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The Russians may yet conquer Ukraine. But Ukrainians have shown in the past few days that they will not let them hold itLess than a week into the war, it seems increasingly likely that Vladimir Putin is heading towards a historic defeat. He may win all the battles but lose the war. Putin’s dream of rebuilding the Russian empire has always rested on the lie that Ukraine isn’t a real nation, that Ukrainians aren’t a real people, and that the inhabitants of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv yearn for Moscow’s rule. That’s a complete lie – Ukraine is a nation with more than a thousand years of history, and Kyiv was already a major metropolis when Moscow was not even a village. But the Russian despot has told his lie so many times that he apparently believes it himself.When planning the invasion of Ukraine, Putin could count on many known facts. He knew that militarily Russia dwarfs Ukraine. He knew that Nato would not send troops to help Ukraine. He knew that European dependence on Russian oil and gas would make countries like Germany hesitate about imposing stiff sanctions. Based on these known facts, his plan was to hit Ukraine hard and fast, decapitate its government, establish a puppet regime in Kyiv, and ride out the impotent rage of western sanctions.Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Continue reading...

Former attorney general also describes tempestuous Oval Office meeting in which he rejected electoral fraud claims

White House sees program as a more elastic testing infrastructure that will accommodate surges and remain on standbyNearly half of 500m free Covid-19 tests the Biden administration made available to the US public have not been claimed, as cases plummet.Wild demand swings have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer and tests. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, the covidtests.gov website received more than 45m orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for packages of four free rapid tests per household, delivered by the US Postal Service. Continue reading...

South Carolina congressman extracted Biden’s promise to instal first Black woman on court

Telecoms giant’s internal investigators uncover allegations it was involved in corruption in at least 10 countriesConfidential documents have revealed how the telecoms giant Ericsson is alleged to have helped pay bribes to the Islamic State terrorist group in order to continue selling its services after the militants seized control of large parts of Iraq.The leak of internal investigations at Ericsson, which also found that the firm had put its contractors at risk and allowed them to be kidnapped by the militants, is potentially damaging for the multinational. Continue reading...

The killing of June Knightly sent shockwaves through a city that has seen frequent protests, and raised fears of further violenceThe shooting of a respected volunteer at a racial justice protest in Portland, Oregon, last weekend has roiled the activist community in the city, and raised fresh fears about “vigilante violence” and escalating extremism in America.Authorities on Tuesday filed murder charges against 43-year-old Benjamin Smith, who police say showed up to a protest against police violence on Saturday night, yelled at demonstrators to leave, and then shot at the group. He killed 60-year-old June Knightly and wounded four others, police say. Continue reading...

Paul Gosar also spoke at far-right conference, as calls for the censure of the two Republicans ring out again

For a long time, Tories have been happy to take Russian money and attack the democratic values they now claim to hold dearThe story Boris Johnson and his colleagues now tell us about Vladimir Putin and his regime is simple enough. The Russian president, Johnson says, is “a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest”; he has violated “every principle of civilised behaviour between states”. What is happening in Ukraine, moreover, reminds us of the cruel, amoral way that Putin governs his own country, and its contrast with the ideas that unite the west. The world, it is said, is once again polarising between dictatorship and freedom – and in cooperation with its allies, the government has proudly entered what one Tory MP recently described as a global “battle for democracy”. Johnson, indeed, sees himself as leading the charge, repeating the mantra that “Putin must fail”, and claiming that Britain is “out in front”.

Former treasury spokeswoman tells CPAC ex-first lady is popular and ‘immune to criticism’ – though Obama has ruled out politics

Kroger workers asking for $5 raise while CEO’s salary is 904 times the median employee wageAfter more than two years as essential workers on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic, grocery store workers around the US are pressuring supermarket corporations to raise wages and improve working conditions amid record profits for the industry.Ahead of the expiration of their union contract, 60,000 grocery workers at subsidiaries of Kroger and Albertsons in California are holding actions outside stores, demanding at least a $5 wage increase over three years, improved safety and security for workers, improved staffing and eliminating the two-tier system of workers. Continue reading...

