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Russia bombed and partially destroyed one of Ukraine’s most recognizable national landmarks on Monday evening in the heart of the country’s second city. The targeted bombing of the iconic Derzhprom building in central Kharkiv was the latest in a series of attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites that many regard as evidence of a deliberate Kremlin campaign to erase Ukraine’s national identity.

The Derzhprom building stands at one end of Kharkiv’s vast central square and serves as a prominent symbol of the city. Built in the 1920s at a time when Kharkiv served as the capital of Soviet Ukraine, the Derzhprom building was the first modern skyscraper in the USSR. When it was unveiled in 1928, the building was promoted as a flagship project showcasing the innovation of the Soviet Union. It remains an internationally important example of the Constructivist architectural school.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday’s bombing had “severely damaged” the Derzhprom building and called for international solidarity. “Appeasement never brings peace; it simply feeds the aggressor’s appetite,” he commented. “Instead, we must isolate the aggressor and increase the pressure on him until he ceases terror. Adhering to shared principles saves human lives and cultural heritage. Compromising them brings death and ruin.”

Others noted that while the Derzhprom building had managed to emerge relatively unscathed from the carnage of World War II when Kharkiv repeatedly witnessed intense battles between Nazi and Soviet forces, it had now joined the long list of Ukrainian landmarks and sites of cultural significance to be damaged or destroyed by Russia’s invasion. “If we look back at World War II, even Hitler couldn’t do what the Russians have done,” commented Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has included hundreds of targeted attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites across the country. By the middle of October 2024, UNESCO officials had verified damage to 457 sites including churches, museums, monuments, and libraries. This figure may only represent a fraction of the real total, however. Crucially, it does not include the systematic destruction of Ukrainian heritage sites throughout regions of Ukraine currently under Russian occupation.

Attacks on Ukraine’s heritage sites are one element of the Kremlin’s broader efforts to erase Ukrainian national identity. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the tone with his regular denials of Ukraine’s right to exist and insistence that Ukrainians are in fact Russians (“one people”). Since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2014, areas that have fallen under Kremlin control have been declared “historically Russian” and subjected to ruthless policies of russification. This has included the exclusion of the Ukrainian language, the suppression of Ukrainian history, and the methodical removal of all symbols of Ukrainian statehood.

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Nobel Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk on human rights and Russian aggression

AN #ACFRONTPAGE EVENT—2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk discusses ongoing threats to democracy and the worldwide gathering of authoritarian forces—and how those topics converge in Ukraine. 

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Russia’s war on Ukrainian identity has included the abduction and indoctrination of large numbers of Ukrainian children. Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and sent to camps where they are subjected to Soviet-style “re-education” to rob them of their Ukrainian heritage and impose a Russian imperial identity. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges related to these mass abductions.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the international community has become increasingly aware of Russia’s intention to eradicate Ukrainian identity. The goals of Russia’s invasion go far beyond capturing Ukrainian territory and extend to the “gradual destruction of a whole cultural life,” United Nations special rapporteur for cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki told the New York Times in December 2022. “One of the justifications of the war is that Ukrainians don’t have a distinct cultural identity,” she noted.

By targeting Ukrainian heritage sites, Moscow is underlining its determination to not only reestablish political control over Ukraine, but to erase the very markers of a separate Ukrainian identity that challenge the Kremlin’s imperialistic vision of the country as a core part of Russia itself. Throughout his reign, Putin has championed the “historical unity” of Russia and Ukraine, and has described today’s Ukraine as “an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” Continued attacks on prominent Ukrainian landmarks are a reminder that the Kremlin dictator remains committed to realizing his chilling goal of a Ukraine without Ukrainians.

Peter Dickinson is editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert service.

Further reading

UkraineAlert
Oct 15, 2024

As the US election nears, anxiety is mounting in Ukraine

By
Kate Spencer

Few countries have more at stake in the coming US presidential election than Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on US aid to sustain its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion, writes Kate Spencer.

