Protesters, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, clash with police during a protest outside the Planalto Palace building in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.

Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

• Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro stormed Brazil’s Congress Sunday with complaints of a stolen election.
• The demonstrators broke through police barriers, smashed windows, and invaded government buildings.
• The actions were similar to those of January 6 by supporters of Trump, who has praised Bolsonaro.

Chaotic scenes erupted in Brazil on Sunday as supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress and other government buildings nearly two years to the day that similar events unfolded at the US Capitol.

Bolsonaro, like former President Donald Trump, has refused to acknowledge the results of Brazil’s election in October, in which the far-right, populist leader lost to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist candidate who previously served as president of the country.

About a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of demonstrators who claim the election was stolen descended on Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace, smashing through security barricades, breaking windows, and entering the buildings, all located in Brazilia, the country’s capital.

—Nathália Urban (@UrbanNathalia) January 8, 2023

—The Brazilian Report (@BrazilianReport) January 8, 2023

“There is no precedent for what they did and these people need to be punished,” Lula said Sunday.

But for Americans watching the unrest unfold, a sense of deja vu was almost inevitable.

This past Friday marked two years since a mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol building, assaulting police officers, smashing and climbing through windows, and forcing lawmakers to evacuate while they were in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s election win.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, storm the the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.

Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Many Democratic lawmakers noted the parallel between January 6, 2021, and what was happening in Brazil.

“The violent attack on the heart of the Brazilian government by right-wing extremists is a sad but familiar sight,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a tweet.

—ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 8, 2023

—POPULAR FRONT (@PopularFront_) January 8, 2023

 

Like Bolsonaro, Trump refused to concede. He spread false claims of widespread voter and election fraud and urged his supporters not to accept the result, instructing them to go to the Capitol and fight. Since the attack, nearly 1,000 people have been charged, including for assault, disorderly conduct, and obstructing law enforcement, among others.

On Sunday, Lula said those who invaded Brazil’s government buildings, which were believed to be mostly emptied, would also be punished. He also ordered the government buildings to be closed for 24 hours while police worked to secure the area. About 200 people were arrested, officials in Brazil said.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, sit in front of police after inside Planalto Palace after storming it, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.

Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Though the similarities between Sunday’s events and January 6 were striking, they may not have been entirely surprising. Bolsonaro fashioned himself as a Brazilian counterpart to Trump, running for president in 2018 on a familiar slogan: “Make Brazil great again.”

Trump has frequently praised Bolsonaro and touted their relationship, even as the Brazilian president was facing criminal charges and accused by international watchdog groups of threatening his country’s democracy and violating free speech principles. For months leading up to his election, he suggested he would not accept a loss. After he lost, he never publicly acknowledged Lula’s win.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, storm the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.

Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Allies of Bolsonaro even met with some of Trump’s advisers, including Steve Bannon and Jason Miller, seeking advice on how to handle the loss, The Washington Post reported at the time.

And two days before January 1, the day Lula was to be inaugurated with his predecessor present as is custom, Bolsonaro left the country and has been in Florida since. Trump too broke custom and skipped his successor’s inauguration, flying to Mar-a-Lago as Biden was sworn in.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, clash with police as they storm the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil.

Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Some Democratic lawmakers have argued that Bolsonaro should not be allowed to remain in the US and should be extradited back to Brazil, where he is facing several investigations.

Bolsonaro chimed in on Sunday night to condemn Sunday’s demonstrations, writing in a tweet that peaceful protests were part of Democracy but that “destruction and invasions of public buildings, like what occurred today,” were not, according to The New York Times translation.

He also said accusations that he bore responsibility for the riots, including from Lula, were “without proof.”

Supporters of Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded the country’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court on Sunday, in a grim echo of the U.S. Capitol invasion two years ago by fans of former President Donald Trump.

Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in an October election, announced a federal security intervention in Brasilia lasting until Jan. 31 after capital security forces were initially overwhelmed by the invaders.

Lula, who was only inaugurated on Jan. 1, blamed Bolsonaro for inflaming his supporters after a campaign of baseless allegations about potential election fraud following the end of his rule marked by divisive nationalist populism.

The president’s allies also raised questions about how public security forces in the capital Brasilia were so unprepared and easily overwhelmed by rioters who had been planning on social media for days to gather for weekend demonstrations.

“These vandals, who we could call … fanatical fascists, did what has never been done in the history of this country,” said Lula in a press conference during an official trip to Sao Paulo state. “All these people who did this will be found and they will be punished.”

