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R ussian-held regions of Ukraine are voting Friday on referendums that are seen as a step toward annexing the territories by Russia. The referendums ask residents if they want their regions to be part of Russia. If approved, it gives Russia the pretext to claim that Ukrainian forces are attacking Russia itself, dramatically escalating the war. The votes follow Putin's order of a partial mobilization of reservists, which could add about 300,000 Russian troops, and the discovery of mass graves in Izium where dozens of bodies showed signs of torture, officials said A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow. In a grim reminder of the 7-month-old invasion, U.N. experts and Ukrainian officials have pointed to new evidence of R...

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waves as he arrives for a news conference on Sept. 7. Rebecca Blackwell/AP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took something of a victory lap this weekend for his controversial flight sending migrants to the tony northeastern island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. "This is a crisis. It's now getting a little bit more attention," DeSantis said in Kansas during a leg of a tour organized by the conservative group Turning Point Action. It's hardly a coincidence that DeSantis' stunt came days before his stops in Kansas and Wisconsin, where he campaigned for Republican candidates. His political ambitions are well known. He has become a conservative darling and a potential heir to the MAGA brand — a more disciplined version of former President Donald Trump, who continues to heavily suggest he will run again for president in 2024. DeSantis is also up for reelection in Florida this year. And nothing fires up the Republican base quite like immigr...

  A screen grab of the Twitter page of Pakistani journalist Waqar Satti, who has a case filed against him by police in Rawalpindi for blasphemy and defamation. Waqar Satti is usually out covering Pakistan’s parliament. But accusations of blasphemy and online death threats have forced the senior political correspondent to stop work. “I haven't been in the field since this happened,” Satti told VOA. “I left my city, my family is worried and affected by the case, I have four children.” Police in the city of Rawalpindi filed a case against Satti in late August over a video the Geo News senior political correspondent shared on Twitter. A First Information Report, or FIR, on the case — the preliminary stage to a criminal complaint — lists blasphemy and defamation charges. The legal complaint says that in the video, Satti falsely attributes anti-Islamic quotes to former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Satti denied that, saying he only “compiled” interviews and statements by Khan. The video has...