New Washington Law to Place Family Members in Rehabilitation

19:35

White House announces new sanctions on Russian elites and 'cronies' close to Putin

The White House has now issued details on further sanctions the United states of america volition impose on Russian oligarchs.

A statement from the White Firm, released for publication moments ago, states: "The United States, in coordination with allies and partners, is targeting additional Russian elites and family members who keep supporting President Putin despite his savage invasion of Ukraine."

It continued that the individuals concerned had enriched themselves "at the expense of the Russian people, and some accept elevated their family members into high-ranking positions. Others sit atop Russia'due south largest companies and are responsible for providing the resource necessary to support Putin'south invasion of Ukraine.

"These individuals and their family members will exist cut off from the U.Southward. financial system, their avails in the The states will be frozen and their belongings will be blocked from use. Today, the United States will sanction an expansive listing of Putin's cronies and their family members."

The first individual mentioned is Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate with ties to Britain's Everton soccer club.

When the European Marriage imposed sanctions on him, the bloc described him equally "i of Vladmir Putin's favourite oligarchs".

"His holding will exist blocked from apply in the United States and by U.Southward. persons – including his super yacht, ane of the world's largest, and just seized by our ally Germany, and his private jet, one of Russia'southward largest privately-owned shipping," the White House annunciation said.

Side by side on the list is multi-millionaire Dmitry Peskov, "who equally Putin'southward spokesman is a top purveyor of Putin's propaganda", the White House said. The Us too imposed visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and 47 of their family unit members and close associates.

Total sanctions were announced on: Nikolai Tokarev and his two luxury existent estate companies, Boris Rotenber, Arkady Rotenberg, Sergei Chemezo, Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his iii companies, and members of their families. Likewise on Igor Shuvalov and his five companies, his wife Olga, his son Evgeny and his company and jet, and his daughter Maria and her company.

President Biden (@POTUS)

In my State of the Spousal relationship Address, I said the U.s.a. is going subsequently the crimes of Russian oligarchs.

Today, we're calculation dozens of names to the list — and banning travel to America past more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families, and close associates.

March 3, 2022

Updated at viii.59pm GMT

x.16pm GMT 22:16

Endmost summary

That'southward it from the US politics live web log for today, give thanks y'all for tuning in. We're closing before than usual at the moment to focus our resources on the Guardian'south round-the-clock global alive blog on the crisis in Ukraine. Please click here to follow all the news developments in Russia's war, condemned by Joe Biden as "premeditated and unprovoked".

Hither are the principal news events from today in US politics.

• International nuclear talks with Iran could produce a deal soon, despite catchy hurdles remaining, the United states has indicated.
• Joe Biden promised the "strongest unified economic impact campaign on Vladimir Putin in all history" in announcing new sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
• The White House announced new sanctions on a host of Russian elites and what information technology called 'cronies' close to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
• The The states is firmly resisting Ukraine's appeals for it to impose a no-wing zone for Russian military machine aircraft over Ukraine, proverb that would likely bring the US minto directly military conflict with Russia, which the The states is steadfastly avoiding.
• Donald Trump may have committed federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, in his diverse attempts to overturn his defeat past Joe Biden in the 2020 election, including inciting the insurrection at the US Congress on Jan half-dozen, 2021, the bipartisan House commission investigating the deadly Capitol attack said in a courtroom filing.

Updated at 10.18pm GMT

ix.59pm GMT 21:59

Given the situation in Ukraine, the United states of america politics live blog is endmost downwardly before than usual at the moment, to provide more resources to our round-the-clock, round-the-globe Ukraine crunch live blog roofing developments in the war perpetrated by Russia.

So nosotros won't have live coverage of Joe Biden signing a new law that will provide greater justice for victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

The Washington Post has the goods on this, yet. Here are the details.

President Biden is poised to sign into police Thursday a beak that ends forced mediation in workplace sexual assault and harassment cases, allowing survivors to file lawsuits in court confronting perpetrators.

The new law would nullify agreements between employees and their employers in which the employees waive their rights to sue in the case of sexual assault or harassment and instead are required to settle their disputes by arbitration.

A nib-signing ceremony is scheduled for v p.yard. Thursday at the White House.

"President Biden has long spoken confronting forced-arbitration clauses in employment contracts, and today marks an important milestone in empowering survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment and protecting employee rights," White Firm press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday afternoon.