In an odd twist, leftwing groups support a libertarian, free-market approach, while some sex trafficking survivors support a more cautious, regulated approachThe New York state legislature is debating between two bills that decriminalize sex work. The bills agree on the need to decriminalize sex workers but offer very different approaches for doing so. The Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act seeks to fully legalize the sex trade. The Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act, which is adapted from the Nordic model, would decriminalize sex workers while keeping in place laws penalizing pimps and clients.In an odd twist, the first bill, which takes a libertarian and free-market approach to sex work, is supported by leftwing groups including the Democratic Socialists of America. Sex trafficking survivor groups, political moderates and prosecutors have mostly supported the more cautious, regulated approach. I believe advocates for both bills want the best for sex workers. But the first approach – a blanket decriminalization of sex work, including of pimps and johns – may make sex workers less safe, not more.Geoffrey Mak is a New York-based writer Continue reading...

Influence-peddling is Washington’s ‘spectator sport’ – but now there’s an interest in taking a closer look at the president’s sonTo the political right in America, Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been the gift that keeps on giving, with his public struggles with addiction, scandalous private life and tangled business life. To the left, Hunter’s travails are dismissed as a Republican political obsession and a talking point for tabloid journalism and internet gossip.But last week, two witnesses called before a federal grand jury seated in Wilmington, Delaware, which is looking into the tax affairs of the president’s son, made the subject harder to avoid. Continue reading...

The journalist tracked the billionaire arts philanthropists’ role in the OxyContin scandal in his gripping bestseller, Empire of Pain. He talks about reputation laundering – and why the bad guys are still getting away with itIn December 2021, Patrick Radden Keefe travelled to London from New York to attend the Business Book of the Year award ceremony at the National Gallery. He had been shortlisted for Empire of Pain, his exhaustive portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, one of the world’s wealthiest and most secretive corporate dynasties.For decades the Sackler name was synonymous with often extravagant art world philanthropy – since 2009, the Sackler Trust had given around £170m to art institutions in Britain alone. Of late, though, it has been tarnished by its association with OxyContin, the addictive painkiller at the heart of the ongoing opioid epidemic in America that has claimed around 500,000 lives there. Keefe’s book, which is about to be published in paperback, reveals in forensic detail how the Sacklers’ vast fortune was built in part on the profits made by their company, Purdue Pharma, which manufactured and aggressively marketed OxyContin to physicians who prescribed it in often dangerously high doses. It is an epic, intricately structured tale of obsession, greed and dizzying corporate irresponsibility, which has been lauded by the critics, awarded the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction and become a global bestseller. Continue reading...

The convoy, which set out to ‘clog the streets’ has had too few vehicles to make an impact on trafficRyan Wright stood around a campfire in Lupton, Arizona, a town on the Navajo reservation where members of an American trucker convoy protest were resting for the night. As the fire flickered he discussed a conspiracy myth about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he proffered, was a distraction. “I’m not the only one that feels this way,” Wright said. “But I feel like it’s a big fat smokescreen to keep everyone distracted on what is really going on in the world.” Continue reading...

Putin’s end goal isn’t Ukraine but western civilization – the hatred for which he lapped up in the black milk he drank from the KGB’s teatOn 24 February, the armor of the “enlightened autocrat” that had housed Vladimir Putin for the previous 20 years cracked and fell to pieces. The world saw a monster –crazed in its desires and ruthless in its decisions. The monster had grown gradually, gaining strength from year to year, marinating in its own absolute authority, imperial aggression, hatred for western democracy, and malice fueled by the resentment engendered by the fall of the USSR. Now, Europe will have to deal, not with the former Putin, but the new Putin who has cast aside his mask of “business partnership” and “peaceful collaboration”. There shall never again be peace with him. How and why has this come to pass?In the final film of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Frodo Baggins has to throw into the seething lava the cursed Ring of Power, the ring which has brought so much suffering and war to the inhabitants of Middle Earth, he suddenly decides to keep it for himself. And, by the will of the ring, his face suddenly begins to change, becoming evil and sinister. The Ring of Power had taken total possession of him. Even so, in Tolkien’s book, there’s a happy ending … Continue reading...

It was a week when Ukrainians saw their lives upturned. The celebrated artist reveals her fears but also the pride felt in the resilience of her peersWe didn’t want to believe that a real, massive invasion would happen because it’s so illogical. But then Putin is illogical and insane. I have been torn between a rationalisation – what will Russia benefit from this invasion? – and a memory from eight years ago when my city, Donetsk, was occupied and my home taken from me.It has been a tense month and we became ready for any kind of scenario. Every day, we were ready to go, to escape. You drink too much coffee in the morning to stay focused and at night you really want to drink some alcohol but are afraid to do so. What if you have to drive your car urgently at night? Continue reading...

