Russia is reportedly trying to censor media coverage of a rumoured second mass mobilisation of reserve troops to stamp out discontent in the leadup to next year’s presidential elections.

Pro-Kremlin media have allegedly received a memo issuing guidelines and including an ‘urgent request’ to downplay speculation that Russia might be getting ready to call up more reservists to funnel into its brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Opposition outlet Meduza yesterday claimed to have seen the guidelines, shared by employees working for state-controlled media. One reportedly told the publication: ‘Everybody knows, if the government is denying something’s going to happen, it’s definitely happening.’

The memo allegedly told pro-Kremlin outlets to instead focus on coverage of contract recruitment for the military.

Russia has upped efforts to censor dissident voices this year. Only on Thursday, State Duma Deputy Anton Gorelkin said that Russia should consider blocking WhatsApp in Russia if the app launches Russian language channels.

State censor Roskomnadzor added that Russia could block WhatsApp if it disseminates prohibited information as the application prepares to launch a channel feature to feature over 150 countries, likely including Russia.

Rumours of a second call-up of reserves have mounted in the lead-up to the start of the six-monthly conscription cycle on October 1.

Earlier this month, a fake photograph of a signed mobilisation order caused a stir on Russian social media.

Media insiders reportedly told Meduza that they had been instructed to abstain from all discussion of the incident – and even to avoid refuting fake news.

But anxious rumours of another looming mass mobilisation order continue to circle online.

A Russian Telegram channel claiming ties to Russian security sources stated earlier this week that officials want to recruit some 170,000 – 175,000 troops in the next cycle.

Officials also allegedly hope to move the start of conscription to November 1 to accommodate new mobilisation processes, while recruiting 130,000 soldiers through coercive ‘contract mobilisation’. 

The Institute for the Study of War assessed on Tuesday that top officials are ‘actively disagreeing about the necessity of and preparations for a second wave of reserve mobilisation’, however.

But speculation is not likely to help Putin’s popularity ahead of the upcoming 2024 elections, Meduza observed. 

It judged: ‘The Kremlin’s intent… is to re-elect the incumbent president with record unanimity: the goal is to garner at least 80 percent of the vote with a turnout of 70 percent or more.’

State Duma and Federation Council members went so far as to propose blocking WhatsApp in a bid to control online content and limit access to prohibited information. 

Following Meta’s decision to launch a channel feature to over 150 countries, likely including Russia, Russian officials proposed an outright ban on the application.

Politician and journalist Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram on Thursday: ‘I share the position of my colleague [State Duma Deputy Anton] Gorelkin: if What’s App [sic] really launches Russian-language information channels, it would be right to reconsider the attitude towards this messenger, even to the point of blocking it.

‘There is no doubt about the anti-Russian nature of these channels, since [WhatsApp] belongs to the extremist company Meta with all the ensuing consequences.’

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, was designated an extremist organisation in March 2022. 

Its products have since been banned in Russia.

Russia’s presidential elections are scheduled to be held in March 2024, with the winner inaugurated next May.

Putin has not yet confirmed whether or not he will run again.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday: ‘The president has not yet announced that he will nominate his candidacy.

‘But if we assume that the president stands as a candidate, then it is obvious that there can be no real competition for the president at this current stage,’ Peskov was quoted as saying by RBC.

When he first addressed his new group of US activists, the UK climate crusader Roger Hallam unveiled plans for a huge ‘civil disobedience campaign’ of blocked highways and mass disruptions in mid-August.

Instead, the summer of chaos that Hallam promised has fizzled and flopped — a lame sequel to his Extinction Rebellion (XR) rallies that put tens of thousands of protestors on the streets of London, effectively shutting down the British capital.

This week, the US franchise that Hallam co-founded in 2022, Declare Emergency, struggled to get even a handful of activists to don goofy dinosaur outfits and stage an ‘extinction’ protest on Washington DC‘s subway.

Members of the US climate group have privately said it’s been difficult to recruit on this side of the pond, where people are less keen on green issues and don’t want to travel to rallies.

‘We have been understaffed and funded, so haven’t been able to follow the plan fully,’ one of Declare Emergency’s organizers told DailyMail.com.

We have decided not to name the member, in case he faces blowback from the group.

