Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, an area hit by a string of similar incidents in recent years.
President Donald Trump says he believes the 2026 midterm elections will center on "pricing" as Republicans head into a critical period with control of Congress on the line. read more
Europe's quest for digital sovereignty is hampered by a 90 per cent dependency on US cloud infrastructure ... read more
As Zohran Mamdani prepares to be inaugurated as the city's next mayor, Muslim New Yorkers say his victory represents more than a historic first. read more
President Donald Trump struggled to offer much sympathy for the families of about 100 Americans -- many of them U.S. military veterans -- who have died fighting in Ukraine.
Another view ...
Young Voters Turn on Trump, Disapprove of Big Beautiful Bill; Limited Evidence of Increasing Manosphere' Views or Male Loneliness Epidemic
youthpoll.yale.edu
... The Yale Youth Poll, an undergraduate-led research project at Yale University, today released a new poll of young American registered voters (aged 18-34) and the general registered voter population. The poll sampled 3,426 registered voters, including 1,706 voters aged 18-34, allowing us to compare views across generations.
Fielding was done by Verasight, and results were weighted for age, sex, race, education, and party identification. The survey was conducted in English, and the margin of error after weighting is 1.7 percentage points for the full sample and 2.4 percentage points for the youth sample.
Young voters now overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump's job performance -- a stark shift from what YYP found in our spring 2025 poll. Looking ahead to 2028, Gavin Newsom and JD Vance lead their respective presidential primaries -- but a majority of Republicans would vote for Donald Trump in the GOP primary if he were able to run for a third term.
A plurality of Democrats want their party to moderate ahead of 2028, while a majority of Republicans think the GOP needs to focus on turning out its base.
When asked whether men or women should take the lead on various roles in heterosexual relationships -- such as making more money, handling household chores like cooking and cleaning, and providing childcare -- voters mostly have gender egalitarian views.
The youngest voters (aged 18-22) are slightly more likely than the overall electorate to express conservative views on gender roles. ...
Some background info ...
Behind Trump's 2024 Victory, a More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Voter Coalition
www.pewresearch.org
... A study of the 2024 election, based on validated voters.
In his third run for president in 2024, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris by 1.5 percentage points overall, winning 312 Electoral College votes and the national popular vote for the first time.
Trump won with a voter coalition that was more racially and ethnically diverse than in 2020 or 2016, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of the 2024 electorate. ...
[lots of details in the article]
@#11 ... Vlad does have access to all of the money laundering deals DJT did for Russian Oligarchs over the years. ...
Perhaps?
BaFin to Deepen Deutsche Bank Money Laundering Investigation (Feb 2019)
www.financemagnates.com
...Deutsche Bank released a statement on Friday saying that BaFin, the German financial regulator, has extended the remit of an independent auditor examining the lender's role in the Danske Bank money laundering scandal.[emphasis mine]
The case stems from an ongoing investigation into the Danish bank's Estonian division.
After a whistle-blower sounded the alarm about the activity of certain customers, most of whom were from Russia and the former Soviet Union, in late 2018, it became apparent that Danske Bank's Tallinn-based operations were doing business with some less than scrupulous individuals.
It is alleged that the bank laundered around $225 billion from 2007 to 2014. If that is the case, it would potentially be the largest instance of money laundering ever uncovered.
Deutsche Bank falls into the mix as it acted as Danske Bank's main correspondent bank. According to the Financial Times, the German bank was responsible for facilitating $180 billion in suspicious transactions....
Deutsche Bank Offices Are Raided In Money Laundering Probe (Nov 2018)
www.npr.org
...In recent years, Deutsche Bank has been in the news not only for its prominence in the Panama Papers, but also for its ties to President Trump, in a tumultuous relationship that goes back some 20 years.[emphasis mine]
Trump and the bank once sued each other after he failed to repay a $300 million loan. And the author and reporter Luke Harding has described a "shuffle of money" between the bank's dealings with figures in Russia and its business with Trump. ...
@#11 ... Yuri Shvets claimed Russia cultivated Trump ...
'The perfect target': Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years -- ex-KGB spy (2021)
www.theguardian.com
... Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian. ...
Shvets, a KGB major, had a cover job as a correspondent in Washington for the Russian news agency Tass during the 1980s. He moved to the US permanently in 1993 and gained American citizenship. He works as a corporate security investigator and was a partner of Alexander Litvinenko, who was assassinated in London in 2006.
Unger describes how Trump first appeared on the Russians' radar in 1977 when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech model. Trump became the target of a spying operation overseen by Czechoslovakia's intelligence service in cooperation with the KGB.
Three years later Trump opened his first big property development, the Grand Hyatt New York hotel near Grand Central station. Trump bought 200 television sets for the hotel from Semyon Kislin, a Soviet emigre who co-owned Joy-Lud electronics on Fifth Avenue.
According to Shvets, Joy-Lud was controlled by the KGB and Kislin worked as a so-called "spotter agent" who identified Trump, a young businessman on the rise, as a potential asset. Kislin denies that he had a relationship with the KGB.
Then, in 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg for the first time. Shvets said he was fed KGB talking points and flattered by KGB operatives who floated the idea that he should go into politics. ...
@#3 ... Trump may be needing one as well, after the boat massacres.
I agree.
... They're both guilty of war crimes. ...
But, but, but... if Congress has not declared a war, how can there be war crimes?
imo, what Pres Trump has been doing is murder, not a war crime. Murder, plain and simple.
Why not release that second video?
Even our closest ally has backed away from Pres Trump's actions.
UK pauses intelligence-sharing with US on suspected drug vessels in Caribbean
www.theguardian.com
... Britain has suspended the sharing of intelligence with the US on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean amid concerns information supplied may be used to engage in lethal military strikes by American forces.
Such a decision " a rare rupture between the normally close military allies " would indicate that the UK does not believe the Trump administration's controversial practice of sinking boats allegedly used by drug traffickers is legal. ...
Axios Explains: Inside ICE's superpowers (June 2025)
www.axios.com
...The images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans -- and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal?
- - - It is -- at least for now.
Why it matters: Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police. ...
Related ...
Tesla Broadcasts Downbeat Sales Estimates in Unusual Move
finance.yahoo.com