Noman News The country's only Heritage Archives in Rajshahi is a living museum of history
1. On 23 October 2022 at 13.00 hours, under Motihar police station of Rajshahi city, conducting an operation in Talaimari intersection area, they recovered (1) ganja-12.7 kg, (2) mobile-01, (3) SIM card-01 and accused 1. Md. Anand Mridha (20), father-deceased Monwar Mridha, Permanent Sang Chawga, Upazila/Thana-Vedarganj, District-Shariatpur, Present tenant of Sang Bus Mier Bari, Behind Islamia Hospital, Sayedabad, Upazila/Thana- Jatrabari, District-Dhaka. who arrested 2. Disclosure in the details of the incident:- Based on the intelligence information, the joint operation team of RAB-5, CPSC and CPC-1 of Rajshahi came to know that 01 passenger bus of Desh Travels
whose Reg No.-Dhaka Metro-B-14-6958 (Seat No.-G- 3) 01 person is coming towards Rajshahi along with narcotic ganja in passenger base. As soon as the matter came to know, the Motihar police station of Rajshahi metropolis conducted a check post on the Bhadra-bound highway in front of the under-construction building of Bangabandhu Square at Talaimari intersection. During the check post, the Desh Travels bus from Dhaka to Rajshahi came in front
of the check post and stopped on the side of the road with a signal. While searching the bus, the person was arrested while sitting in G-3 seat 01 inside the bus. 3. The accused was interrogated that the illegal drug marijuana was hidden in the back luggage box of the bus. He said that he would collect the narcotic ganja from an unknown place in Comilla district and sell it to an unknown person in Rajshahi district and earlier several times he had similarly collected ganja and transported it to drug dealers in different parts of the country including Rajshahi. In this regard, a case is being registered against the accused at the Motihar police station of Rajshahi city.
For the purpose of collecting and preserving Bangladesh's history and heritage materials, Professor Dr. He told the story of the beginning of the Mahbubur Rahman Archive Museum. This former professor of the history department said, 'I was once disappointed while doing a PhD on local history. The main reason was the lack of information. I went down to collect information and found that information about local history is not available anywhere. Then in the 90s, I went to an archive in the Netherlands and saw that posters, leaflets, banners, festoons and periodicals were collected there. From there I decided to build a heritage archives in Bangladesh as well.
Mentioning that he established this exceptional collection out of personal interest, he said, "In 1998, I started collecting leaflets, posters and various school-college memorabilia and anniversaries at home as a personal initiative. I used to teach students then. I used to tell them that if they get souvenirs and anniversaries in their schools and colleges, they should bring them to me. I got quite a response. Along with the students, friends also started giving leaflets, banners, posters, souvenirs and books. Every day I used to buy books and magazines at the rate of kg from the old book shop in Rajshahi's Sahib Bazar. In this way, I once bought two Bichitra magazines. I started collecting them at home from 2002.
Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023
IMAGE SOURCE,OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE
Image caption,
President Volodymyr Zelensky stands beside a downed drone
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has launched more than 30 drone attacks on Ukraine in just two days.
Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023 He added that in total, Moscow had also carried out some 4,500 missile strikes and over 8,000 air raids.
Speaking from Kyiv and standing beside what appeared to be a downed Iranian Shahed drone, Mr Zelensky pledged to "clip the wings" of Moscow's air power.
Western officials believe Iran has supplied a large number of drones to Russia, but Moscow and Tehran deny it.
It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Russia's aggressive use of drones "appalling".
The top US diplomat accused Russian commanders of using the devices to "kill Ukrainian civilians and destroy the infrastructure they rely on for electricity, for water, for heat" during a visit to the Canadian capital Ottawa.
Putin said Thursday that there was no need for Russia to launch a nuclear strike on Ukraine, and denied his country had ever discussed the use of atomic weapons in the war, now in its ninth month.
Editorial: Ellen Weaver’s master’s degree raises more questions than it answers
News that Republican Ellen Weaver completed a quickie master’s degree leaves us relieved that South Carolina voters will be able to cast their ballots without facing the prospect of a court overturning their choice for state education superintendent.
After the trumped-up claims of voter fraud and stolen elections over the past two years, the last thing we need is a court instead of voters deciding who takes office, even if the court is right on the law.
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Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023A man has been charged in the Monday night burglary of the campaign headquarters for the Democratic candidate for Arizona, and the police didn’t have to go far to find him.
The man, Daniel Mota Dos Reis, 36, was already in jail on Wednesday after his arrest in connection with a separate burglary at a commercial property that had happened earlier that day, according to the Phoenix Police Department.
On Wednesday night, a police officer saw images of the burglar during the break-in at the campaign office of Katie Hobbs on the news and recognized him as the suspect who had been arrested in the separate burglary, the police said on Thursday.
That officer contacted the jail, and Mr. Dos Reis was rearrested in connection with the break-in at the campaign headquarters, the police said.
How much Ms. Weaver’s degree is worth is up for debate, since the nominee completed a program that typically takes one or two years in less than six months … while holding down a full-time-job… and running a statewide election campaign. Of course, there’s unfortunately nothing uncommon about online degree programs handing out degrees of questionable value, and there’s nothing in state law about the quality of the degree required here. It’s also doubtful that anyone would have questioned the quality of the degree had it been obtained before Ms. Weaver filed for office.
The District Attorney and her team of investigators and prosecutors will now begin a thorough review of the information and evidence to make a thoughtful, timely decision about whether to bring charges," a spokeswoman for District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. "As with all cases that the District Attorney handles, her focus will be on upholding the integrity of the process, enforcing the laws of the state of New Mexico and pursuingjustice."
Carmack-Altwies recently told state officials she had identified up to four potential defendants in the case, including the film's star, Alec Baldwin, who on Oct. 21, 2021, was holding a prop gun that discharged on the set. A bullet from the weapon killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he didn't pull the gun's trigger, but FBI records released in August indicated the revolver was fully functional and unlikely to discharge without the trigger being pulled. An Office of the Medical Investigator report classifies Hutchins' death as accidental.
