Elizabeth M.F. Grasmeder

On WEDNESDAY night: Join me at the @haydencenter.bsky.social for this timely event.

As Manpower Shortages Deepen, Russia Recruits Foreign Women for War - The Moscow Times Opinion | Women are now among the thousands of migrants from Central Asia serving in Russia’s military, including on the front lines in Ukraine.

Russia recruiting thousands of foreign women into the military.
www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/02/a...

The covers of three books. Left to right: Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the life of a legend, about the late Sopranos actor. The cover shows Gandolfini looking shy, peering offscreen with one unobstructed eye and another that peeks out between the fingers of his right hand. CENTER: The cover of Cinema Her Way, a coffee table book by Marya E. Gates about female directors. On the cover is actress Michelle Rodriguez as the boxer heroine of Karyn Kusama's sports drama Girlfight, about a woman boxer. RIGHT David Hockney's painting collection The Arrival of Spring in Normandy, showing a painting of a verdant field. In the background of the field is green grass. in the upper foreground are the branches of a tree sprouting white, cottony buds.

A screenshot of the pre-orders section at mzs.press. Three screenshots of books that have not yet been released. I Am The Night, Daniel Dockery's book about Batman the Brave and the Bold, has a silhouette of Batman stretching from the top to the bottom of the cover, with the title of the book and a nighttime Gotham skyline circumscribed by the borders of the Batman silhouette. CENTER The cover of The Ring Cycle, Matt Zoller Seitz and Odie Henderson's book on the Rocky and Creed films. The cover is white except for a pair of black boxing gloves floating there RIGHT The cover of Documentary Now!, the 600-page, 7-pound coffee table book celebrating the aforementioned IFC Channel series parodying classic documentaries.

Screenshot of three books carried at mzs.press arts bookstore: LEFT: Cover of Lead Sister, a biography of Karen Carpenter, featuring a closeup of Carpenter playing and singing with The Carpenters. CENTER: The cover of Anthony Hopkins' We Did OK, Kid, a memoir of his life and career. On the cover is Hopkins in closeup as he looks presently, narrowed blue eyes looking directly at the spectator. RIGHT: Cover of Louis Armstrong In His Own Words, a collection of the bandleader's correspondence. The cover image is a photograph of a probably fortysomething Armstrong seated at the wooden desk in his office where he often wrote letters.

Screenshot of the covers of 3 books carried at mzs.press Arts Bookstore. LEFT: The cover of Gotham City Cocktails, a book of mixed drink recipes inspired by Batman. Art deco-style flowing border lines flow around and around the interior of the dust jacket. At the center are drawings of two tall cocktail glasses and between them, a shot glass and a tumbler with a sword-pierced cherry in it. CENTER: The cover of Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea Cookbook. Green cover, white writing and graphics. The central image is a teapot with stem lines coming out of it, and at the pot's base, a teacup and saucer and a separate plate of biscuits. RIGHT: Bob's Burgers "The Re-Recipe Box," a set of recipe cards inspired by the joke hamburger names featured on the small board at the front of Bob's joint. Red sides with small graphics, cover image of the restaurant.

Greetings, new friends! You may know me as an author, a prolific Bluesky poster and 4th place finisher on So You Call That Dancing? But you might not know that my partner Judith (@mzpress) and I have an online arts bookstore that's growing every day. Full inventory here: mzs.press/EVERYTHING-W...

Analysis | The U.S. government hasn’t protected noncitizen veterans from deportation. That may change. The U.S. military has a long history of relying on foreign recruits.

This is a trend that has repeated numerous times since the Vietnam War, including an uptick in the first DJT term. A commentary from back in the day: wapo.st/4b7GATp

A reminder that noncitizens serve in the US military, just as they do in many others. And some, the USG later deports.

I'm a public library selector who buys all the adult fiction and almost all the non-fiction. Quality NF, especially in sciences and arts, slips easily through the cracks. NF reviews are rare. Post about your new books. A lot. And thank you for your awesome booklist.

Canada revises express entry immigration rules, adds military roles Canada introduced new immigration priority categories on Wednesday to bring in skilled workers in fields ranging from research and health care to aviation, and to include certain military recruits.

They will also include highly skilled foreign military applicants recruited by the Canadian Armed Forces, including military doctors, nurses and pilots. #modernlegions #legionnaires

www.reuters.com/business/wor...

Russian Army Increasingly Depends on Foreign Fighters Amid Heavy Losses in Ukraine | Ukraine news - #Mezha As reported by Bloomberg The Russian army is increasingly relying on foreign fighters in its war against Ukraine, as front-line losses rise faster than the rate at which new recruits can be brought in...

