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More than a thousand vehicles in so-called ‘People’s Convoy’ gather at speedway though exact plans are unclearMore than a thousand large trucks, recreational vehicles and cars are gathering on the outskirts of Washington as part of a protest against Covid-19 restrictions that threatens to roll on the US capital in the coming days.The so-called “People’s Convoy”, which originated in California and has drawn participants from around the country, is calling for an end to all pandemic-related restrictions. It was inspired by demonstrations last month that paralyzed Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. Continue reading...

The Kyiv Death Match of 1942 has resonance in the present context of conflict but its significance is complexJosef Kordik was sitting in a cafe in Kyiv when a bedraggled man on the street caught his eye. That, he was sure, was Myklova Trusevych, the great Dynamo goalkeeper. He rushed outside. It was spring 1942, a few months after the city had fallen to the Nazis.Kordik was a Moravian who had been left behind after fighting for Austria-Hungary in the first world war. He had not enjoyed his new life and watching football had been his only joy, but the occupation had meant opportunity. He had falsely claimed Volksdeutsch status and been installed as manager of Bakery Number 1. Continue reading...

President made a ‘desperate plea’ for military aid to more than 280 senators and representatives as Congress works on $10bn package• Ukraine crisis liveVolodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, urged US lawmakers to help provide aircraft to defend the country against Russian invasion during a video meeting with members of Congress on Saturday.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said Zelenskiy “made a desperate plea” for the military aid, which would include planes, drones and anti-aircraft missiles. The Ukrainian president praised sanctions placed upon Russia during the meeting but pressed US lawmakers to go further by banning oil imports from Moscow. Continue reading...

After the Ukraine invasion, his former defenders are rushing to distance themselvesThe worst people in the west were pro-Putin. They excused his imperialist ideology and crimes against humanity and never paid a price for bootlicking a dictatorship. On the contrary, they took Britain out of the European Union and took over the Labour party. They won the presidencies of the United States and the Czech Republic and seized control of politics and the media in Hungary.The savagery of Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukrainian democracy has sent them into headlong retreat. Nothing better illustrates their panic than Marine Le Pen having to deny that she had ordered the destruction of 1.2m election leaflets that featured pictures of her giving Putin a firm handshake, as if to thank him for all the money he had loaned her. Continue reading...

The Russian president’s Orthodox faith is central to his worldview but he has used it to justify invasion and violence in God’s nameWith Russia invading Ukraine, its president, Vladimir Putin, has been painted by many in the western media as the most evil man in the world.Commentators are asserting that this premeditated act is evil. I do not disagree. To see a war in Europe nearly 80 years after the end of the second world war is unthinkable. What other words describe such violence and the man who singlehandedly has authorised this assault? Now that Putin has twice raised the chilling proposition of nuclear weapons – referring to Russia as “one of the most powerful nuclear states” and later ordering that nuclear forces be placed on “special alert” – the global images of a trip wire to nuclear armageddon are disturbing our equanimity. What other word but evil captures this? In contemplating this I think there has been a missing dimension in naming Putin’s messianic and religious pretensions. And as a minister of the gospel, this perspective has caused me deep heartache. Continue reading...

Research shows that while progress has been made in terms of attitudes towards women’s rights, there’s still a long way to goSince it’s almost International Women’s Day, shall we play a quick themed quiz? Question number one: does gender inequality exist? Continue reading...

The world that is coming is something we can work toward but not something we can foreseeI can’t say I have confidence in the future, but I have a lot of confidence in its unpredictability, based on the fact that the past has regularly delivered surprises. It’s easy to forget in retrospect how astonishing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution were in 1989, or the arrival of the Zapatista army on the world stage in 1994 or how marriage equality seemed like a long shot just before it became a reality in countries all over the world not long ago or how Ireland and Argentina recently legalized abortion. The terrible too comes along without warning. Often a major event – this unforeseen global pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine – then itself has indirect consequences that matter. The pandemic led to a radical shift in the US labor market, including rising wages, worker walkoffs and refusals that at times have seemed tantamount to a general strike, and remarkable labor organizing against some of the most resistant low-wage employers.Both the pandemic and the invasion have significant consequences for climate politics. First of all they should shake loose the expectation that we know what will happen, that the world of next week will be pretty much the same as last week. Second they should mean that people stop saying we can’t make dramatic changes because 2022 seems to be as much about sudden and profound worldwide change as 2020 was. Continue reading...