The Sacklers want protection from future suits. Victims’ families want them to ‘know what their greed has caused’Stephanie and Troy Lubinski met when they were teenagers, and they were married for three decades. Troy was big-hearted, kind, the best fisherman around, a devoted father who cared for the kids during the day after long night shifts as a firefighter.But he had back pain that began when he worked in construction and then grew worse over the years. His doctor prescribed OxyContin, and that was the beginning of the end. Continue reading...

Nobel laureate’s classic debut was removed from libraries but backlash and lawsuits prompted vote to restore

Ex-president tells CPAC he could have stopped ‘appalling’ Russian invasion of Ukraine before giving strongest indication he will run againDonald Trump, the former US president, has defended his description of Russia’s Vladimir Putin as “smart” while seeking to blunt accusations that he admires the invasion of Ukraine.Trump reiterated his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen by voter fraud as he argued that the invasion of Ukraine would never have happened if he was still in the White House. Continue reading...

Two people reported critically injured in Nevada shooting, which happened early on Saturday morningFourteen people were shot before dawn on Saturday at a hookah lounge in Las Vegas. Police said one man died and two people suffered critical injuries.The shooting happened at about 3.15am and preliminary information indicated there was a party during which two people got into an altercation and exchanged gunfire, striking multiple people, said police captain Dori Koren. Continue reading...

Martin’s mother says fight for justice must continue as Al Sharpton makes comparison with teen lynched in Mississippi in 1955Trayvon Martin’s mother used the 10th anniversary of his death on Saturday to urge those who sought justice for her family to continue to fight.Sybrina Fulton spoke to the National Action Network, the civil rights organization founded by the Rev Al Sharpton in Harlem. She said she had come to New York City from Florida in order to support her supporters. Continue reading...

Republican leadership condemned for failing to discipline Georgia congresswoman for speaking at far-right summit

Caps-Harris poll shows 62% of respondents believe Putin would not have ordered troops into Ukraine with Trump in White HouseA clear majority of Americans think Vladimir Putin would not have ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine had Donald Trump still been in the White House, according to a new poll.The poll, by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies (Caps)-Harris, found that 62% of those surveyed believed Putin would not have sent troops into Ukraine with Trump in the White House. Continue reading...

The allies failed to prevent the invasion. Will they now dare to topple Russia’s rogue president?In confrontations with Vladimir Putin, the west fights with one hand tied behind its back. It does so by choice, out of timidity, greed and sloth. This has been the case for more than two decades. This is now the case in Ukraine.And this is why we lose. Continue reading...

Pamela Moses released from prison after Guardian revealed new evidence in case that was not produced at trialA Memphis judge has ordered a new trial for Pamela Moses, a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote.The case attracted national attention following a Guardian report, because of the severity of the sentence. Moses said she had no idea she was ineligible. Continue reading...

Unlike most people nominated to the court, Jackson’s career has included advocating for the rights of criminal defendants and the poorShe has always wanted this. Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to fill the supreme court seat left vacant by the retirement of Stephen Breyer at the end of this term, said that she wanted to become a judge one day in the yearbook from her Miami high school. By then she was already a champion in national oratory competitions, sharpening the skills of rhetoric and cadence that are the stock and trade of ambitious lawyers. Her parents – an attorney and a school principal – saw their daughter’s potential, and helped her to hoist herself from her middle-class origins onto the path followed by ambitious lawyers from more patrician backgrounds. She went to Harvard for undergrad and then to Harvard Law, eventually clerking on the court for Breyer himself – a justice known to be particularly picky with his clerkships.She seems to have pursued the law with single-minded devotion since she was very young, committing herself to the profession with all the passion and devotion of a vocation.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Davis, 43, who danced for several years in Britney Spears’ Vegas show, found unresponsive in hotel on strip earlier this weekLas Vegas police are investigating the death of the comedian and performer Donny Davis, who was found unresponsive after a night with several people at a luxury hotel on the strip.Davis, 43, danced for several years in Britney Spears’ show in Las Vegas, toured with Joe Jonas and was frequently seen with stars including Miley Cyrus and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Continue reading...

