House Republicans are expanding their Hispanic outreach ahead of the midterm elections, unveiling on Tuesday a political action committee designed both to protect incumbents and grow the Congressional Hispanic Conference.
The PAC, dubbed the Hispanic Leadership Trust, comes as several polls have hinted at a growing openness among Latino voters to electing Republicans, particularly amid stubbornly high inflation.
It also comes as the GOP has been trying to rebut accusations of harboring racist sentiment in the wake of a white nationalist shooter targeting Black Americans in Buffalo, N.Y., over the weekend, killing 10. Several Republicans, including House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), have argued that Democrats are trying to replace American-born voters with undocumented immigrants, bordering on the racist “great replacement theory” espoused by the accused Buffalo shooter.
Republican leaders have vigorously denied enabling white supremacy and have flaunted initiatives to make the party more diverse. Stefanik began her remarks at a press conference announcing the PAC by calling for the Buffalo shooter to be prosecuted and saying that “it is not the time to politicize this tragedy.”
The initiative will be a counter to Democrats’ Bold PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).
Bold PAC’s mission is to protect incumbents in the CHC, the nominally bipartisan but functionally Democratic grouping of congressional Hispanics, and to expand the group’s size.
Since the CHC and the Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference split in 2003, the Democratic group has swelled to 38 members, while the GOP one now has nine members, including Puerto Rico’s nonvoting resident commissioner, Jenniffer González-Colón.
Hispanic Conference Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), however, told The Hill that Republicans had not been looking at Bold PAC as a model, saying that the Hispanic Leadership Trust aims first to coordinate resources among Hispanic GOP candidates.
“There is a hunger to be able to help, you know, Republican Hispanics,” Diaz-Balart said. “This has almost come organically from people just saying, ‘We want to be helpful.’”
And the PAC is not necessarily targeting specific states, focusing instead on finding races in which Republicans can win and where there are Latino candidates who are dedicated.
“We’re gonna start with all 50 states and go from there,” said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who represents a district that borders Mexico.
“The Hispanic Trust is only going to add to this. We’re not going to take anything away,” Gonzales said. “We’re not leading anything in particular — this is adding on to a machine that is already created.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that more than 103 Hispanic GOP candidates have filed to run for Congress so far.
Members mentioned some up-and-coming Hispanic Republican candidates running in districts that they hope to flip from Democratic control: Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 2nd District, where Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D) is not seeking reelection; Mayra Flores in Texas’s 34th, from which Rep. Filemon Vela (D) resigned earlier this year; and Monica De La Cruz in Texas’s 15th, a toss-up race that is likely to be one of the more expensive in the country.
Flores joined the press conference and said that when she goes door-knocking, she meets people who say they have never met a Republican.
“My father was a Democrat all his life and said, ‘Why are you Republican?’ And I said to him, ‘Well, you raised me a Republican,’” Flores said.
While Hispanic voters have traditionally leaned Democratic, the split toward the left has never been as dramatic as it is among Black voters.
Former President George W. Bush famously netted more than 40 percent of voting Hispanics in his 2004 reelection bid, and the Republican base in some areas of the country is predominantly Hispanic.
Hispanic Democrats have long bemoaned their party’s late and relatively small investments in communities where they have the upperhand, particularly in purple states where relatively small Hispanic populations can tip the balance.
That means Republicans don’t need to win the Latino vote outright to blunt the Democrats’ relative advantage among the community.
Still, the GOP has a ways to go if it intends to make a national case.
According to an Axios-Ipsos-Telemundo poll of Hispanic voters conducted in March, 30 percent of Hispanics intend to vote for Democrats in the midterms, while only 17 percent intend to vote for Republicans.
Díaz-Balart, McCarthy, Stefanik and Gonzales all touched on inflation Tuesday, targeting an issue that’s quickly raced to the top of concerns for Latinos throughout the country.
But they also touched on issues of socialism — a concern that routinely polls high in Florida but not as much elsewhere — and McCarthy made references tying together border security and the fentanyl epidemic, a link that could turn off Hispanic voters wary of harsh GOP anti-immigrant rhetoric.
