US man charged in Capitol attack gets asylum in Belarus

Evan Neumann, accused of hitting police with metal barricade, tells Belarusian state TV he has ‘mixed feelings’ about the move

A former San Francisco Bay Area resident facing federal criminal charges from the January 6 attack at the US Capitol has been granted asylum in Belarus, the former Soviet nation’s state media reported on Tuesday.

Evan Neumann, 49, was charged a year ago with assaulting police, including using a metal barricade as a battering ram during the riot last year. In an interview with the Belarus 1 channel that aired last year, he acknowledged being at the building that day but rejected the charges and said he had not hit any officers.

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Joe Biden arrives in Europe in effort to keep pressure on Russia

US president will take part in an emergency Nato summit, G7 summit and European Council meeting

Joe Biden has arrived in Europe for a four-day trip with the aim of keeping up pressure on Russia in the face of sanctions fatigue and splits over energy sanctions among US allies.

It will also, to some extent, be a lap of honour for the US president’s success so far in keeping allies and partners together in confronting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Russian reporter killed in Kyiv shelling is fourth journalist to die in conflict

Oksana Baulina was killed with another civilian while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider

A Russian reporter has died after coming under Russian shelling while she filmed destruction at a shopping centre in Kyiv, becoming at least the fourth journalist to die since the conflict began almost a month ago.

Oksana Baulina, who previously also worked for the Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was killed alongside another civilian on Wednesday while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider.

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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies at 84 – as it happened

In a sign of life slowly returning to normal, public tours of the US Capitol will resume on Monday in a limited capacity for the first time since March 2020, when the building closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 28, 2022, public tours of the Capitol will resume with a limited number of member-led, staff-led tours, and school groups,” sergeant-at-arms William Walker and attending physician Brian Monahan wrote in a memo to lawmakers and Capitol staff.

“Since March 2020, the US Capitol, and the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) has been closed to tours. The decision to reinstate limited tours has been made in coordination with Congressional Leadership, the US Capitol Police Board, the Attending Physician, Capitol Visitor Services, and the US Capitol Police. We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike.”

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Colombia could elect first black female vice-president as poll leader names pick

Francia Márquez, 40, an environmental campaigner who has survived at least one assassination attempt, is leftist Gustavo Petro’s running mate

She is an Afro-Colombian environmental crusader who has faced down untold death threats and survived at least one assassination attempt to become one of the leading lights of Latin America’s new left.

Now, Francia Márquez, 39, could be on the verge of becoming Colombia’s next vice-president after the leftist frontrunner, Gustavo Petro, picked her as his running mate – a move that has thrilled progressives and civil rights activists across the region.

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Jamaica’s PM tells Kate and William his country is ‘moving on’

Royal couple’s visit met with growing republican sentiment and pressure for reparations over slavery

Jamaica’s prime minister has told the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge that his country is “moving on” and intends to become a republic.

The royals’ arrival in Jamaica on Tuesday coincided with a much-publicised demonstration urging the monarchy to pay reparations for slavery, and calls from politicians for the country to become a republic.

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Nicaragua’s ambassador to the OAS denounces Daniel Ortega’s ‘dictatorship’

Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out against the government he is representing in a verbal attack that was lauded by the US

Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States has launched an extraordinary verbal attack on the authoritarian government he is employed to represent, castigating Daniel Ortega’s “indefensible” dictatorship for its assault on human rights and democracy.

Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out during an online OAS session on Wednesday, in a startling declaration that spread quickly on social media and was commended by countries such as the US.

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Court in Japan rejects claim by people lured to North Korea ‘paradise on Earth’

Plaintiffs say they endured decades of abuse after resettlement campaign in which Tokyo colluded

A Tokyo court has rejected a lawsuit filed by five people seeking compensation from North Korea for what they said was decades of abuse after they were lured there by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth”.

The five plaintiffs, including ethnic Koreans and Japanese who moved to North Korea under a 1959-1984 repatriation programme and later fled, filed the lawsuit in 2018 seeking 100m yen (about £625,000 today) each in compensation over what they said was illegal “solicitation and detainment”.

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Zelenskiy calls on Japan to impose trade embargo on Russian goods

The Ukrainian president thanked Japan for ‘leading the way’ in virtual address to MPs

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on Japan to increase pressure on Russia by imposing a trade embargo on Russian goods, in a virtual address to MPs in Tokyo.

Zelenskiy, who has delivered carefully tailored speeches to lawmakers in the US, UK and other countries, thanked Japan for “leading the way” among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions.

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Britain and US agree on steel tariffs as hopes of broader trade deal recede

Pact ends months of tensions but talks on full free-trade agreement remain far off

The UK has struck a deal with the US to remove tariffs on British steel exports, although trade experts warned a broader trade deal between the two countries remains far off.

The agreement was struck after UK’s international trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met her counterpart, the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, on Tuesday evening in Washington.

