US president says Russian leader’s ‘back is against the wall’ and warns of severe consequences of any such attack. Plus, the backlash against book banningGood morning.Russia’s false accusation that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that a desperate Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden has said.What is going on with the peace negotiations? The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for talks with his Russian counterpart as the key to ending the war. He said direct discussions “in any format” were needed.Is Russia targeting journalists? A reporter describes life under siege in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and why it is so important to break the silence. “The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in,” said Mstyslav Chernov.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 27 of the invasion.The Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is wrong to attack Jackson, and should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week, the Senate judiciary chair said.The Texas senator Ted Cruz complained that the supreme court confirmation hearings have become increasingly angry and confrontational. His comments came the day after he was filmed becoming confrontational at an airport in Montana. Continue reading...

A new Guardian US series reports on a seemingly intractable crisis, and hears from those living on the edge in America’s richest stateWhen California shut down in March 2020, advocates for unhoused people thought the state might finally be forced to solve its homelessness crisis. To slow the spread of Covid, they hoped, officials would have to provide people living outside with stable and private shelter and housing.But in the two years since, California’s humanitarian catastrophe has worsened: deaths of people on the streets are rising; college students are living in their cars; more elderly residents are becoming unhoused; encampment communities are growing at beaches, parks, highway underpasses, lots and sidewalks. Continue reading...

Several unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB as a Seattle Amazon Fresh grocery store resists efforts to unionizeLas week, 26-year-old Kaylyn Richards received an automated email informing her that she was terminated from her job at an Amazon Fresh grocery retail store in Seattle.Earlier that week, Richards had spoken with one of her managers about clerical problems she was having with the attendance time clock, as she was erroneously docked attendance points, though she noted she had never missed shifts or used paid time off if doing so. A manager reassured her the clerical errors made clocking in and out through the app would be resolved. Continue reading...

Scores of American players make their livings in Russia and Ukraine. But the war forced them to make tough decisions about their futuresAs is often the case in times of war, Jordan Swing and Troy Barnies struggled with who to believe at the start of February as Russian troops gathered on the border of Ukraine, where they both played professional basketball. On one hand, Joe Biden had urged American citizens to leave Ukraine within 48 hours. On the other hand, their teams had said they should stay where they were. Swing, a former standout at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said his team went as far as threatening him with fines should he leave.“My Ukrainian team [MBC Mykolaiv] initially told us not to worry,” Barnies recalls. “Our team’s management and teammates didn’t talk much about it. We were hearing reports that Russian troops were surrounding the country. But our team’s management, and some teammates, told us that it was no big deal. They said Russia is always bullying countries and Ukraine is one of them.” Continue reading...

Will Smith’s underdog movie about Serena and Venus Williams’ dad is his best performance to date and is as much a story about parenting as sporting achievementLet’s be honest, King Richard is nowhere near being a favourite for best picture. Some would even suggest an unpretentious sports biopic like this doesn’t even belong at the awards top table. But isn’t that what they said about Venus and Serena Williams? King Richard is an underdog movie about underdogs, and if the notion of the lowly outsider overcoming daunting odds sounds too Hollywood to swallow, well tough: this actually happened.Richard Williams’ story is absurdly improbable, on the face of it: a working-class Black man from Compton, Los Angeles, who decides he is going to coach his two daughters to become world-beating tennis players before they are even born, and writes an 85-page plan for how to achieve it. Needless to say, the pro tennis world laughs in his face. “You’re asking me to believe you have the next two Mozarts living in your house.” But of course, Williams does achieve his goal, and if the conclusion of this story is not exactly a cliffhanger, King Richard at least departs from the standard “everything depends on the big game” sports-movie formula, and gets into the psychology of this unique family. Continue reading...