Former Swat commander Curtis Reeves fired gun after Chad Oulson threw popcorn in his face in 2014 confrontationA Florida jury has acquitted a retired police Swat commander who was charged with murder after shooting a fellow moviegoer during an argument over cellphone use.Deliberations in the trial began on Friday and the six-person jury returned its verdict late that night, news outlets reported. Continue reading...

Welcome to the the grassroots CPAC summit, where conservatives see themselves not as dismantlers of democracy, but as saviorsOn stage in a hotel ballroom glowing red, white and blue, Ron DeSantis was recalling his days in Congress and a book he wrote about America’s troubles. It was “read by about a dozen people,” the Florida governor said with rare self-deprecation.DeSantis then told a gathering of grassroots conservatives on Thursday: “I look back at that time, it almost seems a little quaint to me because the threats we face to freedom, the threats we face to a just society, are much more pervasive than they were just 10 years ago.” Continue reading...

Anthony Broadwater served 16 years in prison but was exonerated last year after prosecutors re-examined caseAnthony Broadwater, who served 16 years in prison for the 1981 rape of the author Alice Sebold but was exonerated last year, has filed a $50m wrongful conviction lawsuit against New York state.Broadwater, 61, was cleared in November of his conviction for the rape after a re-examination of the case found serious flaws in his arrest and trial. Continue reading...

Fox News anchor accused of presenting ‘perfect distillation of white supremacy’ in rant against Biden supreme court nomineeThe nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson is an attempt to “defile” the supreme court and “humiliate and degrade” the US, the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson claimed on Friday night.If confirmed, Jackson, whose nomination was announced by Joe Biden earlier on Friday, will be the first Black woman on the court. Continue reading...

Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin called for 'no more war' after being asked about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian expressed his desire for peace and a quick end to the conflict, however when asked about his friendship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and whether the supported the invasion, Ovechkin took a neutral stance saying 'it's not in my hands.' Continue reading...

We analyzed 27m news articles published between 1970 and 2019. Our study reveals a substantial shift has occurred, and it may have important implicationsIn recent years, words and ideas used to describe discrimination against members of historically marginalized and disadvantaged groups have seemingly exploded into the lexicon: systemic inequality, privilege, white supremacy, the patriarchy, etc.In some senses, the apparent novelty is deceiving: most of these concepts have been around for decades in academic and activist circles. None of these ideas are genuinely new. Continue reading...

We can’t ignore that the US is capable of wars like Vietnam and Iraq. Still, the US is an important force for peace against Russian aggressionIn 1943, the Hungarian-born journalist Arthur Koestler wrote: “In this war we are fighting against a total lie in the name of a half-truth.” That’s a good motto for American progressives to adopt in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Saying the US stands with Ukraine because America is committed to democracy and the “rules-based international order” is at best a half-truth. The US helps dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates commit war crimes in Yemen, employs economic sanctions that deny people from Iran to Venezuela to Syria life-saving medicines, rips up international agreements like the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate accords, and threatens the International Criminal Court if it investigates the US or Israel.Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) is professor of journalism and political science at The Newmark School of Journalism at The City University of New York. He is also editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter Continue reading...

The developments show how media coverage of horrific crimes can help derail criminal justice reformThe Los Angeles district attorney’s handling of a sexual assault case and decision to backtrack on part of his reform agenda has caused political division and media outrage, in a case that signals the intensifying opposition to progressive prosecutors across the US.George Gascón, who leads the largest local prosecutor’s office in the nation, had banned the practice of charging youth as adults at the start of his term in 2020. But over the weekend, in response to outrage over a sexual assault case, he announced he would shift his policy so that juveniles could be tried as adults “in the most extraordinary of cases”. Continue reading...

My experiences during lockdown taught me about the precariousness of life, and turned an old conviction on its headI wasn’t like most brides. Unlike my school friends, who adored playing kiss-chase and using their blazers as veils and the chalk hopscotch outline as an aisle, I was more interested in reading and making up stories than dreaming about weddings. As I got older, I was able to use countless examples of the unhappy marriages I had seen around me as an excuse for my wannabe Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle. Receiving a Facebook notification about schoolmates getting hitched never moved or bothered me. And when I heard about glamorous six-figure, three-day wedding parties in Greece or Morocco, all I could think was: “Isn’t the bride tired?”Most importantly, there wasn’t a practical incentive for me to be married. Five decades ago it would have been helpful, as I would have needed a husband to even have a bank account, but thankfully things had changed so much that marriage wasn’t a necessity.Candice Brathwaite is an author, journalist and TV presenter Continue reading...

