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• An angler caught a 9-foot-long “monster” catfish in an Italian river after a 40-minute battle.
• The enormous wels catfish is likely “world record” breaking in length.
• But Alessandro Biancardi did not want to “stress” the rare specimen by weighing it, he said. 

A huge wels catfish reeled in by an angler in an Italian river is believed to be the largest ever caught in a river.

It is likely a “world record” breaking in length, coming in at 9.3 feet long, but the fisherman chose not to also weigh the “monster” to see if it was the heaviest catfish ever for fear of harming it.

The gigantic fish was caught by life-long Alessandro Biancardi late last month in the Po River in northern Italy.

“When we measured the fish on the mat. Under the incredulous eyes of many anglers, the meter stopped at 285 centimeters. It was the new world record catfish,” Biancardi wrote on his fishing team’s Madcat’s blog. 

Madcat creates and sells fishing equipment in Europe and supports anglers who catch large fish.

Describing the battle to land the amazing creature, Biancardi wrote on Madcat’s website, “I calmly managed to fight what I felt to be a prehistoric fish.”  

“In silence, I approached the first spot, and after a few casts, a powerful bite arose. The fish stood still some seconds before starting a very complicated fight.”

After “40 endless minutes,” Biancardi realized when the fish finally surfaced, he had “hooked a monster,” he wrote, saying it almost caused him to panic that he was “alone facing the biggest catfish I had ever seen in 23 years .”

However, Biancardi said he never imagined it would likely be the longest catfish ever caught. 

Ten people witnessed the official measuring of the fish on a mat, Madcat said, and documentation was sent to qualify for the International Game Fish Association catch-and-release length record. 

This fish will beat the International Game Fish Association’s current wels catfish length record by 1.57 inches if confirmed by the association. 

The current all-tackle record for a wels catfish for weight is 297 pounds and nine ounces caught in the River Po in 2010, USA Today reported. The heaviest catfish ever recorded was a Mekong giant catfish that weighed 646 pounds in Thailand. 

Even so, the fishermen let the beast go without weighing it, saying he “feared to stress” the rare specimen. 

“I decided to safely release it, hoping it could give another angler the same joy he gave to me,” he said.

• CNN obtained a transcript of a recording of Donald Trump talking about a classified document he kept after leaving the White House.
• “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me.” 
• Trump was discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran, per CNN.

CNN on Friday reported that it has a transcript of a recording of former President Donald Trump in 2021 discussing a secret military document that he’d kept after leaving office. “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump actually said on the recording. “This was done by the military and given to me.” 

Trump was discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran, according to CNN. 

Based on the transcript, Trump may have kept the document and shown it to an associate as a sort of insurance policy against anyone who might cross or criticize him. In this case, the antagonist was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, whose concerns about Trump attacking Iran had just been revealed in a New Yorker story.

“Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump said, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.”

Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice Thursday night on seven counts related to his mishandling of classified documents. It’s his second time being indicted this year. Both facing federal charges and being indicted twice are historic firsts for a former president. 

Our experts answer readers’ credit card questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess credit cards). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

• Four Marriott credit cards are offering elevated welcome bonuses for a limited time. They’re among the best we’ve ever seen.
• You can earn up to 200,000 Marriott points, but to unlock the most points you’ll need to stay six nights at Marriott Bonvoy properties.
• These are good offers if you have paid stays coming up at Marriott hotels anyway.
• Read Insider’s guide to the best hotel credit cards.

If Marriott is your hotel chain of choice, you have a great opportunity to stock up on points for future award stays. Four Marriott credit cards from American Express and Chase are offering up to 200,000 points for a limited time, and these offers have a unique twist that’s extra valuable for folks who have paid Marriott stays coming up.

