The second single from London-based duo Quenta, “The Two of Us” grips with a heady hip-hop and art-pop fusion, reminiscent of Demon Days-era Gorillaz. Described as “a journey into the realms of relationships, lovers or friends,” “The Two of Us” meshes hip-hop rhythms with dark brass components. The vocals emit a range of charisma and personality, practically laughing with menacing appeal upon the “it’s just the two of us,” beginnings.

An ominous swell past the one-minute mark excels into a bouncier piano-forward pull, as a mellower vocal disposition emerges alongside. The rise from hip-hop mystique into smooth-flowing pop and “game over!” vocal snippet makes for a compelling sound, reflecting the project’s eclectic and creatively melodic sound — even if it’s at time unsettling. “The Two of Us” is a creative success from Quenta.

Quenta also has an upcoming full-length on the way.

TOKYO, Japan – Japan’s military is testing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service with an eye to adopting the technology next fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, June 25, citing unnamed government sources.

The Ministry of Defense already has access to communication satellites in geostationary orbit, but use of Starlink technology, operated by Musk’s SpaceX, would add a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, the Yomiuri said.

Countries around the world are seeking to build resilience against the risk of jamming of communications or attacks on satellites in the event of conflict.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been testing Starlink since March with the system deployed in about 10 locations and in training, the newspaper said.

Defense ministry spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment on the report outside business hours.

Starlink technology is being deployed by Ukraine on the battlefield, and Russia is attempting to block its use in the region. Musk said in October SpaceX could not afford to indefinitely fund Starlink’s use in Ukraine.

The US Defense Department said this month it had contracted to provide Starlink services there. – Rappler.com

During the Formula E qualifying round in Portland, Oregon, today, the DS Penske team was fined €25,000 after it surreptitiously installed an RFID scanner at the entrance to the pit, which the FIA stewards said could collect data from other race cars and give them an advantage. The team’s racers, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne, were also hit with a pit lane start penalty for today’s race — meaning they will have to wait at the end of the pit lane until all of the other cars have driven past before entering the race.

The FIA Stewards explanation for the penalty was provided to The Verge via email:

The Stewards were advised by the Technical Delegate that the competitor had installed RFID scanning equipment in the pit lane entry this morning that was able to collect live data from all cars. Firstly, it is forbidden in general for competitors to install or place any equipment in the pit lane. Secondly, the collection of data by this method gives the competitor a lot of information, which is a huge and unfair advantage. Taking all the circumstances together, the Stewards feel that the given penalty is appropriate.

RFID chips have been used in Formula E tires for the entirety of the still-young motorsport, primarily to track the condition of tires, including temperature and tire pressure, and encourage their efficient use, according to a 2014 article in Tyrepress.

For the 2023 season, Formula E has switched to a new “Gen 3” car design and a new tire manufacturer, going from Michelins to the Hankook iON. A Motorsport.com report from off-season testing discussed how much of a challenge that presented for the teams and a possible reason why attempting to glean data from the entire field was something Penske would even try.

For the 2022-2023 season, the series picked up a sponsorship from Hankook tires, which a report in Motorsport indicated presented challenges for the drivers, who had been used to the same Michelin tires for the previous 8 seasons.

Should go without saying, but:

Telegram and Twitter were big spreaders of misinformation during the Russian coup attempt. Credit: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The potential coup attempt in Russia by a paramilitary organization may already be over(opens in a new tab), but the misinformation sure did flow during the breaking global event.

On Friday, news quickly spread that the Kremlin-aligned private army known as Wagner Group, led by "Putin's chef" Yevgeny Prigozhin, was leaving the war in Ukraine and marching towards Moscow. This breaking news caught many by surprise, and people flocked to social media in an effort to make sense of what appeared to be a coup attempt.

However, with information sparse as events in Russia were still unfolding, misinformation and wild speculation ran rampant online, showing that modern day social media and internet news sources are still highly flawed and lacking.

