from office, including January 6 and the still-festering sore of his refusal to concede. Along the way are many touchpoints that seem further back in time than they actually are. Was it just five years ago Trump was erecting legal walls against entrants from Muslim countries and trying to build a real one from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico? Or that he fired FBI Director James Comey, triggering the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the rise of Attorney General Bill Barr and the neutering of Mueller’s report? We return to all these moments through the eyes of those who participated, trying to restrain the president while carrying out his wishes — trying to meet his constant loyalty tests while honoring their larger commitments to the law, the Constitution and the country. We learn that some of these officials were in nearly constant turmoil over their Trump-induced conflicts. Examples include Cabinet members Kirstjen Nielsen at Homeland Security and Alex Azar at Health and Human Services, who it is reported agreed to a “suicide pact” by which they would resign together if Trump reinstated the family separation policy instituted by his hardline immigration adviser Stephen Miller. Nielsen said if she wrote a book about her time serving Trump she would call it Honey, Just Do It — the form his instructions to her often took. Staying current In an alert to issues that have remained salient since Trump left office, the authors devote multiple chapters to the immigration saga, including the elevation of Miller to a kind of ex officio status as the issue’s “czar” within the White House. Miller is quoted talking of his “coronation” and his eagerness to “go full Napoleon” on that front. We also see Trump’s demand for the wall lead to the shut down of much of the federal government for five weeks in early 2019. Inevitably, several chapters are devoted to the Mueller probe and the frustration that grew from Attorney General Bill Barr’s efforts to interpret it and hide the unredacted original. The chapters are grouped into sections that do not quite coincide with the four years of the term, in part because two of the five sections are devoted to the protracted struggles of 2020 — first with COVID and then with the results of the election. In both cases, Trump simply refused to accept the reality that confronted him — whether the lethality of the virus or the verdict of the voters. Much of this is familiar from news accounts, although it is still arresting to see how many people were telling Trump his approach to the pandemic was not only wrong factually but politically wrong-headed. Not only did his informal confidant Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, tell him so, First Lady Melania Trump did too. “You’re blowing this,” they are reported to have said. But Trump remained unmoved. Whether dealing with the pandemic or the Electoral College, Trump simply insisted he knew better — better than the doctors, better than the election administrators in his own party. It catches up to him in both instances. Not only does he contract COVID himself, he makes the election a kind of referendum on his handling of it. Not only does he refuse to concede his re-election loss, he risks the general confidence of the public in the democratic process. The nation’s losses due to COVID may have peaked, but the damage from the electoral denial may have only begun. Heroes and villains The Divider is a rushing torrent of anecdotes and recollections. A reader may plunge in at any point and pull up a pail of Trump at full tilt. At the White House in those final weeks, the more realistic of Trump’s inner circle were doing what defeated presidential staffers have always done. They were heading out to find new jobs and make a new plan. In their wake arrived a band of reality spurning denialists who camped out in the Oval Office and persuaded Trump he could ignore the voters, the Electoral College and the peaceful transfer of power. Baker and Glasser present a clear contrast between heroes and villains in Trump’s ambit, in those final days. Preeminent among the heroes is Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who lends his full rank and prestige in blocking any use of the armed services to overturn the election and keep Trump in office. Milley will be familiar to readers of earlier Trump histories, as the general appears to have been a major source for several authors. There are also salient figures among the post-election villains, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conspiracy-minded lawyer Sidney Powell. And then there is the former Army general Michael Flynn, convicted of lying to the FBI about his foreign contacts but pardoned by Trump. Flynn inserts himself in the White House late in 2020, arguing for imposition of martial law. Mark Meadows, the last of Trump’s four chiefs of staff, comes off as a pleaser who told all sides what they wanted to hear — that the president was getting more realistic and ready to leave office, or on the contrary that he was ready to fight and keep fighting. In every case we see individuals whose careers or professional standing had been made, renewed or greatly enhanced by their association with a pre...