According to the poll, 35 percent of Hispanic voters believe the GOP is prejudiced against Hispanics, while only 8 percent believe the same of Democrats.
But the poll also found 24 percent of Latinos believe Republicans are better at handling economic issues, while only 19 percent favored Democrats on the economy.
Hispanic Republicans have so far avoided delving into racist rhetoric that sometimes surfaces in the party. Asked about accusations of GOP leadership enabling white supremacy, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) told The Hill that she loves “the American system where people can voice their opinions,” unlike the homeland of the largely Cuban community she represents.
Still, in the aftermath of the Buffalo shooting and previous racist attacks such as the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, Democrats are all but certain to campaign on the link between white nationalist violence and the Republican Party’s immigration rhetoric.
“We don’t expect the GOP to seriously wrestle with how their dehumanizing rhetoric and mainstreaming of ‘replacement’ and ‘invasion’ ideas may contribute to violence, but we do expect decent people from across the political spectrum to stand up and denounce the dozens of GOP leaders who have stoked these dangerous and irresponsible conspiracy theories,” said Zachary Mueller, political director of America’s Voice, a progressive immigration advocacy group.
“There must be political accountability for those who put us all at risk by using their positions of elected power to spread racist and deadly lies. This must stop,” Mueller added.
In announcing the initiative, Republicans argued that GOP values surrounding family and skepticism of socialism are a natural fit for Hispanic voters.
“We are all Americans. I may just like guacamole a little bit more. I may like, you know, spicy food a little bit more. We’re all Americans, though,” Gonzales said.
But Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), who fled Cuba as a child, noted that Hispanic Americans are not a monolith.
“I like guacamole, but I don’t like spicy food,” Gimenez said.
The Hispanic Leadership Trust will also focus on defending incumbents, Gonzales said. There are seven members of the GOP’s Congressional Hispanic Conference running for reelection.
Republicans need to gain just five seats to win back control of the House, and recruiting diverse candidates has been key to that strategy.
“As you all know, 2020 was dubbed the year of the Republican women,” said Stefanik, who runs a PAC that endorses female Republicans. “I believe that 2022 will be dubbed the year of the most diverse Republican Party ever, with a historic majority with women, veterans, Hispanic candidates, Asian American candidates, Black American candidates, all Republicans leading the way.”
Mychael Schnell contributed.
Source: TEST FEED1
The Biden administration has outlined a new plan to tackle a U.S. housing shortfall that is decades in the making, which includes expanding financing for development, encouraging development of low-income housing, combating rising rental costs, and working with the private sector to alleviate supply chain issues.
President Biden in recent weeks has committed to combatting the challenges caused by inflation – which has impacted the housing market – going as far as calling it his “top domestic priority,” while the administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan seeks to “ease burden of housing costs over time.”
“When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and ensure affordability, such as rental assistance and down payment assistance, closing the gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community,” the White House said in its plan.
Here’s what Biden is doing and why it is important.
Addressing the affordable housing shortage through expanded financing
Estimates show there is a 1.5 million shortage of homes across the U.S., which the White House said “burdens family budgets, drives up inflation, limits economic growth, maintains residential segregation, and exacerbates climate change.”
Moreover, data shows that in the first quarter of 2022, more than 89 percent of all available housing units in the U.S. were occupied.
The administration plans to eliminate the shortfall over a five-year period partly by implementing legislative and administrative actions, including an overhaul of financing options and deploying new mechanisms to fill gaps. These measures will make loans more widely available – especially for multi-family developments.
Jerry Konter, chair of the National Association of Home Builders, told Changing America Biden’s plan could help low-income housing if implemented while acknowledging there is a long way to go.
“There’s a lot of congressional action that needs to be taken,” Konter said. “There’s a lot of meat that needs to be put on bones, but if it’s implemented, I think it can help at the low end of the housing market, just where they wanted to help.”
