Hundreds of tiki torch-bearing white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, Friday night in advance of a larger "Unite the Right" demonstration scheduled Saturday. The marchers chanted slogans like "you will not replace us," "Jews will not replace us," and "blood and soil," the latter a phrase used by the Nazi Party.

Saturday's rally is expected to attract several thousand, plus a heavy contingent of counter-protesters. White nationalists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, have rallied repeatedly in Charlottesville this year since the city began the process of removing Confederate statues from public land.

"People are scared" there could be violence at Saturday's demonstrations, Brittany Caine-Conley, a member of Charlottesville's Sojourners United Church of Christ, told The Washington Post. "They are becoming more aware of the magnitude of this event and more aware of the violence that is done by the alt-right. And so people are anxious and afraid."

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer condemned this weekend's gathering as "a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march[ing] down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights." "Everyone has a right under the First Amendment to express their opinion peaceably," he added, "so here's mine: Not only as the mayor of Charlottesville, but as a UVA faculty member and alumnus, I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus." Bonnie Kristian

When Army wife Angela Ricketts received a death threat in February 2015, it looked like it was from the Islamic State.

It turned out to be a Facebook message from Russian hackers.

The Associated Press found evidence that the threats five military wives received from "CyberCaliphate" weren't from jihadists at all. They likely came from the same Russian hackers who interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Back in 2015, news outlets covered CyberCaliphate as if it were run by ISIS sympathizers. Ricketts, who wrote a memoir about being an infantry wife, was quoted in a CNN piece about it. And up until AP contacted her and many of the other women, they were still convinced the messages came from ISIS.

A digital hit list provided by cyber security company Secureworks shows a different story. A Russian hacker was trying to break into the wives' email accounts around the same time they got the threats, which points to a connection, AP reports.

The same group appears to be responsible for leaking the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. Read more at The Associated Press. Kathryn Krawczyk

United Airlines has been struggling with its image after a number of recent disturbing incidents, so one has to wonder about the timing of the company's decision to remove tomato juice from its beverage menu.

The change, which comes as part of a "streamlining" of services on flights under four hours long, will also zap Sprite Zero, Jim Beam, Courvoisier, and Amaretto from the selections for premium and economy customers, CNBC reports. Tomato juice, on the other hand, is being replaced by the humble Mr. & Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix in order to appease fans of boozy liquid breakfasts, but it is doing little to satisfy those who prefer the simple pleasure of sipping a sandwich ingredient blended and served over ice.

"We are once again in full apology mode now onboard our flights," one insider explained to CNBC, "although the issue [of the disappearing tomato juice] is a more minor one compared to the forced removal of customers or suffocating dogs."

There is some good news, although it won't do much to win over anyone who would find the difference between tomato juice and Mr. & Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix offensive: Transcontinental United Airlines flights have added Ghirardelli-branded ice cream toppings for premium customers, now in shard-proof plastic cups. Jeva Lange

Amazon is struggling to tamp down on fraudulent product ratings, BuzzFeed News reported, as sellers continue to find ways to plant incentivized reviews that help boost sales.

Because the e-commerce platform is so competitive, sellers will reportedly deploy a small army of people to write positive reviews for a product, then reimburse and compensate the reviewers in exchange for their time. One expert, who runs a site dedicated to analyzing Amazon listings, told BuzzFeed News that around 9 percent of the site's 250 million reviews, or around 5.3 million reviews, are "unnatural," and may be the product of disingenuous sellers looking to capitalize on a loophole.

Amazon doesn't allow these kinds of reviews and has banned sellers from giving away free items in exchange for reviews. As a workaround, BuzzFeed News explains, sellers instruct people to buy the items themselves, using verified accounts, then pay them back via PayPal or Amazon gift cards. Other platforms like Reddit and Slack allow users to facilitate these arrangements, describing what the seller needs in a review. For example, some sellers will send people to leave 1-star reviews on a competitor's products, which can appear less suspicious than flooding one product with 5-star reviews.