Here’s what you can earn:

• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card: 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after spending $6,000 in purchases on the card within the first six months and earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy through 1/31/24 (offer ends 8/9/23) ($650 annual fee)
• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card: 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $5,000 in purchases on your new card within the first six months and earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy through 1/31/24 (offer ends 8/9/2023) ($250 annual fee)
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
  : 75,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of account opening plus 50,000 bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® through 1/31/24 ($95 annual fee)
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card
  : 50,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of account opening plus 50,000 bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® through 1/31/24 ($0 annual fee)

While we’ve seen a few higher offers in the past, these come pretty close — but only if you can unlock the full bonus by staying six eligible paid nights at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels by January 31, 2024.

Here’s what to know about each card to help you decide if it’s worth applying for a new Marriott credit card.

We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

Marriott Credit Card Offers: Earn up to 200,000 Points

Two of these cards (the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card and Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card) are from American Express, and two (the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card) are issued by Chase.

These offers are only available for a limited time, but have slightly different end dates. The American Express Marriott card offers end on August 9, 2023, but on the Chase Marriott cards, the end date is August 10, 2023. Be sure to apply before those dates if you’re interested in any of these offers.

There are some rules to keep in mind if you plan to take advantage of the six-night stay requirement to earn the full bonus on any of these cards:

• The earning period for the six nights is from your card open date until January 31, 2024, and you’ll automatically registered in this 50,000-point promotional offer
• Eligible paid nights include all paid stays, including pre-paid stays and bookings paid with Marriott eGiftCards that are booked using the eligible cardmember’s Marriott Bonvoy account
• Award nights including Cash + Points awards, free night awards, or a points redemption don’t qualify, nor do stays booked through third-party online retailers and travel agencies, or stays at Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Executive Apartments, and owner-occupied weeks at Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Club, St. Regis Residence Club, and Luxury Collection Residence Club
• Only one room at one property per night will count toward the promotional offer
• The six eligible paid nights don’t need to be part of the same stay; they can be achieved over multiple stays
• You’ll receive the 50,000 bonus points in your Marriott Bonvoy account up to 12 weeks after the sixth eligible paid night is completed

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant: Earn up to 200,000 points

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is the best choice for folks who stay with Marriott a lot — if you’re just an occasional traveler, you’ll likely do better with other Marriott cards. Because it’s a premium credit card, it’s got a hefty $650 annual fee.

The impressive welcome bonus of 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after spending $6,000 in purchases on the card within the first six months and earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy through 1/31/24 (offer ends 8/9/23) is worth around $1,400 according to Insider’s estimate of Marriott points value. Plus, the card earns Marriott points in some great categories:

• 6 points per dollar at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels (this is in addition to up to 10x points for being a Marriott Bonvoy member and up to 2.5x points for having Gold elite status from the card)
• 3x points on dining at US restaurants (including takeout and delivery)
• 3x points on flights purchased directly from airlines
• 2 points per dollar on all other eligible purchases

Although the card’s annual fee is high, it’s quite easy to offset that cost by maximizing the card’s vast range of benefits. These include: 

Here’s our Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex card review for all the details.

Marriott Bonvoy Bevy: Earn up to 175,000 points

The $250-annual-fee Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card is one of the newest additions to Marriott’s card lineup. It’s offering 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $5,000 in purchases on your new card within the first six months and earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy through 1/31/24 (offer ends 8/9/2023), which is worth around $1,225 in stays based on Insider’s points and miles valuations.

Most recently, it was offering 85,000 points after meeting minimum spending requirements, so this offer is a definite improvement. That said, the card’s $250 annual fee might be offputting for some, especially considering the card doesn’t come with an automatic award night on each anniversary like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card.

That said, if you want to earn Marriott points quickly from your everyday spending, this card is a solid option. Cardholders earn 6x points on hotel purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy locations, 4x at restaurants globally and at U.S. supermarkets on the first $15,000 in combined purchases per year (then 2x), and 2 points per dollar on everything else.