A search warrant affidavit says Rust cast and crew members were inside a church building at the Bonanza Creek movie ranch south of Santa Fe for a rehearsal when assistant director David Halls grabbed a prop gun from a rolling cart outside, handed the weapon to Baldwin and yelled, "Cold gun" — indicating it didn't contain live rounds.
Shortly afterward, the affidavit says, Hutchins was struck in the chest, and Souza was wounded in the shoulder by the same bullet.
"The sheriff's office will continue to work with the district attorney's office in support of their review of the case," a sheriff's office spokesman said in an email Thursday.
We’re not even convinced that a master’s is necessary to do a good job as education superintendent, and some argue that any attempt to place qualification on an elected official violates voters’ constitutional rights. (The qualification was added in conjunction with a failed constitutional amendment that would have let the governor appoint the superintendent.)
But the law is the law, and Ms. Weaver has never suggested that the law was unconstitutional. What disturbed us from the start was how she either did not respect the law or else was not attentive enough to details to know about a state law that so directly affects candidates for superintendent of education.
Also disturbing, of course, is that Republican primary voters chose Ms. Weaver over Kathy Maness. Unlike Ms. Weaver or Democratic nominee Lisa Ellis, Ms. Maness stood a good chance of following in the footsteps of current Education Superintendent Molly Spearman, who was able to focus on education and oversee our schools in a way that won her the respect of both educators, who tend to be more liberal, and the state’s conservative political establishment.
Neither Ms. Weaver nor Ms. Ellis has a history or a platform that demonstrates the ability to set aside politics and work well across the political aisle — Ms. Weaver because of her culture-war approach to education and Ms. Ellis because of her union-like approach. We would urge whoever wins to learn from the way Ms. Spearman has governed and to seek out her help in emulating that approach.
The good news out of all of this — and this is really stretching to call this good news — is that Bob Jones University’s accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, is investigating complaints about Ms. Weaver’s degree. As The Post and Courier’s Sara Gregory and Maura Turcotte report, the accreditor wants to make sure the university followed its own policies and is looking specifically for a policy that explains how the school ensures that students who complete degree work at an accelerated pace actually do all the work.
If USC’s accreditors felt the need to investigate when a member of the University of South Carolina’s Board of Trustees suggested to other members that they needed to take a vote on whether to hire Bob Caslen as president, then Bob Jones’ accreditors certainly need to investigate how the favorite political candidate of that university’s president managed to earn a six-month master’s degree without the classroom experience that is typically required.
For that matter, it would be helpful for Bob Jones or Ms. Weaver to tell us precisely when Ms. Weaver started the program (we know she was still enrolled in a different online program as of March 31), and actually provide the transcript that Ms. Weaver has promised. Although the college can’t do that without her OK, it certainly can once she gives it.
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It’s natural that anybody would have questions about a degree that’s awarded under these circumstances, and doubly so given the cozy political circumstances: Ms. Weaver did her undergraduate work at Bob Jones, the university featured her in at least one campaign forum this year that didn’t include any of her political opponents, and her goal of spending tax dollars to send children to private schools is consistent with the political goals of many of the college’s leaders, some of whom have been public supporters of her campaign.
We hope the accreditor is able to find compelling evidence that Bob Jones didn’t bend the rules for Ms. Weaver. That will be particularly important if she’s elected, but it’s important even in the unlikely event that she loses, because whatever you think of its politics, Bob Jones is a valuable institution in our state.
Putin claimed Russia has only used “hints” in response to repeated US and European discussion of a possible atomic conflict, telling an audience of foreign-policy experts that the West was trying to influence Moscow’s friends and allies by showing “how terrible Russia is.”
China is willing to deepen its cooperation with Russia at all levels, according to a Chinese readout of a phone call between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that also said the pair discussed Ukraine. Russia hasn’t commented.
Ksenia Sobchak, the celebrity-journalist daughter of Putin’s political mentor fled Russia for Europe as police detained a close associate and raided her home as part of a criminal case for alleged extortion.
(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)
Key Developments
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Putin Plays Down Nuclear Threat in Ukraine as He Lambasts US
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Russia Crisis Heralds Turning Point for Global Energy, IEA Says
What Is a ‘Dirty Bomb’ and Why Is Ukraine Worried?: QuickTake
On the Ground
Russian forces struck the Kyiv region and the southern city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, Ukrinform reported, citing local authorities. Ukraine’s “South” command said air defense downed a Russian Ka-52 helicopter and an Su-25 fighter jet in the Kherson region Thursday morning. Ukrainian troops downed 18 out of 20 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones launched by Russia over the past 24 hours at the country’s critical infrastructure, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram. Russian assaults near seven settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were repelled over the past day, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military reported on Facebook.
"Canada and the United States will keep working with our allies and partners to expose, to deter, and to counter Iran's provision of these weapons," Mr Blinken said.
In recent weeks, Russian attacks have targeted Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, damaging the country's electricity and water supply just as temperatures begin to drop.
Western countries say Iran is supplying its domestically developed drones to Moscow and that Iranian military experts are on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea to provide technical support to pilots.
Kyiv has identified the drones used in some attacks on its infrastructure as Iranian Shahed-136 drones. They are known as "kamikaze" drones because they are destroyed in the attack - named after the Japanese fighter pilots who flew suicide missions in World War Two.
Ukraine says around 400 drones have already been used by Russia, from a total order of roughly 2,000 weapons.
But Tehran has repeatedly denied that it has struck any arms deal with the Kremlin, and Moscow also denies using Iranian drones.
Star roles for “action men” in China’s new military leadership may hint at an increased threat of war with Taiwan, though analysts suggest Xi Jinping’s stated preference for a peaceful takeover of the island should be taken at face value – at least for now.
