Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one of the Ukraine war’s deadliest strikes.

In a rare disclosure, Russia’s defence ministry said 63 soldiers were killed on New Year’s Eve in a fiery blast that destroyed a temporary barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Russian critics said the soldiers were being housed alongside an ammunition dump at the site, which the Russian defence ministry said was hit by four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers.

The New Year’s Eve strike on Makiivka came as Russia was launching what have become nightly waves of drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian officials said Russia had on Monday struck Ukraine-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, hitting the village of Yakovlivka, the city of Kramatorsk and destroying an ice rink in the town of Druzhkivka.

Ukraine said the Russian death toll in Makiivka was in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials called that an exaggeration.

Russian military bloggers said the extent of the destruction was a result of storing ammunition in the same building as a barracks, despite commanders knowing it was within range of Ukrainian rockets.

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in eastern Ukraine who is now one of the highest profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, said hundreds had been killed or wounded. Ammunition had been stored at the site and military equipment there was uncamouflaged, he said.

“What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app.

“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” he wrote. Commanders “couldn’t care less”, he said.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not address the Makiivka strike in his nightly speech on Monday.

But the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported the Makiivka attack as “a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment”. It did not mention casualties, but said 10 pieces of military equipment were destroyed.

The fury in Russia extended to lawmakers.

Grigory Karasin, a member of the Russian Senate and former deputy foreign minister, not only demanded vengeance against Ukraine and its NATO supporters but also “an exacting internal analysis”.

Sergei Mironov, a legislator and former chairman of the Senate, Russia’s upper house, demanded criminal liability for the officials who had “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security”.

Unverified footage posted online of the aftermath of the blast at the Russian barracks in Makiivka showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.

Some of the dead came from the southwestern Russian region of Samara, the region’s governor told Russian media, urging concerned relatives to contact recruitment centres for information.

Andrey Medvedev, deputy speaker of the Moscow City Duma and a pro-Kremlin journalist, said authorities, whether civilian or military, must value Russian lives.

“Either a person is of the highest value – and then punish for stupid losses of personnel, as for treason to the fatherland – or the country is over,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

A Russian-backed military information centre in the Donetsk region said there had been 69 Ukrainian attacks on the region, including Makiivka, on Monday.

Having suffered defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022, Russia resorted to mass air strikes against Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones Russia had launched in a third night of air strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities.

Ukrainian officials said their success proved that Russia’s tactic in recent months of raining down missiles and drones to knock out Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was increasingly failing as Kyiv beefs up its air defences.

Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a special military operation against its southern neighbour launched on Feb. 24.

After firing dozens of missiles on Dec. 31, Russia launched more than 80 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, all of which had been shot down, Zelenskiy said, adding that Russia was planning a protracted campaign of such attacks to “exhaust” Ukraine.

“It is probably banking on exhaustion. Exhausting our people, our anti-aircraft defences, our energy,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Ukraine, he said, had to “act and do everything so that the terrorists’ fail in their aim, as all their others have failed”.

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(NewsNation) — After the arrest of suspected Idaho college killer Bryan Kohberger, a lot of personal information about him has emerged on social media. A TikTok post from one user who says she knew him in middle and high school specifically grabbed a lot of attention.

As she scrubbed her memories in the TikTok video, Casey Arntz appeared to be stunned and shaken when speaking about Kohberger. During an interview with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo, Arntz said Kohberger, who is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, was bullied during the formative years of his life.

“Personally, what I’m finding out from former friends and former classmates is that, you know, Bryan was bullied. When he was younger, he was an overweight kid. When I personally knew him, he was always good to me,” Arntz said.

Arntz believes the tables turned in high school and Kohberger may have taken on the role of a bully himself.

“Going into his senior year, he lost a lot of weight. It was then I hear that he might have become a bully. I was not there personally to see that. However, looking back at it, knowing how he knows my brother, knowing now how he knows my other friends, I wouldn’t put it past him because my brother has come out and said that he was bullying him when he was friends with him,” Arntz explained.

She said it seemed as if Kohberger always had to be the smartest person in the room, especially when her brother was around.

“It was like he was undermining him and just putting him down. My brother cut ties with him because of this, because they got too much of a torment for him,” Arntz said.

She does not recall any specific acts of violence from Kohberger but said she has heard he could become aggressive.

“He would get physically aggressive with people. He would get aggressive very quickly. I never saw it face to face, thankfully. And, again, going back to one of the things my brother said, when he would get kind of physically aggressive with him, he would kind of put you in a headlock and stuff like that. I never saw that,” Arntz said.

In speaking with her brother about Kohberger the past couple of days and considering the suspected killer’s background, Arntz said it seems like he’s trying to throw off law enforcement by staying nearly silent.