Battle To Liberate Occupied Luhansk Leaves Proxy Leaders Worried; Top Official Urges Vote On Joining Russia https://digitalarizonanews.com/battle-to-liberate-occupied-luhansk-leaves-proxy-leaders-worried-top-official-urges-vote-on-joining-russia/ Top Russian official says breakaway regions must hold votes to join Russia Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that it is “essential” for Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine to hold referenda on becoming a part of Russia. Medvedev, now deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, claimed that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) would have their interests protected if they became a part of Russia. “Referendums in the Donbas are essential, not only for the systematic protection of residents of the LPR, DPR and other liberated territories, but also for the restoration of historic justice,” Medvedev said in a message on Telegram. “Encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime, the commission of which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense,” Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev. Alexey Nikolsky | Afp | Getty Images “After their implementation and the acceptance of new territories into Russia, the geopolitical transformation in the world will become irreversible,” he added, implying that becoming a part of Russia would enable Moscow to justify defending such territories, which are already seen as under Moscow’s control. “Encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime, the commission of which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense,” he said, adding “that is why these referendums are so feared in Kyiv and in the West. That is why they need to be carried out.” Medvedev’s comments come after the separatist leaders of the DPR and LHR stepped up calls to hold immediate votes on joining Russia, calls that come as Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast of the country starts to spread, putting pressure on the Luhansk, a region Russia claimed to have fully occupied in July. — Holly Ellyatt Russia likely to have relocated submarines away from Crimea Russia has almost certainly relocated its Kilo-class submarines from their home port in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea to southern Russia, according to the latest intelligence update from Britain’s Ministry of Defense. “The command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has almost certainly relocated its KILO-class submarines from their home port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai, southern Russia,” the ministry said on Tuesday. The Russian Navy’s Kilo-class submarine Rostov-na-Donu B-237 enters the Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on Feb. 13, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. Dia Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images This is highly likely due to a heightened security threat level following an increased Ukrainian long-range strike capability, the ministry added, and following recent attacks on the fleet headquarters and its main naval aviation airfield. “Guaranteeing the Black Sea Fleet’s Crimea basing was likely one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations for annexing the peninsula in 2014. Base security has now been directly undermined by Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine,” the ministry said. — Holly Ellyatt Battle to liberate occupied Luhansk proceeds as Russian proxies look worried Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast of the country continues, with the region of Luhansk believed to be no longer under the full control of Russian forces. One Ukrainian official stated on Monday that Kyiv’s forces had retaken control of the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk. Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said on Telegram on Mondat that Bilohorivka “has been cleared and is completely under the control of the Armed Forces.” “We should all be patient in anticipation of the large-scale deoccupation of Luhansk region. This process will be much more difficult than in Kharkiv region. There will be a hard fight for every centimeter of Luhansk land. The enemy is preparing for defense,” he said. Meanwhile, Russian authorities and their proxies appear to be worried about Ukraine’s gains in an area of the country where there are two self-proclaimed “republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk. A photo taken on June 17, 2022, shows a destroyed school in the village of Bilohorivka not far from Lysychansk in the Luhansk region which was seized by Russian forces in early July. Anatolii Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed separatist Donetsk region, called on his fellow separatist leader in Luhansk on Monday to combine efforts aimed at preparing a speedy referendum on joining Russia.  In a video posted on his telegram channel, he told Luhansk People’s Republic leader Leonid Pasechnik in a phone call that “our actions should be synchronized.” Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said the desire to hold a rapid referendum “suggests that Ukraine’s ongoing northern counter-offensive is panicking proxy forces and some Kremlin decision-makers.”  The ISW’s analysts said referenda would be “incoherent” as “Russian forces do not control all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.” “Partial annexation at this stage would … place the Kremlin in the strange position of demanding that Ukrainian forces un-occupy ‘Russian’ territory, and the humiliating position of being unable to enforce that demand. It remains very unclear that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to place himself in such a bind for the dubious benefit of making it easier to threaten NATO or Ukraine with escalation he remains highly unlikely to conduct at this stage,” they said. — Holly Ellyatt UK says it will match current support for Ukraine in 2023 The U.K.’s newly elected prime minister Liz Truss is expected to announce a multibillion-pound stimulus package to help people with soaring energy prices. Carl Court / Staff / Getty Images The U.K. has announced that in 2023 it will meet or exceed the amount of military aid spent on Ukraine this year. Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to announce during a visit to the United Nations in New York this week that leaders “must put an end to Putin’s economic blackmail by removing all energy dependence on Russia,” acording to a pre-released statement by the government. Truss will use her visit to New York this week to solidify the U.K.’s “commitment to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity, with the announcement that the UK will match or exceed our record 2022 military support to Ukraine next year,” the government said. The U.K. said Ukraine’s gains in the conflict in the last couple of weeks amounted to “a significant moment in the war” and said this success is evidence of what the Ukrainian people can do with the backing of fellow democracies. Missile strikes near Ukraine nuclear plant, IAEA says A. Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, May 1, 2022. AP An explosion near a Ukraine power plant damaged windows and power lines but did not impact the operation of the three reactors there, Kyiv told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday. The blast from the shelling occurred about 300 meters, or 984 feet, from the industrial site of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in Mykolaiv Province, the IAEA said in a press release. No staff were injured by the missile, which impacted three power lines that were swiftly reconnected, Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom told the IAEA. Ukrainian authorities reportedly called the shelling an act of “nuclear terrorism” by Russia. The IAEA also said its experts discovered that a power line used to supply electricity to another nuclear plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, had been disconnected Sunday. Zaporizhzia, located in southeastern Ukraine, is Europe’s largest power plant, and has six reactors that are currently in a “cold shutdown state,” the IAEA said. The plant still receives the electricity it needs for essential safety functions, but it now does not have access to back-up power from the Ukrainian grid, the IAEA experts said. The disconnected power line transferred electricity from the Ukrainian grid through the switchyard of a nearby thermal power station, the IAEA said. It was not immediately clear how the line was disconnected. “The situation at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile and precarious,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the press release. “Last week, we saw some improvements regarding its power supplies, but today we were informed about a new setback in this regard. The plant is located in the middle of a war zone, and its power status is far from safe and secure. Therefore, a nuclear safety and security protection zone must urgently be established there,” Grossi said. — Kevin Breuninger Mon, Sep 19 20223:41 AM EDT Putin relying increasingly on volunteer and proxy forces for Ukraine combat: ISW Russia is relying more and more on volunteer and proxy forces for its combat operations in Ukraine, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). “(Russian President) Putin’s souring relationship with the military command and the Russian (MoD) may explain in part the Kremlin’s increasing focus on recruiting ill-prepared volunteers into ad-hoc irregular units rather than attempting to draw them into reserve or replacement pools for regular Russian combat units,” the ISW said. Part of this, it said, is due to Putin “bypassing the Russian higher military command and Ministry of Defense (MoD) leadership throughout the summer and especially following the defeat around #Kharkiv Oblast.” — Natasha Turak Mon, Sep 19 20223:41 AM EDT Russian troops strike nuclear power plant; reactors still intact Russian forces struck a nuclear power plant ...

HIRU CORPORATION – Major Equipment Purchase And Expansion https://digitalarizonanews.com/hiru-corporation-major-equipment-purchase-and-expansion/ Get instant alerts when news breaks on your stocks. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here. , /PRNewswire/ — Hiru Corporation (OTC Markets: HIRU), a Georgia corporation (the “Company” or “HIRU”), would like to announce that the Company has reached final terms with Sports Quest, Inc. to purchase its automated water bottling line. The Company will purchase the gallon size water bottling line from Sports Quest, Inc. in exchange for a block of Common Stock. The bottling line is a flat cap, gallon bottling line which will assist in meeting the volume requirements of our largest grocery chain the Company has been servicing and potentially land even larger invoices for this same size water bottle. In full daily production, this new bottling line has the capacity to produce up to 57,600 gallons per day. Ms. Kathryn Gavin (President and CEO of the Company), states…” This equipment acquisition is huge for the Company as it will allow us to almost complete the operational footprint of our manufacturing facility.  Additionally, I am happy to announce that we will hit, if not beat, all our previously stated revenue goals for calendar year 2022 as well as 2023. Upon close of this equipment purchase, delivery of the bottling line, and its installation, I will no longer be associated in an advisory capacity with Sports Quest, Inc. which will allow me to fully focus on our Arizona operations to maximize top line revenue. While I enjoyed my advisory job and worked well with their team, this will allow me to focus solely on our Company operations moving forward” More details will follow on timely bases. Disclaimer Regarding Forward Looking Statements Certain statements that we make may constitute “forward-looking statements” under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information concerning future strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated savings, financial results (including expenses, earnings, liquidity, cash flow and capital expenditures), industry or market conditions, demand for and pricing of our products, acquisitions and divestitures, anticipated results of litigation and regulatory developments or general economic conditions.  In addition, words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “projects,” “forecasts,” and future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “may,” “could,” “should,” and “would,” as well as any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions.  Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.  We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. ABOUT US Hiru Corp. is a Georgia corporation, is a public quoted Pink Sheet OTC issuer under the ticker symbol “HIRU” (the “Company”). The Company reports as an alternative reporting issuer with OTC Markets Group, Inc. and is current in its mandatory required filings (e.g., Pink Sheet Current). Currently, the Company has one wholly owned, operational subsidiary, AZ Custom Bottled Water, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“AZ Water”), which owns and operates a commercial water bottling and labeling facility based in Phoenix, Arizona. AZ Water operates a B2C website at https://azcustombottledwater.com/. CONTACT:  5524 N 51st AvenueGlendale, Arizona 85301Web Site: www.waterandiceshop.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/hirucorp View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hiru-corporation–major-equipment-purchase-and-expansion-301627828.html SOURCE Hiru Corporation Read More…

