Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023
IMAGE SOURCE,OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINEPresident 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.
Political Cartoons
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 pursuing justice."
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.
Dobir Uddin MaMa Ukraine war Russia deploys dozens Horipur Bonpara Natore Rizik More 2023
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
- Biden Questions Putin Claim Russia Won’t Use Nuclear Weapons
- Putin Plays Down Nuclear Threat in Ukraine as He Lambasts US
- Putin-Linked Celebrity Journalist Sobchak Flees Russia
- Is Putin Strangling Russia’s Golden Gas Goose? The IEA Thinks So
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.