Critics of forced arbitration say that the practise has served but to farther cultures of corruption in workplaces and that the new law would be critical for holding perpetrators of sexual misconduct accountable. About threescore million Americans are discipline to arbitration clauses, and many of them do not know it because the provisions are buried in the fine print of their employment contracts.

"We can't ignore a basic reality of these clauses: They deprive victims of sexual harassment and assault of their basic rights by mandating that they seek remedy just behind the closed doors of private arbitration, with no other alternative," Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-North.Y.) said on the Senate floor Th morning.

The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which was get-go introduced in 2017 by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), was a rare production of bipartisan congressional support. The #MeToo motion helped spur momentum for the beak afterwards more than victims spoke out about how they could non sue perpetrators because they had unwittingly signed such clauses.

Last month, the House passed the pecker, 335-97; the Senate passed it on a voice vote. Gillibrand touted it then equally "1 of the almost significant workplace reforms in American history," while Graham defended the bill against some Republican criticism that it would be bad for businesses.

"It does not injure business organization to make certain that people who are harassed in the workplace go treated fairly," Graham said and then.

Quondam Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who was a key proponent of the bill, said in advocating for it that she had been shocked to learn that her employment contract included a forced arbitration clause. Her lawyers initially said the clause meant she could non sue and so-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, whom she accused of sexual harassment.

The full report is hither.

9.52pm GMT 21:52

Martin Pengelly

United states of america hopes of hosting men's and women's Rugby Globe Cups in 2029 and 2031 got a boost from Capitol Loma on Thursday, with the introduction of a bipartisan congressional resolution expressing support for the bid.

The resolution was introduced past the co-chairs of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, Alex Mooney, a West Virginia Republican, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat from Washington DC.

Mooney said: "Every bit a sometime college rugby player at Dartmouth College, I proceed to enjoy watching the sport … every bit co-chairman of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, I am proud to exist an advocate for the Rugby World Cup."

Holmes Norton said: "Rugby has fabricated a divergence to the youth of the District of Columbia and beyond the country in terms of health, self-esteem, teamwork and social skills. I am proud to support the US bids to host the men's and women'due south Rugby Earth Loving cup tournaments."

Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat, and ii Republicans, Richard Hudson from Due north Carolina and Paul Gosar from Arizona, also co-sponsored the mensurate.

Full story:

nine.52pm GMT 21:52

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a prominent pro-Donald Trump Republican figure, who likewise happens to be engaged to Don Trump Jr, has been subpoenaed to provide evidence to the Firm select committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan half-dozen last year and attempts by the-and then United states president to overturn his election defeat.

Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks at the Conservative Political Action Briefing (CPAC22) in Orlando, Florida last month. Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

The committee issued the amendment this afternoon, Reuters reports. Guilfoyle is besides a television personality.

The agency writes:

Guilfoyle, who worked on the elder Trump'due south presidential entrada, abruptly ended an interview with the select committee on February 25, criticizing Business firm of Representatives members who were nowadays.

Her chaser issued a statement afterward saying Guilfoyle had agreed to run into simply with attorneys for the Democratic-led House committee, non members of Congress.

As a consequence, the commission said it would issue a amendment to compel Guilfoyle's cooperation. The panel asked Guilfoyle to announced for a deposition on March xv.

"Guilfoyle met with (one-time President) Donald Trump inside the White House, spoke at the rally that took place before the riot on January sixth, and apparently played a central function organizing and raising funds for that result," Representative Bennie Thompson, committee chairman, said in a argument.

Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Select Committee is trying to plant the actions of Trump and associates before and during the attack on the Capitol past thousands of his supporters. The mobs attacked police, vandalized the building and sent members of Congress then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives as they gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory over Trump.

The Select Committee has so far interviewed more than 560 witnesses and issued more than lxxx subpoenas as it probes the causes of the set on and the function played by Trump, who continues to push fake claims that his election defeat by Biden was the effect of fraud.

