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The prisoners at the penal colony in St. Petersburg were expecting a visit by officials, thinking it would be some sort of inspection. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty — if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.

Over the following days, about a dozen or so left the prison, according to a woman whose boyfriend is serving a sentence there.

As Russia continues to suffer losses in its invasion of Ukraine, now nearing its sixth month, the Kremlin has refused to announce a full-blown mobilization — a move that could be very unpopular for President Vladimir Putin.

This also is happening amid reports that hundreds of Russian soldiers are refusing to fight & trying to quit the military.

“We’re seeing a huge outflow of people who want to leave the war zone — those who have been serving for a long time and those who have signed a contract just recently,” said lawyer Alexei Tabalov.

The group has seen an influx of requests from men who want to terminate their contracts, “and I personally get the impression that everyone who can is ready to run away,” Tabalov said.

Regional administrations are forming “volunteer battalions” that are promoted on state television. The business daily Kommersant counted at least 40 such entities in 20 regions, with officials promising volunteers monthly salaries ranging from the equivalent of $2,150 to nearly $5,500, plus bonuses.

But complaints also are surfacing in the media that some aren’t getting their promised payments.

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Source: AP

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(CNN) The US is alleging that Russia has been preparing to "fabricate a pretext for an invasion" of Ukraine, this time using a "graphic" video that would depict a fake attack against Russia.

A senior administration official told CNN that the US has intelligence suggesting that the Russian government, with the help of Russia's intelligence services, has been planning to produce a propaganda video depicting graphic scenes of a "staged false explosion with corpses, actors depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations and military equipment," the official said. The US believes Russia has already recruited actors to be involved in the fake attack.

The US believes that the military equipment used in the video of the fabricated attack would be made to look like it is Ukrainian or from an allied nation. The official said the video could include images of Bayraktar drones, which NATO ally Turkey has provided to Ukraine, "as a means to implicate NATO in the attack."

The fake attack in the video would be aimed against Russian sovereign territory or against Russian-speaking people, the official said, and would "be released to underscore a threat to Russia's security and to underpin military operations," the official said. "This video, if released, could provide Putin the spark he needs to initiate and justify military operations against Ukraine."'

"It shows the level of cynicism, frankly, that is on the other side of this conflict," deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told MSNBC on Thursday. "We're not saying definitively this is what they're going to do. We are saying that this is an option under consideration, and that they have used these sorts of pretext in the past to justify military action."

The US' disclosure of the alleged plot is the latest in a series of revelations designed to blunt the impact of any pretext Russia may use to invade Ukraine. Russia has continued building up forces and military equipment along Ukraine's borders, despite diplomatic efforts by the US and allies to de-escalate the situation.

Finer said the US is making the accusation public in order to "make it much more difficult for [Russia] after the fact to claim that they had to do whatever they decided to do."

Last month, CNN first reported that the US had information indicating Russia had prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to create a pretext for an invasion.

The senior administration official also said on Thursday that if Russia decides to change how it views separatist territories in eastern Ukraine—for example, if it decides to view them as independent rather than as part of Ukraine following a legal change by Russia's parliament now under consideration—then Moscow "could claim that the push for independence led Ukraine to 'attack'" pro-Russian forces in the east.

"To build the case for independence, Russian politicians are advancing this legislation on the false basis that Ukraine is preparing to forcibly retake this territory and that Kyiv has systematically denied local residents their basic rights," the official said. "In line with its previous interventions, Russia would portray its actions as defending ethnic Russians and coming at the request of a sovereign government for assistance."

#usa #america #ukraine #russia #falseflag #falseflagoperation #war #easterneurope #northerasia #vladimirputin #joebiden #nato #russianmilitary #usmilitary #ustroops #france #china #germany #moscow #canada #denmark #italy #spain #unitedkingdom #portugal #greece #usvsrussia #russiavsukraine

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Yanadameen Godcast season 2, segment 1 of 3

In this segment of the Yanadameen Godcast, Lord Jamar and Rah Digga debate on Jay-Z's recent partnership with the NFL. Can Jay-Z really make a change within the organization? Is that his plan? Did he do it for the money? Is he being used?

0:00 Brooklyn's Black Lady Theater ad
0:40 Today's Mathematics
1:41 Lord Jamar and Rah Digga introduce the show
3:20 Lord Jamar let's the viewers know how they can donate to the show
4:40 Rah Digga says she learned some things that made her look into the flat Earth debate again
8:47 Lord Jamar and Rah Digga shout out David Ford, and open gifts from him
10:34 Rah Digga gifts Lord Jamar Hennessy White from Mexico
11:57 Lord Jamar addresses Jay-Z working with the NFL
15:41 Rah Digga says everyone should wait before they get upset, and see what Jay-Z is going to do
19:08 Lord Jamar says the NFL recruited Jay-Z because he has a heavy influence over black people
22:25 Rah Digga talks about Jay-Z working with Barneys New York
27:25 Credits/ Outro

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CHICAGO (WLS) -- New video shows Chicago police officers dragging a 16-year-old Marshall High School student down a flight of stairs, punching her, and using a stun gun on her. 

