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A Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin secretly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas. A Republican nominee for the Florida state legislature marched with neo-Nazis at the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. ICE agents in Texas pepper-sprayed and beat two American teenagers who were on their way to enlist in the Marines. And a new report says U.S. data centers are on track to burn more natural gas than nearly every country on Earth.
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Russian Oligarch Close to Putin Secretly Bankrolled Trump Jr.’s Wedding
The last time a Trump family member’s relationship with Russia made headlines, it took a special counsel two years to sort it out.
Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, head of the scandal-ridden International Boxing Association, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Donald Trump Jr.’s three-day wedding celebration in the Bahamas.
The payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity based in Dubai. Kremlev paid to rent out one of the two private islands where the event was held, covered the cost of the fireworks display, and had his team help plan the festivities.
Kremlev attended with a large group of Russians whose presence reportedly puzzled other guests. Since the wedding, the Trumps have released scores of photos and videos from the celebration, but the Russian attendees have been absent from all of them.
Kremlev’s boxing organization is financed by Gazprom, the state-owned energy company that has repeatedly cut off gas supplies to European countries that defy President Vladimir Putin. Putin personally awarded Kremlev the Order of Friendship last spring, and the Ukrainian government has sanctioned him for his closeness to Putin and Russian security services.
A spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute the payments, and described Kremlev as a personal friend. Eric Trump’s spokesperson had a different take, saying he had absolutely no clue who Kremlev was and had never heard his name.
Sponsored Kalshi poll: Midterms: Congress Balance of Power?
Florida Republican Nominee Marched With Neo-Nazis at Charlottesville
In 2017, Marshall Rawson marched at the deadliest white supremacist rally in a generation. Last month, he won the Republican primary for a seat in the Florida legislature.
A new Talking Points Memo investigation has confirmed that Marshall Rawson, the Republican nominee for Florida House District 10, was at the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Video shows him arriving and being greeted by name by members of a white supremacist group.
TPM obtained a photo of Rawson standing near James Alex Fields Jr., the neo-Nazi who minutes later drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring dozens of others.
Rawson has been involved with the League of the South, a neo-Confederate hate group whose leader has vowed to make the South “White Man’s Land,” since at least 2014. He has said his involvement ended more than a decade ago, but Florida Politics reported he was a featured speaker at the League’s 2021 Florida conference.
Rawson received over $15,000 from dozens of people with established ties to white nationalist groups. David Duke’s daughter donated $200, a former Klan lawyer gave $1,000 and a neo-Nazi publishing house that specializes in reprinting books written by German Nazi Party members donated $100.
Rawson is widely expected to win the general election in November. Neither the Florida GOP nor the national Republican Party responded to requests for comment, but the state party did post a message on X after his primary win calling him “ready to fight for North Florida and keep our state strong and free.”
ICE Agents Beat Two U.S. Citizen Teenagers on Their Way to Enlist in the Marines
If the Pentagon is wondering why it can’t meet its recruitment targets, it might want to check what ICE is doing.
ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, pepper-sprayed and violently detained two American teenagers after they allegedly filmed agents arresting parents outside Santos Livas Elementary School.
Video footage shows an agent pulling one teen from a car and punching him in the face repeatedly while he lay on the ground. The agents held the two for nearly eight hours without contacting their parents before releasing them.
Luis Ochoa, one of the teens, told Telemundo he informed the agents he was a citizen and was told, “I don’t give a damn. Your parents can’t help you now.”
Both teens were on their way to file papers to join the Marine Corps, though Ochoa is having second thoughts about his decision. His mother asked how her sons are supposed to serve a country that does not uphold their basic rights.
U.S. Data Centers to Burn More Natural Gas Than Nearly Every Country
Your heating bill is about to subsidize a chatbot.
A new BloombergNEF report estimates U.S. data centers could be using 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day by 2035. Only China, Russia, Iran and the United States itself now burn more gas than that.
As recently as December, BloombergNEF estimated data center gas consumption would reach 6.9 billion cubic feet per day. That number has already more than doubled. Power generation is now expected to be the second-largest driver of U.S. gas demand through 2035, behind only the liquefied natural gas export terminals being built along the Gulf Coast to ship fuel overseas.
Natural gas is set to power 69 percent of new data centers. Trump’s war with Iran has already sent gas prices soaring, and the Energy Information Administration is predicting record household heating costs this winter.
Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday that the only guardrail AI needs is a president with a high IQ, and dismissed industry leaders’ own calls for regulation as a conspiracy. It took a data center powered by natural gas to deliver that opinion to your phone.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Democrats Lay Groundwork for Sweeping Trump Investigations if They Win the House. Democrats are preparing to launch sweeping investigations into the Trump administration if they retake the House of Representatives in the November midterms. More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides told CNN that Trump’s war with Iran, his White House ballroom project, his family’s business dealings, and the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files will be among the top targets. Several lawmakers said the party didn’t go far enough the last time it held the House during a Trump presidency, and they don’t plan to make that mistake again.
Democrats to Train Tens of Thousands of Volunteers to Counter Voter Intimidation. Ahead of the November midterms, the Democratic Party has launched a program called the New Battlefield Project to train tens of thousands of volunteers to monitor polls and combat voter intimidation. The party is also running its first national early-vote campaign, encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail or in person before Election Day so they are not exposed to last-minute disruptions. Another group, led by Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, will monitor for disinformation and voter suppression in real time and fight back on a state-by-state basis as problems emerge.
Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Mail-in Voting Restrictions. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols late Sunday issued a preliminary injunction blocking a new U.S. Postal Service rule that would tighten requirements for mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. The rule would have required states to supply lists of voters eligible to receive mail ballots and place unique barcodes on ballot envelopes. The USPS would have been authorized to refuse to deliver ballots in states that did not comply. A different federal judge in Boston blocked the same rule Sept. 4 and the administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift that order, meaning the final word is still to come.
Nearly 2,000 Acres Along Wisconsin’s Lower Sugar River Receives Protection. Groundswell Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited have teamed up to purchase nearly 2,000 acres along Wisconsin’s Lower Sugar River, now permanently protected. The property includes more than two miles of river frontage, wetlands, forests, prairies and floodplain that support waterfowl and dozens of other species. There are nearly 2 million people within an hour’s drive of the site, but very little public land for recreation in southern Wisconsin. The property will be open for hunting, fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing before it is turned over to the state.
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