You’ll also get substantial benefits from this card, including:

• Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Gold elite status
• 1,000 points per eligible stay
• 15 elite night credits each calendar year
• Free night award at hotels that cost up to 50,000 points after spending $15,000 in a calendar year
• Secondary car rental insurance
• Baggage insurance plan
• Trip delay insurance
• Purchase protection
• Extended warranty
• Global Assist Hotline
• No foreign transaction fees

Read our Marriott Bonvoy Bevy credit card review to learn more.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless: Earn up to 125,000 points

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is Marriott’s mid-tier card, with a $95 annual fee. The offer to earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of account opening plus 50,000 bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® through 1/31/24 is good (worth around $875 in stays). But past offers to earn three or even five free night awards (worth up to 50,000 points each) after meeting minimum spending requirements were potentially more valuable.

This is the overall best Marriott card for most travelers. Cardholders receive a valuable array of benefits, the most notable of which is a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 points each card anniversary. That perk alone is more than enough to justify paying the annual fee.

It also comes with impressive travel and shopping perks, including:

• 15 elite night credits each calendar year
• One elite night credit for every $5,000 spent on the card
• Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Silver elite status
• Car rental insurance (secondary in the US, primary car rental insurance otherwise)
• Lost luggage reimbursement
• Trip delay insurance
• Baggage delay insurance
• Purchase protection
• Extended warranty
• Travel and emergency assistance services
• Visa Signature concierge
• Complimentary one-year DoorDash DashPass membership (activate by December 31, 2024)
• $10 per month in Gopuff credits through December 31, 2023
• No foreign transaction fees

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is also a good pick if you want to earn Marriott points on your everyday spending, because it earns 6x bonus points on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels (on top of what you’d normally earn from your stay), 3x points at grocery stores, gas stations, and on dining (on up to $6,000 in combined purchases per year), and 2x points on all other eligible purchases.

Here’s our Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card review for a deeper dive into the card’s benefits.

Marriott Bonvoy Bold: Earn up to 100,000 points

The Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card charges a $0 annual fee, so as you might expect, it comes with fewer benefits than other Marriott cards. Right now it’s offering 50,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of account opening plus 50,000 bonus points after you stay 6 eligible paid nights at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® through 1/31/24. That’s worth about $700 in stays according to our valuations.

Most casual travelers will do better opening the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card, but if you don’t care about extra frills (or are totally opposed to paying an annual fee), the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card isn’t bad for a no-annual-fee travel credit card.

Normally, the card offers 30,000 points after meeting minimum spending requirements, so this new bonus is more than double the usual offer if you can meet the six-night stay requirement. You won’t get a free anniversary night or as many travel perks, and the card only earns 3x points at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels (on top of what you’d already earn from a stay), 2x points on other eligible travel purchases, and 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases.

As for benefits, cardholders receive a handful of travel protections and other perks, including:

• 15 elite night credits each calendar year (enough for Silver elite status)
• Lost luggage reimbursement
• Baggage delay reimbursement
• Trip delay reimbursement
• Purchase protection
• Visa Signature concierge
• Complimentary one-year DoorDash DashPass membership (activate by December 31, 2024)
• $10 per month in Gopuff credits through December 31, 2023
• No foreign transaction fees

You can find out if this card is right for you in our Marriott Bonvoy Bold credit card review.

Alternatives to Marriott credit cards

If you’re interested in earning Marriott points but don’t want to commit to a Marriott credit card, you have other options. Cards that earn transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card are a good choice if you want flexibility. Marriott is a Chase transfer partner, and moving points from these cards is easy. Just keep in mind that other Chase partners, like United Airlines or Hyatt, will typically get you more value from your points.

Marriott is also an American Express Membership Rewards points transfer partner, so you can transfer points from cards like the American Express® Gold Card
and The Platinum Card® from American Express
at a 1:1 ratio.

For a closer look at making the most of your rewards, read our guide to earning and redeeming Marriott points.

• Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is headed to the southern border on Wednesday.
• He’ll be hosting a roundtable on law enforcement, according to a release from his office. 
• The DeSantis administration sent two flights of migrants from Texas to California.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is headed to the US-Mexico border for the first time as a 2024 presidential candidate. 

The trip comes in the wake of the DeSantis administration acknowledging it orchestrated two planes carrying migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento, California.