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert
Sep 5, 2024

Too many still view Ukraine through the prism of Russian imperialism

By
Olesya Khromeychuk

Far too many Western newspaper editors, academics, and cultural commentators continue to view Ukraine through the distorting lens of Russian imperialism, writes Olesya Khromeychuk.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert
Oct 22, 2024

Axis of Autocrats: North Korea’s escalating role in Russia’s Ukraine War

By
Olena Tregub

North Korean troops are reportedly set to join the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If confirmed, this would represent the latest escalation in North Korea’s support for Vladimir Putin’s imperial aggression, writes Olena Tregub.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Putin’s war on Ukrainian heritage: Russia bombs first Soviet skyscraper appeared first on Atlantic Council.

(NewsNation) — The road to the White House in Nevada must include the growing Hispanic vote.

In Nevada, as well as bordering Arizona, Latinos make up about 25% of registered voters, who hit the ballot box with a swirl of backgrounds, issues and traditions.

To emerge as the successor in the 2024 election, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris need to gain approval from the nearly 1 in 4 voters in Nevada who are Hispanic.

For example, take Alina Gardner, a realtor who moved to the United States from Cuba as a young girl. She’s able to show her listings in English and Spanish.

Gardner is what’s called a “persuadable,” meaning that even though she’s a registered Republican, her vote is not set in stone.

“I get a lot of texts and emails from the Democrats, so I listen to both,” Gardner told NewsNation. “I’m open to both.”

At the same time, while she’s willing to vote for a Republican, Gardner doesn’t believe Trump should be president “at his age.”

“As of right now, it’s going to be Kamala Harris,” Gardner said.

Ivet Aldaba will have her daughters top of mind as she votes this November. The college professor is among the estimated 36 million Latinos eligible to vote this time around nationwide. That’s up from 14 million in the year 2000 — an increase of 153%.

“Having immigrant parents and them not being able to vote — at the time, I felt that civic responsibility even more,” Aldaba said.

For Aldaba, her reason for voting Democrat is reproductive rights.

“I want my daughters to have a voice, to be able to decide what they can do with their own bodies,” Aldaba said.

Meanwhile, retired blackjack dealer David Mendez says when he started showing support for Trump, he lost a lot of friends. He’s voting for Trump because of what he says are the culture wars playing out in his casino.

Rudy Zamora, of the nonpartisan voter engagement group Chicanos Por La Causa, serves a community that mirrors the country as a whole.

There’s young voter apathy he sees as well as distrust in election integrity.

“I’ve heard conversations from my aunts and uncles saying, ‘Oh, back in my country, my vote doesn’t really matter,’ or ‘The election was already bought,'” Zamora said. “That’s not the case here. Every single vote is one vote, one voice, and we have to ensure that our voice is being represented at the polls.”

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison last week for his involvement in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, a sprawling bribery scheme orchestrated by the Brazilian construction giant in multiple countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Following years of legal proceedings, a court in Lima, Peru’s capital, found Toledo guilty of collusion and money laundering after he accepted $35 million in bribes from the construction company in exchange for approval to build a highway. He had been held in prison since April 2023, when he was extradited from the United States, the Associated Press reported. Toledo, who held office between 2001 and 2006, is one of four former presidents to be investigated in Peru for allegedly accepting bribes from Odebrecht, according to AP.

“The trial determined that Toledo Manrique colluded with interested parties such as Odebrecht so that, through a bribe of $35 million, the Brazilian company was awarded the contract for the construction of sections 2 and 3 of the Interoceanic Highway, causing harm to the State”, a press release from the judiciary of Peru said. Authorities noted that Toledo’s sentence was reached after 175 hearings, statements from more than 100 witnesses, and the presentation of swathes of documentary evidence.