Russian accusations that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are false and illustrate that Russian president Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in his war against Ukraine, US president Joe Biden has said, without citing evidence. ‘They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign he's considering using both of those,’ Biden said at a Business Roundtable event

Ketanji Brown Jackson, US president Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman on the US supreme court, has stressed her patriotism in her opening statement during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Jackson said she was blessed to be 'born in this great nation.' The 51-year-old judge pledged independence if confirmed by the Senate to the nation's top judicial body and embraced a limited role for jurists. 'My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be,' Jackson said

He had entered the stormwater system intentionally and became stuck for two days before being rescued uninjured, but dehydratedA man who was trapped 15ft (4.5m) underground for two days in a San Francisco Bay area storm pipe the width of a large pizza was rescued in an effort that lasted hours and involved at least 50 firefighters, police officers and rescue personnel, officials said Monday.Officials freed the man from the 16in (40cm) pipe around 9.30pm on Sunday, said Steve Hill, spokesperson for the Contra Costa county fire protection district. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Donald, Donald Jr. and Ivanka claim that Arthur Engoron’s ruling ‘failed to properly weigh constitutional and ethical concerns’ they’d raisedDonald Trump and his two eldest children continued their fight to overturn a decision requiring the former president to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his business practices, filing fresh paperwork on Monday that accused a New York judge of abusing his discretion in issuing the decision.In papers filed in a state appeals court, lawyers for the former president said that Manhattan judge Arthur Engoron failed to properly weigh constitutional and ethical concerns that they’d raised about the investigation brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James.

The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying the Kremlin had carried out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict. 'We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that,' Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. 'But there's investigative processes that are going to go on, and we're going to let that happen. We're going to contribute to that investigative process'

• Three-time winner removed from list of competitors• Mickelson has not played since FebruaryPhil Mickelson is to miss the Masters for the first time in 28 years after being removed from the list of competitors for next month’s tournament.The three-time winner has been listed as a “past champion not playing” on the tournament website. Mickelson is currently taking a break from golf following the fallout from his explosive comments about the PGA Tour and a potential Saudi-backed rival circuit. Continue reading...

Nominee talked of ‘historic chance’ to be the first Black woman on supreme court – but first she had to listen to a lot of white menHistory was made Monday, as the first Black woman ever nominated to the US supreme court testified to the Senate judiciary committee. But before Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson could speak at her confirmation hearing, she first had to listen to a lot of white men.The Senate confirmation hearings for Jackson started Monday, giving the judge and every member of the judiciary committee the opportunity to deliver remarks about her nomination. Continue reading...

Chevron says it will bring trained workers to the plant in Richmond and continue operations as normalHundreds of Chevron workers in California went on strike Monday after the company and the United Steelworkers union failed to reach a contract agreement.More than 500 workers at a refinery producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and lubricating oils in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond began striking at 12.01am, the union said in an email. Workers recently voted down a contract offer from Chevron, and the company refused to return to the bargaining table. Continue reading...

Alistair Burt, previously a Foreign Office minister, queries delay to payment of cash that freed Nazanin Zaghari-RatcliffeThe UK government has known for many years that if it paid a £400m debt to Iran it was likely to lead to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt has said in a letter to the foreign affairs select committee.Burt, a Tory MP until 2019, is calling for the committee to launch an inquiry into why the debt was not paid and into who – either in the governments of the UK or the US – resisted making the payment. Continue reading...

Texas senator filmed becoming confrontational with airport staff after missing check-in window for flight from Bozeman, MontanaIn Washington on Monday, the Texas senator Ted Cruz complained that supreme court confirmation hearings have become increasingly angry and confrontational.In Bozeman, Montana the previous day, however, the Republican was filmed becoming angry and confrontational with airport staff and an armed police officer. Continue reading...

Steps allegedly taken to limit former Missouri governor’s access to firearms after he showed ‘unstable and coercive’ behaviorThe former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, now a leading Republican Senate candidate, was physically abusive and demonstrated such “unstable and coercive behavior” that steps were taken to limit his access to firearms, according to allegations from his ex-wife revealed in court records on Monday.The sworn affidavit from Sheena Greitens is part of a child custody dispute. A public affairs professor at the University of Texas, she sought divorce after a sex scandal led to Eric Greitens’ resignation as governor in June 2018. Continue reading...