What the video shows does not appear to match the story the officers initially told when the incident happened in January. 

Video from security cameras inside Marshall High School in the city's East Garfield Park neighborhood shows Dnigma Howard talking with a classmate while two Chicago police officers stand by. 

As the person in the yellow shirt walks away, video shows one of the officers immediately grab Howard and throw her to the ground. 

The three of them eventually disappear from the shot, going down the staircase. The video shows other students immediately rush toward the stairs. 

Video from another angle shows the officers dragging Howard down the stairs, and at the bottom one officer is holding her arm while the other is holding her leg. 

"In the video you can see they pull her by the leg down the stairs, the whole flight of stairs," said Laurentio Howard, father. 

One officer appears to kick and punch Howard as he's holding her on the ground. Video shows her thrashing on the floor, appearing to fight back before the officer ultimately deploys his stun gun. 

"I thought maybe they were going to try to choke her out or she would lose consciousness or something like that. they had their foot on her chest. She has asthma, she's telling me she can't breathe. She's turning red, I see a vein sticking out her head," Laurentio said. 

At the time of the incident, police said they were told to escort Howard out of the school after she was removed from class for having her phone out, then got agitated and lashed out at a security guard. Howard previously said she grabbed one of the officer's vests. 

Laurentio had been called to pick his daughter up after she was removed from the classroom, he said. 

"I'm standing downstairs by the front door and she said, 'I'm going to get her to come downstairs. She's going home right now,'" he said. 

"I couldn't believe I seen two sworn police officers of Chicago abusing my daughter like this and I'm standing right there watching them do this and can't do anything about it," he recalled of the incident. 

Officers tased Howard three times. 

"Thank god for that video," said the family's attorney. "When this instance first happened the state's attorney charged a 16-year-old unarmed girl with two felonies for aggravated assault against a peace officer." 

Howard was initially charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery against a peace officer, but the State's Attorney's office dropped the charges. The two officers were removed from the school and reassigned to different duties as COPA and the CPD Force Review Unit completed an independent investigation of the incident. 

The City of Chicago Law Department said they "do not comment on pending litigation."

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(CBS News) Papa John's Pizza's founder John Schnatter may have resigned as chairman of the restaurant chain's board of directors following news that he used a racial slur in a conference call, but he still owns a substantial stake in the company.

Schnatter owns roughly 30 percent of Papa John's. As of March 12, his stake was worth $622 million, though a recent decline in the company's stock price now values it at $479 million as of the close of trading on Wednesday. 

Other major stockholders include asset management firm BlackRock, with a 9 percent stake; hedge fund Eminence Capital (6.5 percent); and investment advsier Vanguard (6 percent). 

Schnatter resigned as chairman on Wednesday amid a growing uproar about his comments. Papa John's shares, which fell nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, were up 12 percent on Thursday.

Schnatter acknowledged using a racial slur during a May conference call and apologized following a media report that also said the pizza chain founder had graphically described violence against minorities.

"News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media-training session regarding race are true," Schnatter said in a statement released Wednesday by the company. 

"Regardless of the context, I apologize. Simply stated, racism has no place in our society," Schnatter's statement said. 

The media-training company working with Papa John's opted to end its business relationship with the pizza company after the call, according to Forbes. The publication reported the objectionable behavior took place on a conference call intended as a role-playing exercise for Schnatter on avoiding racially charged mishaps in the future.

Papa John's initially declined to confirm or deny the report, but said in an emailed statement that the company "condemns racism and any insensitive language, no matter the situation or setting."

The controversy comes only seven months after Schnatter relinquished his CEO role after criticizing National Football League players for kneeling during the national anthem, blaming the outcry surrounding their protests for slowing sales growth at Papa John's, at the time an NFL sponsor and advertiser.

On the May call, Schnatter reportedly said the N-word while complaining that a legendary fast-food chain founder had used the word in the past without being subjected to public backlash. He also reflected on his childhood in Indiana, saying people used to drag African-Americans from trucks until they died, according to Forbes.

The Forbes report prompted protest from the Louisville NAACP, which said Schnatter should either step down or be removed from the University of Louisville's board of trustees by the city's NAACP.

The request was complied with quickly, as Schnatter did resign from the board he'd served on for two years, its chairman, J. David Grissom, said in a statement, which also thanked the executive for his "generous" support.

"After speaking with John, I'm confident that his comments, while inappropriate, do not reflect his personal beliefs or values," said Grissom, who added the board did not condone "racism or insensitive language regardless of the setting.

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