China announced the lineup of its Central Military Commission (CMC) last weekend, just days after Xi opened the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress with a speech vowing to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control. To thunderous applause, the Chinese leader said this could be done peacefully but – reiterating Beijing’s longstanding stance – he refused to rule out the use of force.
The new leadership of the military commission – the top authority in charge of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – includes a number of officers seen as “action men” for their expertise in areas that would be key to any invasion. And that’s fueled concerns that such a move could be imminent.
The past year has seen China significantly ramp up its intimidation of Taiwan, a democratically governed island of 24 million that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its sovereign territory despite never having controlled it.
Beijing has sent dozens of aircraft and ships near Taiwan and even fired a missile over the island.
ambassador alleged in a letter to Security Council members this week that Ukraine’s Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Vostochniy Mining and Processing Plant “have received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy’s regime to develop such a dirty bomb.”
The envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said that information was from Russia’s Ministry of Defense. He said the ministry reported that work on a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror, is “at their concluding stage.”
Grossi said: “The purpose of this week’s safeguards visits is to detect any possible undeclared nuclear activities and materials related to the development of `dirty bombs.’”
The IAEA inspected the nuclear research institute in Kyiv a month ago “and no undeclared nuclear activities or materials were found there,” he said.
But Grossi said the inspectors are going to revisit the facility with a different aim.
Normally inspectors look for nuclear material such as enriched uranium, plutonium and thorium, he said, but in this case “there is mention of certain isotopes, cesium and strontium. So, we are going to be performing a different kind of work to determine whether the fuel there has been reprocessed in some way to extract this.”
Grossi came to U.N. headquarters in New York to brief Security Council members behind closed doors on nuclear issues related to Ukraine. The IAEA earlier issued a statement from him and he spoke to reporters after the council meeting.
Russia’s Nebenzia said he told Grossi that “he should be vigilant” because the two sites are not the only places where dirty bombs can be produced.
Grossi said he remains “extremely concerned” about the possibility of a nuclear accident.
He said that in the coming weeks the IAEA is going to be deploying more experts at other nuclear power plants in Ukraine — Rivni, Khmelnytskyi South Ukraine and Chernobyl. The latter was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, and it was occupied by Russian forces soon after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, though they left at the beginning of April.
The nuclear issue was heightened by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a dirty bomb in weekend calls to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts. Britain, France and the United States rejected the claim out of hand, calling it “transparently false.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated the unsubstantiated claim on Wednesday,
Xi Jinping just became unassailable. Here's why investors are running scared
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said though she was willing to work with China to find “mutually acceptable ways” to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait, there was “no room for compromise” over the self-ruled island’s sovereignty
The rhetoric from both sides and Beijing’s recent maneuvers have stoked fears that an attempted Chinese military takeover of Taiwan could be next on the horizon.
But many experts say that won’t necessarily be the case.
The six-member military commission Xi leads does not look like a “war council,” analysts said, but rather a body set up to continue the methodical modernization of the world’s largest military, which the Chinese leader set as a goal in 2015.
“A hot war in Asia remains unlikely in the foreseeable future,” said James Char, associate research fellow in the China Program at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
“The PLA will continue to try to achieve China’s national objectives by operating at the level below the threshold of war in the near to medium term,” Char said.
One of those chief objectives has been to make the PLA a world-class fighting force – essentially the equal of the US military – by 2049. Xi has established waypoints toward that 2049 goal, including by putting an emphasis on joint operations, the ability of all the PLA’s branches to function as one in times of conflict – which would be essential to any invasion of Taiwan.
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Hear the grim warning that got Xi Jinping a roaring applause during speech
03:00 - Source: CNN
The ‘action men’
The appointment of Gen. He Weidong, former commander of the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, as one of two CMC vice chairmen below only Xi in the military leadership shows that commitment to joint operations, analysts said.
Upon taking over the Eastern Theater Command in 2019, He oversaw the integration of PLA operations across the Taiwan Strait.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government was to approve on Friday a hefty economic package that will include government funding of about 29 trillion yen ($200 billion) to soften the burden of costs from rising utility rates and food prices.
Formal party and Cabinet approval was expected later in the day after a morning economic policy meeting. Kishida was set to give a news conference in the evening.
Inflation has been rising in Japan along with globally surging prices. A weakening of the yen against the dollar has amplified costs for imports.
The stimulus package includes subsidies for households that are largely seen as an attempt by Kishida to lift his plunging popularity. His government has been rocked by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s close ties to the South Korean-based Unification church, which surfaced after the assassination of former leader Shinzo Abe in July.
“We will make sure to deliver the measures to everyone and do our utmost so that people can feel supported in their daily lives," Kishida told the morning meeting.
The stimulus is another indication that Japan will stick to using fiscal measures, or government spending, to counter current economic challenges. While central banks around the world are raising interest rates aggressively to try to tame decades-high inflation, Japan's inflation rate is a relatively moderate 3% and the greater fear is that the economy will stall, not overheat.
The Bank of Japan, which has kept its benchmark rate at minus 0.1% since 2016, kept its longstanding lax monetary policy at a policy making meeting that wrapped up on Friday.
The overall size of the package, including private-sector funding and fiscal measures, is expected to amount to 71.6 trillion yen ($490 trillion), Kishida said. Fiscal spending will be 39 trillion yen ($270 billion).
The package includes about 45,000 yen ($300) subsidies for household electricity and gas bills and coupons worth 100,000 yen ($680) for women who are pregnant or rearing babies.
Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023
Earlier this year, the results of those efforts were evident when, shortly after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the PLA put on a show of force in a joint operation that included sea, air and missile units while simulating a blockade of the island and sending ballistic missiles over it.
That experience was a new one for the Chinese military’s central decision-making body.
South Korea -- North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Friday, Seoul officials said, as its rival South Korea was wrapping up an annual military drill that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missile flew toward North Korea's eastern waters but gave no further details including how far the weapon flew.
The launch, the latest in a series of weapons tests by North Korea in recent weeks, came on the final day of South Korea’s annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of U.S. troops this year.
