OUR PICKSHow Russia's disinformation campaign seeps into US views | House Lawmakers Reject Renewal of Key US Intelligence Program | America's Greatest Enemy Isn't China or Russia: Its $35 Trillion In Debt, and more
· How Russia’s disinformation campaign seeps into US views
Kremlin-linked campaign employes political strategists and trolls to write thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions
· Democracy declines for 20th consecutive year, advocacy group says
Democratic governance declined for the 20th year in a row last year in a region stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia
· House Lawmakers Reject Renewal of Key US Intelligence Program
The law — also referred to as Section 702 — allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect data on foreigners overseas without obtaining a warrant
· America’s Greatest Enemy Isn’t China or Russia: Its $35 Trillion In Debt
The BRICS bloc has moved from a mere theory in the minds of turn-of-the-21st-century Wall Streeters and is slowly growing into a financial dagger aimed at the heart of the U.S.-led economic system
· In MAGA World, Everything Happens for a Reason
Bridge collapse, earthquake, eclipse—surely the heavens and the Biden administration are up to something
How Russia’s disinformation campaign seeps into US views (Tatiana Vorozhko, VOA News)
On a near daily basis, Scott Cullinane talks with members of Congress about Russia’s war in Ukraine. As a lobbyist for the nonprofit Razom, part of his job is to convince them of Ukraine’s need for greater U.S. support to survive.
But as lawmakers debated a $95 billion package that includes about $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, Cullinane noticed an increase in narratives alleging Ukrainian corruption. What stood out is that these were the same talking points promoted by Russian disinformation.
So, when The Washington Post published an investigation into an extensive and coordinated Russian campaign to influence U.S. public opinion to deny Ukraine the aid, Cullinane says he was not surprised.
“This problem has been festering and growing for years,” he told VOA. “I believe that Russia’s best chance for victory is not on the battlefield, but through information operations targeted on Western capitals, including Washington.”
The Post investigation is based on more than 100 documents collected by a European intelligence service.
The files exposed a Kremlin-linked campaign in which “political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions,” the Post reported.
Democracy Declines for 20th Consecutive Year, Advocacy Group Says (Samuel Weinmann, VOA News)
Democratic governance declined for the 20th year in a row last year in a region stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia, according to Freedom House’s annual Nations in Transit report, released Thursday.
The report from the Washington advocacy group, which covers democratic trends, describes a shift toward authoritarian rule and a “geopolitical reordering” of the region. That reordering is splitting the region into a transatlantic pro-democracy bloc and an autocratic, anti-democracy bloc, it says.
Democratic principles suffered setbacks in 10 of the 29 countries in the region, the report says. It identifies deepening authoritarian rule, expanding authoritarian aggression and a strong need for global democratic leadership to stem these threats.
Despite the trend, the report found that most democracies maintained democratic standards at home.
It noted that Poland, although facing democratic backsliding, was able to change course during a high-turnout election last October, and that its ability to recover will be “crucial for the future of the wider region.” (Cont.)