The capital invaders left a trail of destruction in their wake, throwing furniture through the smashed windows of the presidential palace, flooding parts of Congress with a sprinkler system and ransacking ceremonial rooms in the Supreme Court.

The sight of thousands of yellow-and-green clad protesters running riot in the capital capped months of tension following the Oct. 30 vote.

Bolsonaro, an acolyte of Trump’s who has yet to concede defeat, peddled the false claim that Brazil’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud, spawning a violent movement of election deniers.

“This genocidist … is encouraging this via social media from Miami,” Lula said, referring to Bolsonaro. “Everybody knows there are various speeches of the ex-president encouraging this.”

Bolsonaro was silent for nearly six hours about the chaos in Brasilia before posting on Twitter that he “repudiates” Lula’s accusations against him.

The former president, who has rarely spoken in public since losing the election, also said peaceful demonstrations are part of democracy but invading and damaging public buildings “crosses the line.” He flew to Florida 48 hours before the end of his mandate and was absent from Lula’s inauguration.

The violence in Brasilia could amplify the legal risks Bolsonaro faces. It also presents a headache for U.S authorities as they debate how to handle his stay in Florida. Prominent Democratic lawmakers said the United States could no longer grant Bolsonaro “refuge” in the country.

The Bolsonaro family lawyer, Frederick Wassef, did not respond to a request for comment.

By 6:30 p.m. local time (2130 GMT), some three hours after initial reports of the invasion, security forces had managed to retake the capital’s most iconic three buildings.

Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a longtime Bolsonaro ally facing tough questions after Sunday’s security lapses, said on Twitter more than 400 people had been arrested and authorities were working to identify more.

The invasions were condemned by leaders around the world.

U.S. President Joe Biden called the events an “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power,” adding that Brazil’s democratic institutions had full U.S. support.

“Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter. “We join Lula in urging an immediate end to these actions.”

Far from the capital, Brazilian industries were on alert for a fresh round of unrest from Bolsonaro supporters, whose post-election highway blockades have disrupted grains shipments and meatpacking operations in recent months.

State-run oil company Petrobras stepped up security at its refineries, in a cautionary measure after attack threats against assets including Brazil’s biggest fuel plant, three company officials said, declining to be named as information is private.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA), as the company is formally known, said in a statement that all its assets and refineries are operating normally.

Analysts warned the unrest could trigger more volatility in Brazil’s financial markets, which have swung sharply in recent weeks on doubts about how Lula will reconcile big spending promises with stretched public finances.

The Supreme Court, whose crusading Justice Alexandre de Moraes has been a thorn in the side of Bolsonaro and his supporters, was ransacked by the invaders, according to images from social media showed protesters clubbing security cameras and shattering the windows of the modernist building.

Both Moraes and the court’s Chief Justice Rosa Weber vowed punishment for the “terrorists” who had attacked the country’s democratic institutions. The heads of both houses of Congress denounced the attacks publicly and moved up plans to fly back to the capital, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rocha, the Brasilia governor, said he had fired his top security official, Anderson Torres, previously Bolsonaro’s justice minister. The solicitor general’s office said it had filed a request for the arrest of Torres.

Torres told website UOL he was with his family on holiday in the United States and had not met with Bolsonaro. UOL reported he was in Orlando, where Bolsonaro is now staying.

“Vandalism and ransacking will be combatted with the rigor of the law,” Anderson tweeted on Sunday afternoon, adding he had directed police in the capital to restore order urgently.

On Saturday, with rumors of a confrontation brewing in Brasilia, Justice Minister Flávio Dino authorized the deployment of the National Public Security Force. On Sunday, he wrote on Twitter, “this absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail.”

In Washington in 2021, Trump supporters attacked police, broke through barricades and stormed the Capitol in a failed effort to prevent congressional certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Trump, who has announced a third bid for the presidency, in 2024, had pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify the vote, and he continues to claim falsely that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread fraud.

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Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) will start cutting thousands of jobs across the firm from Wednesday, two sources familiar with the move said, as it prepares for a tough economic environment.

The sources could not be named as the information was not yet made public. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The job cuts are expected to be just over 3,000, one of the sources said, but the final number is yet to be determined. Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that Goldman would eliminate about 3,200 positions.