The South Korean and U.S. air forces plan to conduct a large-scale training next week.
North Korea sees such regular drills by Seoul and Washington as practice for launching an attack on the North, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.
Friday’s launch came four days after the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles.
The launch also came after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during a visit to Tokyo this week issued a warning over North Korea’s escalating provocations and reiterated that the U.S. would fully use its military capabilities, “including nuclear,” to defend its allies Japan and South Korea.
There are also concerns that the North could up the ante in the coming weeks by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday that a new nuclear test explosion by North Korea “would be yet another confirmation of a program which is moving full steam ahead in a way that is incredibly concerning.”
He said the U.N. agency has been observing preparations for a new test, which would be the North’s seventh overall, but gave no indication of whether an atomic blast is imminent.
'No room for compromise' on Taiwan's sovereignty, President Tsai says in National Day speech
Rod Lee, director of research at the US Air Force Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute, said He was the first PLA officer on the Central Military Commission to run a joint command and his experience would be invaluable in any operation involving Taiwan.
Besides bringing together the army, navy, air and rocket forces, He will have learned how to implement a national mobilization plan and integrate auxiliary units like the People’s Armed Police, Lee said.
“All these reforms that Xi Jinping has imposed on the PLA, He Weidong is the first one who has actually had to deal with this at some level in an operational sense,” Lee added.
Besides that joint command experience, He possesses another key attribute sought in top PLA leadership – field experience in hostile situations. He led the PLA’s Western Theater Command army forces during the Doklam border standoff with India in 2017.
Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said He was one of Xi’s “action men” on the military commission. Another “action man” was his fellow vice chairman Gen. Zhang Youxia.
China's Xi is more powerful than ever. What does it mean for the world?
Zhang, whose father served alongside Xi’s father in the Chinese civil war, is seen by many as a loyal ally of the Chinese leader. Zhang served on the previous military commission and has been retained and promoted despite being past the unofficial retirement age of 68.
Zhang reflects “two important aspects that Xi seems to value: loyalty and war-fighting experience, being a veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War,” said Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for China at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow in the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the US National Defense University, said Zhang brings other key experience: he’s a former director of the commission’s equipment department, overseeing the PLA’s acquisition of advanced technology and hardware.
“This is a clear priority for Xi. The (Party Congress) work report focuses on the need to increase the proportion of ‘intelligentized’ equipment – a category that includes things like unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and hypersonic missiles,” Wuthnow said. Zhang’s fellow commission member, Gen. Li Shangfu, has also played the acquisition role, Wuthnow noted.
On Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called the accusations "baseless" and urged Ukraine to "present any evidence supporting the accusations".
"If... it becomes clear to us that Russia has used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will definitely not be indifferent about this issue," he added.
Jamal Uddin Covid Update Ukraine Faces Rolling Blackouts After JamalPur Hellal Khan Natore 2022
The Justice Department has ramped up prosecutions of pro-life activists in the months following the Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, under a law that was barely used in 2020 and 2021 but has now been used to indict 26 people this year.
In the seven months since Russian forces seized Europe’s largest atomic energy station, Ukrainian engineers have managed to keep the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant running safely even as artillery shells repeatedly destroyed the facility’s backup electricity.
But as temperatures drop heading into winter, the risk of a radiation accident is rising, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear company told HuffPost on Tuesday.
As fighting intensified last month, operators powered down the last of the plant’s six reactors lest another electrical outage jeopardize the cooling systems needed to keep the scorching-hot radioactive material from melting down even when the reactor is idle.
“It was the safest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and now it is the most dangerous nuclear power plant in the whole world,” said Petro Kotin, president of Ukrainian state-owned nuclear plant operator Energoatom. He spent most of his career working at Zaporizhzhia.
Bodies of water all over North America are drying up as a result of drought and a decrease in precipitation, experts told ABC News.
Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that the 22-year megadrought affecting the West would not only intensify but also move eastward.
That prediction appears to be coming into fruition, with about 82% of the continental U.S. currently showing conditions between abnormally dry and exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
But Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear plant operator, wants to restart at least one of the reactors. A Russian bombing blitz over the last week destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, spurring widespread blackouts. And the neighboring towns where Zaporizhzhia’s workers live have no other source of warmth in the winter besides a district heating system hooked up to the power plant.
Restarting a reactor is also a matter of safety at the plant. There’s a limited amount of diesel to run the generators that provide the last-resort power to keep the plant’s cooling system running — running heaters to keep the storage tanks containing refueling water would only drain the supply sooner.
Jamal Uddin Covid Update Ukraine Faces Rolling Blackouts After JamalPur Hellal Khan Natore 2022
“Even before we de-occupy the plant, because of the decrease in temperature, we need just to start this one unit to supply steam for heating purposes of the plant itself,” Kotin said dressed in dark green military fatigues as he spoke to HuffPost for 80 minutes over Microsoft Teams from his office in Kyiv, roughly 400 miles northwest of Zaporizhzhia.
Then there are the fish. Zaporizhzhia collects water for its cooling system from an outdoor pond, which operators stocked with an imported fish species to eat algae that could otherwise gum up the reactor turbines. A running reactor expels warm water into the pond, keeping temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit at all times — and, by extension, keeping the Egyptian fish alive. With no reactors running, water temperatures would eventually drop below 50 degrees, Kotin said.
Accomplishing that feat comes with lofty expectations from a Democratic Party hungry for a new generation of leaders. Moore would also enter the governorship under intense scrutiny: a political neophyte promising to usher in an era of transformation in his first elected gig
Two Russian nationals were arrested in a scheme to obtain sensitive U.S. military electronics and technology to provide it to the Russian defense sector, prosecutors said Wednesday, noting that some of the items were found on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Yury Orekhov and Artem Uss are accused of using false documents and a front company to purchase electronics like advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter aircraft, missile systems and smart munitions.
The men sent the items to sanctioned Russian companies that serve the defense sector, according to federal prosecutors.