People are fleeing in search of food, freedom and safety resulting from the economic and humanitarian catastrophe caused by 20 years of US occupationIn my home country of Afghanistan, winter is harsh and children are hungry. Almost every parent faces the torture of not having enough food to feed their families. Across the country, 5 million children are on the brink of famine. Many young people are in despair; suicide is on the rise.The rapid escalation of war in Ukraine is set to make this crisis even worse. We fear now that soaring prices of wheat – reaching their highest level since 2008 as a result of the invasion – could multiply the impact of a famine in Afghanistan.Selay Ghaffar is a feminist political activist from Afghanistan Continue reading...

Ketanji Brown Jackson can expect little support from across the aisle but Republicans are wary of overreach before midtermsThe photograph is a study in contrasts. On the left, standing stiffly and staring glumly, is Mitch McConnell, 80, the Republican minority leader in the Senate accused of committing professional fouls when confronting judicial confirmations.On the right, at a slightly awkward distance from McConnell, is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, chosen by a Democratic president to be the first Black woman on the US supreme court, smiling warmly at the camera, her posture more relaxed than the senator’s. Continue reading...

Officials to allow bear-hunting in three sanctuaries due to ‘increased human-bear interactions’ – but opponents say plan is a ‘disaster’A decades-long ban on bear hunting in parts of North Carolina has been overturned by the state’s wildlife resources commission, in a move that has sparked outcry from local residents and American animal rights groups.The North Carolina commission voted to allow bear hunting in three bear sanctuaries, encompassing an area of 92,500 acres of mountainous forest in the southern US state. The sanctuaries, established to protect and preserve North Carolina’s black bear population, are set to open to hunters later in 2022, despite thousands of people signing a petition against the move. Continue reading...

In 1972, the former Black Panther was facing the death penalty. Five decades after the campaign for her release went global, she still believes people are the ‘motors of history’The last time Angela Davis was in Birmingham, Alabama, she caught up with childhood friends and her Sunday school teacher. While many of us would reminisce about favourite classes and first kisses, they discussed bombs.“We talked about what it was like to grow up in a city where there were bombings all the time,” she says. Most notoriously, in September 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist church, killing four girls. It wasn’t a one-off, says the legendary radical feminist, communist and former Black Panther. “People’s homes were bombed, synagogues were bombed, other churches were bombed. People think of that as a single event, but it was more indicative of the pervasive terror at that time in Birmingham.” Continue reading...

The Russian president’s ‘strong man’ image and disdain for liberals has turned him into a hero for white nationalists“Can we get a round of applause for Russia?” asked Nick Fuentes, on stage last week at a white nationalist event. Amid a roar of applause for the Russian president, just days after he invaded Ukraine, many attendees responded by shouting: “Putin! Putin!”It would be easy to dismiss the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in Orlando, Florida, as a radical fringe. But speeches by two Republican members of Congress – one in person, the other via video – guaranteed national attention and controversy. Continue reading...

Ex-president said he would join crowd to US Capitol but his schedule indicates he deliberately lied to his supportersDonald Trump was aware long before he took the stage at the “Save America” rally on 6 January that he would not march to the Capitol to protest the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win, according to his White House private schedule from that day.The former president started his nearly 75-minute long speech at the Ellipse by saying he would go with the crowd to the Capitol, and then repeated that promise when he said he would walk with them down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. Continue reading...

Papini’s 2016 disappearance was long cloaked in confusion, as a friend raised funds for a ‘reverse ransom’Sherri Papini seemed to be just another small-town northern California mom, when, a little over five years ago, she disappeared in the woods. By her own account, she was abducted, chained to a pole for three weeks, half-starved, beaten, branded and burned and then – for no apparent reason – released again by the side of a busy highway.Now, after an exhaustive search for her captors, the US government has concluded that Papini made up the whole story. Continue reading...

Andrew Lyons is facing voluntary manslaughter and assault charges for killing Ryan Twyman while he was in his carThe Los Angeles district attorney has filed manslaughter charges against a former sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed man in 2019, an extremely rare prosecution for an on-duty officer killing in the US.Andrew Lyons, 37, is facing charges of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for the 6 June 2019 killing of Ryan Twyman, in Willowbrook in south LA, the district attorney’s office announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

The Republican senator doubled down on his Thursday comments as lawmakers on the right and left react with dismay and outrageLindsey Graham has attracted widespread condemnation after the South Carolina senator suggested Vladimir Putin should be assassinated in order to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Graham first made the suggestion in an appearance on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show on Thursday evening, and he then repeated the idea in a tweet that quickly went viral. Continue reading...

Court upholds Trump justice department’s challenge to overturning of death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 6-3 voteThe US supreme court on Friday reinstated the convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence for his role in the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others, ruling in favor of the federal government.In a 6-3 decision, the justices sided with the justice department’s challenge to a 2020 lower court ruling that had upheld Tsarnaev’s conviction but overturned his death sentence. Continue reading...

Washington Post report, based on unseen film footage, also says Stone, 69, said Jared Kushner ‘needs to have a beating’Close Donald Trump ally Roger Stone raged at the former US president in the aftermath of the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election, according to a report from the Washington Post, telling a friend that Trump was a “disgrace” who would go to prison and adding: “He betrayed everybody.”The Post said it had viewed 20 hours of footage of the political operative that had been shot for a forthcoming documentary. The footage, it said, showed Stone:Meeting and corresponding with members of a far-right militia since indicted for seditious conspiracy over the Capitol riot on January 6.Discussing a plan in which Trump would issue a blanket pardon to co-conspirators in the attempt to overturn the election, Senator Ted Cruz and congressman Jim Jordan among them.Saying Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, should be “punished” in a way that would leave him “braindead”.Suggesting violence against protesters for racial justice would be possible with the election out of the way. Continue reading...

The uneasy friendship and ties that bind China and Russia counter long-standing issues of mistrust over the yearsIn just a few days, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended decades of international relations thinking and practices. Nothing will be the same as before. Even the 5,000-word statement on “international relations in a new era” issued by China and Russia just a month ago in Beijing – to make the world safe for autocracy – has been overtaken by events. In this ugly Russian quagmire, China’s role and behaviour merit close attention, not least as we wonder whether Ukraine today may be Taiwan tomorrow.China and Russia have been getting closer for some time. The binds are visible in bilateral trade, which has more than doubled since 2015 to almost $150bn. China is Russia’s biggest trade partner. While Russia is almost a rounding error in China’s global exports, the two countries collaborate in military exercises, regional security arrangements and technology trade. These binds go some way to counter other differences and long-standing sources of mistrust, for example over Russian far east and central Asia. Yet, the biggest bind of all is geopolitics. Continue reading...

Select committee investigating Capitol attack also receives records from former vice-president Mike PenceThe US National Archives has delivered White House visitor logs from Donald Trump’s administration to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol by extremist supporters of the then president, the committee said on Friday.The National Archives also turned over records from former vice-president Mike Pence, meeting a 3 March deadline. Continue reading...

Sorokin, in federal custody with the threat of deportation, claims multiple requests for vaccine booster dose were deniedAnna Sorokin, the woman who scammed victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by falsely posing as a German heiress, has sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), saying she contracted Covid after officials denied her multiple requests for a booster shot.According to the class-action lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Sorokin, along with three other plaintiffs, filed the suit against Ice’s acting director, Tae Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, reported NBC News. Continue reading...

Veselka, a restaurant raved about by celebrities and food critics alike, has become a meeting place and fundraising operationIn New York’s East Village neighborhood, home to a wide array of popular restaurants and bars, is a decades-old staple in the city’s famous food scene. Veselka, located in a smaller pocket of the area once known as “Little Ukraine”, now sits at the corner of food and international politics.The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions and forced ordinary citizens to take up arms, or flee across borders to safety. Those problems aren’t just affecting the people of Ukraine, but thousands of their loved ones abroad – including some at this beloved New York restaurant. Continue reading...

US has no troops in Ukraine but it and Nato allies in Europe are worried about potential spillover from Russian invasion• Ukraine latest – follow liveThe Pentagon has established a new hotline with Russia’s ministry of defense to prevent “miscalculation, military incidents and escalation” in the region as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine advances, a US official told Reuters on Thursday.The US says it has no troops in Ukraine but it and Nato allies in Europe are worried about potential spillover, including accidents, as Russia stages the largest assault on a European state since the second world war. Continue reading...