Trial of Couy Griffin is the second among hundreds of people charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riotAn elected official from New Mexico headed to trial on Monday with a judge, not a jury, set to decide if he is guilty of charges that he illegally entered the US Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.The trial of Couy Griffin, an Otero county commissioner, is the second among hundreds of people charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. Continue reading...

The dictator’s first loyalty is to Putin, despite biting sanctions and growing opposition to the invasion at homeThe Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has allowed Russian convoys and troops to close in on Kyiv from Belarusian territory and provided military infrastructure, notably airbases that Russian warplanes are using to attack Ukraine. The country is being bombarded by rockets arriving from Belarusian territory.Belarus’s dictator also provides political support for Russian aggression: Belarus voted against the resolution of the UN general assembly condemning the Russian invasion (alongside Russia, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea), and its state propaganda machine mirrors Russia’s in its justifications. Like its eastern neighbour, the Lukashenko regime is arresting and repressing those who dare protest against war.Ryhor Astapenia is director of the Belarus Initiative at Chatham House, and research director at the Centre for New Ideas Continue reading...

As enticing as comparisons with the past can be, it’s geography that holds the key to understanding the war in UkraineNo, the war in Ukraine is not like Brexit. No, the Russians are not Nazis, nor are the Ukrainians. No, Boris Johnson is not Churchill or Pericles, and the third world war has not begun, unless we choose to begin it. Such comparisons are odious. As a guide to the present, let alone the future, history is for smart alecks and podcasts. It is bunk.The only quarrel I have with Ukraine’s astonishing resistance to Russia is with its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s, recourse to historical parallels. It is understandable that Ukraine should want to browbeat Nato into joining its cause against Russia. Its struggle is existential. But to summon images of Europe’s blood-drenched 20th century is no way to do it. As for Johnson portraying the Kremlin as on a par with the EU – an organisation Ukraine wants to join – it is like having a playground idiot running the country.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Many conservatives don’t think the 2020 election was stolen. But they believe democracy itself has betrayed America, by allowing the ‘wrong’ people to take chargeEarlier this month, Team Trump claimed in court that their efforts to nullify Joe Biden’s victory could not possibly have been fraudulent or be described as a criminal conspiracy, because those in and around the White House had merely been acting on the basis of sincerely held suspicions.This sparked the latest round in the never-ending debate over whether or not Republicans actually believe that the election was stolen from them. Politically, it is important to push back against the opportunistic ways in which Republicans up and down the country have been using the “big lie”. But if we are trying to understand what is animating the right’s rapidly accelerating radicalization against democracy, binary assumptions of Republicans as either true believers or power-hungry cynics are not very helpful and actually obscure more than they illuminate. In some fundamental way, Republicans are both. What we really need to grapple with is why so many Republicans are convinced the outcome of the election was illegitimate regardless of whether or not there were specific procedural irregularities.Thomas Zimmer is a visiting professor at Georgetown University, focused on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States, and a Guardian US contributing opinion writer Continue reading...

Court says 73-year-old does not have Covid and could be released in next few days after ‘flu-like’ infection symptoms began abatingThe supreme court justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to hospital after experiencing “flu-like symptoms” and was then found to have an infection, the court said late on Sunday.A court spokesperson told news outlets Thomas, who has been vaccinated and boosted, did not have Covid-19. Continue reading...

Talent trumps trouble in the NFL and Cleveland value the quarterback’s arm, not his character. Pretending otherwise merely insults fans’ intelligenceFrom a football-only perspective, the winner of the Cleveland Browns-Houston Texans blockbuster trade for Deshaun Watson is worthy of debate. The Texans shipped the 26-year-old quarterback to the Browns in exchange for three first-round picks, plus a third- and fourth-rounder. In addition, Watson will reportedly receive $230m in guaranteed money. That’s a boatload of capital to invest in any player, and Watson will need to give the Browns several years of production to make the deal worth it for Cleveland from a football perspective. Franchise quarterbacks drive organizations: great ones are worth breaking the bank for.But in trading for Watson, the Browns sold their soul. Of course, Watson is no ordinary player. He’s a multi-faceted – and arguably generational – talent who led the league in passing yards in 2020. He is a three-time Pro Bowler who holds the NFL record for highest career completion percentage. The Browns salivated at those stats, all the while minimizing a far more significant number: 22. Continue reading...

