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The United States is stepping up the face-to-face military advice it provides to Ukraine, dispatching a three-star general to Kyiv to spend considerable time on the ground. The Americans are pushing for a conservative strategy that focuses on holding the territory Ukraine has, digging in and building up supplies and forces over the course of the year. The United States has given vast military and economic support to Ukraine, more than $111 billion over the past two years. But a significant number of Republicans now say they oppose further spending, and others are demanding to see a new strategy before...

Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House have filed legislation to ban federal employee retirement money from being invested in funds requiring compliance with ESG and DEI policies. The Stop TSP ESG Act was filed in the Senate by U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri. A coalition of Republicans in the House led by Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, filed a companion bill on May 17. If the bills were to pass, it’s unlikely the president would sign them as his administration is advancing ESG and DEI policies, including a Department of Labor rule change over which 25...

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined a crop of Tennessee Republicans endorsing former President Donald Trump's 2024 bid. Echoing her Senate counterpart, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who backed Trump over the weekend, Blackburn lauded Trump's achievements on the economy and border on Monday, framing his election to a second term as the solution to stubbornly high inflation and the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. She is the ninth senator to back Trump. HAGERTY BECOMES EIGHTH GOP SENATOR TO ENDORSE TRUMP IN 2024 PRIMARY"Under President Trump, our economy was booming, gas prices were low, and inflation was under control....

A trove of leaked Pentagon documents reveals how deeply Russia’s security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States, demonstrating Washington’s ability to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and providing an assessment of the strength of Moscow’s war machine. The documents paint a portrait of a depleted Russian military that is struggling in its war in Ukraine and of a military apparatus that is deeply compromised. They contain daily real-time warnings to U.S. intelligence agencies on the timing of Moscow’s strikes and even its specific targets. Such intelligence has allowed the United States to pass on to Ukraine...

WASHINGTON – A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail U.S. national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard. The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United...

Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military...were posted this week on social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said...the documents appear to have been modified...overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed...But the disclosures in the original documents, which appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans,...

This report is part 28 of an investigative series looking into reported corruption in the Missouri judiciary and family courts. For the rest of the investigation, visit the catalog here. If you thought Republican-led states were any safer for civil rights, think again. Missouri has a new attorney general, Republican Andrew Bailey, who is currently throwing the weight of the state and its resources behind defending family court Judge Eric Eighmy. Eighmy is the infamous judge who jailed and tortured America’s Got Talent stars the Rockett children in order to coerce them into living with the parent they did not...

WASHINGTON — The billions of dollars in new arms for Ukraine announced this month — including British tanks, American fighting vehicles, and howitzers from Denmark and Sweden — are testament to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failure to split the NATO allies after nearly a year of war. But small yet significant fractures are getting too big to hide.The differences are over strategy for the coming year and the more immediate question of what Ukraine needs in the next few months, as both sides in the war prepare for major offensives in the spring. And although most of those debates take...

For years, the United States has insisted that Crimea is still part of Ukraine. Yet the Biden administration has held to a hard line since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, refusing to provide Kyiv with the weapons it needs to target the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has been using as a base for launching devastating strikes. Now that line is starting to soften. After months of discussions with Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is finally starting to concede that Kyiv may need the power to strike the Russian sanctuary, even if such a move increases the risk of escalation, according to...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tomorrow, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will depose Dr. Anthony Fauci in their lawsuit against the federal government for allegedly colluding with social media companies to censor speech.“Tomorrow, along with my colleague from Louisiana, my Office and I will depose Dr. Anthony Fauci in our lawsuit against the Biden Administration for allegedly colluding with social media companies to censor freedom of speech,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “Since we filed our landmark lawsuit, we have uncovered documents and discovery that show clear coordination between the Biden Administration and social media companies...

White House advisor Anthony Fauci made his final appearance in the White House briefing room before he steps down next month, which devolved into chaos as multiple reporters asked him questions in unison about the origins of COVID-19 and relevant investigations. At one point, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre started scolding reporters who were asking questions at the same time. “We have a process here, I’m not calling on people who yell, and you’re being disrespectful to your colleagues and you’re being disrespectful to our guests,” she told reporters in the briefing room. “I will not call on you...

AG Eric Schmitt says they'll be taking depositions from Anthony Fauci, Jen Psaki and more Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt was awarded a major gain in his lawsuit between a coalition of GOP attorneys general against the FBI and top Biden officials. A motion requesting depositions was granted, giving a green light to proceed with depositions of top Biden administration officials regarding alleged collusion with Big Tech over free speech....

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to clarify the appeals court order, which halts any action in the case until further notice. The Missouri Court of Appeals has ordered a Cedar County judge to halt all further action in the Agape Boarding School case until it issues a final decision on a recent motion. “You are directed to refrain from taking further action,” the appellate court wrote in a ruling that was issued Wednesday, “ ... until further order of this court.” In what is called a preliminary writ of prohibition, the appellate court said the only action Associate...

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents — obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents — illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms. The work, much of which remains unknown to the American public, came into clearer view earlier this year when DHS announced a new “Disinformation Governance Board”: a panel designed to police misinformation (false information spread unintentionally), disinformation (false information spread intentionally), and malinformation (factual...

The Department of Homeland Security has been working to influence big tech platforms. This became originally evident when the Biden administration launched the ill-fated Disinformation Governance Board early in 2022, but has been a focus of their efforts even beyond that now-defunct unit, and before. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit that revealed via appended meeting minutes that former Microsoft executive Matt Masterson, who was formerly an official with DHS, told a DHS director in February 2022 that "Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov't. It's really interesteding how hesitant they remain." This according to The Intercept....

President Donald Trump lent his support to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is the GOP nominee for one of Missouri’s U.S. Senate seats, in a special video message shared exclusively with RSBN this week.“Hello everyone, this is your favorite president of all time, more so than Washington, or Lincoln, or anyone – Donald Trump,” Trump quipped. “At least I hope that’s so! But I’m with you today to talk about something very important. And that’s Eric Schmitt – he’s a fantastic attorney general; the job he’s done is incredible.”In August, Schmitt won the GOP nomination for the Missouri Senate...

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson. A withdrawal from Kherson would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River in an orderly way, preserving its equipment and saving the lives of soldiers. But such a retreat would be another humiliating public acknowledgment of Mr. Putin’s failure in the war, and would hand a second major victory...

The strategy behind Ukraine’s rapid military gains in recent days began to take shape months ago during a series of intense conversations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials about the way forward in the war against Russia, according to American officials. The counteroffensive — revised this summer from its original form after urgent discussions between senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials — has succeeded beyond most predictions. Ukrainian forces have devastated Russian command and control, and appear poised to capitalize on their advances in the northeast of the country and in another campaign in the south.

The strategy behind Ukraine’s rapid military gains in recent days began to take shape months ago during a series of intense conversations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials about the way forward in the war against Russia, according to American officials. The counteroffensive — revised this summer from its original form after urgent discussions between senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials — has succeeded beyond most predictions. Ukrainian forces have devastated Russian command and control, and appear poised to capitalize on their advances in the northeast of the country and in another campaign in the south. The work began soon after President...