Crowded House Reschedule North American Leg Of ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ Tour https://digitalarizonanews.com/crowded-house-reschedule-north-american-leg-of-dreamers-are-waiting-tour/ Crowded House have shared details for the rescheduled North American leg of their ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ tour, now set to commence in 2023. Kicking off in Canada at Vancouver’s Orpheum on May 2, Crowded House will then undertake a further 17 shows throughout the month, including two back-to-back performances at Los Angeles’ Wiltern. You can check out all the date below. The North American leg was originally due to commence in Philadelphia last month, but was postponed after drummer Elroy Finn sustained a “painful” injury to his lower back. At the time, frontman Neil Finn said: “We are advised that there may be some risk in the recovery process for him to play shows at this time. The good health and future well-being of the band members has to be our priority.” Tickets for original show dates remain valid for the new run. Remaining tickets are on sale now for all new shows. The tour comes in support of (and is named for) Crowded House’s seventh album, last year’s Dreamers Are Waiting. The release marked Crowded House’s first album in 11 years, heralded by its lead single, “To The Island”. Crowded House’s ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ 2023 US tour dates are as follows: MAY: Tuesday 2 – Vancouver, BC, Orpheum Wednesday 3 – Seattle, WA, Paramount Theatre Thursday 4 – Portland, OR, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Saturday 6 – Oakland, CA, Fox Theater Monday 8 – Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern Tuesday 9 – Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern Wednesday 10 – Mesa, AZ, Mesa Arts Center Friday 12 – Denver, CO, Paramount Theatre Sunday 14 – Minneapolis, MN, State Theatre Monday 15 – Chicago, IL, Chicago Theatre Wednesday 17 – Durham, NC, The Carolina Theatre of Durham-Fletcher Hall Friday 19 – Nashvillle, TN, Ryman Auditorium Sunday 21 – Washington, DC, The Anthem Monday 22 – New York, NY, Beacon Theatre Wednesday 24 – Philadelphia, PA, The Met Friday 26 – Red Bank, NJ, Count Basie Center for the Arts Saturday 27 – Toronto, ON, Budweiser Stage Tuesday 30 – Boston, MA, Wang Theatre at Boch Center. Listen to the best of Crowded House on Apple Music and Spotify. Read More Here

Video Appears To Undercut Trump Elector’s Account Of Alleged Voting-Data Breach In Georgia https://digitalarizonanews.com/video-appears-to-undercut-trump-electors-account-of-alleged-voting-data-breach-in-georgia/ On Jan. 7, 2021, a group of forensics experts working for lawyers allied with President Donald Trump spent eight hours at a county elections office in southern Georgia, copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines. Under questioning last month for a civil lawsuit, a former Georgia Republican Party official named Cathy Latham said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County that afternoon. She said she stayed in the foyer and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter at the front desk. “I didn’t go into the office,” Latham said, according to a transcript of her deposition filed in court. She said she had seen in passing a pro-Trump businessman who was working with the experts. She said they chatted for “five minutes at most” — she could not remember the topic — and she left soon after for an early dinner with her husband. Surveillance video footage reviewed by The Washington Post shows that Latham visited the elections office twice that day, staying for more than four hours in total. She greeted the businessman, Scott Hall, when he arrived and led him into a back area to meet the experts and local officials, the video shows. Over the course of the day, it shows, she moved in and out of an area where the experts from the data forensics firm, SullivanStrickler, were working, a part of that building that was not visible to the surveillance camera. She took a selfie with one of the forensics experts before heading out at 6:19 p.m. A Post examination found that elements of the account Latham gave in her deposition on the events of Jan. 6 and 7, 2021, appear to diverge from the footage and other evidence, including depositions and text messages. Many of those records, including Latham’s Aug. 8 deposition, were filed in a long-running federal civil court case involving election security in Georgia. During the 2020 election and its aftermath, Latham was a member of the Georgia Republican Party’s executive committee and sat on its election confidence task force. She was also chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party. She was one of the “fake electors” who signed unauthorized certificates in a bid to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat. In response to questions from The Post, Latham’s lawyers said, “Failing to accurately remember the details of events from almost two years ago is not lying.” They have said she did not take part in the copying or in anything improper or illegal. Her attorneys Robert D. Cheeley and Holly A. Pierson wrote in a court filing last week that the alleged security breach was “actually less of a breach or criminal undertaking and more of a permissible exercise of the County Elections Board’s authority.” They wrote that “the parties involved plainly believed that they had the authority to authorize it and the authority to do it, and that belief seems to be at least reasonable and likely accurate, which negates any possible criminal intent.” The surveillance footage shows that Latham appeared to introduce the SullivanStrickler team to local officials when they arrived that day. She then watched as they began looking at county voting equipment, it shows. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a grand jury in Atlanta are probing the incident in Coffee County, a Republican stronghold about 200 miles south of Atlanta. Federal and state prosecutors are also investigating the “fake elector” scheme, in which Latham and dozens of other Republicans in battleground states signed certificates proclaiming Trump the rightful winner. The Coffee County episode is one of several alleged breaches of voting equipment since the 2020 election. In each instance, Trump supporters — often with the help of like-minded local officials — sought access to voting equipment to hunt for evidence that the election was rigged. Access to voting machines is typically tightly restricted, and some security analysts fear that such breaches — including the copying of voting software that is also used elsewhere — risk exposing the systems to hackers. Details about what happened in Coffee County, including the surveillance video reviewed by The Post, have surfaced largely because of a lawsuit brought against Georgia by several voters and the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance. The plaintiffs say the state’s voting system is unconstitutionally insecure, which state officials deny. The plaintiffs have subpoenaed documents and testimony from a number of individuals, including Latham. Sidney Powell, the Trump-allied attorney who was billed for the work, has not directly responded to questions from The Post about Coffee County. “Prior reports of my involvement were seriously misrepresented,” she said in an email. Records obtained by the plaintiffs show that Powell signed contracts for the forensics experts’ elections work. The SullivanStrickler team updated her by email on the work in Coffee County and billed her more than $26,000, according to the records. Coffee County was among a handful of locations across the nation where Trump and his advisers pounced on minor errors or rumors of voting-machine irregularities in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. After Coffee County elections supervisor Misty Hampton discussed concerns about Dominion Voting Systems machines at a Nov. 10 elections board meeting, a Trump campaign staffer emailed her seeking information available under public records law. The county refused to certify its results after a statewide recount on Nov. 30, claiming that the machines showed inconsistent results. State investigators later concluded that the discrepancies had been caused by human error. A local news outlet published a video that featured Hampton purporting to show how she could “flip” votes from one candidate to another. It went viral. Trump’s team later cited Coffee County in its campaign to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory. In her deposition, Latham said that some time between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Jan. 6, after she had worked a full day as a high school teacher — and as Trump supporters were attacking the U.S. Capitol — she received a call from Hall, the businessman. Hall had been “looking into the election on behalf of the President,” Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer told Trump campaign officials on Nov. 20, 2020, in an email obtained by The Post. The email centered on problems with absentee ballots and did not mention Coffee County or voting machines. In her deposition, Latham said Hall asked her to connect him to Hampton. She did not know why and did not ask, she said. “Because that had been a hectic day. I hadn’t had any sleep, all the stuff had been happening, I had been getting phone calls left and right I was answering. I was tired, I wanted to go home,” Latham said. She said she then briefly telephoned Hampton to put her in touch with Hall. “I would have called Misty and I said, ‘Well, let me give you his email,’” Latham said, adding: “I sent her the email. That’s all I remember doing.” The new surveillance footage shows that Latham and Hampton were together inside the office during this time. Latham arrived at the office at 3:58 p.m. and had at least three phone calls between 4 p.m. and 4:40 p.m. At 4:26 p.m., Hampton texted Eric Chaney, a member of the county elections board that employed her, records show. “Scott Hall is on the phone with Cathy about wanting to come scan our ballots from the general election like we talked about the other day,” she wrote. Latham’s husband joined them at the office at 5 p.m., the footage shows, and later brought in takeout food. The Lathams and Hampton all left the office shortly before 7:40 p.m. The following morning, Latham exchanged text messages with SullivanStrickler’s chief operations officer, Paul Maggio, as the team drove to Coffee County, records show, coordinating who would fetch Hall from the airport. Latham also updated Hampton on the visitors’ movements. “Team left Atlanta at 8. 5 members led by Paul Maggio. Scott is flying in,” Latham wrote Hampton in a text message at 9:26 a.m. “Yay!!!!” Hampton replied. In her deposition, Latham said she was just passing on information that Hall asked her to share with Hampton. She said she didn’t know why Maggio and Hall were coming to Coffee County. Latham said she also worked a full day at Coffee High School on that day, Jan. 7, before briefly visiting the elections-office foyer after about 4 p.m., for reasons unrelated to SullivanStrickler’s work there. Latham said she could see people behind the front desk but that she wasn’t paying attention to who they were and she remained on the other side of the partition. “There were people in there, and I get uncomfortable when there’s others,” she said. External surveillance footage made public earlier this month showed that Latham arrived at the office at 11:37 a.m. that day. Three SullivanStrickler employees arrived at the elections office soon after. They were later joined by a fourth colleague. They intended to collect whatever data possible from the county’s voting machines, emails and billing records show. Cheeley, Latham’s attorney, previously told The Post that Latham did not remember all the details of that day but testified truthfully. He said she did recall visiting the office after school “to check in on some voter review panels from the runoff election” that had been held for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats earlier that week. Latham described herself to SullivanStrickler as an elections official, an executive from the company said during a deposition on behalf of the firm this month. A lawyer for Latham said something must have been taken out of context or misunderstood because Latham has never been a ...