Before on Thursday, the console interviewed Judd Deere, a onetime White House spokesman who is now a Republican congressional aide.

nine.42pm GMT 21:42

Hugo Lowell

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is hoping to bear witness through public hearings in April how it believes Donald Trump came to violate federal laws in his efforts to overturn the 2020 US election results, the console has indicated in court documents.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, testify before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol in December. Lawmakers on the committee said for the first time last nighttime that they have plenty testify to suggest Trump committed crimes. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

The hearings are set to be a major and historical political event in America as the panel seeks to publicly show the extent of its investigations then far into the shocking events that saw a pro-Trump mob invade the Capitol in an endeavor to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden past Congress.

The panel alleged in a courtroom filing on Wednesday that Trump and his assembly obstructed Congress and conspired to defraud the United states of america on 6 Jan, arguing it meant the onetime Trump lawyer John Eastman could not shield thousands of emails from the inquiry.

But the public hearings – which are likely to come late next month, the chair of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, told the Guardian – will accost simply how Trump came to interfere with the joint session of Congress through rhetoric he knew to exist false or unlawful.

"The president'due south rhetoric persuaded thousands of Americans to travel to Washington for January 6, some of whom marched on the Capitol, breached security, and took other illegal deportment. The select committee'due south hearings will address those problems in detail," the filing said.

The panel also said in its court submission that the public hearings would address how Trump appeared to lay the background for his rhetoric inciting the Capitol attack by promoting claims of election fraud in the 2020 ballot that he had been told were without merit.

"Despite beingness repeatedly told his allegations of campaign fraud were false, the President continued to feature those same faux allegations in ads seen by millions," the filing said. "The select commission will address these problems in detail in hearings this year."

The select committee indicated the public hearings would serve as the opportunity to cast a low-cal on Trump'southward secret efforts to overturn the election, from his attempts to pressure the then vice-president, Mike Pence, to return him to function, to corruption of the justice department.

"We want to paint a picture equally clear every bit possible as to what occurred," Thompson told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. "The public needs to know what to think. Nosotros but have to show clearly what happened on Jan half-dozen."

Read the full report here.

9.16pm GMT 21:sixteen

Donald Trump will plow over some documents to New York'south attorney full general, Letitia James, for her civil probe into his concern practices, simply need not reply questions under adjuration while he appeals a approximate's gild that he testify.

The developments are part of an understanding struck today betwixt the quondam The states Republican president, his oldest children Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump, and AG James.

NY State Governor Kathy Hochul (left) and Attorney General of New York Letitia James (right) seen at New Twelvemonth Parade and Festival in Chinatown of New York City last month. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Reuters reports that these developments:

Followed a February 17 ruling past Justice Arthur Engoron of a state courtroom in Manhattan that James could enforce subpoenas for the Trumps' testimony and documents from Donald Trump, afterward having establish "copious" testify of possible fiscal fraud.

The Trumps appealed on Feb 28. James' three-year probe and a parallel criminal probe led by Manhattan commune attorney Alvin Bragg take focused on whether the Trump Organization misstated the values of its existent estate properties to obtain favorable loans and taxation benefits.

The Trumps have denied wrongdoing, and none has been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Today's agreement, which Engoron approved, requires Donald Trump to comply "in total" with James' subpoena for documents and information by March 31.

It besides requires the Trumps to submit for questioning inside 14 days if the state appellate partitioning rejects their appeal, unless that court or the state's highest courtroom puts the case on hold.

Both sides will speed up the appeals process, with briefing completed past March 31.

In their appeal, the Trumps take said testifying in James' probe would violate their constitutional rights considering their words could be used against them in Bragg's criminal probe.

Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell)

NEW: Trumps attain deal with NYAG to postpone depositions until after an entreatment is heard. Expedited briefing schedule ends March 31. Trumps wouldn't sit for depositions until xiv days afterwards appeals court conclusion. pic.twitter.com/azJCYlZPpv

March 3, 2022

Donald Trump faces legal peril on several fronts, equally Ed Pilkington has reported lately for Guardian US. But the Manhattan criminal investigation is now in its own earth of problem. Will Teflon Donald e'er come before a guess?

Updated at 9.25pm GMT

9.04pm GMT 21:04

Joan E Greve

Congressman Tom Malinowski, a Democrat of New Jersey, is calling for the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs to be sold to benefit the Ukrainian people.
Malinowski, a former banana secretary of state under Barack Obama, has introduced a nib with Congressman Joe Wilson, a Republican of Due south Carolina, to sell the oligarchs' luxury assets similar yachts.

Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski)

A $600 million yacht can help pay for rebuilding Ukraine.

So today, I'g introducing a bipartisan bill with @RepJoeWilson to give the assistants a new potency to dispose of sanctioned Russian oligarchs' frozen assets, and to use the proceeds to assist Ukrainians. pic.twitter.com/dE0EyHA6ae

March 3, 2022

"A $600 million yacht can help pay for rebuilding Ukraine," Malinowski said on Twitter. "And so today, I'm introducing a bipartisan bill with @RepJoeWilson to give the assistants a new authorisation to dispose of sanctioned Russian oligarchs' frozen assets, and to use the gain to help Ukrainians."

The introduction of Malinowski's beak comes as Joe Biden appear a new round of sanctions on Russian oligarchs and their families, restricting their access to American banks and banning them from traveling to the US.
"Our involvement is in maintaining the strongest unified economic impact campaign on Putin in all of history, and I think we're well on the way to doing that," Biden said in his chiffonier coming together this afternoon.

Business Insider has more details on the bill from Malinowski and Wilson calling on the federal government to sell seized Russian assets to benefit the Ukrainian people:

"Funds from such sales could be used on post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine, humanitarian support, weapons for Ukraine's armed services, provisions for refugees, and engineering science appurtenances. Cash could likewise exist diverted to humanitarian assistance for Russians, 'including democracy and human rights programming and monitoring,' according to the bill.
Authority provided by the bill would last for two years after its passage, giving President Joe Biden prolonged power over Russian oligarchs parking their wealth in the US.

The idea could proceeds further bipartisan traction in Congress. Autonomous representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she was 'absolutely' on board.

Updated at ix.30pm GMT

8.50pm GMT 20:50

Possible nuclear deal with Islamic republic of iran virtually but issues remain - The states State Dept

American diplomacy is on concord with Russia right now but live and well with Iran.

There has been significant progress in nuclear talks with Iran and earth powers may exist close to reaching a deal with Tehran, Reuters reports, while quoting the US government maxim a number of hard issues still remain unresolved.

At that place will not be an Iran nuclear deal unless those issues are quickly resolved, Country Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters.

Marathon talks recently hitting a roadblock. It's not articulate yet what might have cleared forth the way for a bargain to be closer to fruition, but in that location are reports of "pregnant progress".

Talks had been going on in Vienna between the w, Russia, Islamic republic of iran and Mainland china.

Iran is pushing for all sanctions in place against it to be lifted, but the United states says some sanctions are linked to human being rights and terrorists abuses, and are not linked to the nuclear deal.

The Guardian'south Patrick Wintour previously noted that an understanding is designed to bring the US, and later Iran, dorsum into the original nuclear bargain signed in 2015 from which the Usa withdrew in 2018.

The talks have been held against a properties of repeated warnings from the w stretching back months that the talks tin can continue only for a few more weeks considering Iran is coming ever closer to obtaining irreversibly the material and knowledge required to make a nuclear weapon.

8.33pm GMT twenty:33

The American version of RT, the Russia-controlled TV network that pumps out Putin propaganda and has now been banned in Europe and dropped past platforms around the globe, is apparently seeing an impact in the Usa of the invasion of Ukraine.

The production company behind the RT operation in the US laid off most of its staff today, CNN has reported.

The cable network promises more reporting, but for at present writes on its website that:

Misha Solodovnikov, the full general manager of the production visitor, T&R Productions, told staff that it will be "ceasing product" at all of its locations "equally a upshot of unforeseen business organisation interruption events.""Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will exist permanent, significant that this volition event in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations," Solodovnikov wrote in his memo to employees.

The layoffs would mean an effective end to RT America. The network, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin'south main mouthpieces in the U.s., was dropped before this week by DirecTV. The satellite carrier was one of the ii major television providers in the United states to behave the network.

Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy)

BREAKING: RT America is ceasing productions and laying off its staff, according to a memo I have obtained from the production company behind the Russian federation-backed network. https://t.co/l2wcGA85Zg

March 3, 2022

8.13pm GMT 20:xiii

Biden: 'Strongest unified economic bear on entrada on Putin in all history'

Joe Biden made remarks a little earlier at the top of a meeting of his cabinet near the new sanctions announced past the United states of america confronting oligarchs close to Russian president Vladimir Putin, over the invasion of Ukraine.