Bill in state senate would give more power to nurse practitioners to address looming staff shortages and potential increase in demandCalifornia has introduced a bill that would allow nurse practitioners to provide abortion care without the supervision of a physician.The San Diego senator Toni Atkins, who introduced the bill, said the expansion of nurses’ roles would address both a looming shortage of healthcare professionals in the state, and help California prepare for a potential influx of patients driven by increasingly stringent abortion laws elsewhere. Continue reading...

The 100,000 sq foot property features 21 bedrooms, 42 full bathrooms, a nightclub, private movie theater … and a host of issuesA Bel Air mega mansion marketed as “America’s most expensive residence” sold in an bankruptcy auction on Thursday with a winning bid of $126m, a fraction of its reported original asking price of half a billion dollars.The 21-bedroom home – described as “twice as big as the White House” – has been derided as much as praised, making its sale a hotly anticipated event. The elite team of realtors behind the auction touted it as the ultimate dream estate but others called it a “giant white elephant” and “one of the ugliest homes I’ve ever seen”. The New York Post labeled it “the latest example of a hyped Los Angeles mega mansion that failed to perform”, and suggested its failure to meet the listing price meant that the city’s “cheeseball” taste in real estate might be starting to improve. Continue reading...

I returned from London to help my country – now we watch with horror as Russian forces attack a nuclear plant near my hometownI started writing this piece in an underground garageturned bomb shelter in the western Ukraine city of Lviv. Situated about 80km from the Polish border, it has not yet been shelled by the Russian military. While the air-aid sirens were going off every day during the first week of the full-scale invasion of my country, Tuesday night was the first time I bothered to take cover. I was trying to score responsibility points with my parents: they were about to go over the border to Poland and needed to see that their daughter, bent on remaining in Ukraine, was not putting herself in harm’s way.Yet the harm is all over my country. Vladimir Putin, better known in Ukraine as khuilo (“dickhead” – my people have never been known for their deference), planned to conquer this land in two days. His delusion has been exposed by a pre-written article, Offensive of Russia and the New World, which was mistakenly published by one of the main Russian news outlets on 26 February. Having failed to crush the armed forces of Ukraine with his murderous blitzkrieg, Putin is terrorising its civilian population.Sasha Dovzhyk is special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute London. She is currently based in Lviv

A number of charities are addressing humanitarian needs and US people can support Ukrainian journalism or get active politicallyAs the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, Americans have offered an outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people. Here are a few ways you can join the effort.DonationsGlobalGiving supports non-profits around the world through crowdfunding. Its Ukrainian crisis relief fund is working toward a goal of $7m to provide food, water, shelter and other assistance to refugees.Direct Relief is working to fulfill a list of medical needs provided to the organization by Ukraine’s health ministry.Care, a 75-year-old organization operating in 100 countries, is working to provide food, water and hygiene kits to those suffering in Ukraine. Donate here as Care seeks to support 4 million people.Doctors Without Borders, a 50-year-old Nobel-winning organization, has teams in Ukraine as well as surrounding countries as it works to send staff and medical supplies to the hardest-hit areas. Donate here to support its efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.Save the Children, a century-old organization that has worked in 100 countries, has a Ukraine crisis relief fund aimed at furnishing children and families with food, hygiene kits, funding and more.The International Rescue Committee has teams working in Poland aiding displaced families. The organization, founded in 1933, operates in 40 countries and donations go to food, medical treatment, and other emergency care in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere. Donate here to the IRC’s work around the world.Razom, a Ukrainian-focused charity founded in 2014, is furnishing medical supplies to the country and working to “amplify the voices of Ukrainians”. It has not been evaluated by Charity Navigator but has received wide coverage in the US media. Donate here. Continue reading...