Brylie Schmidt, The Latest Brand Ambassador Working With MIT45, Is Helping Take The Company Into The Fitness Market https://digitalarizonanews.com/brylie-schmidt-the-latest-brand-ambassador-working-with-mit45-is-helping-take-the-company-into-the-fitness-market/ The up-and-coming fitness model, influencer and brand ambassador has joined with MIT45 as the company breaks into the fitness industry I’m excited to share this with the fitness world. I’m always looking to improve performance, and this has become an essential part of my life in maximizing my focus and energy.” — Brylie Schmidt, Fitness Model and Brand Ambassador SCOTTSDALE, AZ, UNITED STATES, September 20, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Brylie Schmidt is the latest brand ambassador to partner with MIT45. As a fitness enthusiast turned fitness model and influencer, Ms. Schmidt has built a small but strong following in social media due to her positive attitude and ultra-competitive spirit that results in hardcore workouts in the gym that have gone viral. She recently partnered with MIT45 after discovering the brand and the good they are doing across the country. This is yet another fitness influencer working with the MIT45 team. Ms. Schmidt was raised in the surrounding Salt Lake City area, where she developed a highly competitive mindset and strong work ethic, largely influenced by a strong family bond with strict routines. In 2021 she decided to leave her hometown and move to Scottsdale, AZ with her fiancé and also brand ambassador to MIT45, Chase Douglas, to pursue new opportunities and continue a path of growth. In her words, “I’ve found MIT45 Boost to be a great pre-workout and post-workout supplement, and I’m excited to share this with the fitness world. I’m always looking to improve performance, and this has become an essential part of my life in maximizing my focus and energy without the usual pre-workout crash. “ For the past 3 years, MIT45 has solidified their reputation as the Gold Standard in the industry. They were recently named a Top 3 Innovative Company in 2022. They were recently recognized in LA Newswire for the excellent workplace culture developed over the previous couple of years and for leading the charge for the regulation of the industry. When asked about why she chose to work with MIT45, Ms. Schmidt said, “It’s not only how effective their products are, but with the leadership and management team at MIT45. As I got to know the team I was more and more impressed with the company. It starts at the top and the executive team has integrity, they have a heart, and they live for helping others and want to help further peoples’ dreams.” This collaboration is likely to help expand kratom to mainstream channels and help bring this often-called miracle plant from Asia to millions of new people. The hope is to help women from all walks of life live a more fulfilled and improved daily experience. ### To learn more about Brylie Schmidt you can follow her on Instagram by going here. You can learn more about MIT45 by going to MIT45. To learn about MIT45 wholesale opportunities and why it is the fastest-growing brand in convenience stores, go to Mit45Merchants.com Chris B. Amplified Authority email us here You just read: EIN Presswire’s priority is source transparency. We do not allow opaque clients, and our editors try to be careful about weeding out false and misleading content. As a user, if you see something we have missed, please do bring it to our attention. Your help is welcome. EIN Presswire, Everyone’s Internet News Presswire, tries to define some of the boundaries that are reasonable in today’s world. Please see our Editorial Guidelines for more information. Submit your press release Read More Here

AP News Summary At 3:36 A.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-336-a-m-edt-2/ UN chief warns global leaders: The world is in ‘great peril’ UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the world is in “great peril.” And he says world leaders meeting in-person for the first time in three years at the U.N. General Assembly must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality, and divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.N. chief also cited the “immense” task not only of saving the planet but of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres’ “state of the world” speech will be “a sober, substantive and solutions-focused report card.” Strengthening Fiona barrels toward Turks and Caicos Islands SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is barreling toward the Turks and Caicos Islands as it threatens to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew. Forecasters say Fiona could become a major hurricane late Monday or on Tuesday, when it was expected to pass near the British territory. Premier Washington Misick, who was in London attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, urged people to take every needed precaution. The intensifying storm also kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Ukraine, using captured Russian tanks, firms up its lines KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is now deploying captured Russian tanks to solidify its gains in the northeast amid an ongoing counteroffensive. That’s according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. The institute, citing a Russian claim, said that Ukraine had been using left-behind Russian T-72 tanks as it tries to push into the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk. Earlier this month, Ukraine launched its counteroffensive, pushing into territory around its second-largest city of Kharkiv. Videos and photos showed Ukrainian troops seizing tanks, ammunition and other weaponry left behind by Moscow in an apparently chaotic withdrawal. Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. The spending figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact. Congress eyes strongest response yet to Jan. 6 attack WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are voting this week on changes to a 19th century law for certifying presidential elections. The measure is their strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. A vote to overhaul the Electoral Count Act is expected Wednesday. A bipartisan group of senators is moving forward with a similar bill. The Senate Rules Committee will vote on its version of the legislation next week. Lawmakers in both parties have said they want to change the arcane law before it is challenged again. Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeral LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world said farewell to Queen Elizabeth II with pomp and pageantry. Crowds massed in the streets of London and at Windsor Castle to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an era. The first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s drew world leaders and other royalty. Before the service, a bell tolled 96 times for each year of Elizabeth’s life. Royal Navy sailors pulled a gun carriage carrying her flag-draped coffin to Westminster Abbey before pallbearers carried it inside. Atop the coffin was a handwritten note from King Charles III. After a committal service at a chapel in Windsor Castle, the coffin was lowered into the royal vault. Britain’s Truss doesn’t expect UK-US trade deal anytime soon NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Liz Truss has kicked off her first visit to the United States as Britain’s leader with an admission that a U.K-U.S. free trade deal is not going to happen for years. On her way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Truss said “there (aren’t) currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S., and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.” That’s a sharp contrast with the stance of her immediate predecessors, Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Both dangled the promise of a deal with the world’s biggest economy as one of the main prizes of Britain’s exit from the European Union. Witnesses: Myanmar air attack kills 13, including 7 children BANGKOK (AP) — A school administrator says government helicopters have attacked a school and village in Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children. The number of children killed in the government attack last Friday in Sagaing region appears to be the highest since the army seized power in February 2021. The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. The fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where several military offensives have displaced more than half a million people, according to UNICEF. ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore judge has ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for a 1999 murder that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn on Monday ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated and she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars. Syed has always maintained that he never killed his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. The case received widespread attention in 2014 when “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used. Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying a lengthy investigation had uncovered new evidence that could undermine Syed’s conviction. Energy crisis key to Italy’s election — but not conservation MILAN (AP) — The energy crisis facing Italian industry and households is a top voter concern going into Sunday’s parliamentary elections as fears grow that astronomically high bills will shutter some businesses and force household rationing by winter. Never in an Italian election campaign has energy been such a central talking point. Candidates have sparred over whether debt-laden Italy, which has already spent more than 60 billion euros to help families, businesses and local governments, should incur yet more debt to finance new relief. They also disagree on whether Italy should consider reinvesting in new nuclear technologies. But no party is discussing whether to implement conservation measures, like many of Italy’s European neighbors. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

