The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into … Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The unexpected development came not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum and now throws its future into serious doubt.
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations because the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.
The Guardian
Russia attacks Ukraine as Putin vows to ‘demilitarise’ neighbour
Russian forces have unleashed an attack of Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a “special military operation” at dawn, amid warnings from world leaders that it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
Within minutes of Putin’s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
In a bid to justify the attack, Putin claimed “A hostile anti-Russia is being created on our historic lands.” … and he had a … warning for other nations.
“To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside: if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me,” he said.
ABC News
Ukrainian ambassador tells Russian counterpart 'war criminals ... go straight to hell'
As the late-night meeting of the U.N. Security Council came to a close amid a Russian attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador directly addressed his Russian counterpart.
"There is no purgatory for war criminals," Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya. "They go straight to hell, ambassador."
With that, Nebenzya, the council’s current president, adjourned the meeting.
The Washington Post
Russia ‘alone’ responsible for death and destruction in Ukraine, Biden says
President Biden said Russia “alone is responsible for the death and destruction” its military action in Ukraine may bring, according to a statement released late Wednesday after Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced plans to launch a “special military operation” in the country.
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden’s statement read. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”
Calling Putin’s military actions "unprovoked and unjustified,” the president pledged that the United States and allies will coordinate their responses in a “united and decisive” fashion. Biden will meet with leaders from the Group of Seven nations Thursday morning and will address the American people on further sanctions to deter Russian aggression.
Deutsche Welle
NATO’s 'high readiness' under high pressure from Russia
Russia's aggression both unifies NATO and puts it under enormous pressure to provide deterrence and reassurance…
"He's the greatest gift to NATO since the end of the Cold War," former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus says of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "He set out to make Russia great again; what he's really done is make NATO great again by his actions," Petraeus told DW. "That threat has unified NATO in a way it hasn't been since the [Berlin] Wall came down and the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union dissolved."
But if the 30-member alliance is benefitting from the shared threat assessment, it's also being scrutinized as to how it responds to the rapidly increasing Russian threats near its border. While NATO has no obligation to militarily defend non-member Ukraine, allies feel a sense of moral duty to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty and international law, even if that's from afar, since no other country has agreed to put boots on the ground in case of attack.
South China Morning Post
China says US disrespects nations’ sovereignty after sanctions against Russia for Ukraine troop deployment
China accused the United States of creating panic over the Ukraine crisis and disrespecting other nations’ sovereignty, after Washington placed sanctions on Moscow and pledged to supply Ukraine with weapons.
The Chinese foreign ministry said it opposed any “illegal unilateral sanctions”, after several countries imposed them on Russia in response to Vladimir Putin, its president, moving troops into two areas of Ukraine, which some viewed as a precursor to a full invasion.
“[The Chinese government] believes that sanctions are never a fundamental and effective way to solve the problem, and China always opposes any illegal unilateral sanctions,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
American actions were “raising tensions, creating panic and even playing up the schedule of war”, Hua said.
Foreign Affairs
China’s Ukraine Crisis
[…] The crisis in Ukraine is exposing the limits of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. Beijing’s global aspirations are now clashing with its desire to remain selectively ambiguous and aloof. Although Chinese leaders may not recognize it, their country’s closer alignment with Russia is far from prudent. The upsides of this move are notional and long-term: Russia might someday return the favor by supporting Chinese territorial aspirations or cooperating on revising the structures of global governance. The costs to China’s larger global strategy, however, are real and immediate.
A tighter Beijing-Moscow axis would further encourage China’s rivals to balance against it, giving them more reason to form closer economic and military ties to defend themselves against Chinese aggression. In European capitals, where the allure of China’s massive market has traditionally blunted efforts to push back against the country, Beijing is already facing stronger political headwinds. And in the United States, the mood on China has grown even darker. If war breaks out in Ukraine, many American politicians will accuse Beijing of having blood on its hands. On Ukraine, China is playing a dangerous game, one it may come to regret.
EuroNews
Biden announces sanctions on Russian oligarchs and banks
US President Joe Biden announced the US was ordering heavy financial sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law by invading Ukraine.
“None of us will be fooled” by Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims about Ukraine, the US President said in a live address from the East Room. And he said more sanctions could be on the way if Putin proceeds further.
Biden said he was also moving additional American troops to the Baltic states on NATO’s eastern flank bordering Russia.
Reuters
Ukraine restricts civilian flights in its airspace, citing potential hazard
Ukraine said early on Thursday it had restricted civilian flights in its airspace due to "potential hazard", hours after a conflict zone monitor warned airlines should stop overflights over the risk of an unintended shootdown or cyber attack.
The notice to airmen from Ukraine's authorities, issued at 0156 GMT on Thursday, is due to expire at 2359 GMT unless extended. It did not specify whether the restriction was a total ban on civilian flights but Eurocontrol, which coordinates air traffic in Europe, said that Ukraine's airspace was not available because of military restrictions.