A major issue with this particular event is that many of the most popular platforms in the country aren't ones that get much use in the western world. Telegram, for example, is extremely popular in non-English speaking countries like Russia. Much of the breaking news surrounding the coup attempt was first being posted there, and in Russian.

English speakers not only had to understand the language, but be familiar with which Telegram channels were legitimate sources of information. Due to lackadaisical moderation on the platform, many English-language users that are on Telegram tend to be far right-wingers and biased towards Putin's regime. These accounts are not the best sources of information, if they even have any actual on-the-ground info to begin with.

Much of what flowed on Telegram eventually did make its way to English-speaking users in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere via Twitter. And that poses yet another problem. Since Elon Musk acquired the platform, Twitter has gone through changes that don't exactly bode well for it as an invaluable breaking news resource like it once was.

For example, prior to Musk, the blue checkmark meant that a user was verified by Twitter as the journalist or expert that the individual claimed they were. Remember, the purpose of the checkmark was to make sure these users couldn't be impersonated. Now, however, anyone who pays $8 per month for Twitter's premium subscription service, Twitter Blue, gets a blue checkmark.

Furthermore, those paid blue checkmark users now get priority placement in Twitter's For You feed algorithm, and in the replies to other users' tweets. And, echoing the issue on Telegram, many Twitter Blue subscribers are not far, ideologically speaking, from the Putin regime.

​​"It's probably not good that during a major breaking news event, the ongoing Wagner mutiny in Russia, the majority of viral false and misleading claims are from accounts with Twitter Blue subscription, whose posts are promoted by Twitter's algorithm," observed(opens in a new tab) Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist that covers disinformation and conspiracy theories at BBC Verify.

The issues on Twitter became so obvious that they quickly even became meme-fodder(opens in a new tab) on the platform. For example, many blue checkmark users began spreading information in long tweet threads about the Russian coup, regardless of the fact that they had no expertise on the matter.

It also didn't help that Elon Musk, who owns the platform and has more than 144 million followers, decided not to use his reach to promote experts or journalists on the ground. Instead, Musk deemed(opens in a new tab) a cryptocurrency and tech entrepreneur who hosts larger Twitter Spaces audio chats, the provider of the "best coverage of the situation," and referred his followers to their account.

And unfortunately for those most affected, like people living in Russia, online information was hard to come by as well. Internet observatory NetBlocks reported(opens in a new tab) that the country's major telecommunications providers were blocking users from accessing Google's popular news aggregator, Google News.

Wagner Group now appears to have reversed course and will no longer march towards Moscow. Instead, the paramilitary group will join the Kremlin and again turn their focus to Ukraine, the country that Russia has invaded, to continue a war that has been subjected to its own disinformation campaigns. However, this potential coup, which lasted less than 24 hours, put a big spotlight on how the internet may be worse off than ever before when it comes to spreading accurate information during breaking global news events.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use(opens in a new tab) and Privacy Policy(opens in a new tab). You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

Members of Wagner Group stand on the balcony of the circus building in the city of Rostov-on-Don. | AFP/Getty Images

U.S. officials suspect the rebellion by a Russian warlord against the Kremlin’s military leadership could provide Ukraine with a much-needed opportunity to reverse the fortunes of its sputtering counteroffensive.

The Biden administration has yet to draw up a formal assessment and officials cautioned it was too early for definitive conclusions. But multiple interagency meetings Friday night and Saturday morning arrived at a preliminary consensus that the Wagner mercenary group’s insurrection will occupy the Kremlin’s attention.

“I don’t see how it could hurt them,” said one of the senior administration officials. Others said it was likely to help, especially since Wagner overtook the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the epicenter of Russia’s operational management for its invasion of Ukraine.

The officials, granted permission to speak anonymously about the greatest challenge to Putin in more than 20 years, said they were tracking Wagner forces into Rostov and now as they make their way northward toward the Russian capital. The local governor of the Lipetsk region, roughly six hours from Moscow, said Wagner troops drove through the oblast with armored vehicles Saturday morning. Russian military bloggers indicated that a Wagner advance reached the Moscow region.

Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded his country’s counteroffensive hasn’t gone to plan as Russian airpower and dormant mines stalled Kyiv’s advances on multiple fronts. The Biden administration feared that a lack of clear success heading into next month’s NATO summit would erode alliance unity and complicate the politics of continued support for Ukraine. But Prigozhin’s play could change the calculus.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed Saturday by Cabinet-level officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines — about Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed march toward Moscow.

Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs, spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Gen. Valery Zaluzhnyy Saturday.

“I told him about the offensive and offensive actions of our units,” Zaluzhnyy said, according to a readout of the conversation. “I informed him that the operation is going in accordance with the plan.”

Biden also spoke Saturday about the situation in Russia with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom.

Further, Blinken chatted with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “Ukraine remains focused on achieving the goals of its counteroffensive in the territory of Ukraine with the steadfast support of our American allies,” Kuleba said in a Saturday tweet.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to speak to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov later on Saturday.

A U.S. official said phone calls to European counterparts are focused on the effort to “reassure them” and also reinforce the need to message neutrality. “No one should be spiking the football.”

The general agreement on the calls between the U.S. and its European allies is that Kyiv now has an unprecedented opportunity to advance while a key mercenary force shifts its attention from holding Ukrainian positions to attacking points inside Russia.

Biden was scheduled to travel Saturday to Camp David — which is equipped with resources with which he could monitor the unfolding situation — but his departure for the presidential retreat in the Maryland woods was delayed until early Saturday afternoon.

Even if Putin quashes the rebellion, it could occupy the resources of the Russian military and would likely eliminate the use of the Wagner Group at the front, where it had proven successful against Ukrainian forces.

“Cracks in the Putin regime are wide and bright now. The Kremlin has to put the Prigozhin rebellion down with force to avoid it from threatening regime legitimacy,” said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the military bloc is “monitoring the situation.” One early complication for NATO is that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, a NATO ally, already pledged his “full support” in a call with Putin Saturday.

But the open rebellion — and the ease with which Wagner took the military command center in Rostov, where the Kremlin controls its war on Ukraine — also vividly displayed the weakness of Russia’s military.

Officials cautioned that events over the next few hours and days were difficult to predict, from Vladimir Putin swiftly putting down the insurrection to his grip on power slipping, as the myth of his total control over Russia shatters in real time. Administration figures said they couldn’t confirm Putin’s whereabouts.

And while U.S. officials currently believe Putin will remain in charge, there’s quiet fear inside the administration that the Russian leader could reach for the most catastrophic options available to him if he sniffs a challenge to his power.

No one in the White House would miss Putin, but there’s no evidence that Prigozhin — or at least someone aligned with him — would be any less dangerous. Any sort of tumult or coup in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal would be an inherently deep concern, the officials said.

“This sort of instability is dangerous, no matter what the outcome,” said one U.S. official.

Paul McLeary and Myah Ward contributed to this report.

A San Jose physician was convicted of illegally prescribing and distributing large quantities of opioids without a legitimate medical purpose, including to one person who died of an overdose, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Donald Siao, 58, a family physician, was convicted by a federal jury on Tuesday of 12 counts of distributing the controlled substances oxycodone and hydrocodone outside the usual course of his medical practice over a 12-month period between 2016 and 2017, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

After identifying Siao in a separate prescription fraud investigation, investigators discovered Siao had written 8,201 prescriptions for controlled substance medications in just the one-year period from May 2016 to May 2017, according to prosecutors. During the course of the investigation, Siao prescribed increasing amounts of opioids to four separate undercover agents posing as patients, even though in some instances they admitted to sharing the drugs with co-workers or friends.

Each of the 12 counts against Siao carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Ismail J. Ramsey, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, announced on Friday he would seek to have Siao’s medical license forfeited.

Calls to the U.S. Attorney’s office and to Siao’s lawyer were not immediately returned.

Eight of the 12 counts against Siao involved a mother and son identified in court documents as E.J. and A.J., respectively.

Both mother and son claimed to have lost or had pills stolen and Siao continued to respond with prescriptions, according to court documents.

Siao also ignored a warning from an insurer about potential fraud regarding E.J. and a notice that A.J. had previously been arrested for selling pills, prosecutors said in the news release.

A.J. overdosed twice but still received prescriptions from Siao, according to court documents. A.J. died from an overdose of opioids in December 2019. In addition, Siao did not comply with medical records requests from the coroner following A.J.’s death.

The last four counts against Siao were related to an operation conducted by an undercover interagency task force.

The California Department of Justice Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, or BMFEA, was one of several agencies investigating Siao in 2017, according to court documents. In May of that year, the agency searched a state controlled substance database and found that Siao had written more than 8,000 prescriptions for controlled substances.

Many of those prescriptions called for 30 milligrams of oxycodone, which is at the higher end of dosage strength. The National Library of Medicine states, for instance, that immediate-release oxycodone tablets begin at 5 mg and top out at 30.

Along with oxycodone, Siao issued prescriptions for combinations of opioids, muscle relaxers and benzodiazepine, often known as the “Holy Trinity,” according to court documents. The Department of Justice has said the trio taken together “depress the central nervous system and the ability to breathe.”

The drug task force conducted an investigation from February to May 2018. Four agents visited Siao’s office multiple times to request prescriptions for controlled substances.

In one case, one agent known as A.M. pretended to be a retired football player who complained of pain in his shoulder, arm and elbow. He saw Siao three times, with each visit ending with a prescription.

In his third appointment with Siao in July 2018, A.M. admitted he had shared a portion of a previous 60-tablet, 30-mg strength oxycodone dosage, a potentially addictive controlled substance used for pain management, with a co-worker. The agent asked if Siao could increase the amount of pills to compensate for the borrowed cache.

Siao obliged and increased the total to 75 pills at an appointment that lasted approximately two minutes, according to court documents.

Another agent, identified only as E.T. in court documents, sought Siao for a prescription of Norco, a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen used for pain management.

The agent said he had previously purchased Norco at work for $10 a pill. Siao said, “That is nuts,” according to court documents. The doctor then added, “I’m not going to say anything. Some people try to make a business out of that; put it that way.”

The physician then prescribed 45 tablets of 10-mg strength after a first visit in April 2018, according to court documents.

Siao eventually increased the amount to 60 tablets upon E.T.’s second visit, prosecutors said. He also prescribed a cannabinoid, Marinol, at the agent’s request. The agent told Siao he was a marijuana user and needed to show his employer that any cannabis found in his blood stream through random testing was due to another drug.

Siao replied “gotcha” and filled out the prescription, prosecutors said.

Home decor color trends come and go, but classic white linens—like bedding, towels, and tablecloths—never go out of style. Sure, being a neutral color helps, but there’s a certain comfort that comes from being able to look at white bedsheets or a washcloth and immediately know whether they’re clean.

Unfortunately, getting to that point is easier said than done. Here are three mistakes to avoid when washing whites. Don’t make these mistakes when washing white linens

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Wayne “The StainMaster” Edelman, CEO of Meurice Garment Care, has successfully tackled the toughest of stains, and is a whiz at washing whites. Below are three common laundry mistakes, and his tips for dealing with them:

1. Thinking white is the absence of color

First things first: White isn’t the absence of color—it is a color. “Most think that fabrics are white at their core,” says Edelman. “But white textiles are dyed white, and fade like any other color.” 2. Using chlorine-based bleach

One of the first things people learn about doing laundry is that bleach is the most effective way to get whites sparkling clean. But bleach can cause the fibers in the fabric to deteriorate, and while it does remove stains, it can also leave your laundry more yellow than white.

“The best way to brighten and restore stained and darkened white linens or towels is to soak them in warm water [and] laundry detergent, and use a sodium-based bleach like OxyClean,” Edelman says. 3. Missing clear stains

Not all stains show up right away on white linens. “Clear stains like sunscreen, white wine, and glue, may not always be seen on your white furnishes or towels, but they, in fact, are sugar stains and will caramelize overtime,” Edelman explains. This is why a napkin or towel may be white after you wash it and put it away, then look yellow when you pull it out next.

To prevent this from happening, Edelman says that you should always pre-soak or treat white linens if you know something was spilled on them—even if you can’t see the stains.

For nearly three years, Roscoe Rike has been picking up his hormone-replacement therapy prescriptions at the same Walgreens in Oakland without a hitch.

That changed on Monday when the 30-year transgender man said he was denied his medication because of the pharmacist’s religious beliefs.

“It was just really surreal,” said Rike, who recorded part of the exchange at the pharmacy. “I know that transphobia and transphobic people exist, but that was my first experience of a perfect stranger doing something like that to my face.”

The exchange occurred Monday morning at the Walgreens in the 5000 block of Telegraph Avenue.

In a statement, a Walgreens spokesperson said the company was unable to discuss specific patients but said policies were in place to assure all patients are helped even in the “very rare” situation when employees have a religious belief that prevents them from helping the customer.

“In an instance where a team member has a religious or moral conviction that prevents them from meeting a patient’s need, we require the team member to refer the patient to another employee or manager on duty who can complete the transaction,” the statement read. “These instances, however, are very rare.”

The spokesperson confirmed that the company was reviewing the Oakland incident.

On Monday, Rike said he’d spoken to a Walgreens employee earlier that day to make sure his medication was ready for pickup but sensed something was awry when the pharmacist behind the counter unexpectedly asked him why he was taking the medication.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, really,’” Rike said. “I was initially confused for a second, but right away I could sense that, OK, we’re doing this.”

The pharmacist then told Rike he would have to call his doctor to find out what the medication was for. When Rike pushed back, the pharmacist told him that he wouldn’t give him the prescription because of his religious beliefs.

That’s when Rike said he decided to record the encounter on his phone.

“So right now, you’re going to tell me you’re going to deny me my medication because of your personal religion?” Rike is heard saying in the video. “You’re not my [expletive] doctor.”

The pharmacists is seen looking at a computer screen and clicking on a mouse silently for a few seconds.

“So you think you know better than my doctor? Is that what’s going on?” Rike asked.

“I just need to know your diagnosis,” the pharmacist responded.

“Why? That’s none of your [expletive] business!” Rike said. “It’s always the religious people that have the most [expletive] hate in their hearts. You’re disgusting.”

During the incident, Rike said the pharmacist told him he could return to the store after noon, but that seemed unfair to him.

“Why should I have to wait two hours for something that’s ready?” he said. “Only thing that is keeping me from getting my medicine, that my doctor prescribed me, is this dude not doing his job.”

When Rike asked to speak with the manager, he said, the pharmacist ignored him.

Another employee contacted a manager, who apologized for the incident and gave Rike his medication.

Rike said he’s aware that pharmacists are allowed to refer patients to someone else if they have a religious objection but that doesn’t make sense.

“If you follow a religion that is going to prevent you from doing your job and provide medical care to people, then you need to not be in the medical profession dealing with the public,” he said.

Since Monday, Rike has considered changing pharmacies, or signing up for a home delivery service. He said he doesn’t want to deal with a similar situation again.

He hesitates to make any changes just yet, though.

“There’s a part of me that’s like, why do I have to change how I do things? I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I should just be able to go to my local pharmacy and get my medication like everyone else.”

Rep. Troy Carter wants the White House to pull two judicial nominees in his state that were OK’d by Louisiana’s GOP senators. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo

Officially, House Democrats have no say over presidential nominations. Unofficially, they’re wading knee-deep into confirmations they think the party is botching.

