President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci predicted Wednesday that there will likely be a rise in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks as well as a potential surge in the fall.
“I think we should expect, David, that over the next couple of weeks, we are going to see an uptick in cases – and hopefully there is enough background immunity so that we don’t wind up with a lot of hospitalizations,” Fauci told Bloomberg TV’s David Westin.
Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the increase in infections could come as a result of waning immunity and the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions across the U.S.
“Those conditions are also present in the United States,” he said. “So, I would not be surprised if we see an uptick in cases. Whether that uptick becomes a surge where there are a lot more cases is difficult to predict.”
When Fauci was asked whether the U.S. will be faced with a similar COVID-19 surge in the fall as the country has experienced for the past two years, he said the prospect is “likely,” noting that “these are uncharted waters for us with this virus.”
“I would think that we should expect that we are going to see some increase in cases as you get to the colder weather in the fall,” he said. “That’s the reason why the [Food and Drug Administration] and their advisory committee are meeting right now to plan a strategy, and we at the [National Institutes of Health] are doing studies now to determine what the best boost would be.”
Over the past two fall seasons during the pandemic, the U.S. has experienced a surge in cases due to the holiday season when families gather and the colder weather that forces people indoors.
Fauci’s remarks come as the BA.2 variant, which has an increased level of transmissibility compared to the original omicron strain, has become the dominant variant in the U.S.
New York City and Washington, D.C., have seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past two weeks, according to The New York Times COVID-19 tracker. However, the cases are still relatively low compared to January’s spike.
The coronavirus is also making its way through Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tested positive for the disease earlier this week. Following the news of her infection, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced she had tested positive for COVID-19.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s eldest son sent the White House chief of staff a text message two days after Election Day in 2020 that laid out strategies for declaring his father the winner regardless of the electoral outcome, people familiar with the exchange said on Friday.
The text, which was reported earlier by CNN, was sent two days before Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner of the election. The recipient, Mark Meadows, turned a cache of his text messages over to the House committee investigating the events leading up to the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as the Electoral College results in Mr. Biden’s favor were being certified.
“It’s very simple,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote to Mr. Meadows on Nov. 5, 2020. He wrote at another point, “We have multiple paths We control them all.”
The message went on to lay out a variety of options that Mr. Trump or his allies ultimately employed in trying to overturn the results of the election, from legal challenges to promoting alternative slates of electors to focusing efforts on the statutory date of Jan. 6 for certification of the Electoral College results.
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors argued Friday that two men charged with impersonating federal agents had “compromised” Secret Service members assigned to key security missions, potentially jeopardizing national security though the purpose of their alleged conduct and source of funding remained unclear.
Amid the many unresolved questions about the intentions of Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, who allegedly lavished Secret Service officers with gifts and rent-free apartments, a federal magistrate made no immediate decision on whether to jail the suspects pending trial, ordering that Friday’s detention hearing resume on Monday.
“I’ve never seen a case quite like it,” U.S. Magistrate G. Michael Harvey said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein acknowledged that while many key questions remain, “the scale of the compromise that they created is quite large.”
“We are just in the initial stages of the investigation,” Rothstein said, adding that a moving truck was necessary to carry evidence from five downtown D.C. apartments that the suspects allegedly controlled.
The suspects were “not merely playing dress-up,” Rothstein told Harvey. “They had firearms, they had ammunition, they had body armor, they had tactical gear, they had surveillance equipment, and they were engaged in conduct that represented a serious threat to the community, compromised the operations of a federal law enforcement agency, and created a potential risk to national security.”
In Ali’s case, Rothstein said investigators were still sifting through an extensive travel background in which seized passports showed two trips each to Iran and Pakistan and single visits to Egypt and Iraq within months of when the suspects allegedly began their association with Secret Service personnel.
The prosecutor said investigators had only recently turned up information indicating that Ali, a naturalized U.S. citizen, may maintain dual citizenship in Pakistan and that Ali told at least one witness he had ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Rothstein said U.S. authorities had not yet verified a connection between Ali and the Pakistani ISI.