Sellers pay around $4 or $5 per review, and often let users keep the product, which many choose to resell for a profit on eBay. Small business owners who depend on Amazon for sales told BuzzFeed News that the practice can be debilitating, scooping up customers by padding their listings with verified purchases and positive reviews that smaller sellers can't afford or don't want to buy. Read more at BuzzFeed News. Summer Meza

President Trump, as he is fond of reminding us, won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Hillary Clinton's 232, but Clinton amassed about 2.8 million more popular votes at the national scale. Eager to avoid a repeat of that mismatch in elections to come, 10 blue states plus Washington, D.C., have made a compact that would eventually see them allotting their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, functionally bypassing the Electoral College without passing a constitutional amendment.

The most recent state to sign on is Connecticut, where the governor said Saturday he supports a bill to join the compact, which was passed by the state legislature in late April. The agreement doesn't kick in until states with Electoral College votes totaling 270 — the minimum needed for victory — have joined. With the addition of Connecticut, the involved states' electoral vote total comes to 172.

While a majority of Americans want to move to a popular vote system to choose the president, support for keeping the Electoral College has actually increased in recent years. In 1987, 33 percent wanted to maintain the current system and 61 percent wanted to switch; by 2016, that had shifted to 41 and 54 percent, respectively. Democrats overwhelmingly want to switch, but 3 in 4 Republicans are happy the way things are.

The bypass compact would likely face legal challenge were it to reach the 270-vote trigger. The Constitution does not say electors have to follow their state's popular vote, but most states have some penalty in place for those who don't.

Read The Week's Edward Morrissey and Paul Waldman for dueling accounts of the Electoral College's value — or lack thereof. Bonnie Kristian

President Trump sure can hold a grudge.

Late Night host Seth Meyers told Politico on Tuesday that Trump wanted him to publicly apologize for his jokes at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.

Meyers famously poked fun at Trump during his 2011 monologue at the event, calling the idea of Trump in office "a joke" and teasing him about his hair. Four years later, Meyers invited Trump to appear on his show, soon after he had launched his presidential campaign. Ever since the dinner, Trump had occasionally criticized Meyers on Twitter, so the comedian thought an appearance would be a way to finally bury the hatchet.

But Trump's attorney Michael Cohen made it clear to Meyers that Trump was not ready to forgive Meyers. Cohen reportedly demanded that Meyers go on-air and apologize for making fun of Trump. Meyers told Politico that Cohen was negotiating Trump's explicit demands, and that the need for an apology was non-negotiable. Meyers declined, and Trump never made a 2015 appearance on his show. Read more at Politico. Summer Meza

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un secretly met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in northern China on Monday and Tuesday, Chinese state-run media reported Tuesday after Kim returned to Pyongyang.

The two previously met in Beijing in March, Kim's first trip abroad since taking power. This new meeting follows Kim's recent summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and precedes his upcoming talks with President Trump.

"Xi held talks with Kim and hosted a welcome banquet for him," the Chinese report said. "Together, they also took a stroll and attended a luncheon. In a cordial and friendly atmosphere, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries had an all-round and in-depth exchange of views on China-DPRK relations and major issues of common concern." Bonnie Kristian

On Monday, The New Yorker published bombshell allegations against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman by four women who said he had physically and verbally abused them while they were in a romantic relationship. Schneiderman has since resigned — with his downfall predicted by none other than President Trump.

A liberal Democrat, Schneiderman had long been a thorn in the side of President Trump, filing a $40 million civil lawsuit against him over Trump University in August 2013. Trump, then, certainly had something to be angry about when he slammed Schneiderman on Twitter in September 2013:

Looking back now, Trump's tweet — which references Anthony Weiner, the disgraced New York congressman known for his multiple sexting scandals, and Eliot Spitzer, the state's former Democratic governor who resigned following a prostitution scandal — is rather ominous. Jeva Lange