European trip will include meetings with Nato, EU and G7 allies but White House says president will not visit Ukraine

Officials in South Carolina ruled the shooting of Nathan Drew, 29, by an unnamed 79-year-old was an act of self-defenseSouth Carolina officials said they would not file charges against a boater who helped rescue a man from the water, then shot him dead.A statement from the Oconee county sheriff’s office said the 10th judicial circuit solicitor, David Wagner, ruled that the Tuesday shooting of 29-year-old Nathan Drew Morgan by an unnamed 74-year-old man was an act of self-defense. Continue reading...

Moscow offers safe passages to fighters who give in, as US says Joe Biden will visit Poland. Plus, Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings beginGood morning.Ukraine has defied an ultimatum by the Russian military for its forces to surrender the city of Mariupol, as shelling continued in Kyiv and the US president, Joe Biden, announced that he would visit Ukraine’s western neighbour Poland this week.What did Vereshchuk say? “There can be no talk of any surrenders, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this,” she said.Are diplomatic efforts continuing? Yes, Biden will host a call today with president Emmanuel Macron of France, chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson.What else is happening? Here’s everything we know on day 26 of the invasion.What happens today? Today’s hearing will be devoted to opening statements from Jackson and from the committee’s 22 senators, who are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.When will a decision be made? Two days of questioning of the candidate will follow today’s hearing, with outside witnesses called on Thursday. A full vote of the Senate is expected to determine Jackson’s fate before a recess on 8 April. Continue reading...

A new study shows that women wearing high heels are taken less seriously – but if you don’t wear them, you’re ‘unprofessional’. Enough of this sexist nonsenseAs more and more people return to the workplace in person, there’s a lot to be unenthusiastic about – micromanaging bosses, hellish commutes, that one colleague you just can’t stand. There’s also the bane of women in the workplace: heels.Women have long bemoaned the unfair and sexist norms that require many of us to wear heels at the office – from the physical discomfort of having to work in stilettos for hours, to the misogynistic tropes that get projected on to women who wear high heels, especially in male-dominated spaces.Tayo Bero is a freelance writer Continue reading...

Drug addiction is endemic in Seattle’s large homeless community, which has helped fuel a rise in violent crime. The situation has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic Continue reading...

A country battered and bruised by Russia’s invading forces needs space to breathe – not demands from hedge fundsA bloodied man empties his wallet to his creditor while being mercilessly attacked by an unprovoked assailant. This is the plight of Ukraine, which recently made a scheduled interest payment to private lenders as tanks rolled over its land and missiles struck its cities. Even before Vladimir Putin started bombing apartment blocks and maternity hospitals, Ukraine was Europe’s poorest country as measured by GDP per capita – significantly poorer than Albania. Yet this war-ravaged country is saddled with unsustainable debt – and as the piles of rubble grow, so do the repayments. That’s debt for Ukraine, but profits for western hedge funds. War, for some, is the ultimate money-spinner.Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 – triggering a conflict in the east that had claimed thousands of lives before the current invasion – Ukraine has been forced to borrow $61bn (£46bn) from external lenders, according to calculations by the Jubilee Debt Campaign; a small sliver has been paid off, but what remains represents about a third of the country’s total economy. Ukraine was due to cough up $7.3bn this year alone – more than its annual education budget. For a rich country blessed with peace, that would be manageable, but Ukrainians are poorer today than when the Soviet Union collapsed three decades ago. At least $100bn worth of damage has already been inflicted to infrastructure – from roads to bridges, hospitals to schools – and, as you read this, that figure only mounts. Yet almost all of the financial assistance being given to Ukraine is in the form of loans. Precious funds will be diverted from rebuilding a shattered country, instead filling the coffers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and private bondholders.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Photo of gator with football and video of another chasing toy boat follow study which said crocodilians can mess about on the riverWith one sizable difference, they could be scenes of everyday recreation in the sunshine state of Florida: a tourist playing with a football, another eagerly chasing a remote control boat round a lake.But the remarkable images posted to social media over the past week feature alligators, not humans – seeming to confirm a Tennessee university study that said crocodilians like to have fun too. Continue reading...