“I don’t think that it will do much to solve the problem that America’s first-time homebuyers are experiencing right now,” he continued. “And I don’t think that it will help alleviate the housing shortage at the market rate level of housing. It will at the lower end but not at the market rate.”
Addressing lack of affordable housing for low-income families
There is a dearth of housing options for low-income families – a problem the administration plans to curtail through ensuring government-owned housing units are made available to tenants and families who will live in them, rather than selling to developers.
Meanwhile, the administration is encouraging state, local, and Tribal governments to use funding from the American Rescue Plan to build more affordable housing.
The U.S. is currently experiencing a shortage of rental units available to low-income residents whose income falls at or below the poverty line, according to data from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Their estimates suggest there are only 36 homes that are affordable and available to every 100 extremely low-income renters or families.
Changing America has reached out to NLIHC for comment on how the administration’s plan might add to the number of homes available to extremely low-income families and renters.
Meanwhile, the administration is encouraging state, local, and Tribal governments to use funding from the American Rescue Plan to build more affordable housing.
Combating rising rental costs
Census Bureau data from the first quarter of 2022 shows the median cost of available rental units in the U.S. stood at $1,225. Rent prices have steadily risen since the turn of the century but there was a sharp increase beginning around 2020.
Soaring rent costs, according to an analysis from Moody’s Analytics, leave tenants with little to spare after they use on average half of their monthly income to cover their rent. By the end of the year, a typical renter will save less than $500.
“The Plan’s policies to boost supply are an important element of bringing homeownership within reach for Americans who, today, cannot find an affordable home because there are too few homes for sale in their communities,” the White House plan read.
Working with the private sector to eliminate supply chain issues
Biden’s Housing Supply Action Plan will also address supply chain issues, which led to an explosive growth in the price of raw materials, like lumber, in 2021. Fluctuating lumber prices throughout the pandemic have caused the price of a new single-family home to increase by an average of $18,600.
“The housing market is facing growing challenges,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz in a news release. “Building material costs are up 19% from a year ago, in less than three months mortgage rates have surged to a 12-year high and based on current affordability conditions, less than 50% of new and existing home sales are affordable for a typical family.”
The administration’s goal is to work with developers to focus on combating supply chain issues, while developing techniques to finish building homes at a rate not seen since 2006.
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May is Women’s Health Month, an important opportunity to focus on women’s lives and well-being. This year, it happens to coincide with a piece of legislation Congress is debating that will have a significant impact on women’s health and deserves our attention.
The legislation, the Cures 2.0 Act, is the second iteration of a law passed in 2016 and one that could greatly improve women’s health if it is passed. Congress must do so as soon as possible.
Cures 2.0, which was introduced by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.), contains several provisions that need reauthorization before the end of 2022. Some of these measures would advance medical research, improve access for patients to new medicines and treatments, provide enhanced federal support and education for caregivers and remove many of the barriers that still exist to telehealth services.
As the senior policy advisor for HealthyWomen, an online health education organization for women, I know that women need a few basics to live long and healthy lives — regardless of where they live, their income or their educational levels. Those include reliable access to high-quality medical care — even sometimes from the comfort of their own homes — clinical trials that are inclusive and diverse to better account for women’s biological differences when developing therapeutics or devices, insurance coverage for medical tests to guide treatment and because most caregivers for children and adults in this country are women, real support and education for individuals in that role.
Let’s take a minute to consider each of these measures on its own. I’ll begin with the most fundamental issue of reliable access to high-quality medical care. This is where the expansion of telehealth care comes in as such a key benefit.
While telehealth services were available prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the crisis, they became a lifeline for many Americans. For women, who often bear the multiple burdens of caregiving responsibilities in their families as well as working and perhaps managing their own health concerns, it can be difficult logistically — and often cost-prohibitive — to take time off work or find alternative care arrangements just to make a doctor’s appointment. A permanent expansion of telehealth services would be a critical component of improving overall access to care by making it easier for many women to see their providers without having to do the impossible juggle in-person visits frequently require.
