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Bakhmut has fallen to the Russians
https://apnews.com/article/bakhmut-russia-ukraine-wagner-prigozhin-da2fc05b818b3dcc39decd40b17d2d8b
Russia’s defense ministry said early Sunday that forces of the Wagner private army, with the support of Russian troops, seized the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

The ministry statement on the Telegram channel came about eight hours after a similar claim by Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. Ukrainian authorities at that time said fighting for Bakhmut was continuing.

The eight-month battle for the city in eastern Ukraine is the longest and probably most bloody of the conflict in Ukraine.
Using the city’s Soviet-era name, the Russian ministry said, “In the Artyomovsk tactical direction, the assault teams of the Wagner private military company with the support of artillery and aviation of the southern battlegroup has completed the liberation of the city of Artyomovsk.”

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials about the latest claim

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Many of the most prominent 2020 election deniers and conspiracists crashed and burned in the 2022 midterm elections, when voters rejected their bids to win office. Now, as Donald Trump launches his bid to return to the White House, comes more evidence that the electorate has limited tolerance for baseless claims of election fraud and allegations that the 2020 race was rigged.

In Republican primaries in Kentucky and Pennsylvania last night, GOP candidates who made election denial a centerpiece of their campaign had a rough time. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a first-term incumbent Republican who vigorously rejected election fraud narratives and attempted to expand voting access in Kentucky, easily dispatched Stephen Knipper, who embarked on a tour of the state to “Restore Election Integrity.”

Knipper, who claimed fraud in elections happened largely through hacked voting machines, won a little over a quarter of the vote — a sign that there is a residual base of support for election deniers in a GOP primary, but not nearly enough to win even in a conservative state.

“Kentucky Republicans rejected those who malign our county clerks and poll workers with conspiratorial nonsense,” Adams said in a statement after his victory.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Republicans who rejected election denialism turned back candidates who supported Trump’s claims in three important contests.

State appeals court Judge Patricia McCullough, who voted to halt the state’s certification of its 2020 presidential election results (before later being overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court), lost a primary for a seat on the state Supreme Court to Carolyn Carluccio, a Montgomery County judge who was endorsed by the state party.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2023/05/17/another-rough-day-for-election-deniers-00097548

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https://nypost.com/2023/05/20/texas-man-arrested-for-murder-of-missing-person-madeline-pantoja/
>The body of a missing 20-year-old Texas woman was found Saturday, 10 days after she vanished, police announced. Mario Juan Chacon, 24, was booked on first-degree murder charges in connection to the death of Madeline Pantoja, according to Midland County Sherrif’s records. Police did not provide any additional information on Pantoja’s death other than it was a homicide pending autopsy results. Pantoja was last seen around 11 p.m. May 10 after a night out with friends in the city of Midland, roughly 300 miles west of Dallas. Friends and family were immediately suspicious when they couldn’t reach her the next day — the young woman had left her phone, purse keys and dog behind at her apartment. Worried loved ones grew increasingly angry after a week passed without any progress in the search for Pantoja. About 100 people protested outside the Midland Police Department headquarters Thursday to call for “justice” following what they said was a “lack of investigation” by the police, KTSM reported. Friends believed Pantoja’s ex-boyfriend — who she had recently broken up with and who had a key to her apartment — was to blame, but had not been publicly named as a person of interest.
Pantoja’s neighbors told the outlet they had heard a man and woman arguing inside her apartment the night she went missing.

Midland police could not immediately confirm whether Chacon was Pantoja’s ex.

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-high-schools-teacher-year-arrested-allegedly-sex-underage-student-police

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A prominent Philadelphia attorney and onetime Trump impeachment lawyer says he can’t stand to represent Rudy Giuliani any longer—insinuating in a court filing that Giuliani isn’t just impossible to work with, but he’s a cheapskate who refuses to pay.

The allegations emerged Friday in a motion filed by Bruce Castor in Philadelphia to be removed as Giuliani’s counsel. Giuliani has “failed to respond to discovery requests or, frustratingly, work even in the slightest” with Castor, the disgruntled attorney wrote.

Castor was representing Giuliani in a civil lawsuit filed by a voting supervisor who sought damages for lies spread by Giuliani, former President Donald Trump, and two Republican poll watchers about the 2020 election. The supervisor argued the false claims subjected him to unnecessary hate, ridicule, and physical threats.

