Asked if he believes there should be new gun laws in the wake of the Texas shooting, Georgia Senate GOP nominee Herschel Walker told me in ATL: “What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff.” He didn’t engage further. pic.twitter.com/wpsAZ7yKP5

So is Vladimir Putin winning the economic war?
No, he’s losing it. That surging surplus is a sign of weakness, not strength — it largely reflects a plunge in Russia’s imports, which even state-backed analysts say is hobbling its economy. Russia is, in effect, making a lot of money selling oil and gas, but finding it hard to use that money to buy the things it needs, reportedly including crucial components used in the production of tanks and other military equipment.

Why is Russia apparently having so much trouble buying stuff? Part of the answer is that many of the world’s democracies have banned sales to Russia of a variety of goods — weapons, of course, but also industrial components that can, directly or indirectly, be used to produce weapons.

It would be especially difficult for Russian companies to replace foreign technology products and microchips, Ms Shagina added. Russia’s efforts to copy banned social media platforms have been met with ridicule, while sanctions have sent the car industry back to the 1980s, with new cars no longer legally obliged to have airbags, which cannot now be imported from the west.

the prices Russian households pay for the goods and services they consume were 17.8% higher in April than a year earlier, compared with annual inflation rates of 8.3% in the U.S. and 7.4% in the eurozone.

Wages for Russian workers aren’t keeping pace. The result is that real disposable incomes were 1.2% lower in the first three months of 2022 than a year earlier. With the economy set to contract by around 10% this year, pay increases are unlikely to pick up.
Gregory Shevchenko, co-founder of digital marketing agency Shevchenko.bz in Moscow, said that he expects his employees to start asking for higher pay due to inflation, which he is unlikely to be able to accommodate.
“I used to hire and pay salaries based on expected growth,” Mr. Shevchenko said. But clients have decreased their budgets, paused new contracts or shortened deals, he said.

One crucial function that the governor performs himself is signing the official certificate of the electoral college votes, and it is not clear what recourse there would be if a governor refuses to do so

He vowed to decertify voting machines in counties where he suspects the result was rigged.

And he asserted that the Republican-controlled legislature should have the right to take control of the all-important choice over which presidential electors to send to Washington.

Those concerns are made especially acute in Pennsylvania by the fact that the governor has the unusual authority to directly appoint the secretary of state, who serves as chief elections officer and must sign off on results. If he or she refuses, chaos could follow.