The following article, Alexander Vindman (Lt Col, Ret) Posted an Unhinged Attack on Kristi Noem, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. Mollie Hemingway, the Editor at The Federalist, showed how much of a POS Alexander Vindman (Lt Col, Ret) [still] is after he screeched expletives at Kristi Noem over the Alex Padilla stunt. He has been considering a run for Florida Senate – we sincerely hope he has wrecked his own candidacy by being vile. Alexander … Continue reading Alexander Vindman (Lt Col, Ret) Posted an Unhinged Attack on Kristi Noem ...

Freddie Mercury was known for many things—his dramatic showmanship, his larger-than-life personality, and his untimely death during the peak of the AIDS epidemic—but he is most remembered for his clear, powerful voice, ranging from rich bass notes to impressive soprano coloratura.It's hard to do Freddie's voice justice, but Marc Martel has managed to wow millions with his impersonations of the Queen lead singer. If you close your eyes and listen, there are seconds when you might swear you were hearing Freddie himself singing again. Freddie Mercury knew how to work an audience. Giphy Martel's cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been viewed 56 million times on YouTube. And another of his videos showcases Martel's ability to captivate an audience with his—or Freddie's—voice.At a concert in Santiago, Chile, in 2022, Martel began playing the piano intro to "Love of My Life," one of Queen's simplest and most sentimental ballads. As soon as he opened his mouth to sing, the audience did the same—10,000 people all singing along in unison—and it's just beautiful.Watch: - YouTube youtu.be Queen fans not only loved the sing-a-long but they were also blown away by how close Martel came to channeling Freddie Mercury with his vocals:"I'm 63. Heard Queen from the start. This man is unbelievable. Why Queen didn't grab him is unbelievable, beyond belief.""For those of us who love the Mercury timbre, Martel is a blessing.""The part "you've hurt me" sounds exactly like Freddie. I also love the fact that people are singing too, it gives me Queen concerts vibes :)""When the crowd started singing, it genuinely gave me goosebumps. It was like he was singing with a choir. Some great voices in the audience! Well mixed too. Incredible as always!""Never mind the vocal inflections, he plays piano outstandingly. Freddie’s voice was so unique and original, it’s unbelievable how close Marc is."And if you want to see Martel's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video with 56 million views, here it is. Enjoy: - YouTube youtu.be Amazingly enough, Martel never took singing lessons, instead learning from imitating his favorite vocalists. He also didn't grow up listening to Queen—he came to appreciate their music later in life. Martel told Altwire in 2023 how he feels about constantly being compared to the late, great icon, Freddie Mercury:"It’s obviously an honor, and I’ve been getting that comparison for a while, over 12 years now, on a regular basis, no matter what music I’m singing. Even when I try not to sound like Freddie, people will come up to me and there was a point where I was counting how many people would say that to me after a show, like 'Hey! Has anyone ever told you that you sound like Freddie Mercury?' It was at least 5 every time, without fail."It is an honor, there are far worse singers out there to be compared to. I’ve come to terms with it. I’ve accepted it, and it’s something I’m never going to escape, so why bother? If I tried to escape it, or kind of morph my voice into something unnatural. It’s the way I sound and thankfully it’s someone who people genuinely love to hear." See on Instagram Martel is taking his voice on the road again in 2025, touring the United States through the summer and heading to Europe in fall. If we can't have Freddie Mercury live, singing along with Martel to Queen's classics may just be the next best thing. You can find more of Marc Martel's Freddie Mercury magic on YouTube.This article originally appeared two years ago.