The Telegraph
Russia deploys mobile crematoriums to follow its troops into battle
Russian forces have prepared a mobile crematorium for use in any future conflict with Ukraine in what Britain’s Defence Secretary has described as “chilling”.
The MoD released footage of a vehicle-mounted crematorium with room to “evaporate” one human body at a time, which has been seen trailing Russian forces and is expected to follow any troops into Ukraine.
Vox
The absurd Supreme Court case that could gut the EPA
West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency is a case about an environmental regulation that no longer exists, that never took effect, and that would not have accomplished very much if it had taken effect. If the plaintiffs prevail in their case, they will be in the exact same position they are in right now. It is a case about nothing.
Yet West Virginia could also be the most consequential environmental case to reach the Supreme Court in a very long time. The plaintiffs in this case, and in three other consolidated cases, seek an opinion from the Supreme Court that would do considerable violence to the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to, well, protect the environment. And if the Court indulges them, the fallout from this decision could wreak havoc throughout the federal government.
NPR News
The U.S. looks to replace a derogatory name used hundreds of times on federal lands
The Department of the Interior is moving forward with plans to remove a name the department declared to be derogatory from federal lands.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland formed a task force and declared the word "squaw" derogatory in November 2021. Now, the department is seeking public comment on name replacements for the more than 660 geographic features that contain the word.
The Verge
USPS rejects Biden’s plea to buy more electric mail trucks
The United States Postal Service authorized the replacement of its mail truck fleet with nearly all gasoline-powered vehicles, rejecting a plea from President Joe Biden to include more electric vehicles in its purchase.
The move, which was announced Wednesday, signals the independent agency’s decision to move forward with a controversial plan to purchase 165,000 next-generation mail trucks, only 10 percent of which will be battery-electric vehicles (BEV). The USPS determined there was no legal reason to delay its plans. […]
The vehicles will be manufactured by defense contractor Oshkosh for $500 million by 2023.
Bloomberg
A Pandemic Baby Bump Shines a Spotlight on the Nordic Welfare Model
Finland’s government has been working arduously to stem the country’s rapid population decline. Since the 2019 elections, a cabinet run by a millennial woman has produced eight offspring, with two more on the way. Regular Finns have joined in the baby making: The number of live births jumped 6.7% last year, the most in nearly five decades.
Other nations on Europe’s northern rim have experienced their own pandemic baby bumps, making the region of 28 million people an outlier among advanced economies, several of which have seen fertility rates drop to historic lows.
Researchers looking for clues to why the Nordics bucked the trend have converged on a likely answer: Robust social safety nets, including policies designed to ease the burden of parenthood, insulated couples from the economic stresses experienced by peers in other industrialized countries.
The News & Observer
NC political maps are official and election can begin, after court rulings
One of the new maps for political districts that North Carolina lawmakers drew last week is still too skewed to be used in upcoming elections, a state court ruled Wednesday.
The judges overseeing the lawsuit ruled that they would accept the newly redrawn versions of maps for the N.C. House and N.C. Senate that lawmakers passed — but not the new congressional map. Instead of taking the legislature’s congressional map, or the proposed maps drawn by the challengers in the case, the judges had a group of outside experts draw a new congressional map for the state.
An analysis of the map drawn by the outside experts shows it would have more safe seats for Democratic candidates, and fewer tossup seats, than the map the Republican-led legislature had drawn.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania has a new congressional map that will keep the state intensely competitive
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has selected a new congressional map that will shape power and politics for the next decade, one that’s largely based on the current map and slightly favors Republicans — but with some important wins for Democrats.
In a 4-3 decision Wednesday, the court chose a map that was drawn by a Stanford professor and proposed by Democratic plaintiffs. It’s a major decision for the justices, one that will draw intense political scrutiny for the court’s elected Democratic majority. It also left the state’s May 17 primary in place, despite worries it would need to be delayed.
The Atlantic
How the Court Became a Voting-Rights Foe
The Supreme Court’s recent decision, reversing that of a lower federal court, to reinstate Alabama’s evidently gerrymandered voting map did more than just make it harder for affected voters to have a meaningful say in the November midterms. To be sure, according to the lower court’s three-judge panel (which included two Trump appointees), the new map adversely impacts Black Alabamans in a way that violates the Voting Rights Act. The electoral stakes could hardly be higher, potentially determining whether control of Congress will shift to Republicans, leading to a cascade of implications, such as the termination of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, efforts to impeach President Joe Biden, and possible election trickery—to say nothing of what would come of the normal business of legislating.
But beyond that, the frightening takeaway from Merrill v. Milligan is that a majority of America’s highest court again evinced a disdain for voters and their ability to pick their leaders, intent on cementing a system where this works in reverse, with the entrenched leaders picking their voters in a bid to stay in power indefinitely.