Top Congressional Black Caucus members are steaming that the Biden administration isn’t adequately consulting them on judicial nominees. Swing-district Democrats want the Senate to pick up the pace on filling key vacancies. And progressives are furious that the chamber still hasn’t considered Julie Su’s nomination as Labor secretary.

The Senate broke for a recess on Thursday with no plans to vote on Su, whom Biden nominated in late February to be his administration’s first Asian American Cabinet secretary. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the progressive “squad,” called it “racist” and “embarrassing” that the Senate hadn’t advanced her nomination.

“It’s once again the party harming itself,” he said, adding he hoped undecided senators will “get on board.”

It’s a reflection of House Democrats’ growing frustration in the minority, where the party and its powerful Black Caucus have little sway over legislation. Instead, they’re trying to exert power by catching the ear of the president, his top aides and the Democratic Senate — sometimes prompting intra-party tension as House lawmakers step into already crowded lanes.

Under split government, the Democratic Senate has spent much of its time this year on nominees, including an array of diverse judges with progressive bona fides as well as several with Republican backing. Still, House Democrats are smarting that their Senate colleagues aren’t more aggressive in their tactics. And senators are brushing off some of the suggestions from the lower chamber.

The Black Caucus met with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients last week and advocated for changes to Senate precedent that would make it easier to confirm defense and judicial nominees. They’re not yet convinced, though, that the White House will be receptive to their broader concerns about the lack of input top Black Democrats have on nominees.

“The proof will be in the pudding. The action — we haven’t seen that,” Black Caucus member Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) said in an interview. “So we’re hopeful that we will get some action soon … but as of right now, we’re still waiting.”

Carter may best exemplify House Democrats’ frustrations. He wants the White House to pull two judicial nominees in his state that were OK’d by Louisiana’s GOP senators — a necessity under the current nomination process — and says he wasn’t properly consulted as the only Democratic lawmaker from the state.

Under Senate customs, home state senators are able to unilaterally stop a nominee by refusing to return what are called blue slips. On the Louisiana judgeships, the two Republican senators negotiated with the White House for two years before the nominations of Jerry Edwards Jr. and Brandon Scott Long were rolled out earlier this month.

“I’ve been very clear on my position of blue slips. I think they’re antiquated. I think they’re vestiges of Jim Crow, and they should be abolished,” Carter said.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who just returned blue slips for the two nominees, called Carter a “good man” but advised him to take his complaints to the White House. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has rejected calls to scrap the blue slip process, said he would move forward on the confirmations.

“We went through the process honestly, directly as I had hoped they would. And I’m not going to back away from it at this point,” Durbin said.

Then there’s Scott Colom, a potential Mississippi judicial nominee, who is being denied a blue slip by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.). Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) said he is encouraging Colom to keep fighting, hoping the Senate will find a way around one senator’s blockade.

“Maybe this is a circumstance where the blue slip should not be honored,” Jones said.

Senate Democrats’ refusal to change the blue slip process is aggravating members of the Congressional Black Caucus, some of whom hail from blue districts in Republican southern states who believe the deference to red-state senators deprives Democratic lawmakers of a voice.

“Durbin, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, has unilateral authority to change, reform, and at least modify the practices of the blue slip, and it’s in the administration’s best interest that they do it,” said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the Black Caucus. Horsford is also pushing for a rules change to circumvent Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on military promotions, though senators are trying to find another solution first.

Durbin acknowledged the concern about getting blue slips in red states and said he’s “frustrated because Republican senators aren’t moving quickly enough.” Still, he’s hardly alone in his reluctance: Many Democrats see the slips as a way to retain some influence the next time a Republican wins the White House. And for an often dysfunctional Senate, the Louisiana nominees are widely viewed as a success.

The level of House interest in Democrats’ nomination process is deep in the weeds. Just last week, a group of Democrats led by Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) sent a letter to Biden urging him to nominate a new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a job that’s been vacant after the withdrawal of Ann Carlson’s nomination. The White House confirmed to the group that they received the letter.

“It’s an important position to fill,” Lee said. “So I think it’s something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.”