DeSantis has yet to speak publicly about the flights, though he appears ready to do so on Wednesday. He’ll be doing a roundtable with law enforcement in Sierra Vista, Arizona, per a press release from his office. 

The event will occur close to the time former Vice President Mike Pence will announce at a rally in Iowa that he, too, is joining the 2024 contest. 

The immigration policy rollout is consistent with how DeSantis operated as governor. He’ll frequently put shocking developments into motion and then hold scripted announcements that trigger the left while drawing amusement and cheers from the right wing.

Often, he’ll hold TV studio-style roundtables with allies, where he will take on the role of interviewer. He held similar events when calling for harsher anti-defamation laws and when he fanned the flames of COVID vaccine skepticism. 

DeSantis is the second candidate running for the GOP nomination heading to the southern border. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, also running for the nomination, was the first to take a trip to the southern border in Texas in May.

Hard-line positions on illegal immigration tend to be popular with the GOP base, particularly after the Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and actions. But even Democratic mayors, including in New York City, have complained that their resources are strained by the influx of migrants who’ve arrived in their cities. 

But legal trouble could be ahead for the governor or members of his administration. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, have floated the idea of pressing “kidnapping charges” against DeSantis by invoking a section of the criminal code that penalizes people who forcibly bring people into “the limits of the state.”

DeSantis is scheduled to go to Sacramento for a fundraiser on June 19, according to the Sacramento Bee. 

• Insider built an org chart showing the most senior executives at BlackRock.
• BlackRock has been priming the next generation of management and making changes at the top.
• Our org chart shows where executives said to be in the running to succeed Fink sit.

BlackRock has made a number of top personnel changes and internal structural shifts in the past year at a time when it is also wrestling with who will take over from Larry Fink, its cofounder and chief executive.

To provide a window into the current power structure, Insider has mapped out the roughly 150 most senior BlackRock executives.

BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, overseeing $9.1 trillion. The New York firm is run by Fink, the only CEO BlackRock has had since he and seven partners, including president Rob Kapito, founded it in 1988.

Fink is now 70, and the firm has been preparing for his and Kapito’s retirements for years.

Our org chart reflects recent changes to the company’s structure. This month, the firm overhauled its alternative-investments business and made changes to the makeup of its Aladdin business, two core BlackRock offerings. Last year, BlackRock formed a new markets unit led by former human resources chief Manish Mehta and a new global client business led by Mark Wiedman.

The chart also shows where influential, longtime decision-makers sit within the firm and who they oversee, including executives viewed by company insiders as possible Fink successors.

Do you have a story about BlackRock? Reach this reporter at rungarino@insider.com, by encrypted email at rungarino@protonmail.com, or at (646) 768-4711.

• Michelle Checchi, 29, has traveled the world while working remotely since 2019.
• She says her lifestyle is “much more affordable” than she’d expect to have in the US.
• In 2021, over 15 million Americans described themselves as digital nomads, up 112% from 2019.

When Michelle Checchi, 29, left the US in 2019, she planned to be gone for only a few months — as long as it took to drain her savings account.

Today, she’s still traversing the globe, working remotely as a freelance writer and video producer and making $4,000 in the typical month while working 15 to 30 hours per week, bank documents reviewed by Insider showed. 

“Instead of just feeling stuck in my one place of living, I live in an international environment that’s international for me, where I am still a traveler and a visitor,” she said.  

She is among a growing number of digital nomads, or remote workers who travel for weeks, months, or — in Checchi’s case — “for the foreseeable future.” Over 15 million Americans describe themselves as digital nomads, up 42% from 2020 and 112% from 2019, MBO Partners’ 2021 State of Independence study found. Driving this trend is the growing flexibility of remote work, a longing to see the world, and the desire to cut costs.

As of June, over 25 countries had introduced digital-nomad visa programs aimed at luring remote workers and their wallets. The World Population Review said that only two countries — Bermuda and Switzerland — have a higher cost of living than New York City, where Checchi grew up. For her, living abroad has been a budget saver.

Making more money than ever

After graduating in 2015, Checchi enjoyed her job as a local news producer for four years, but she had a persistent desire to “travel and experience freedom,” she said. In September 2019, she sold most of her possessions, drove across the country, and hopped on a one-way flight to Tel Aviv, Israel.

In her first months abroad, Checchi traveled to Cyprus, India, and Nepal, where she tried to stretch out her savings for as long as possible, she said. But after about three months, when it looked like her fun was coming to an end,  Checchi had a “spark of an idea”: What if she found a way to make money working remotely? She began browsing Upwork and other platforms for freelance writing gigs. 

“I was thinking, ‘If I’m going to get a full-time job, it’s going to root me down to one place,’” she said. “I really wanted to create a lifestyle where I could maintain my location independence.”

While she found some work, money was “not good” early on — a few hundred dollars here and there, not enough to put off her return to the US for long. But slowly, her workflow began to grow. After about six months, Checchi was making just as much as she had in her news job — which paid about $50,000 per year — while working about half the hours, not to mention traveling the world as she did so.

She surpassed her old salary a few months later, breaking $10,000 in income some months — including $17,000 this past June when she did on-site video production for a convention. Checchi also has over 68,000 followers on TikTok — where she posts her travel highlights and tips — though she said she only recently began to make “a little bit of money” via social media. Checchi said she used to wonder how digital nomads could possibly afford their lifestyle.

“I was really surprised,” she said. “I was like: ‘Oh, OK. So this can be sustainable.’” 

While she continues to do freelance content writing — “ghostwriting blogs, articles, and web copy” — she’s begun skewing more toward her video-production roots. Although her clients vary, she often films and produces content for companies in the tourism industry — projects that typically pay for her travel.

Checchi said it’s strange to look back at her time as a local news producer, when she felt her skills weren’t transferable anywhere else.

“Now I’m like, ‘Wow, there’s so much that I can do with my skills when you think outside the box a little bit,’ she said. 

The challenges of a nomadic life

When she’s not traveling, Checchi has a home base in Tel Aviv, which she chose in part for its accessibility to both Europe and Asia. While Tel Aviv can be quite an expensive place to live, Checchi pays $871 per month to rent an apartment with a couple. She typically sublets her room when traveling for an extended period. She tends to stay in hostels and Airbnbs, which helps her stick to a monthly housing budget of about $900. That’s a big savings compared to the average June rent of $3,100 for a studio apartment in New York, where she previously lived.

Airfare is her biggest expense, but given that she doesn’t cross the Atlantic Ocean often to see her family, she’s able to travel relatively affordably from place to place. There’s also more competition in Europe’s airline industry compared to in the US, which helps keep her flight prices lower. 

But it hasn’t all been roses. During the pandemic, she had to return to the US and stay with her family in Staten Island, New York, for a time. Aside from that, she said, she doesn’t see her family often — though she’s now making an effort to return to the US every three to four months. These flight costs add up, but she said they were well worth it, and that if need be, she could seek out extra work to offset them. While her best friends are in the US, Checchi has friends “all over the place,” she said, adding that traveling alone has been a “great way to meet new people.”

While she doesn’t think a nomadic lifestyle is for everyone, she has no plans to give it up anytime soon: “I’m living for myself at this point in my life.” 

Story was originally published in July 2022.

• Russian schools are introducing programs promoting the military to encourage support for the Ukraine war.
• Russia asked students to knit socks for soldiers and write poems about military history, NYT reported.
• The all-out effort across 40,000 public schools is reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda.

As Russia enters its 16th month of war in Ukraine, it appears to be preparing for the long haul.

Across its 40,000 public schools, the Kremlin is now promoting programs and materials that celebrate Russia’s military history — an apparent effort to indoctrinate its schoolchildren to support its invasion of Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Russia is now asking its students to knit socks for Russian soldiers, a seemingly antiquated effort that feels like a throwback to the Soviet era. Students are also writing poems celebrating Russian history and are now supposed to attend a morning assembly where students raise the Russian flag and sing the national anthem, The Times reported. They then spend an hour talking about Russia’s military history.

While the directives are coming from the highest levels of government, the exact programs are mostly left up to individual school administrators, creating a vast diversity of efforts. One school used the role of a sniper to illustrate a math lesson, The Times reported.

The school programs first began when Russia annexed Crimea, a southern peninsula in the Black Sea, in 2014. But Russia has ramped up the efforts as its invasion of Ukraine drags on.

In January, Insider reviewed troves of Russian lesson materials posted online that were preparing children as young as 7 to be ready to die for their country. The overall message seemed to be that Russia was liberating the people of Ukraine.

With Russia stagnant on the battlefield, propaganda steps in

Russia first invaded eastern Ukraine in February 2022. It quickly took large swaths of the country’s eastern territory.

But its advances have stalled more recently. Russian forces became bogged down in their effort to take the  eastern city of Bakhmut. Ukraine made it a point to try and hold the city, pouring resources into the effort. Russia claimed victory over the city earlier this month, but at a steep cost to both sides.

Russia’s military far outmatches Ukraine’s. But much of the Russian military equipment is outdated, and soldiers have complained of equipment shortages. Russia has used decades-old tanks and soldiers have said they are relying on Soviet-era gear.

As setbacks mounted for Russia in Bakhmut, the notorious Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization, stepped into the fray. It recruited thousands of Russian prisoners, exchanging their freedom for fighting on the frontlines. The arrival of Wagner in Bakhmut created tensions among the various factions of Russian forces.

Russia is now bracing for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

While its indoctrination program is reminiscent of Soviet-era policies, it is this time more muted, The Times reported.

Experts told the newspaper that this appears to be the result of lessons learned during the Soviet era when propaganda touting the success of Communism stood in stark contrast to the reality many Russians saw in their daily lives.

“They want enthusiasm, but they realize if they push too hard it could galvanize an organized opposition,” Alexandra Arkhipova, a social anthropologist, told The Times. “They do not want people to protest.”

• The Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawed public school segregation in 1954.
• But 69 years later, 32 school districts in Mississippi are still under federal desegregation orders.
• Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents of any state.

LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) — There are 32 school districts in Mississippi still under federal desegregation orders, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s assistant attorney general said Thursday.

Enforcing the open desegregation orders fit into a broader body of civil rights work launched in Mississippi that is examining jails, police departments, and hate crimes in the state, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Referring to the US Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation of public schools across the country in 1954, she said the Justice Department is ensuring school districts provide Black students in Mississippi with equal access to education programs.

“In our ongoing efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education, we currently have 32 open cases with school districts here in Mississippi,” Clarke said. “And in each of those cases, we are working to ensure that these districts comply with desegregation orders from courts.”

Clarke spoke to a small group of residents, local leaders and reporters Thursday at the Holmes County Circuit Court Complex in Lexington, about 62 miles from Jackson, the state capital.

Mississippi is the latest stop in Clarke’s “listening tour” throughout the Deep South. The Justice Department is learning where to direct resources and where it might need to mount civil rights lawsuits, she said.

Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents of any state. It has been home, as have other states, to legal fights over desegregation.

In 2017, a Mississippi Delta school district agreed to merge two high schools after nearly 50 years of litigation in which the district sought to maintain historically Black and white schools.

In addition to school districts, Clarke said at least five Mississippi jails and prisons have come under federal scrutiny.

The department is looking into whether the facilities protect prisoners from violence and meet housing standards. The facilities include the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility and a Hinds County Jail.

Clarke also said her division is investigating whether Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputies used excessive force when they shot Michael Corey Jenkins in the mouth during an alleged drug raid.

An Associated Press investigation found that several deputies from the department have been involved in at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

Clarke declined to offer more details about the case, citing an ongoing federal civil rights investigation. After delivering prepared remarks in Lexington, she met with community members about allegations of police brutality in the small town.

‘Hate and bigotry are sadly on the rise’

Police have “terrorized” Black residents by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation, an ongoing federal lawsuit claims.