• Recommended reading

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Leak Exposes Millions of Dollars in New Payments In Odebrecht Cash-for-Contracts Scandal

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Jun 25, 2019

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“In this case, having demonstrated a series or a rosary of irregularities, an unusual interference, an acceleration of the process and the direct and indirect intervention of Mr. Toledo in the process, Mr. Toledo has carried out the typical conduct of the breach of duty, defrauding the State,” Judge Inés Rojas said during the sentencing announcement, according to CNN.

Much of the evidence at the center of the Peruvian case came from Jorge Barata, former head of Odebrecht in Peru, said Óscar Libón, an investigative reporter at America TV in Lima and an ICIJ partner. Barata told authorities that the construction firm had given Toledo money in exchange for the contract, initially sparking the investigation. Shortly after, Toledo left for the U.S., where he was arrested at his home in California in 2019. He has denied wrongdoing and told the court he “never made any arrangement with Mr. Barata.”

ICIJ’s Bribery Division examined leaked files from inside a special unit created by Odebrecht to pay cash for contracts. The 2019 investigation exposed new details about prominent figures in Latin America and public works projects embroiled in the scheme the U.S. Justice Department called the “largest foreign bribery case in history.”

In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to pay at least $2.6 billion in penalties to resolve charges brought by authorities in the U.S., Brazil and Switzerland. According to the Justice Department, Odebrecht admitted to paying around “$788 million in bribes to government officials, their representatives and political parties in a number of countries in order to win business in those countries,” between 2001 and 2016.

However, last year, a judge in Brazil’s supreme court annulled evidence obtained through an agreement between prosecutors and Odebrecht relating to the investigation, dubbed Operation Lava Jato, meaning car wash in Portuguese.

“There have been judicial instances in Brazil that have established that a large part of the statements of former Odebrecht executives should not be taken into account, not only in Brazil, but also in the Peruvian case,” said Libón, who has covered the case for over a decade.

“The important thing about the Toledo sentence is that the Peruvian judge has taken into account the statements that former Odebrecht executives gave to Peruvian prosecutors at the time,” Libón added.

From the start, the construction of the southern Interoceanic Highway was marred by complaints and irregularities, according to Convoca, an investigative outlet in Peru and ICIJ partner. Cost estimates for the project ballooned from $800 million to nearly $2 billion, Convoca reported.

Responding to Toledo’s arrest, anti-corruption organization Transparency International said the Odebrecht “scandal and its aftermath underscore the urgent need for stronger action against cross-border corruption.”

“Foreign bribery and other forms of transnational corruption come with immense costs and consequences for countries and communities worldwide, undermining sustainable development and contributing to rising inequalities,” the statement said.

During a recent visit to Brooklyn, Gov. Kathy Hochul met with local residents and business owners after announcing new measures to strengthen voter registration integrity across New York State.

After the announcement, Hochul strolled through the vibrant Little Haiti neighborhood, chatting with small business owners, posing for photos with locals, and greeting drivers, underscoring her commitment to connecting with constituents.

Hochul also took some time to pose near the Newkirk Avenue-Little Haiti subway station, which was renamed in 2021 to honor the large Haitian community it serves.

“Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood is home to one of the largest Haitian communities in the nation,” Gov. Kathy Hochul posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Today, I visited some of Little Haiti’s small businesses with [Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn] — and ate some of the best food in the city!”

Brooklyn’s Little Haiti, a vibrant cultural enclave nestled in the Flatbush neighborhood, traces its roots to the 1960s and 1970s, when Haitian immigrants began settling in the area. The neighborhood has evolved over the years into a cultural hub, preserving and celebrating Haitian heritage through food, art, music and more.

Designated Little Haiti in 2018, the area honors the contributions of Haitian-Americans to New York City, with landmarks such as the Toussaint Louverture Boulevard and Little Haiti Cultural Center.

The governor’s visit coincided with her announcement of new initiatives to combat misinformation, voter intimidation and illegal registration practices.

