- A New Face, But an Old Tactic: History Offers Clues on Stopping Russia's African Advance by Herman J. Cohen -- The conflict in Gaza has taken center stage in global affairs. But while the eyes of the world are drawn to the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been working in the background to expand Russia's influence in Africa. His tactics are drawn from the Soviet Union's Cold War playbook. He offers military support, now via the mercenary Wagner Group, to unstable regimes across the continent, helping them retain power in exchange for diplomatic allegiance and natural resources....
- Stabilizing Northern Gaza Outweighs an Assault on Rafah By Micah Levinson -- The Biden administration strongly opposes Israel launching an assault on Rafah to demolish Hamas's four remaining battalions. This is because such an attack would likely cause high civilian casualties and hinder humanitarian aid from entering Gaza via Egypt. Currently, 1.4 million Palestinians reside in Rafah due to the ongoing conflict, which has displaced 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants....
- Not the Donald, But the Don - Indicting a Career Racketeer by Jonathan M. Winer - Chris Christie recently described Trump and his associates at Mar-a-Largo as "acting like the Corleones with no experience". The Georgia indictment represents perhaps the most serious threat to him personally and financially. All of which takes us back to the white collar crime wave unleashed across the nation by Trump in his role as "the Don". Donald Trump and his associates may masquerade as a political movement, a political party, or even a business. But whatever the immediate activity, they are fundamentally gangsters, closer in spirit and practice to the Mafia families of New York, the Columbian cartels and Japanese Yakuzas....
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