“He’s not talking because he knows how to work it. He knows the ins and outs of this. This is what he studied for years. So, to me, I don’t think it’s surprising that he’s not talking, because he thinks he knows what he’s doing. He’s trying to undermine law enforcement,” Arntz said.

In the interview, Arntz also remembered Kohberger’s alleged struggle with heroin addiction in high school.

“He did use me. I didn’t know at the time that he was using me to drive him to get heroin until probably a couple of days afterwards. It triggered me in a way, because I didn’t know that I could have been put in such a compromising position from him. But yeah, he definitely struggled with heroin addiction in high school,” Arntz said.

Arntz described the Kohbergers as a standard family in the Poconos, with Bryan Kohberger’s mother once working as a substitute teacher at Pleasant Valley and his father often sharing fun stories with Bryan’s friends.

“We had a lot of people coming in from New York, and we were used to all these people. But, they never stood out as anyone bad or good or crazy. They were just another family,” Arntz said, also adding: “His parents — again, I can speak on his mom and my brother can speak to both of them — are great.”

Kohberger has been arrested in connection to the Nov. 13 murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in Moscow, Idaho.

Kohberger’s family released a statement through his public defender, issuing their support.

“First and foremost, we care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children,” the statement read. “There are no words that can adequately express the sadness we feel, and we pray each day for them. We will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother.”

Kohberger could be back in Idaho as soon as Tuesday after a hearing in Pennsylvania. He is not expected to fight extradition.

(NewsNation) — New information is raising questions regarding whether Bryan Kohberger, suspect in the November killings of four Idaho college students, had communicated with imprisoned serial killers.

Kohberger previously studied under a serial killer expert connected to “BTK Killer” Dennis Rader. Forensic expert and former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole said he may have also paid attention to past serial killers’ crimes.

NewsNation spoke with O’Toole about what this new information might tells us about the suspect. This conversation is edited for length and clarity.

NewsNation: The daughter of the serial killer known as “BTK,” Dennis Rader, said she’s fearing that Kohberger may have been in contact with her father. If that turns out to be true, how does that change this investigation?

O’Toole: It’s too early to say. But it would reinforce that this person had an interest in serial killers. If he did reach out to BTK, it’s very likely that he reached out to other infamous serial killers or serious, high-profile offenders.

Criminology psychology students and forensic science students — it is not unusual to want to go to a prison and talk to one of these people or communicate by letter, because they want to hear what they have to say, how they committed the crime, the planning that went into it.

NewsNation: We know investigators are still working to try to determine a motive. How much do you think Kohberger studies his apparent fascination with serial killers? How will that play into determining a motive?

O’Toole: There could be multiple motives in a case like this. Right now, he’s a suspect; he’s not been found guilty.

But there may be two faces here: Someone that is academically very well educated and prepared those questions in a survey, (and) then the personal violent ideation that would have preceded the academic pursuit as a Ph.D. student.

NewsNation: Why do you think there are so many examples of murderers — or alleged murderers in this case — who also had a fascination or studied criminology?

O’Toole: We know from past experience how much planning can go into these crimes based on the study that serial killers or mass murderers do of other cases. They’re interested in how it was done, why it was done, how did they prepare?

But, in a small number of cases, there are people that follow those crimes so that they can do it better; they can do it the same way; they can learn by their mistakes.

(NewsNation) — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed and appeared to be getting CPR before being taken off the field in an ambulance during a game against the Bengals at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

The Monday night matchup between the Bills and Bengals was suspended following the serious injury to Hamlin, which occurred at the 5:58 mark of the first quarter with the Bengals leading 7-3. 

Hamlin was injured when he put a hard hit on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin initially rose from the field after the play, only to collapse a moment later.

Hamlin reportedly had a pulse, but he was not breathing on his own. Medical personnel administered CPR. Both teams left the field, and the game was suspended. Hamlin was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center emergency room; his mother reportedly rode in the ambulance with him.

A source told NewsNation that Hamlin was in critical condition. The game was ultimately postponed. Damar’s marketing representative Jordon Rooney said his vitals are back to normal and that the hospital put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat.

On late Monday night, the NFL released a statement on Hamlin. “Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills,” it said. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.”

Stefon Diggs, one of Hamlin’s teammates, was spotted entering the hospital where Damar is being treated. A group of Bengals and Bills fans reportedly embraced while praying outside the hospital.

The National Football League Players Association also released a statement, which read, “The NFLPA and everyone in our community is praying for Damar Hamlin. We have been in touch with Bills and Bengals players, and with the NFL. The only thing that matters at this moment is Damar’s health and well being.”