‘When it comes to organizing movements, it’s hard to compare the US with any European country,’ he added.

‘We’re too dispersed here, geographically.’

Other climate campaigners spoke of the difficulty in staying cohesive. 

Too often, they say, activists get bogged down in ‘ideological purity’ tests and petty squabbles instead of taking their message to the streets.

For Hallam, 56, the so-called ‘Week of Action’ that officially started on August 21 can only have been a let-down.

On Monday, about 10 activists sat themselves on a crosswalk at a busy intersection in downtown Washington DC. 

They caused tailbacks in the rush hour traffic as motorists honked their horns in frustration.

Three women activists refused police requests to leave and were handcuffed and led away.

On Tuesday, about five campaigners donned gaudy dinosaur costumes and staged a ‘die-in’ on the Washington DC subway and at L’Enfant Plaza, a shopping mall.

A mature woman activist in a T-Rex costume tried to engage workers on their lunch breaks.

‘Do you know what happened to the dinosaurs?’ she asked a reluctant woman at a food counter.

‘We’re afraid we’re going to go extinct, just like the dinosaurs, because of climate change.’

The woman said nothing, nodded, and looked away.

The protests have not yet reached New York, the other city organizers aimed to target.

The week of action is not yet over, but what’s been staged so far falls short of what Hallam announced in his online planning session in June, which DailyMail.com was able to attend.

Back then, he spoke of creating a ‘large-scale civil disobedience campaign on the climate catastrophe in the United States.’

The farmer-turned-activist told members he’d raised $1 million in just a week to kick-start the American movement.

That money would fund weekly recruitment and training sessions and the group would swell to 1,000 members, he said.

That would include an elite hardcore that was willing to go to jail for the cause.

It would, Hallam said, replicate XR’s week-long rallies in London, where coordinated units of activists closed down roads and bridges, shuttering much of the city center and causing millions of dollars of losses.

There, activists have planted trees in Parliament Square, superglued themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace and other landmarks, vandalized artworks in major galleries, and shut down runways used by private jets.

Hallam said such a massive disruption was possible in the US, citing the decades of civil rights protests that shifted attitudes on gay rights and led to the mass racial justice protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

The seasoned activist, speaking from the UK, said his organizational tactics were ‘not that complicated, have worked in many countries, and we see no reason why they shouldn’t work in the US.’

At an online gathering the following week, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib gave members a pep talk, telling them to be ‘much more aggressive’ as they geared up for the looming week of disruption.

Two months later, and it’s clear that despite the money, political support, and a recruitment drive, Declare Emergency has struggled to get off the ground.

The member who spoke privately with DailyMail.com complained that the US market was saturated with competing campaign groups. 

‘There are more environmental and social movements than cereal options in a grocery store aisle,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘Protestors are spread thin,’ he added. ‘Maybe next season.’ 

Another outfit, the youth-led Climate Defiance, is also small, but has made more headlines by disrupting events with such luminaries as Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Amy Klobuchar.

For some, the lack of enthusiasm for Hallam’s group in the US is perplexing, given the alarming number of extreme weather events. 

July saw some of the hottest days ever recorded, wildfires have torn through Canada and blanketed cities as far away as New York in smoke, and Storm Hilary unleashed record-breaking downpours across Southern California.

But Americans are less worried about climate change than their European counterparts.

While 31 percent in the US want to rapidly switch to renewable energy sources, another two thirds want to continue using oil, coal and natural gas as well as the cleaner alternatives, according to Pew Research Center polling.

Declare Emergency wants President Joe Biden to declare a national climate crisis and use his executive powers to sharply cut emissions of planet-heating gases.

UN experts say pollution is making the Earth dangerously hot, but the US, China, and other governments have set ambitious targets to limit the risk by switching to clean energy sources over the coming years.

Though many people support efforts to tackle global warming, others eschew the tactics of XR and other hard-line outfits, which have shuttered roads, highways, airports, offices, and other public venues.

House Democratic campaign arm raises $41m in last quarter with mass shootings helping propel them ahead of GOP fundraisers in June – as Raphael Warnock nearly triples Herschel Walker with his own $17m haul

• The DCCC raised $40.7 million the second quarter of FY2022 
• Party also raised the RNCC by just $500,000 in June despite claims there will be a Democratic bloodbath in November’s midterm
• The fundraising haul came after a series of mass shootings and the Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade last month 
• Georgia is a good example of Democrats out raising Republicans in the midterms
• Democrat incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock raised $17.2M from April-June compared to his Republican rival Herschel Walker, who brought in $6.2M

By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:13 EDT, 13 July 2022 | Updated: 20:01 EDT, 13 July 2022

America’s mass shooting hotspots revealed: First of its kind study breaks down thousands of massacres by state – and there’s NO correlation between gun control laws

By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 13:28 EDT, 27 July 2023

BREAKING NEWS: Mass shooting in Baltimore leaves dozens wounded and multiple dead

By Victoria Bischoff

Published: 04:09 EDT, 2 July 2023 | Updated: 04:09 EDT, 2 July 2023

Every time a mass shooting occurs in the United States – and there have been 212 so far this year – leaders on both sides of the political aisle reflexively retreat to the same blame game: the right pointing to mental illness, the left saying relaxed gun laws are the real issue. 

‘It’s both, okay,’ said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, 26-year congressman and top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. 

‘The unbelievably easy access to weapons that we have in this country combined with a number of people who are not in good mental health to create an enormous problem, it’s both. It’s not an either or thing,’ he told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. 

The lawmaker falls at the crossroads of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the centrist, problem-solving New Democrats group. 

‘When you say that mental health matters, you’re not saying that you don’t care about the guns, we need lesser access to guns,’ he said. 

Last week a gunman at an outdoor mall in Allen, Texas, opened fire with an AR-15 and killed eight people. President Biden renewed his call for an assault weapons ban; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer convened Democrats to talk gun legislation. 

But faced with a poll on Fox News showing Americans favor background checks and raising the minimum age to purchase firearms, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pivoted to mental health. 

‘We are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it,’ Abbott said. ‘People want a quick solution. The long-term solution here is to address the mental health issue.’   

‘I think the whole nation should be leading,’ Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this week in response to a question on whether Congress should take the lead on the gun violence discussion. 

Last time Congress took major action on gun control was in June 2022, a month after a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school. 

The law included $750 million to help enact ‘red flag’ laws in states throughout the country and offered funding for mental health and school security. It also enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21 and closed the boyfriend loophole – so those convicted of domestic violence against dating partners cannot purchase weapons. 

A year on, not much has changed – at this point last year, there had been fewer mass shootings: 183. 

In 2016, there were 15,139 deaths from guns, by all manner of causes. From the start of this year to the current day, there have been more than that – 15,306. 

Asked if he thought any sort of gun package could get done with a Republican-led House and Democrat-run Senate, Smith said: ‘No, is the honest answer.’ 

‘Republicans have made it perfectly clear that they have no intention of doing anything about this because they operate under the delusion that the more guns the safer we are.’ 

Meanwhile, the debate continues over how to best handle the soaring homelessness and mental illness that has been distressing liberal cities from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, in Smith’s home state, at a time of rising crime after the Covid-19 pandemic. 

For the rise in social discord, Smith pointed to ‘the lack of involuntary commitment in so many places in this country. We’ve shut down a lot of these institutions. We’ve stood up community based care.’

‘Do not underestimate the impact of individual mental health issues, even seemingly minor ones, on the level of conflict and instability in our society,’ he writes at the start of his forthcoming memoir, Lost and Broken, obtained by DailyMail.com. 

Just last week the killing on the subway of a homeless, mentally ill man – Jordan Neely – divided New Yorkers. 

Neely had 40 prior arrests and allegedly was threatening to kill people on the subway. He was unarmed the time 24-year-old Marine veteran Daniel Penny choked him to death. 

The issue put Mayor Eric Adams at odds with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Many New Yorkers were outraged by what they saw as a disproportionate use of force – others said the incident shed light on the rising fear they have when using the city’s public transit system. 

‘It’s the left wing ideology that says let individuals do what they want to do. You know, no one’s gonna get drug treatment or mental health treatment until they’re good and ready, so just let them be,’ said Smith. 

In December, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a policy allowing police to involuntarily bring unhoused people suffering mental illness to a hospital, generating much controversy from the progressive wing of his party. 