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist known for epic works such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His life experiences—from witnessing war to spiritual quests—profoundly influenced his writings and gave him profound insights into the human soul. His understanding of emotions, motivations and moral dilemmas has made his work stand the test of time, and it still resonates with people today.Julian de Medeiros, a TikToker who shares his thoughts on philosophy, recently shared how Tolstoy knew if someone was highly intelligent—and his observation says something extraordinary about humanity. An intelligent man's thought process.Canva Photos“The more intelligent a person is, the more he discovers kindness in others,” Tolstoy once wrote. “For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful.” @julianphilosophy Intelligent people are kind #intelligent #intelligence #kindness #smart #tolstoy #men #women De Medeiros boiled down Tolstoy’s thoughts into a simple statement: “Intelligent people are unafraid to be kind.” He then took things a step further by noting that Tolstoy believed in the power of emotional intelligence. "To have emotional intelligence is to see the good in other people, that is what Tolstoy meant, that to be intelligent is to be kind," he added.It seems that, according to de Medeiros, Tolstoy understood that intelligent people are kind and perceptive of the kindness in others. The intelligent person is conscious of the kindness within themselves and in the world around them.In a 2024 opinion piece for Inc., author and speaker Jeff Hayden cites organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who says, "Generosity isn't just a sign of virtue. It's also a mark of intelligence. Data: people with high IQs have more unselfish values, give more to charity, and negotiate better deals for others. They prioritize the long-term collective good over short-term self-interest. It's smarter to be a giver than a taker." Hayden adds on to this statement, saying, "...You can also be smart enough to be generous, thoughtful, and kind. You can be smart enough to build people up instead of tearing them down. You can be smart enough to give before you receive (or better yet, with no expectation of reciprocation.) You can be smart enough to shift the credit from yourself to others." Kids showing kindness through sharing. Canva PhotosIn other words, these findings certainly line up with what Tolstoy's take on the correlation between kindness and intelligence. Through Tolstoy's musings, de Medeiros (and Hayden and Grant) makes a point that is often overlooked when people talk about intelligence: truly smart people are as in touch with their hearts as they are with their minds.This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

Los Angeles is set to host the 2028 Olympics, but California is playing a dangerous game. After the chaos of anti-ICE riots and the disaster that followed the state’s wildfire outbreak in 2024, one must ask: Why should we invite the world to what’s arguably America’s worst city? LA is consumed by self-induced crises. Illegal migrant activists have sparked violent riots on city streets, waving flags from foreign countries and frightening residents. Meanwhile, under the same leadership of Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, the city and state have botched their wildfire response so badly that hundreds of Palisadians have decided not to rebuild their burned-down homes. These are not isolated failures — they are systemic breakdowns caused by neglect, poor leadership, and radical leftist policies. (RELATED: Los Angeles Isn’t What’s Burning. The Democrat Party Might Well Be.) And now? Los Angeles could be banking on the Olympics to bail them out financially. The global spotlight and a flood of tourist dollars might seem like a fix, but this goes beyond money; it’s about competence and accountability. Are we seriously expected to believe the same floundering politicians who set fire to their state can suddenly pull off a world-class event?  The Riot Reality Check  Gov. Gavin Newsom made sure the streets of San Francisco were spotless when the Chinese president visited in November 2023, sending crews to clean and sanitize his state to impress the dictatorial Xi Jinping ahead of a fancy summit. But these efforts don’t extend to the everyday lives of American citizens. On a normal day, filthy homeless encampments overflow with trash, topped off by drug paraphernalia strewn across sidewalks untouched for ages. In California, foreigners get pristine streets, while locals suffer daily neglect. (RELATED: San Francisco Builds a Wall for China) The recent lawlessness in Los Angeles further highlights the misguided priorities of blue-state bosses. During the recent riots, dissenters of deporting illegal migrants mobbed local cops as they burned cars and shouted profanities. The situation on the ground got so bad that President Donald Trump, in what was the first time for a U.S. president in 60 years, deployed California’s National Guard without the governor’s blessing. Democrats who deemed Jan. 6, 2021, a “violent insurrection” were outraged as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller threw the same words at agitators throwing rocks at ICE agents. And an ABC reporter mirrored CNN’s “fiery but mostly peaceful protest” line, memed to death during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) inferno that swallowed Kenosha.  