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A stunning number of Trump’s closest associates had deep ties to the Kremlin. The significance of this cannot be overstatedIn 2014, the Putin regime invaded Ukraine’s Crimea. In 2016, the same regime invaded the United States. The former took place as a conventional military operation; the latter was a spectacular case of cyberwarfare, including disinformation that it was happening at all and promulgation of a lot of talking points still devoutly repeated by many. It was a vast social-media influencing project that took many forms as it sought to sow discord and confusion, even attempting to dissuade Black voters from voting.Additionally, Russian intelligence targeted voter rolls in all 50 states, which is not thought to have had consequences, but demonstrated the reach and ambition of online interference. This weekend, British investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr said on Twitter, “We failed to acknowledge Russia had staged a military attack on the West. We called it ’meddling.’ We used words like ‘interference.’ It wasn’t. It was warfare. We’ve been under military attack for eight years now.”Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

President bans Russian aircraft in US airspace as bombardment of Ukraine intensifies. Plus, the teen tracking oligarchs

The US president has good intentions, with only halting, sporadic, uncreative, and trepidatious efforts to actually enact themThere’s always something a bit grim about the State of the Union. A setpiece of American political theater, the annual speech by the president to a joint session of Congress is choreographed to eliminate any chance of accidental sincerity. The president speaks in carefully calibrated spin; every word sounds like it has been focus-grouped. Members of the opposition party make a show of their animosity, vamping for the cameras with either staid, dignified displeasure or ravenous hatred, depending on where they are running for re-election. No one’s mind is changed and little new information is delivered. By its nature, the speech is meant to describe the status quo. It is not meant to change it.This year, President Biden had a particularly grim task. After months and months of negotiations with Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, proved fruitless, his sweeping economic agenda, the Build Back Better Plan, appears to be dead. The two voting rights bills that would have helped secure the franchise for Black Americans and protect the integrity of future elections were killed when Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, declined to support an exemption to the filibuster, meaning that the erosion of voting rights in Republican-controlled states is likely to advance unchallenged. Many economic indicators are strong, but with inflation running rampant, this means little to working families, who see their paychecks covering less and less of what they need. This spring, the US supreme court will hand down opinions that will drastically reshape American government and American lives, including the case from Mississippi, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, that will overturn Roe v Wade. The midterms are coming, and in Europe, a pointless and brutal war of self-aggrandizement has been launched by an erratic and mendacious dictator with a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons. Continue reading...

The former UK politician must act to end the company’s profit-driven cycle of tearing societies and democracies apart

House committee tells John Eastman to prioritize terms linked with possible conspiracy in complying with documents subpoenaThe House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is asking the former Trump lawyer John Eastman to prioritize turning over records with certain keywords as he complies with his subpoena – a list of terms that reveal the panel’s focus as it investigates a potential conspiracy.The keywords include a Gmail address used by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and the names of various individuals involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, from top Trump aides to Republican members of Congress to the former justice department official Jeffrey Clark. Continue reading...

The start of the new season has been lost after talks between players and owners broke down. Baseball is in danger of fading further into the background of US cultureIt is only a screengrab, a capture of a fleeting expression that did not reflect the overall tone of his address to the media on Tuesday. But it might prove to be the image Rob Manfred is remembered for, on the day that may well define his tenure as Major League Baseball commissioner.A smile. A toothy grin as he announced that the league and the players’ union have not reached a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement and so the first two series of the regular season, which was due to start on 31 March, are cancelled. Continue reading...

A new professional football league is ready to kick off in Alabama this spring. But it looks very similar to one that died a notorious death in the 1980sJust for fun, suppose you are a pro football fan from, say, Philadelphia. That would mean you probably like/love/fixate on the Eagles. It would probably mean that you’d root for any other pro football team attaching “Philadelphia” to its nickname, as long as it did not play in the fall.Philadelphia and seven other cities, states or regions are getting new pro football teams next month, when the second version of the United States Football League makes its debut. The Philadelphia team will be called the Stars, after the team in the first iteration of the USFL. Continue reading...