“Some of the same electronic components obtained through the criminal scheme have been found in Russian weapons platforms seized on the battlefield in Ukraine,” prosecutors said.
The operation was part of a broader scheme that involved smuggling oil from Venezuela to companies in Russia and China — and millions of dollars in cryptocurrency transfers to launder the proceeds of the criminal enterprise, according to a 12-count indictment that charged a total of seven people.
"This network schemed to procure sophisticated technology in direct support of a floundering Russian Federation military industrial complex," Assistant FBI Director Michael Driscoll said in a statement.
Orekhov, who is 42 and lives in the United Arab Emirates, was arrested in Germany on Monday. Uss, who is 40 and lives in Moscow, was arrested in Italy the same day.
Both men will undergo extradition proceedings, prosecutors said. It was not immediately clear whether they had hired lawyers.
The Justice Department also charged three other Russians in connection with the scheme: Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, 32, also known as Lana Neumann; Timofey Telegin, 39; and Sergey Tulyakov, 52.
Two other men were charged in connection with the allegedly illicit oil deals: Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce, who is 47 and lives in Dubai, and Juan Carlos Soto, whose age and hometown were not provided by U.S. authorities.
Ponce and Soto are accused of brokering oil deals worth millions of dollars involving a front company operated by Orekhov and Uss and purchasers in Russia and China. The deals were routed through a complex web of shell companies and bank accounts to disguise the transactions, prosecutors said.
FORMER T&I CHAIR LOBBYING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BANK PROPOSAL: A long-stalled campaign to create a national infrastructure bank that would help fund infrastructure projects with loans from private investors is getting a boost from a big name: longtime House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Bill Shuster. Shuster, who is now a lobbyist at Squire Patton Boggs, is one of several of the firm’s staffers who were retained in August by the Alliance for Financing U.S. Infrastructure, Inc.,according to newly filed disclosures.
— Shuster said in an interview that he is unsure who is funding the effort, which is being spearheaded by Cypress Group founder Pat Cave. The idea is to establish a federally chartered bank in the mold of the Federal Home Loan Bank and Farm Credit System, and it’s hardly a new one in infrastructure circles. Shuster pointed to similar bodies in Canada and Europe.
— The idea has long had support from Democrats, while “the resistance from Republicans is that … it’s a government entity that requires appropriations, that requires appointments by politicians,” Shuster said, though a bill from Rep. Daniel Webster(R-Fla.) and outgoing Rep.Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), which the coalition backs, stipulates the bank would be privately owned and operated.
— He also noted that the proposal that Squire and the coalition are advocating for would use tax breaks to attract investment from banks, equity firms, pension funds and the like rather than a pot of federally appropriated money that needs to be replenished, and is aimed at enhancing existing federal revenue streams while getting money out the door faster.
Jamal Uddin Covid Update Ukraine Faces Rolling Blackouts After JamalPur Hellal Khan Natore 2022
— “It’s self-sustaining, because people around this country and around the world will invest in infrastructure,” Shuster argued, projecting the bank could attract over $100 billion in capital.
— The former congressman has been part of the lobbying effort to create a national infrastructure bank since shortly after leaving office in 2019. Disclosures show Shuster and a team at Squire lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of an LLC called Infra-Bk, and those efforts have continued even after the idea failed to gain traction during negotiations on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. “We were pushing to get it in the infrastructure bill,” he said, adding that senators on both sides of the aisle had shown interest in the idea. “But it just wasn’t the time to do it.”
If such a high-pressure debut seems like cause for caution, his supporters aren’t tempering their enthusiasm.
Moore has racked up a slew of endorsements, including a rare political nod from Oprah Winfrey. Democratic luminaries are drawn to the energy and charisma he displays on the trail running for the state’s open governorship.
Even President Joe Biden chose a Democratic Party event in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Rockville as his unofficial midterm campaign kickoff. There Biden heaped praise on Moore, the former head of the Robin Hood Foundation, the anti-poverty nonprofit, as well as a captain who led troops in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan.
To say it's been another tumultuous day in UK politics would be an understatement. If you're just joining us, here's a recap of Wednesday's events at Westminster:
Suella Braverman has resigned from her role as home secretary after six weeks in the job. Braverman said she was quitting after she had sent an official document from her personal email account, but expressed concerns about "the direction of the government" in a blistering resignation letter
Former transport secretary Grant Shapps was appointed as the new home secretary
In Parliament, there was uproar as Tory MPs tried to seek clarity on whether a vote on fracking was a confidence vote in government. A Labour MP claimed Tory MPs were manhandled into the voting lobby
The Conservatives won the vote, with 326 voting against a ban, and 230 MPs voting for it - though 40 Tory MPs, including several senior figures, did not vote
Reports began to emerge suggesting chief whip Wendy Morton and deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker had resigned
After hours of speculation about their depature, No 10 confirmed both were still in their posts
Charles Walker, a Tory MP, told BBC News that the evening's events in the voting lobby were a "shambles and disgrace". A number of his colleagues sided with him, including Maria Caulfield MP, who tweeted: "We are all Charles Walker"
Lord David Frost, Boris Johnson's former Brexit negotiator and Tory peer, added his voice to calls for Truss to resign
“Wes is the real deal. The real deal, folks. He’s a combat veteran. Only drawback is he’s a Rhodes Scholar,” Biden joked. “Former CEO of one of the biggest anti-poverty organizations in America,” he continued, “and if we all do our part, the next governor of Maryland.”
And while the president made no mention of his former boss, others in the party can’t help but compare Moore, a moderate, to the nation’s first Black president. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer not-so-subtly reached for not one, but two former presidents as comparisons when asked about Moore’s experience.
“Ronald Reagan didn’t have much experience before he became the governor of the largest state, except as an actor. Barack Obama had a few years [in the U.S. Senate],” said Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, deflecting criticisms raised about Moore.