In Washington, the state must first prove that an individual is suffering from a mental illness and poses a threat to themselves or others. 

Meanwhile, the mental health of young people is in crisis – more than a third of those aged 18-25 (33.7 percent) report having a mental illness while only 15 percent of those over 50 years of age say the same. 

Smith, whose new book details how he overcame his own chronic pain and anxiety, said that members of his party needed to be more accountable in general – that society needs to teach ‘resilience’ rather than ‘vulnerability and dependence.’ 

The congressman said that many people are quick to find a diagnosis for their mental struggles but are slow to do the work to get better.  

‘Let’s have an open conversation about this from the standpoint of we want people to get better,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of this, sort of just talking about it.’

‘I come from a very left-wing jurisdiction in the Seattle King County area, so maybe that’s just peculiar to my neck of the woods, but I don’t think so. I think we need to think about, how do we teach people to be resilient? To find their way through their mental and physical problems, to better know their mind and body so that they can be active, productive adults,’ Smith went on. 

‘Not, well, some of them they see the psychiatrist once a week and other than that, they hang out in bed because lord knows they’ve got something that we can’t possibly deal with.’

Joe Biden again called on Congress to send an assault weapons ban to his desk for signature after the latest mass shooting in Texas left eight people dead.

The president lamented that the ‘leading cause of death for American kids is gun violence’ while listing the moves he has taken to try and tackle the crisis already, noting ‘it’s not enough.’

‘We need more action, faster to save lives,’ he urged.

Biden also blamed Republicans for holding up action and insisted: ‘Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.’

‘Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,’ he continued. ‘Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.’

Meanwhile, Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott insisted Sunday morning that the best way to address the exponential increase in gun violence is to focus on the mental health problems at the root of the issue.

The explanation comes after his gun-friendly state saw yet another mass shooting on Saturday that left nine people dead at a mall, including the gunman.

Abbott dismissed critics’ claims that the lax gun laws in Texas are to blame for the increased mass shootings. Instead, he noted that all states have been experiencing an increase in gun violence in recent years.

‘We need to recognize the reality we’ve seen across the United States over the last year or two, and that is an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states,’ the Republican governor told Fox News Sunday. ‘We’ve seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws, as well as states with very strict gun laws.’

‘I think that the state in which the largest number of victims occurred this year is in California, where they have very tough gun laws,’ he added.

A gunman with an AR-15 and wearing full tactical gear opened fire at an H&M clothing store in the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas on Saturday afternoon.

He gunned down eight people, including children, before a hero cop took out the shooter. The cop was on scene for an unrelated call but rushed over when he heard the gunshots.

Biden lamented in his Sunday afternoon statement: ‘Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar.’

The shooting on Saturday comes almost exactly a year after another mass shooting shook Texas in Uvalde last May at the Robb Elementary School.

Abbott said earlier on Sunday: ‘One thing that we can observe very easily – and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that’s taking place in America.’

‘And what Texas is doing in a big time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing mental health problems behind it,’ he told Fox News.

New audio footage of the most recent shooting reveals how the unnamed hero officer made a frantic phone call begging for his colleagues to join him on the scene, radioing: ‘I need everybody I got.’

He bravely ran towards the active shooter – who was armed with 60 rounds and had shot over a dozen people by this point – and killed him.

Around two minutes after first calling for backup, the cop said: ‘I got him down.’ 

Minutes later, another voice is heard on the radio saying: ‘We got victims. I need an ambulance.’ 

The FBI have raided the dead suspect’s home following the civilian massacre.  

A stampede of hundreds of shoppers were seen racing out of the complex while gunfire rained out – as security and police attempted to shepherd them to safety. 

People in the store were frantically ushered into lockable rooms, and when they eventually got the all-clear to come out, they saw the broken windows, trails of blood by the door, and bloodied bodies covered in sheets.  

Dashcam video showed the gunman getting out of a car and shooting at people on the sidewalk on Saturday afternoon. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle that was recording the video drove off. 

The gunman was using an AR-15-style gun during the mass shooting, and was dressed in full tactical SWAT gear. 

Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd confirmed that seven people died at the scene, including the gunman, and then a further two victims died in hospital. 

