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Dem hoping to replace Slotkin supports letting local governments call the shots on ICE deportations

FIRST ON FOX: A Michigan Democrat seeking to replace Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., in the House previously suggested that he opposes the idea of local governments in the state reporting illegal immigrants to federal immigration authorities and voiced his support for Lansing’s decision to declare itself a sanctuary city at the time. The remarks from Curtis Hertel Jr., who served for eight years as a Michigan state senator and is the sole Democrat seeking election to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, came during an April 2017 conversation with City Pulse – a news outlet serving the Greater Lansing area. Given a hypothetical situation involving an illegal immigrant who was questioned by authorities during a routine traffic stop, Hertel said he believes local law enforcement officers should not make the call to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to inquire about the individual’s immigration status. DEMOCRAT SENATOR THWARTS GOP EFFORT TO PASS BILL DETAINING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CHARGED WITH VIOLENT CRIME “One, I don’t like the term ‘illegal’,” Hertel said. “A lot of these people have been here a long time. A lot of them, it wasn’t their choice to come here. They were brought here as children. In my opinion, those that risk and sacrifice so much who just wanted to be part of the American experience have earned a status among Americans that a lot of us haven’t earned just by being born here. They want America. So no, I don’t believe that we should be calling ICE and actually being involved in that process, I don’t.” Hertel, who represented portions of Lansing, served in the state’s upper legislative chamber from 2015 to 2023. He told the City Pulse that he believed Lansing doesn’t have a “responsibility to be immigration officials.” Hertel did, however, say at the time that he favored contacting federal immigration authorities if an illegal immigrant committed a crime and is “dangerous,” saying it makes “perfect sense.” Hertel’s remarks came days after the Lansing City Council passed a resolution that declared Lansing a sanctuary city. That controversial declaration was later rescinded amid widespread division in the city, according to the Detroit Free Press. Asked at the time about the council’s decision, Hertel said, “The city of Lansing does not want their police officers to be immigration officials.” GEORGIA IMMIGRATION BILL WOULD CUT STATE FUNDING OF SANCTUARY CITIES IN WAKE OF LAKEN RILEY MURDER He told the City Pulse: “They don’t want the immigration status to be determined by police officers and I think that’s probably a good thing… asking people for papers and all of those things could make Lansing an unwelcoming place for people that look different than you or I. We don’t want that in Lansing.” Although the decision for Lansing to be declared a sanctuary city was reversed, the city council for East Lansing voted last year to declare it a sanctuary city. The Detroit Free Press reported last month that four Michigan counties – Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent and Wayne (Michigan’s most populous county) – were designated safe havens for illegal immigrants. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Hertel said, “As I said in that interview, the federal government should ensure ICE has the power to deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.” “Unlike my opponent who only cares about using the border as a campaign tactic, in Congress, I will work with anyone toward a bipartisan border security deal that gives our immigration authorities the resources and funding they need to do their jobs.” Following Slotkin’s Feb. 2023 announcement that she would run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Hertel announced last July that he was entering the race to represent Michigan’s 7th District. The district encompasses all of Ingham, Livingston, Clinton and Shiawassee counties, as well as parts of Oakland and Eaton counties. Hertel, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the district, has received endorsements from Slotkin and a handful of other Democrats in the state and previously served as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s director of legislative affairs. Hertel is likely to face off against Republican candidate Tom Barrett, the only GOP candidate in the race as of now, in the state’s general election on Nov. 5. The state’s primary elections are slated to take place on Aug. 6. Barrett announced his candidacy in the race last July. In the 2022 midterm elections, he challenged Slotkin and lost in the general election by a 20,000 vote margin.