Donald Trump News: Location Is Everything… Biden, Sitting In 14th Row At Queen's Funeral, Trump Enjoys – Donald Trump Mocks Joe Biden For 14th Row Seating At Queen Elizabeth Funeral, Says Location Is Everything – Globe News Insider https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-news-location-is-everything-biden-sitting-in-14th-row-at-queens-funeral-trump-enjoys-donald-trump-mocks-joe-biden-for-14th-row-seating-at-queen-elizabeth-funeral-says-locat/ September 20, 2022 Radhika 14th, America Headlines, america news, america news in hindi, Biden, Donald, Donald Trump, donald trump mocks joe biden, donald trump news, Elizabeth, enjoys, everything.., funeral, Global News, International News, Joe, Joe Biden, joe biden seating at queen elizabeth funeral, Latest america news, latest news, location, mocks, news, Queen, queen elizabeth funeral, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Queens, row, seating, sitting, Trending news, Trump, trump location is everything Washington: US President Joe Biden was placed on the 14th line at Windsor Castle at the funeral of British Queen Elizabeth II. Donald Trump took a dig at Joe Biden about this. President Joe Biden with his wife Jill Biden arrived in London to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Trump said that everything is in place. He alleged that America’s reputation has eroded significantly during Biden’s two-year tenure. About 500 VVIP people from all over the world had reached the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. These included the Presidents of countries like America, India, France, besides the kings and emperors of many other countries. Queen Elizabeth is buried near the grave of her husband, Prince Philip.Trump’s sarcasm – place is everythingDonald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “This is what has happened to America in just two short years. No respect! However, it’s a good time for our president to get to know the leaders of some third world countries.” Not only in estate, in politics and in life, space is everything.” Trump added that “our hearts go out to the royal family, King Charles and the entire family. It’s a loss that leaves a deep wound and sometimes you feel like you’ll never be able to get over it. “So to all the people of England, to all the people of the United Kingdom, our hearts ache for you. You were lucky that the Queen was with you for 70 years. Global leaders had arrived to pay tribute to the QueenOnly current heads of state were invited to the funeral service at St. George’s Chapel. People from the European royal family were also among those who came to pay tribute to the Queen. These included King Philip VI of Spain and Queen Letizia and Queen Margre II of Denmark. Apart from this, elected leaders like President of India Draupadi Murmu, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau were present. The current President and President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, leader of the Commonwealth, also arrived to pay tribute to the Queen. Trump was not invitedHowever, Donald Trump was not invited to pay tribute to the Queen in London. The former President was invited by the British government for another memorial event in Washington which took place at the National Cathedral. Donald Trump was a fan of Queen Elizabeth II. He once said that he had automatic chemistry with Queen Elizabeth. After the death of the Queen, Trump called her a wonderful woman. Read More Here

SpaceX Wants To Bring Satellite Internet To Iran: Musk https://digitalarizonanews.com/spacex-wants-to-bring-satellite-internet-to-iran-musk/ / Live news Issued on: 20/09/2022 – 09:30Modified: 20/09/2022 – 09:28 Elon Musk said SpaceX will ask the US government for a sanctions exemption to offer internet connectivity in Iran JIM WATSON AFP/File Washington (AFP) – SpaceX will apply for an exemption from US sanctions against Iran in a bid to offer its satellite internet service to the country, owner Elon Musk said on Monday. “Starlink will apply for an exemption from sanctions against Iran,” Musk said in response to a tweet from a science reporter. Musk had initially announced that the Starlink satellite internet service had been made available on every continent — “including Antarctica” — with the company planning to launch up to 42,000 satellites to boost connectivity. Iranian-born science journalist Erfan Kasraie had said on Twitter that bringing the service to Iran could be a “real game changer for the future” of the country, which elicited Musk’s response. Launched at the end of 2020, Starlink offers high-speed broadband service to customers in areas poorly served by fixed and mobile terrestrial networks through a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit. The service received notoriety after supplying antennas and modems to the Ukrainian military to improve its communications capabilities in its war with Russia. Starlink is monetized through the purchase of antennas, modems and subscriptions with rates that vary by country. Nearly 3,000 Starlink satellites have been deployed since 2019 and SpaceX is conducting about one launch a week, using its own Falcon 9 rockets to speed up its deployment. Iran has been under a tightened US sanctions regime since former president Donald Trump terminated a 2015 agreement over its nuclear activities. While current President Joe Biden supports a renegotiation of the deal, Iranian insistence on long-term guarantees from Washington has stalled discussions. New rounds of sanctions were imposed on Iran this month after a Tehran-based company helped ship drones to Russia, and in response to a massive cyberattack targeting Albania in July allegedly carried out by Iran’s intelligence ministry. © 2022 AFP Read More Here

