[guest post by Dana]

Solidly reliable allies clearly not in Russia’s camp these days:

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution by a large majority on Wednesday, calling on countries not to recognise the four regions of Ukraine which Russia has claimed, following so-called referendums held late last month, and demanding that Moscow reverse course on its “attempted illegal annexation”.

The results were 143 Member States in favour, with five voting against, and 35 abstentions. The countries who voted against were Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria.

A majority of those countries abstaining were African nations, alongside China and India.

Ukraine has recently made efforts to reach out to Africa, and it would appear that there has been some payoff for their work as four of the countries visited last week by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba supported the resolution.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports on the devastation wrought as Russia continues to steal Ukrainian children and take them to Russia in an effort to make them Russian:

Thousands of children have been found in the basements of war-torn cities like Mariupol and at orphanages in the Russian-backed separatist territories of Donbas. They include those whose parents were killed by Russian shelling as well as others in institutions or with foster families, known as “children of the state.”

Russia claims that these children don’t have parents or guardians to look after them, or that they can’t be reached. But the AP found that officials have deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and given them Russian families and citizenship.

[…]

Whether or not they have parents, raising the children of war in another country or culture can be a marker of genocide, an attempt to erase the very identity of an enemy nation. Prosecutors say it also can be tied directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has explicitly supported the adoptions.

Also, the bombing of Ukraine continues as an effort to bring Ukraine to heel boost the mood of Russians:

Russian bombs delivered by Iranian-built drones hammered the Kyiv region Thursday as Ukraine’s capital again took the brunt of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deadly wrath…The attack comes three days after damaging missile strikes that marked the first assault on the city since the early days of the war, when Russia’s march to Kyiv was driven back by Ukrainian forces…”Another attack by kamikaze drones on critical infrastructure facilities,” the deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram…The British Defense Ministry has said the low-flying drones were unlikely to provide strike options deep into Ukrainian territory, and many were reportedly destroyed before they hit their targets.

NATO announced today that the alliance would provide Ukraine with hundreds of drone jamming devices to counteract the impact of Russia’s drones on the population.

Finally, if you had any questions about Russia’s goals in the four annexed areas, they have been answered:

Pavel Gubarev, Russia's "DPR" figure in Donetsk, states their intent towards Ukrainians: "We aren't coming to kill you, but to convince you. But if you don't want to be convinced, we'll kill you. We'll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you." pic.twitter.com/tgQAuyM4Sp

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 11, 2022

PS:

Russia's response to military failure is to murder more civilians. It doesn't even try to deny it, or pretend there were military targets. Putin's lieutenants and propagandists are openly celebrating the murder of sleeping Ukrainian children. 2/4

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 10, 2022

Deterrence can never guarantee against escalation, but weakness *guarantees* escalation. Ukraine needs air defenses, jets, heavy weapons now. Dozens more innocents have died because of the cowardly self-deterrence of Ukraine's allies toward a war criminal. 4/4

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 10, 2022

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

About today’s Jan. 6 Committee hearing:

A committee aide said Thursday’s hearing will examine events that took place before, during and after the riot itself, with a particular focus on Trump’s state of mind and his level of involvement with the scheme to challenge the election results, NBC News reported. The nine-member panel will seek to contextualize those plans, while providing new information and witness testimony, the aide said.

More than 1 million newly obtained electronic communications records from the Secret Service are expected to play a key role in helping committee members fill in details of President Donald Trump’s actions and his state of mind as protesters swarmed the Capitol.

Interestingly, since the hearings began, the number of Republicans who once believed Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 elections has dropped:

[T]he number of Republicans who believe the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump has dropped below the two-thirds mark. That still leaves a lot of Republicans who believe something that is not true, but the group has shrunk by several percentage points.

Over the course of nine public opinion surveys by Yahoo News/YouGov between January 2021 and early June 2022, the average number of Republicans who believed incorrectly that the 2020 election was rigged was 66%.

But in three Yahoo News/YouGov polls conducted since the Jan. 6 committee held its eight hearings from June 9 to July 21, the number of Republicans who believed Trump’s “big lie” had fallen to 60%.

As for Trump’s behavior around the event, survey data shows that attitudes about his role in the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, have not shifted a lot.

Obviously, the 299 Republicans running for office who continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen, remain unmoved by the hearings.

And just popping over to Trump’s Truth Social account, the former president doesn’t appear to have the Committee hearing on his mind, but rather is focused on the E.J.Carroll suit against him and the denial of a federal judge to delay his deposition:

UPDATE:

BREAKING: The Select Committee unanimously votes to subpoena Donald J. Trump, former President of the United States, to provide evidence as part of the committee’s investigation.

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022

UPDATE 2: Trump responded to the January 6 Committee’s hearing today:

Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total “BUST” that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?

The Unselect Committee knowingly failed to examine the massive voter fraud which took place during the 2020 Presidential Election – The reason for what took place on January 6th.

–Dana