For now, Democrats seem most concerned with Su’s stalled status, which is frustrating Senate and House progressives alike. Key senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) remain publicly undecided on her nomination, leaving her in limbo.

“There are some people who think: ‘Don’t bring up anything unless you’re guaranteed the votes,’” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “That’s not my view. My belief is that under democracy, your constituents have a right to know where you come from.”

Sanders would be comfortable keeping Su in the job as an acting Labor secretary even if she falls short of confirmation. But the White House does not want to hold a failed vote on her nomination, according to a Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss strategy.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview that Su is “a great nominee and we’re still working it, the White House is working it.”

Schumer has touted the diverse slate of judges and nominees that have gone through the Senate in the past two and a half years. The Senate just confirmed Biden’s 100th district court judge, augmenting its 35 appeals court judges and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons touted Su’s credentials for the top labor job, including Democrats’ support for her deputy job and “support from business and labor groups across the spectrum.”

Biden’s lost some nominees to Senate politics, but overall his confirmation record in the chamber is strong given Democrats’ narrow majorities. But the victories aren’t enough to satisfy many House Democrats at the moment; they’re focused on the fight in front of them.

“I still remain confident that Julie is going to pull through,” said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who’s helped lead the Asian Caucus’ advocacy for her.

The increasingly public feud between Russian military leaders and the head of a Russian paramilitary group escalated dramatically on Friday, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the paramilitary Wagner Group, accused Russian armed forces of attacking his soldiers and vowed retaliation. It was a shocking accusation, one with unpredictable consequences for Prigozhin, Russia, and the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The evil that the military leadership of the country brings forward must be stopped. They have forgotten the word ‘justice,’ and we will return it,” Prigozhin said in a recording published Friday on Wagner’s social media, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Russian Ministry of Defense denied Prigozhin’s allegations that the military had launched a strike on Wagner fighters, calling it a “provocation.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “aware” of Prigozhin’s claims, and that the Kremlin was taking “all necessary measures.”

Shortly after, Russian law enforcement said that in response to Prigozhin’s statements, Russia’s security services, the FSB, have launched a criminal case over calls for an armed uprising. “We demand to stop these unlawful actions at once.”

Russia’s deputy head of military intelligence went as far as to call it a “coup” attempt in a video urging Wagner fighters to stand down. Russia’s prosecutor general also announced that Prigozhin was now being investigated “on suspicion of organizing an armed rebellion,” reports the New York Times. Prigozhin himself, for what it’s worth, denied he was carrying out a coup, calling it a “march of justice.”

Videos and images posted to social media late Friday showed Russian security forces patrolling the streets of Moscow and another Russian city, reportedly close to where Wagner troops are deployed in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, whose Wagner forces helped take the city of Bakhmut, has been increasingly vocal in his attacks against the Russian military’s leaders, posting more and more scathing criticism of the top brass over the war effort and accusing generals of denying Wagner the ammunition and support needed to fight effectively.

Prigozhin has generally avoided direct criticism of Putin himself, but earlier on Friday he had posted a video on Telegram with a stunning assessment of Russia’s war effort. In it, he attacked the Russian military’s — and, by extension, Putin’s — rationale for the war, basically saying the threat of NATO aggression through Ukraine was made up by Russia’s top brass and corrupt elites. The war, Prigozhin said, was “needed for a bunch of scumbags to triumph and show how strong of an army they are.” He included a diatribe against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who Prigozhin claimed pushed for war to secure a promotion, and whose decisions led to the deaths of thousands of Russian soldiers.

Prigozhin has taken a very public — and very risky — part in the war in Ukraine, and he may have finally crossed a line that he has been butting up against for many weeks. Yet this story is very much still developing, and both the Russian government and Prigozhin have an interest in pushing their own propaganda at this moment.

