Most Viewed Videos

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved nearly $40 billion in new aid for Ukraine on Thursday sending the bill to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law as Washington races to keep military assistance flowing nearly three months after Russia’s invasion.

The Senate voted 86-11 in favor of the emergency package of military, economic and humanitarian assistance, by far the largest U.S. aid package for Ukraine to date. All 11 no votes were from Republicans.

The strong bipartisan support underscored the desire from lawmakers – most Republicans as well as Biden’s fellow Democrats – to support Ukraine’s war effort, without sending U.S. troops. It came hours after the Senate confirmed Biden’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, career diplomat Bridget Brink, filling a post that had been vacant for three years. read more

“This is a large package, and it will meet the large needs of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their survival,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, urging support for the emergency supplemental spending bill before the vote.

Biden said the spending bill’s passage ensured there will be no lapse in U.S. funding for Ukraine.

“I applaud the Congress for sending a clear bipartisan message to the world that the people of the United States stand together with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and freedom,” Biden said in a statement, noting that he would announce another package of security assistance on Thursday. read more

A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the Senate and said the money would help ensure the defeat of Russia. “We are moving towards victory confidently and strategically,” Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said in an online post minutes after the vote.

DEADLINE LOOMED

The House of Representatives passed the spending bill on May 10, also with every “no” vote from Republicans. It stalled in the Senate after Republican Senator Rand Paul refused to allow a quick vote. Biden’s fellow Democrats narrowly control both the House and Senate, but Senate rules require unanimous consent to move quickly to a final vote on most legislation. read more

Some of those who voted “no” said they opposed spending so much when the United States has a huge national debt. “I’m always going to ask the question, how are we paying for it?” Senator Mike Braun told reporters at the Capitol.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had urged lawmakers to work quickly, telling congressional leaders in a letter that the military had enough funds to send weapons to Kyiv only until Thursday, May 19, so the bill passed just before that deadline.

When Biden signs the supplemental spending bill into law, it will bring the total amount of U.S. aid approved for Ukraine to well over $50 billion since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

Biden had originally asked Congress for $33 billion for Ukraine, but lawmakers increased it to about $40 billion, with an eye toward funding Ukraine for the coming months.

The package includes $6 billion for security assistance, including training, equipment, weapons and support; $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion for European Command operations.

In addition, it authorizes a further $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

And it includes $5 billion to address food insecurity globally due to the conflict, nearly $9 billion for an economic support fund for Ukraine and some $900 million to help Ukrainian refugees.

The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes and reduced cities to rubble. Moscow has little to show for it beyond a strip of territory in the south and marginal gains in the east.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/after-delay-congress-sends-40-billion-ukraine-aid-package-biden-2022-05-19/

MOSCOW (AP) — Russians who came for a last look at former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday mourned both the man and his policies that gave them hope. President Vladimir Putin claimed to be too busy to attend.

Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at age 91, launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War. But he also precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union, which Putin had called the 20th century’s “greatest geopolitical catastrophe.”

The farewell viewing of his body in an ostentatious hall near the Kremlin was shadowed by the awareness that the openness Gorbachev championed has been stifled under Putin.

“I want to thank him for my childhood of freedom, which we don’t have today,” said mourner Ilya, a financial services worker in his early 30s who declined to give his last name.

“I am a son of perestroika,” he said, using the Russian word for Gorbachev’s reform, or reconstruction, initiatives.

“I’d like us to have more people like him in our history,” said another mourner, Yulia Prividennaya. “We need such politicians to settle the situation in the world when it’s on the verge of World War III.”

After the viewing, Gorbachev’s body was buried next to his wife Raisa in Novodevichy cemetery, where many prominent Russians lie, including the post-Soviet country’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, whose struggle for power with Gorbachev sped up the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The procession that carried the coffin into the cemetery was led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, editor of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Russia’s last major Kremlin-critical news outlet before it suspended operations in March. Gorbachev used funds from his own Nobel prize to help start the paper.

The Kremlin refusal to formally declare a state funeral reflected its uneasiness about the legacy of Gorbachev, who has been venerated worldwide for bringing down the Iron Curtain but reviled by many at home for the Soviet collapse and the ensuing economic meltdown that plunged millions into poverty.

On Thursday, Putin privately laid flowers at Gorbachev’s coffin at a Moscow hospital where he died. The Kremlin said the president’s busy schedule would prevent him from attending the funeral.

Asked what specific business would keep Putin busy on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the president was scheduled to have a series of working meetings, an international phone call and needs to prepare for a business forum in Russia’s Far East that he’s due to attend next week.

Gorbachev’s body was displayed for public viewing at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, an opulent 18th-century mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since Soviet times.

Mourners passed by Gorbachev’s open casket flanked by honorary guards, laying flowers as solemn music played. Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina, and his two granddaughters sat beside the coffin.

The grand, chandeliered hall lined by columns hosted balls for the nobility under the czars and served as a venue for high-level meetings and congresses along with state funerals during Soviet times. Upon entering the building, mourners saw honor guards flanking a large photo of Gorbachev standing with a broad smile, a reminder of the cheerful vigor he brought to the Soviet leadership after a series of dour, ailing predecessors.

The turnout was large enough that the viewing was extended for two more hours beyond the stated two hours.

Despite the choice of the prestigious site for the farewell ceremony, the Kremlin stopped short of calling it a state funeral, with Peskov saying the ceremony will have “elements” of one, such as honorary guards, and the government’s assistance in organizing it. He wouldn’t describe how it will differ from a full-fledged state funeral.

Saturday’s ceremony had all the trappings befitting a state funeral except the name, including the national flag draping Gorbachev’s coffin. with goose-stepping guards firing shots in the air and a small band playing the Russian anthem, which uses the same melody as the Soviet anthem.

But officially declaring a state funeral for Gorbachev would have obliged Putin to attend it and would have required Moscow to invite foreign leaders, something that it was apparently reluctant to do amid soaring tensions with the West after Russia sent troops to Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin who served as Russia’s president in 2008-2012, showed up at the farewell ceremony. He then released a post on a messaging app channel, referring to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to engineer Russia’s breakup, a policy he described as a “chess game with Death.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who often has been critical of the Western sanctions against Russia, was the only foreign leader who attended the farewell on Saturday. The U.S., British, German and other Western ambassadors also attended.

The relatively modest ceremony contrasted with a lavish 2007 state funeral given to Yeltsin, who anointed Putin as his preferred successor and set the stage for him to win the presidency by stepping down.

Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party who worked on economic reform plans under Gorbachev, hailed him for “offering people an opportunity to say what they thought – something that Russia never had before.”

Putin has avoided explicit personal criticism of Gorbachev, but has repeatedly blamed him for failing to secure written commitments from the West that would rule out NATO’s expansion eastward. The issue has marred Russia-West relations for decades and fomented tensions that exploded when the Russian leader sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

In a carefully phrased letter of condolence released Wednesday avoiding explicit praise or criticism, Putin described Gorbachev as a man who left “an enormous impact on the course of world history.”

“He led the country during difficult and dramatic changes, amid large-scale foreign policy, economic and society challenges,” Putin said. “He deeply realized that reforms were necessary and tried to offer his solutions for the acute problems.”

The Kremlin’s ambivalence about Gorbachev was reflected in state television broadcasts, which described his worldwide acclaim and grand expectations generated by his reforms, but held him responsible for plunging the country into political turmoil and economic woes and failing to properly defend the country’s interests in talks with the West.

___

More AP stories on Mikhail Gorbachev here: https://apnews.com/hub/mikhail-gorbachev

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-mikhail-gorbachev-soviet-union-5d4fa7856a597b7ff912021ab206164f

The group publicly told donors its president and CEO, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, would not be compensated for his efforts. But Bannon allegedly arranged to pay him by moving money from We Build The Wall through a company he controlled. Kolfage previously pleaded guilty in the federal case. Only Bannon and the company were charged by the state.

Bannon pleaded not guilty Thursday. If convicted on the top charge, he faces a maximum 5 to 15 years in prison, according to Bragg.

“The simple truth is that it is a crime to profit off the backs of donors by making false pretenses,” Bragg said at the press conference. “We are here to say today in one voice that in Manhattan and in New York you will be held accountable for the defrauding of donors.”

Addressing reporters and bystanders outside the courthouse, Bannon suggested that the case was politically motivated. Reporters peppered him with questions about the pardon, his alleged co-conspirators’ guilty pleas and his relationship to the former president — in turn, Bannon called the crowd “paupers … in bondage” and urged them to check out his podcast.

His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ordered Bannon to surrender his passports. Prosecutors argued he has the means and the disposition to flee, citing his recent, unrelated contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The judge also warned Bannon that if he is willfully absent during court proceedings, they could move forward without him.

In 2020, federal prosecutors accused Bannon of pocketing some $1 million in donations, using them to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own personal expenses. That year, federal agents arrested Bannon on the charges while he was aboard a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut. He pleaded not guilty, but was dropped from the case after Trump issued the pardon in the twilight hours of his presidency.

Presidential pardons apply only to federal charges and cannot shield Bannon from a state prosecution. Former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance opened a state investigation that his successor, Bragg, continued when he took office last year.

At a press conference announcing the charges, New York Attorney General Tish James said Bannon’s presidential pardon unfairly leveraged his political connections.

Kolfage and another federal co-defendant pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. Their sentencing scheduled for this week was pushed back to December. A mistrial was declared in a third alleged co-conspirator’s trial when a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Bragg wouldn’t say whether Bannon’s alleged co-conspirators in the federal case were cooperating in the state’s prosecution.

Federal prosecutors previously said the group raised over $25 million, but the state’s indictment Thursday only referred to about $15 million. Likewise, the state did not allege Bannon used donations to cover personal expenses, as federal prosecutors had.

Bragg chalked the discrepancies up to the differences between state and federal jurisdiction, as well as the laws Bannon was being charged under. State investigators only looked at money raised through GoFundMe, where they could be certain donors saw a disclaimer that no proceeds would go to Kolfage.

When pressed whether Bannon allegedly pocketed any of the money, James told reporters, “I think your inference is correct,” suggesting he had.

As Bannon arrived at the DA’s office Thursday morning, some onlookers lobbed insults at the far-right iconoclast, who has stoked controversy at frequent turns. In the past, Bannon has suggested Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, should be executed. He has also echoed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“Stop hurting America, you greasy grifter,” one woman yelled as Bannon entered the building, his brief remarks drowned out by the heckling.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/08/steve-bannon-surrenders-to-manhattan-da-00055427

Less than two months before the midterm elections, Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday introduced a bill that would impose a nationwide ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The measure, the first GOP effort to ban abortion at the national level since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, contains exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or when a mother’s life is in danger, but otherwise would restrict abortions after the point when Graham, citing medical research, claimed a fetus’ nerves develop enough to feel pain.

“Our legislation, which bans abortion after 15 weeks gestation, will put the United States abortion policy in line with other developed nations such as France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and other European nations,” Graham said.

Graham and leaders of various anti-abortion and women’s organizations have repeatedly argued that, without a federal abortion ban, the U.S. would be like North Korea, China, Iran and Syria, which he said allow “abortion on demand.”

But it is far from clear whether Graham has much support from his fellow Republicans, who appeared deeply divided Tuesday over whether to enact federal abortion restrictions.

Even if the GOP were to regain control of the Senate in November, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, said he didn’t know if Republicans would proceed with a floor vote on Graham’s measure.

Graham’s legislation would require 60 votes to advance in the Senate, leaving the South Carolina conservative well short of the necessary support for passage in the current chamber. A companion bill was introduced in the House by GOP Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

Senate Republicans in recent months have blocked multiple Democratic attempts to codify a right to an abortion and protect doctors who perform the procedure.

“I hope we get to debate on it and vote on it,” Graham said at Tuesday’s press conference, surrounded by anti-abortion rights advocates. “They (Democrats) had the chance to vote on their bill. I’m asking for a chance to vote on my bill.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously opened the door to a possible national abortion ban, appeared to shut down chances of a vote on Graham’s legislation.

“I think most of the members of my conference prefer this be dealt with at the state level,” said McConnell, R-Ky.

The move by Graham, on a day when Republicans had hoped to focus on poor inflation numbers, put some of his colleagues in a awkward political position.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters he would rather stress issues other than abortion.

“I, for one, want to focus on the inflation numbers that came out today, the imminent potential strike with (freight) railway workers. That’s what people are talking about,” said Tillis.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents who supported Mississippi’s desire to ban most abortions in the Dobbs v. Jackson case the Supreme Court decided in June, indicated he would not support federal intervention.

“At this point in time, nothing is going to pass Congress. It’s got to be decided in the states. I think that is the appropriate place for this to be decided,” Johnson told ABC News on Tuesday.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas signed on to that idea, too, telling ABC News, “My preference is to have each state handle those issues.” Cornyn previously supported a 20-week federal ban on most abortions that Graham introduced in 2020, but he said Tuesday that that was before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, sending the issue back to the states.

At least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services since June, ABC News reports.

The new proposal from Graham also marks a departure from recent comments where he, too, said abortion was an issue best left to the states, tweeting in May, “If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, which I believe was one of the largest power grabs in the history of the Court, it means that every state will decide if abortion is legal and on what terms.”

On Tuesday, Graham defended his change in position, saying, “After they (Democrats) introduced a bill to define who they are, I thought it would be nice to introduce a bill to define who we (Republicans) are.”

Some anti-abortion rights advocates said, while they support Graham’s proposal, they think it doesn’t go far enough.

Democrats, buoyed by a newly-energized base and surprise election victories on the heels of the Dobbs decision, instantly seized on the Graham legislation as evidence Republicans are pushing what Democrats say are radical policies that will curb Americans’ rights from abortion to gay marriage and beyond, an argument that their candidates are making on the campaign trail.

“Proposals like the one today send a clear message from MAGA Republicans to women across the country: your body, our choice,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Republicans are twisting themselves in a pretzel trying to explain their position on abortion.”

One of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the upcoming midterms, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada tweeted, “I will block any efforts in the Senate to advance a nationwide abortion ban — full stop. We don’t need any more male politicians telling women what we can and can’t do with our own bodies.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Graham’s proposal, saying it is “wildly out of step with what Americans believe.”

“While President Biden and Vice President Harris are focused on the historic passage of the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, health care, and energy – and to take unprecedented action to address climate change – Republicans in Congress are focused on taking rights away from millions of women. The President and Vice President are fighting for progress, while Republicans are fighting to take us back,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement, echoing the midterm messaging from Biden in recent weeks.

“After all the posturing and all the obfuscating, here we have it. The true Republican position in black and white for everyone to see,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington State, who is leading her campaign for reelection on this issue, said.

Recent polling suggests that abortion rights enjoy broad support among the public, including an Ipsos poll from August that found most Americans would vote to protect abortion access at the state level.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Trish Turner contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/grahams-proposed-total-national-abortion-ban-quickly-meets/story?id=89820730

Though the majority of those charged are facing misdemeanor charges with sentences that are likely to run their course before Trump could potentially reclaim the Oval Office, hundreds of those facing conspiracy, obstruction and assault charges could receive sentences that land them in prison for years.

Trump’s hint that he may pardon people his supporters claim have been treated “unfairly” could become a calculus in their decisions to accept plea deals or enter into negotiations with prosecutors. Some of those facing the most serious charges grumbled about Trump’s inaction in his final days in office — thoughts captured in private messages obtained by the Justice Department — even as he pardoned dozens of other political allies.

“We are now and always have been on our own. So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and shit on us on the way out,” Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean said in one message prosecutors included in a May 2021 court filing. “Fuck you trump you left us on [t]he battle field bloody and alone.”

Nordean has been held in jail for nearly a year and is scheduled to go to trial in May on conspiracy and obstruction charges, along with at least three other Proud Boys leaders.

It’s unclear if Trump’s suggestion also included those who have been targeted by the Jan. 6 select committee and have since asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination — including figures like attorney John Eastman, who helped Trump devise a plan to subvert the election and pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to carry it out. It could also include figures like Steve Bannon, who has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the select panel, and former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who has been referred for prosecution by the House for refusing a deposition.

But Trump’s remarks about fair treatment appear to align with supporters who have decried the prosecution of those who stormed and breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Of the defendants sentenced so far, only three received a jail term that would extend past Biden’s first term: Robert Palmer, who assaulted police officers in the Capitol’s lower west terrace tunnel; Scott Fairlamb, who hit an officer in the head outside the Capitol; and Jacob Chansley, who wielded a spear and egged on early waves of rioters as he charged into the Senate chamber and took the dais where Pence had sat just minutes earlier. Palmer was sentenced last month to 63 months in prison, while Fairlamb and Chansley each received a 41-month sentence in November.

Dozens of others facing assault charges are still awaiting trial or plea agreements that could result in sentences far beyond the next inauguration. They include the 11 Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy for allegedly preparing a violent attempt to prevent the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. They also include members of the Proud Boys leadership, like Nordean.

Authorities also continue to make new Jan. 6-related arrests on a a nearly daily basis, estimating that between 2,000 and 2,500 people breached the Capitol that day — meaning that nearly two-thirds of potential cases have not even begun. Prosecutors estimate that about 1,000 police assaults occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Trump’s comments Saturday appeared to align with complaints by allies who have claimed that Jan. 6 defendants in pretrial detention are being treated more harshly than others held in the D.C. jail. Though the broader D.C. facility was recently ripped by U.S. Marshals Service inspectors for squalid conditions, the assessment found that the wing housing Jan. 6 detainees had fared better in the review. In addition, Jan. 6 defendants have cited policies restricting access to various services for inmates unvaccinated against Covid as evidence of mistreatment — a charge jail officials reject and say is applied uniformly against all held in the facility.

Many of the cases for those facing lengthier jail terms are set to go to trial in the spring but have seen the dates slip repeatedly amid ongoing Covid restrictions in federal courthouses as well as challenges prosecutors have faced building a system to share massive troves of evidence with defendants and their attorneys.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/30/trump-pardon-jan6-defendants-00003450

March for Our Lives, the student-led movement focused on gun violence prevention, will return to Washington this weekend for a mass demonstration in the wake of recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.

The DC march is set to start Saturday afternoon at the Washington Monument, where rallygoers will hear from a slate of speakers pushing for action on gun violence. Rallies are also scheduled in states across the country Saturday.

“After countless mass shootings and instances of gun violence in our communities, it’s time to take back to the streets and march for our lives,” the organization’s website states. “We marched in 2018 after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, and now we’re headed back to DC.”

The marches come alongside a renewed push in Congress for gun control. Lawmakers have been facing intense pressure to act in the wake of the recent mass shootings, and at least 10 Republicans need to vote with Democrats in order to clear the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster and pass legislation.

Despite widespread GOP opposition, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democrat in the bipartisan negotiations, told CNN he believes there will be more than 10 Republicans supporting gun safety measures in the Senate.

“I think we will put together a package that will get more than 10 Republican votes,” he told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day” on Thursday.

March for Our Lives last held a rally in DC in 2018 following the deadly shooting rampage at a Parkland, Florida, high school. Survivors of the shooting delivered a resounding message that Washington’s inaction on the scourge of gun violence is no longer acceptable.

“To the leaders, skeptics and cynics who told us to sit down, stay silent and wait your turn, welcome to the revolution,” then-Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky told the crowd in Washington at the time.

“Either represent the people or get out. Stand for us or beware.”

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/politics/march-for-our-lives-dc/index.html