Earlier Monday at the Flatbush YMCA, the governor emphasized her administration’s commitment to ensuring fair and transparent elections, highlighting the need for secure and accessible voting systems. The initiative, which includes updated registration procedures and increased verification methods, is part of a broader effort to modernize New York’s electoral process and boost public confidence in the system.

The governor also highlighted a partnership with Attorney General Letitia James to offer resources aimed at protecting voter rights amid growing concerns over AI-generated misinformation and deepfakes on social media.

She wrapped her visit by urging community members to stay vigilant and informed, noting that support is available through the newly established Election Protection Hotline.

A global law enforcement operation disrupted RedLine and Meta infostealers, seizing their infrastructure and making arrests.

The Dutch police announced it has dismantled infrastructure used by RedLine and Meta infostealers as part of an international law enforcement operation led by Eurojust that was code-named Operation Magnus.

RedLine and META targeted millions of victims worldwide, according to Eurojust it was one of the largest malware platforms globally. Authorities from the Netherlands, the United States, Belgium, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Australia took part in the operation.

The following authorities participated in the Operation Magnus.

• Australia: Australian Federal Police
• The Netherlands: National Police, Team Cybercrime Limburg, Public Prosecution Service
• United States: Federal Bureau of Investigation; Naval Criminal Investigative Service; Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations; Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service; Army Criminal Investigation Division
• Belgium: Federal Prosecutor’s Office; Federal Police
• Portugal: Polícia Judiciária
• United Kingdom: National Crime Agency

Cybersecurity firm ESET also supported international law enforcement operations.

Law enforcement agencies seized three servers in the Netherlands, seized two domains, unsealed charges in the United States and took two people into custody in Belgium.

The two infostealers allowed operators to harvest usernames, passwords, contact info, and crypto-wallets from victims, the threat actors sold this data to criminals for financial theft and hacking.

“Investigations into RedLine and Meta started after victims came forward and a security company notified authorities about possible servers in the Netherlands linked to the software. Authorities discovered that over 1 200 servers in dozens of countries were running the malware. To take down the transnational malware, Eurojust coordinated cooperation between authorities from the Netherlands, the United States, Belgium, Portugal, United Kingdom and Australia.” reads the press release published by Eurojust. “Through Eurojust, authorities were able to quickly exchange information and coordinate actions to take down the infostealers.”

The police took control of the servers and sent a message to the alleged perpetrators, including a video showing that the international law enforcement coalition was able to obtain crucial data on their network and will shut down their criminal activities. Then Belgian authorities took down several Redline and Meta communication channels.

The authorities also gained access to a database of clients of the two malware-as-a-service operations (RedLine and Meta), Eurojust confirmed that the investigation is still ongoing.

ESET released a free online scanner for Redline and META that can help users detect and remove malware. The cybersecurity firm’s recommendations for malware victims are:

• Consult an expert: For thorough malware removal and system security, seek professional help if needed.
• Change passwords: After malware removal, update passwords for key accounts (email, banking, work, social media) and enable two-factor authentication.
• Use a password manager: Simplifies managing strong, unique passwords across accounts.
• Monitor financial accounts: Check bank statements and report any suspicious transactions promptly.
• Report stolen data: Notify relevant parties if sensitive details (e.g., payment info) may have been compromised.
• Update software: Keep your operating system, security software, and firewall up to date to patch vulnerabilities.
• Consider extra security layers: Use additional protection like a VPN for safer online activity.
• Long-term monitoring: Regularly check for unusual account activity to guard against potential identity theft.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, RedLine and Meta infostealers)

The MTA says it is considering digging a tunnel underneath a Queens cemetery to carry the proposed Interborough Express (IBX) light rail line between Brooklyn and Queens, nine months after amNewYork Metro exposed the grave potential consequences of previous plans to run trams on the street.

