As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, the ever-changing landscape of the conflict poses new challenges not just to Kyiv, but to its Western allies as well. 

• Spokespeople for Ukraine say that the country has recaptured about 40 square miles of its territory since it launched a counteroffensive on June 4, but the Kremlin has painted a different picture. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kyiv was suffering “catastrophic losses” and added that the number of Ukrainian casualties was 10 times greater than Russia’s. (Ed note: These claims are perfectly compatible, so everyone must be telling the truth.)
   
• The Kremlin said that Russian forces repelled four Ukrainian ground attacks in the eastern Donetsk region. The current phase of the war features softening front lines as Russian forces are pummeled with “everything from small arms and rockets to drones and artillery,” according to a former military commander who had previously re-trained Ukrainian forces. Kyiv also launched a new front where Donetsk meets the Zaporizhia region on June 9. 
   
• Hundreds of NATO war planes have been flying over Germany in the alliance’s largest-ever aerial drills. The fleet includes 250 warplanes, comprising 190 fighter jets and 10,000 troops, and the drills are intended to boost NATO preparedness and abilities to “protect against aircraft, drones, and missile attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.” The exercises have been planned for several years, but their current timing is critical as Russia continues unleashing air attacks on Ukrainian cities. The United States and its Western allies have feared from the beginning of the Russian invasion that the conflict might spill beyond Ukrainian borders.

The nonlinear nature of Kyiv’s tactical gains has shaken the confidence of Ukraine’s Western allies. 

• The alliance hopes that the counteroffensive will lead to a rapid retaking of strategically significant territory. Western officials admitted that Ukraine is taking significant casualties and that progress towards the Russian main lines of defense is slow. The White House and the Pentagon have been reluctant to indicate what they believe would constitute Ukrainian success, as billions of dollars in aid and advanced Western weaponry have flowed steadily into Ukraine since the war began.
   
• This more circumspect outlook among Western officials is intentional. Part of it is expectations management and part of it is about navigating domestic politics. In the United States, many elected Republicans have whipped themselves up into hysterics over the “blank check” Congress has handed to Kyiv (failing once again to understand the difference between checks that are blank and checks that have numbers on them), and president Biden wants the claims he makes about U.S. support for Ukraine to match reality on the ground ahead of the 2024 election. 

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After disgraced former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal criminal counts in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday he made his way to New Jersey, where he really let it rip. At his Bedminster, NJ, golf resort, Trump told a crowd of rabid supporters, “I did everything right, and they indicted me,” insisting that the charges were a “corrupt” “political pursuit” to destroy him. Tuesday night was the eve of his 77th birthday, and it’s hard to imagine a better gift than 31 felony charges of violating the Espionage Act. Twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president Trump made the hilarious claim that president Biden, “will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president…who tried to destroy American democracy.” Folks, we simply have to laugh. President Biden, meanwhile, has imposed a vow of silence about the indictment over not just the White House but the DNC as well, a decision that could limit how effectively Democrats can exploit Trump’s criminality ahead through the trial and the election. Sigh.

• The Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since March 2022. 
   
• French President Emmanuel Macron said he will meet with Elon Musk on Friday for the second time this month to discuss tech regulation and promote France as a potential host for one of Tesla’s factories. 
   
• Old coal-for-brains Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) opposed judge Dale Ho’s nomination to the federal bench because, according to Manchin, he is too far left. In fairness, Manchin also thinks Mitt Romeny is too far left. In good news, Ho was confirmed anyway 50-49. 
   
• An autopsy report concludes that world-champion sprinter and three-time Olympic medalist Tori Bowie died from complications related to childbirth. 
   
• A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation to protect American users’ data from being used by foreign adversaries, the latest move to try to curb the power of apps like China-based TikTok.
   
• The self-proclaimed centrist “No Labels” Party, which professes to be “fed up with the angriest voices dominating our politics” and “extremists on the far left and right,”? Well, it turns out they covertly help raise money for right-wing extremists. 
   
• The NAACP sent an open letter to President Biden on Tuesday night admonishing him for ending the pause on federal student-loan payments as part of the debt-limit deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, saying that the ramifications will perpetuate the cycle of poverty that disproportionately affects Black Americans.

In the latest instance of violent right-wing extremism directed at retail giant Target, stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after receiving bomb threats over the company’s Pride Month merchandise collection. The threats on Saturday targeted stores in Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Vermont, and were nearly identical to those made in recent weeks in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In most of these instances, unidentified individuals emailed threats to local news outlets, after which the FBI and regional Joint Terrorisim Task Force units have been assisting with investigations. Target announced in a statement that law enforcement determined that the stores are safe, and all are “currently open and operating regular hours.” These threats come weeks after Target announced it would be pulling some of its Pride merchandise in response to an initial surge of violent anti-LGBT backlash to the collection, proving what most sensible people or anyone who’s ever read even one paragraph of modern history of right-wing movements already knew: that giving in to conservative reactionaries never quells their violence, it only emboldens them to go further. 

Domestic-producer prices fell more than expected in May as the cost of energy goods and food declined. 

The Federal Trade Commission filed a restraining order seeking to block Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

Illinois became the first state to pass a law that would withhold state funding from any libraries that ban books.