To US conservatives, the real enemy is the ‘militant left wing’ in the United States. How did it come to this?America is divided. That’s not news. But the authoritarian ruler in the Kremlin deciding to invade a democratic neighbor – that’s the type of international crisis that traditionally might have inspired some closing of the ranks: set differences aside, let domestic quarrels rest. But conservatives are evidently out on the idea of patriotic unity. The right’s reactions to Russia’s attack on Ukraine have ranged from blatant admiration for Putin to anti-Russian saber-rattling combined with a shrill critique of President Joe Biden. Donald Trump initially called the invasion “genius”; he then defended his position at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, adding that Nato was “not so smart” and “our leaders are dumb.” Meanwhile, America’s most successful cable news host Tucker Carlson ridiculed American solidarity with Ukraine, a country he derided as “a tyranny”, led by “the people who paid off Joe Biden’s family”.Donald Trump is the political leader of the Republican party and probably its next presidential candidate. Tucker Carlson is one of the premier rightwing culture warriors in the country. Trump and Carlson are not fringe voices, and they aren’t outliers either: a last week’s CPAC, conservative speakers focused their ire on Joe Biden’s supposed weakness as the real cause for Putin’s aggression; and they left no doubt who they considered the biggest threat – the “enemy within”, as Senator Rick Scott put it, the “militant left – wing in our country”.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...

An upcoming decision by the conservative-leaning court could overturn Roe v Wade and imperil abortion rights nationwideIn the face of imminent threats to legal abortion in the US, lawmakers and activists in left-leaning “blue” states are working to expand rights and access to the procedure.State-level efforts to protect the right to abortion and reduce the cost of obtaining the procedure in states such as California, Rhode Island and Vermont are, in large part, a response to a forthcoming supreme court decision which could gut abortion rights nationally. Continue reading...

Russian bombardment sparks fire at nuclear plant but radiation is stable. Plus, Trump avoids New York deposition for nowHello and good morning.Russia has resorted to “nuclear terror” according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after bombing resulted in fires at Europe’s largest nuclear plant.What’s the situation with radiation? The International Atomic Energy Agency said, shortly before 4am Ukraine time, that it had been informed by the Ukrainian nuclear regulator there was no change in radiation levels at the plant.How did world leaders react? US president, Joe Biden, called Zelenskiy at 3.40am Kyiv time, urging Russia to “cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site”. The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, called it “reckless” and echoed ceasefire calls.What is Putin thinking? The “worst is yet to come”, France said on Thursday, after Russia’s Vladimir Putin and France’s Emmanuel Macron spoke for 90 minutes – as Putin said Kyiv’s “refusal to accept Russia’s conditions” means he will continue to pursue his war in Ukraine.What about talks? Ukraine and Russia agreed on Thursday to temporary, local ceasefires to allow the evacuation of civilians as well as aid deliveries via safe corridors. Zelenskiy asked Putin for face-to-face talks. Continue reading...

The endangerment of collegiate track and field programs across the United States disproportionately harms Black men and closes doors to educational opportunitiesMany universities across the US have cut men’s sports in recent years, including track and field teams. It’s a painful reality for many athletes. But the problem is not just that these athletes lose opportunities to compete. Their supporters say that cutting these sports such as track disproportionately harms Black men and closes doors to educational opportunities. It also has some broader consequences.In the last couple of years, five universities announced they would cut their men’s track and field (and sometimes men’s cross-country) teams: Brown, Clemson, Central Michigan, the College of William & Mary and the University of Minnesota. They have cited various reasons for doing so, including Covid-19-related budget cuts, Title IX compliance, and redirecting resources to make their athletic programs more competitive overall. Most of these teams have since been reinstated. Continue reading...

In Ukraine, horror is mingled with stories of inspiration – and every night that Kyiv holds out feels like a miracleWake up, roll over, check the phone for news from Kyiv. It’s becoming a habit now, a strange new morning routine, and not just for journalists whose working days have long dawned like this. Millions are now following this war in real time on social media, immersed in it more intimately and personally than ever before. If the advent of 24-hour rolling TV news brought audiences at home closer to faraway conflicts, subtly changing our understanding of them, then smartphones have put war right into the palms of our hands. Doomscrolling is becoming an addiction, although doom seems the wrong word for a conflict where horror mingles with so many stories of hope and inspiration; stories with the shimmering qualities of modern myths, viral and unforgettable, if not always instantly verifiable, and often helpfully translated into English.The young Ukrainian sapper said to have heroically blown himself up along with the bridge he was charged with destroying in order to slow the Russian advance. The villagers filmed courageously standing in front of tanks. The female MPs posting pictures of themselves training to use rifles, and the soldiers of Snake Island greeting demands for their surrender with the now famous response: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” (Like a new No pasarán, that slogan is everywhere; splashed on T-shirts sold in aid of Ukrainian charities, even iced on cookies sold by a Texas bakery.) And then there is the tale of how President Volodymyr Zelenskiy supposedly rebuffed an American offer to whisk him to safety with the words “I need ammunition, not a ride.” War has transformed a former comic actor once mocked for his hamminess into an iconic leader for the times whose powerfully emotive short videos posted from beneath his bombed capital seem made for sharing: a real-life Scheherazade, telling captivating tales to the world in the hope of keeping his countrymen alive for one more night.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

