-Ted Cruz pluggin' his pod during a SCOTUS confirmation hearing
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The nearly month-old war in Ukraine appears to have reached a stalemate, but Russian attacks on civilian targets haven’t abated, and President Biden delivered an ominous warning about potential Russian cyberattacks.
- While Russian forces in Ukraine have stepped up their shelling, they’ve shown almost no signs of progress over the past week, according to a senior U.S. defense official. “If we’re not in a stalemate, we are rapidly approaching one,” a top NATO intelligence official told reporters. “The reality is that neither side has a superiority over the other.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has given no indication that he’s prepared to back down, raising fears that a stalemate could prompt him to launch even more destructive attacks.
- Ukraine has rejected Russia’s demand that Mariupol surrender in exchange for the safe evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians who are trapped in unimaginably awful conditions. It’s not clear whether that means the city’s capture is imminent. A Russian airstrike in Kyiv destroyed a shopping center and killed at least eight people, in one of the worst attacks the capital has seen. In Kharkiv, Russian shelling killed a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, Boris Romantschenko, who endured four concentration camps before Putin’s noble de-Nazification forces took his life.
- The Ukrainian refugee crisis is staggering and still growing. Ten million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the invasion began, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday, and nearly 3.4 million have left the country. Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces had deported thousands of people from Mariupol into Russia against their will, a report that the U.S. hasn’t yet confirmed but called “disturbing” and “unconscionable” if true.
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Meanwhile, if you work at a U.S. bank or water treatment plant, try super hard not to click on any weird links?
- In a Monday statement, Biden warned that Russia was exploring its options for potential cyberattacks against U.S. companies in retaliation for American sanctions, and urged those in the private sector to “harden your cyber defenses immediately.” Biden is set to travel to Brussels on Wednesday to meet with NATO and European leaders, before continuing on to Poland. During a Monday call, Biden and Western allies discussed “their serious concerns about Russia's brutal tactics in Ukraine, including its attacks on civilians,” according to a White House readout.
- The U.K. said on Monday that Russia was behind last week’s hoax phone calls to its defense secretary, Ben Wallace, and Home Secretary Priti Patel. At least one of the callers pretended to be Ukraine’s prime minister, likely to elicit quotes for propaganda purposes. As Russia scrambles for control of the war narrative, a Moscow court banned Facebook and Instagram in the country, where both platforms are already blocked, over their “extremist activities.” (WhatsApp can stay, despite also being owned by Meta.)
Ukraine’s unflagging resistance caught Russia and onlookers by surprise, and has driven up morale at home: 91 percent of Ukrainians now say their military will eventually defeat Russian forces, according to a new poll. But with Putin apparently uninterested in good-faith negotiations, Russia’s stalled advance could mean that worse devastation is yet to come.
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Tell Biden to Reunite Separated Families Now
The Biden administration recently broke off negotiations to compensate the families that were separated at the border by Trump's cruel and systemic separation practice.
By abandoning negotiations to help these impacted children and families heal, the Biden administration will have to defend the family separation practice in court.
This is not a partisan issue. Every one should be concerned with helping these families. Tell President Biden to reunite all separated families and provide relief to help them heal.
The U.S. government deliberately abused young children. And while thousands have been reunited as a result of ACLU litigation, many remain separated – and all children have suffered irreparable trauma.
There's no room for the Biden administration to choose politics over families in the way they have with these negotiations – and that's why we must do everything we can to hold them accountable.
Add your name to our petition and demand resources and relief for these families now.
Thanks for your action,
The ACLU Team
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The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday kicked off its confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, a historic moment that Republicans commemorated with some virtuosic whining. Chairman Dick Durbin and other Democrats on the committee lauded Jackson for blazing a trail with her nomination and emphasized her experience, while Republicans previewed QAnon-friendly attacks on her record as a public defender and baseless suggestions that she had shady ties to progressive dark-money groups. In a clue that the GOP couldn’t find any substantive quibble with Jackson, who’s already been confirmed by the Senate three (3) times, several Republicans used their time to unload their grievances about Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, promising Jackson that she shan’t be subjected to the “circus” that Democrats inflicted on a nominee who had been credibly accused of sexual assault, and who was never fully investigated. In other big Supreme Court news, Justice Clarence Thomas was hospitalized with an infection and flu-like symptoms on Friday. A spokeswoman for the Court said that Thomas was not ill with COVID or anything COVID-related.
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- A witness told House investigators that he overheard then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and a national Trump-campaign spokesperson making plans to have the January 6 rally crowd march to the Capitol and “make it look like they went down there on their own.” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Sunday that the January 6 committee will reveal new information about the attack.
- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed is prepared to raise interest rates faster than previously planned, if necessary to curb inflation.
- A Chinese Boeing 737 carrying 132 people crashed in the mountains of southern China on Monday, the country’s first fatal commercial crash since 2010. Officials haven’t yet confirmed the death toll.
- A gunfight at an Arkansas car show on Saturday left one person dead and 27 others wounded, including six children.
- Temperatures have unexpectedly soared 70 degrees above normal in parts of eastern Antarctica, shocking and baffling the types of scientists whom you do not love to see shocked and baffled.
- The ex-wife of former Gov. Eric Greitens (R-MO), who’s now running for Senate, has accused him of physically and emotionally abusing her and their children in a sworn affidavit.
- The Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania may be about to get ugly: A super PAC backing Conor Lamb circulated a memo noting that Lamb was trailing Lt. Gov. John Fetterman by 30 points, and that it was time to start falsely labeling him a radical socialist.
- Before becoming chief of staff to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Frank Carone hired a lobbyist to protect negligent developers after a piece of unsecured scaffolding from their building fell and hit a woman, causing serious brain damage.
- Maury will end after 31 seasons, ushering in a dystopian future in which people find out the results of their paternity tests in private.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has given initial approval to a rule that would require all publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions for the first time. All three Democratic commissioners voted in favor of the proposal, while the sole Republican commissioner, of course, voted against it. The rule aims to give investors better information about the risk that climate change could pose to their investments (through disasters or environmental regulation), but it could also make companies more vulnerable to pressure campaigns, and force them to keep their climate promises. Companies that have made public pledges to reduce their carbon footprint would be required to detail how they plan to do that, and disclose relevant data to their shareholders. Climate groups are generally stoked about the proposal, though some say it needs to require companies to disclose the emissions generated by suppliers and customers. Republicans and business groups are expected to challenge the rule in court.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has announced an overdose action plan aimed at combating the opioid crisis in Illinois and preventing overdose deaths.
Remote appraisals of homes could help reduce discriminatory practices in the appraisal industry.
The Maryland House has passed legislation that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution, if Maryland voters sign off on it in November.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s whole opening statement is worth your time, but here's one particularly lovely moment.
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