The 6-foot Hamlin, who played college football at the University of Pittsburgh, was selected in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft (the 212th pick overall). After serving as a reserve player last year, this season Hamlin rose to the starting lineup following an injury to Micah Hyde in Week 2.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.

Associated Press/Ted S. Warren

• Police were reportedly able to link the Idaho killings suspect to the crime scene with DNA.
• They ran DNA through genealogy databases and got a hit, anonymous law enforcement sources told ABC News.
• CNN reported that police then tracked the suspect back to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested.

Police were reportedly able to link the suspect in November’s Idaho student killings to the crime scene using the same controversial method investigators used to find the Golden Gate Killer.

Investigators ran DNA found at the crime scene in a public genealogy database and got a hit that led them to the suspect, sources familiar with the case told ABC News and Fox News.

Police arrested Bryan Kohberger in his parent’s Pennsylvania home on Friday and charged him with the first-degree murder of four University of Idaho college students: Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20.

After tracking Kohberger across the country, the FBI followed him for four days before the arrest, CNN reported. Kohberger was booked at the Monroe County Correctional Facility after his arrest, and will waive his extradition to go back to Idaho faster, according to CNN.

Kohberger’s lawyer told CNN the 28-year-old was “shocked” by his arrest.

Police said they found another piece of evidence linking Kohberger to the crime since the arrest: a white Hyundai Elantra similar to the one that was found near the house around the time of the killings, which is now in police custody, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said at a press conference.

But the weapon used to kill the four students has not yet been found, Fry said.

Using DNA databases is a controversial technique

Using genealogy databases during a criminal investigation has been both lauded and scrutinized, according to a University of Chicago Law Review article published earlier this year.

Investigators used the database GEDMatch to solve the Golden State Killer cold-case and charge Joseph James DeAngelo with murder. He’s now serving multiple life sentences after his conviction in 2018.

Many law experts assert that lawmakers must set legal standards for using genetic data in this way in order to protect the privacy of individuals, the author of the law article stated. Some states agree: Montana, Maryland, and Utah enacted laws that govern the use of genetic data to solve a crime in 2021.

Experts previously told Insider that those who send their DNA to genealogy companies should do so with caution if they want to protect their genetic privacy.

There’s another factor in this case that could possibly complicate the use of DNA found, former NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, who used to helm the Bronx’s cold case unit, told Insider last month.

“You have all this blood, and there might be hair fibers, but you’re also dealing with a college house,” where there are “lots of people coming and going,” Giacalone, who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Insider at the time. “So you probably have lots of mixtures in there with DNA.”

Authorities around the world are imposing or considering curbs on travellers from China as COVID-19 cases in the country surge following its relaxation of “zero-COVID” rules.

They cite a lack of information from China on variants and are concerned about a wave of infections. China has rejected criticism of its COVID data and said it expects future mutations to be potentially more transmissible but less severe.

Below is a list of regulations for travellers from China.

UNITED STATES

The United States will impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China beginning on Jan. 5. All air passengers aged two and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said U.S. citizens should also reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.

The UK will require a pre-departure negative COVID-19 test from passengers from China as of Jan. 5, the Department of Health said on Friday.

France will require travellers from China to provide a negative COVID test result less than 48 hours before departure, the health and transport ministries said on Friday.

From Jan. 1, France will also carry out random PCR COVID tests upon arrival on some travellers coming from China, a government official told reporters.

The country has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, the health minister said. Passengers from those countries will be quarantined if they show symptoms or test positive.

Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travellers from mainland China. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days. New border measures for China went into effect at midnight on Dec. 30. The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China.

Italy has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers from China. Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, had already started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai. “The measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population,” Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said.

Spain will require a negative COVID-19 test or a full course of vaccination against the disease upon arrival for travellers from China, the country’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said.

Malaysia will screen all inbound travellers for fever and test wastewater from aircraft arriving from China for COVID-19, Minister Zaliha Mustafa said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said all passengers on direct flights from China, as well as by boat at two offshore islands, will have to take PCR tests upon arrival, starting on Jan. 1.

South Korea will require travellers from China to provide negative COVID test results before departure, South Korea’s News1 news agency reported on Friday.

AUSTRALIA

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia was monitoring the situation in respect of China “as we continue to monitor the impact of COVID here in Australia as well as around the world.”

The Southeast Asian country is being “very cautious” and could impose measures such as testing requirements on visitors from China, but not an outright ban, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.

The extreme court is teetering on the brink. And it is completely the fault of the sick six who don’t have a clue. They do not seem to be able to tap into any kind of human reservoir of understanding that there are millions of human beings out there who do not believe as they do.

It seems every month, we hear about yet another extreme justice who says something so utterly clueless that it’s hard to believe. And this month, it’s John Roberts. In his year-end report, Roberts choose to talk about safety.

