Threat to the World: Speaking at the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly yesterday in New York, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia’s aggression against his country as a worldwide threat that would not stop if Russia completely overruns Ukraine.

  “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” Zelensky told the assembly of world leaders. He said that Russia is weaponizing essentials like food and energy “not only against our country, but against all of yours, as well.”

  Zelensky said, “Weaponization must be restrained, war crimes must be punished, deported people must come back home, and the occupier must return to their own land.”

  President Joe Biden backed up Zelensky saying in his speech, “We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”

THE WAR ROOM:  On the battle front, Ukrainian officials claim that they re-took two villages south of the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut and in the process rendered three enemy brigades combat ineffective. This puts the Ukrainians in a better position for taking back Bakhmut but progress is not expected to be quick or dramatic.

THE BROKE POINT: Former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who’s facing a criminal indictment in Georgia, is being sued by his former attorney for more than $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees.  The NY Times reports that Giuliani owes as much as $3 million to various law firms.

  Giuliani racked up fortunes in legal bills fighting criminal and congressional investigations, private lawsuits, and disciplinary proceedings involving his efforts to keep Donald Trump in office despite losing the 2020 election. 

 Giuliani has sought financial help from Trump, who has not bestowed it. Trump has a reputation for not paying his own bills.

  The lawsuit signals the collapse of a long term friendship and professional relationship between Giuliani and the lawyer suing him, Robert Costello, who as a law student trained under Giuliani when he was the federal prosecutor in New York. Costello has been Giuliani’s bristling defender for the past four years. But Rudy is broke or close to it. He said Costello’s bill is “way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees.”

DISRUPTIVE CONDUCT: Ray Epps, a prominent figure in the January 6^th insurrection who ended up being accused by fellow right wingers of being a federal informant, was charged yesterday with one misdemeanor count of disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds for his part in the capitol attack. A plea agreement is set for today.

  On the day of the insurrection, Epps wore beige combat camo, what looked like a ballistic vest, a military backpack, and a red baseball hat with “Trump” prominent on the front. Video shows that Epps tried to deescalate tensions between the police and rioters. 

  Epps was originally listed on the FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage and when he was removed he became the subject of conspiracy theories that he had been a federal agent planted to whip up the crowd for the Capitol attack. He told the House January 6^th committee that the rumors had torn apart his life.

DRESS CODE: The US Senate is in a spin over the decision by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to relax the unwritten dress code that expected senators of both sexes to wear proper business attire. Schumer said in a statement, “senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor.”

  This opens the door for Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman to show up in his personal uniform of an oversized hoody, baggy gym shorts, and sneakers.  Seventy-one-year-old Republican Susan Collins of Maine said, “I plan to wear a bikini.”

  The Washington Post opined in an editorial that, “One would have thought that, with public trust in government waning, the Senate might want to avoid looking even a tiny bit more like a high school cafeteria.”

  Fetterman asked in an interview on MSNBC, “Aren’t there more important things we should be talking about rather than if I dress like a slob?” 

THE OBIT PAGE: James Hoge, the former tabloid newspaper editor and publisher who ran both the Chicago Sun Times and New York Daily News, has died at age 87. As editor, Hoge ran the investigation into the questionable use of Catholic Church money by Chicago’s cardinal, John Cody. And he ran Seymour Hersh’s 1969 exposé of the My Lai massacre, the killing of civilians by American soldiers in Vietnam.

THE SPIN RACK: The United Auto Workers are threatening to expand their targeted strike against three production plants if there is no substantial progress in negotiations with the car companies by Friday. — Two people involved with running a Bronx day care center have been arrested after the death of a one-year-old and hospitalization of three other children ages eight months to two years exposed to fentanyl. Investigators searching the apartment used for day care found drug processing and packaging equipment as well as a 1 kilo brick of fentanyl resting on the children’s’ play mats. — A high school band director in Birmingham, Alabama was shocked with a stun gun and arrested last Thursday after he refused a police order to stop his band from playing their last song at the end of a football game and clear the stadium. The band director had told the cops “Get out of my face.” And “We’re fixing to go, this is their last song.” When the music was over the cops wrestled with band director Johnny Mims, tased him, cuffed him, and arrested him. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  Tesla Tycoon Elon Musk said in a discussion with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that, “There’s an old saying that history is written by the victors. Well, yes, but not if your enemies are still alive and have a lot of time on their hands to edit Wikipedia.”

-30-