Castor said he “reluctantly” agreed to represent Giuliani after a previous plan—for him to briefly be the “local” attorney until a Texas lawyer could take over—fell through. Castor wrote that he stuck with the case, “while not happy about it,” only to maintain relationships with other lawyers and previous clients.

Castor detailed how Giuliani has been a pain to work with, refusing to hand over requested documents and not participating in his “own defense.”

He said he “unequivocally threatened” Giuliani with a hard deadline—for last week—to pay at least a portion of his retainer and to cooperate with his requests. Castor said Giuliani agreed in writing, but the money and documents never came.

Castor summed up his grievances with Giuliani in the filing, first obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer, by saying, “He’s not cooperating, and he’s not paying me.”

Reached by phone, Ted Goodman, a political adviser and spokesperson for Giuliani, didn’t respond to questions about Castor’s allegations. He confirmed that Giuliani and Castor will no longer work together.

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https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4012589-story-of-homeless-veterans-booted-from-hotel-for-migrants-was-a-hoax-ny-lawmaker/

>A sensational story about hotels in upstate New York throwing out homeless veterans to make room for migrants bused from New York City turned out to be false, according to a local news outlet.
>New York state lawmaker Brian Maher (R) told The Times-Union the story was false after he had a conversation with Sharon Toney-Finch, the CEO of Orange County nonprofit Yerik Israel Toney Foundation.
>Toney-Finch made the original claim about the homeless veterans thrown out of the hotel rooms, setting off a media frenzy this week that was scooped up by conservative outlets Fox News and the New York Post.
>But under pressure from Maher to provide evidence, she unraveled emotionally and kept saying she wanted to help the veterans, according to the newspaper. But she failed to provide any evidence, such as bank statements, to the New York state lawmaker.
>Maher also talked to the veterans who claimed they were thrown out of the Crossroads Hotel in the city of Newburgh.
>At least one of the purported veterans said they were paid by Toney-Finch to lie about being thrown out, according to the Times-Union. And staff at Crossroads Hotel and two other hotels confirmed they never had dealings with the nonprofit or never housed any veterans.
>Maher said he was “devastated and disheartened” to learn the truth.

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A woman with Down's syndrome fighting against abortion laws says she is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Heidi Crowter (aka the "i can count to potato" girl) previously challenged legislation allowing foetuses with the condition to be aborted up until birth.

But in November 2022 Judges at the Court of Appeal decided the Abortion Act did not interfere with the rights of the living disabled.

The campaigner had argued that the rules were discriminatory.

Ms Crowter, 27, from Coventry, said she was taking her case to the Strasbourg court "because it is downright discrimination that people with disabilities are treated differently".

"In 2023, we live in a society where disabled people are valued equally after birth but not in the womb," she said.

Under legislation in England, Wales and Scotland, there is a 24-week time limit for abortion, unless "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped", which includes Down's syndrome.

In September 2021, High Court judges found the section of the Abortion Act pertaining to the condition to not be unlawful, adding that it aimed to strike a balance between the rights of the unborn child and of women, in a case brought by Ms Crowter and Maire Lea-Wilson from west London, whose son Aidan has Down's syndrome.

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court rules FBI broke laws investigating Jan 6 protestors, among others
https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-fbi-surveillance-75c466a64e838ab12eaef96f6335f3cd
FBI broke rules in scouring foreign intelligence on Jan. 6 riot, racial justice protests, court says
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday.

FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.
The violations were detailed in a secret court order issued last year by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has legal oversight of t
"Congress must rein in the FBI’s egregious abuses of this law, including warrantless searches using the names of people who donated to a congressional candidate,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “These unlawful searches undermine our core constitutional rights and threaten the bedrock of our democracy. It’s clear the FBI can’t be left to police itself.”
At issue are improper queries of foreign intelligence information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which enables the government to gather the communications of targeted foreigners outside the U.S. That program expires at the end of the year unless it is renewed.

"Code brown" incidents have forced the closure of swimming pools at Splash Palace for more than 40 hours since the start of the year, the manager says.
A code brown is a council term for when a swimmer defecates in a pool.

The Southland Aquatic Centre — Splash Palace is managed by the Invercargill City Council and its team often posts on social media when those types of incidents happen at the facility.

Figures released to the Otago Daily Times this week show there has been nearly a 19% increase in code brown incidents at the pools this year.

Invercargill City Council aquatic services manager Stephen Cook said from January to May 10, 2023, Splash Palace had 16 incidents of faecal matter in the pool.

