Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 09/03/2021 9:28:27 AM 09/2/21 Thursday This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia. Syrian Air Defenses Engage 'Hostile Missiles' Over Damascus, State Media Reveals by Morgan Artvukhina During a recent Israeli air raid against Damascus and Homs Governorate last month, the Russian military claimed Syria had shot down 22 of 24 projectiles using Russian-supplied air defense equipment, including Pantsir-S and Buk-M2 surface-to-air missile systems. Syrian state media reported early Friday morning that air defenses had engaged targets over the capital city of Damascus. Online observers also reported jet aircraft heard over Lebanon a few minutes before the air defenses began firing, heavily suggesting the projectiles were fired by Israeli aircraft. However, increased fighting, including rocket attacks, have also been reported in nearby Daraa Governorate. Video posted online shows surface-to-air missiles streaking up and toward their targets. Israel has regularly attacked targets in Syria during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, claiming that Iranian forces in the country in support of the Syrian government's fight against foreign-backed rebels are actually preparing to attack Israel. On Monday, open source researcher INTELSkv noted that an Israeli strike on Syria was "highly likely" in the coming days as two of the Israeli Air Force's new Nachshon intelligence aircraft had been flying extensively over the last day as well as drone flights over Lebanon, and that several Israeli pilots had been suddenly called up. There were also reports on social media of several large explosions heard over central Israel, which some speculated might have been Syrian anti-air missiles tracking Israeli aircraft as they returned to base. This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia. Democrats Rush to Consolidate $3.5 Trillion ‘Megabill’ as Corporate Lobbyists Rally Against It by Morgan Artvukhina Senate Democrats and US President Joe Biden have come under increasing pressure to abolish the filibuster, a rule allowing senators to hold up legislation by talking nonstop on the floor, because of the de facto requirement for a 60-person majority to pass bills. So far, he’s said he prefers bipartisanship, even as it imperils his economic agenda. Congressional Democrats are rushing to agree on the contents of a massive spending bill they are attempting to pass through unorthodox means before their self-imposed deadline later this Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 09/03/2021 9:28:27 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 09/03/2021 9:28:27 AM month. Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists representing the country’s biggest companies are organizing their counteroffensive. Congress may be on a seven-week recess, but Democratic Party leaders are still hard at work trying to sort out which programs their $3.5 trillion spending package will include. The party controls both houses of Congress, but between a wavering centrist faction of the party and the threat of a Republican filibuster blocking progress through the Senate, Democrats have been wont to force through anything remotely controversial. That’s why this massive agglomeration of programs, which could potentially include Medicare expansion, an extension of the child tax credit, incentives for clean energy investments, and tax increases on corporations’ foreign profits, are heaped into a single spending bill: the Democrats intend to force it through under budget reconciliation, which allows them to fast-track it protects it from a Republican filibuster. However, even that strategy requires all 50 Democratic senators to vote as a bloc, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ1 has said her mind is firmly set against the bill. House lawmakers have attempted to pressure her to fall in line by holding up the infrastructure bill favored by her. Their go-it-alone strategy narrowly succeeded last week when the House passed a framework for the bill in a close party-line vote of 220-212. However, just nine centrist Democrats were able to gum up the works - an enduring problem when it comes to figuring out what to actually put in the bill. According to Politico. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has directed the heads of relevant House committees to resolve all major disputes about content with their Senate counterparts before the week is out. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told Politico on Thursday that Pelosi was so “anxious” to get the bill passed she was yielding control to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “The fact that we did a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with essentially very little input from the House - it was an institutional surrender to the Senate," he said of the parallel bill that has worked its way through the Senate for months. The Senate finally passed that bill in mid-August. Progressive House Democrats have promised they’ll only support the $3.5 trillion bill if it’s voted on at the same time as the infrastructure bill, which is scheduled for September 27 - one week after lawmakers return to Washington. Meanwhile, another force is seeking to undermine the entire bill: corporate lobbyists. According to a report by the Washington Post, the sweeping progressive measures in the $3.5 trillion bill have aroused the fury of a host of American industrial giants, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, PhRMA, and the Business Roundtable. In addition to “traditional lobbying,” the report says the trade groups are rolling out what Business Roundtable told the paper would be “a significant, multifaceted campaign” to stop tax hikes and would “continue to ramp up our efforts in the coming weeks.” In a statement following the House’s approval of the framework last week, the US Chamber of Commerce pledged to “do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job-killing reconciliation bill from becoming law.” Ironically, in the same statement, it hailed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill as something every member of Congress should support. Other industries are levying their own seven-figure ad campaigns aimed at swaying public opinion against the bill, including comparing drug pricing proposals to socialism, claiming Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 09/03/2021 9:28:27 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 09/03/2021 9:28:27 AM increased taxation would make the US more like China and hurt its global competitiveness, and that various parts of the bill would have made the COVID-19 pandemic worse. “A lot of Americans live in districts represented by more moderate candidates, and those members don’t necessarily know whether they’re going to be in office in a couple of years,” Sarah Bryner, director of research and strategy at the Center for Responsive Politics, told the Post. “By targeting people in districts of what we might say are vulnerable members, which tend to be more centrist, companies hope to exert pressure essentially.” This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia. US Supreme Court Allows Texas Anti-Abortion Law to Stand, Sparking Fears Roe Decision in Peril by Morgan Artyukhina After the US Supreme Court declined to block a controversial anti-abortion law in Texas on Wednesday, reproductive health advocates are fearful that the legal right to an abortion will itself be under threat when the court hears another similar case later this year. In a late-night ruling made using the shadow docket, the nation’s top court declined to block the law from taking effect until its legality is battled out in court. The 5-4 ruling saw Chief Justice John Roberts, who typically joins his conservative colleagues, instead side with the three liberal justices in a dissent in which he noted that the law’s “not only unusual, but unprecedented” enforcement plan demanded more exacting scrutiny before being allowed to take effect. Signed into law in May by Texas Governor Greg Abbott but tangled up in legal fights since then, the so-called “heartbeat” law bans pregnant people from getting abortions if a series of electrical impulses where the fetus’ heart would form is detectable, which can occur as little as five weeks after pregnancy - before many would know they were even pregnant. However, the law is enforced by third-party lawsuits, allowing anyone to sue anyone who “aids and abets” such an abortion, even if the plaintiff is totally unconnected to the person getting the abortion. The only exception is that the father of the child cannot be the plaintiff. To aid enforcement of the bill, anti-abortion groups began establishing websites at which “whistleblowers” could submit anonymous tips about people they suspected of getting an abortion or helping someone to get one. However, activists on Tiktok and other social media sites have organized mass spamming of the sites to clog up their system. According to the emergency application for an injunction by a group of abortion providers and women’s health advocates, the law would ban 85% of all abortions. The law is not the first to ban abortions at such an incredibly early time, but it’s the first to employ such a novel method of enforcement, which defies normal methods of appeal. “The Court’s order is stunning,” Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.