Vladimir Putin may have used the called-off coup this past weekend to his political advantage. Politicians in the West have trouble understanding his hold on power because none of them have the kind of popular support Putin does in Russia.

5) It’s beginning to look like Putin was strengthened, not weekend, by Prigozhin’s aborted coup; 4) The federal government has been quietly building a Censorship-Industrial Complex run out of the Department of Homeland Security; 3) New York City imposes tax on drivers entering midtown Manhattan; 2) Highly pathogenic bird flu found in cat in Spain while locally acquired malaria detected in Florida and Texas; 1) Biology professor fired by college in Texas for teaching that sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes.