First, links to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters; click on the news services’ names for others. Next, links to two looks, both unfavorable, at a new federal government panel and its head. — MCM

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Ukraine working to pull last fighters from Mariupol mill, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Ciaran McQuillan | The Associated Press KYIV — Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters defending the last holdout in Mariupol were evacuated to areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists and officials worked today to get the rest out, signaling the beginning of the end of a siege that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Russia called the operation a mass surrender. The Ukrainians avoided using that word . . . . Other fighters . . . remain inside the Azovstal steelworks . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine will get worse for isolated Russia, analyst says on state TV, by Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters LONDON — One military analyst had a brutally frank message Monday night for viewers of Russian state television: The war in Ukraine will get much worse for Russia, which is facing a mass mobilization supported by the United States while Russia is almost totally isolated. READ MORE . . .

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How Disagreement Became ‘Disinformation,’ by Barton Swain | The Wall Street Journal The preoccupation with “misinformation” and “disinformation” on the part of America’s enlightened influencers last month reached the level of comedy. The Department of Homeland Security chose a partisan scold, Nina Jankowicz, to head its new Disinformation Governance Board despite her history of promoting false stories and repudiating valid ones—the sort of scenario only a team of bumblers or a gifted satirist could produce. Less funny but similarly paradoxical was Barack Obama’s April 21 address lamenting online disinformation, in which he propounded at least one easily disprovable assertion. Tech companies, the former president said, . . . READ MORE . . .

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Oh God It’s Going to Get SO Much Worse, by Caitlin Johnstone | Caitlin’s Newsletter Rightists have spent the last couple of days freaking out and invoking Orwell’s 1984 in response to something their political enemies are doing in America, and for once it’s for a pretty good reason. The Department of Homeland Security has secretly set up a “Disinformation Governance Board“, only informing the public about its plans for the institution after it had already been established. The disinformation board, which critics have understandably been calling . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED