The vice-president and her husband reported a gross income of $1.7m while the Bidens made $611,000
Kamala Harris and her husband earned more than twice as much as Joe Biden and his wife did last year, according to copies of their income tax returns released on Friday.
Harris and the so-called second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, reported a federal adjusted gross income of about $1.7m in 2021, which was about the same they claimed to have earned the prior year.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made a direct request to Joe Biden that the US designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, the Washington Post reports.
This would be a rare and radical sanction, but Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, and this is no exception as his country endures atrocities from its northern neighbor.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers say there is no freedom in Rwanda and fear for their lives if sent to Africa
Small boat arrivals on the Kent coast have expressed fears that they will be removed from the UK and transferred to Rwanda, after hearing the government’s announcement that asylum claims will be processed offshore.
“If they send me to Rwanda, I will not go. I will die here, I will take my life,” Jemal, a new arrival from Eritrea, said. “Do you know how many thousands of miles I travelled to be here? How long I was in [the] desert …? To reach this point, to be here, we all had to make so many sacrifices. A lot of [people] lost their lives on the sea. I left my country now – I cannot go back to Africa.”
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
Continue reading...Gillian Triggs, assistant high commissioner at UNHCR, says plan is ‘symbolic gesture’ that will prove unworkable
The UN’s refugee agency has condemned Boris Johnson’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “a symbolic gesture” that will be unworkable in practice.
Speaking to the Guardian, Gillian Triggs, the assistant high commissioner at the UNHCR, said the proposed arrangement would only accommodate a few hundred people a year, making it extremely expensive as well as illegal and discriminatory.
Continue reading...Richard Moore, 57, convicted of 1999 killing of convenience store clerk, to be first prisoner put to death in South Carolina since 2011
A South Carolina prisoner scheduled to be the first man executed in the state in more than a decade has decided to die by firing squad rather than in the electric chair later this month, according to court documents filed on Friday.
Richard Moore, 57, is the also first state prisoner to face the choice of execution methods after a law went into effect last year making electrocution the default and giving inmates the option to face three prison workers with rifles instead.
Continue reading...Diplomatic note believed to talk of ‘unpredictable consequences’ as US readies $800m of military hardware
Russia sent a formal warning to the US not to send more arms to Ukraine or it could face “unpredictable consequences”, it has been reported.
According to the Washington Post, Moscow sent a diplomatic note, a démarche, warning that US and Nato deliveries of the “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine were “adding fuel” to the conflict there and could bring “unpredictable consequences”.
Continue reading...Kremlin yet to release details of possible casualties on Black Sea flagship, as Ukrainians hail its demise
Ukraine has said it is bracing itself for revenge attacks from Russia after the “significant and symbolic” sinking of Russia’s flagship cruiser, the Moskva.
The government in Kyiv said it had destroyed the giant missile cruiser during a combat operation against Russian vessels in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The boat’s ammunition deck exploded after it was hit by two Neptune anti-ship missiles, it added.
Continue reading...Formation of citizens’ militia in Lod in central Israel follows spate of Palestinian attacks across country
Jewish residents in a central Israeli city have formed an armed group they say is for self-defence, after a string of Palestinian attacks across the country sparked fears of a new wave of internal violence.
The mixed city of Lod, near Tel Aviv, became the focal point of communal bloodshed that flared in Israel last year, with the government and police struggling to control clashes between Arabs and Jews.
Continue reading...Analysis: ship’s sinking will shock Russian public and is latest sign war in Ukraine will not end soon
As Russian media and officials struggled on Friday to explain the sinking of the country’s Black Sea flagship, it was clear that the loss of the cruiser and an untold number of its estimated 510 crew was a blow to Vladimir Putin’s war plans and his military’s prestige.
From the beginning, the Russian government tried to play down what had happened. At first its defence ministry claimed an accident had caused a fire onboard. Then the ministry said the damage had been contained and the ship was being towed to port in Sevastopol. Finally, late on Thursday, the ministry announced that the ship had sunk in “stormy seas”.
Continue reading...In run-up to the presidential vote, French premier calls for EU-wide ceiling after head of carmaker Stellantis receives €19m
Emmanuel Macron will push for a cap on excessive executive pay should he be re-elected president after he described as “shocking and excessive” the €19m (£15.7m) pay packet handed to the head of carmaker Stellantis.
Macron, who is campaigning in the run-up to the final vote for the French presidency on 24 April against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, told France Info radio that he was in favour of an EU-wide ceiling for top executives’ pay.
Continue reading...Dozens of services to and from London cancelled, and strike action hits TransPennine Express routes
Rail passengers face a “disastrous weekend” of disruption as engineering works and strikes hamper one of the busiest Easter getaways in years.