The United states president did non take questions from the pool reporters gathered to encounter the top of the meeting.

But Biden talked from prepared remarks of his latest announced measures against Russian oligarchs as: "Severe economic sanctions on Putin and all of those folks effectually him, choking off access to engineering science too as cut off admission to the global financial organisation."

He added: "It'south had a profound touch on already. The goal was to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the impairment on united states and our allies and friends around the earth.

"Our involvement is in maintaining the strongest unified economical touch on campaign on Putin in all history and I think we're well on the mode to doing that."

Biden referred to his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, his first, in which he vowed that Putin would pay for his "unprovoked" assault on Russia'due south southern, autonomous neighbor.

He said: "I announced that the Section of Justice is going after the crimes of Russian oligarchs…who line their pockets with Russian peoples' money while Ukraine and the people are hiding in the subway from Russian missiles that are being fired indiscriminately...

"Today I'one thousand announcing that nosotros're adding dozens of names to the list including one of Russian federation's wealthiest billionaires and I'm banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates. And we're going to continue to back up Ukrainian people with straight assistance."

Joe Biden speaks during a chiffonier coming together in the White Business firm this afternoon. Reverse him you tin can spot Deb Haaland, Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland, Marty Walsh and Jennifer Granholm. Immediately on Biden's right (not visible in this shot) is Janet Yellen and on his left, Lloyd Austin. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

Updated at 8.16pm GMT

7.35pm GMT 19:35

White Business firm announces new sanctions on Russian elites and 'cronies' close to Putin

The White House has now issued details on further sanctions the US will impose on Russian oligarchs.

A statement from the White Firm, released for publication moments ago, states: "The The states, in coordination with allies and partners, is targeting additional Russian elites and family unit members who continue supporting President Putin despite his brutal invasion of Ukraine."

It continued that the individuals concerned had enriched themselves "at the expense of the Russian people, and some have elevated their family members into high-ranking positions. Others sit atop Russia'southward largest companies and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin'south invasion of Ukraine.

"These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their avails in the United states will exist frozen and their property will be blocked from apply. Today, the United states of america volition sanction an expansive list of Putin's cronies and their family members."

The first private mentioned is Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate with ties to Britain'southward Everton soccer club.

When the European Union imposed sanctions on him, the bloc described him as "1 of Vladmir Putin's favourite oligarchs".

"His property will exist blocked from use in the Usa and by U.S. persons – including his super yacht, one of the world'due south largest, and simply seized by our marry Germany, and his private jet, i of Russia'due south largest privately-owned shipping," the White House announcement said.

Side by side on the listing is multi-millionaire Dmitry Peskov, "who as Putin'due south spokesman is a meridian purveyor of Putin's propaganda", the White House said. The U.s.a. too imposed visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and 47 of their family members and shut associates.

Total sanctions were announced on: Nikolai Tokarev and his 2 luxury existent estate companies, Boris Rotenber, Arkady Rotenberg, Sergei Chemezo, Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his three companies, and members of their families. Also on Igor Shuvalov and his 5 companies, his wife Olga, his son Evgeny and his visitor and jet, and his daughter Maria and her company.

President Biden (@POTUS)

In my State of the Union Accost, I said the United States is going subsequently the crimes of Russian oligarchs.

Today, we're calculation dozens of names to the list — and banning travel to America by more than than l Russian oligarchs, their families, and shut associates.

March 3, 2022

Updated at 8.59pm GMT

vii.05pm GMT 19:05

'We desire him to experience the clasp' – White Firm on extra sanctions on Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin

Joan E Greve

The White House will shortly issue new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and their families, equally Vladimir Putin showed no sign of deescalating Russian federation's devastating armed forces attacks on Ukraine.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, confirmed the forthcoming sanctions and said the motion was meant to put more pressure on Putin past targeting his inner circle of allies.

"We want him to experience the squeeze. We want the people around him to feel the squeeze," Psaki said. "I don't believe this is going to be the last set of oligarchs."

Psaki did not provide many details on the sanctions, although she did bespeak they would include a US travel ban on the oligarchs. Joe Biden is expected to provide more details on the sanctions at his cabinet coming together on Thursday afternoon.