Next, let’s understand the importance of medical research to women’s health. Historically, scientists defaulted to using a 150-pound male as their subject in clinical trials. This sex bias led to decades of misunderstanding about the medical needs specific to women and care that was often mismatched to females. Biomedical research needs to be more inclusive in order to diversify clinical trials, and equally important, should analyze the trial data and stratify by sex, gender and race so that such data can be more valuable in designing better medicines and therapies for all patients in hopes of giving personalized care.
A related provision is insurance coverage for innovative technologies that are digital alternatives to treatment and therapies, including wearables and digital applications and platforms that are approved by the FDA. These new tools and many others in the scientific research pipeline, including biomarker testing, are new advancements that could be life-changing. These tools are important to medical decision-making, allowing for more targeted therapies and treatments. This is critical since cancer is the second-leading cause of death for American women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And what of support for caregivers? Women, especially mothers, felt the impacts and stressors of the COVID pandemic intensely. According to a recent CNBC article, 70 percent of all job losses in the last two years were those held by women and there are still nearly 1 million fewer women working or looking for work today than in February 2020. Given that women’s labor force participation contributes $7.6 trillion to the country’s GDP every year, the economic consequences for everyone are significant when caregivers do not have the support they need.
Cures 2.0 would provide critical education and training programs as well as improved federally supported infrastructure for family caregivers to not only make their lives and jobs easier but to better protect our nation from the next global crisis, too.
Cures 2.0 goes a long way to ensure these essential services are available to all American women. And after two-plus years of the COVID-19 pandemic when women around the world bore the professional and personal brunt of the impacts of that crisis, the need to support women’s health initiatives has never been greater.
It is imperative that Congress pass Cures 2.0 now. Provide women with the resources, tools and treatment advancements to improve their own health and that of their families, too. There is no reason to wait.
Martha Nolan is senior policy advisor at HealthyWomen, a nonprofit that educates women to make decisions about their health care.
Source: TEST FEED1
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday condemned the racist killings in Buffalo by an “abhorrent” and “completely deranged young man,” but did not explicitly criticize talk of a baseless conspiracy theory the shooter espoused, which many say has been fueled by the right.
Instead, McConnell laid the blame on Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old shooter arrested for the killings, while condemning racism generally.
“This horrible episode in Buffalo is the result of a completely deranged young man who ought to suffer the severest possible penalty under the law,” he told reporters when asked whether he felt any responsibility as leader to speak out on replacement theory.
When asked about President Biden’s call earlier in the day for Americans to reject replacement theory, McConnell replied, “Racism of any sort is abhorrent in America and ought to be stood up to by everybody, both Republicans, Democrats, all Americans.”
Pressed on whether he thought Democrats are trying to give themselves a political advantage by creating a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants, something that Fox News host Tucker Carlson has talked about, McConnell said he’s worried about what he sees as the need to take stronger measures to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What I’m disturbed about with regard to the Southern border is the relative openness of it. This administration has taken a number of steps in the direction of just throwing our border wide open once again and that ought to be addressed,” he said.
“It’s something that could be done by the administration itself in the absence of any additional legislation, and keeping Title 42 in place would be a good first step,” he said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order blocking immigrants from entering the country on asylum claims due to public health concerns.
The administration has announced it will let Title 42 expire on May 23.
McConnell delivered his remarks after President Biden called on Americans to “reject the lie” of racial replacement and denounced White supremacy as “poison.”
“A hate that, through the media and politics, the internet, has radicalized angry, alienated and lost individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced. That’s the word. Replaced by the other. By people who don’t look like them,” Biden said in Buffalo after meeting with the families of the victims.
“I call on all Americans to reject the lie, and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit,” Biden said.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday praised Biden’s remarks and called on all elected officials to condemn replacement theory.
He said the shooter’s “racist, white supremacist views belong to an extreme ideology that’s increasingly finding home in the American mainstream. In Buffalo, the president was right to strongly condemn these views,” he said. “All elected officials should do the same.”
