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☆ Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jonathan Swan | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This so-called Project 2025 — part of a $22 million presidential transition operation at a scale never attempted before in conservative politics — is being led by the Heritage Foundation, a group that has been staffing Republican administrations since the Reagan era. Heritage usually compiles its own personnel lists, and spends far less doing so. But for this election, after conservatives and Mr. Trump himself decried what they viewed as terrible staffing decisions made during his administration, more than 50 conservative groups have temporarily set aside rivalries to team up with Heritage on the project, set to start Friday. They have already identified several thousand potential recruits and have set a goal of having up to 20,000 potential administration officials in their database by the end of 2024, according to Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage. Heritage has contracted the technology company Oracle to build a secure personnel database, Dr. Roberts said.

☆ Leaked document shows Shopify's plan to use 'stealth spear-fishing' recruiting tactics as it flattens its org
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A leaked internal document detailed Shopify's plan to overhaul its recruiting strategy. It said that recruiters needed to raise the bar for the quality of candidates they were bringing on to the company. "To do this, we will exhaustively seek out world class talent, scorching the earth with thoroughness and precision," it continued. The leaked internal document from Shopify cited a January conversation with CEO Tobi Lütke where he emphasized the need to hire fewer people managers and more people who had deep technical knowledge. It also said that Lütke instructed org leaders to "avoid high drama negative talent."

☆ Russian spies are using Tinder to ensnare German soldiers and politicians to get them to disclose Ukraine war secrets, counterintelligence warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Sinéad Baker | Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian spies are using Tinder to pursue intelligence about the Ukraine war, Germany warned. Spies are targeting German soldiers and politicians, the country's counterintelligence service said. Intelligence services like Russia's appear to be using the dating app to seek intel and recruits. Other governments have previously warned that spies and foreign intelligence bodies could be using dating apps like Tinder to find sources and gather information. But the dating app has also been used by others in relation to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

☆ The Military Recruitment Crisis Is a Symptom of Cultural Rot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( David Mccormick | James Cunningham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

America’s cultural cancer manifests itself in many ways, but no symptom is more telling than our low military recruitment. Last year the Army hit only 75% of its recruiting target, while other services had to scramble to meet theirs. The all-volunteer force, formed 50 years ago, is in peril and threatens our ability to defend ourselves in a dangerous world. A volunteer military requires able-bodied recruits, but 77% of young Americans would be unfit to serve for health reasons. Every year, fentanyl and other drugs take more than 106,000 lives and affect millions more, reducing the pool of recruits.

[1/4] Law enforcement officers investigate the scene following an attack on bank ATMs in Ratingen, Germany, March 15, 2023. Courtesy of Achim Blazy/Handout via REUTERSRATINGEN, Germany, April 14 (Reuters) - In the German town of Ratingen, exploding cash machines are a hot-button topic. But in Germany, thieves are blowing ATMs up at the rate of more than one a day. Europe's largest economy has 53,000 ATM machines, a disproportionately high number that reflects Germans' preference for cash rather than bank cards. Germany is also working with officials in Belgium and France and at Europol to combat the cash machine crime wave.

Japanese-Brazilian singer-songwriter Kauan Okamoto alleged during a press conference that over the course of four years, beginning in 2012 when he was 15, he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Kitagawa, who died age 87 in 2019. In 1999, Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun published accounts of other young men and boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Kitagawa. They ‘knew it was my turn’Singer-songwriter Okamoto joined Kitagawa’s agency in February 2012 while he was in junior high school. Okamoto said Kitagawa would often invite these young recruits to spend the night in his apartment, and pick “favorites” among the boys. “He began massaging my feet,” Okamoto said, and alleged that Kitagawa touched his genitals and performed oral sex on him.

☆ Russia conscription: Putin set to make it harder for men to avoid call-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“We have been expecting the second mobilization wave for a long time now, and this is the beginning,” Irina, a 51-year-old psychologist whose son is of mobilization age, told CNN from Moscow. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images“I don’t believe a word of this,” Alexey, a 41-year-old lawyer from Moscow, told CNN. Currently, conscription documents in Russia must be hand-delivered by the local military enlistment office or through an employer. The prospect of leaving Russia has been a realistic one for many who oppose the war, and who have avoided or fear a call-up. Artem told CNN he is exploring the possibility, but sees few options and fears being unable to find work abroad.

☆ Fact Check-New York subway ad urging welfare recipients to join Ukraine war is not authentic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An advertisement seeking to recruit U.S. citizens on the welfare scheme to the International Legion of Ukraine, purportedly seen on New York underground trains, is not an official poster. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington told Reuters that the poster is not real. The text on the poster which carries the logo of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reads: “Tired of living on welfare? Join the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.”The International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine was formed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and recruits foreign citizens to fight for Ukraine in the war (fightforua.org/). The poster calling on welfare recipients in the U.S to join the war in Ukraine is not authentic.

