Uber strikes deal to list all New York City taxis on its ride-share app

Passengers will pay roughly same fare for taxi and Uber X rides in move that could help overcome shortage of drivers

Uber Technologies Inc has agreed a deal to list all New York City taxis on its app, a move that could help the ride-hailing firm overcome a shortage of drivers in one of its biggest markets.

The agreement was announced by Creative Mobile Technologies, which makes apps for the city’s yellow cabs, and Curb, a ride-hailing app for licensed taxi and for-hire rides in North America.

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US formally accuses Russia of war crimes in Ukraine | First Thing

State department says US will pursue accountability ‘using every tool available’. Plus, PFAS found in scores of food packaging wrappers

Good morning.

The US has formally accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and vowed to pursue accountability “using every tool available”.

Biden has arrived in Europe for an emergency Nato summit, a G7 summit and a meeting of the European Council in Brussels. He aims to keep pressure high on Russia.

A Russian reporter has died amid Russian shelling in Kyiv. Oksana Baulina, who was reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider, was at least the fifth journalist to die since the conflict began.

Seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians have been agreed for Thursday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said. Many previous agreements have fallen apart. None have been agreed for Mariupol.

When did Trump withdraw his endorsement? On Wednesday Trump said Brooks “made a horrible mistake recently when he went ‘woke’ and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam: ‘Put that behind you, put that behind you.’”

Meanwhile, a man charged in 6 January attack has been granted asylum in Belarus. Charged with assaulting police, Evan Neumann said that although he had been in the building, he rejected the charges and had not hit any officers.

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US ‘will not entertain’ UK trade deal that risks Good Friday agreement

US congressman Richard Neal says peace deal must not be held ‘hostage over domestic politics’

A bilateral trade deal between the US and the UK is “desirable” but will not progress while the Northern Ireland peace deal is being used for domestic political purposes, one of the most powerful American congressmen has warned.

Richard Neal, the chairman of the ways and means committee, has told the Guardian: “We will not entertain a trade agreement if there is any jeopardy to the Good Friday agreement.

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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies aged 84

Former cabinet member was ‘a trailblazer’ as the highest-ranking woman in history when she was named to the role in 1996

Madeleine Albright, who came to the US as a refugee and made history as the first woman to be secretary of state, has died. She was 84.

A family statement read: “We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine Albright, the 64th US secretary of state … passed away earlier today.

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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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Ketanji Brown Jackson faces renewed Republican attacks in Senate grilling

Hearings on Biden’s supreme court nominee resume with chair chiding Republicans for ‘showcasing election talking points’

The second round of senators’ questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson unfolded on Wednesday after a marathon 13-hour judiciary committee hearing with the supreme court nominee the day before.

The latest hearing began with a review of the previous day’s proceedings, as the Democratic chairman, Dick Durbin, criticized some of his Republican colleagues over their questioning of Jackson.

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Republican says Trump asked him to ‘rescind’ 2020 election and remove Biden from office

Mo Brooks of Alabama appeared at the rally before the Capitol assault and is under scrutiny by January 6 committee

The Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election, remove Joe Biden from the White House and reinstate Trump.

The extraordinary statement came in an angry response to a withdrawn endorsement in a US Senate race. Trump was angered that Brooks was insufficiently toeing his line on calling the 2020 election a fraud.

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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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‘A trailblazer’: political leaders pay tribute to Madeleine Albright

Obama, Bush, Blair and others hail first female secretary of state: ‘She lived out the American dream’

Tributes flooded in on Wednesday to Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the position of US secretary of state, who has died at the age of 84.

“Madeleine Albright was a force,” said Joe Biden in a statement. “Hers were the hands that turned the tide of history.”

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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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Mystery owner of Stan the T rex finally revealed following $31.8m auction

Paleontologists celebrate ‘happy ending’ as Abu Dhabi museum is revealed as owner, after fearing implications of sale to secret buyer

On 6 October 2020, a mysterious buyer paid a record-breaking $31.8m for the famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Stan.

The rare, mostly complete skeleton of the dinosaur quickly vanished from the public eye. Paleontologists were left worried that the auction sale to a secret buyer would drive up the cost of rare skeletons, price out smaller museums and deny researchers – and the public – access to them.

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US supreme court blocks new Wisconsin voting maps in boost for Republicans

Court took issue with decision to add an additional Black-majority state assembly district in the Milwaukee area

The US supreme court threw out Wisconsin’s new state legislative maps on Wednesday, in a ruling that boosts Republicans and takes aim again at one of the last remaining provisions to protect voting discrimination.

The ruling is the latest of many in recent years in which the US supreme court has been hostile to voting rights. In an unsigned ruling, the court took issue with the decision to add an additional Black-majority state assembly district in the Milwaukee area, raising the total in the map to seven. The Wisconsin supreme court picked the plan, drawn by Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor, earlier this month.

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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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Tornado hits New Orleans causing damage, power outages and reports of one death

Tornado occurred as major storm system tore through parts of the US south, killing another person in Texas and injuring more than two dozen

A large tornado touched down in New Orleans on Tuesday evening, causing damage and destruction to the city’s lower ninth ward, before traveling east into the neighboring parish of St Bernard, where officials reported multiple injuries and one death.

The tornado occurred as a major storm system continued to tear through parts of the US south, killing another person in Texas and injuring more than two dozen.

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BuzzFeed offers buyouts to news division in effort to increase profitability

BuzzFeed News staffers on investigations, inequality, politics and science teams to be offered buyouts as top editors also depart

BuzzFeed is shrinking and shifting the focus of its Pulitzer prize-winning news division as the digital media company, best known for its lighthearted lists and quizzes, strives to increase its profitability.

The New York-based company is offering voluntary buyouts in its high-profile, 100-person newsroom and some top editors are leaving. They include Mark Schoofs, the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, and deputy editor-in-chief Tom Namako, who announced a move to NBC News Digital on Tuesday. Ariel Kaminer, the executive editor for investigations, is also leaving.

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Judge terminates former actor Amanda Bynes’s nine-year conservatorship

The 35-year-old petitioned last month to end legal arrangement that has given her mother control of her estate and personal affairs

A judge terminated Amanda Bynes’ conservatorship on Tuesday, ending the legal arrangement that has given the former actor’s mother control of her estate and personal affairs for nearly a decade.

The 35-year-old filed a petition last month, with support from her mother and psychiatrist, to end the conservatorship she was placed under in 2013 after she was forcibly hospitalized on a psychiatric hold.

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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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Elizabeth Holmes looms large on first day of Sunny Balwani’s Theranos trial

Prosecutors portray ex-executive as accomplice in a health scam while defense paints picture of well-meaning businessman

The specter of Elizabeth Holmes loomed over the opening day of a trial that will determine whether Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her former romantic and business partner at Theranos, was also her partner in crime.

Tuesday marked the opening of a case slated to begin last week, which was delayed by a Covid-19 exposure.

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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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Disney workers walk out over ‘don’t say gay’ bill as company sends mixed messages

Debate over Florida legislation has forced Disney into a balancing act between expectations of a diverse workforce and demands from a politicized marketplace

Even though only a small percentage of Walt Disney Co workers participated in a walkout Tuesday, organizers felt they had won a moral victory with the company issuing a statement denouncing the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that sparked employee outrage.

Throughout the day, pockets of employees staged demonstrations at various sites across the US, including near Orlando’s Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Studios. According to a Disney official, there had been no interruptions in any operations as of midday Tuesday.

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