Top red state official demands answers on Biden executive order ‘attempting to register’ illegals to vote

FIRST ON FOX: Mississippi’s Secretary of State has sent a letter to President Biden’s Department of Justice asking it to stop enforcing a Biden executive order that he warns is being used to attempt to register ineligible convicts and illegal immigrants to vote. “As you are aware, on March 7, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order No. 14019 which sought to turn the Department of Justice agencies from their historical missions of law enforcement to voter registration and get out the vote operations,” Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland this week.  “These efforts are an intrusion into state matters and are a misuse of federal revenue and resources. In addition, it appears that these efforts have led to agencies under your charge attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.” The executive order in question was signed by Biden in 2021 and was billed as an attempt to combat racial discrimination and “protect the right to vote” and instructed government agencies “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.” AG GARLAND PLEDGES TO FIGHT VOTER ID LAWS, ELECTION INTEGRITY MEASURES In his letter, Watson outlines concerns that the executive order “forces the U.S. Marshals Service” to “modify agreements with jails” that require them “to provide voter registration materials and facilitate voting by mail.” “According to the Marshals Service, they are modifying 936 contracts or intergovernmental agreements to require state and local government complicity in the potential registration of ineligible prisoners to vote,” the letter states. “It further requires the Department of Justice to facilitate voter registration and mail voting for individuals in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. “This program creates numerous opportunities for ineligible prisoners to be registered to vote in Mississippi.” Watson told Fox News Digital that he is not confident the Biden administration is paying close attention to the voting status of the individuals involved. NONPARTISAN WATCHDOG RELEASES REPORT OUTLINING TOP ELECTION SECURITY THREATS FOR 2024: ‘A LOT CAN GO SIDEWAYS’ “Forgive me for not necessarily trusting the Biden administration but in Mississippi we’ve got rules and regulations dealing with who can vote when it comes to felons, there are disenfranchising crimes in our state and I don’t specifically think that the Biden administration cares crossing those T’s and dotting those I’s when it comes to making sure these folks can or can’t vote, they’re going to register them, including illegal aliens in custody so we’ve got major issues and that’s what led to writing this letter to Attorney General Garland,” Watson told Fox News Digital. Watson’s letter explains that the program “provides prisoners with misleading information concerning their right to both register and vote in Mississippi – a right which they may not have.” “For example, many of the people in the custody of the Marshals are convicted felons whom Mississippi law deems ineligible to vote. Additionally, many of those in custody only have fleeting ties to Mississippi and do not meet the residency requirements necessary to be a Mississippi voter,” the letter says. WILL ELECTIONS FINALLY BE SECURE AND HONEST IN 2024? Watson wrote that Mississippi jails are being prompted to “work with other reliable sources of voter information to assist federal prisoners with voter registration, voting by mail, and notification of upcoming elections.”  “We are unaware of any contact with our Office, which begs the question, which organizations are the Marshals using to accomplish this demand?” The letter asks.  “Many outside groups performing voter registration and vote harvesting services are partisan entities with a history of being unreliable. There have been documented instances of these groups providing incorrect directions to voters. It is not proper for the Federal government to push partisan groups into the voting process in Mississippi or any other state.” The letter specifically addresses concerns that illegal immigrants in the Mississippi prison system could potentially be registered to vote through this executive order if the program is not closely monitored. “Our understanding is that everyone in the Marshals’ custody is given a form advising them of their right to register and vote,” the letter says. “Providing ineligible non-citizens with information on how to register to vote undoubtedly encourages them to illegally register to vote, exposing them to legal jeopardy beyond their immigration status.” Watson’s letter says that it is “quite shocking” that the Biden administration would “expend tax dollars and vital law enforcement resources” on a program “that risks bloating state voter rolls with ineligible and non-citizen voters” during a time when millions of illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border. Watson told Fox News Digital that this is an “urgent” matter with a presidential election just 8 months away. “If you look at what’s going on at the border when you’ve got so many illegal aliens pouring into our country, imagine the efforts used to get them to register to vote and that’s what this is all about,” Watson told Fox News Digital. “It’s about control, it’s about continuing their power, and unfortunately that puts our country in a terrible position, so it’s immediate and it’s something where we hope they will respect our request to stop the program.” “The information we want to see is which prisons they’re working in in Mississippi, we’ve asked them to prove to us the documentation, what exactly are you doing in our prisons? We want to make sure we understand which prisoners you’ve been talking to, so we can understand whether or not they’re eligible to vote and I think it’s incumbent upon all of the states to take this notice up and to push back as hard as we can because with this election coming up in November it is incredibly important to the future of our country. What we have left of it.” Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital he