President condemns attack and seeks to reassure Americans exhausted by pandemic and its economic falloutJoe Biden vowed in his first State of the Union address to defend democracy threatened by war in Europe, pledging to punish Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, while also promising to tame rising inflation and return the nation to a “more normal” state as the coronavirus pandemic appears to wane.Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, at a perilous moment for his presidency and the world, Biden accused the Russian president of trying to “shake the foundations of the free world” with a “premeditated and unprovoked” invasion of its Democratic neighbor. Continue reading...

Democrats and Republicans come together to condemn Putin – then it’s back to politics as usualVladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has managed to do what Joe Biden could not: bridge the partisan divide and bring, however fleetingly, the US Congress together.Many Democrats and Republicans who attended the US president’s first State of the Union address, on Tuesday night, wore yellow and blue in solidarity with Ukraine, with some holding miniature Ukrainian flags. Continue reading...

US president Joe Biden used the opening of his State of the Union address to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 'Putin's attack on Ukraine was premeditated and totally unprovoked', said Biden, before emphasising the strength of the Nato alliance. Biden’s praise of the Ukrainian people was met with a standing ovation in the House chamberState of the Union live: Biden denounces ‘menacing’ Putin and vows to tackle inflation and CovidState of the Union takeaways: Biden talks tough on Putin and touts Covid progress Continue reading...

Oksana Markarova, the ambassador of Ukraine to the US, was given a standing ovation at the US Capitol on Tuesday night during Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address to Congress. Markarova appeared moved as she thanked attendees, while the US president condemned Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s ‘tyranny’

Ukraine dominated Biden’s address, but he set out plans to combat inflation and insisted America can move on from the pandemicJoe Biden denounced Russian “tyranny” in his first State of the Union speech, but also carved plenty of time time to make his pitch for Democrats as the US midterm elections loom.The president, who is struggling with a low approval rating and faces the prospect of Democrats losing control of the House and the Senate in the November, condemned Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He announced a flight ban on Russian aircraft, before turning to the domestic policies Biden hopes will make voters choose him. Continue reading...

The shooting took place on Monday evening in the city of Sacramento, in the state’s northA man shot and killed his three daughters and a chaperone before turning the gun on himself at a church in the Sacramento, California, suburbs on Monday evening, authorities said.Deputies responded to the church in the Arden-Arcade neighborhood of Sacramento on Monday evening after a church employee heard gunshots and called 911, said Sgt Rod Grassmann with the Sacramento county sheriff’s office. Continue reading...

Lawsuit filed after state’s governor and attorney general called medically necessary gender-affirming care ‘child abuse’America’s largest civil rights non-profit has filed a lawsuit asking a Texas state court to block officials from investigating parents who seek medically necessary gender-affirming care for their children.The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal, named the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, as a defendant, along with the Texas department of family and protective services (DFPS) and its commissioner, Jaime Masters. Continue reading...

Document offers clear example of how Republicans are embracing efforts to overturn results of validly executed electionsA long anticipated and widely criticized review of Wisconsin’s 2020 election has embraced fringe conspiracy theories and argued there were grounds for the legislature to “decertify” the results of the 2020 election, something legal experts have said is impossible.A report released on Tuesday was the result of months of work by Michael Gableman, a former state supreme court justice hired by the state assembly to review the election. Gableman’s efforts, backed by $676,000 in public funds, have been widely criticized as partisan, sloppy and unnecessary. Continue reading...