But the prosecutor said authorities were still sifting through a large volume of potential evidence, including multiple laptops, 30 hard drives and enough law enforcement equipment to outfit a small police force.
“I don’t think we know the ultimate purpose,” Rothstein said, referring to the suspects’ alleged ruse.
According to the court documents, Taherzadeh told investigators following his arrest that Ali had provided the funding for the their operation, which involved the acquisition of at least five apartments, two of which were allegedly provided to Secret Service members for at least a year and valued at more than $40,000 each.
Taherzadeh also allegedly offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to the protective detail of first lady Jill Biden.
It was not clear, however, whether the apartments, gifts, firearms, law enforcement equipment and other material was purchased by the suspects or acquired on credit or through fraud.
The alleged scheme began to unravel last month when authorities began investigating an assault of a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier.
During the investigation, witnesses told authorities that Taherzadeh and Ali, who represented themselves as agents with Homeland Security Investigations unit, may have witnessed the assault.
In a brief statement Thursday, the Secret Service said it was cooperating with the “ongoing investigation.”
“All personnel involved in this matter are on administrative leave and are restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment, and systems,” the agency said.
If convicted, Taherzadeh and Ali face a maximum punishment of three years in prison and fines of $250,000 each.
The U.S. should have highlighted Russia’s mass grave plans in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine in order to rally support and strengthen Kyiv’s ability to defend itself, according to a former defense official.
“I think [the administration] missed an opportunity to sound the alarm at an earlier stage and in a more clear fashion, that they could have done that in December, as opposed to the weeks immediately prior to the invasion,” James Anderson, former deputy undersecretary of defense for policy under President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital.
Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were found in Kyiv-area towns and cities retaken as Russian forces withdrew from the area last week. In Bucha, alone, more than 100 civilians were found buried in mass graves, leading President Biden to call for a war crimes trial over Russia’s actions.
Radio Free Europe in December first reported on Moscow’s plans to standardize wartime mass grave practices, but it was only last week that those plans took on a new light: The standards apply to the “emergency burial” of fallen soldiers, with a specific size that would hold up to 1,000 bodies, as well as how to arrange the bodies and how to cover them.
Grand Rapids — Jurors acquitted two men Friday accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and deadlocked on charges against the two alleged ringleaders, delivering a staggering blow to the government in one of the largest domestic terrorism cases in recent U.S. history.
Chief U.S. District Robert Jonker declared a mistrial on kidnapping conspiracy charges against accused ringleaders Adam Fox, 38, of Potterville, and Barry Croft, 46, of Delaware. Accused plotters Daniel Harris, 24, of Lake Orion, and Brandon Caserta, 34, of Canton Township, were being freed Friday afternoon after nearly two years behind bars.
“Best birthday gift ever,” Caserta told supporters as relatives yelled “Happy Birthday” inside the federal courtroom in downtown Grand Rapids.
The trial lasted 20 days, including 13 days of testimony and approximately 38 hours of jury deliberations spanning five days. Jurors — six men, six women, all white — heard hours of closing arguments and instructions last week after testimony and a multimedia case from the government.
The mixed verdict provided a biting end to a case dogged by controversy, scandal and the intense focus of a nation grappling with the rise of violent extremism amid the 2020 presidential election and a global pandemic.
Defense lawyers spent months raising questions about FBI agent conduct and claiming that a team of investigators and informants orchestrated the conspiracy and entrapped the four men, a ragtag band of social outcasts who harbored antigovernment views and anger over restrictions imposed by Whitmer.
“I think the trial here has demonstrated that there’s some serious shortcomings in the case,” Fox’s defense lawyer, Christopher Gibbons, told reporters. “Obviously with acquittals occurring with Mr. Caserta and Mr. Harris, that says a lot about what is going on in the case.”
Andrew Birge, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, vowed to retry the accused ringleaders, Fox and Croft.
