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- Russian Soldiers Are Revealing Their Locations To Ukrainian Fighters Posing as L...
Lycksele-Nord, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Ukrainian resistance fighters are deploying CIA catfishing tactics to lure Russian soldiers into revealing strategic information, helping the military target drone strikes, according to a report by Ken Harbaugh for The Atlantic. The drone warfare strategies of the Ukrainian military have drastically improved since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The Ukrainians have been able to hit strategic targets hundreds of miles within Russian territory, including devastating strikes on oil refineries in Moscow earlier this month. According to Harbaugh’s report, the Ukrainians have been engaging in elaborate “catfishing” tactics — assuming a false identity to lure someone who believes they’re communicating with a romantic interest — to gather intel on Russian soldiers, offering this colorful anecdote as an illustration of their exploits: For several months last year, a Ukrainian housewife, 35 and lonely in a marriage that had gone cold, traded WhatsApp messages with a Chechen commander, Achmad, stationed somewhere in Ukraine’s occupied south. They wrote about their days, their disappointments, what they hoped to do when the war ended. She asked about the front. He told her. “Send me a picture,” she said. “I want to see your life.” One afternoon, he obliged—a photograph taken inside the barracks, of himself and another soldier grinning for the camera. Behind them, pinned to the wall, was a map of the compound showing the unit’s position. The housewife did not exist. “She” was a middle-aged officer named Serhiy working for Ukraine’s military-intelligence directorate, part of a concerted effort to draw secrets from the men sent to occupy his country. “Serhiy was great at flirting,” his commander told me. “Guys in our team started asking him for dating advice.” Shortly after Achmad sent that photograph, the coordinates it revealed were struck by a Ukrainian drone. There is little “professional training” available for the resistance agents, Harbaugh notes, and digital networks are often vulnerable to being intercepted by Russians, but the resourceful Ukrainians “pass around hard-copy tradecraft manuals,” and “one of the most sought-after is a Soviet-era handbook describing CIA catfishing tactics in Africa during the Cold War.” “Your CIA was good at this,” one of the Ukrainians interviewed for the article told The Atlantic. “You bastards knew how to use sex.” The Ukrainians told Harbaugh they found extra motivation in Russia’s well-documented horrific war crimes, describing murdered civilians and evidence of sexual assault they had… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - ‘This Is a Sh*tty Deal. You’re an Idiot’: Scott Bessent Reportedly Fumed a...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a dressing down that greatly amused President Donald Trump, according to a new book. On Monday’s edition of The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, authors of the new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. Throughout the show, O’Donnell read several passages from the book, including one where early during the Iran war, the president took some time from focusing on the conflict to brag about ordering maple trees for the White House. “I know how to buy good trees. Maples,” he said. Another passage relays a tense moment at the White House involving Bessent and Lutnick on the topic of Ukrainian minerals: “I’m not a big fan of Ukraine,” Trump said, “Except their women. They keep winning Miss Universe…” Meanwhile, the Ukraine minerals deal was also causing considerable internal dissension in the administration, along with rivalry and backbiting at senior levels. Howard Lutnick had told the president that Scott Bessent had screwed up the deal. Bessent looked at Lutnick’s proposal. “This is a sh*tty deal. You’re an idiot,” he told Lutnick… Bessent went right back to the president and said, “Howard’s f*cked up the deal. I had an uncapped deal and we’re getting revenues, not earnings.” “Is that right?” Trump said. “They gave you that?” “Yes.” At that, Trump started mocking Lutnick, sometimes in front of others, enjoying the sport. In April, Politico reported that Trump was considering firing Lutnick. The Commerce secretary, who one administration official said is on “thin ice,” admitted in February that he and his family traveled to Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2012, four years after Epstein was convicted of child sex trafficking. The secretary previously denied having any relationship with Epstein and stated that he “barely had anything to do with that person.” Watch above via MS NOW.The post ‘This Is a Sh*tty Deal. You’re an Idiot’: Scott Bessent Reportedly Fumed at Howard Lutnick in Front of Trump first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - Trump Reportedly Fixated on Ordering Trees at Beginning of Iran War: ‘I Know H...President Donald Trump was reportedly fixated on ordering maple trees for the White House in the early weeks of the Iran War and openly boasted of his prowess in purchasing “good trees.” That’s what MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell read aloud — part of an excerpt from the book Regime Change, set for release June 23, by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. The book has already been the subject of controversy, with White House officials reportedly concerned the two got ahold of audio from inside the Situation Room. Trump posted a scathing Truth Social branding Haberman a “SLEAZEBAG writer” in March and threatened a lawsuit against her. Three days later, Haberman and Swan reportedly sat down with Trump in the Oval Office, where the president’s tone toward Haberman took a turn. There, in the Oval Office, is where the excerpt that O’Donnell read begins. “Trump entered the Oval Office from the corridor connected to his private dining room,” O’Donnell read from Regime Change. “He was in smiling salesman mode. ‘Nice to see you,’ he said, gesturing for us all to sit down opposite him at the desk. It was the 17th day of his war with Iran. Thirteen American service members had already been killed, and