Raises implemented at some hubs last year reverted back to original wages as profits grew nearly tenfold in 2021Thousands of part-time workers at the United Parcel Service (UPS) around the US were recently informed that their hourly wages would be cut, eliminating raises implemented in 2021 at some hubs as a means to attract and retain workers in the tighter labor market.Alex Sanchez, a part-time UPS worker in Ontario, California, for one year, said part-time workers at his hub had their base rate increased in 2021 from $15.33 an hour to $18 an hour. Continue reading...

Bizarre perspective on kingdom’s human rights abuses has the former golf poster boy’s reputation left in tattersIt may be a stretch to say Phil Mickelson profited from the demise of Tiger Woods. Nonetheless, when Woods became embroiled in a 2009 infidelity scandal Mickelson, soon to win a third Masters, became the poster boy of the American golfing public. Mickelson’s play was swashbuckling and successful, his image clean enough to eat one’s dinner from. As Tiger lay embarrassed, grinning Phil captured hearts and minds.It seems poetic, then, that Mickelson has suddenly fallen victim to golf’s biggest reputational trashing since Woods hit the front page of the National Enquirer. And this, at a time when Woods’s latest comeback from serious injury continues against a backdrop of huge external support. The trouble with going to great lengths to portray yourself as purer than the driven snow is that when a counter-narrative appears, sceptics will not be slow to shout about it. Continue reading...

Brandon Toseland has been charged after Las Vegas police discovered the woman and her daughter – and the body of her sonOn Tuesday, a 7-year-old girl arrived at her Las Vegas elementary school with a stash of sticky notes in her hand, which she gave to her teacher. The notes, from her mother, were a cry for help.The woman wrote that she was being held captive by her boyfriend and feared that her 4-year-old son, who she had not seen for weeks, was dead, according to her attorney. After the teacher notified authorities, police went to the home of Brandon Toseland, where they found the body of Mason Dominguez in Toseland’s freezer. Continue reading...

Engineer overseeing the luxury tower’s retrofit discovered the space between it and a smaller building had widened by an inchSan Francisco’s troubled Millennium Tower, which has continued to sink despite multimillion dollar efforts to correct it, has developed yet another problem.The luxury tower, popular among star athletes and retired Google employees before the tilting issues were widely publicized, has sunk 18in since its construction was completed in 2009 and has a 26in tilt at the top. Now, the engineer overseeing the retrofit of the tower has said the movement caused the formation of a one-inch gap between the building and a smaller 12-story adjacent structure. Continue reading...

Biden is embattled on all fronts – from a stalled domestic agenda to international order – but a supreme court pick is an enduring actTwo years ago exactly, Joe Biden stood on a debate stage in Charleston, South Carolina, his candidacy on the ropes, and made a promise: if elected president, he would nominate the first Black woman to the supreme court.Days later, Biden won the South Carolina primary on the strength of his support among Black voters. The victory propelled him to the Democratic nomination and then to the presidency. Last month, Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, presenting Biden with an opportunity to fulfill that campaign commitment. Continue reading...

Some Republicans are less enthused, claiming that race and gender shouldn’t play a role in the nominationDemocrats enthusiastically welcomed Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, who if confirmed would serve as the first Black woman on the United States’ highest court.As reactions poured in from both sides of the political aisle, Barack Obama shared his congratulations about the news of Jackson’s nomination. Continue reading...

Floridian Adam Johnson shouted encouragement to rioters breaking down the doors to the House chamberThe Capitol rioter who was pictured carrying Nancy Pelosi’s lectern and bragged he had “broken the internet” in doing so has been sentenced to 75 days in prison and a $5,000 fine.Adam Johnson, 37 and from Florida, was photographed carrying the podium on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...

FTSE 100, European and US exchanges rise after heavy selling as investors relax about economic hit from invasion of UkraineGlobal markets staged a major recovery on Friday in a sign that traders believed the sanctions imposed on Russia were unlikely to significantly affect western economies.The FTSE 100 closed up 3.9%, rebounding from an almost 4% drop the previous day after Moscow invaded Ukraine, but still ending the week in the red. Continue reading...