Electoral bonds case: ‘What steps have you taken to disclose details of electoral bonds,’ SC asks SBI

The State Bank of India has sought an extension till June 30 to disclose the details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme was scrapped.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP’s Central Election Committee to meet today; likely to discuss more candidates

Earlier, on Sunday, four leaders from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and one from the Congress joined the BJP in the presence of the party’s general secretary Tarun Chugh in New Delhi.

Mumbai Coastal Road inaugurated today: Check reduced travel time, entry rules, speed limits and more

As of now, the south bound corridor of the costal road between Worli and Marine Drive would be made operational.

Luis Montenegro claims victory for Portugal’s centre-right in snap polls

Democratic Alliance edged ahead of incumbent Socialists in nail-biting count that saw far-right surge. Luis Montenegro, the leader of Portugal’s opposition centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) party, has claimed victory in the country’s snap general election after a close-run race against the incumbent Socialists. Montenegro declared victory early on Monday morning, shortly after the Socialist Party (PS)’s leader Pedro Nuno Santos conceded defeat, but it was unclear whether he would be able to govern without the support of the far-right Chega party, with whom he again refused to negotiate. The AD and its conservative allies in Madeira won at least 79 seats in the 230-seat parliament, ahead of the PS’s 77. Chega’s parliamentary representation more than quadrupled to at least 48 lawmakers, giving the combined right a majority. Four seats remained to be attributed after the final count of ballots from abroad. “It seems inescapable that the AD won the elections and that the Socialists lost,” Montenegro told excited supporters who had gathered in the capital, Lisbon. It was crucial for political parties in the new parliament to act responsibly and “comply with the wish of the Portuguese people”, he added. Sunday’s snap election, triggered by Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s sudden resignation amid a corruption investigation, was marked by a surge in support for Chega, which positioned itself as an alternative to the two parties that have long dominated Portuguese politics, promising to crack down on corruption and expressing hostility to what it sees as “excessive” immigration. Chega’s leader Andre Ventura was in a celebratory mood. The party quadrupled its number of lawmakers to at least 48 following Sunday’s election [Andre Dias Nobre/AFP] It took place against a backdrop of low wages and a high cost of living – worsened last year by surges in inflation and interest rates – coupled with a housing crisis and failings in public healthcare. Portugal is the latest country in Europe to shift towards the far right. The country returned to democracy 50 years ago after the fall of the fascist dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. “We have a society with no memory,” 21-year-old law student and PS member Alexandra Ferreira told the Reuters news agency, adding that the far-right’s growth made her “very sad”. Chega leader Andre Ventura, a former law professor and television football pundit, has said he is prepared to drop some of his party’s most controversial proposals – including chemical castration for some sex offenders and the introduction of life prison sentences – if that enables his party to be included in a governing alliance with other right-of-centre parties. Adblock test (Why?)

Media agencies pull photo of Kate Middleton over manipulation concerns

AP, Reuters, AFP and Getty withdraw first official image of the Princess of Wales released since her surgery. The first official photo of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, released since she underwent abdominal surgery has been pulled by multiple media agencies amid concerns the image was manipulated. The Associated Press (AP), Reuters, Getty Images and Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday issued notices not to use the image of Kate and her three children, which was released by Kensington Palace. The AP said the photo had been withdrawn because upon “closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image” and the photo showed an “inconsistency in the alignment” of the left hand of Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte. The AFP said the image could not be used as it had been “altered” without elaborating. Reuters said it had deleted the image “following a post-publication review”. When contacted for comment, the AP directed Al Jazeera to an AP article about the withdrawal decision. Reuters, AFP and Getty Images did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Kensington Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. C 📸 The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ — The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024 The photo was posted on The Prince and Princess of Wales’s official X account on Sunday accompanied by a caption thanking the public for their “kind wishes and continued support over the last two months” and wishing the public a Happy Mother’s Day. The image was purportedly taken by Kate’s husband, Prince William, during the past week on the grounds of Windsor Castle just outside of London. The release of the image, which remained online on Sunday night despite the withdrawal notices, came after Kensington Palace announced in January that Kate, 42, had been hospitalised for surgery and would take a break from official royal duties until after Easter. The lack of details about the reasons for the queen-in-waiting’s surgery and her prolonged absence from the public has prompted a flurry of speculation and conspiracy theories about her condition. Kate last appeared in public on Christmas Day while attending a church service at the royal family’s Sandringham estate. Adblock test (Why?)