Moore’s been slammed during the campaign as unequipped to meet Maryland’s challenges, having never worked in government before, and he’s been labeled as a “phony” by his Republican challenger for being untruthful about how long he’s lived in Baltimore, embellishing parts of his biography in his best-selling memoir, “The Other Wes Moore.”
These projections being placed on Moore can be heavy for any candidate, particularly for someone new to the political arena.
It also speaks to the rarity of Black candidates getting elected to statewide posts, which are typically seen as a springboard for any future run for the Senate or the White House. The Moore candidacy highlights Democrats’ craving to find a class of leaders that is younger and more diverse than its current crop of long-tenured party heads, one that can help excite the base.
In the last four weeks alone, the Justice Department has indicted 14 people under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the FACE Act. That Clinton-era law makes it a federal crime to use or threaten to use force to "injure, intimidate, or interfere" with anyone seeking either abortion services or pro-life pregnancy counseling services.
. Vladimir Putin declares martial law in occupied regions of Ukraine.
The aggressive move could allow pro-Russian authorities to impose even tighter restrictions on the four regions of Ukraine that Moscow recently annexed but does not fully control. The move could also allow Russian troops and their allies to seize property and forcibly resettle residents.
Russian proxy officials, apparently girding for a battle for control, said they began moving as many as 60,000 civilians out of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson today. Ukrainian officials dismissed the plans as “a propaganda show,” but the move was another sign that Moscow’s hold on the area was slipping.
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Each of those 14 indictments were against pro-life demonstrators, and all of the 26 FACE Act indictments this year have been against pro-lifers. These alleged FACE Act incidents, for which DOJ is now pressing charges, occurred at least one year ago and carry potential jail time of up to 11 years and over $200,000 in fines.
In contrast, only four FACE Act indictments took place in 2021, according to DOJ.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before Congress. (Greg Nash/Pool Photo via AP)
The sudden uptick in FACE Act charges follows the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case in June that overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion access. In response to the Dobbs opinion, DOJ launched a reproductive rights task force, which the department says was formed to "identify ways to protect access to reproductive health care."
Obumseli would later die from his wound, and Clenney, who has 2 million followers on Instagram and a once-thriving OnlyFans business, faces a second-degree murder charge. On the call, she did not say whether she stabbed Obumseli, but her legal team claims she acted in self-defense.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle previously said Obumseli was unarmed, while describing the couple's relationship as "extremely tempestuous and combative."
Larry Handfield, the attorney representing Obumseli's family, said the 911 call speaks for itself.
"It shows her state of mind," he told the Herald. "She's saying she's sorry because she's realizing what she's done. She's not saying ‘I was defending myself.’"
Kateryna Choursina and Olesia Safronova
·1 min read
(Bloomberg) -- The Ukrainian electrical grid operator Ukrenergo told the nation to be prepared for alternating blackouts on Thursday after Russian missile attacks damaged more power producers on Wednesday.
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All regions in Ukraine may face four-hour cutoffs between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., a necessary step because of a shortage of power generation, the company said, urging consumers to conserve as much energy as possible.
Russian missiles struck three electricity producers in Ukraine on Wednesday alone. The damage to facilities in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsya was on top of other attacks on power plants.
Since Oct. 10, the Ukrainian energy system has suffered more attacks than it did since the Russian invasion began in February, Ukrenergo said. About 30% of Ukrainian power stations have been destroyed since Oct. 10, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.
“It is very important energy is consumed with awareness tomorrow,” he said in his nightly address. “We are preparing for all possible scenarios in the light of approaching winter season. We proceed from the fact that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities, until with the help of our partners, we can shoot down 100 percent of enemy’s missiles and drones”
Kyiv, Lviv and other big cities have already experienced emergency power cutoffs, though some capacity has been restored.
--With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.
(Updates with Zelenskiy remarks, in fifth paragraph. An earlier version corrected the length of the war, in fourth paragraph.)
One of Clenney's lawyers, Frank Prieto, said his client was emotional moments after defending herself.
"The 911 call that Courtney made to get help for Obumseli captures the chaos, confusion, and raw emotion Courtney experienced after she was forced to defend herself," he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The audio of Courtney's call to 911 is clearly not an admission of guilt; it is a human and humane reaction to the traumatic events and actions she took to save her life that night. As with many victims of domestic violence, Courtney allowed her abuser back into her apartment despite knowing their relationship was toxic; however, her actions that evening were taken in defense of her own life."
While DOJ has been prosecuting alleged FACE Act violations by pro-life activists, the Supreme Court decision has also led to dozens of violent incidents at pro-life pregnancy centers staged by pro-choice demonstrators. For example, the radical abortion rights group Jane's Revenge has claimed credit for vandalizing or firebombing at least 18 of these pro-life clinics.
Zeldin Islam And Juwel Kobir Notun Para Built His Profile Defending Trump Blikis 2023 In another sign New York City is grappling with an increase of migrants entering the shelter system, the city has officially opened a sprawling, 84,000-square-foot emergency shelter on Manhattan's Randall's Island.
ABC News and other outlets were given a first look inside the center, opening Wednesday, which has a total footprint of 6.4 acres encompassing dormitories, dining facilities, recreation centers and isolation centers for migrants that may contract COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.
The decision to open the center comes amid an effort spearheaded by Texas Gov. Abbott to bus migrants to Democrat-led cities.
Randall's Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, center, a complex of giant tents, is New York City's latest temporary shelter for an influx of international migrants being bused into the ci..
Bebeto Matthews/AP
While Abbott's efforts have been criticized as a political stunt to call attention to a broken immigration system, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News that more than 20,500 asylum-seekers have moved through the shelter system since spring, with a majority of them arriving on buses from Texas.
"This situation is caused by political actors, as you know, and New York City is just having to respond and prepare for more people to arrive," said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Wednesday recommended withdrawing the drug Makena from the market, after years of study showed the fast-tracked drug had failed to prevent preterm birth.