The announcement marks an escalation past the Biden assistants, which had already imposed sanctions on Putin, his foreign minister and some of the top executives of Russian federation'due south largest companies post-obit the invasion of Ukraine. Biden indicated in his State of the Marriage spoken language on Tuesday that his administration would scissure down on oligarchs' avails as part of the W's efforts to further isolate Putin.

"I say to the Russian oligarchs and the decadent leaders who've bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime: no more," Biden said Tuesday. "Nosotros're joining with European Allies to observe and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We're coming for your ill-begotten gains."

The new sanctions came every bit the White Firm asked Congress for another $10bn in assist to Ukraine. Shalanda Young, acting managing director of the Office of Direction and Budget, said the money would be used to provide Ukraine with more defense equipment and emergency nutrient assist, as well every bit bolster enforcement of the sanctions against Russian federation.

"Given the rapidly evolving state of affairs in Ukraine, boosted needs may arise over time," Young said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she supports including the funding for Ukraine in the omnibus spending bundle currently beingness debated in Congress. Pelosi also echoed demands to ban Us imports of Russian oil, telling reporters, "I'm all for that. Ban it. Ban the oil coming from Russia."

Just the White House has voiced a more skeptical opinion of sanctioning Russian oil companies, amid concerns that the crunch in Ukraine could drive gas prices higher. "We don't have a strategic involvement in reducing the global supply of energy," Psaki said. "That would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people."

Any sanctions imposed past the White House may be coming likewise late for millions of Ukrainians. More than one meg people accept already fled the state because of the Russian invasion, and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has begged for more assistance from Western allies to end Putin'south airstrikes.

"If you practise non take the ability to close the skies, then give me planes!" he said Th. "If we are no more than, then, God foreclose, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of estonia will be side by side."

Expectations are low for the second round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Belarus. A phone phone call between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday yielded no major breakthroughs, and concerns are mounting over a massive Russian convoy of tanks and artillery exterior the Ukrainian uppercase of Kyiv.

The French Élysée palace said after the call, "We look the worst is however to come."

Updated at seven.54pm GMT

vi.56pm GMT 18:56

United states of america non planning to engineer Russian no-fly zone over Ukraine - White House

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated moments ago that the US has no plans to take activeness to impose a no-fly zone for Russian military shipping over Ukraine.

A reporter pointed out to Psaki that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked for the west to create a no-fly zone over his imperiled nation.

Psaki said: "The reason why that has non been a step the president [Joe Biden] is willing to accept because it requires implementation. It requires substantially the US military shooting down Russian planes and causing a potential direct war with Russia - the exact footstep that we desire to avert."

She added that Biden has increased support to Ukraine, including military machine equipment and weapons "merely nosotros are not taking steps that would prompt a war betwixt the US and Russia."

Today's ongoing press briefing at the White House with Jen Psaki. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

6.24pm GMT eighteen:24

The US believes that Russian forces accept not, in fact, yet taken over the southern Ukrainian port urban center of Kherson, known for its shipbuilding industry, a senior U.s. defence force official has said.

This is in contrast to most media reports and so far, including the Guardian's, which say that the Blackness Sea port on Wednesday became the first major Ukrainian metropolis to fall under the de facto control of Russia forces.

This was afterward Kherson's mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, said in a Facebook post that Russian troops were in control of the city hall and that residents should obey a curfew imposed by "armed visitors".

Just the Reuters news agency is now reporting that the Russian armed services offensive on Kherson could exist part of a strategy for potentially moving to the much larger port of Mykolaiv a little to the west of Kherson on that southern coast of Ukraine.

Then on to the city of Odesa on the Black Ocean, which has a population shut to a million.

Children wait out from a railroad vehicle window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv, western Ukraine, enroute to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia, today. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters is citing an unnamed senior United states of america defence officia. The bureau farther reports:

Tanks entered the port town of Kherson, a provincial capital letter of effectually 250,000 people, and Russian forces occupied the regional administration edifice, regional governor Hennadiy Laguta said in an online post on Thursday.

"There'due south notwithstanding fighting there, so we're not ready to call it 1 way or another," the U.S. official told reporters, adding that the situation on the ground was changing quickly.

If Kherson were to be captured, it would exist the first significant metropolis to fall into the easily of Russian troops.