The layoffs are likely to affect most major divisions of the banks but should centre on Goldman Sachs’s investment banking division, one of the sources said. Institutional banks have suffered a major slowdown in corporate deals as a result of volatile global financial markets.

Hundreds of jobs are also likely to be reduced from Goldman Sachs’ loss-making consumer business after it scaled back plans for its direct-to-consumer unit Marcus, the sources said.

China’s military said it had carried out combat drills around Taiwan on Sunday focused on land strikes and sea assaults, the second such exercises in less than a month.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement late on Sunday that its forces had organised “joint combat readiness patrols and actual combat drills” in the sea and airspace around Taiwan.

The aim of the exercises was to test joint combat capabilities and “resolutely counter the provocative actions of external forces and Taiwan independence separatist forces”, it added in a brief statement.

There was no immediate response from Taiwan, which the Chinese government views as its own territory.

China carried out similar exercises late last month, with Taiwan reporting that 43 Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial buffer between the two sides.

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, has been carrying out regular military incursions into the waters and air space near Taiwan over the past three years.

In August, China staged war games near Taiwan following a visit to Taipei by the then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democratically-governed Taiwan strongly rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

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Asian shares rallied on Monday as hopes for less aggressive U.S. rate hikes and the opening of China’s borders bolstered the outlook for the global economy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 0.6%, with South Korean shares (.KS11) gaining 1.1%.

Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) was closed for a holiday but futures were trading at 26,235, compared with a cash close on Friday of 25,973. S&P 500 futures added 0.2% and Nasdaq futures 0.3%.

Earnings season kicks off this week with the major U.S. banks, with the Street fearing no year-on-year growth at all in overall earnings.

“Excluding Energy, S&P 500 EPS (earnings per share) is expected to fall 5%, driven by 134 bp of margin compression,” wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs. “Entering reporting season, earnings revision sentiment is negative relative to history.

“We expect further downward revisions to consensus 2023 EPS forecasts,” they added. “China reopening is one upside risk to 2023 EPS, but margin pressures, taxes, and recession present greater downside risks.”

Beijing has now opened borders that had been all but shut since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing a surge in traffic across the nation. read more

Bank of America analyst Winnie Wu expects China’s economy, the second-largest economy in the world, to benefit from a cyclical upturn in 2023 and anticipates market upside from both multiple expansion and 10% EPS growth.

Sentiment on Wall Street got a boost last week from a benign blend of solid U.S. payroll gains and slower wage growth, combined with a sharp fall in service-sector activity. The market scaled back bets on rate hikes for the Federal Reserve.

Fed fund futures now imply around a 25% chance of a half-point hike in February, down from around 50% a month ago.

That will make investors ultra sensitive to anything Fed Chair Jerome Powell might say at a central bank conference in Stockholm on Tuesday.

It also heightens the importance of U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data on Thursday, which is forecast to show annual inflation slowing to a 15-month low of 6.5% and the core rate dipping to 5.7%.

“We at NatWest have lower than consensus CPI forecasts, and if right that will likely solidify the market pricing of 25bps vs 50bps,” said NatWest Markets analyst John Briggs.

“In context, it should still be seen as a Fed that is still likely to hike a few more times and then hold rates high until inflation’s decline is guaranteed – to us that means a 5-5.25% funds rate.”

Friday’s mixed data had already seen U.S. 10-year yields drop a steep 15 basis points to 3.57%, while dragging the U.S. dollar down across the board.

Early Monday, the euro was holding firm at $1.0664 , having bounced from a low of $1.0482 on Friday. The dollar eased to 131.63 yen , away from last week’s top of 134.78, while its index was down a fraction at 103.800 .

The Brazilian real had yet to trade after hundreds of supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro were arrested after invading the country’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court. read more

The drop in the dollar and yields was a boon for gold, lifting it to a seven-month peak around $1,870 an ounce .

Oil prices were steady for the moment after sliding around 8% last week amid demand concerns.

Brent gained 26 cents to $78.83 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 30 cents to $74.07 per barrel.

EL PASO, Texas—As Air Force One landed for Joe Biden’s first visit to the border as President on Sunday, the governor of Texas was on the tarmac waiting for him.

Republican Greg Abbott, who has spent Texas state funds in recent months to bus migrants to Washington, D.C., greeted the President at the bottom of the stairs and then handed him a letter saying his visit was “two years late,” and that the “chaos” enveloping the border was his fault for failing to enforce immigration laws.