☆ The US Air Force is relaxing its restrictions on body fat after struggling to find enough new recruits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The US Air Force will raise its body fat limits for new applicants to drive recruitment. The group will now admit male recruits with up to 28% body fat and females with up to 36%. The Air Force last month revealed it would likely fall short of recruiting targets by 10%. Male troops will now be able to have 26% body fat rather than 20%, while female recruits can have 36% body fat, up from 28%, said Air Force Recruitment Service spokesperson Leslie Brown. The reported adjustment comes as the Air Force deals with a shortfall of new recruits.

☆ Ukraine is training 40,000 'storm brigade' troops to strengthen the planned counter-offensive against Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukraine is training eight new 'storm brigades' totaling 40,000 soldiers, according to Reuters. New soldiers are being trained in target practice, flying drones, and rescuing injured soldiers. As Russia continues its attacks in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has bolstered its recruiting campaigns in order to attract new volunteers. Recruits of the Steel Border storm brigade practice launching drones, at the unit's base in central Ukraine March 24, 2023. More than a year into Russia's invasion of the country, a counter-offensive operation is considered crucial for Ukraine.

☆ How Russia’s Offensive Ran Aground
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Josh Holder | Marco Hernandez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

But within months of the invasion, Russia’s rapid advances ran out of steam, even as it narrowed its ambitions and focused on eastern Ukraine. No Russian gains No Russian gains No Russian gainsIn September 2022 Grid of cities taken by Russia in the Donbas in September 2022. No Russian gains No Russian gains No Russian gainsIn October 2022 Grid of cities taken by Russia in the Donbas in October 2022. Russia captured the small salt-mining town. Kurdiumivka Soledar Kurdiumivka Soledar Russia captured the small salt-mining town.

Border of Steel is one of eight new storm brigades totalling 40,000 soldiers that Ukraine wants to use during a counter-offensive against Russian occupiers in coming weeks or months. Ukraine beat back Russian forces from Kyiv last year before liberating swathes of the northeast and of the southern Kherson region. But Russian forces still occupy tracts of the east, the strategically important south and the Crimean peninsula. "For them, the objective is to liberate Ukraine," Klymenko said of the recruits during an interview in Kyiv. He gave no clues as to when or where Ukraine would launch its counter-offensive.

☆ No Ivy League degree? No problem: This Wall Street vet climbed his way up the ranks of Goldman Sachs after graduating from SUNY Albany
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Ask anyone on Wall Street and they will tell you that Goldman Sachs is one of the top places to build a career as an investment banker. In an effort to diversify recruiting sources and its workforce, Wall Street generally has been expanding the schools from which it recruits. Still, Alfieri's experience can still prove valuable to today's Wall Street hopefuls. There he met Vincent Cisternino, who also had dreams of working on Wall Street. Having started his career during the financial crisis, his advice to today's Wall Street upstarts is to stay positive and persevere.

☆ Zelenskiy to IAEA: Russia holds nuclear plant hostage
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Dan Peleschuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The president met Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station - northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant. Russian officials say they want to connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Russian grid. Russia said last month the construction of protective structures for key facilities at the Zaporizhzhia plant were nearing completion. "Holding a nuclear power station hostage for more than a year - this is surely the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of European or worldwide nuclear power," Zelenskiy said. Last week, the Ukrainian military warned that Avdiivka, a smaller town 90 km (55 miles) farther south, could become a "second Bakhmut" as Russia turns its attention there.

☆ How an elite brigade of Russian marines was repeatedly mauled in Ukraine and became an emblem of the invasion's failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

An elite brigade within Russia's military is a shadow of itself after taking huge losses in Ukraine. In many ways, the journey of the 155th reflects the larger struggles of the Russian military, which entered Ukraine expecting a quick victory but has instead suffered embarrassing setbacks. Baev said that its members are supposed to be better trained and more professional than other parts of the Russian military, which can rely on conscripts. And, as the fighting dragged and more marines died, the Russian military kept reinforcing the 155th with fresh recruits, which brought its own problems. Yet earlier this month Ukraine claimed that commanders in the brigade were refusing to fight near the city of Vuhledar.

☆ Ukraine's air force is now allowing foreigners to sign up as pilots as it pushes for Western fighter jets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukraine's Air Force will now allow foreigners to serve as pilots, engineers, and specialists. Ukraine said that its air force has been inundated with offers from people willing to fight Russia. Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the commander of Ukraine's air force, said in a statement Thursday that foreign citizens will be able to join if they have suitable military training. Despite bipartisan calls in the US for President Joe Biden's administration to send F-16s, Biden himself said on February 24 that Ukraine "doesn't need F-16s now." Serhii Holubtsov, chief of aviation of Ukraine's Air Force, however, told The Times of London that Ukrainian fighter pilots would be ready to fly F-16 jets after fewer than six months of training.