Schumer noted on the floor that Fox’s Carlson has mentioned replacement theory on 400 different episodes of his show, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
“It is dangerous and un-American for one of the biggest news networks in the world to amplify conspiracy theories that are eerily similar to those cited by the Buffalo shooter,” he said.
He sent a letter to Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, urging him “to immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory on your network’s broadcasts.”
Source: TEST FEED1
A bipartisan coalition of 19 governors is calling on the Biden administration to quickly wrap up an investigation into solar panel component manufacturers, echoing the concerns of the solar panel industry about the impact of the probe.
The governors wrote in a letter sent Monday that the probe — which comes in response to a petition from San Jose, Calif.-based company Auxin Solar — potentially threatens thousands of jobs as well as the administration’s own renewable energy deployment goals.
“The current market disruption jeopardizes much of the progress achieved by the domestic solar industry and we fear this will only continue for the duration of the investigation,” the governors wrote. “Almost immediately, solar prices have jumped because of dramatic drops in solar product imports, threatening the livelihoods of more than 230,000 American workers who rely on solar jobs and raising energy costs on families.”
Governors who signed the letter included Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson (R), Colorado’s Jared Polis (D), Hawaii’s David Ige (D), Indiana’s Eric Holcomb (R), Kansas’s Laura Kelly (D), Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards (D), Maine’s Janet Mills (D), Maryland’s Larry Hogan (R), Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker (R), Minnesota’s Tim Walz (D), Missouri’s Mike Parsons (R), Nevada’s Steve Sisolak (D), New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), New York’s Kathy Hochul (D), North Carolina’s Roy Cooper (D), Oregon’s Kate Brown (D), Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf (D), Washington’s Jay Inslee (D) and American Samoa’s Lemanu P. S. Mauga (D).
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (D) announced the investigation in March following allegations by Auxin that Chinese companies had illegally circumvented tariffs on solar panel components by manufacturing the parts in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Solar Energy Industries Association has sharply criticized the investigation and said its actions could devastate the domestic solar industry, while a bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), has also called for a swift end to the probe.
Source: TEST FEED1
Streaming service platform Netflix has laid off up to 150 employees as it continues to see a downturn in revenue and subscriber growth.
A Netflix spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday about the latest string of departures, saying that the layoffs are a part of new changes focused more on a business approach rather than individual performance.
“As we explained on earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we are also having to slow our cost growth as a company. So, sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly US-based,” Netflix spokesperson said in its statement.
“These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues. We’re working hard to support them through this very difficult transition.”
The company recently reported its first subscriber loss since October 2011, seeing a drop of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, which led to its stock dropping by 23 percent.
Due to the recent loss of revenue, Netflix canceled numerous planned shows, including Meghan the Duchess of Sussex’s upcoming animated series, “Pearl,” centered around the adventures of a 12-year-girl who interacts with historical female figures.
The layoffs come shortly after Netflix sent out a culture memo last week, telling employees to focus more on spending members’ “money wisely,” adding that its company might not be the right fit for employees who have strong religious beliefs and disagree with their content as well.
“If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the statement said.
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Eric Clapton — one of the most prominent opponents of vaccination mandates — says he’s postponing performances after testing positive for COVID-19.
The “Layla” musician announced in a Monday post on his official Facebook page that his shows planned in Zurich and Milan this week would be delayed, following his diagnosis.
Clapton “is unfortunately suffering from Covid having tested positive shortly after the second concert at the Royal Albert Hall,” the post said.
“He has been told by his medical advisors that if he were to resume traveling and performing too soon, it could substantially delay his full recovery,” the message said.
Clapton “is anxious to avoid passing on any infection to any of his band, crew, promoters, their staff and of course the fans,” according to the statement.
“It is very frustrating that having avoided Covid throughout lockdown and throughout the period when travel restrictions have been in place Eric should have succumbed to Covid at this point in time, but we very much hope he will be sufficiently recovered by the end of the week to be able to perform the remainder of the planned performances,” the post said.