Senate minority leader dodges invitation to say such Republicans should be ejected from party or face disciplinary measures

Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin says Hawley’s attacks should be ignored in confirmation hearings this weekThe Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is wrong to attack Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee, and should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week, the Senate judiciary chair said.Hawley, the Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said, is “part of the fringe within the Republican party … a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on 6 January of the last year. Continue reading...

January 6 committee member splits from fellow Republican Adam Kinzinger but says first impeachment informs panel’s work

‘I could see security dragging people away,’ says editor fined for walking into shot with sign saying ‘No War’

Biden’s chief medical adviser also says the US is ‘clearly going in the right direction’ on the pandemicThe US is likely to see an increase in Covid cases like that in Europe and the UK thanks to the BA.2 virus subvariant but not a dangerous surge, Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser also said the US was “clearly going in the right direction” on the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Wisconsin senator says if GOP retakes control it will use committees to move against Democrats and BidenHunter Biden and Anthony Fauci will be prime targets of Senate Republicans should the party win control in November, a senior senator said.Asked by the Hill what he would want to investigate should he control a committee with subpoena power, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said: “Like everything? It’s like a mosquito in a nudist colony, it’s a target-rich environment.” Continue reading...

Yes, there’s lots of turnover and people changing jobs – but maybe the problem isn’t all with the employerEmployers across the US have been dealing with a historic shift in labor thanks to the pandemic. We know it as the Great Resignation, and the pundits have been falling over themselves to explain to us why employers are at fault. Now it looks like the Great Resignation may be followed by the Great Regret.There’s no doubt employers have a lot to learn from the unprecedented rate of job turnover. Researchers at the consulting firm McKinsey, for example, say that employees are tired, and many are grieving. “They want a renewed and revised sense of purpose in their work,” write its authors. “They want social and interpersonal connections with their colleagues and managers. They want to feel a sense of shared identity. They want meaningful – though not necessarily in-person – interactions, not just transactions.” Unfortunately, some of us are not sympathetic enough to these needs. So our employees leave. Continue reading...

What happens in contests like the gubernatorial race in Wisconsin, a critical battleground state, will have broad implications for US politicsWisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, is not exactly known as a hotheaded partisan warrior – the softspoken Democrat enjoys polka, the card game Euchre, and a daily McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. But it struck a nerve this week when he heard Robin Vos, the powerful speaker of the Wisconsin state assembly, claim there was widespread voter fraud in 2020.“He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met but that was about the dumbest thing he’s ever said,” Evers told the Guardian on Thursday. Continue reading...

In his 14 months in office, the US president has grappled with Covid, inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war and energy prices – and seemingly can’t catch a breakThe left are urging a green energy revolution. The right are sounding a battle cry of “Drill, baby, drill”. And American voters, tired of political excuses, are feeling angry.Rising gas prices pose a fresh election year headache for Joe Biden. Republicans accuse him of pushing “a radical anti-US energy agenda”. Democrats put the blame on greedy oil companies and the assault on Ukraine by the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. Continue reading...

With Nato and EU summits this week, there’s a need for clear leadership. But despite Biden’s talk of unity, the cracks are showing

In the US, in times of crisis, the poor pay the price and the rich cash in. Democrats know it doesn’t have to be this wayThis morning I filled my car with gas, costing almost six dollars a gallon. My car is a Mini Cooper I bought years ago, partly because it wasn’t a gas-guzzler. Now it’s guzzling dollars.When I consider what’s happening in Ukraine, I say what the hell. It’s a small sacrifice. Continue reading...