☆ Ukraine is struggling to recruit soldiers as it prepares for new offensive, with some spending thousands to flee the country: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ukraine is struggling to recruit more soldiers, per The Wall Street Journal. Some young men are spending thousands of dollars to escape the country, the report said. This struggle comes as Ukraine prepares to launch a new counteroffensive to push Russia back, following months of stalemate. Ukraine banned men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country shortly after Russia launched its invasion. At the same time, Ukraine has started to rely more on enlistment officers to sign people up, the Journal reported.

☆ A New Zealand veteran who led an elite unit in Ukraine and staged a dramatic rescue was killed in the fighting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A New Zealand veteran who led an elite unit in Ukraine died on Monday, multiple reports said. A viral video showed how he helped rescue a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Bakhmut earlier this month. Officials in Ukraine and New Zealand told Insider they were aware of the reports and were working to verify them. Earlier this month, a video showing his unit's rescue of a Ukrainian prisoner in Bakhmut, went viral. Te Tai told The New Yorker in December that he was not afraid of dying, saying: "I've had a good life, I can die happy."

☆ Russian recruits are making videos directly addressed to Putin begging for more support amid 'meat assaults'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian conscripts are increasingly appealing directly to Putin for more support amid the war. Videos in recent weeks have featured troops asking for additional aid or to be recalled altogether. In a video from earlier this month, a Russian soldier admonished "the incompetence of our superiors," saying his unit had been replenished with newly-mobilized soldiers six times already. In a separate video obtained by CNN, a different Russian soldier in eastern Ukraine filmed a smoking Russian tank, explaining that he was offering "firsthand evidence" of the "clusterfuck." Even pro-Russia war bloggers have compared the flurry of soldier deaths to "meat assaults," according to the Post.

☆ As John Fetterman heals, his Senate staff soldiers on with the help of veteran lawmakers and crisis bonding: 'We all have each other's back'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized for clinical depression since February 15. Casey is coordinating with Fetterman staff on constituent services issues and legislative priorities, according to recent reports, but doesn't call Fetterman directly so as not to disturb his ongoing recovery. Some of the others working hard to meet that internal standard include legislative assistant Madeleine Marr, a former aide to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller has been more blunt, accusing Fetterman's staff of unduly wielding power in his absence. "John Fetterman's chief of staff is not an elected senator," Miller wrote in an op-ed run by the Delaware Valley Journal.

☆ Russia's private Wagner army targets 30,000 new recruits by mid-May
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit approximately 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday. He said in an audio message on Telegram that Wagner recruitment centres, which he said last week had opened in 42 Russian cities, were hiring on average 500-800 people a day. Ukrainian officials have claimed that some 30,000 of Wagner's fighters have deserted or been killed or wounded, a figure that could not be independently verified. "By the middle of May, we plan on increasing the number of fighters in our units by about 30,000," he said. Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Iraqi ambush of Americans made a mockery of 'Mission Accomplished'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Michael Georgy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

[1/5] FILE PHOTO: A U.S. soldier walks past Iraqi detainees standing behind a wired fence, at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, Iraq May 17, 2004. Arriving in the city an hour or so after the ambush on March 31, 2004, I was confronted by a crowd kicking the head of an incinerated body. I was taking notes, trying to make sense of the furore, when a boy, who was probably aged about nine, approached. HOTSPOTIn the two decades of turmoil since the invasion, Falluja repeatedly emerged as a hotspot. I saw an Iraqi douse one of the corpses with petrol, sending flames soaring into the air.

☆ Russia wants to replenish its troops by recruiting 400,000 new contract soldiers starting April: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia wants to recruit 400,000 new contract soldiers starting in April, per multiple local reports. Russian contract soldiers are typically volunteers who serve three-year paid stints in the army. The authorities said the summons were issued just to collect information, and not to lay the groundwork for a second mobilization, BBC Russia reported. Russian contract soldiers are typically volunteers who sign up for a three-year paid stint in the army, per the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank. Since the war began in February 2022, recruiters have been offering hefty bonuses and increased salaries to contract soldiers, while the Kremlin rushes to bolster resources for its hard-hit troops.

☆ Wagner’s convicts tell of horrors of Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

They are identified as pardoned former convicts, returned from the front in Ukraine after joining Wagner from prison. Four of the men said they were personally recruited by Yevgeny Prigozhin as he toured Russia’s prison system to bolster his private army. I wish all real men would join Wagner.”The war in Ukraine is straining Russia’s military capacity. One of the convict recruits told Reuters he travelled to a Wagner training camp in the Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region. According to the United States, by mid-February Wagner had suffered more than 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, including 9,000 dead, almost all of them convicts.

☆ Video appears to show Russian Wagner troops shooting their own comrade, shoving each other into enemy fire in chaotic trench battle
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A video from Ukraine shows a chaotic trench battle in the contested city of Bakhmut. A Ukrainian official said it showed Ukraine reclaiming territory from Russia's Wagner mercenaries. Gerashchenko quoted a soldier who sent him the video, saying it shows Ukrainian soldiers retaking a trench from Russian forces. Wagner group soldiers have been particularly involved in the battle for Bakhmut. The Wagner group took on a growing role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the country's army struggled to take over the country.

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