Orthodox Christians in Chasiv Yar held a Christmas service in a basement shelter on Saturday.
Day: January 8, 2023
Russia carries on to weaponize religion to perpetuate lengthy-standing anti-Ukrainian disinformation functions and discredit Ukraine.
The U.S.-primarily based Institute for the Research of War (ISW) claimed this in its most current Russian offensive marketing campaign evaluation, Ukrinform stories.
American analysts pay out notice to the reaction of Russian milbloggers to footage posted on January 7 of uniformed Ukrainian servicemen attending Orthodox Xmas companies at the Kyiv-Perchesk Lavra, which the Russians decried as a reprisal and open war on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). Many milbloggers referred to the footage as proof that the Lavra has been “captured” by “heretics and schismatics.”
“The Russian reaction to the Ukrainian government’s conclusion to transfer command of the Lavra to the OCU exemplifies Moscow’s ongoing weaponization of faith in purchase to frame Ukraine as evil and placement Russia as the protector of Orthodox Christian values,” ISW stated.
At the exact same time, American industry experts extra that the Ukrainian authorities did not prevent all believers from celebrating Orthodox Christmas in Ukraine, as Russian propagandists tried to current, and Orthodox expert services ongoing all over Ukraine, together with at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, on January 7.
“Russian milbloggers falsely offered the legal transfer of the Kyiv-Perchesk Lavra from the UOC MP, which the Ukrainian government maintains has explicit backlinks to the Kremlin and has provided material and spiritual support to the Russian war in Ukraine, to the OCU as an attack on the ability of observers of Orthodox custom to celebrate Christmas,” the ISW report examine.
ISW sees as reasonable the Ukrainian government’s decision to remove the UOC-MP from manage above the Lavra as proof was uncovered of its genuine assistance for the insurance policies of Russian President Putin, who, among the other things, in his Orthodox Xmas speech thanked the Russian Orthodox Church for its ongoing assist for Russian troops in Ukraine.
“Ukraine is not suppressing the religious liberties of Orthodox Christians, opposite to the Russian information and facts operation, and is as an alternative using the actions it deems needed to length Ukrainian cultural heritage from spiritual components it asserts are connected to the Kremlin and its conduct of the war,” ISW explained.
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- Elon Musk faces a class action lawsuit over tweets saying he secured funding to take Tesla private.
- His attorneys say the trial should be held in Texas instead of California to ensure fairness.
- Since Musk’s Twitter takeover, prospective jurors are biased against the billionaire, they argued.
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has made him so unpopular in the state of California that it’s unlikely he’d be able to get a fair trial, his lawyers argued in a recent court filing.
The Tesla chief executive is facing a class action lawsuit over his 2018 tweets indicating he planned to take the electric vehicle company private at $420 per share and had “funding secured” to do so.
Just one month after the initial 2018 tweet, Musk paid a $20 million fine and settled fraud charges with the SEC for making “false and misleading statements.” Though Musk neither admitted nor denied the allegations, he resigned as Tesla’s chairman and was replaced by Robyn Denholm.
Northern California Senior District Judge Edward M. Chen, who will oversee the class action trial, ruled last year that Musk knowingly made the false statements, which may have impacted Tesla’s share price. The upcoming trial will determine whether the posts indeed impacted Tesla’s share price, if the company or its directors should be held liable, and if shareholders are entitled to damages, according to NBC News.
After finalizing his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter last year, the billionaire remains roughly $13 billion in debt — much of which is secured against his remaining stake in Tesla as part of the leveraged buyout, The Street reported, making the financial future of the two companies deeply entwined.
Since the October 27 acquisition of Twitter, Tesla’s stock price has fallen from $225.09 to $113.06 per share, its lowest point since August 2020.
Musk’s business dealings since acquiring the social media company, including mass layoffs and a culture current employees describe as “toxic,” may also make it more difficult for the billionaire to be judged by a jury of his peers in California, according to his lawyers, and should be moved to Texas.
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, argued in a motion filed Friday that a “substantial portion of the jury pool in this District is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted. The existing baseline bias has been compounded, expanded, and reinforced by the negative and inflammatory local publicity surrounding the events.”
In December 2021, Tesla relocated its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas. Twitter remains based in San Francisco, California.
Referencing regular protests and picket lines in front of Musk’s offices in San Francisco — some of which, Spiro said, are “endorsed and encouraged by local political figures” — Musk’s attorneys noted in the filing that the “negativity toward Mr. Musk was not isolated to the press” and “will deprive him of an impartial jury and his constitutional right to a fair trial.”
Should the request for a venue transfer not be granted by the court, Spiro requested a continuance to delay the trial, arguing the judge should allow time for “the passions that have been inflamed” by “recent events and biased local media coverage to dissipate” before jurors hear the case.
The request is set to be heard by Judge Chen on January 13, according to the filing, just four days before the trial is set to begin.