“What I hope she’ll do is seriously address the issues. Not gloss over them, say that she has heard about these violations, talk about them in detail and say that it is wrong if it is happening,” said Jill Collen Jefferson, president of JULIAN, a civil rights organization that filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of a group of Lexington residents.

The community meeting was closed to reporters. The Justice Department has not announced an investigation into the Lexington Police Department.

Jefferson said her organization plans to file a class action lawsuit against the Lexington Police Department in the new few months.

Against the backdrop of ongoing investigations into potential civil rights violations ensnaring school districts, jails and police departments is FBI data released in March showing the number of hate crimes in the US rose in 2021.

“Hate and bigotry are sadly on the rise,” she said.

• Taylor Swift’s former apartment is on sale for $17.9 million or can be rented for $45,000 per month.
• Swift’s references the townhouse in her song “Cornelia Street,” featured on the album “Lover.”
• The NYC home has its own indoor pool and multiple private terraces overlooking the West Village.

You can now have your very own slice of Taylor Swift’s “Cornelia Street” — to the tune of $17.9 million.

“Cornelia Street,” the ninth song on Taylor Swift’s seventh studio album, “Lover,” alludes to an apartment the star once lived in in New York City’s West Village, as well as the early days of her relationship with whom many believe to be actor Joe Alwyn.

“‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street,’ I say casually in the car,” Swift sings in the first verse.

The pop superstar rented 23 Cornelia Street for a few months between 2016 and 2017, according to People.

According to Street Easy, Swift’s former home is now for sale, but it can also be rented for $45,000 per month. 

Keep reading for a closer look at Swift’s iconic Cornelia Street apartment.

• The FHFA said on Tuesday that US house prices rose modestly in the first quarter.
• But some Western states are seeing the first year-over-year price declines in years.
• The agency’s pricing index rose 4.3% in the first three months of the year.

The US housing market broadly notched price increases as the key spring-selling season began, but one area of the country that was booming saw the air coming out of prices every year, according to government data released Tuesday.

House prices grew 4.3% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a Tuesday report. The advance meant that the market had notched annual appreciation each quarter since 2012.

The agency’s House Price Index reached just under 400, hitting an all-time high with figures tracking back to 1991. The index measures prices of single-family houses with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“U.S. house prices generally increased modestly in the first quarter,” Anju Vajja, the principal associate director at the FHFA’s research and statistics division, said. “However, year over year prices in many western states have started to decline for the first time in over ten years.”

Seven states — all located in the Western US— logged price declines. Utah led the list, with prices off by 4.35%. Nevada followed with a drop of 3.6%.

California’s house prices fell by 2.86%, and Washington saw a 2.62% drop, the FHFA report said. Also landing on the list were Idaho, Oregon, and Colorado, with the latter seeing prices down 1.07%.

Outside the Western states, the District of Columbia experienced a 2.35% year-over-year price pullback.

Of the nine regions that the FHFA tracked, two had annual house price decreases. The Pacific division was down 2.4%, and the Mountain division was down 0.1%.

Rising interest rates directed by the Federal Reserve in fighting hot inflation have contributed to a slowdown in the housing market since last year, with home sellers slashing listing prices while listings themselves have become scarce.

Separate data from the property software and data provider Black Knight has shown that markets on the West Coast, including San Francisco and Seattle, have seen the biggest slowdowns.

Localized data also points to the sharp regional divides in the housing market. Over the past four quarters, house prices rose in 78 of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas, fronted by a 14% rise for the Miami area. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California, was the largest metro area with the greatest price decline, at 10.1%.

Nationwide, FHFA said housing prices rose 0.6% in March. That rate outstripped the 0.3% estimate at Econoday.

The start of the spring selling season showed house-price gains in March in a separate S&P CoreLogic report released Tuesday. Its Case-Shiller Index rose 0.7% in March versus the year-ago period as tight inventory pressured prices upward.

The “decline in home prices that began in June 2022 may have come to an end” in March, the report said.