With Ukraine coverage displacing Covid, there’s a strong feeling that the caravan of history has abruptly moved onMy children can’t remember a time when they didn’t go to school in masks. The first lockdown, in March 2020, happened halfway through kindergarten, and as far as they’re concerned they’ve never seen their teachers’ faces unmasked, or enjoyed an unmuffled exchange with them. They are masked in the playground and the gym and at their after-school programme, for up to nine hours at a stretch. They are so accustomed to masks at this point that they ask to wear them when it isn’t required.All of this is about to change, when New York, which still has some of the strictest Covid regulations in the US, prepares to relax its school mask mandate next week. Barring an “unforeseen spike”, Eric Adams, the city’s mayor, announced that, on Monday 7 March, he was willing to allow New York’s one million public schoolchildren to return to unmasked learning. Elsewhere, mask use is visibly waning, even among the vulnerable elderly. It was noted on Tuesday night that, prior to President Biden’s State of the Union address, the 79-year-old moved through the chamber unmasked, dispensing hugs.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Joe Biden has nominated the first Black female justice on the supreme court, Carlson is questioning her LSAT scoresWhat does it mean to live in a democracy? Well, according to the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, it means having the right to harangue Black women and force them to show their papers.On Wednesday Carlson went on a tirade about the District of Columbia circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Joe Biden has nominated to replace supreme courtJustice Stephen Breyer. Jackson’s confirmation, if it happens, would fulfil Biden’s campaign promise to nominate a Black female justice. Continue reading...

Agreement with attorney general Letitia James covers two eldest children but seeks to speed up civil legal proceedingsDonald Trump has reached an agreement with the the New York attorney general’s office that will temporarily spare him from having to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his business, as the former president’s appeal process in the case continues.In February, a New York judge ordered that Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, must appear for a deposition as part of New York state’s civil investigation into Trump Organization’s business practices, including allegations the family company fraudulently inflated the value of its assets. Continue reading...

House select committee issues subpoena after Guilfoyle abruptly cut short interview with panel last weekThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has subpoenaed Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Donald Trump’s eldest son. House investigators issued the subpoena Thursday, after she had abruptly ended a voluntary interview with the panel last week.The committee is investigating the events surrounding the insurrection at the Capitol last year, when a mob of Trump supporters violently attacked the building in a failed attempt to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Continue reading...

Republican leaders made the bill effective immediately, so any trans students playing sports may be required to stop at onceThe Iowa governor, Kim Reynolds, signed into law Thursday a bill that prohibits transgender females from participating in girls high school sports and women’s college athletics, rejecting opponents’ argument that she would harm vulnerable children to solve a non-existent problem.Reynolds signed the bill at a ceremony in the capitol just a day after lawmakers sent it to her desk. It passed the house and senate with only Republican support. Continue reading...

Republicans and Democrats call on Joe Biden and federal agencies to support hosting men’s and women’s eventsUS hopes of hosting men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups in 2029 and 2031 got a boost from Capitol Hill on Thursday, with the introduction of a bipartisan congressional resolution expressing support for the bid.The resolution was introduced by the co-chairs of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, Alex Mooney, a West Virginia Republican, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat from Washington DC. Continue reading...

Brett Hankinson found not guilty of wanton endangerment for firing shots that ripped into a neighboring apartmentA Kentucky jury has cleared a former police officer who fired shots during the 2020 drug raid that ended in Breonna Taylor’s death.The jury on Thursday found Brett Hankison not guilty of three counts of wanton endangerment for firing shots that ripped into a neighboring apartment. Hankison was the only police officer charged in the raid that ended with Taylor’s death. Continue reading...

Biden says sanctions will target those who ‘line their pockets with the Russian people’s money’