"Twelve of these were in the leisure pool, two in the learners’ pool and two in the main pool," he said.

While in the same period last year, there were 13 incidents of this type. Mr Cook said a total of 40.5 swimming hours had been lost this year because of "code browns".

"While these incidents do not represent additional costs to Splash Palace due to staff already being present who are able to decontaminate the pools, there is a cost in terms of revenue and inconvenience to members of the public," he said.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/defecation-events-rise-19-splash-palace

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https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2023/05/19/gas-station-clerk-who-locked-doors-in-detroit-triple-shooting-arraigned/70236114007/

Charging gas station clerk who locked doors in Detroit shooting a stretch, lawyer argues
Andrea May Sahouri
Detroit Free Press
Appearing before a judge via video feed from the Detroit Detention Center, looking pale and fatigued, Al-Hassan Aiyash listened quietly as a judge expressed concern over the 22-year-old gas station clerk's alleged role in a May 6 triple shooting that left one person dead and two others injured.

Aiyash pleaded not guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter two weeks after locking three patrons inside a Mobil gas station on McNichols Road near the Lodge Freeway with the suspected gunman, Samuel Anthony McCray, 27, during an argument over less than $4.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/21/world/europe/greece-elections-migrants-mitsotakis.html

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https://people.com/politics/disney-scraps-florida-project-amid-feud-with-ron-desantis/

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The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said that the radioactive cloud that arose after the destruction of depleted uranium ammunition delivered to Ukraine is coming to Western Europe.

He said this at a meeting in Syktyvkar.

According to him, "the Americans have "helped" countries in this way several times in history. Now they have also helped the Kiev regime, and forced their satellites to supply depleted uranium ammunition to Ukrainian militants.

"Their destruction led to the fact that the radioactive cloud headed towards Western Europe. And an increase in radiation has already been recorded in Poland," the TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

Earlier, British Deputy Defense Minister James Hippy said that the United Kingdom is not obliged to participate in the elimination of the consequences of the use of depleted uranium shells that London supplies to Kiev.

https://russian.rt.com/world/news/1150543-patrushev-radioaktivnoe-oblako-evropa-snaryad-uran?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop

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Seems like an excuse to purchase $3 billion more in weapons from the defense sector. Defense industry must be loving the democrat neocons right about now
Maybe the just post ex facto changed the accounting method to boost foreign lethal welfare by 15%
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pentagon-accounting-error-overvalued-ukraine-aid-by-3-billion-sources-2023-05-18/
The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces.

The error was the result of assigning a higher than warranted value on weaponry that was taken from U.S. stocks and then shipped to Ukraine, two senior defense officials said on Thursday.

We've discovered inconsistencies in how we value the equipment that we've given" to Ukraine one of the senior defense officials told Reuters. The officials and the Senate aide spoke on the condition of anonymity. Congress is being notified of the accounting adjustment on Thursday, the sources said.

The defense official said it is possible the amount of overvalued weaponry could grow beyond $3 billion as the Pentagon examines the situation more thoroughly.

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An Australian cop is under review after a 95-year-old woman with dementia was Tasered and hit the floor at a nursing home in New South Wales state.

Clare Nowland, 5-foot and 75 pounds, was in critical condition with a head injury sustained after she was struck with a Taser in a small town about 250 miles south of Sydney.
Two police were called to the nursing home Wednesday morning and found Nowland holding a serrated-edge steak knife from the nursing home kitchen,screaming "The pigs want to hurt me!' NSW assistant pig commissioner Peter Cotter said in a news conference Friday.

The cops told Nowland, who was alone in a small treatment room, to drop the knife, but she did not, Cotter said. An 'officer and no gentleman' activated his Taser and Nowland was struck with it, he said.

“She was approaching us ,” he said. “It is fair to say, at a slow pace. She had a walker. But she had a knife.”

Andrew Thaler, a family friend, said Nowland is a great-grandmother who has dementia and is sees imaginary pigs everywhere.
Thaler said that Nowland was attacked on her farm by a 400 lb wild pig 20 yrs ago and it savagely gored her with it's tusks, and she's been terrified of pigs ever since.
The 'officer and no gentleman' who operated the Taser, a senior constable with about 12 years of experience, has been moved to “nonoperational” duties during an internal investigation

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/police-officer-tasers-95-year-old-woman-sparking-outcry-and-inquiry/ar-AA1bobIO