Russian Losses Hinder Recruiting, U.S. Defense Official Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/russian-losses-hinder-recruiting-u-s-defense-official-says/ Image An abandoned Russian tank with the “Z” symbol in Izium last week, during a media tour arranged by the Ukrainian government after the city was reclaimed.Credit…Nicole Tung for The New York Times WASHINGTON — Russia is struggling to attract recruits for its army amid its setbacks in Ukraine, while the United States is open to potentially sending Western tanks to Kyiv, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday. “The Russians are performing so poorly that the news from Kharkiv Province has inspired many Russian volunteers to refuse combat,” the official said, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the status of Russia’s war in Ukraine, adding that the leader of the Wagner Group, a private military company with ties to the Kremlin, had been seen in videos posted on social media asking Russian prisoners, Tajiks, Belarusians and Armenians to join the fight in Ukraine. “We believe this is part of Wagner’s campaign to recruit over 1,500 convicted felons,” the official said. “But many are refusing.” Last week, a video posted online and analyzed by The New York Times showed the Wagner Group promising convicts that they would be released from prison in return for a six-month combat tour in Ukraine. It is unclear when the video was filmed. The official added that Russia was failing in its own strategic objectives, noting that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia reiterated last week that the “main goal” of his invasion was limited to capturing the Donbas — the eastern Ukrainian region where Russia has recognized as independent two Kremlin-backed statelets but where Ukraine still controls several key cities and towns. And, at a regional summit in Uzbekistan on Friday, Mr. Putin said Russia was committed to its “special military operation,” despite Russian losses in the northeast and Ukraine’s offensive in the south, near the port city of Kherson. Furthermore, Ukrainian forces now control all of their territory west of the Oskil River in eastern Ukraine, the official said, and have liberated more than 300 settlements in Kharkiv Province. With Ukrainian troops continuing to take back territory from Russian forces, and the war nearly seven months old, the Pentagon is discussing how best to support Kyiv for a long-term war. Part of that, the official said, includes transitioning Ukraine away from their Soviet-era weaponry and replacing them with those used by NATO and other Western militaries. While the United States and other nations have provided Ukraine with Soviet-era tanks, the Pentagon signaled an openness to transferring Western main battle tanks to Kyiv as well. “Armor is a really important capability area for the Ukrainians,” the official said. “We recognize that there will be a day when they may want to transition — and may need to transition — to NATO-compatible models.” President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked Western allies for more equipment and ammunition, saying the counteroffensive underway is dependent on getting more. He alluded to the need to speed up aid deliveries in his nightly address on Monday. “Pace is very important now,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We speak about this honestly. The pace of providing aid to Ukraine should correspond to the pace of our movement.” And despite its problems with manpower and organization, Russia still has a significant advantage over Ukraine in supplies and ammunition. “Tanks are absolutely on the table along with other areas,” said the American defense official. “We’re looking at the entirety of the Ukrainian armed forces and considering for the future what capabilities they will need and how the U.S. and our allies will be able to support Ukraine in building out those capabilities.” “In terms of the immediate fight, the tanks that are available that could be provided very quickly with little to no training are Soviet-type tanks, but we are certainly open to other options provided that the training, maintenance and the sustainment can be taken care of.” Image Workers carrying a body exhumed from a mass grave site in Izium, Ukraine, on Saturday.Credit…Nicole Tung for The New York Times Most of the 146 bodies exhumed so far in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Izium were civilians, and some of the bodies showed signs of torture, the leader of the regional military administration, Oleh Synyehubov, said Monday. “Some of the dead have signs of violent death. There are bodies with tied hands and traces of torture,” Mr. Synyehubov wrote in a post on Telegram. Others had stab wounds or injuries from mine explosions and shrapnel, and two of the bodies belonged to children, he added. Izium’s mayor, Valery Marchenko, has said that he expected it will take another two weeks to exhume all of the bodies from several mass grave sites in Izium that were discovered after Russian forces retreated in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The largest of burial site contained about 440 individual graves, a discovery that cast a renewed spotlight on potential war crimes committed during Russia’s six-month occupation of the city. Investigators say the discoveries recall the broad evidence of atrocities by Russian soldiers in towns like Bucha, near Kyiv, but each body must be forensically examined to determine the cause of death. Russia’s battering of civilian targets including theaters, hospitals and apartment buildings has prompted months of international condemnation. Some attacks have been indiscriminate because of older, imprecise weaponry, while others have been targeted atrocities, like the killings in Bucha. Last month, the United Nations reported that it had confirmed the deaths of 5,587 Ukrainian civilians, though the true number is thought to be in the tens of thousands. Russia has often denied responsibility or blamed Ukraine for civilian deaths. On Monday, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed proxy leader in Kherson, accused Ukraine of killing 13 civilians in targeted shelling in the eastern Donetsk region. The claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials denied the allegation, saying Moscow was terrorizing civilians in occupied territory to direct attention away from the investigations in Izium before this week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. “The occupiers have already repeatedly used such a pattern to divert attention from their own crimes,” Ukraine’s national security and defense council said in a Telegram post. Image Representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at a forum in Prague this month. Its chairman, Zbigniew Rau, center, called sentences handed down in a breakaway region of Ukraine “inhumane.”Credit…Albert Zawada/EPA, via Shutterstock A court in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine on Monday sentenced two Ukrainian staff members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to 13 years in prison on treason charges, a move the regional security organization castigated as “inhumane and repugnant.” The workers “have been held unjustifiably for more than five months in unknown conditions for nothing but pure political theater,” the O.S.C.E. chairman, Zbigniew Rau, who is also Poland’s foreign minister, said in a statement. Helga Maria Schmid, the O.S.C.E. secretary general, called for the immediate release of the staff members, Dmytro Shabanov and Maxim Petrov, along with a third unnamed staff member she said had been detained. The O.S.C.E. said all three are Ukrainian nationals. The O.S.C.E., which counts Ukraine and Russia among its 57 members, is a regional security organization that, among other things, promotes peace, human rights and arms control and helps monitor elections. According to Tass, the Russian news agency, authorities in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, one of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine that Russia has recognized, accused Mr. Petrov of gathering information about the region’s military and passing it on to a senior U.S. official. The details of the allegations against Mr. Shabanov were not immediately clear. Ms. Schmid said the two men had been performing official duties before they were detained in April; Mr. Petrov was a translator and Mr. Shabanov was a security assistant. “Our colleagues remain O.S.C.E. staff members and had been performing official duties as mandated by all 57 participating states,” she said. In July, an O.S.C.E. report highlighted the growing international concern over reports of abuses involving Russia’s so-called filtration camps, including the eventual executions of some detainees. The report was released after a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken that said Russian authorities had  “interrogated,  detained, and forcibly deported” as many as 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, into distant Russian territory. It is not the first time a court in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine has handed down a sentence that has attracted loud criticism. In June, two Britons and a Moroccan who had fought for the Ukrainian armed forces were sentenced to death by a court in the breakaway Donetsk region after being accused of being mercenaries. Image President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, met in Uzbekistan last week.Credit…Pool photo by Sergei Bobylev Senior officials from Russia and China have agreed to carry out more joint military exercises and enhance defense cooperation, according to statements on Monday, signaling that whatever misgivings Beijing may have over the war in Ukraine, the nations’ strategic partnership was only growing closer. Nikolai P. Patrushev, the leader of Russia’s Security Council, and China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, held a meeting in southeastern Fujian Province where they agreed to conduct more joint military drills and patrols and t...

Former FBI Assistant Director Says Trump Is Getting 'increasingly Cornered' And That His Embrace Of QAnon Is The 'last Act Of A Desperate Man' https://digitalarizonanews.com/former-fbi-assistant-director-says-trump-is-getting-increasingly-cornered-and-that-his-embrace-of-qanon-is-the-last-act-of-a-desperate-man/ Donald Trump.Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi said Trump is drawn to QAnon like a moth to a flame. Figliuzzi said Trump is embracing the movement because he feels “increasingly cornered.” Figliuzzi warned that violence could ensue if the QAnon movement felt threats to its leader. A former FBI official said former President Donald Trump is likely feeling cornered and embracing the QAnon movement out of desperation. Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director, was weighing in on Trump’s links to the QAnon movement during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House.” Host Nicolle Wallace asked Figliuzzi if he thinks Trump knows just how dangerous the movement is to the US. “Oh, not only do I think he knows it, but I think that’s what attracts him to this. It’s like a moth to the flame,” Figliuzzi said. “And the thing is, he knows that he’s increasingly cornered,” Figliuzzi added. “He’s in trouble on so many legal fronts, even criminal fronts now, that this is, kind of, the almost last act of a desperate man.” Figliuzzi referenced Trump’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where a QAnon song played during Trump’s speech. During the rally, Trump’s supporters were seen pointing their fingers to the sky in a strange, one-finger salute, which experts say might have been a nod to the movement’s slogan, “where we go one we go all.” While the stadium in Ohio was not fully filled, and thus a sign that Trump may be losing support from his base, Figliuzzi said there’s still a significant threat from Trump and the QAnon movement. “What is extremely dangerous based on past histories of cults, is that as they come near the end, as the leader is threatened, they get more and more dangerous,” Figliuzzi said. “And they do something cult experts call ‘forcing the end.'” This could happen if the movement’s leader “calls for the violence” or is “taken out,” Figliuzzi said. “The members take a step up and force the ending — whatever that could be,” Figliuzzi said. “That’s what concerns me and we’ve learned from January 6, it only takes a small number of people to do that.” The Trump rally in Ohio is just one of many recent instances in which the former president appeared to embrace QAnon — a movement that claims without basis that Trump is fighting a deep-state cabal of pedophiles. In a stream of messages after the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago, Trump shared over a dozen posts on his Truth Social account, some of which referenced QAnon and contained baseless conspiracy theories about the FBI. Other posts by the former president on the Truth Social platform in September included a reposted image of himself sporting a “Q” lapel pin, along with the movement’s “where we go one we go all” slogan. Figliuzzi and a representative at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider Read More Here