“We thought the jury would convict beyond reasonable doubt based on the evidence we put forward,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. “We believe in the jury system. We have two defendants awaiting trial.”
The verdicts came almost exactly 10 years after the acquittals of five members of the Hutaree militia following a trial in Detroit.
Hutaree members were accused of talking about killing law enforcement officers and using weapons of mass destruction to attack the funeral procession. They were acquitted of seditious conspiracy following the 2012 trial, marking one of the landmark losses for federal prosecutors in Michigan in recent history.
Extremism experts said Friday it appeared that defense lawyers effectively sowed enough doubt among jurors after arguing throughout the trial that FBI agents and a key informant, Dan Chappel, manipulated and entrapped the four defendants and plied them with marijuana.
“The ultimate question will be did the jury come to the conclusion that the mess of informants and the amount of (stuff) the defense threw up was enough to muddy the waters,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
The four men in the Whitmer kidnapping case faced kidnapping conspiracy charges, a felony punishable by up to life in prison. Three faced multiple charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Whitmer’s chief of staff, JoAnne Huls, on Friday responded to the verdicts, saying: “Today, Michiganders and Americans — especially our children — are living through the normalization of political violence. The plot to kidnap and kill a governor may seem like an anomaly. But we must be honest about what it really is: the result of violent, divisive rhetoric that is all too common across our country. There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened.”
Earlier Friday, jurors indicated they had reached a verdict on some counts in the case but were locked on others. Jonker announced the development just before 11 a.m. and encouraged the jurors to keep deliberating in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict.
“It is not unusual to come back somewhere along the line of deliberations and say ‘we tried, but couldn’t get there,'” the judge said. “At least not on everything.”
Around 2 p.m., the jury reemerged before Jonker to indicate they remained at an impasse. Jonker instructed them to return to the jury room to confirm the impasse and fill out forms to indicate what charges they were in agreement on if so. They returned minutes later to reveal their verdicts.
On Friday, Jonker likened the situation to the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” and the famous catchphrase “Is that your final answer?”
“Before that’s the final answer, I would like you to go back and make another effort to see if you can come to an agreement on issues you are stuck on as a group,” the judge told jurors.
The trial coincided with jurors in federal court in Washington, D.C., hearing the first cases involving people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Together, the trials provide the first tests of federal laws being used to punish extremist behavior that erupted nationally in 2020 and 2021 around the presidential election and pandemic.
When jurors entered the courtroom before 11 a.m. Friday, they did so without looking at the four defendants across from them. Some jurors sighed after hearing they would be sent back for more deliberations.
One young male juror leaned his head back, rotated his chair from side to side while looking up at the ceiling. Other jurors craned their necks or cleaned their glasses as the judge spoke.
Facing the jury, the four defendants were dressed in fresh suits and button-up shirts.
Harris had a book he’s had for three days, “Make Your Bed” by William McRaven. The blue softcover book is a summary of a commencement speech made by Admiral McRaven for the graduating class of the University of Texas in Austin, sharing 10 lessons he learned from Navy SEAL training. In a synopsis, the book covers how to deal with overcoming the trials of SEAL training and, in general, the challenges of life.
The defendants were arrested in early October 2020 and accused of hatching the plot due to distrust of the government and anger over restrictions imposed during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, earlier pleaded guilty and testified during the trial, telling jurors the plot originated with the group and that they were not entrapped by FBI agents and informants. Eight others are awaiting trial in state courts on domestic terrorism charges.
During the trial, jurors saw secret recordings of the bombs being built in Wisconsin, defendants firing weapons in rural Michigan, going on a night surveillance run past the governor’s cottage and griping about tyrannical government officials during a hotel meeting in Ohio.
Jurors also listened to recordings and read texts that suggested ways to assassinate Whitmer — everything from posing as a pizza-delivering assassin to hog-tying the governor and leaving her on a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan.
The acquittals and mistrial came one year after the first sign of trouble in the case. In March 2021, federal prosecutors dumped one of their lead informants, Wisconsin felon Stephen Robeson, and indicted him on a federal gun crime.
