The White House said Friday that Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region has stalled and is unlikely to advance any further.
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said the arrival of U.S. weapons has helped change the trajectory of the battle around Kharkiv, which Russian forces mounted a major attack on around the middle of May.
“They have been able to thwart Russian advances, particularly around Kharkiv,” Kirby said. “The Russians really have kind of stalled out up there [and] … their advance on Kharkiv is all but over because they ran into the first line of defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and basically stopped, if not pulled back, some units.”
He added that Ukraine was still under pressure, and they were not taking anything for granted, but it “appears that they’ve stalled out,” noting that this assessment was shared between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Biden when the two met Friday in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
In that meeting, Biden apologized for the months-long delay of new U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which Washington and Kyiv have both said led to Russian advances across the battlefield, including in Kharkiv and in the eastern Donetsk region...
How many lives were lost while MAGAt House Republicans, acting with the approval of their cult leader/ convicted felon Malignant Loser, refused to vote on that vital military aid?
Early forecasts in the European Parliament elections on Sunday showed voters punishing ruling centrists and throwing support behind far-right parties, most notably in France, where disastrous results for French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition prompted him to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap elections.
Although a combination of centrist, pro-European parties was projected to maintain a majority in the European Union’s legislative body, far-right parties claimed the largest share of seats from France and Italy while placing second in Germany. Green parties across the European Union took a particular hit.
“The center is holding,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday night. But the outcome, with gains for parties on the extremes, “comes with great responsibility for the parties in the center” to ensure “stability” and “a strong and effective Europe,” she said.
Macron said legislative elections would give French citizens a chance to determine their country’s future. He warned: “The rise of nationalists, of demagogues, is a danger for our nation, but also for our Europe, for France’s place in Europe and in the world.”
The French presidency won’t be contested, but the vote, with a first round set for June 30, will be a referendum on Macron’s government.
The once-every-five-years European Parliament elections are the world’s largest democratic exercise outside India. Citizens of the European Union’s 27 member states cast ballots to determine the 720 representatives that sit in Brussels and Strasbourg. Since the last elections in 2019, once-fringe hard-right parties have entered the political mainstream in Europe, and the results seemed to reflect those shifts...
"Suckers of the world, unite!"
The Western world is slowly lighting itself on fire, to the great glee of authoritarians and fascist demagogues everywhere.
An Ohio nonprofit that provides off-site Bible instruction to public school students during classroom hours says it will triple its programs in Indiana this fall after new legislation forced school districts to comply.
To participating families, nondenominational LifeWise Academy programs supplement religious instruction. But critics in Indiana worry the programs spend public school resources on religion, proselytize to students of other faiths and remove children from class in a state already struggling with literacy.
LifeWise founder and CEO Joel Penton told The Associated Press that many parents want religious instruction to be part of their children’s education.
“Values of faith and the Bible are absolutely central to many families,” Penton said. “And so they want to demonstrate to their children that it is central to their lives.”
Public schools cannot promote any religion under the First Amendment, but a 1952 Supreme Court ruling centered on New York schools cleared the way for programs like LifeWise. Individual places of worship often work with schools to host programs off campus, and they are not regulated in some states.
LifeWise officials addressed the Oklahoma and Ohio legislatures in support of laws that would require schools to cooperate with off-site religious programs, Penton said, and Oklahoma’s Republican governor signed one such bill into law Wednesday.
Similar bills have been introduced in Ohio, Nebraska, Georgia and Mississippi this year, according to an AP analysis of Plural, a legislative tracking database.
LifeWise programs will be available at over 520 locations in 23 states next school year, up from 331 in 13 states this year, and about 31,000 students attend LifeWise programs in the U.S., Penton said.
Penton wants LifeWise to be available to “50 million public school students nationwide,” he said... (our emphasis)
Sunday, Saturday and after- school hours don't provide enough time for these Bible bangers to proselytize the kids? They need public school hours, too? Must be some awful wicked goings- on in these places! If these people want religious training in schools, there are private academies and parochial schools, of course. The taxpayer is already funding these religious schools in many states through state voucher programs. But, we've been on this particular slippery slope ever since that 1952 Supreme Court ruling. What do you think the odds are of our current Republican Supreme Court overturning that decision?
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