Girls Volleyball: Salpointe And Tucson Are Taking Advantage Of New Lineups | ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com https://digitalarizonanews.com/girls-volleyball-salpointe-and-tucson-are-taking-advantage-of-new-lineups-allsportstucson-com/ Salpointe senior Frankie Pieroni. (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson) LINK: FREE SALPOINTE/TUCSON PHOTOS Salpointe improved to 12-2 overall and 7-0 in power-ranking matches after defeating Tucson High 25-17, 25-11 and 25-20 Monday night at home. The Badgers moved to 7-5 overall and 3-3 in ranking matches with the loss. The Lancers are coming off a semifinal finish after winning the 4A state championship in 2020. It was the sixth semifinal finish since 2015 that included state championships in 2016 and 2017 to go along with the 2020 title. Six seniors graduated from last year, including Emma Hugeback and Jalynn Ransom, but Frankie Pieroni returns for her senior year at the net and Megan Muehlebach returns to anchor back row play. The Lancers also return a crew of standout setters in junior Sophia Hernandez and senior Sophia Marquez….. LINK: STORY AT AZPREPS365 FOLLOW @ANDYMORALES8 ON TWITTER Named one of “Arizona’s Heart & Sol” by KOLD and Casino del Sol, Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017 and a 2019 AZ Education News recognition. He was a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling and his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is a Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee. He earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater and he was recognized by the Sunnyside School District and by Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbres. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com Read More Here

AP News Summary At 2:20 A.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-220-a-m-edt/ UN chief warns global leaders: The world is in ‘great peril’ UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the world is in “great peril.” And he says world leaders meeting in-person for the first time in three years at the U.N. General Assembly must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality, and divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.N. chief also cited the “immense” task not only of saving the planet but of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres’ “state of the world” speech will be “a sober, substantive and solutions-focused report card.” Strengthening Fiona barrels toward Turks and Caicos Islands SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is barreling toward the Turks and Caicos Islands as it threatens to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew. Forecasters say Fiona could become a major hurricane late Monday or on Tuesday, when it was expected to pass near the British territory. Premier Washington Misick, who was in London attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, urged people to take every needed precaution. The intensifying storm also kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Ukraine warns of ‘nuclear terrorism’ after strike near plant KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile has blasted a crater close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, damaging nearby industrial equipment but not hitting its three reactors. Ukrainian authorities denounced Monday’s attack as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” Ukraine’s nuclear operator said the missile struck within 300 meters (328 yards) of reactors at South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant. The strike followed warnings from Russian President Vladimir Putin of possible stepped-up attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure after his forces suffered humiliating battlefield setbacks. It also renewed fears of a possible radioactive disaster in the near seven-month war. One Western analyst said the Russian military was apparently trying to knock Ukrainian nuclear plants offline before winter sets in. Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeral LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world said farewell to Queen Elizabeth II with pomp and pageantry. Crowds massed in the streets of London and at Windsor Castle to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an era. The first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s drew world leaders and other royalty. Before the service, a bell tolled 96 times for each year of Elizabeth’s life. Royal Navy sailors pulled a gun carriage carrying her flag-draped coffin to Westminster Abbey before pallbearers carried it inside. Atop the coffin was a handwritten note from King Charles III. After a committal service at a chapel in Windsor Castle, the coffin was lowered into the royal vault. ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore judge has ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for a 1999 murder that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn on Monday ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated and she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars. Syed has always maintained that he never killed his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. The case received widespread attention in 2014 when “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used. Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying a lengthy investigation had uncovered new evidence that could undermine Syed’s conviction. Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. The spending figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact. Congress eyes strongest response yet to Jan. 6 attack WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are voting this week on changes to a 19th century law for certifying presidential elections. The measure is their strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. A vote to overhaul the Electoral Count Act is expected Wednesday. A bipartisan group of senators is moving forward with a similar bill. The Senate Rules Committee will vote on its version of the legislation next week. Lawmakers in both parties have said they want to change the arcane law before it is challenged again. Witnesses: Myanmar air attack kills 13, including 7 children BANGKOK (AP) — A school administrator says government helicopters have attacked a school and village in Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children. The number of children killed in the government attack last Friday in Sagaing region appears to be the highest since the army seized power in February 2021. The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. The fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where several military offensives have displaced more than half a million people, according to UNICEF. Britain’s Truss doesn’t expect UK-US trade deal anytime soon NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Liz Truss has kicked off her first visit to the United States as Britain’s leader with an admission that a U.K-U.S. free trade deal is not going to happen for years. On her way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Truss said “there (aren’t) currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S., and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.” That’s a sharp contrast with the stance of her immediate predecessors, Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Both dangled the promise of a deal with the world’s biggest economy as one of the main prizes of Britain’s exit from the European Union. Energy crisis key to Italy’s election — but not conservation MILAN (AP) — The energy crisis facing Italian industry and households is a top voter concern going into Sunday’s parliamentary elections as fears grow that astronomically high bills will shutter some businesses and force household rationing by winter. Never in an Italian election campaign has energy been such a central talking point. Candidates have sparred over whether debt-laden Italy, which has already spent more than 60 billion euros to help families, businesses and local governments, should incur yet more debt to finance new relief. They also disagree on whether Italy should consider reinvesting in new nuclear technologies. But no party is discussing whether to implement conservation measures, like many of Italy’s European neighbors. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More Here

Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani Trumps Jeff Bezos To Become World https://digitalarizonanews.com/indian-billionaire-gautam-adani-trumps-jeff-bezos-to-become-world/ Indian conglomerate chairman, Gautam Adani, overtook Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the world’s second richest man. — Reuters pic Follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our Telegram channel and browser alerts for the latest news you need to know. By Jared Wee Tuesday, 20 Sep 2022 1:40 PM MYT KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — Indian industrialist, Gautam Adani, has taken over Jeff Bezos’ spot as the second richest man in the world. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, Adani boasts RM668.3 billion in wealth, beating Bezos’ RM581.8 billion as Amazon and other US tech stocks sunk. In August Adani became the third richest man in the world after his conglomerate’s shares skyrocketed to more than 2,400 per cent. Adani is chairman of the Adani conglomerate, involved in port development, green energy, and data centres. The Indian tycoon has promised to donate RM35 million of his fortune to social causes, following in the steps of other tech billionaires. Bezos’ wealth took a hit when Amazon’s stocks fell in 2019 when the American billionaire divorced his ex-wife, novelist MacKenzie Scott. In the first half of 2022 Amazon’s stock fell 32 per cent in July, losing gains the company made during the pandemic. To this date, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk still holds the title of the No. 1 richest man in the world with a net worth of RM1 trillion. Read More Here