Prosecutors accused him of working as a double agent, offering to finance attacks and use a drone to commit domestic terrorism.
The Robeson scandal would be followed by more warning signs. FBI Agent Richard Trask served as the FBI’s public face in the Whitmer case, testifying in federal court about the investigation, until he was arrested in July, accused of beating his wife after a swingers party, fired and convicted of assault.
Defense lawyers raised more questions about two other FBI case agents — including one accused of trying to profit off the case by creating a cybersecurity firm — while insisting government informants, especially Chappel, invented the conspiracy and entrapped the defendants.
“To me, this was a signal. A rogue FBI agent trying to line his own pockets with his own cybersecurity company and then pushing the conspiracy that just never was,” Caserta lawyer Michael Hills told reporters. “Never was, never was going to be. Our governor was never in any danger.
“I think the jury, even though they didn’t get all of it,” Hills added, “they smelled enough of it.”
In a newly filed statement of offense, prosecutors said that “Donohoe understood that the purpose of the rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, was to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote.” The “MOSD” leadership was broken into a three-person “marketing” council, to recruit more members, and an “operations” group. Donohoe was part of the marketing group, the statement of offense says, and it soon expanded to at least 65 members.
A top Kremlin spokesman is lashing out after fresh US and European Union sanctions targeted Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and other family members of prominent Russians in response to the Ukraine invasion.
Putin’s daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, were among the most notable names included in the latest round of penalties as Western nations ratchet up the pressure on Russia.
Officials suspect the Russian leader’s kids may be involved in efforts to hide Putin’s wealth.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed outrage when addressing the sanctions during a Thursday press conference — describing the actions taken against Putin’s daughters as “difficult to understand and explain.”
“Of course, we consider these sanctions in themselves to be the extension of an absolutely rabid position on the imposition of restrictions,” Peskov said. “In any case, the ongoing line on imposing restrictions against family members speaks for itself.”
Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s older daughter, is a medical research executive.Dmitry Feoktistov/TASS
The latest sanctions prompted renewed scrutiny of Putin’s private life, which the Russian leader has rarely discussed. The European Union enacted sanctions of both daughters on Friday, matching the US move from two days earlier.
The Treasury Department described Tikhonova as a “tech executive whose work supports the [government of Russia] and defense industry.” Meanwhile, Vorontsova, the elder of Putin’s two known daughters, was described as a leader of “state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin.”
Tikhonova is a former competitive dancer who runs an artificial intelligence division at Moscow State University. Vorontsova is a medical research executive and co-owner of Nomenko, a health care investment firm.
As The Post previously reported, Putin has worked to keep his two adult daughters out of the public eye — rarely addressing their activities or even acknowledging their existence. The pair are Putin’s children with his ex-wife Lyudmila Putin, a former flight attendant whom he divorced in 2013.
Katerina Tikhonova is a former competitive dancer.REUTERSVladimir Putin rarely discusses or acknowledges his daughters in public.AP
The new tranche of sanctions also targeted the wife and daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a close Putin ally. Western officials have focused on wealthy individuals with ties to the Kremlin in an effort to increase pressure on Putin, who is accused of overseeing war crimes during the invasion.
Slovakia has transferred an S-300 missile defense system to Ukraine, fulfilling one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top requests to help the country defend itself against Russia’s bombing campaign.
Why it matters: Zelensky pleaded in an address to the U.S. Congress last month for the U.S. and its European allies to impose a no-fly zone or give Ukraine the ability to “close the skies” itself by facilitating the transfer of Soviet-era fighter jets or anti-aircraft systems.
The latest: President Biden thanked the Slovakian government in a statement Friday and said the U.S. will reposition a Patriot missile system to Slovakia.
The Patriot missile system will be manned by U.S. service members at the invitation of the Slovakian government.