The panel is targeting documents and testimony from Cleta Mitchell, Kurt Olsen, Katherine Freiss, Phillip Kline, Kenneth Chesebro and Christina BobbThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has issued new subpoenas to lawyers for Donald Trump suspected to be involved in efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.The subpoenas – authorized hours before Biden’s first State of the Union address – targeted documents and testimony from Cleta Mitchell, Kurt Olsen, Katherine Freiss, Phillip Kline, Kenneth Chesebro and the pro-Trump One America News host Christina Bobb. Continue reading...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has ended an era of German foreign policy and is transforming security assumptions across the EUAs the latest barrage of Russian missiles rained on Kyiv on Tuesday, Finnish MPs debated new calls for a referendum on Nato membership. Along with Sweden – also militarily non-aligned – Finland is sending anti-tank missiles and other defence equipment to assist Ukraine, as it attempts to survive Russia’s brutal onslaught. The Swedes have undertaken no equivalent action since giving weapons to Finland during the Winter war with the Soviet Union in 1939. As European nations contemplate the scale of Vladimir Putin’s revanchist ambitions, and the lengths to which he is prepared to go to fulfil them, decades-old security assumptions are being redrawn and rethought in the space of days. A strategic journey without maps is being undertaken at hair-raising speed.Nowhere are the gears being moved through faster than in Germany. At the weekend, its Social Democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz, abandoned longstanding precepts of German foreign policy, taking Europe’s wealthiest and most powerful country on to new terrain. Faced with Mr Putin’s invasion, Mr Scholz unexpectedly rejected the postwar taboo on sending lethal weapons to conflict zones, announcing that stinger missiles and other equipment would be sent to Ukraine. In an extraordinary Sunday session of the Bundestag, he announced that a fund of €100bn (£85bn) would be immediately set up to boost the strength of Germany’s armed forces. This will be supplemented by a sustained increase in the country’s defence spending in the years to come. These measures followed last week’s decision to halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project – which would double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany – and robust support for unprecedented sanctions intended to collapse the Russian economy. Continue reading...

Civil rights groups say the district maps, which were signed into law last year, dilute the voting power of communities of colorA federal judge has ruled that new congressional and state legislative maps in Georgia, which allegedly discriminate against voters of color, can be used for this year’s election cycle.In a ruling late on Monday, US district judge Steve Jones said there was not enough time to make changes before the primary. Continue reading...

GuiYing Ma, 62, allegedly struck outside her home in Queens in November, was fourth Asian American killed in city in two monthsAn Asian woman who was attacked in New York by a man with a rock has died after spending approximately 10 weeks in a coma, her family said on Monday.GuiYing Ma, 62, was sweeping the sidewalk outside her home in Jackson Heights in Queens on 26 November when a man allegedly struck her head with a rock, police say. Continue reading...

The Russian leader is an autocrat with a homophobic and misogynistic worldview. No wonder he is admired by so many RepublicansSay what you like about Vladimir Putin; he may be slaughtering innocent Ukrainians, but, on the plus side, he has never once called the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson a racist. Last Tuesday, Carlson, who is reportedly paid $10m (£7.5m) a year for his piercing insights and analysis, told Americans that they had been brainwashed into thinking Putin was a baddie. Think critically, Carlson instructed his depressingly large audience. Ask yourself this, he posited: “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? … Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions – and the answer to all of them is no.” To be clear: these are inane questions and the answer to all of them is: “Turn off Fox News before the rest of your brain turns to mush.”Carlson, it should be said, has significantly toned down the pro-Putin rhetoric in the past few days. What is noteworthy, however, is the fact that Carlson is far from the only person on the US right to have a soft spot for old Vlad. While Donald Trump has called the Russian attack on Ukraine “appalling”, he has also called Putin’s actions “genius”, “savvy” and “smart”. Continue reading...

Steve Sisolak said the men shouted threats at his wife, Kathy Sisolak, who is of Chinese heritageThe Nevada governor and his wife were accosted and chased from a restaurant in Las Vegas on Sunday, as two men, one a rightwing “digital creator”, shouted profanities and threats.In a statement, Steve Sisolak said the men shouted “racist threats” at his wife, Kathy Sisolak, who is of Chinese heritage. Continue reading...

Michigan progressive says speech will support Biden but Josh Gottheimer calls it ‘massively counterproductive’A planned response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night by Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat from Michigan, highlighted a rift in the party.The president will speak to Congress and the nation from the Capitol. The Republican rebuttal will be delivered by Kim Reynolds, governor of Iowa. Continue reading...