Fears of mass migration from Myanmar as military plans to draft thousands

Ko Naing* is just the sort of young man Myanmar’s military is looking for. Hoping to make up for recruitment shortfalls and battlefield losses against armed groups fighting to reverse its 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military last month announced plans to enforce a years-old conscription law. Starting in April, the military says, all men aged 18 to 35 years and women from 18 to 27 years must serve at least two years in the armed forces. Doctors and other professionals in especially short supply in the military’s ranks may be drafted until they are 45 years old. The country’s military rulers hope to call up approximately 60,000 recruits by the end of the year. As a doctor, and at a healthy 33 years old, Ko Naing fits the bill for conscription. Like many of Myanmar’s young men and women, Ko Naing said he had no intention of answering the call and would instead do whatever it takes to avoid the draft. “The one sure thing is I won’t serve. If I’m drafted by the military, I will try to move to the remote areas or to another country,” Ko Naing told Al Jazeera from Myanmar. “Not only me, I think everyone in Myanmar is not willing to serve in the military under the conscription law,” he said. “The people believe it is not legal because the people believe the military is not their government.” The 2021 coup that removed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has plunged Myanmar into a brutal civil war pitting the military against a patchwork of deep-rooted, well-armed ethnic minority armies and a new crop of local armed groups set up to remove the military regime from power. Having already stretched the military thin across the country, these ethnic armies have forced the military to retreat from dozens of towns and bases since October, mainly in the east. The six-month-old campaign, dubbed Operation 1027, has handed the ruling generals their worst string of defeats of the war. “The timing of the activation of the conscription law indicates its desperation,” said Ye Myo Hein, an adviser to the US Institute of Peace and fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. “Following Operation 1027, the junta has faced continuous and significant military losses, resulting in a substantial depletion of its human resources and a serious shortage of manpower. In response to this situation, the military has opted to activate the conscription law to replenish its declining manpower,” Ye Myo Hein said. He also doubts the draft will do the military much good. The intake of recruits may help boost the morale of commanders on the front lines running short of soldiers, Ye Myo Hein said, but is unlikely to stem the military’s losses. “The new recruits may not be effective fighters in the short term. If deployed on the battlefronts, they could end up as cannon fodder,” he said. Ye Myo Hein said the draft could also backfire on the military by filling its ranks with resentful soldiers who could pose a threat from within, and by driving more young people into the arms of the resistance. Members of the People’s Defence Forces, who became rebel fighters after protests against the military coup in Myanmar were met with extreme violence [File: Reuters] ‘No one … is safe’ The military says the draft will start next month with an initial batch of 5,000 conscripts. Unofficially, though, it may have started already. In a recent statement, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, relayed reports of young men being effectively “kidnapped” off the streets by the military and forced to the front lines. The New Myanmar Foundation, a charity based in Thailand helping those fleeing the war, says it has also heard of soldiers and police raiding teashops across the country in recent weeks in search of young men and women to press them into service. “They are now losing, so they need the youth to fight for them,” the foundation’s executive director, Sann Aung, told Al Jazeera from the Thai border town of Mae Sot. A camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar as seen across the Moei River from Mae Sot in western Thailand [Jintamas Saksornchai/AP Photo] Activists, journalists and others in the military’s crosshairs have been fleeing the country – many of them by irregular means – amid a crackdown on critics and dissidents since the coup in February 2021. Now it is feared that the new conscription drive will turn a stream of political migrants into a flood. In his statement, UN rapporteur Andrews warned that the numbers leaving Myanmar would “surely skyrocket” because of the draft. Ye Myo Hein also warned of a “mass exodus”. “People living in urban areas have been attempting to normalise their lives amidst the post-coup abnormality to some extent. However, the conscription law unequivocally gives the signal that no one, even those outside conflict zones, is exempt from the repercussions of the military coup and is safe,” he said. Sann Aung said he has already seen the numbers fleeing to the Thai border swell and echoed the forecasts of a growing surge. He said many travel to the relative safety of Myanmar’s rugged and remote borderlands, where some of the country’s strongest ethnic armies have over the decades carved out enclaves largely independent of the central government. Some go to join the fight against the military, others just to hide. “This is the cheapest and the most convenient way for them,” Sann Aung said. “But some people who [may] have more … money and cash, they move to the neighbouring areas, neighbouring countries, including Thailand and India and maybe China.” He and other close observers say that most of those fleeing are heading to Thailand, drawn by a large diaspora from Myanmar from before the coup, as well as better job prospects and a government in Bangkok that has kept Myanmar’s military at a distance — at least compared with China and India,