The Olympic Torch Needs a New Flame If California can’t keep its streets clean, its citizens safe, or its forests from burning, what makes anyone think it can pull off the grand spectacle of the Olympics? The Olympics demand unity, discipline, and world-class organization — none of which are currently on display in the California playbook.  This begs the question: Shouldn’t the Olympic Committee consider a venue with less political baggage and more reliance on governance? Enter Florida, Texas, or even a heartland state that values law, order, and community. And with the 2028 presidential race heating up that summer, there’s an opportunity for President Trump, who will still be in office, to seize the opportunity and flip the script.  President Trump could announce relocating the Olympics from a state plagued by riots and wildfires to a safer, more dependable destination. The country deserves better representation on the world stage. California, a state that just enabled a biological male to take first-place trophies from high school girls at a track competition, does not have the competence to host the planet’s biggest sports competition. Should we really trust Newsom and Bass at the helm of international travel four years after Trump pervasively rid the nation of illegal migrants?  If the 2028 Olympic Games are to be a true American victory, California must be reevaluated as the venue — and fast. Because right now, LA is playing with fire, and the whole country is at risk of getting burned. READ MORE from Julianna Frieman: CBS Runs a Trick Play With Belichick’s Girlfriend to Cover Up Trump Lawsuit #SheinOverHaul: Trump’s Latest Move Puts Fast Fashion Out of Style Julianna Frieman is a writer based in North Carolina. She got her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is pursuing her master’s degree in Communications (Digital Strategy) at the University of Florida. Her work has been published by the Daily Caller, The American Spectator, and The Federalist. Follow her on X at @juliannafrieman. The post Why Should We Invite the World to Our Worst City for the Olympics? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Some Americans are so fed up with their homeland’s political circus, they’ve decided to pack their bags and flee to… Scotland. Yes, Scotland — that damp corner of Europe where the weather is a form of psychological warfare and the locals consider haggis a delicacy rather than a dare. It’s like escaping a burning building by leaping directly into a freezing loch, but apparently, this passes for strategic thinking in 2025. These “Donald dashers,” as they’re apparently calling themselves, have looked at the current political climate in America and decided that what they need is a country where it rains 300 days a year and the locals consider deep-fried Mars bars a legitimate food group. It’s like escaping a house fire by jumping into a particularly damp, grey-skied freezer. (RELATED: What All Americans Can Learn from Ellen DeGeneres’s Disastrous Escape to Europe) Having spent considerable time in Scotland myself — my Irish heritage practically demands it, like some sort of Celtic tax — I can tell you that these American refugees are in for a shock that’ll make Trump’s Twitter feed seem like a gentle lullaby. They’re trading one set of problems for another, except now those problems come with accents so thick you’ll need subtitles and weather that makes Seattle look like the Sahara. (RELATED: The Death Throes of Free Speech in the United Kingdom) Haggis, neeps, and tatties might sound like a law firm specializing in agricultural disputes. But it’s actually what passes for fine dining north of Hadrian’s Wall. Let’s start with the food, shall we? These Americans, fleeing their land of plenty, are about to discover that Scottish cuisine is what happens when you take perfectly good ingredients and decide to either boil them into submission or wrap them in pastry and deep-fry them until they surrender. American Culture Shock I remember my first proper Scottish breakfast. There was black pudding that looked like it had been scraped off a tire, beans that had clearly given up on life, and tattie scones with all the flavor of wet cardboard. My hosts watched me with the kind of focus usually reserved for people handling live explosives. “How d’you like it?”  one asked proudly, as if they’d served Michelin-starred fare instead of the remains of a hamster dragged through farm equipment. And the weather! Sweet merciful weather. These Americans think they’re escaping political storms, but they’re walking into meteorological warfare. Scottish weather doesn’t just rain on you — it conspires against you. It’s the kind of horizontal rain that laughs at umbrellas and makes you question every life choice that led you to this soggy, windswept moment. I’ve stood on the Royal Mile in July wearing three layers and still felt like I was being personally victimized by Mother Nature herself. The irony is delicious, if you can taste it through all that porridge. These folks are trading American dysfunction for Scottish… well, let’s call it “character.” They want to escape Trump’s America for a country where the weather is so consistently awful that the locals have developed an entire vocabulary just to describe different types of misery. “It’s dreich,” they’ll tell you, as if that somehow makes standing in a cold, grey drizzle more palatable. Edinburgh, their promised land, is certainly beautiful — if you like your beauty served with a side of existential dread. The castle looms over the city like a