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The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee dismissed Chairman James Comer’s Wednesday morning release of bank records that appear to show Hunter Biden was paid millions by Eastern European oligarchs. The 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted financial records, says millions of dollars in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev. The records also suggest Joe Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma while he was vice president.

Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NGdKlEUq-Jo

First son Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer told lawmakers this week that Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings brought the political scion onto its board so that “people would be intimidated to mess with them … legally.” ... Archer also revealed that then-Vice President Joe Biden met twice with his son’s shady post-Soviet business partners at DC’s Café Milano, not once as previously reported. These and other revelations blow new holes in Biden’s claim that he never discussed business with his now-53-year-old son — as House Republicans move closer to launching an impeachment inquiry. The transcript also confirms...

Russia says Ukraine targeted Moscow with drones on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks that have brought the Ukraine war to Russia’s capital. The Russian Defense Ministry said three drones were intercepted but a business and shopping development in the west of the capital was hit. The fifth and sixth floor of a 50-story building were damaged, and no casualties were reported, state news agency TASS reported. Videos showed debris as well as emergency services at the scene. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force said the latest drone attacks on Moscow were aimed at impacting Russians who, since...

Very slowly, a reckoning is taking place for outrageous tyrannical government restrictions imposed on the populace during the COVID panic. The zeal with which certain public officials tried to restrict basic freedoms in response to a virus with a tiny fatality rate for the non-elderly and non-infirm should stand as a lesson to all that our rights mean little or nothing to them and must be vigorously defended. This story from Moscow, Idaho, a college town of about 25,000 that is home to the University of Idaho, is both good news and bad news. Fox News reports:The city of Moscow...

A liberal college town in Idaho is paying $300,000 to three Christian churchgoers who sued the city after being arrested for not wearing masks at an outside service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of Moscow announced this week that it would settle with Gabriel Rench, as well as Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who brought a case against city leaders in March 2021 that alleged their rights under the First and Fourth Amendments were violated when they were arrested at an outdoor "psalm sing" conducted by leaders from their church. Moscow, home to the University of Idaho,...

A man has been detained in Moscow after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the notorious Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s tomb in the Red Square in a failed attempt to set it on fire, according to local reports. The suspect, identified as 37-year-old Konstantin Stachukov, from the city of Chita, was taken into custody Monday, according to multiple Russian news outlets. At around 10 p.m. local time, Stachukov approached the heavily guarded crypt and hurled a bottle containing a flammable liquid at the imposing building, according to Telegram news channels Baza and Shot, as well as the state news agency RIA...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that “uncertainty” over whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance will offer admission to Ukraine motivates Russia to continue “terror” in its war on Kyiv. “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance,” Zelensky said. “This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror.”

The C.I.A.’s concerns were not unwarranted. In 2019, the Russians undertook an elaborate operation to find Mr. Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico, to help. The scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and later earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a source of pride for his family, with a history of charitable work and no criminal past. But the Russians used Mr. Fuentes’s partner as leverage. He had two wives: a Russian living in Germany and another in Mexico. In 2019,...

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has confirmed he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood. 'We are turning back our columns and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan,' an audio message on his Telegram feed said after a meeting between Prigozhin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. An uneasy calm has now prevailed on the streets of Moscow in a city that had been preparing for war. The capital had braced for the arrival of forces from the Wagner...

Moscow is preparing for war and battening down the hatches as soldiers build outposts and military vehicles flood the streets ahead of the expected arrival of Russia's Wagner militia forces. Wagner chief Yevgney Prigozhin initiated a military coup against Putin overnight, which has seen the group take key cities and threaten the President, who called them 'traitors'. Putin addressed the Russian people on Saturday, warning that the military leader had 'stabbed him in the back', as Moscow prepares to enter into lockdown, with troops digging in in preparation to defend the city. Prigozhin and his feared 25,000-strong Wagner militia took...

A presidential plane linked to Vladimir Putin flew north from Moscow towards Tver and switched off its transponder, according to multiple reports. Other business jets were seen making an exodus from the capital towards St Petersburg. Earlier there were reports from Ukrainian intelligence indicating Putin had left from Moscow by helicopter for his palace at Valdai, between Moscow and St Petersburg. It comes as a sinister message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel on Saturday said: 'Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. 'Soon we will have a new president.' Sources close to Putin insisted he was...

Russia's Wagner militia forces are headed towards Moscow on Saturday after chief Yevgney Prigozhin initiated a military coup against Putin and his regime, which has seen the group take key cities and mock the President, who called them 'traitors'. Putin addressed the Russian people on Saturday, warning that the military leader had 'stabbed him in the back', as Moscow is on lockdown as troops dig in in preparation to defend the city.

Good morning defenders of freedom! More details on the drone attack on Moscow.

Has Ukraine finally given Russia some payback, given the air strikes now being rained down on Kiev? A first pass answer seems like it may well be. According to the New York Times:At least eight drones targeted Moscow early Tuesday, according to the Russian authorities, the first attack to hit civilian areas in the Russian capital and a potent sign that the war is increasingly reaching the heart of Russia.The assault came after yet another overnight bombardment by Russian forces of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which has faced a barrage of attacks in recent weeks that have put the city...

Two are injured in a rare attack on Moscow as more heavy Russian raids target Kyiv, killing at least one person. A view shows a damaged multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov A multi-storey apartment block damaged during a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on May 30, 2023 [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] Published On 30 May 2023 30 May 2023 Correction30 May 2023 An earlier version of this article stated that Moscow is more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Ukraine. This was incorrect. Moscow is a few hundred kilometres from...

Russian authorities reported several drone attacks on the capital Moscow Tuesday morning, damaging several residential buildings. Explosions were reported in several districts of Moscow and outlying regions of the city as Russian air defense systems attempted to intercept the drones. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed minor damage to several residential buildings but reported no serious injuries. City rescue crews are cleaning up the debris and Russia's Investigative Committee said its inspectors were also on the scene gathering forensics evidence. Russia's Defense Ministry called the incident a "terrorist attack" and insisted just eight drones had been spotted over the capital. Independent...

After disagreements on the Russian war against Ukraine, relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican were "practically frozen". Now dialogue has been resumed.

Far from the front line of the war in Ukraine, battle lines of a different kind were drawn when residents of a Moscow district opposed a rumored proposal for a mosque for 60,000 worshippers by a lake cherished by Russian Orthodox believers. In February, people in Kosino-Ukhtomsky started to voice anger at the complex, which would include a Muslim center and educational facilities. President of the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, fiercely loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, called on anti-mosque demonstrators to "show your patriotism" by going to the trenches in Ukraine. Prominent MMA fighters also...

The F.B.I. agent who fatally shot a Chechen man in Orlando during an interrogation in May about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has been cleared of wrongdoing by a prosecutor in Florida and by an F.B.I. internal review, according to law enforcement officials.Another review, by the Justice Department, which is almost complete, is expected to conclude that the agent followed proper guidelines on the use of force when he killed the Chechen, Ibragim Todashev, according to the officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize their access to classified information.None of the...