President Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn’t think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is “doing a very good job.”
Longshot Lovesick Blues looped his field on the turn for home and went on to a length and three-quarters triumph in the 80th running of the Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes Saturday at Del Mar.
In a social media post, the representative said he was “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” but promised to fight what he called “false allegations.”
The Democratic candidate faced immediate calls to end his campaign, with many supporters withdrawing their endorsements.
Rep. Eric Swalwell said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor’s race in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse, as staffers quit and prominent Democratic supporters urged him to drop out.
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin – Rostropovich, 1970 (Complete) youtu.be/70TpS_nvnrM?si=rcO7… via @YouTube
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Apr 12, 2026
Melania Trump Denies Epstein Ties gemini.google.com/share/e7cb…
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Apr 12, 2026
Moscow’s Mercenaries: The Rise and Fall of the Wagner Group (Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare): Faulkner, Christopher M., Parens, Raphael, Clarke, Colin P.: 9780231216906: Amazon.com: Books amazon.com/Moscows-Mercenari…
The Wagner Group emerged from Russia’s shadowy criminal underworld in 2014 and soon became one of the world’s most infamous private military companies. Led by the provocative oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner developed into a key instrument of Russian power projection, with deep and direct ties to the Kremlin. Its mercenaries fought on the front lines in Ukraine, propped up regimes in the Middle East and Africa, and exploited chaos to secure lucrative resource contracts before Prigozhin’s mutiny against Moscow in 2023 brought him down.This book traces the Wagner Group’s violent ascent and descent, exposing how a shadow army built an empire that seemed to have no end in sight until it turned on its masters. Drawing on a wide range of sources and interviews, Moscow’s Mercenaries offers a comprehensive examination of Wagner’s inner workings: its hybrid structure, battlefield tactics, propaganda campaigns, and connections to the Russian military. From Ukraine to brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali, and beyond, the book shows how Wagner evolved into a global criminal syndicate and reveals why its ambitions led to a fatal collision with the Russian state.
Moscow’s Mercenaries explores what Wagner’s rise tells us about the future of modern warfare, the erosion of international norms, and how authoritarian regimes outsource violence. Anyone interested in the evolution of mercenary warfare, great power competition, and the dark underbelly of global security stands to learn important lessons from this well-timed and insightful book.
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Apr 12, 2026