Ancient find reveals new evidence of Malaysia’s multicultural past

Kedah, Malaysia – Until six months ago, none of the inhabitants of the village of Bukit Choras, set amid rice fields near the steep and lush hill of the same name in northwestern Malaysia, had any idea they had been living next to an archaeological wonder all their lives. It was only after a team of 11 researchers cleared the thick bushes and secondary jungle from the top of the hill, and gently scraped away at the soil that a missing piece of Southeast Asian history was revealed. The 1,200-year-old Buddhist stupa of Bukit Choras was discovered last August in Malaysia’s Bujang Valley – a river basin scattered with several clusters of protohistoric sites in the country’s northwestern Kedah state. The stupa is the best preserved in the country and experts say it could hold the key to Malaysia’s long history of multiculturalism. “This site is an anomaly because it stands all by itself,” Nasha Rodziadi Khaw told Al Jazeera. Nasha is the chief researcher of the team from the University of Science Malaysia’s Global Archaeology Research Centre (CGAR) in the northwestern island of Penang, who supervised the excavation between August 28 and September 12 last year. Bukit Choras is situated near the small town of Yan on Kedah’s southern coast about 370km north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Nasha Rodziadi Khaw led the team of scientists who unearthed Bukit Choras’s stupa [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera] Unlike the 184 archaeological sites previously identified in the Bujang Valley, which lie to the south, the stupa is isolated on the northern side of Mount Jerai, which was once a cape and a pivotal navigation point for seafaring traders who ventured to this part of the world from as far as the Arabian peninsula. “We are still not sure of Bukit Choras’s function. It may have been a military garrison or coastal trade outpost, but we need to do further excavation [to assess]. Based on our preliminary findings, it shows plenty of similarities with other sites found in Java and Sumatra, Indonesia,” said Nasha, whose team will continue to work at the site throughout the first half of 2024. A forlorn discovery According to Nasha, Bukit Choras was first reported in 1850 by a British officer looking for treasures, and then, in 1937, briefly studied by another British scholar, HG Quaritch Wales. Wales undertook some minor excavations, but only reported finding a squarish Buddhist stupa, taking note of its measurements. He never provided any illustration or plate for the site. Nearly 50 years later, in 1984, the then-director of the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum returned to Bukit Choras to do some site cleaning and documentation, but the site remained largely undisturbed. “I realised that nobody had done proper investigation [since then] and managed to get a fund to survey the site in 2017,” Nasha told Al Jazeera. “We used electronic waves to do physical detection of what was hidden underground and found there were some big structures underneath.” Nasha received more funding from Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education to conduct proper excavations in 2022, and his team was stunned to discover how well-preserved the site was compared with those unearthed in the Bujang Valley between the 1930s and 1950s – some of which had deteriorated because of erosion, human activities and even accidental destruction. “At first we only excavated 40 percent of the whole Bukit Choras site, finding a stupa about nine metres long,” said Nasha. “But the most important discovery was two stucco statues of Buddha in good condition that have never been found in the area before.” Stucco, Nasha explained, was thought to only be found in Java and Sumatra in neighbouring Indonesia, as well as in India, at the time. Ancient ties Placed in two niches together with an inscription in Pallava (the language of the Pallava Dynasty that ruled in South India between the 3rd and 8th century CE), Bukit Choras’s two Buddha statues have architectural features resembling those of other ancient artefacts from the Srivijaya kingdom that prospered between the 7th and 11th centuries CE, in an area from southern Thailand, through the Malay peninsula and into Java. The statues are now being studied and restored at CGAR on Penang island. “The discovery of two still intact, human size statues and the inscription is very significant for further studies,” Mohd Azmi, the commissioner of Malaysia’s National Heritage Department, told Al Jazeera. “This shows that the site has not been disturbed and has the potential to give new evidence on Ancient Kedah’s history.” Excavation trenches at the Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera] The discoveries in the Bujang Valley testify to an ancient civilisation that archaeologists refer to as the “Ancient Kedah Kingdom”. It prospered between the 2nd and the 14th century CE, stretching across the northwestern coast of the Malay peninsula and into Thailand predating the arrival of Islam in the region. Ancient Kedah grew rich on international trade as well as the production of iron and glass beads, prospering as a multiethnic and multireligious ancient Southeast Asian polity where residents and foreign traders lived together. Nasha points out that findings in the area suggest that for centuries, traders from China, India and even the Middle East came to the area to do business – and were often forced to spend long spells in Kedah when the harsh monsoon seasons made sailing back home impossible. Temples and artefacts were built by local labourers mixing foreign architectural motifs and knowledge with two main influences. “First is Buddhism, classified in areas such as Sungai Mas, Kuala Muda, and Sungai Batu in Semeling, plus the most recent being the temple site at Bukit Choras,” explained Asyaari Muhamad, a senior archaeologist and the director of the Institute of the Malay World & Civilisation at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, referring to some of the Bujang Valley sites. “The rest, such as the archaeological site in the Pengkalan Bujang complex [near the village of] Merbok, received Hindu influences. This classification is