stern grandfather disapproving of everything you’ve ever done, and the Royal Mile stretches out like a medieval shopping mall populated by tourists desperately trying to find something authentically Scottish that wasn’t made in China. But here’s the thing about Scotland that these American refugees don’t quite grasp yet: it’s not just a country, it’s a lifestyle choice. It’s choosing to live somewhere that the sun is treated as a rare and precious visitor, where “summer” is that one Tuesday in July when it only rains twice, and where the locals greet a temperature above 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) like it’s the Second Coming. After three days in Scotland — any three days — you start to understand why the Scots invented whisky. It wasn’t for celebration; it was for survival. It’s medicinal, really. A necessary anesthetic for living in a place where the weather forecast is less prediction than resignation: “Aye, it’ll be shite again tomorrow.” The postcard beauty is real enough — those rolling hills, ancient castles, and dramatic coastlines that make your Instagram followers weep with envy. But postcards don’t capture the bone-deep chill that seeps into your soul around October and doesn’t leave until April. They don’t show you the look of quiet desperation in the eyes of tourists who thought they’d packed appropriately for “summer” in Scotland. So welcome, American refugees, to your new homeland. You’ve traded political chaos for meteorological certainty — it will be cold, wet, and grey. You’ve swapped fast food for slow food that tastes like it was prepared by people who view flavor as a dangerous foreign concept. And you’ve chosen a country where the phrase “It could be worse” is practically the national motto. READ MORE from John Mac Ghlionn: Soap, Sex, and Simulacra: Hollywood’s Latest Moment of Madness Taylor Swift a Self-Made Billionaire? Gaza Doesn’t Need Greta. Greta Needs Gaza. The post America’s Dumbest Refugees Pick God’s Cruelest Joke appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Gavin Newsom has for years denied having any desire to run for the presidency of the United States in the most adamant of terms. “Yeah, I mean, I have sub-zero interest,” he said last year, before adding, “It’s not even on my radar.” And that’s just one denial among dozens. Many political observers had long been baffled by Newsom’s decision to renounce any interest in the presidency when it is so obvious that he is in fact thoroughly devoted to winning the position. After all, had Newsom been more upfront, he could have swept in when Biden stepped aside. As it is, Newsom had pranced across every cable news show declaring Biden to be cognitively excellent and himself to have not the slightest iota of interest in the role. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Breaks With Biden to Set Up Presidential Run) But this week, Newsom has thrown his denials to the side. “I’m not thinking about running, but it’s a path that I could see unfold,” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday. That message coincided with Newsom’s primetime address to the nation regarding President Donald Trump’s deployment of California National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles. “A Path That I Could See Unfold” Thus begins a new stage in Newsom’s lifelong mission to win the presidency. (In the ‘90s, Newsom said, “If you’re in politics and you want to make an impact, you should be as successful as possible and the most influential position is president.”) In this new stage, Newsom will publicly direct his effort to be the preeminent Democratic voice toward his goal of winning the White House in 2028. That was harder for him to do back in 2023 when he debated then-presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on national TV, toured red states to present his alternative vision for their governance, and put up billboards across the country advertising his actions on abortion — all while constantly denying that he had any designs on the White House. From now on, all of his quintessentially Newsom actions — his made-for-TV governance, his dramatic public pronouncements that aim for a national audience, and his effort to push progressive governance ever-leftward — will be wholly directed toward this stated “path” that could “unfold.” (RELATED: Newsom Can’t Memory-Hole What He Did to California) Already, this has given a new tone to his actions this week, in which he has played a dominant role on the national stage. In opposing Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles, he positioned himself as the leader of the Trump resistance. “This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers, and even our National Guard at risk,” he said in his primetime speech. He went on to say, “California will keep fighting. We’ll keep fighting on behalf of our people, all of our people, including in the courts.” Newsom used the situation to argue that Trump’s actions in California represented a broader threat to the whole nation. “Democracy is next,” he said. “Democracy is under assault before our eyes.” (RELATED: The Two Americas) When a judge ruled Thursday night that control of the California National Guard should be given back to Newsom, the governor responded by casting it as a power struggle between himself and the president. He said, “The Guard will be back under my command — and Donald Trump will be relieved of his command at noon tomorrow.” He also seized the opportunity to appear on an array of cable