For me, reader view on Firefox lets me read Barron's. (Or maybe that plus ublock.)(The original article is actually AFP, if you can find it.)
Was this where someone mentioned cooked.wiki? Same thing but for recipes, gets rid of all the excessive crap and just formats the recipes in a useful way. Used to work for NYT paywalled recipes but they were forced to shut down that part.
Archive dot ph or is usually works for me
The name of his barrier troop mercenary provider.
Domain name suffix for Iceland in case that's not clear
I failed to find a way to read the first link, but in googling the title, I found the BBC's story on the same topic. Apparently, the DRC commutes death sentences to life in prison.
It was the first such call for capital punishment since the authorities decided on March 13 [2024] to resume executions with a rebellion seizing swathes of land around the North Kivu provincial capital Goma.
I should have tried more.
The Russian thing does remind me of the parts of the LOTR where the little orcs are driven into battle by the big orcs.
Soviet "blocking detachments" in the second world war were a thing, but the idea of them literally lining up immediately behind attacking troops and firing on them to ensure they advanced is largely mythical, derived from Enemy at the Gates and probably also from Nazi propaganda about the subhuman Slavic hordes being driven into battle at gunpoint by their Judaeo-Bolshevik herdsmen, etc etc.
Soviet blocking detachments were generally in the rear areas, several km from the forward edge of the battle area, and they had various jobs: collecting and shooting deserters; collecting and reorganising disorganised or scattered troops, especially in the event of a retreat; counter-sabotage; and counter-infiltration. In Western armies these duties generally fall to the established military police.
AFP link not paywalled here:
https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/11-dr-congo-soldiers-risk-death-penalty-for-c-NV_184716
See also Paths of Glory which includes a scene of a French general trying to call in artillery on his own trenches in order to force recalcitrant troops to leave their trenches and advance. The film is fictional, but this part is based on a true story - the Souain corporals affair.