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Machu Picchu: Inca site ‘has gone by wrong name for over 100 years’

Peruvian historian and US archaeologist say the pre-Columbian town was called Huayna Picchu by the Inca people

Machu Picchu is one of the world’s best-known archaeological sites, a wonder of pre-Columbian architecture that has been closely studied for decades and a tourist attraction that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

But a new academic paper argues that since its rediscovery more than a century ago, the site has been known by the wrong name.

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Israel blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger

Revelation of denial offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Moscow has undermined Ukrainian objectives

Israel blocked Ukraine from buying NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware for fear that Russian officials would be angered by the sale of the sophisticated hacking tool to a regional foe, according to people familiar with the matter.

The revelation, following a joint investigation by the Guardian and Washington Post, offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Russia has at times undermined Ukraine’s offensive capabilities – and contradicted US priorities.

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Backlash in rural India over rubber penis in family planning kit

Maharashtra government criticised over prop for health workers to demonstrate how to put on a condom

A rubber penis that health workers are using as part of a family planning kit to demonstrate how to put on a condom has sparked anger in rural India, where sex remains a taboo subject.

Some members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) have demanded that the kits be withdrawn and an apology offered to the health workers. One BJP state legislator, Chitra Kishor Wagh, said the Maharashtra government, which introduced the kit, “has lost its mind”. His colleague, Akash Bhundkar, wanted the government to apologise to the health workers for the “embarrassment” it had caused them.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Nato puts Russian death toll ‘as high as 15,000’, as US says occupiers on the defensive outside Kyiv – live

Latest updates: death told could be as high as entire 1o-year Afghanistan campaign of 1980s; while the US says Ukraine has pushed Russian forces outside of Kyiv back

Russian troops continue to advance on key cities across Ukraine.

The latest conviction of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday reflects the Russian government’s intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression, Human Rights Watch has said.

This verdict is apparently intended not only to silence Navalny but to serve as a warning to Russian civil society and anyone who dares to stand up to the Kremlin’s policies.”

The cases against Navalny are part of the Kremlin’s grim landscape of repression against Russia’s civil society and peaceful dissent, which has drastically intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin seems determined to isolate Russian society from the outside world to cut Russians off from uncomfortable facts, including about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So it’s hardly surprising that Russian authorities are doubling down on smearing and silencing Navalny and others who can tell people not to believe the Kremlin’s lies and that the world is watching.”

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Hillsong’s Brian Houston resigns from megachurch

Resignation comes after internal investigations found Houston engaged in inappropriate conduct ‘of serious concern’

Hillsong’s founding pastor, Brian Houston, has resigned from the megachurch he founded in Sydney two decades ago after internal investigations found he had engaged in inappropriate conduct of “serious concern” with two women.

Houston stood down last Friday, but following another emergency staff meeting on Wednesday the Sydney-based church issued a brief statement announcing his resignation.

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‘A new beginning’: New Zealand to drop Covid vaccine passes and mandates

PM Jacinda Ardern, who oversaw some of the toughest restrictions in the world, says rules will relax after Omicron peak in early April

New Zealand will do away with vaccine passes and vaccine mandates for some of the workforce in early April, in a major loosening of the country’s tough Covid-19 restrictions.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced the changes on Wednesday morning, citing high vaccination rates, better data to identify which environments are high risk, and modelling that suggests the country’s Omicron outbreak would peak in early April.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson says Roe v Wade ‘the settled law of the supreme court’ – as it happened

Asked about her views of the second amendment’s right to bear arms, Jackson said that the supreme court had already established it as a “fundamental right.”

“There is precedent in the supreme court related to various rights that the court has recognized as fundamental,” she told Grassley. She added: “The court has said that the 14th amendment substantive due process clause does support some fundamental rights, but only things that are implicit in the ordered concept of liberty or deeply rooted in the history and traditions of this country, the kinds of rights that relate to personal individual autonomy.”

In that speech, I talked about my my parents growing up in Florida, attended and had to attend racially-segregated schools because by law when they were young, white children and black children were not allowed to go to school together.

And my reality, when I was born in 1970 and went to school in Miami, Florida was completely different. I went to a diverse public junior high school, high school elementary school. And the fact that we had come that far was to me a testament to the hope and the promise of this country, the greatness of America that in one generation – one generation – we could go from racially-segregated schools in Florida to have me sitting here as the first Floridian ever to be nominated to the supreme court of the United States. So yes, senator, that is my belief.

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UN head says time for Russia to end ‘unwinnable’ Ukraine war

Leaders from the bloc to meet on Thursday to discuss support above the €1.2bn emergency fund already agreed

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards.

Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”. For more than two weeks, the devastated southern city of Mariupol had been encircled by Russian forces, bombed and shelled, he said.

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UK running low on anti-tank weapons, defence secretary tells Russian hoaxers

Impostors posing as Ukrainian PM post new YouTube clip with Ben Wallace’s response to claim that arms have failed

The UK is running out of anti-tank weapons to send to Ukraine, the defence secretary appeared to tell Russian impostors posing as the Ukrainian prime minister, according to the latest video released by the pair.

Downing Street has said it believes Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax, in which an impersonator was put through for a video call with Ben Wallace about the situation in Ukraine.

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