Musk, his legal team, and representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The regime’s lawlessness combined with its Russia-leaning policies should prompt an urgent rethink by the UK and allies
A ceremony in Tehran last week marking the third anniversary of the assassination in Iraq by a US drone of Qassem Suleimani, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), conveyed a defiant message to the west. “We have not and will not forget the blood of martyr Suleimani. The Americans must know that revenge is certain and the murderers will have no easy sleep,” Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, vowed.
Iran has already attempted to avenge Suleimani’s death through what US officials say was an IRGC plot to kill John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser. It is demanding the arrest of more than 150 American and British “suspects”, including Trump, who ordered the drone strike. Tehran has also imposed sanctions on western officials and, bizarrely, the RAF base at Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire, which it claims assisted the strike. The UK is expected to follow the US in designating the IRGC a terrorist group.
The evident depth of anger and enmity felt within Iran’s regime over Suleimani’s killing and many other long-festering grievances is not wholly surprising, yet it should give western governments pause. It fuels an evolving, many-fronted threat to western security interests. It also reflects a huge strategic defeat: the failure of a decades-long US and Europe-led policy of engagement and the consequent emergence of the Islamic Republic as an implacable foe.
Bad blood may be traced back to the 1979 toppling of the Shah, a key US ally. Israel, and to a lesser degree Saudi Arabia, views Iran as an existential threat. Its backing for Syria’s dictator and anti-western Shia militias in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq is seen as all of a piece.
Brigadier Standard Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of the operational-strategic grouping of troops “Tavriya”, claims that the Russian troops no longer have a “deep rear” in Tavriya route.
“In Tavriya path, this kind of a strategy as ‘deep rear’ essentially no lengthier exists for the enemy,” Tarnavskyi stated, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports posted on Facebook.
He emphasised that the Armed Forces of Ukraine productively conducted counteroffensive functions in Kharkiv and Kherson instructions many thanks to a superior combination of fireplace and maneuver. Now the Ukrainian military also controls all the enemy’s tries to manage an successful defense and generate circumstances for active actions.
“Ukrainian defenders are undertaking all the things attainable to wipe out the greatest attainable variety of forces and suggests of the occupiers even all through the relative security of our positions. The a lot more we wipe out them now, the fewer perform there will be through the last liberation of Ukraine from the invaders,” the Brigadier Standard mentioned.
As claimed, Yevhen Yerin, head of the joint press middle of the protection forces of Tavriya course, explained that the Russian Federation experienced problems with logistics and ammunition.
Image from open sources
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Pressure grows on Putin as politicians and lawyers point to principles that led to Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals
Demands for a special tribunal to investigate Russia for a “crime of aggression” against Ukraine have been backed by senior UK politicians from across the political divide in a move to show Vladimir Putin and his generals that they will be held to account.
In a joint statement shared with the Observer, figures including the Labour leader Keir Starmer, the former Nato secretary general George Robertson, the former foreign secretary David Owen, and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith say the tribunal should be set up to look into the “manifestly illegal war” on the same principles that guided the allies when they met in 1941 to lay the groundwork for the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders.
In Donetsk area, Russian troops introduced seven missile strikes on Kramatorsk and two on Kostiantynivka this night, detrimental the buildings of an academic establishment and an industrial facility.
“The Russian-occupation forces introduced seven missile strikes on Kramatorsk and two on Kostiantynivka this night time. In Kramatorsk, the structures of an educational establishment, an industrial facility, and a garage cooperative, were weakened. In Kostiantynivka, industrial zone was strike,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of the Donetsk Regional Federal government, posted on Telegram.
In accordance to preliminary info, no one was wounded for the duration of the shelling.
Kurakhove towns and Kurakhivka village arrived beneath enemy fire a few several hours before, Kyrylenko added. Non-public houses and networks that give Kurakhove neighborhood with warmth were damaged.
As noted, a 50-year-old person was killed in a Russian strike on Merefa, Kharkiv location, on the evening of January 7.
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Sabres paid tribute to Bills safety Damar Hamlin with a moment of celebration before Saturday night’s home game against the Minnesota Wild.
Hamlin is on the long road to recovery after he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati on Monday night. He is now breathing on his own and briefly addressed the Bills team by video on Friday.
The Sabres and Bills are both owned by Terry and Kim Pegula, and the teams’ players have developed a bond and friendships for one another through that connection.
Fans throughout the crowd held up signs saying “DH3” with a heart in it or “Love For Damar” and were shown on the video board showing support for Hamlin. The pregame celebration saw the crowd, with many wearing Bills jerseys, rise to their feet, applauding and cheering for Hamlin.
The Sabres also paid tribute to Hamlin before Tuesday’s game in Washington wearing t-shirts saying “Love For 3” upon arrival at Capital One Arena.
The Bills host the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon in the regular season finale.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Sports