Dozens of services to and from London have been cancelled as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects across the bank holiday weekend.
Continue reading...Claim about long-term benefits disputed by MP Andrew Mitchell who describes reported cost of £30,000 a person as ‘eye-watering’
Britain will save money in the “longer term” by sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, a minister has said after the reported cost of about £30,000 a person was described as “eye-watering”.
Defending the decision to fly out many of those who arrive on the Kent coast to a country more than 4,000 miles away, the Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said it would “crush” the business model of people smugglers.
Continue reading...Huawei executive warns of ‘massive losses’ in tech sector as tensions rise over strict lockdowns
A top Huawei executive has broken ranks to warn that China’s stringent zero-Covid policy may trigger “massive losses” for the tech industry, putting the country’s economy as well as the global supply chain at greater risk.
“If Shanghai cannot resume production by May, all of the tech and industrial players who have supply chains in the area will come to a complete halt, especially the automotive industry,” Richard Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei’s consumer and auto division said in a WeChat post. “That will pose severe consequences and massive losses for the whole industry.”
Continue reading...Gasteranthus extinctus had been presumed extinct after extensive deforestation
A South American wildflower long believed to be extinct has been rediscovered.
Gasteranthus extinctus was found by biologists in the foothills of the Andes mountains and in remnant patches of forest in the Centinela region of Ecuador, almost 40 years after its last sighting.
Continue reading...Water shortages leading to rising salt concentrations and sandstorms are eroding world’s ancient sites
Some of the world’s most ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change, as rising concentrations of salt in Iraq eat away at mud brick and more frequent sandstorms erode ancient wonders.
Iraq is known as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that agriculture was born, some of the world’s oldest cities were built, such as the Sumerian capital Ur, and one of the first writing systems was developed – cuneiform. The country has “tens of thousands of sites from the Palaeolithic through Islamic eras”, explained Augusta McMahon, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at the University of Cambridge.
Continue reading...Scuffles follow complaints of food shortages and over-zealous officials forcing people into quarantine
Videos posted on social media have showed residents of Shanghai scuffling with hazmat-suited police who were ordering them to surrender their homes to Covid-19 patients, providing a rare glimpse into rising discontent in the megacity over China’s inflexible virus response.
Shanghai, a city of 25 million and China’s economic engine room, has become the heart of the country’s biggest outbreak since the peak of the first virus wave in Wuhan over two years ago, rattling the country’s adherence to a strict zero-Covid policy.
Continue reading...Ukraine says Anton Kuprin killed in explosion that led to ship’s sinking; more than 900 civilians’ bodies discovered with claims they were executed
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has responded to reports of the apparent attack on and sinking of Russia’s Black Sea fleet’s flagship.
The report, released shortly after 6am GMT, reads:
Russia has admitted that the Slava-class cruiser Moskva has sunk. As flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva served a key role as both a command vessel and air defence node.
The Soviet-era vessel was one of only three Slava-class cruisers in the Russian navy. Originally commissioned in 1979, the Moskva had completed an extensive refit designed to improve its capability and only returned to operational status in 2021.
Continue reading...Palestine Red Crescent says people injured by rubber bullets, Israeli police batons and stun grenades at al-Aqsa mosque
Medics say more than 150 Palestinians have been injured in clashes that erupted when Israeli riot police entered Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, in the most significant violence at the holy site since similar scenes sparked a war last year.
Most of the Palestinian injuries on Friday were incurred by rubber bullets, stun grenades and beatings with police batons, the Palestine Red Crescent said.
Continue reading...Analysis: with more than 6 million people in need, there is anger at perceived lack of action from the government and the UN
The UN this week issued a stark warning on Somalia, projecting that 350,000 children could starve to death without urgent action.
The country is in the middle of a drought that is already killing people. Some regions in the Horn of Africa are the hottest they have been since satellites started recording data 40 years ago, according to an analysis by the World Food Programme.
Continue reading...Russia initially denied reports that warship sank, then later claimed it went down in stormy seas while being towed to port after fire
Russia’s Black Sea flagship missile cruiser, the Moskva, has sunk while being towed to a port after an explosion, the Russian defence ministry has claimed. It comes after Ukraine on Wednesday said its military struck the Moskva with Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles, while distracting its crew with an aerial drone, causing it to start sinking and forcing the crew of 500 to abandon ship.
Russia’s defence ministry initially denied reports that it had sunk and claimed the fires had been extinguished. It said four Russian ships that had gone to the Moskva’s rescue were hampered by bad weather and by ammunition blowing up on board.
Continue reading...