The mantra of this pinkwashed career queen is about changing yourself rather than reality. Time to say, no, that’s not my jobA few months after graduating, mid-recession, on to the dole and shortly before I started writing for the Guardian, I worked very briefly for an online magazine as an editorial assistant. It was on my first day there that my older, female boss taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. After running through my various duties, she added this advice: “The men upstairs,” she said, “are going to think you are their secretary. They are going to ask you to do their photocopying and answer their phones. And it is very important that when they do, you say the following phrase: ‘No. That’s not my job.’”Then she made me repeat it several times, until I said it with confidence. It’s a simple refusal, and an effective one, but the first time I said it I was nervous. On repetition, however, it became second nature, and being able to say “no” without apology or excuse has stood me in good stead ever since. I am what many would consider an assertive person, but like many women I still sometimes have to force myself to stand up for what I want.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ex-president made remark to his attorney general, according to William Barr’s forthcoming memoirDonald Trump told William Barr, his attorney general, that the secret to a “good tweet” was “just the right amount of crazy”.The detail from Barr’s forthcoming memoir leaked out on Monday, via Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Governor says state will except crypto payments converted into a dollar value, which would then be deposited in the state’s treasuryColorado is slated to become the first US state to accept tax payments in cryptocurrency, a move the governor’s office has described as the “next logical step on the path to digital statehood”.Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, who announced the effort last week, explained in a tweet that the state would accept crypto payments converted into a dollar value, which would then be deposited in the state’s treasury. Continue reading...

Too many frame the invasion as an attack on ‘civilisation’, uniquely awful because it happened in Europe. That approach demeans us allVladimir Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has sharpened two terrifying realisations. The first is that Putin does not function within the realm of the usual finely balanced checks and balances, sticks and carrots, that the west hoped would contain him and maintain an uneasy truce in Europe. The second is that decades of work since the second world war to learn from the mistakes of the past and fortify against them in the future have failed. Here again, we have not a civil war, but an invasion of a sovereign state in defiance of the rest of the world. Here again, we have images that are only known to us as historical reels, of frenzy and panic as thousands attempt to flee to safety.But there is a third realisation that appears to shape the perception of too many western journalists justifiably appalled at the defiling of Europe. From the tone of much coverage, this seems uniquely distressing and more alarming to them because the lives of non-Europeans have less value, and their conflicts are contained, far away from us.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Rescuers searching rubble of base in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces gather outside Kyiv. Plus, Joe Biden prepares for his first State of the Union address

Make no mistake: Putin’s authoritarian neo-fascism has rooted itself in America. The cold war has already come homeThe world is frighteningly locked in a battle to the death between democracy and authoritarianism. On Sunday Vladimir Putin issued a new threat to the west – telling his defense minister and his top military commander to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert.It is a new cold war.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

The Fast Recovery Act would create a council of parent companies, workers, franchises and regulators to monitor pay, work setupsFast food workers in California are fighting to pass a first of its kind bill that would provide employees with the power to negotiate wages and possibly improve working condition standards across the industry.The Fast Recovery Act, or AB 257, would create a statewide fast food sector council that would include workers, state regulators, franchises and their parent companies and set wage and other standards for the industry. The act would also hold franchises and their parent corporations more accountable to labor laws. Continue reading...

The Washington Capitals star is popular among Russians who may not usually question their leader. And he has debated the need for warIn 2017, Alexander Ovechkin, inarguably the best Russian hockey player alive or dead and the country’s most famous male athlete, started something called PutinTeam.“I have never hidden my attitude towards our president, always supporting him,” the Muscovite and captain of the NHL’s Washington Capitals wrote, three years after Russia annexed Crimea. “I am confident that there are many of us, supporting Vladimir Putin. So let’s unite and show everyone a united and strong Russia!” Continue reading...

Bob Bradley’s disastrous reign at Swansea City confirmed many prejudices against American coaches. But the new manager at Elland Road has pedigreeThe jokes about Bob Bradley lasted longer than he did as Swansea City manager. Sky Sports’ Soccer AM ran a sketch for years after the American had departed the Liberty Stadium mocking how he talked about football. Brad Bobley, as the character was dubbed, spoke in a Stateside twang about “scoop-de-loop volleys” and “megnuts” and “midfield stripes”. Bradley’s mistake was once calling a penalty kick a “PK” in a press conference.The jokes made at Bradley’s expense were all good fun, but his chastening experience in Wales highlighted the outdated prejudices still held against American coaches in British football. This is the environment Jesse Marsch has entered as the new manager of Leeds United. Continue reading...