"What they may want to exercise is move on (Mykolaiv) so that they tin can then position themselves to the northeast of Odessa in case, in fact, they desire to move on Odessa, not just from the body of water, but from the ground," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The invasion, which started 8 days ago, has not seen Russian aircraft command Ukraine's airspace. Russian troops are still stalled almost 16 miles outside Kyiv'southward city centre.

The official said that Russia had moved about 90% of its pre-staged gainsay power into Ukraine so far and virtually 480 missiles had been fired by Russian forces at Ukrainian targets.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace earlier on Thursday said Putin had deployed thermobaric weapons systems in Ukraine.

The U.Southward. official said: "We know that they have the launching systems available to them in Ukraine that could exist used for rockets that have a thermobaric warhead on them. Just we cannot confirm that those weapons are in Ukraine and we cannot confirm any examples of utilize."

Meanwhile, a massive Russian military convoy outside the Ukrainian uppercase of Kyiv is stalled for a third day.

Updated at half-dozen.27pm GMT

5.56pm GMT 17:56

Jessica Glenza

Smugglers accept breached the Trump administration's Usa-United mexican states border wall more than than 3,000 times, government maintenance records obtained by the Washington Post reveal.

Near 500 miles of barrier was constructed by the Trump assistants, start in 2019 and mostly in New Mexico and Arizona. Donald Trump touted the "big, beautiful wall" as the "Rolls-Royce" of barriers, simply smugglers have breached information technology at to the lowest degree 3,272 times, mostly with mutual power tools plant at hardware stores.

"No structure is bulletproof, so we volition keep to work to focus resources on modernistic, effective edge management measures to improve rubber and security," Luis Miranda, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), told the Mail.

Full story:

five.34pm GMT 17:34

Martin Pengelly

Bad news for Republicans not wholly on the Trump Train, it seems, from Arizona.

Doug Ducey. Photograph: Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports

The governor, Doug Ducey, has decided not to run for Senate against Marker Kelly, a former astronaut and one of 2 Democrats who currently correspond Arizona in Washington.

Ducey* notified donors of his decision in a letter reported by the Arizona Commonwealth.

"Right now I have the job I want," Ducey wrote, adding that he was "fully committed to helping elect a Republican US senator from Arizona".

The other current senator in Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, is unpopular with Democrats in her country and nationally but is upwards for re-election in 2024. Some fear she could elevate downward votes for Kelly.

The Senate is split 50-fifty and controlled past the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, has now seen iii popular Republican governors reject to run for Senate: Larry Hogan, in Maryland, and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire are the others.

At that place's as well the question of what effect the Trump Train itself might have. In Missouri, for instance, Trump has non yet bestowed his endorsement in the race for the Republican nomination to replace a retiring Republican senator, Roy Edgeless. There are some rather extreme candidates about, including Eric Greitens, a former governor who resigned in 2018 over allegations of sexual assault.

As in the House, some retrieve too-farthermost candidates could jeopardise Republicans' chances of taking control, by turning off the sort of independent or "moderate" voters who notably swung Republican in last year's gubernatorial election in Virginia.

* Note on Doug Ducey: he's the Republican governor of a country key to Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election through lies virtually balloter fraud who was certifying results when Trump called him … and who let the call go through to voicemail**.

**Note to the notation about Doug Ducey: he's also the governor who recently said he needed the support of a far-correct state senator who associates with white nationalists and muses about building gallows for her enemies, considering at least she isn't a Democrat.

Updated at 5.49pm GMT

5.17pm GMT 17:17

Sam Levine

In the belatedly summer of 2020, Bruce Bartman went to Pennsylvania's voter registration website and signed up his female parent and mother-in-law to vote. Both were dead.

A few months later, Bartman, who is white, requested a mail-in ballot for his late mother and cast her vote for Donald Trump. Bartman was arrested that December and charged with perjury and unlawful voting. Months subsequently, he pleaded guilty, admitted he fabricated a "stupid mistake", was sentenced to 5 years of probation and barred from serving on a jury or voting for four years.

"There's non public benefit to him being incarcerated," Jack Stollsteimer, the local district attorney said at the time. "This defendant from the beginning has accepted responsibility for his deportment, and he has paid the price for them."

When Bartman pleaded guilty, well-nigh ane,000 miles away, in Memphis, a Black Lives Matter activist named Pamela Moses was facing her own election-related criminal charges.