British Defense Secretary John Gili said that Moscow is increasingly relying on foreign fighters, as its forces suffer significant losses that are hard to replace through recruiting new soldiers.

mezha.net/eng/bukvy/ru...

FG Warns Nigerians Against Deceptive Recruitment to Fight in Foreign Wars Federal Government alerts Nigerians to deceptive recruitment schemes luring citizens to foreign conflicts via fake job offers. Victims coerced into military contracts, documents seized. Verify offers,...

Nigeria - FG Warns Nigerians Against Deceptive Recruitment to Fight in Foreign Wars share.google/dJFPTvklV1lz...

DFA warns Filipinos against foreign military recruitment disguised as civilian jobs - Philippine Information Agency MANILA (PIA) — The Department of Foreign Affairs warned against accepting overseas employment offers that may involve recruitment into foreign armed forces, including positions disguised as regular ci...

pia.gov.ph/news/dfa-war...

EU country considers citizenship incentive for migrant military recruits Ireland is considering fast-track citizenship for foreign nationals who serve in its armed forces, as they struggle to meet recruitment 2028 targets

www.the-express.com/news/world-n...

DFA warns Filipinos against foreign military recruitment disguised as civilian jobs - Philippine Information Agency MANILA (PIA) — The Department of Foreign Affairs warned against accepting overseas employment offers that may involve recruitment into foreign armed forces, including positions disguised as regular ci...

pia.gov.ph/news/dfa-war...

Moderna chief: Company won’t invest in new late-stage vaccine trials Moderna has already been facing declines in sales after a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Moderna’s CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: ‘You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market.’ Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.”

WH: We can't end child hunger in America but we can *absolutely* scrounge up the cash for a 35 ft tall gold statue for a rapacious goblin.

Absolutely fascinating, compellingly written, and deeply researched. @bostonreview.bsky.social

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a …

As an aside to the above note, just today I saw some dudes still seethingly furious about something I wrote in 2012, on how being a straight white dude in the US is the Lowest Difficulty Setting in the game of life. That's longevity in writing for you!

whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/s...

‘I didn’t know how to shoot’: how African men have been tricked into fighting for Russia Exclusive: Lured by false job adverts, they are unknowingly enlisted on arrival and put in mortal danger

Having looked at more than 300 of these, governments never with this kind of subterfuge when things are going well...

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Isn't this a reoccurring storyline on Murdoch Mysteries?!

Koh: Trump has now spent $30 billion from the last bill for 10,000 more I.C.E. Agents that are going to be on the streets. That $30 billion would cover all the ACA subsidies for a year. It would eliminate all co-pays for prescription drugs for people from a year, and eliminate all medical debt.

‘I made the biggest mistake’: the young Yemeni men lured into the Russian army with empty promises The offer of thousands of dollars a month was hard to refuse for those living in poverty in a war-torn country. But while some Yemenis have died on the frontline, others are now prisoners of war

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

The New History of Fighting Slavery What we learn by tracing rebellions from Africa to the Americas

New historical scholarship traces resistance to slavery from Africa to the Americas. Laurent Dubois on what can be learned from a broader perspective on rebellion:

fate, universe, and all associated parties: i beg you for opportunities to use this as a gif VERY frequently in the coming years

and as a video

An Exceptional Failure of Democratic Accountability: How American Institutions Protected Power While Global Democracies Upheld Justice How Elite Deference Eroded America's Rule of Law, Defying the Global Norm.

The aftermath of Jan 6 is a story of power protecting power and a deep-seated reluctance to holding elites accountable.

America has constructed two justice systems: one offering extraordinary leniency for the elite, the other operating with swift severity for the disadvantaged.

Fun little delivery from @princetonupress.bsky.social. Order your copy today, and ask your library to do the same! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A deluge of work on regime change after the 2003 invasion of Iraq yielded strong (and rare) agreement in IR: it doesn't work & has terrible consequences. @profdownes.bsky.social's book Catastrophic Success lays it out, but it's right there in the title. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Russia continues systematically recruiting foreign fighters for war, Ukraine says Russia is continuing to systematically recruit foreign nationals for its war against Ukraine, said Oleh Ivashchenko, head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service, on Dec. 26.

Russia continues systematically recruiting foreign fighters for war, Ukraine says share.google/Oetp5fU24RUY...

BREAKING: The House Judiciary Committee has released Jack Smith's 255-page deposition transcript: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

More great details for with the @warontherocks.bsky.social version:
www.army.mil/article/9285...