“This deployment of Patriot capabilities to Slovakia aligns perfectly with our previous efforts to bolster NATO’s defensive capabilities and to demonstrate our collective security requirements under Article 5 of the NATO treaty,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
What they’re saying: “I would like to confirm that Slovakia has provided #Ukraine with an air-defence system S-300. Ukrainian nation is bravely defending its sovereign country and us too. It is our duty to help, not to stay put and be ignorant to the loss of human lives under Russia’s aggression,” Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger tweeted.
The big picture: In addition to the S-300, Ukraine has received tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from the Czech Republic, as the Donbas region braced for a major Russian offensive.
“As the Russian military repositions for the next phase of this war, I have directed my Administration to continue to spare no effort to identify and provide to the Ukrainian military the advanced weapons capabilities it needs to defend its country,” Biden said in his statement Friday.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told reporters Thursday that NATO countries had expressed support for providing “new and heavier equipment” to Ukraine as outrage builds over Russia’s atrocities against civilians.
“The battle for Donbas will remind you of the Second World War with large operations, thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at the NATO meeting Thursday, pleading for allies to accelerate their military aid.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with more details on the Patriot air defense system and comment from President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The trial was unusual almost from the start: The proceedings were delayed for several days because federal prosecutors were slow in turning over potentially critical documents to the defense, which Mr. Ng’s lawyers have said hampered their ability to prepare their case and could be grounds for an appeal.
It also featured testimony from a star witness who admitted being a prolific liar. Mr. Leissner, once a rising star at Goldman in Asia, was on the stand for 10 days, including six days of a blistering cross-examination. He was forced to admit to initially lying to federal agents, to his fellow partners at Goldman and to his girlfriends and wives.
The litany of lies that Mr. Leissner had to fess up to on the stand was long and in some cases unbelievable. He admitted to twice being married to two women at the same time. He said he had delivered a fake divorce decree to his current wife, the model and fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, when he was convincing her to marry him. (The couple, who have two children, are estranged.) And he said that while he was dating Ms. Simmons he communicated with her using a fake email account he had created in the name of his second wife, Judy Chan.
Mr. Leissner was also forced to acknowledge lying to investigators about his actions regarding 1MDB, and was grilled about earlier statements that conflicted with what he said on the stand. When pressed, Mr. Leissner admitted he “lied a lot.”
In his closing argument, Mr. Agnifilo told the jury that Mr. Leissner was “one of a kind” when it comes to lying and couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth on anything, including his involvement in the bribery and kickback scheme. But prosecutors said Mr. Leissner was telling the truth about the crimes Mr. Ng was charged with, including a $35 million payment that authorities said was an illegal kickback.
Mr. Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim, testified the $35 million that she and her husband received were the proceeds from a $6 million investment she had made many years prior with Ms. Chan.
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) – Britain added Vladimir Putin’s daughters to its sanctions list on Friday, mirroring moves by the United States, in what it said was an effort to target the lifestyles of those in the Russian president’s inner circle.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain and other Western allies have announced several waves of sanctions targetting Moscow’s wealthy elites, key industries and its access to the international financial system.
An update to Britain’s sanctions list announced asset freezes on Putin’s adult daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, and Sergeyevna Vinokurova, the daughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. All three were sanctioned by the United States earlier this week. read more
“Our unprecedented package of sanctions is hitting the elite and their families, while degrading the Russian economy on a scale Russia hasn’t seen since the fall of the Soviet Union,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
Britain also said its analysis showed Russia is heading for the deepest recession since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Britain estimates that 60% of Russian foreign currency reserves have been frozen as a result of international sanctions.
On Thursday, the Kremlin, which says its actions are a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, described the move against Putin’s daughters as part of a broader Western frenzy against Russia.
Two men charged with impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents “compromised” Secret Service personnel assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden and the White House by “lavishing” them with gifts that included rent-free apartments, federal prosecutors alleged Friday, in asking a judge to hold the duo without bail.
One of the men, Arian Taherzadeh, admitted after his arrest that he had impersonated a DHS agent, and had falsely identified himself to others as a former U.S. Army Ranger, prosecutors wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C, in advance of their detention hearing there Friday afternoon.
Taherzadeh, 40, also told authorities that his co-defendant in the case, 35-year-old Haider Ali, “funded most of their day-to-day operations” at the Crossing on First Street apartment complex, “but Taherzadeh did not know the source of the funds,” the filing says.
And “Taherzadeh stated that Ali had obtained the electronic access codes and a list of all of the tenants in the apartment complex,” which has hundreds of units, the filing said. Those access codes allow tenants to enter their apartments and the amenity areas, and operate elevators in the complex.
Spokesmen for Tishman Speyer, the real estate giant that developed and owns the apartment complex, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said the mens’ impersonation of Department of Homeland Security agents went on “for years.”
Both men, who are U.S. citizens, “pose a danger to the community based on their use and possession of firearms and other weaponry in furtherance of their impersonation of federal law enforcement officers,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
The filing also says that Ali’s travel in past years to Iran, Pakistan and Doha, Qatar, — as well as his claims to have connections to Pakistan’s intelligence agency — make him a flight risk.
“Ali obtained two 90-day visas from Iran and traveled there twice, not long before the charged activity began as early as February 2020,” prosecutors wrote.
The filing also notes that Taherzadeh in February 2020 applied for a concealed weapons permit, but “was denied due to his prior history of violence and instability,” which included two cases in which he was charged in 2013 with assaulting two women: his wife and his girlfriend.
That filing contains photos of handguns, ammunition, body armor brass knuckles, a fingerprint kit, lock-picking tools and a box of documents with profiles of various people that were seized Wednesday at the men’s apartments in a building in southeast Washington.
“In one document, an invoice for the defendants’ Chevrolet Impala, the customer information is listed as ‘Secret Service US’ with fake and fictitious names, such as the ‘authorizer name’ listed as ‘Fay Tate’ and the ‘driver name’ listed as ‘James Haider,’ an obvious variation on Haider Ali,” the filing says.
Prosecutors say that while they were claiming to be law enforcement agents involved in covert operations for DHS, “they compromised United States Secret Service (USSS) personnel involved in protective details and with access to the White House complex by lavishing gifts upon them, including rent-free living.”
The defendants maintained five apartments in the complex, two of which they lived in, according to the filing.
“Neither Defendant is even employed by the United States government,” prosecutors wrote.
“But their impersonation scheme was sufficiently realistic to convince other government employees, including law enforcement agents, of their false identities,” they added.
Four Secret Service personnel have been placed on leave as a result of the case.
The Secret Service has not said if any of the agents who were placed on leave was one agent assigned to Jill Biden’s protective detail. That agent was identified in a criminal complaint as being offered an AR-15-style assault rifle valued at $2,000 by Taherzadeh. He lived in an apartment below Taherzadeh in the same building, the complaint said.
The filing says that Taherzadeh pleaded guilty in September 2013 in a Virginia court to misdemeanor assault and battery of his wife.
He was separately arrested that month in Fairfax County, Va., and charged with assault and battery of his then-girlfriend, according to the filing. He was also charged about the same time for violating a protective order, the filing added.
“This conduct evidences an inability to abide by the law and conditions that the Court may impose,” prosecutors wrote, in asking the judge to hold the duo without bail.
Thousands of people were waiting at a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Friday when a rocket strike killed dozens, including children, and possibly injured hundreds more, Ukrainian officials said.
At least 39 people were killed and between 87 and 300 people were injured, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post. Ukrainian officials earlier estimated about 30 people had been killed in the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, writing on social media, said thousands of people were present in the station at the time of the strike.
“The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population,” the president said on social media. “This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.”
The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk, a city in part of the Donetsk region that is controlled by the Ukrainian government. The station was being used to evacuate civilians. On Friday, almost 4,000 civilians were at the station, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office, and children were also killed, Ukraine’s national police said.
►Britain on Friday joined the U.S. in sanctioning Putin’s adult daughters with asset freezes and travel bans in an effort to target the “lavish lifestyles of the Kremlin’s inner circle.”
►The European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine has returned to the nation’s capital, Kyiv, signifying improved security in the area. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced the news Friday in Kyiv where he joined EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks with Zelenskyy.
►Ten humanitarian corridors across three regions opened Friday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement.
►As evidence of atrocities by the Russian military in Ukraine mounts, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday voted to suspend Russia from the organization’s Human Rights Council. The vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions.
►U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “probably given up” on his efforts to capture Kyiv, noting Russia’s shifted focus to eastern and southern Ukraine
Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths told the Associated Press on Thursday the two sides “have very little trust in each other.” The two countries staged peace talks last week in Turkey but largely failed to produce a breakthrough — Russian President Vladimir Putin tampered expectations even before negotiations began.
On Thursday, both the U.S. and European Union escalated punishments on Russia: the U.S. Senate unanimously in favor of banning the importation of oil from Russia and ending normal trade relations with the country, while European Union nations agreed to new sanctions on Russia that include a ban on importing its coal.
The U.N. General Assembly also approved a U.S.-initiated resolution to suspend Russia from the world organization’s Human Rights Council amid mounting evidence of atrocities by the Russian military in Ukraine. The vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions.
“War criminals have no place in UN bodies aimed at protecting human rights,” Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya tweeted after the vote. “Grateful to all member states which supported the relevant UNGA resolution and chose the right side of history.”
Russians eye Donbas region in ‘the next pivotal battle of the war’
As they departed Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, Russian forces left behind a path of terror after weeks of siege: crushed buildings, streets littered with destroyed cars and residents in desperate need of food and other aid. And yet, the Russians wound up retreating after facing fierce resistance on the battlefields.
Now that Moscow is shifting its offensive toward the Donbas region in the east, what can be expected in Ukraine’s industrial heartland?
Ukrainian and Western officials say the Russians plan to encircle tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops in Donbas by moving from Izyum, near Kharkiv in the north, and from besieged Mariupol in the south. The timing will depend on how quickly Russia can take the southern port city, which has been reduced to rubble after weeks of bombardment but has yet to fall to the invading forces. Russia also needs to replenish the troops that were pulled back from Kyiv and other areas in the north.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in an analysis that the Russian troops will likely try to advance from Izyum to capture the strategic city of Slovyansk and link up with other Russian forces in Donbas in what it said: “Will likely prove to be the next pivotal battle of the war in Ukraine.”
Injured Fox News correspondent ‘lucky to be here,’ remembers colleagues slain in Ukraine
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall shared his first update on social media since he was injured last month in Ukraine, and paid tribute to two colleagues who were killed in the attack.
“To sum it up, I’ve lost half a leg on one side and a foot on the other. One hand is being put together, one eye is no longer working, and my hearing is pretty blown, but all in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here – and it is the people who got me here who are amazing!” Hall said on Twitter with a photo of himself on a stretcher in a since-deleted tweet.
Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova and Hall were traveling in a vehicle in Horenka, a village nearly 20 miles from Kyiv, when they were struck by incoming fire March 14. Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova were killed. Hall was evacuated days later.
Hall said for Zakrzewski, “working was his joy and his joy was infectious.”
Congressional correspondent Chad Pergram updates ‘America Reports’ on the status of the confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The vote was bipartisan, 53-47, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah voting for Jackson. The Republican senators previously announced their support for the history-making confirmation saying she is well-qualified. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the confirmation vote Thursday afternoon.
The back of the Senate chamber was filled with House members from the Congressional Black Caucus who arrived to mark the historic day. With Harris presiding, Second gentleman Doug Emhoff watched the vote in the visitor gallery looking down at the proceedings. Huge applause broke out throughout the chamber after the final tally was gaveled in, including a standing ovation and multiple embraces between Democrats.
The Senate votes at the U.S. Capitol on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become a Supreme Court justice Thursday, April 7, 2022. (Senate Television via AP)
Jackson joined President Biden and other White House senior staff in the Roosevelt Room to watch the results of the Senate vote on her nomination to the Supreme Court.
