News of the World

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Top Russian generals killed, fired, disappeared after aborted Wagner mutiny

A Russian lawmaker said Wednesday that one Russian commander in Ukraine, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, had been removed from duty and another, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Monday. The death of Tsokov, the deputy commander of Russia's Southern Military District, was "one of the highest-level losses for Russia during the course of the war," The New York Times reported.

Russian MP Andrei Gurulyov said Tsokov "died heroically" in the occupied town of Berdiansk. He also posted an audio recording of Popov saying he had been fired as commander of the 58th Army, which has been fighting in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, for raising questions about the high Russian casualty rate and lack of artillery support. "It was necessary either to keep quiet and be a coward or to say it the way it is," he said. Popov accused senior military leaders of treason.

Popov is one of at least 15 senior military officers suspended or fired since Wagner paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against Russia's military chiefs, The Wall Street Journal reported. And another top commander, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, is one of at least 13 officers who has been detained or arrested. Surovikin, the head of aerospace forces and former top Russian commander in Ukraine, has not been seen publicly since the mutiny, and another Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said Wednesday the general was "taking a rest" and "unavailable right now." Surovikin, the Journal reported, is being held and interrogated in Moscow. He is an ally of Prigozhin, who has also vanished from public view.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities arrested a Ukrainian man they accused of fatally shooting a former Russian submarine commander, Capt. Second Rank Stanislav Rzhitsky, as he was jogging in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Ukraine's military intelligence claimed Tuesday that Rzhitsky had commanded a submarine that was involved in missile attacks on Ukraine, and Russian law enforcement reportedly got the alleged Ukrainian gunman to confess to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence to gun Rzhitsky down.

When Russians say somebody is unavailable right now, that usually means they can no longer take your very long distance call.

2024 Candidates Differ on Possible NATO Membership for Ukraine

This week, President Joe Biden was at the NATO summit in Lithuania, where the topic of Ukraine being a future member of the 31-member alliance.

The 2024 presidential candidates are split on that possibility.

Mr. Biden, a Democrat, told CNN that Ukraine is not ready to join the Brussels-based group.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” he told Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired on July 9.

“But here’s the deal. I spent, as you know, a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together because I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine, and that was to break NATO,” continued Mr. Biden. “He was confident, in my view and many in the intelligence community, he was confident he could break NATO.”

Mr. Biden went on to say that NATO membership for Ukraine now would present an undesirable reality.
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Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she is for Ukraine being a NATO member.

“The key is, there is no reason Ukraine should not be part of NATO,” she said on Fox News on July 11.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, expressed opposition to Ukraine being a NATO member.

“To say that we should be adding countries like Ukraine into NATO, you know, that’s a non-starter for me,” he told Blaze TV-Radio.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence did not rule out the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO but said it should not be contemplated during its war with Russia.

Contrasting Crime Trends:
Tennessee Sees Reductions in Violent Crime
While California Faces Challenges

California, with a population over five times the size of Tennessee’s, has a lower rate of murder, but the highest total number of homicides in the nation, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control.

Newsom’s state had 2,495 murders, eclipsing Texas, which was the only other state with over 2,000 murders per 100,000 people. Tennessee’s rate was two times as high as California, but with a much smaller number of people affected per 100,000 people at 810 per 100,000 Tennesseans.

Newsom has even said on numerous occasions, while calling for stricter gun control measures, that mass shootings and gun violence are more of a problem in “red states.”

The National Criminal Justice Association calls into question how large of a role politics of a state play in their crime rates.

“If politics plays a role, it’s a minor role,” Tod Burke, a former police officer and professor emeritus in the Department of Criminal Justice at Radford University, told the NCJA.
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Additionally, the report (pdf) highlights a decline in reported DUI arrests, suggesting potential progress in addressing impaired driving.

Murder in Tennessee was reduced by 14.55 percent, while crimes against persons fell 3.19 percent. Crimes against property rose in the state by 3.31 percent.

However, amidst these positive developments, there is also a concerning rise in reported Identity Theft victims, which increased by 25.55 percent from 2021 to 2022.

New York Man Turned ISIS Recruiter Handed Life Sentence

Mirsad Kandic, 41, was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn following a three-week trial in May 2022.

Mr. Kandic, originally from Brooklyn and Kosovo, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS and five substantive counts of providing material support to the terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said Mr. Kandic recruited people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere to travel to Syria and Iraq and join ISIS battles.

His charges also include offering services, weapons, property and equipment, and false documentation and identification. These actions took place between January 2013 and June 2017 when Mr. Kandic was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Serving ISIS’s deadly terror campaign, this defendant fought on the battlefield, spread propaganda, smuggled weapons, and radicalized Western recruits,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

According to court documents, Mr. Kandic was heavily involved in ISIS’s activities. He fought as a member of the group in Haritan, an ISIS stronghold on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria.

Biden Announces $39 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness
for Over 800,000 Borrowers

The Biden administration has announced a $39 billion student loan forgiveness plan for 804,000 borrowers as part of fixes in “administrative failures” that had held up relief for borrowers under their income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
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“By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans,” Cardona added. “This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education.”

An income-driven repayment plan for student loan borrowers sets the monthly payment amounts on a level that’s affordable for the individual based on their income and family size.

There are four plans available that calculate payment amounts ranging from 10 to 20 percent of the person’s discretionary income. Payments can also be as low as $0.

Based on the plan, debts are forgiven once payments have been done for 20–25 years or “after making 240 or 300 monthly payments.” The 804,000 borrowers who have been provided relief are part of the repayment plan.

According to officials, loan borrowers were paying beyond their payment end-dates due to administrative oversight in tracking payments. “Inaccurate payment counts have resulted in borrowers losing hard-earned progress toward loan forgiveness.”