Biden took the letter, folded it and rolled it in his hand as he and the governor spoke for about a minute on the tarmac. The first greeting of his trip was emblematic of the response Biden’s handling of immigration is getting from just about all sides, as he works to strike a balance between the harsh and inhumane enforcement practices of his predecessor and the more welcoming posture he touted in his campaign speeches.

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The President’s stop in El Paso came days after he announced a renewed plan to expel back to Mexico each month up to 30,000 migrants who had tried to cross into the country illegally and whose asylum claims were rejected. At the same time, Biden rolled out a “parole” program to allow up to 30,000 people per month into the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. All four countries are seeing a surge in people fleeing to the United States, which has overwhelmed border officials and cities like El Paso, where Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency last month. To qualify for the parole program, migrants must request lawful transit to the U.S., and have gone through a vetting process and have an American sponsor.

The new programs have angered both migrant advocates, who view it as overly harsh to people fleeing desperate circumstances, as well as advocates of tougher immigration enforcement, who see it as part of Biden’s wrongheaded approach to the problem.

The administration’s recent steps are designed to “incentivize” people to come to the U.S. lawfully and “cut out the smuggling organizations,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday as it flew to El Paso. The administration is also proposing a new regulation that would penalize migrants who don’t register for asylum in the countries they move through on the way to the U.S. Some refugee advocates have described the proposal as a ban on asylum seekers. “It is not a ban at all. It is markedly different than what the Trump administration proposed,” Mayorkas said.

Biden had avoided visiting the border until Sunday, nearly two years into his Presidency. The stop in Texas was en route to Mexico City for a summit with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, in which the migrant crisis is set to be a major point of discussion. Biden wanted to see the border before meeting with Obrador on Monday, Mayorkas said.

Jim Watson—AFP via Getty ImagesBiden walks by border fencing in El Paso.

Biden’s visit included trips to the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry and a support center for migrants. He spoke with border patrol agents, local officials and other people who work directly with migrants new to the country and with few resources. He came across few if any protesters. He did not appear to interact with any migrants.

At El Paso County’s migrant services facility, the President saw packages with socks, shoes, clothes, and sandwiches. He heard about how the center’s staff typically provides food and shelter for about 300 to 500 migrants each day, but that demand can surge to 1,000 people per day. He asked some of the workers, “If I could wave the wand, what should I do?” The answer he heard back: more funding.

Read more: Hundreds of Migrants Arrive in El Paso As Court Orders Title 42 to Stay in Place

Biden is pushing Congress to fund more asylum officers and immigration judges to move migrants through the system faster and clear huge case backlogs. “Instead of a safe and orderly process at the border, we have a patchwork system that simply doesn’t work as it should,” he said on Thursday in one of his first extensive speeches about the border.

As Biden tries to chart a middle course on immigration, he is widely expected to be preparing to formally launch his 2024 reelection campaign. On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seen as a likely contender for the GOP presidential nomination, activated the Florida National Guard to respond to hundreds of migrants arriving by boat to southern Florida. DeSantis, echoing the governor of Texas, said in a statement, “When Biden continues to ignore his legal responsibilities, we will step in to support our communities.”

At one point during his visit on Sunday, Biden’s motorcade took him to a section of 20-foot-high fencing on the border between El Paso and Mexico. The President spoke with Border Patrol agents as he walked along the rust-colored fence. There were no migrants in sight, and the hills of Juarez spread out on the other side. As Biden prepared to leave, a reporter shouted at the President, asking about the letter from Abbott. “I haven’t read it yet,” he answered.

Asked what he had learned during his visit to the border, Biden responded, “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.”

The brutal murders of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13 sent shockwaves across the college town which hadn’t seen a murder in several years, and left the community fearful as a suspect in the case remained a mystery for more than a month-and-a-half.

The victims Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21—three of whom lived in the home— were killed early morning hours of Nov. 13 in what police initially called a “targeted attack.” After weeks of investigations and at least 19,000 tips from the community, Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old Ph.D student of criminology at Washington State University, just 8 miles from the murder scene, was arrested as a primary suspect in late December.

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“These tragic murders took four young, vibrant members from our community. This has been a difficult time for the families, the university, the Moscow community, and the people of Idaho,” said Colonel Kedrick Wills of the Idaho State Police in a press statement following Kohberger’s arrest in Albrightsville, Pa, on Dec. 30. “However, it has also proven that communities come together in tough times.”