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 747

As the war enters its 747th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Monday, March 11, 2024. Fighting Three people were killed in Russian shelling and drone attacks on towns in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while at least a dozen people were injured in a Russian missile attack in the early hours of Sunday morning on the town of Myrnohrad, about 40km (25 miles) from the front line in Donetsk. Kyiv said Russia launched 39 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones across central and southern regions, including the Kyiv region. The Air Force said 35 were shot down over 10 regions. It did not say whether there was any damage. St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport was closed briefly after a Ukrainian drone was detected in the neighbouring Leningrad region. The Russian Defence Ministry said the drone was shot down. There were no reports of damage or casualties. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine rejected Pope Francis’s call to “raise the white flag” and hold negotiations with Russia saying that Kyiv will “never” surrender. “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on social media. Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin told the AFP news agency that his office had logged about 123,000 alleged war crimes by Russia since it began its invasion in February 2022, and identified 511 suspects. Kostin said Russia must answer the accusations in court. “Russia must be defeated on the battlefield and in the courtroom,” he said. A Moscow court sentenced a Moscow State University student to 10 days in prison after he renamed his WiFi network “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine). The court found him guilty of a “public demonstration of Nazi symbolics… or symbols of extremist organisations,” Ria-Novosti reported. Weapons European states imported almost double the amount of arms in 2019 to 2023 compared with 2014 to 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading conflict think tank, as Ukraine emerged as Europe’s largest arms importer. SPRI said European imports grew by 94 percent between 2019 and 2023 compared with 2014 to 2018, while Ukraine became the fourth largest importer in the world between 2019 to 2023. Adblock test (Why?)