New Footage Confirms Fake Trump Elector Spent Hours Inside Georgia Elections Office Day It Was Breached https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-footage-confirms-fake-trump-elector-spent-hours-inside-georgia-elections-office-day-it-was-breached/ Washington (CNN)A Republican county official in Georgia and operatives working with an attorney for former President Donald Trump spent hours inside a restricted area of the local elections office on the day voting systems there were breached, newly obtained surveillance video shows. The video reveals for the first time what happened inside the Coffee County elections office on January 7, 2021, the same day its voting systems are known to have been compromised. Among those seen in the footage is Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020. CNN previously reported that Latham escorted operatives working with former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell through the front door of the elections office on January 7, 2021. The new footage appears to undercut previous claims by Latham that she was not “personally involved” in the breach. The new video, obtained as part of a years-long civil lawsuit in Georgia related to the security of voting systems there, shows Latham remained in the office for hours as those same operatives set up computers near election equipment and appear to access voting data. The footage also features the two men Latham escorted into the building earlier that day, Scott Hall and Paul Maggio, both of whom have acknowledged they were part of a team that gained access to Coffee County’s voting systems. Maggio did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. The data firm he works for, SullivanStrickler, which court documents show was hired by Powell, previously said in a statement to CNN that it was “directed by attorneys to contact county election officials to obtain access to certain data” in Georgia and also “directed by attorneys to distribute that data to certain individuals.” In an August 29, 2022 email, an attorney for SullivanStrickler acknowledges that Latham was the “primary point of contact” in coordinating the team’s visit to Coffee County. The firm said it had no reason to believe these attorneys would ask or direct it to “do anything either improper or illegal.” A lawyer representing Latham pushed back on the claim she was the primary point of contact for the SullivanStrickler team, telling CNN that the calls she can be seen in the video making are not with anyone from the firm. “There is no evidence of which we are aware that Mrs. Latham spoke to Ms. Powell or to anyone at SullivanStrickler on or before January 6, 2021. And indeed there is no evidence of which we are aware that Mrs. Latham spoke to Ms. Powell or to anyone at SullivanStrickler on or before January 6, 2021,” the lawyer added. A second lawyer representing Latham, Bob Cheeley, previously told CNN, “Cathy Latham has dedicated significant time and effort over many years protecting the integrity of elections in Coffee County, Georgia. She would not and has not knowingly been involved in any impropriety in any election.” Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman and Fulton County Republican poll watcher, did not reply to repeated requests for comment from CNN. The new video also shows a third operative, Jeffery Lenberg, entering the restricted server room inside the Coffee County elections office more than two weeks later on January 26. Lenberg is under criminal investigation by the Michigan state attorney general in connection to a series of voting system breaches there. Also gaining access to the Coffee County elections office in late January 2021 was Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, who oversaw the partisan election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, and is also a target of the Michigan criminal investigation. According to court documents, Logan and Maggio are part of a team that gained access to voting systems in Antrim County, Michigan at the end of 2020 — ultimately leading to a since-debunked report on Dominion voting system vulnerabilities that remains at the center of baseless claims about widespread voter fraud pushed by Trump and his allies. Surveillance video from the exterior of the building shows Logan visited the Coffee County elections office more than once in January 2021, roughly two weeks after the breach took place. CNN has reached out to attorneys for Logan. Lenburg has not denied visiting the Coffee County elections office but claimed on an internet show last week that he and Logan only helped “direct” the “testing” of voting systems there. “We didn’t do the testing. We just helped direct it. We actually didn’t touch the equipment. Doug Logan and I,” he said, adding that they just provided instructions to two Coffee County elections officials who handled the equipment at their direction. Read More Here

Shirley Lee Dennison https://digitalarizonanews.com/shirley-lee-dennison/ Tuesday, September 20, 2022 Shirley Lee Dennison Ottumwa Shirley Lee Dennison, 89, of Ottumwa, died September 16, 2022, at Addington Place in Ottumwa. Shirley Lee Dennison was born in Brashear Mo. on July 10, 1933, to David and Helen Lucille Pierce. She moved to Eddyville, IA, in 1938. They then moved to Lockman where she attended school through the 8th grade. Shirley moved in with her grandmother, Bertha Garret in Kirksville, Mo. for her first year of high school. She then moved with her parents to Keokuk, IA, where she graduated high school in 1951. She married James W. Dennison on December 24, 1951. They moved to England for 2 years while James was in the Army. Shirley was proud to tell you she was there the year the Queen Elizabeth was coronated more than 70 years ago! They had 3 children, Vicki (Mark) Johnston of Mt. Pleasant, Jody (Terry) Rupe of Ottumwa and Robert (Susan Parker) Dennison of Scottsdale, AZ; 5 grandchildren, Emily Rupe (Caleb Burton) of Ottumwa, Jason (Wendy) Johnston of Waterloo, Misti (Scott) Schumaker of Winfield, IA, Adam (April) Johnston and Kayla Johnston of Mt. Pleasant, IA; 9 great-grandchildren, Paxton and Drake Gould of Ottumwa, Brynjar Johnston of Johnston, IA, Shyanne Johnston of Cedar Rapids, IA, Baylee (Tristan) Hart of Stockport, IA, Callee (Kyle) Hill, Luke Pfiefer and Christina and Aleah Johnston of Mt. Pleasant; 4 great-great-grandchildren, Blayne and Croix Hill of Mt Pleasant, IA, and Colsen and Memphis Hart of Stockport, IA. Shirley is also survived by a sister, Jane (Mike) Dunning of Columbia, MO; sister-in-laws, Rose Ann LeMaster and Pat Elder of St. Francisville, MO; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband; parents; brother, JD Pierce; sister, Ruth Denham; and grandson, Bryan Rupe. Shirley went to LPN nursing school in Ottumwa in 1961, She then worked 10 years in the Emergency Room at Ottumwa Hospital. The last 2 years she also worked on her days off as an EMT-A located at St. Joe Hospital. In 1976 Shirley went to work for Dr. Robert Blommer where she stayed until she retired in 2000. Dr. Blommer and Judy remained very good friends throughout her life. Shirley also ran a garage sale every weekend on Finley St. for over 40 years helping many families clothe their children! She also worked part time at her daughter’s gift store, Bargains and Deals, for many years after her retirement. In December of 2016 Shirley moved to The Lodge Independent Living at Good Sam. Here she met many special friends. She loved “the gang’s” nightly talks. Her final years were spent at Addington Place in Ottumwa where once again she made great friendships and cherished the staff there who were always so loving in their care. Shirley loved to cook for her family and friends and could always put together huge meals, seemingly in a snap. Shirley never stopped being a nurse. She was always nursing people wherever she lived and it was truly her life’s calling. She loved her family above all else and will be missed beyond words. Her body has been cremated. Graveside services and inurnment will be 11 a.m. Tuesday, September 20th at Shaul Cemetery with her niece, Kendra York officiating. In lieu of flowers, we ask you to visit someone in a care facility, bake for someone you care about, mail a card to someone dear to you, or donate to a charity meaningful to you. Mom always loved her dogs and alternatively, donations to Heartland Humane Society, P.O. Box 1150, Ottumwa, IA 52501 would be welcome. Reece Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Read More Here