The court unsealed an affidavit Thursday that outlined how authorities tracked down Kohberger and linked him to the slayings.

Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall has issued a nondissemination order in the case that prohibits law enforcement, attorneys, and others from communicating with the public or media about the case.

Here’s what we know about the case so far.

A timeline of the murder

On the night of Nov. 13, two pairs of roommates, who lived in the Moscow apartment where the murders occurred, went out separately and arrived home shortly before 2 a.m. Kernodle and Chapin arrived home first, followed by Goncalves and Mogen, according to the affidavit. Two other roommates, who were not killed, were also in the home at the time of the murders. Footage of the Moscow neighborhood shows that a white Hyundai Elantra was seen driving around the student’s townhouse three times beginning just before 3:30 a.m.

Kernodle received a DoorDash delivery at 4 a.m., the same time one of the surviving roommates, identified as D.M. in court documents, was woken up by what she said sounded like her roommate playing with her dog upstairs. At around 4:04 a.m, the Elantra made its fourth round by their home.

Phone records show that Kernodle was on TikTok until 4:12 a.m., according to court documents. Sometime after 4 a.m crying could be heard from Kernodle’s room along with a male voice saying something along the lines of “It’s ok, I’m going to help you,” her roommate told police.

Court documents say a security camera from a nearby home captured audio of a whimper, loud thud, and a dog barking. D.M alleges that she opened her bedroom door once more and saw a man with “bushy eyebrows,” black clothes and a mask covering their mouth and nose walk past her as she stood frozen in shock in the doorway to her room. He walked towards a sliding-glass door in the home, and she then went into her room and locked the door.

At around 4:20 a.m. the Elantra is captured speeding away from the Moscow area, according to the affidavit.

Police did not arrive on scene until noon that day, after a 911 call was made to report an unconscious person. They found four people dead of stab wounds in two separate rooms in the house.

After the murders, police initially said they did not believe there was an “ongoing risk to the community,” but just three days later, on Nov. 16, Chief James Fry changed previous assurances and said “We cannot say that there is no threat to the community.”

Although police had previously said the attack was targeted, they later said they were not sure whether it was.

Arrest of Bryan Kohberger

Authorities engaged in a national effort to find and arrest a suspect in the case. In the meantime, police say Kohberger left Idaho for his Pennsylvania family home. The Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team broke down the door and windows to his home in a “dynamic entry” on Dec. 30, formally arresting and charging him with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

“These murders have shaken our community and I know that no arrest will restore the families or bring these young students back. However, we believe in the criminal process and continue to extend our most sincere condolences to the families,” said Moscow Police Chief James Fry in a press release following the announcement of the arrest. “Since November, investigators have been laser-focused on pursuing every lead in our pursuit of justice… It was persistent determination and extensive hours spent unraveling this case that led to an arrest.”

In the days leading up to Kohberger’s arrest, law enforcement sources say a surveillance team was instructed to watch the suspect’s movements and told to find an object with DNA that could connect Kohberger to the crime scene. Investigators previously found a leather knife sheath on the bed next to Mogen and Goncalves with DNA that they is Kohberger’s.

Police narrowed in on Kohberger after they broadened the search for the white Elantra that had been seen on surveillance footage. They were able to find one matching the description at Washington State University that was registered to Kohberger, according to an affidavit. Authorities also said that a surviving roommate had said that Kohberger matched the description of who they had seen in the home on Nov. 13. Phone records also placed Kohberger in Moscow at 4:48 a.m, according to the affidavit.

Agents say that prior to his arrest, Kohberger was seen wearing surgical gloves outside multiple times, and had deeply cleaned the inside and outside of his car. Kohberger also went on a cross-country road trip with his father, and by the end of December he was back in their Pennsylvania home. It was there that authorities obtained DNA from garbage outside the home and identified that a sample collected was the father of the person whose DNA had been left on the knife sheath found at the murder scene, according to the affidavit.

Kohberger was initially held without bond before being extradited from Pennsylvania to Idaho on Jan. 4.

Public defender Jason LaBar has said that Kohberger was surprised by his arrest, and “looks forward to being exonerated.” He denies any involvement in the murder.

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

Authorities have not identified a motive in the killings or identified whether Kohberger had a connection to any of the victims. The murder weapon has also not been located. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 12.

Response to the murders

The community commemorated the victims with a vigil held at the University of Idaho on Nov. 30. Memorials can also be found in front of the campus entrance as well as at Mad Greek, a local restaurant.