Not about the safety of the women whose rights he and five other justices just cheerfully snipped away. No — Roberts is talking about the safety of — himself and the other judges., Naturally.

“A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” he wrote. “We must support judges by ensuring their safety.” Roberts specifically alluded to the threat against Brett Kavanaugh and the protests outside of Justice’s homes.

He also hearkened back to the years of conflict that occurred after the decision to desegregate the schools in the United States — Brown v. Board of education. “The events of Little Rock teach us about the importance of rule by law instead of the mob.”

I’ve written hundreds upon hundreds of articles for Palmer Report, friends. Seldom have I been THIS angry. Allow me to explain why. He’s right that NO threats of violence should ever be made against Kavanaugh or anyone. We are a nation of laws. They must be obeyed.

However, so far as I know, that was one person who attempted violence again Kavanagh, and he was arrested. To equate that with the peaceful protests that went on is, in my opinion, despicable. These were peaceful. They are legal. And nothing violent happened.

Do you know what I did not hear? I did not hear Robert’s concern about ten-year-old girls who are gang raped and want to get abortions but cannot. I did not hear a thing about the threats made to abortion clinics all over the country. I did not hear a thing about women being hunted like animals by Texas bounty hunters for merely exercising control over their own bodies.

Roberts is also right about another thing. There should be no rule by mob. But he is projecting. The MOB in this case is:

John Roberts

Any Coney Barrett

Brett Kavanaugh

Neil Gorsuch

Clarence Thomas

Samuel Alito

It is way past time to do something about the mob in question — the false one who stands before us, ready, willing and oh so able to take our rights with a snap of their fingers.

The post The Extreme Court is at it again appeared first on Palmer Report.

South Korea and the United States are discussing joint planning and implementation of U.S. nuclear operations to counter North Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said on Tuesday, although U.S. President Joe Biden said there would be no joint nuclear exercises.

The statement came shortly after Biden said the United States was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea, seeming to contradict earlier remarks by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in an interview with a local newspaper.

Yoon’s press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, said Biden “had no choice but to say ‘No'” because he was simply asked if the two countries were “discussing nuclear war games,” whereas joint nuclear exercises can only be held between nuclear weapons states.

“In order to respond to the North Korean nuclear weapons, the two countries are discussing ways to share information on the operation of U.S.-owned nuclear assets, and joint planning and joint execution of them accordingly,” Kim said in a statement.

A senior U.S. administration official reiterated Biden’s comment, saying that joint nuclear exercises with Seoul would be “extremely difficult” because Seoul is not a nuclear power, but that the allies are looking at enhanced information sharing, joint contingency planning and an eventual tabletop exercise.

Both presidents have asked their teams, after a meeting in Cambodia in November, to explore ways to address North Korea’s recent actions and statements, which have caused “increasing concern,” the official said.

“This is going to be done through a variety of ways, including as President Yoon said, through enhanced information sharing, joint planning and expanding the range of contingencies that we plan for, as well as training, and with the idea eventually leading up to a tabletop exercise,” the official told Reuters.

Neither side has finalised the timing of the planned tabletop exercises, but they would take place “in the not-too-distant future” and cover scenarios beyond nuclear situations, the official said.

“The idea is to also try and make sure that we’re able to fully think through the range of possibilities based on the DPRK capabilities which they’ve demonstrated, as well as their statements,” the official added, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

A National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement that the United States is committed to providing extended deterrence, and that the allies are working on “an effective coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea.”

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce said on Monday he hopes Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will help improve diplomatic relations and explain issues that generated controversy during former President Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate.

Speaking on television late Monday, Arce said he expected Lula, who took office for the third time on Sunday, would help explain gas contracts between the countries that Bolivian politicians have called detrimental, as well as Bolsonaro’s “behavior” during a political crisis in Bolivia in 2019.

“There are many things that need an explanation from the Brazilian government,” Arce told broadcaster Telesur.

“With this new relationship, we hope that all this information that is being investigated in Bolivia can flow from Brazil,” he said.

Arce pointed to the supposed support of far-right politician Bolsonaro for the resignation of former leftist president Evo Morales in 2019. Morales’ supporters called the event a coup d’etat, and Bolivia is now facing protests following the arrest of an opposition governor in connection with the incident.

As Morales left government, Bolsonaro tweeted “a great day”.

Like Lula, Morales had formed part of a wave of leftists who dominated Latin American politics at the start of the century.

Regarding natural gas contracts, Arce’s government said in May Bolivia was seeking higher prices for natural gas sold to Brazil’s Petrobras (PETR4.SA), claiming current contracts with the state-run oil company generated steep losses.

Lula took office promising to “mend” diplomatic relations.