Zeldin Islam And Juwel Kobir Notun Para Built His Profile Defending Trump Blikis 2023
Makena has been approved for 11 years, and the panel’s vote was widely viewed as a test of the agency’s “accelerated approval” program, which has expedited nearly 300 promising drugs to the market in 30 years. The program has been criticized for leaving many drugs in use as follow-up studies drag on to determine whether they work. The program drew considerable fire over the approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm last year, a costly drug that many experts viewed as unproven.
This is the first time in more than a decade that the agency, which typically follows the advice of its expert panels, appears poised to force a drugmaker to stop selling a fast-tracked product.
The move to pull Makena from the market — the only drug approved to forestall preterm birth — has been laced with emotional appeals and issues of race and health disparity. The risk of preterm birth is much higher for Black women, a point that Covis Pharma, the drug’s manufacturer, had pressed in a lengthy effort to make its case to the F.D.A.
The center will house nearly 500 single male adults, but capacity can be increased if necessary. Other migrants, including families with children, are being placed at shelters and other temporary housing arrangements throughout the city. Case workers and other resources will be provided to migrants at the Randall's Island facility so that they can figure out the next steps in their pending immigration cases and how to reach their intended destinations.
MORE: Florida began soliciting migrant flight prices in July, documents show
West Wisdom Valley C8 project, the first industrial park in Wuhou focusing on digital economy, is currently under construction. Several leading enterprises in the field have expressed their intent to cooperate with the project, including GDC Technology and Xiaomi Corp.
E-commerce giant JD's southwest regional headquarters has been completed and put into use. It can accommodate tens of thousands of people. JD is also enhancing cooperation with an industrial functional zone known as Tazhuang Meigu to build large-scale industrial clusters.
Relying on the innovation resources from the West China Center of Medical Sciences of Sichuan University and its affiliated hospitals, the West China Health Valley in Wuhou is striving to step up the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements in order to build health industry clusters.
As of July, it has become home to 58 enterprises, forming four industrial clusters revolving around precision medicine, medical cosmetology, health management, and medical instrument circulation.
Focusing on key areas such as urban industry and medical health, the district is introducing and cultivating a number of leading enterprises, platforms and projects in 12 industrial chains to improve its modern industrial system.
Along with its increasing economic strength, the district is continuing to increase investment in people's livelihoods.
When the autumn semester began in September, a number of new schools were put into use in Wuhou. It is also cooperating with colleges and universities to build affiliated schools, and making efforts to introduce high-quality basic educational resources and form clusters of high-quality schools.
To improve elderly care services, the district began to promote home care beds last year so that more elderly people can enjoy professional home care services without leaving their homes.
The mayor's office is looking into obtaining funding from the state government to help migrants purchase transportation to where they have family in the United States or where they are required to show up to immigration court to proceed with their asylum claims.
New York City Emergency Management had already started building the facility at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, but severe rains that moved over the region in recent weeks proved the location to be a flood risk, and the facility was moved to Randall's Island, just northeast of Manhattan.
Representative Lee Zeldin, at the 2022 Columbus Day Parade, was one of the earliest congressmen to encourage Donald J. Trump’s presidential bid. Credit...Peter Foley/EPA, via Shutterstock
Before providing in-depth coverage of New York’s race for governor, Nicholas Fandos was a congressional correspondent in Washington reporting on the Jan. 6 riot and its aftermath.
On the night the U.S. Capitol was ransacked, as police officers were still counting the injured and stunned lawmakers emerged from hiding, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and went live on Fox News.
Other Republican leaders had already begun distancing the party from President Donald J. Trump, whose monthslong campaign to overturn his election loss helped incite the violence. But Mr. Zeldin sounded all but ready to exonerate him.
The people of Ukraine and their representatives were awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize Wednesday's for their resistance to Russia's invasion and ongoing war.
The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.
In a crackdown on the syndicate, undercover police officers posing as customers were deployed to a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel to gather evidence before arresting two sex workers on Monday.
The two suspects, who entered the city with travel visas, included a 27-year-old female tourist from Japan, who was an AV actress. The other woman is from Thailand.
A source said the investigation showed the Japanese woman was offered a free air ticket and accommodation to come to the city. She arrived in Hong Kong about a week ago before being taken to the hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui’s entertainment district, where she stayed and worked.
Hong Kong district official among 5 suspects detained in anti-vice operation
5 May 2022
“The syndicate posted an advert with her picture on Telegram along with contact details highlighting that she was a Japanese AV girl,” he said.
Clients were then told to go to the hotel for sex and each customer was charged between HK$6,000 (US$760) and HK$7,000 for sex services. The vice racket took about 60 per cent of the proceeds as commission.
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“The investigation showed an agent from the syndicate went to the hotel and collected money from the two women every day,” the source said.
He added officers were still investigating the extent of the syndicate’s illegal business and were also trying to track down its ringleader and core members.
Hong Kong administrative officer denies link with prostitution syndicate
6 May 2022
The two suspects were among 16 women arrested in a series of raids in Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei in a joint operation by police and immigration officers against illegal employment and prostitution on Monday.
According to the force, they comprised four mainland women and 12 expatriate women. They were detained on suspicion of breaching their conditions of stay, overstaying and taking employment illegally.
Under the Immigration Ordinance, breach of conditions of stay is punishable by up to two years in jail, while taking employment illegally carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
It’s the second straight year EU lawmakers used the Sakharov Prize to send a message to the Kremlin. Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny won it last year.
When they nominated Ukraine, EU lawmakers praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his “bravery, endurance and devotion to his people” and highlighted the roles of Ukraine’s state emergency services.
Among others, they also cited Yulia Pajevska, the founder of the medical evacuation unit Angels of Taira, human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk, the Yellow Ribbon civil resistance movement and Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol.
Ukrainians have demonstrated resilience in the nearly 8-month-old war despite an uptick in attacks in recent weeks.
Since launching a counteroffensive in late August, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed broad swaths of the country, dealing a heavy blow to Russia.