MTA construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer told reporters Tuesday that the transit agency is now inclined to dig a tunnel underneath All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village. This would scuttle a previous plan to run trams on neighborhood streets specifically to avoid a potentially expensive tunneling project that could disturb gravesites.

By going under the cemetery, the 14-mile light rail line would be situated entirely in a dedicated right-of-way, the Bay Ridge Branch, which is currently only used by a single round-trip freight train per day. By eliminating a contentious section where trams would share a right-of-way with vehicular traffic — and by extension, compete for road space — the 40-minute trip between Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights could be cut by at least 5 minutes into the 30-minute range, said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.

Currently, a train trip from Bay Ridge to Jackson Heights takes more than an hour, by way of Manhattan.

“It’s a huge deal,” Torres-Springer said at a press conference in Jackson Heights. “It means we can operate so much more efficiently throughout the whole thing. We can run faster, that means more trains, it means more passengers, it means shorter durations for the whole trip. All of this is unlocked by this, so it’s a great opportunity and that’s why we’re pursuing it.”

Previously, the MTA argued that the street-running proposal on Metropolitan Avenue and 69th Street was necessary because the existing tunnel under All Faiths — 520 feet long and 30 feet wide — was too skinny to accommodate tracks for both light rail and the existing freight operations, and expansion could require digging under people’s graves. These considerations were also key in the MTA’s decision to pursue the IBX as its first-ever light rail line, instead of a heavy-rail subway line.

The only alternative to street-running, officials said at the time, was a deep-underground tunnel 1.5 miles long that could add up to $3 billion to the project’s tab.

But, as amNewYork Metro revealed, all these proposals were made before the MTA actually engaged with the cemetery itself. Brian Chevanne, the cemetery’s director, said in January that the MTA had never reached out about the proposal, and even endorsed running trains in the tunnel instead of the street.

Now, though, officials say they have spoken with cemetery leaders and have concluded that expanding the existing tunnels or building new adjacent ones is feasible in an engineering and financial sense.

Cost estimates were not immediately available for the new tunneling scheme; Chevanne did not immediately return an inquiry for comment.

To run on the street, trams would likely have had to abide by the city’s 25-mile-per-hour speed limit, and getting stuck in traffic with automobiles and trucks would inevitably lead to delays on the line and concerns over its reliability. That would have significantly hindered the transformative promise of the IBX, argued Alon Levy, a researcher at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management who has outlined the pitfalls for costs and reliability in reports for the Effective Transit Alliance.

“The Effective Transit Alliance has long advocated for tunneling under the cemetery, and we are glad the MTA made the right choice,” Levy said. “We’re also glad the MTA is planning on an inexpensive, shallow tunnel.”

City Council Member Robert Holden, who represents the area at City Hall and had previously threatened to torpedo the IBX if it included street-running in Middle Village, said the MTA’s announcement was “crucial” to earning his thumbs-up.

“While my community and I still have some concerns with the IBX, we are firm that only a tunnel solution is acceptable,” said Holden. “Addressing the biggest issue by forgoing light rail on 69th Street is crucial to earning our support.”

The news came as the MTA released a request for proposals (RFP) to engineering firms looking to design the light rail line and shepherd it through the federal environmental review process. Lieber described the IBX as a “transformative” project for the people of Brooklyn and Queens, permanently easing mobility between boroughs in a transit system that has long prioritized getting people from the boroughs into Manhattan.

“We can get more transit out of the infrastructure we already have,” said Lieber. “We’re taking an underutilized freight line, basically gets one freight train a day, and we’re turning it into something that’s transformative for so many New Yorkers.”

Besides the cemetery, the report also differed from the original plans by advancing plans to locate a station in East New York north of Atlantic Avenue by the Broadway Junction transit hub, instead of the lesser-used L stop south of the thoroughfare. Overall, the IBX would facilitate connections to 17 different subway lines, dozens of bus routes, and the Long Island Rail Road.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has described the IBX as her “baby” project, and the state has contributed more than $50 million to undertake the design and engineering work for the IBX, with the feds also chipping in $15 million.