A few years previously, Moses, who is Black, permanently lost the correct to vote after committing a felony. But no one had actually removed Moses from the voter rolls or told her she couldn't vote. And in 2019, when land officials began looking into her eligibility, a probation officer signed a certificate saying Moses had completed her sentence and was eligible to vote. And then she practical to do so. Even though corrections officials conceded they fabricated an error, Moses was indicted anyway.

Moses was convicted past a jury in November. In late January, she was sentenced to six years and one day in prison.

Full story:

Updated at 5.17pm GMT

four.59pm GMT 16:59

Martin Pengelly

In his new book, Donald Trump's one-time attorney general William Barr complains that in the US, the "nearly educated and influential people are more attached to self-serving narratives than to factual truth".

The book. Photo: AP

But in his own narrative of his tumultuous fourth dimension as Trump's top lawyer, Barr regularly omits inconvenient truths or includes self-serving versions of events previously reported with his evident input.

Barr was only the second U.s.a. attorney general to fill up the role twice, working for George HW Bush-league from 1991 to 1993, so succeeding Jeff Sessions in 2019. His memoir, One Damn Thing Subsequently Another, volition exist published on viii March. Excerpts have been reported by US news outlets. The Guardian obtained a re-create.

Barr'southward accounts of controversies under Trump are often highly selective or noticeably incomplete.

In June 2020, for instance, Barr was engulfed in controversy over the removal of Geoffrey Berman, the United states attorney in the southern district of New York.

Berman was investigating Trump's business and allies including Rudy Giuliani. He was also supervising a instance involving a Turkish bank which the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pressured Trump to drop.

Before long afterwards John Bolton, Trump'south tertiary national security adviser, said Trump promised Erdoğan he would go rid of leaders in the southern district, Barr announced Berman was stepping downward. When Berman said he would not quit, he was fired.

The incident prompted calls for Barr to resign, including from the New York City Bar Association.

In his book, Barr praises the "quality and experience of the group of Usa attorneys I inherited" and says he told them "to get total speed alee on the section's existing priorities". He likewise says he regrets not installing an aide, Ed O'Callaghan, "into his dream job – United states attorney in the southern district of New York".

But he does not mention Berman and how or why he fired him.

Full story:

4.47pm GMT 16:47

US to impose sanctions on more Russian oligarchs shut to Putin – report

The Usa today plans to impose economic sanctions on a wide assortment of Russian oligarchs and their families in response to Russian federation's invasion of Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter accept told Reuters.

Joe Biden warned at his first land of the union address that the U.s. would exist coming afterward ill-gotten gains by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AP

The news agency further reports:

Washington has already hit a variety of oligarchs with asset-blocking sanctions. The source, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said some pregnant names would be included in today's actions.

A second person familiar with the matter confirmed that there will exist a number of oligarchs sanctioned on Th. The source besides said Russian officials close to Putin would likely exist among those targeted.

Washington has so far imposed several rounds of sanctions, including against Putin and the primal bank, after Russia'south forces invaded Ukraine in the biggest set on on a European land since World State of war Two. Moscow calls the assault a "special functioning."

The measures have included sanctions confronting what the U.S. Treasury Department said were Russian "elites," including some with ties to Sberbank, VTB, Rosneft and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The sources said the names cited by the The states would overlap with those already designated by the European Wedlock but would get beyond them by naming family members and business organization assembly.

The US is besides expected to denote visa bans on some of those targeted, ane of the sources said. The European union on Monday imposed sanctions on 26 prominent people over Russian federation's invasion of Ukraine, including oligarchs and business people active in the oil, cyberbanking and finance sectors.

Several people included on the EU'southward list on Monday take not yet been designated by the United States, including Nikolay Tokarev, the chief executive of energy behemothic Transneft, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Russia'south deputy prime minister, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Washington has repeatedly warned that information technology is prepared to accept further measures to hold Moscow to account over its invasion of Ukraine.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Joe Biden said the US would work to seize the yachts, luxury apartments and private jets of wealthy Russians with ties to Putin.

The US and its allies terminal week announced they would launch a job force to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs.

Updated at 4.49pm GMT

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2022/mar/03/donald-trump-capitol-attack-panel-joe-biden-ukraine-russia-us-politics-latest

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