“They are standing up for what they believe in. Fighting for our values. Protecting democracy, freedom and rule of law. Risking their lives for us," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola wrote on Twitter. “No one is more deserving. Congratulations to the brave people of Ukraine!"
“This isn’t just about the president of the United States,” he said, referring to what prompted the riot that he condemned. “This is about people on the left and their double standards.”
The comments — blaming Democrats and “rogue state actors,” not Mr. Trump, for undermining confidence in the election — drew little attention at the time. Soon after, Mr. Zeldin would join 146 other Republicans in seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in key states.
The majority of Republican candidates running for higher office right now have either expressed doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election or said outright that they believe the election was stolen.
New York Times political reporter Robert Draper says the party's embrace of lies and conspiracy theories has opened the door to fringe actors, who have become among the party's most influential leaders. He points to Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a prime example of the party's extreme new direction.
Greene has expressed support for QAnon conspiracies and reportedly endorsed the idea of executing Democratic leaders. While campaigning for office in 2020, she posed with a custom AR-15 pistol in her campaign ads and presented herself as a "Trump mini-me," Draper says.
"This seemed outlandish to sort of run-of-the-mill Republicans, but the base wanted a MAGA warrior to send from their district to Washington, and that's what they got," Draper says.
In his new book, Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind, Draper writes that in the time since Trump left office, the Republican Party has plunged deeper into conspiracy mongering — and the notion that Democrats are not just wrong, but also evil. He says the GOP's stubborn embrace of the stolen election narrative undermines democracy and plays straight into the hands the nation's enemies.
Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's top foreign policy adviser supports the inclusion of Argentina in the BRICS group of developing nations, which could be a forum for negotiating peace in Ukraine, he told Reuters.
Celso Amorim, foreign minister during Lula's 2003-2010 presidency, had a hand in founding the BRICS group along with Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2011 and Argentina has been pushing to become the sixth member.
"It's good to have balance within the BRICS, to have a larger role for Latin America," Amorim said in an interview on Tuesday afternoon. "I think the eventual inclusion of Argentina would be positive."
Polls show Lula with a lead of roughly 5 percentage points ahead of an Oct. 30 runoff against President Jair Bolsonaro.
Amorim said he has not discussed any role in an eventual Lula government, but he continues to discuss policy matters regularly with the leftist former president.
Regarding the Ukraine war, he said Lula had the disposition and track record to contribute to peace talks.
"He has the conditions to take part in a negotiating effort, which needs to be led by the European Union and United States, but with the participation of China, obviously. Brazil can also be an important country, whose voice resonates in the developing world," Amorim said. "The BRICS as a group could help."
Amorim also said Lula would make Brazil a protagonist in global climate talks if elected, calling for a summit of Amazon rainforest nations in the first half of next year to discuss conservation efforts along with more developed nations.
A third Lula term would open the door for Brazil to re-engage diplomatically with neighboring Venezuela, Amorim said, adding that Bolsonaro and U.S. President Donald Trump achieved little by breaking off relations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"When we're having these kinds of troubles at home, every day that there's trouble, this is a good day for Russia," Draper says. "Russia has a compelling interest in the decline of America as a voice worldwide, in its promulgation of democracy."
On Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy's early obsession with Donald Trump
Kevin McCarthy, in his 20s, according to a childhood friend who I interviewed back in Bakersfield, Calif., where McCarthy is from, was utterly obsessed with Trump, utterly obsessed with this author of The Art of the Deal. And so he had long felt that Trump had a way of not only capturing what it was that he stood for and developing a brand, but negatively branding the other side. And so McCarthy, to me, is emblematic of the establishment wing of the Republican Party that has enabled not only the rise of Trump, but the sustaining of Trump as a powerful force that far from criticizing him, as Liz Cheney has, for example, that they've largely felt that now we can use Trump. "Trump will be sort of the tip of our spear to get conservative policies done," or at minimum, "We can't stop the guy, so we'll go to ground." ... The care and feeding of Donald Trump is something that McCarthy eagerly signed on to do from the moment that Trump took office.
On how Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won her congressional seat in 2020
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a native of Georgia. ...She had not been any kind of participant on any level in the political process really until around 2017, 2018. She became an adherent to the QAnon conspiracy theory, and after that began to show up on Capitol Hill as a kind of confrontational journalist, as she would put it, basically harassing Democratic staff members, but was unknown by the Georgia political establishment. And indeed, she told me that Republicans in that state viewed her as "a three-headed monster" when she decided to file [to run for office].
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But she was a self-funder and then ultimately moved to a more conservative district, the 14th District, in northwest Georgia, when that [seat] became vacated in December of 2019. And it kind of caught the party and the Georgia media unawares, [when she] suddenly won in the primary. Then opposition research files came out indicating that she had posted in the past all these offensive and conspiratorial theories online. That didn't stop her from winning, but she came to Washington in January 2021 with the expectation from most of us, allegedly smart people, that she would soon be ... given essentially that one term, otherwise [be] ignored by the Republican Party and would be out the door. That did not occur. In fact, in many ways the opposite occurred. It's kind of a case study in the Republican Party in the post-Trump era, and thus forms a central foundation of my book.
On House members fearing for their physical safety after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol
There was a genuine fear of these gun-toting new members of Congress, like Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and people who are Democrats genuinely fearing for their safety, to the point where a senior staffer on one of the committees circulated a memo saying that she wished to see occupational safety worker guidelines applied to the U.S. Capitol, suggesting that it was an unsafe work environment, and in no other private business, would this kind of cavalier talk about bringing in weapons to the Capitol and demonizing the people who disagree with you be tolerated. The fear was not just the usual, "We disagree with them. We think they're wrong," or even, "We're revolted by them." It was a real fear. And it was one of the driving factors in Speaker Pelosi insisting on putting magnetometers just outside the floor of the House.
On Marjorie Taylor Greene being stripped of her two congressional committee assignments due to her incendiary comments