Nevertheless, the $5.5 billion megaproject’s future is anything but guaranteed. About $2.75 billion of the price tag is included in the MTA’s new $68 billion capital plan for 2025-29, but the MTA has only secured half the funding for that plan, and Hochul has insinuated the plan may ultimately be shrunk in scope. With the ongoing pause on congestion pricing, which was to fund part of the current 2020-24 plan, the MTA is short about $48 billion for capital needs.

Because most of the capital plan consists of urgently needed “state of need repair” work — maintaining or replacing deteriorating assets and keeping the system in working order — expansion projects like the IBX would likely be first on the chopping block.

“The first priority has to be the state of good repair, not letting the existing system continue to degrade or place the functionality of the system at risk,” Lieber said. “And there’s no question that that means that expansion — and it’s not only the IBX, but some other expansion projects that we did think were worthy of going forward as part of that $68 billion program we passed — would be placed at risk by a shortfall in that.”

Nonetheless, Lieber maintained that he is “very optimistic about how things are gonna go down come the legislative session.”

In the wake of an isolating global pandemic and amidst rising political tensions, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit is stepping up to confront the “loneliness crisis” in a city that’s home to an estimated one million people who live alone.

Baltic Street Wellness Solutions will host its Second Annual Symposium, “Unlocking the Power of Community: Addressing Loneliness,” at BRIC Media Arts Center on Wednesday, Nov. 6. The event will bring together mental health experts, advocates and community members to explore solutions to combat isolation and strengthen community bonds across the Big Apple.

“As the largest peer-led organization in New York State, addressing loneliness is one of the cornerstones of the work we do,” said Deputy Director of Programs Mark Clarke. “We wanted to have the conversation, especially after COVID, about how people can tackle loneliness in its many forms.”

Loneliness is something everyone experiences differently, Clarke stressed, so he and his team are working to ensure that the symposium addresses the issue on a multitude of levels.

“We wanted to create a safe space and talk about loneliness and how we can address it,” he told Brooklyn Paper.

The all-day event will spotlight keynote speaker Kevin Hines, a mental health advocate, award-winning filmmaker, and one of the few individuals to survive a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. Hines will share his story of resilience and ongoing mental health journey, offering insights for those grappling with similar challenges.

Other speakers, including Baltic Street CEO Taina Martinez-Laing and Len Statham of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, will explore how technology, peer support, and innovative outreach can create connections in a divided world.

Founded over two decades ago, Baltic Street Wellness Solutions is dedicated to providing mental health support and advocacy services to underserved communities in New York City. The Downtown Brooklyn nonprofit focuses on empowering individuals facing challenges such as addiction, mental health diagnoses, and socioeconomic difficulties, offering resources and programs that promote wellness, recovery, and community engagement.

For more information on Baltic Street Wellness Solutions, or the upcoming symposium, visit balticstreet.org.

Dan Osborn spent the year criticizing Donald Trump in his quest to flip Nebraska’s reliably red Senate seat. But in the final days of his campaign, the independent candidate is suddenly embracing the former president—even promising to help him build a border wall.

“I’m where President Trump is on corruption, China, the border. If Trump needs help building the wall, well, I’m pretty handy,” Osborn says in a TV ad released in late October.

Osborn, a union leader, in the ad casts his Trump-supporting opponent, Republican senator Deb Fischer, as among the “career politicians” who “tried to stop Trump, just like they’re trying to stop me.”

In a second ad, self-described Trump voters likewise claim that “Osborn’s with Trump on China, the border, and draining the swamp” and that Fischer “has more in common with Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.”

Osborn’s sudden self-proclaimed alignment with the former president comes as polls show his race with Fischer tightening to a 1-point deficit in a state where Trump is widely popular and enjoys a more than 16-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, according to FiveThirtyEight. Osborn has already acknowledged that he has to “peel off some conservatives” to win an election that could determine which party controls the Senate.

