Wisconsin senator says if GOP retakes control it will use committees to move against Democrats and Biden
Hunter 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...Cosmonaut says colours represent his university, after earlier saying they were chosen because they had a lot of yellow material
Russia has rubbished reports suggesting its cosmonauts wore yellow suits with blue accents to show solidarity with Ukraine.
The three cosmonauts wore the suits, bearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag, when arriving at the International Space Station (ISS), leading to speculation they were a show of support for the country Russia is attacking.
Continue reading...Imran Khan seeks to bolster domestic support amid threat from opposition coalition and cooling relations with military
Addressing the crowds at a public rally in Punjab last week, Pakistan’s prime minister was on the attack. Western leaders, Imran Khan said, treated Pakistan as their “slave” and presumed that “whatever you say, we will do”.
Days before, it had been announced that Khan would be facing a vote of no confidence in parliament at the end of March, after more than 100 members of Pakistan’s united opposition successfully tabled a motion to oust him. The vote will take place on Friday 25 March.
Continue reading...Washington Post rides with Khalid Payenda, who left for the US before the fall of Kabul
Days before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last August, Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, was “welcomed” to the United Arab Emirates. He was alleged to have taken with him $169m, from his country’s treasury.
Six months on, Khalid Payenda, once Ghani’s finance minister, is driving an Uber in Washington DC.
Continue reading...Many features make the platform susceptible to disinformation as world leaders try to harness influencers’ power for good
Many have called the invasion of Ukraine the world’s first “TikTok war”, and experts say it is high time for the short video platform – once known primarily for silly lip syncs and dance challenge – to be taken seriously.
Some politicians are doing just that. In a speech, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appealed to “TikTokers” as a group that could help end the war. Last week, Joe Biden spoke to dozens of top users on the app in a first-of-its kind meeting to brief the influencers on the conflict in Ukraine and how the US is addressing it.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. You can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
There are a few more updates of specific attacks and recent casualties. The Guardian has not independently verified these.
According to the Kyiv Independent, three people were killed in Rubizhne, including two chidren. The outlet cited Luhansk Oblast Governor, Serhiy Haidai, saying that in the last 24 hours 24 houses and apartment buildings were destroyed in Rubizhne and Severodonetsk over the past 24 hours.
Continue reading...Putin’s forces have bombed an art school sheltering 400 civilians in Mariupol, the city’s council has said
Mariupol’s city council said Russian forces bombed an art school where 400 civilians, including children, were sheltering.
Thousands of residents of Mariupol have been forcibly deported to Russia and then sent by rail to various economically depressed cities where they have to remain, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman claimed.
An estimated 10 million people – more than a quarter of Ukraine’s population – have now fled their homes as a result of Russia’s “devastating” war, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR said.
One of Europe’s largest metallurgical factories, the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, has been destroyed by the Russians, said Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.
Russia has struck Ukraine with cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, and launched hypersonic missiles from Crimean airspace, the Russian defence ministry said.
An attack on a barracks in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Friday killed more than 40 Marines, according to the New York Times. If confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest known attacks on Ukrainian forces during the war.
The Ukrainian parliament said 115 Ukrainian children have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion. It said at least 140 more had been injured.
Pope Francis described what is happening in Ukraine as “inhumane and sacrilegious”. Addressing tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square in Rome for his weekly blessing, he called on leaders to stop “this repugnant war”.
Continue reading...Officer resigns from school security guard job after officials release footage of fight and girl’s father calls for criminal charges
School officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin released surveillance footage that showed an off-duty police officer putting his knee on a 12-year-old girl’s neck to restrain her amid a lunchtime fight.
The Kenosha Unified School District released redacted footage of the 4 March fight on Friday.
Continue reading...Tim Kaine believes basketball star’s detention is to make her ‘part of this chess game’
A senior Democratic senator has said he believes Russia wants to use the WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been held in Moscow for more than a month on accusations she smuggled drugs into the country, as a “negotiating chip” regarding the war in Ukraine.
“I think there’s no doubt that her detention, and then this continuation of the imprisonment, is all to try to make her a hostage and a part of this chess game,” Tim Kaine, of Virginia, told Full Court Press in an interview scheduled to air in full on Sunday.
Continue reading...Representative confirms rapper will not perform at awards show after he was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours
Kanye West has been barred from performing at the Grammy awards next month due to “concerning online behavior”, a representative for the rapper and designer said.
The decision, confirmed to Variety, came a day after West, now legally known as Ye, was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours. The platform said content on the 44-year-old’s account was in violation of its policies on “hate speech and bullying and harassment”.
Continue reading...Critics say race is an issue in treatment of African students fleeing war in Ukraine
Two weeks ago, Alani Iyanuoluwa fled Kyiv as the Russian invasion intensified. Making her way across Europe, the 24-year-old hoped to be reunited with family in London. Yet for 10 days she has been stranded in a French port – because she is Nigerian.
Iyanuoluwa is among a growing number of refugees who claim the British government is ignoring black people who fled Ukraine.
Continue reading...Elderly residents are wary of the jab even as Omicron spreads, and critics say zero-Covid policy is not sustainable
When nearby neighbourhoods went into lockdown, Liu Li started stocking up. The 42-year-old Chinese magazine worker bought vegetables, fruit, medicine and other supplies, adding to stores of basics she had maintained since the pandemic began. Last Sunday a resident in the community where Liu lives with her mother, in Changchun city, Jilin, tested positive. Everyone was ordered inside.
The fresh lockdown has, so far, been OK. “I live a normal life,” she says. “I work when there are tasks for me. If there aren’t any, I talk to my mother, watch TV, or play with my cat.”
Continue reading...Mariupol council says civilians being sent to camps where their phones and documents are checked; Ukraine says 190,000 civilians have been evacuated from the frontline since the invasion began
I’m now handing over to my colleague in London, Clea Skopeliti.
Continue reading...Unidentified gunman kills 20-year-old vocalist minutes after he was released on bond following arrest in Opa-locka, Florida
Tributes have been paid to Baby Cino, an aspiring rapper from Miami, who was shot and killed in a daylight ambush minutes after leaving a city jail on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old vocalist, whose real name was Timothy Starks, was arrested by Miami-Dade officers at 2am in Opa-locka, Florida on Tuesday after they pulled him over for driving with an obscured number plate. On searching his car, police found a fully loaded Glock 32 pistol.
Continue reading...Candidate for governor in Georgia and self-confessed superfan makes appearance in season four finale of Star Trek: Discovery
The Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights campaigner Stacey Abrams has been made president – of United Earth.
The honour was bestowed by the Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Discovery, in its season four finale.
Continue reading...Matthew Muller guilty of rape and false imprisonment in intricate attack which authorities first dismissed – to their cost – as staged
A man who sexually assaulted a northern California woman who was kidnapped from her home in what police initially thought was a hoax was sentenced on Friday to 31 years in state prison.
Matthew Muller, already serving a 40-year sentence for federal crimes, was sentenced in Solano county superior court after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Denise Huskins, who was dragged from her Vallejo home in 2015, the county district attorney’s office said.
Continue reading...Governor declares disaster in 11 counties as experts warn of fires in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska
Fire crews in Texas made progress on Saturday against a massive complex of wildfires that killed a deputy sheriff and burned at least 50 homes, officials said.
“Progress has been made but fire activity has picked up with rising temperatures and lower humidity,” said Matt Ford, spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Services. He said about 25% of the flames were contained, up from about 4% late on Friday as the fire burned thick brush and grass fields.
Continue reading...Chairman of Indian Creek village tells media residents don’t want Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to land helicopter there
Protests by local residents have forced the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to cancel a trip to a Belize village that was scheduled to kick off their Caribbean toursidents.
Opposition to the royal excursion had arisen from a dispute between residents of Toledo district and Flora and Fauna International, a conservation charity Prince William is a patron of.
Continue reading...Peter Malinauskas to become state’s 47th premier as Liberal government deserted by voters after just one term
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Labor has won the South Australian election, with the premier, Steven Marshall, conceding defeat to the opposition leader, Peter Malinauskas, on Saturday night.
The Labor party was on track to win 25 seats and form a majority government after it recorded a 7.3% swing in its favour.
Continue reading...Former PMs join campaign calling for trial of Russian president and those around him over invasion of Ukraine
The former UK prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir John Major are among those calling for the creation of a new international tribunal to investigate Vladimir Putin and those who helped plan his invasion of Ukraine.
They have joined a campaign – along with leading names from the worlds of law, academia and politics – aiming to put the Russian president and others on trial.
Continue reading...