Two scholarships have also been created in the victims’ honor: Sigma Chi Foundation’s Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Xana Kernodle Scholarship Endowment, which was created by her family. The Kernodle family has vouched to match dollar-for-dollar contributions to the fund, up to $10,000.

After the affidavit was released earlier this week, Sheldon Kernodle, a family member of Xana’s, asked the public to keep the family in their thoughts.

“Please think about our family and all the other families involved. Find ways to support them as well,” he wrote. “We must continue to remember the ones we lost. We have a long road ahead of us.”

Steve Goncalves, the father of Kaylee Goncalves, told CNN that “none of these girls deserved this.”

“The real problem we have is we have an individual that thought it was okay to attack other human beings. That’s what I’m going to focus on.”

During Thursday’s court proceedings, Goncalves also said that Kohberger never turned to look at him.

“I was hoping for that,” Goncalves told TODAY. “You know, he’s going to avoid me for a while, but he’s definitely going to have to deal with the effects of the aftermath.”

Police are still open to receiving tips by phone (208-883-7180) and email (tipline@ci.moscow.id.us).

Donald John Trump went nuts on Friday night and took to truth social, where he proceeded to rant like the crazy person he is, using all caps to heighten the drama. But I do not really want to talk about Trump himself. I want to talk about what he demanded because, once again, this demand will cause republicans headaches.

Trump demanded that we end mail-in voting. Trump arrogantly demanded that Republican governors start taking the steps necessary to rid the world of that pesky little thing called democracy. “ENDING MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” the traitor screeched.

Here is the problem with that from the republican standpoint. In recent weeks, since we creamed them in the midterms, many Republicans appear to be warming up to mail-in voting. Several in the GOP are said to be mulling over how to get their base to trust the process of voting by mail.

The reason why they want to do that is obvious. We cleaned their clocks in the mail-in ballots, and they didn’t like that. But they’ve been having trouble in that regard. Because Maga does not trust the mail in the process.

Maga — who was essentially created by the GOP — likes to vote in person. So the Frankenstein creators are getting lots of resistance from their little monsters. Only now, Trump has waded into the discussion. And he is reinforcing the distrust the monsters feel by calling for an end to the process.

That is not what Republicans want. Republican politicians want MORE mail-in voting from their side. And so again, they’re at odds with Trump. It’s become a boxing ring as, predictably, Trump is on one side, the GOP is on the other, and there are no referees to call time out.

And the Maga base is far more likely to trust Trump over the republican “swamp,” as they lovingly call it. So this is yet another thing that is backfiring on republicans’ courtesy of their leader, Trump. It’s just not shaping up to be a republican year, that’s for sure.

The post Donald Trump has completely berserk meltdown appeared first on Palmer Report.

Russia’s government extended support to a legislative amendment that would classify maps that dispute the country’s official “territorial integrity” as punishable extremist materials, the state-owned TASS news agency reported on Sunday.

The amendment to Russia’s anti-extremism legislation stipulates that “cartographic and other documents and images that dispute the territorial integrity of Russia” will be classified as extremist materials, the agency reported.

Russia’s sweepingly ambiguous anti-extremism legislation — it applies to religious organizations, journalists and their materials, as well as the activity of businesses, among others – has allowed the Kremlin to tighten its grip on opponents.

The new amendment, TASS reports without citing sources, emerged after its authors pointed out that some maps distributed in Russia dispute the “territorial affiliation” of the Crimean Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 – a move rejected by Ukraine and many countries as illegal. Ukrainians and their government have since often objected to world maps showing Crimea as part of Russia’s territory.

Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of their standoff over a group of islands just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. The Soviet Union seized those islands – known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories – at the end of the war.

The amendment must be proposed to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and after a review go through three readings. It is then sent to the Federation Council, the upper house, and to President Vladimir Putin for signing.

Separately, Russian politicians began debating punishment for Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine and who, as the former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, “wish their fatherland to perish.”

Medvedev, one of the most forthright allies of Putin, said that “in times of war,” there are special rules that allow to deal with traitors.

“In times of war, there have always been such special rules,” Medvedev said on the Telegram messaging app. “And quiet groups of impeccably inconspicuous people who effectively execute the rules.”

Medvedev’s rhetoric has become increasingly vitriolic since the war in Ukraine began, though his published views sometimes chime with thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.

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