BuzzFeed News
The Trial Has Begun For The Ex–Louisville Cop Charged Over The Breonna Taylor Raid
The trial of the only Louisville police officer to be charged in connection with the deadly raid that killed Breonna Taylor began Wednesday, but Kentucky prosecutors told the jury they were not there to adjudicate responsibility for her death.
“This is not a case to decide who is responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor,” Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley said in her opening statement.
Former detective Brett Hankison was charged in September 2020 with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree for firing his weapon through Taylor's apartment and into the neighboring apartment during the raid on March 13, 2020.
AP News
Tribe grapples with missing women crisis on California coast
The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast.
But things escalated when Emmilee Risling was charged with arson for igniting a fire in a cemetery…
Her disappearance is one of five instances in the past 18 months where Indigenous women have gone missing or been killed in this isolated expanse of Pacific coastline between San Francisco and Oregon, a region where the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa and Wiyot people have coexisted for millennia. Two other women died from what authorities say were overdoses despite relatives’ questions about severe bruises.
Los Angeles Times
California officials approve plan to crack down on microplastics polluting the ocean
California aims to sharply limit the spiraling scourge of microplastics in the ocean, while urging more study of this threat to fish, marine mammals and potentially to humans, under a plan a state panel approved Wednesday.
The Ocean Protection Council voted to make California the first state to adopt a comprehensive plan to rein in the pollution, recommending everything from banning plastic-laden cigarette filters and polystyrene drinking cups to the construction of more green zones to filter plastics from stormwater before it spills into the sea.
The proposals in the report are only advisory, with approval from other agencies and the Legislature required to put many of the reforms into place.
Houston Chronicle
Right-wing megadonors paying big in Texas to replace GOP lawmakers with insurgent challengers
Two of Texas’ most prominent right-wing megadonors, known for their efforts to unseat Republican incumbents who fail their conservative purity tests, are funding efforts to unseat nearly 20 GOP state lawmakers in favor of insurgent challengers.
In the weeks leading up to the March 1 primary, a political action committee called Defend Texas Liberty has poured $192,000 into the campaigns of seven Republican candidates running to the right of incumbent Texas House members. Of the $5.5 million raised by the PAC this cycle, $4.6 million has come from Midland oilman Tim Dunn and Cisco fracking billionaire Farris Wilks, the duo known for bankrolling a similar political group, Empower Texans.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Raphael Warnock showcases populist streak in battle for second term
[Sen. Raphael] Warnock likes to call himself the nation’s most vulnerable Senate Democrat, the prime target of Republicans racing to take back control of the chamber. His message on the campaign trail is aimed at the swing Georgia voters who can help him avoid that fate.
With Congress in recess and November approaching, Warnock has supported a spate of noncontroversial measures designed to show an independent streak.
Along with three other at-risk Senate Democratic incumbents, Warnock is pushing the Gas Prices Relief Act to appeal to nervous voters on edge about rising inflation, supply-chain issues and the economic uncertainty tied to the pandemic and conflict in Eastern Europe.
Al Jazeera
Taliban to create Afghanistan ‘grand army’ with old regime troops
The Taliban is creating a “grand army” for Afghanistan that will include officers and troops who served the old regime, says the official tasked with overseeing the military’s transformation.
Latifullah Hakimi, head of the Taliban’s Ranks Clearance Commission, also told a news conference on Monday that they had repaired half the 81 helicopters and planes supposedly rendered unserviceable by the United States-led forces during last year’s chaotic withdrawal.
He said Taliban forces took control of more than 300,000 light arms, 26,000 heavy weapons and about 61,000 military vehicles during their lightning takeover of the country.
Toronto Star
Justin Trudeau lifts Emergencies Act, as debate over its use rages on
His political rivals called it a power grab but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was unapologetic as he declared an end to the public order emergency he had invoked to give his government never-before-used powers to disband so-called “Freedom Convoy 2022” protests.
Trudeau promised two reviews, required by law, would shine light on what led to the unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act but denied his inaugural use of it set a low bar for future governments to invoke the law, insisting his government had not overreached.
The Emergencies Act was a “turning point,” Trudeau said, to ending threats to Canada’s public safety and economic security, pointing to trade stoppages at the border. At times, big trucks blocked traffic at Windsor-Detroit, Fort Erie, Coutts, Alta., Emerson, Man. and Surrey, B.C.
Ars Technica
Russia’s most cutthroat hackers infect network devices with new botnet malware
Hackers for one of Russia’s most elite and brazen spy agencies have infected home and small-office network devices around the world with a previously unseen malware that turns the devices into attack platforms that can steal confidential data and target other networks.
Cyclops Blink, as the advanced malware has been dubbed, has infected about 1 percent of network firewall devices made by network device manufacturer WatchGuard, the company said on Wednesday. The malware is able to abuse a legitimate firmware update mechanism found in infected devices in a way that gives it persistence, meaning the malware survives reboots.