more than 200 had been wounded. Thousands of Iranians were dead, including the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” The reporters noted that Trump seemed to be in good spirits, unperturbed by the war. O’Donnell continued to read: As he greeted us, the war seemed the furthest thing from Trump’s mind. On the Resolute Desk, instead of a map of the Middle East, were printouts of maple trees. “I’m ordering trees for the White House,” Trump told us. “I know how to buy good trees. Maples.” Trump held another printout. The headlines screamed “339 billion all-time views” of Trump TikToks. “Can you believe it?” The President asked us. Then Trump showed us two final printouts, renderings from different angles of the grand ballroom he was building on the White House grounds. He was in a convivial mood. Watch above via MS NOW.The post Trump Reportedly Fixated on Ordering Trees at Beginning of Iran War: ‘I Know How To Buy Good Trees’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
- ‘This Is Madness!’ Chris Hayes Loses It After Jeanine Pirro Doesn’t Rule O...MS NOW’s Chris Hayes went off on President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, the latter of whom would not rule out charges against ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl. The president recently oversaw a major renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but since the job was completed, the pool has been plagued by algae blooms. Last week, visitors to the pool could see paint peeling away from the bottom. The algae has given the pool a distinct green hue instead of the intended American flag blue. Some tourists have reportedly been ripping off pieces of the paint to take as souvenirs. On Friday, Trump railed against Karl, whom he falsely accused of “trying to rip the rubber off of the surface” of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The day before, ABC News posted a video of Karl merely holding up a piece of paint peeling off the bottom while reporting on the state of the pool. The president has baselessly blamed vandals for sabotaging the Reflecting Pool’s recent renovation, which has been marred by the paint issue and algae blooms. On Monday, Trump even suggested some person or persons dumped fertilizer into the pool and somehow cut a 250-long gash into its side. In subsequent tellings, Trump increased the length to 300 and then 350. On Monday’s All In, Hayes played a clip of Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asking Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, if Karl had run afoul of the law. “President Trump’s got a Crime Stoppers tip for you,” Doocy told Pirro. “He says, ‘lightweight ABC reporter Jonathan Karl was seen sticking his hand into the pool and trying to rip the rubber off the surface.’ Judge, is Jonathan Karl from ABC in trouble?” Here is Pirro’s response and Hayes’ reaction: PIRRO: Well, you know, it depends. You know, anyone who is in a position of vandalizing or attempting to vandalize the Reflecting Pool will face the criminal justice system in D.C. Look, the president has made it a priority to make D.C. not only safe, but beautiful. And there are several citations that have been handed out to individuals. And these are cases that will be prosecuted to the full extent. If there are more serious products that are put into the reflecting pool to create more algae or a bigger problem, then we’ll consider more serious… [TheTopNews] Read More.5 hours ago
- Supreme Court Denies Appeal from Texas Death Row Inmate Even Though the Prosecut...
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File The Supreme Court of the United States denied an appeal from a death row inmate in Texas on Monday, despite motions in support filed by both his defense attorneys and the prosecutors who handled his case. Victor Saldaño was convicted and sentenced to death in Collin County, Texas in 1996 for a robbery and murder. According to The Texas Tribune, “Saldaño and an accomplice forced [the victim] into their car at gunpoint in Plano and drove him to a secluded area, where they robbed him and shot him several times.” In 2024, Saldaño petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to be able to present evidence that he was intellectually disabled and therefore it would be unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment to execute him, pursuant to a 2002 Supreme Court case, Atkins v. Virginia. The evidence he wanted to use included “three IQ tests — including one from the state — that found Saldaño within the range for intellectual disability, as well as interviews with 13 people who knew him before and during his incarceration,” reported the Tribune. The TCCA denied Saldaño’s petition and he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. In a very unusual move, the Collin County prosecutors filed a brief supporting Saldaño’s petition and agreeing with his attorneys’ argument that he had “made a prima facie showing that he is intellectually disabled under Atkins…both Saldaño’s experts and the State’s expert agree that he meets the criteria for [intellectual disability] under Atkins.” But the Supreme Court disagreed, in a 6-3 decision. Saldaño’s petition for a writ of certiorari was denied without a written opinion, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote a 6-page dissent. “Here, every expert to have evaluated petitioner Victor Saldaño has concluded that he is intellectually disabled,” wrote Sotomayor. “As a result, both Saldaño and the State of Texas asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to remand for a trial court to review the relevant evidence and decide whether Saldaño can be executed consistent with the Eighth Amendment. Yet the TCCA refused that modest step.” Sotomayor noted that the evidence gathered from Saldaño’s childhood included having to repeat sixth grade, having “difficulty bathing, feeding, and clothing himself,” an incident in which he “‘spent two days without food, a bathroom, or anything… [TheTopNews] Read More.5 hours ago - Tech giant Oracle sheds 21,000 jobs in a year as AI replaces some roles
The cuts are part of a wider trend among tech firms as they spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. [TheTopNews] Read More.5 hours ago
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