“He obviously needs Trump voters to win,” said Alex Conant, a GOP consultant with Firehouse Strategies. “He is only going to win if he significantly outperforms Harris. Blurring the lines between him and the Republican candidate can help him appeal to Trump voters.”

Derek Oden, Fischer’s campaign manager, dismissed Osborn’s latest advertised claims.

“If Dan Osborn wants to help President Trump build a border wall, why is Dan voting for Kamala Harris and supporting amnesty for illegals?” Oden said. “Dan is lying to Nebraskans, just like he’s lying about being an independent.”

Osborn’s ads mark a drastic turn after spending months criticizing Trump. The New York Times described Osborn as “befuddled” on how to talk about the presidential election during an interview. He ultimately distanced himself from both Trump and President Joe Biden, describing them as “old” and “incompetent.”

“There’s a good chance I won’t vote for president,” Osborn told the paper in February.

In an April podcast appearance, he likewise mused whether Trump and Biden were really “the best our country can come up with.”

In June, he said he had repudiated Trump altogether. The former president “lost Osborn for good” after Trump criticized John McCain ahead of the 2016 election, the Fremont Tribune reported in June following an interview with the Senate candidate. Osborn also told the Nebraska newspaper that Trump’s 2016 presidential debate appearances were “embarrassing” and said he was “not happy with either of our choices.”

Osborn’s support for a border wall also marks a shift in talking points. Last month, he told Semafor that at least some illegal immigrants should be able to get Social Security cards. In a follow-up interview with an Omaha channel, Osborn said he believes illegal immigrants should have a “clear path … to become documented or become legal status.”

Throughout his campaign to win over deep-red Nebraska, Osborn has portrayed himself as an independent, an image he has tried to hammer hard in the final stretch. But his campaign has deep ties to liberals and progressives. While acknowledging in an audio recording obtained by the Washington Examiner that he needed to win over conservatives, Osborn also professed to “love” socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).

One ad supporting Osborn described him as a “lifelong independent,” but the candidate told the Times he was a Democrat until 2016. The Washington, D.C.-based PAC that funded the spot, Retire Career Politicians, has been bankrolled by left-wing dark money groups, including the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

And of nearly 200 donors who recently contributed more than $1,000, adding up to almost $400,000, just 6 were Nebraskans. Many lived in Washington, D.C., California, and Massachusetts. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and cofounder of Justice Democrats, also contributed $6,600, the maximum allowed.

Early on in his campaign, Osborn retained the consulting firm Bread and Roses, which shares a name with a Democratic Socialists of America caucus. The firm is managed by former staffers for Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Reps. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) and Ro Khanna (D., Calif.).

Osborn’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Nebraska Senate Candidate Dan Osborn Called Trump ‘Embarrassing’ and ‘Incompetent.’ Now He Wants To Help Build the Border Wall. appeared first on .

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As Kamala Harris circled in on a major speech to make her historic campaign’s final argument, one venue seemed as obvious as it was potent: the launching pad for the failed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021—perhaps the most obvious illustration of the real threats posed by sending former President Donald Trump back to the White House.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

So on Tuesday evening, just one week before voters render their verdict on a presidential campaign as ubiquitous as it is exhausting, Harris will take the stage on the 52-acre lawn that stands between the White House and the Washington Monument, also known as the Ellipse. While she is not expected to speak solely about democracy or the threat Trump poses to it, that message will be impossible to miss as Harris addresses thousands in person and many more watching across the country from the very spot where Trump urged his legions to push Congress to ignore his electoral failure and keep him in power. It was an ugly, unprecedented moment in American history that ended with nine dead, about 150 law enforcement officials injured, and hundreds more traumatized. 