Prigozhin is a Putin ally and a political survivor, but those often have limits in Putin’s Russia. Still, whatever is unfolding is yet another crack in Russia’s war machine, and a window into some of the dysfunction of the Russian state — dysfunction, in part, of Putin’s own making. Who is this Prigozhin character, and what does he want?

Prigozhin, the man at the center of this, is an unlikely, and imperfect, challenger of Russia’s war effort.

Known as “Putin’s chef,” he has been something of a fixer for Putin’s regime. He isn’t exactly in Putin’s inner circle but has the skills and connections to make himself useful and needed. This may be setting up a troll farm to sow political discord abroad, including in the 2016 US elections, or acting as the frontman for Wagner, a private mercenary-like force to do the Kremlin’s bidding. In both cases, Prigozhin fulfilled the interests of the Russian state, but with just enough distance to offer Putin a measure of plausible deniability.

Prigozhin has claimed to be the founder of the Wagner Group, but the reality is likely much more complicated. He is more likely the convenient figurehead of the group, which Russia has relied on for years to do its bidding around the world in places where it did not want to openly commit troops or resources, and where it could operate in a kind of gray zone. That again granted Moscow a degree of plausible deniability as it exerted its influence and interests in other corners of the globe, from Syria to Mali to Venezuela. It also gave Putin a kind of independent power center, a paramilitary outside of the formal military structures.

That all started changing in Ukraine, where Wagner, and Prigozhin himself, took on an increasingly public role in the war.

Wagner filled a specific operational and public relations need for Russia. The group’s fighters — a portion of them convicts recruited from Russian prisons — bogged down and attrited Ukrainian forces at a time Russia’s military was in disarray. The group achieved its most substantial victory in Bakhmut, one of Russia’s main territorial gains since last summer. But that victory took months, and came at an astounding casualty rate.

But as the battle for Bakhmut ground on, Prigozhin got more and more outspoken about what he saw as the failures of the Russian military and its leaders. In one video Prigozhin posted in May, he stands in a field, apparently surrounded by corpses of dead Wagner fighters. “Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where are the fucking shells!” Prigozhin says, referring to the minister of defense and the military’s chief of the general staff. “They came here as volunteers and died so you could gorge yourselves in your offices.”

These kinds of critiques are frankly shocking for a guy who is largely dependent on Putin’s largesse; in a country where open criticism of the government, and especially the war, is often brutally crushed; and within a military apparatus where insubordination of this magnitude is rarely tolerated.

Some have interpreted Prigozhin’s braggadocio as an oligarch feeling himself, and seizing on the incompetence of the Russian military to create his own power center — maybe even playing the long game to challenge Putin.

But even before Prigozhin escalated his rivalry with the Russian military this week, experts I’ve spoken to really doubted Prigozhin was actually a Putin rival and could build his own power center in the Russian state. Instead, then, it made sense to look as Prigozhin as a functionary who was seizing an opportunity in an otherwise dicey environment.

There is a place — even within Russia’s controlled media environment — for a convenient foil, a guy to get out front and complain about Russian military incompetence. It focuses and puts pressure on the war’s generals, but not on the war’s mission or its necessity. It is not necessarily a permanent or stable spot to be in, and becomes even more precarious when Prigozhin outruns his usefulness.

Experts told me this spring that the worst thing for Prigozhin is for the Ukraine war to end. “Prigozhin clearly understands that there will be no safe retirement for him,” Sergey Sukhankin, a senior research fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, told Vox earlier this year. “He knows that if the current regime, or if his Wagner Group, goes down, he goes down with them.”

There were signs then, as now, that Prigozhin might overstep his ambitions. How that will play out for him — and for Russia right now — is extremely unclear, although the view from where Prigozhin sits looks pretty bleak. If the Russian military is launching attacks against him and his fighters, and if the security services are really investigating him, then any serious challenge to the Russian state or military looks pretty doomed right about now. But the fact that Russia had to rely on Wagner, and Prigozhin, to wage its war helps explain why Russia has struggled militarily since invading Ukraine, and that is unlikely to change, no matter what’s next for Prigozhin.

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