news shows to cast Trump as an authoritarian dictator. For instance, on the New York Times’s The Daily, he called the president a “stone-cold liar.” There was also the scrabble between Trump and Newsom over electric vehicles. After Trump signed congressional resolutions overturning Newsom’s executive order banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles beginning in 2035, Newsom declared the action to be illegal, sued the administration over it, and signed a new executive order, in his administration’s words, “doubling down on the state’s efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.” The governor held no punches in portraying the situation as a one-on-one fight — with himself leading the side of justice: “Today’s action comes amidst a backdrop of President Trump’s war on California,” said a press release from his office. Newsom’s term as governor will be up next year. After that, the governor will have two years left in the 2028 presidential race. Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.  READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes: The Bella Ramsey Disaster Michelle Obama’s Strange Vision of the Female Reproductive System Francesca Gino and the Rot at the Heart of Elite Academia The post Gavin Newsom’s Presidential Campaign Unofficially Begins appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb, which destroyed at least 10 percent of Russia’s strategic bombers with AI-programmed FPV drones that were smuggled and activated inside Russia, may not reverse mounting defeats suffered by its undermanned army in the ground war. But the highly developed covert warfare capabilities demonstrated by the Ukrainian intelligence service (SBU) may prove a wild card in negotiations with Putin, who faces setbacks on other fronts. “Ukraine is hitting and will hit Russia where it considers itself unreachable,” said SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk, stressing that its targets are military installations from which Russia attacks “peaceful Ukrainian cities.” Judging from Russia’s retaliatory onslaught in which about 500 Shahed drones, ballistic and cruise missiles pounded Ukraine every night over several days, the destruction of some of its Soviet-era Bear bombers doesn’t seem to have amounted to much. (RELATED: Russia’s Aerial Assault on Ukraine) But hitting strategic bases thousands of kilometers inside Russia, some located in Siberia and the Arctic region “will force Russia to redeploy air defenses to protect strategic assets in rear areas and deep in Russia at the expense of front-line forces that may be left exposed,” according to Blackwater CEO and ex-Navy SEAL Eric Prince. The immaculately planned and coordinated Spiderweb strikes are the latest demonstration of the SBU’s technical and engineering proficiency. Its Magura maritime drones have already made military history by neutralizing Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and securing Ukraine’s vital commercial sea lanes. Newly developed submarine drones hit the Kerch bridge connecting Russia with Crimea on June 2. Ukrainian Espionage Operation Spiderweb also indicates that Ukraine has a significant agent network in Russia and its Eurasian surroundings. Intelligence analysts believe that the mobile wood cabins with fake solar panel roofs into which the strike drones were loaded and transported by tractor trailers to their targets may have entered Russia from bordering central Asian states with ethnic Muslim populations historically hostile to Moscow. False flag operations could have been used to recruit agents and contract services from local criminal organizations engaged in extensive smuggling and human trafficking. A year ago, an ISIS cell based in Dagestan staged a terrorist attack on a music festival on the outskirts of Moscow, and the group tried escaping to Ukraine. While the June 1 drone assault was controlled from Ukraine according to SBU sources, safe locations in Russia were used for storage and maintenance of the 117 FPVs launched in the attacks. According to analysts, their batteries needed to be kept charged during the long trek to their targets and would have required locally minted Russian SIM cards. The final preparations were carried out in the western Siberian city of Chelyabinsk, right under the noses of Russia’s security service (FSB), which has offices nearby. “Covert special operations units are managing Russian cells acting against a variety of targets inside Russia,” an SBU source told The American Spectator in Ukraine, a year ago. They routinely conduct surveillance and provide intelligence on munitions, drones, and aerospace plants, which have been sabotaged and struck by drones with growing frequency. A drone strike against the Kremlin in 2023 could only have been launched within the vicinity of Moscow, according to experts. Assassinations have also targeted Russian officers accused of war crimes, including a high-ranking general in charge of biological and chemical warfare programs who was blown up by a car bomb in the center of Moscow last month. Locally staged sabotage bombings of railway lines transporting troops and supplies to Ukraine were coordinated with the drone assault on air bases. According to the Ukrainian intelligence source, guerrilla cells are activated and given instructions by phone calls from SBU handlers in Ukraine. Funds are transferred using PayPal or other internet services. While members of the underground opposition to Putin may be too exposed and subject to Russian