The War Zone: Russian President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in the four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin has claimed to have annexed to Russia, imposing tighter restrictions, and forced removals on the civilian population. The regions have been effectively under martial law since they were invaded, but this is more severe.

  The Russians are evacuating the occupied southern city of Kherson, claiming it’s about to become a battle zone, said Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office. He said that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not fire at Ukrainian cities.”

  But the Russians are forcibly evacuating tens of thousands of citizens.

  The withdrawal from Kherson indicates that the Russians are in trouble. Ukrainian artillery is nearly within range of the bridges and river ports of the Dnipro river, which the Russians would have to cross to retreat to the east. A pullback under the guns could be a chaotic massacre for Russian soldiers west of the river. Ukrainian forces have been trying to get their howitzers within range of the Dnipro bridges since the opening of the war.

  On the social network Telegram, the owner of the Wagner Group private Russian militia has acknowledged that the Ukrainians are tough. He said “The Ukrainian troops are putting up decent resistance and the legend of the fleeing Ukrainians is just a legend. Ukrainians are guys with the same iron balls as we are.”

Trump World: A federal judge said yesterday that Donald Trump and his allies knowingly filed court documents containing false voter fraud figures and continued to make the false claims in public even though he knew they were fiction. 

   Judge David O. Carter yesterday ordered the release to House investigators of emails from Donald Trump’s former lawyer John Eastman, saying the messages were made in furtherance of a crime committed in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. His decision could be the springboard for Trump and Eastman to be charged.

  Communications between lawyer and client are not privileged if they are part of committing a crime. “The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” Judge Carter wrote. 

  Carter said in his decision that President Trump “filed certain lawsuits not to obtain legal relief, but to disrupt or delay the January 6 congressional proceedings through the courts.” He said, “The Court finds that these emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.” 

The Vote: Voters in Georgia are casting ballots in record numbers in early voting.

  In the first two days of voting, over 291,700 people voted, nearly twice the number in 2018. By the end of Wednesday, 268,050 people voted in person and 23,690 absentee, according to the Secretary of State’s office. In 2020, the early vote numbers after the second day were 266,403, and in 2018 they were 147,289. 

  It’s impossible to say who or what they are voting for, but the numbers say the voters are driven by the issues, the candidates, or both, to make a difference.

Econ 101: Americans are paying $445 more month to buy the same goods and services as they did a year ago, according to Moody’s Analytics. Inflation has been 8.2 percent in the past year. Of course, the effects of inflation are not uniform. How it hits individuals depends on what they need and what goods and services they pay for.

Running Man: Speaking at Georgetown University Wednesday night, former Vice President Mike Pence was asked whether he would support Donald Trump for president in 2024. Pence answered, “Well, there might be somebody else I’d prefer more.”

  He doesn’t have a chance.

The Spin Rack: The Capitol Police yesterday arrested an 80-year-old man illegally parked with guns in his car on the grounds between the Capitol and the Supreme Court. They detained two people with him who said they were there to deliver documents to the Court. — Donald Trump yesterday sat for a deposition under oath in the lawsuit brought against him by advice columnist E Jean Carroll, who says he raped her in a New York luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump said Carroll was lying, moving her to file a defamation suit. — A day at Disney’s two California parks for two adults and two young children, including parking, now costs $1,086 before buying food or Mickey Mouse junk.

Below the Fold: After only six weeks in office and a disastrous start with new financial policies, Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss is already facing calls for her ouster. Five members of the legislature from her own Conservative Party have said she should resign. Her favorability rating is just 10 percent.

   Rejecting calls for her resignation she said, “I’m a fighter and not a quitter,” 

  A  British newspaper is running a live video  of a head of lettuce with a smiley face on it, asking the question, “Will Liz Truss outlast this lettuce?” 

  The lettuce bit was inspired by The Economist, which noted on Oct. 11th that between Truss’s near-immediate tax-cut implosion, and the 10 days of mourning after the death of  Queen Elizabeth II, her grip on power amounted to seven days, or “roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce.”

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