White House officials say president will steer conversation toward economic progress rather than pessimismJoe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday before a bitterly divided Congress, seeking to inspire a pandemic-weary nation deeply unhappy with its leaders and government, while projecting strength to the world after Russia unleashed the largest land war in Europe since the second world war.The prime-time address comes at a precarious moment for Biden and the world. Speaking in the House chamber, Biden will interrupt harrowing coverage of combat in a European capital, as evidence builds that Russian attacks are striking civilian areas and Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatens nuclear war. Continue reading...

Jamie Snedden was expected to recover after he was swept 300 yards into Cook Inlet and spent more than 30 minutes in frigid waterAn Alaska man walking on a shoreline wound up clinging to a chunk of ice for more than 30 minutes in frigid water when the shoreline ice broke loose and carried him out into Cook Inlet.Jamie Snedden, 45, of Homer, was rescued on Saturday near the community of Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia. He was expected to fully recover, Alaska wildlife troopers said. Continue reading...

Cartier accused Tiffany & Co of hiring an underqualified manager to learn of their ‘High Jewelry’ collectionCartier sued Tiffany & Co on Monday, accusing its luxury rival of stealing trade secrets concerning its high-end jewelry from an employee it lured away in December.According to a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Tiffany hired away an underqualified junior manager to learn more about Cartier’s “High Jewelry” collection, where pieces typically cost $50,000 to $10m. Continue reading...

A jury rejected the former Alaska governor’s claims that a 2017 New York Times editorial defamed herFormer US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin asked a federal court on Monday for a new trial after losing her defamation case against the New York Times earlier this month, and requested that the judge overseeing the case be disqualified.Palin’s attorneys said last week they would take those steps because several jurors received push notifications on their cellphones before deliberations were over, about US district judge Jed Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the case regardless of their verdict. Continue reading...

Lawyers argue ordering Trump and two children to testify is a violation because answers could be used in a parallel investigationDonald Trump has appealed a judge’s decision requiring he answer questions under oath in New York state’s civil investigation into his business practices – a widely expected move that’s likely to prolong the fight over his testimony by months.Lawyers for the former president and his two eldest children filed papers on Monday with the appellate division of the state’s trial court, seeking to overturn Manhattan judge Arthur Engoron’s 17 February ruling. Continue reading...

Most major US markets closed lower after regaining some losses but defense contractors continued to gainDefense and cybersecurity stocks are seeing a sharp rise in values as investors take note of pledges by the EU to boost defense spending and governments warn of an increased threat of cyber intrusions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.US stock markets seesawed again on Monday as the war in Ukraine escalated. Most of the major US markets closed lower after regaining some of their losses, but defense contractors continued to gain as investors bet their businesses would benefit from the conflict. Continue reading...

Strikingly higher rates of decline in effectiveness for younger children suggest the lower dose they receive may be the reasonThe Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is less effective in children aged five to 11 than in adolescents and adults, according to new data from New York state health officials.The new research was announced shortly after federal authorities relaxed masking guidance and a day after Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, said he would probably follow Governor Kathy Hochul in ending a mask mandate in city schools. Continue reading...

It has long been clear that Nato expansion would lead to tragedy. We are now paying the price for the US’s arroganceRussia’s military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression that will make already worrisome tensions between Nato and Moscow even more dangerous. The west’s new cold war with Russia has turned hot. Vladimir Putin bears primary responsibility for this latest development, but Nato’s arrogant, tone‐​deaf policy toward Russia over the past quarter‐​century deserves a large share as well. Analysts committed to a US foreign policy of realism and restraint have warned for more than a quarter‐​century that continuing to expand the most powerful military alliance in history toward another major power would not end well. The war in Ukraine provides definitive confirmation that it did not.Ted Galen Carpenter is senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Carpenter served as Cato’s director of foreign policy studies from 1986 to 1995 and as vice-president for defense and foreign policy studies from 1995 to 2011This piece originally appeared in 19fortyfive Continue reading...

Urban dwellers tolerate screeching subways, traffic and noisy bars. But late-night sounds of coital revelry are the breaking pointA wave of “sex mayhem” has apparently been sweeping New York City, prompting residents to lodge an increasing number of noise complaints to a government helpline.New York is no stranger to noise complaints – New Yorkers file as many as 75,000 a month – but new 311 call data obtained by Patch has revealed that many recent complaints arise from those disturbed by their neighbors’ late-night ventures. Continue reading...