And it’s not hard to imagine how Trump might respond to such a blatant provocation. The visual of Harris speaking from the hallowed ground where Presidents have lit national Christmas trees and Menorahs alike should quietly remind voters that Trump’s speech was not a normal culmination of any White House term, and that the self-serving thinking behind it could be the norm if he’s allowed back into power. The moment will no doubt trigger Trump, or at the very least many of his surrogates, to once again defend his own actions on Jan. 6 and those of his supporters, more than 1,500 of whom have been charged related to that day, including felony cases against 571 individuals, according to the Department of Justice. That’s exactly the message Democrats want Trump to be emphasizing in the week before Election Day.

And putting Jan. 6 aside, the setting of the speech, with the White House itself serving as a backdrop, could also inspire voters to imagine what a President from a younger generation might unleash if given the chance. The core of this argument is one that is finding receptive audiences, especially in states where voters might not love Harris but are susceptible to the suggestion that the United States needs to move past the chaos of the Trump years.

The broad outline for the event is based on an account from a senior Harris campaign official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive planning around a speech that still is not completely closed to tweaks.

It’s been apparent for weeks that Harris was increasingly honing her message around the choice voters face between her campaign vision and that of Trump, whose attempt to return to power is as fueled by grievances over Jan. 6 as his desire to avoid any culpability for it and other criminal probes, all or most of which are likely to collapse should he regain presidential powers. On its own, the either-or choice is a compelling argument for those voters who expect Presidents to follow the rules they’re charged with enforcing. It’s why the Harris campaign has been coming back to the idea that the race is actually between a prosecutor in Harris and a felon in Trump.

And yet this reality remains: roughly 3-in-4 Republicans told pollsters at the third anniversary in January that it’s time to move on, including 4-in-5 Trump supporters. In some corners of the GOP, those in jails or prisons for actions related to Jan. 6—including those who attacked law enforcement with weapons—are martyrs to a rigged political system. In fact, Trump has raised money for their legal defense funds and at rallies plays a low-fi recording of inmates singing the National Anthem as a protest against their detentions. In normal times, such an embrace of lawlessness would be disqualifying for the GOP that prides itself on law-and-order hardlines, but this is not the Republican Party of ol’.

As voters see Harris making an intentional return to what some consider the scene of the crime, it could emphasize the criminal scrutiny Trump will still face if he fails to grasp the shield of a second term as President. After Trump has spent more than a year painting the pile of prosecutions against him as politically motivated, it’s Harris’ turn to make the explicit case that the American voters might be Trump’s true sentencing jury.

It’s sure to be an effective two-fold message at the end of a campaign that has shown Harris‘ knack for tapping symbolic settings to convey larger points. (I’m thinking of Friday’s dystopian warning on abortion staged in Texas, where a strict abortion ban is in place.) But there’s no telling how Trump’s apologists might do with this move, especially given how Trump has convinced so, so many people that he is actually a victim of a corrupt justice system.

Yet, in many ways, Trump’s own orbit has spent recent weeks walking into the traps laid by Harris and her allies. It was most obvious during their lone debate, when Harris sprang one set piece after another to embarrass her rival. Yet at Trump’s rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Trump’s campaign trapped themselves by inviting speakers who leaned into lewd and racist comments. So far, the former President is unwilling to do the bare minimum to demonstrate he rejects those hateful remarks. 

As Trump has shown so many times since he launched the first of his three presidential nominations since 2015, it’s seldom a good bet to think he can shelve his ego in service of a bigger prize. It’s why he did not call off the mob back in 2021, why he did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration in a break of basic decorum days later, and continues to work overtime to undermine faith in democracy itself. It’s just a given at this point that Harris’s choice of setting for perhaps the biggest speech of her campaign is assuredly going to get under Trump’s skin. Harris advisers say it’ll be a tactic that will find daily repetition in the swing states for the final week, with the goal of bringing out Trump’s worst impulses. If history serves, he won’t be able to resist.

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