“Judge Jackson’s confirmation was a historic moment for our nation,” Biden said on Twitter with a picture of him taking a selfie with the newly confirmed Jackson. “We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America. She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honored to share this moment with her.”
Democrats were celebratory and reflective on how Justice Jackson will be remembered in history.
“Seeing Judge Jackson ascend to the Supreme Court reflects the promise of progress on which our democracy rests,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said ahead of the vote. “What a great day it is in America today.”
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the day joyous and inspiring.
After the successful vote, which was delayed for about 15 minutes when Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was missing from the chamber, a jubilant Schumer exited the Senate with a double thumbs up and a huge smile for the awaiting cameras.
This is an “amazing day not only for Justice Brown Jackson but for the United States of America,” Schumer said. On the long road to equality, Schumer said, “sometimes you take a step back, but today we took a giant step forward.”
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in for her confirmation hearing on March 21, 2022, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republicans who opposed Jackson did so on several fronts: her dodging of questions on whether she favors court packing; her inability to define a “woman,” insufficient explanation of her judicial philosophy and her “soft on crime” sentencing record, including those of several child pornography offenders.
“Today the far left will get the Supreme Court justice they wanted,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said ahead of the vote.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said based on Jackson’s record, “I believe she will prove to be the furthest left of any justice to have ever served on the Supreme Court.”
Thursday’s vote marks the culmination of a rollercoaster confirmation process that included tears at the hearing from Jackson, as well as combative questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and others about her sentencing record as a federal judge.
President Biden and Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson watch the Senate vote on her confirmation from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
During two intense days of grilling at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Republicans pressed Jackson about why she gave a handful of child pornography offenders prison time that was less than what prosecutors and sentencing guidelines allowed and accused her of being too lenient on criminals. Jackson defended her record and said her career cannot be defined by a “small subset of my sentences.”
In contrast, Democrats praised Jackson’s grace under pressure and sought to highlight Jackson’s long list of achievements. At some points, senators celebrated how far she’s come as a Black woman in America – drawing visible signs of emotion and tears from Jackson.
“I hope to inspire people to try to follow this path,” Jackson said at the hearing in a message to young people.
President Biden and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson hug as they watch the Senate vote on her confirmation, Thursday, April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“I want them to know that they can do and be anything. …I would tell them to persevere.”
Jackson, 51, is a Harvard Law School graduate and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She previously was a Senate-confirmed federal district court judge, member of the United States Sentencing Commission, a federal public defender and a private attorney at four elite law firms.
Schumer noted that Jackson will also be making history as the “first and only justice with experience as a public defender.”
“We’re proud of that. America is proud of that,” Schumer said.
Ketanji Brown Jackson wipes away tears during her confirmation hearing in Washington on March 23, 2022. (Julia Nikhinson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jackson will succeed Justice Stephen Breyer once he retires from the bench at the end of the court’s 2021-22 term, which could be late June or early July.
The ideological makeup of the court will remain the same with a 6-3 split in favor of justices appointed by Republican presidents.
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) – Britain added Vladimir Putin’s daughters to its sanctions list on Friday, mirroring moves by the United States, in what it said was an effort to target the lifestyles of those in the Russian president’s inner circle.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain and other Western allies have announced several waves of sanctions targetting Moscow’s wealthy elites, key industries and its access to the international financial system.
An update to Britain’s sanctions list announced asset freezes on Putin’s adult daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, and Sergeyevna Vinokurova, the daughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. All three were sanctioned by the United States earlier this week. read more
“Our unprecedented package of sanctions is hitting the elite and their families, while degrading the Russian economy on a scale Russia hasn’t seen since the fall of the Soviet Union,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
Britain also said its analysis showed Russia is heading for the deepest recession since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Britain estimates that 60% of Russian foreign currency reserves have been frozen as a result of international sanctions.
On Thursday, the Kremlin, which says its actions are a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, described the move against Putin’s daughters as part of a broader Western frenzy against Russia.
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