Russia

• Analysts are reading nuclear threats in Pres. Putin's warning that he would use "all available means to protect our people" if Russian territory - including soon-to-be-annexed Ukrainian land - is threatened.
• A former French ambassador to Russia thinks that Putin's coy nuclear threats are indeed a bluff but intended to "accentuate divisions about providing arms because some may now view that as too dangerous."
• Across Russia, protesters demonstrated against Putin's "partial mobilization" and aggression. A human rights outfit reported that at least 1,380 people in 38 cities were arrested for protesting yesterday - that's a huge figure in a place where protests are banned.
• Many Russians are fleeing the mobilization: prices for one-way flights out of Russia have skyrocketed and the flights are selling out. Russia's Baltic neighbors have refused refuge to fleeing Russians, citing security concerns (they worry an invasion force will sneak in with asylum-seekers).

• Russian-backed separatists unexpectedly freed 215 Ukrainian prisoners they captured in Mariupol, including the commander and deputy commander of the Azov battalion that led the battle.
• Their release was surprising because their captors had been planning to put them on show trial.
• Ukraine apparently freed 55 Russian prisoners in return, including a high-value captive: Viktor Medvedchuk, who leads a banned pro-Russian political party.
• Saudi Arabia said Crown Prince MBS mediated the prisoner exchange.

• A new UN report found that Pres. Maduro and other senior Venezuelan leaders personally selected targets for crimes against humanity intended to suppress dissent.
• It was the most pointed report the UN Fact Finding Mission on Venezuela has released since it started investigating human rights violations in Venezuela in 2019, and it described over 120 cases of torture - including some very gruesome accounts.

• The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a point to 3.25%. Some analysts had expected a full percentage point rate hike, given that August inflation was still high (8.3%) despite all of this year's rate rises.
• Fed officials expect more rate increases to come: most of those polled think rates will be around 4.25% at the end of this year and 4.5% to 4.75% at the end of 2023.