Amid continuing diplomatic efforts to end the long war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday marked the country’s Independence Day with a speech in Kyiv’s central square, reminding Ukrainians that they are still fighting for freedom.
He later met with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, who arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in a show of diplomatic support. President Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, also arrived in Kyiv over the weekend for talks with Mr. Zelensky. Both Mr. Carney and Mr. Kellogg attended the Independence Day celebrations.
The Ukrainian leader made his speech in the square known as the Maidan, a place of great symbolic importance to Ukrainians and the site of enormous protests in 2013 that culminated in the ouster of the country’s pro-Russian president Viktor F. Yanukovych.
Mr. Zelensky expressed hope that in the future “on this square, on the Maidan of our independence, under our own flags, on our own land, our children and grandchildren will celebrate Independence Day — in peace.”
The holiday marks the day in 1991 when Ukraine’s Parliament voted to reject Soviet rule. In a referendum later that year, 92 percent of Ukrainians voted for independence, including a majority of voters in the regions in the east that Russia now claims to have annexed...
At the same time war criminal Putin is hammering all corners of Ukraine, incompetent drunkard Defense Secretary "Whiskey Pete" Hegseth is blocking Ukraine's use of long-range missiles provided by the US, at the Malignant Fascist's direction. These thugs will do anything for Russia. Slava Ukraini!
President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to expand his military deployments to more Democratic-led cities, responding to an offer by Maryland’s governor to join him in a tour of Baltimore by saying he might instead “send in the ‘troops.’”
Last week, Trump said he was considering Chicago and New York for troop deployments similar to what he has unleashed on the nation’s capital, where thousands of National Guard and federal law enforcement officers are patrolling the streets.
Trump made the threat to Baltimore in a spat with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has criticized Trump’s unprecedented flex of federal power aimed at combatting crime and homelessness in Washington. Moore last week invited Trump to visit his state to discuss public safety and walk the streets. [snip]
Moore said he invited Trump to Maryland “because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance” about improving crime rates in Baltimore. After a spike during the pandemic that matched nationwide trends, Baltimore’s violent crime rate has fallen. The 200 homicides reported last year were down 24% from the prior year and 42% since 2021, according to city data. Between 2023 and 2024, overall violent crime was down nearly 8% and property crimes down 20%.
“The president is spending all of his time talking about me,” Moore said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I’m spending my time talking about the people I serve.”...
Fact check: the three Republican Governors sending National Guard troops to DC have 10 cities in their states with higher crime rates.
The convicted felon / sexual abuser Malignant Fascist continues his performative campaign of bluster, intimidation, and racism, which also serves as a precursor for a power grab in Democratic cities during the mid-term and presidential elections in blue states. We know why, of course. Ir's the same reason they're gerrymandering Congressional maps mid-way between census counts. As the fascists they are, they want to lock in their power and control indefinitely by any means necessary. No elections that don't ratify Republican control. We must disenthrall ourselves of any notion that it's anything less than that, and then we need to act accordingly if we want a democracy for ourselves and for future generations.
US immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.
The Costa Rica offer came late on Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadorian national would probably be released from a Tennessee jail the following day.
Ábrego declined to extend his stay in jail and was released on Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified his attorneys that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.
According to official documents posted online, the DHS told Ábrego’s attorneys on Friday afternoon that the “DHS may remove your client … to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends)”. [snip]
The 30-year-old was initially deported by federal immigration officials in March. Though the Trump administration admitted that Ábrego’s deportation was an “administrative error”, officials have repeatedly accused him of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang, a claim Ábrego and his family vehemently deny.
During his detention at El Salvador’s so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), Ábrego was physically and psychologically tortured, according to court documents filed by his lawyers in July.
Following Ábrego’s wrongful deportation, the Trump administration faced widespread pressure to return him to the US, including from a supreme court order that directed federal officials to “facilitate” his return.
In June, the Trump administration returned Ábrego from El Salvador, only to charge him with crimes related to human smuggling, which his lawyers have rejected as “preposterous”. His criminal trial is expected to begin in January.
Before his deportation, Ábrego had lived in Maryland for more than a decade, working in construction while being married to an American wife.
The bastards made an "administrative error," and rather than leave it at that and release him, to save face and because cruelty is the point of all this, they've been persecuting Ábrego for 6 months, including that stint at CECOT where he was tortured. Think for a moment what this intentional cruelty toward immigrants, the whitewashing of our history of slavery and Jim Crow, the hollowing out of scientific research, the extortion of our colleges and universities, the sight of armed National Guard troops patrolling peaceful streets in our cities, etc., looks like to both our friends and enemies in the world.
Daddy Vladdy is very pleased with Agent Krasnov.
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