The 77-year-old English performer said last year that he would refuse to play at any venues requiring vaccinations, saying, “I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present.”
“Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show,” he said at the time.
Clapton had previously expressed doubt about COVID-19 vaccinations, claiming he had a negative reaction after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca shot. The guitarist released “This Has Gotta Stop,” a song seemingly critical of lockdowns and public health measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, last year.
Clapton’s Monday Facebook post indicated that postponed shows due to his COVID-19 diagnosis would be rescheduled within the next six months.
Source: TEST FEED1
Regulatory uncertainty could restrain the growth of the renewable energy industry in the coming years, according to a trade group’s annual report.
In its 2021 report, released Tuesday, the American Clean Power Association said about 10 gigawatts (GW) of the renewable energy capacity set to go online last year was delayed.
“Looking into 2022 and beyond, inflation, supply chain issues, and the uncertainty of tax policy and lack of predictable regulatory action for renewable energy are all expected to have a concerning impact on our ability to deliver growth,” the report states.
The report also points to the likelihood of continued uncertainty within the industry, specifically citing the ongoing Commerce Department investigation into potential tariff circumvention by Southeast Asian solar panel part manufacturers. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the solar industry’s primary trade group, has reduced its installation projections by half in response to the investigation.
The trade group attributed the delays to a combination of lack of policy clarity, interconnection backlogs and supply chain problems.
The report also indicated transmission is a potential hurdle for the renewable energy, stating that 1,400 miles of transmission lines were brought online in 2020, compared to less than 300 last year.
The report also found some cause for celebration in the industry. ACPA CEO Heather Zichal wrote that as of the end of 2021, America had over 200 GW of utility-scale renewable storage, after adding more than 28 GW to the grid over the previous year.
Wind and solar currently provide 13 percent of American electricity needs, Zichal added, and renewable energy projects or manufacturing facilities exist in all 50 states and 93 percent of congressional districts. A handful of states got more than 20 percent of their electricity from wind power, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Maine.
However, she wrote, “[m]aintaining last year’s project volume would provide only 35 percent of what’s needed to reach a net zero grid by 2035. The climate crisis gets more urgent by the day, and these challenges need to be faced directly and swiftly.”
Source: TEST FEED1
Russia’s parliament discussed a proposed law on Tuesday that would ban prisoner exchanges in the Ukrainian war after around 250 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol.
The Azov Regiment that was holding out in a steel plant in Mariupol recently surrendered to Russian forces as dozens of soldiers were wounded and needed medical attention with no escape.
One member of Russian parliament, in a translated video, described the group as a “Nazi” militia and denounced a prisoner swap with the soldiers.
“It is clear that the exchange of at least one of these criminals will be announced by the collective West as a victory for Ukraine,” the member said, adding there should be a law against exchanging the prisoners.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, agreed, saying “Nazi criminals” should not be exchanged and saying they’ll work to create the law.
“They are war criminals and we must do everything to bring them to justice,” he added to the applause of Parliament.
The discussion came hours after Russia claimed more than 250 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in Mariupol, Reuters reported.
If the law were to go in place, it is unclear what would happen to the soldiers, with some in Parliament suggesting they should be killed.
“They do not deserve to live after the monstrous crimes against humanity that they have committed and that are committed continuously against our prisoners,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international affairs committee and negotiator in talks with Ukraine, said, according to Reuters.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted multiple prisoner swaps since the war began, with both sides getting dozens of their people back.
Matilda Bogner, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, previously attested to “credible information” that both Ukraine and Russian are mistreating prisoners of war.
“We have received credible information of torture, ill-treatment and incommunicado detention by Ukrainian Armed Forces of prisoners of war belonging to the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups,” Bogner said, adding soldiers are “being coerced to make statements, apologies and confessions, and other forms of humiliation.”
Bogner said both sides must “investigate all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war” and control their troops.
Source: TEST FEED1