Three of the wounded were in critical condition in the evening, and four were stable, Boyd said in an update on Saturday night. 

A Dallas-area medical group said it was treating victims as young as five-years-old. 

Investigators have confirmed that they believe the shooter was working alone, but they have not yet released any motive for the devastating killings.  

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunshots through his headphones. He said: ‘It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside.

‘I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,’ he said. 

The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground. ‘It broke me when I walked out to see that.’

Payton then saw the body of the dead shooter – which was the only one not covered, he recalled.  

Another witness, Kimberly Blakey, said she and her daughter, 14, were among the crowd of people rushing to flee the parking lot after the gunfire started.

She said the raining bullets were ‘non-stop.’ Her car got shot at during the ordeal as she tried to escape. 

Blakey told CNN: ‘I told my daughter to get down. I could hear her start praying.’ 

Another witness, Sheliza Ramlall, who was in the Nike store when the violence broke out, said: ‘I had the most horrifying experience earlier. I was standing in line at the Nike store when all of a sudden people started to scream and run. 

‘The people in the doorway saw the man with the gun outside and raised the alarm. All of us in line dropped to the floor and started to crawl looking for a hiding place while falling over each other. 

‘I crawled behind the counter. At that moment, I realized that we were right in plain sight and and figured that I needed to get away from the front. 

‘As I looked to the back of the store, I heard someone saying ‘get to the back, get to the back’ and everyone started running at that point. An employee opened the back door and let us out. We are standing by the roadside shaken, crying, and hugging each other.

‘Not knowing where the gunman was or what was happening on the other side was terrifying but I wanted to get out of there so I left the crowd and started to flag the cars down to give me a lift. 

‘An elderly woman stopped and I hopped in a panic. She started to tell me about the gunshots she heard and drove me to my car. I raced out of there with an elevated heartbeat. 

‘I am grateful for our brave first responders who stopped the shooter and helped the people to safety.’

Mayor Ken Fulk said in a statement on Saturday night: ‘Today is a tragic day for the City of Allen, our citizens, our friends and visitors who were at the Allen Premium Outlets. We know you are grieving, we are grieving.

‘Allen is a proud and safe city which makes today’s senseless act of violence even more shocking. However, I want to commend our police and fire departments for their quick response. 

‘Their thorough training not to hesitate to move toward the threat likely saved more lives today. We also want to thank all of our surrounding municipalities and law enforcement agencies for offering their assistance at the scene. 

‘This collective effort is what makes our North Texas communities united.’ 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott described the shooting as an ‘unspeakable tragedy.’

Witnesses have recalled the horrific moments they realized they were in the midst of a mass shooting – with one man, Steven Spainhouer, saying he rushed to desperately save a child who had been shot.

His own son was working at the H&M store when shots were fired.

Spainhouer told CBS News: ‘I never imagined in 100 years I would be thrust into the position of being the first first responder on the site to take care of people.

‘The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face.’  

He said she was already beyond saving.

Still set on saving the mess of victims, Spainhouer recalled how he then found another child, who survived the barrage of bullets by being covered by his protective mother, who he said was among eight to die by the gunman.

Spainhouer added: ‘When I rolled the mother over, he came out.

‘I asked him if he was OK and he said, ‘My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.’

‘Rather than traumatize him any more, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe.  [It was] like somebody poured blood on him.’  

In recent years, Texas has witnessed some of the most gruesome and deadly mass shootings in America.

Many believe it’s partly because of the state’s loosened gun laws which have come into effect in the past few years.

In September 2021, a ‘constitutional carry’ law came into effect, allowing most Texas who legally own a firearm to carry it openly in public without obtaining a permit or training. 

At the time, Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the law ‘instilled freedom in the Lone Star State.’ 

Just eight months after the pro-gun law was passed, Uvalde, Texas experienced one of the bloodiest school shootings in US history at Robb Elementary School. A total of 19 children were killed, along with two teachers, by gunman Salvador Ramos. 

The gunman, 18, wrote ‘LOL,’ an acronym for ‘laugh out loud,’ on a whiteboard using the blood of his innocent victims. 

For years in Texas, Republicans have waved aside efforts to tighten gun laws after mass shootings, and even expanded gun rights after the 2019 attack on a Walmart in El Paso.