police surveillance to use in sensitive armed operations, SBU often recruits hit teams and support personnel for its covert warfare from among marginalized social groups such as migrant workers, criminal street gangs, and drug addicts. The Russian FSB Russia’s secret services have been similarly recruiting alienated youngsters or even old people to conduct arson and sabotage attacks in Europe, often through the use of online methods. An anarchist group that recently blacked out parts of southern France and is threatening to attack the defense industry is believed to be a creation of Russia’s military intelligence service, GRU. It’s difficult to see how Ukraine’s secret service can operate to the extent that it does inside Russia without having penetrated the FSB, whose relations with Putin have been problematic throughout the war. Putin purged the FSB following his disastrous attempt to take Kyiv at the start of his Ukraine invasion in 2022. The rout of Russian tank columns outside Kyiv and the elimination of commando teams sent to assassinate President Zelenskyy have been blamed on double agents who fed deceptive intelligence to Moscow. Some 200 FSB officers were arrested and sent to the notorious Lefortovo prison, including the head of the 5th directorate, Sergey Beseda, responsible for operations in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. It appears that FSB agents were feeding false information to Moscow about local support for a Russian invasion, and that covert funds to finance an uprising in support of Putin largely disappeared. The FSB failed Putin again during the 2023 Wagner Group mutiny when it neglected to provide adequate warning about Wagner chief Prigozhin’s coup plans. FSB officials used the crisis to regain leverage on Putin, who relied on the spy service to round up Prigozhin’s suspected sympathizers in the army and arrange for his elimination. Purged FSB officers have been brought back into service, including Beseda, who recently turned up with Russia’s negotiating team sent to Istanbul for peace talks with Ukraine. But discrepancies between Putin and his intelligence services are ongoing. Last week, the New York Times revealed an FSB report, whose veracity was checked through U.S. intelligence analysts, referring to China as an “enemy” using its growing business presence in Russia for “espionage.” It was leaked just as Putin hosted CCP leader Xi Jinping at Moscow’s annual Victory Day celebrations. China has been a vital source for electronic components needed for Russia’s war production, particularly in the manufacture of missiles and sophisticated strike drones. (RELATED: Splitting Xi From Putin: A Comfortable Delusion) It may be years before we know if SBU moles have been lurking inside the FSB. But an internal atmosphere rife with corruption, power struggles, and mutual distrust that appears to plague Putin’s underperforming intelligence agency seems ripe for exploitation by hostile secret services. Russia and the Middle East Putin’s setbacks in other areas are also playing to Ukraine’s advantage. His loss of military bases in Syria, where Russian naval and air facilities are being shut down by the new Islamic government headed by insurgents who toppled his ally, Bashar al-Assad, and have established relations with the U.S., diminishes his leverage on Israel, which no longer fears Russian retaliation for challenging Putin. Operatives of Ukraine’s military intelligence unit HUR reportedly assisted the insurgent push against Assad last year. HUR is engaged in paramilitary activities against Russia throughout Africa and other parts of the world. Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, said in an interview last Sunday on Ukraine’s Pravda state television, that Israel has sent “several” MIM-104 Patriot batteries to Ukraine in what is a clear change of policy by Tel Aviv, which had remained largely on the sidelines of the Ukraine conflict until now. Israel’s transfer of American air defense systems, along with continued U.S. deliveries of interceptor missiles, allowed Ukraine to withstand Russia’s massive missile bombardment in response to Spiderweb. Ukraine intercepted Russian Shaheds, Iskander ballistic missiles, Kh-101s, and other cruise missiles at a rate of 80 percent during the first few nights of bombardment, reaching 100 percent by June 9, according to Ukrainian defense spokesmen. Without its position in Syria, there is also little Russia can do to protect Iran from Israeli air strikes aimed at destroying its nuclear facilities that began this week. Russia has transferred some of its Su-35 fighter jets to Iran over recent months, but Putin is being forced to play the peace card, having offered to store Iranian enriched uranium, which Israel and the U.S. want moved out of Iran as part of any deal with the Ayatollahs. With a weakened geo-strategic position while President Trump threatens sanctions to cripple his oil industry and the SBU points a dagger to his throat, Putin could decide it’s best to settle for a peace deal while he still wields the upper hand on the battlefield — even if a future Check Point Charlie between a free western Ukraine and his reconstituted Russian empire has to be further east from where he envisioned. READ MORE from Martin Arostegui: Russia’s Aerial Assault on Ukraine US Intelligence Downplays Maduro Partnership With Tren De Aragua The Future Is Dim for US–Canada Relations The post Putin Caught in an Expanding Spiderweb appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.