Month: February 2022

Tensions rose over the weekend as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert, and the United States advising that Americans should leave Russia as soon as possible.

As fighting continued across Ukraine overnight into Monday morning, Ukraine and Russia prepared to meet at the border of Belarus, where Kyiv said it would push for a cease-fire during the talks with officials from Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had agreed to meet with the Russians on the border of Belarus “without preconditions” after speaking with that country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, but added that he did not expect those ‘talks to be fruitful.’

Meanwhile, the European Union made a historic move to finance the purchase and delivery of lethal weapons to aid the Ukrainian resistance.  FedEx and UPS announced they were suspending shipments to Russia, further isolating Russia’s economy from the rest of the world.  And Google will no longer allow Russian state media outlets to run ads, following a similar decision over the weekend from YouTube, and from Meta — Facebook’s parent — saying it would suspend Russian state media’s ability to run ads and monetize them on its platforms.

For full, in-depth coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, head to NBC News at the link here, or click the link to ABC news below.

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Congress is lifting its mask requirement on the House floor, making face coverings optional for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Federal regulators eased guidelines last week in a rethinking of the nation’s strategy to adapt to living with COVID-19.

Congress’ Office of the Attending Physician announced the policy change Sunday, lifting a requirement that has been in place for much of the past two years on Capitol Hill.  The Capitol move also comes just one day before Washington’s mask mandate expires on Monday, and as a host of states and local governments have begun implementing the new CDC guidelines and lifting mask-mandates indoors and in schools.

The nation’s capital is now in an area considered low risk under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new metrics, which place less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening in community hospitals. The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Healthy people in those risk areas can stop wearing masks indoors, the agency said.

Mask-wearing will still be a personal choice in Congress and special precautions will be in place for Biden’s speech. Unlike last year’s joint address, this year will be open to all members of Congress. All attendees will be required to take a COVID-19 test before entering the chamber ahead of Biden’s address.

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On Thursday, the three former Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd were found guilty of violating his civil rights by a federal jury. The jury — made up of four men and eight women — found Tou Thao, 36, J. Alexander Kueng, 28, and Thomas Lane, 38, guilty of depriving Floyd of his civil rights by displaying deliberate indifference to his medical needs as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes in the May 25, 2020, killing. Thao and Kueng were also found guilty of an additional charge of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin. Lane did not face the additional charge.

Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder and third-degree murder in April 2021.  He waived his right to trial by pleading guilty to one count of violating Floyd’s rights. Prosecutors said the three officers ignored their training as they failed to intervene with Chauvin and mocked and refused to help Floyd as he lay dying under the officer’s knee. They also noted the trio had the ability and duty to render aid to Floyd as he repeatedly complained he couldn’t breathe as Chauvin had him pinned down with a knee on his neck — but chose not to.

The Justice Department states that violating a person’s civil rights is “punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime and the resulting injury, if any.”  However, federal sentencing guidelines suggest the officers could receive a lesser sentence.

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The Group of Seven economic powers announced economic sanctions on Thursday in an attempt to stop President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. Thursday’s measures did not target the Russian president personally, but Biden said sanctioning Putin is “on the table”. The US move comes after Russia launched a large-scale military operation in Ukraine late on Wednesday.

European countries began imposing sanctions on Russia over the invasion on Thursday, with the United Kingdom announcing measures targeting dozens of Russian banks, businesses and wealthy elites, and banning Russia’s national airline Aeroflot from the country’s airspace.

At an afternoon news conference from the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, vowing to impose a “severe cost” on the country for its invasion of Ukraine. Biden voiced support for Ukraine and said the sanctions package will limit international trade with Moscow and penalize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. “Putin is the aggressor; Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said. The sanctions target four Russian banks that hold more than $1 trillion in assets, including the country’s largest bank, Sberbank. Biden also said the United States will halt more than half of Russia’s tech imports and sanction more Kremlin elites.

Ukrainian officials have said fighting also is taking place on the ground, with Russian forces on Thursday capturing the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, in the country’s north. Biden said American forces will not fight in Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, underscoring that the U.S. had sent additional troops to Europe over the past weeks, announcing the deployment of forces already on the continent to “NATO’s eastern flank allies, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania”.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/eu-plans-harshest-sanctions-package-russia-83079403

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The Kentucky officer facing criminal charges in the botched raid on Breonna Taylor that led to her death by police, went on trial Wednesday — nearly two years after the shooting.  Former officer Brett Hankison fired 10 shots near a side door during the raid, but none hit Taylor. Prosecutors say the bullets endangered Taylor’s neighbors — a couple and their child. Hankison is charged with three counts of wanton endangerment, a low-level felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

In her opening statement, assistant Kentucky Attorney General Barbara Maines Whaley told jurors that the case is not about the killing of Taylor, or the decisions by police that led to the raid. She said the charges are focused on Hankinson’s decision to fire blindly through Taylor’s apartment, endangering her neighbors.

Defense attorney Stewart Mathews countered that Hankison was justified in what he did during a chaotic scene that lasted about 10 to 15 seconds from when Taylor’s door was breached to when the shooting stopped. Said Matthews:  “This case is not about the death of Breonna Taylor, but in a sense it’s totally about that, because that’s what started this whole situation. Breonna Taylor was a peripheral part of this whole deal, but she was tied into it.”

Judge Ann Bailey Smith swore in 10 men and 5 women as jurors and alternates to hear the case. The court declined to release information about their race or ethnicity. Hankison’s jury was selected from a larger-than-normal pool because of the national publicity Taylor’s case has attracted since the deadly raid on March 13, 2020. The 12 jurors and three alternates are expected to tour Taylor’s apartment and hear testimony from Hankison during the trial that’s expected to take two weeks. Several other current and former police officers are expected to testify.

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On Wednesday, President Joe Biden said that the United States would be expanding penalties on Moscow after it recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. Biden said the U.S. would impose sanctions on the company in charge of building Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, targeting the Nord Stream 2 AG company and its corporate officers, adding pressure on the Baltic Sea project that was designed to double the gas flow capacity from Russia to Germany.  Nord Stream 2 has not begun operations pending certification by Germany and the European Union.

Germany on Tuesday halted the pipeline, worth $11 billion, citing Russia’s actions toward Ukraine. The United States and the EU worry the pipeline will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy supplies and deny transit fees to Ukraine, host to another Russian gas pipeline. The White House said the sanctions will not affect Gerhard Schroeder, a former German chancellor and a close friend of Putin’s who has headed the shareholders committee of Nord Stream since 2005.

Biden said in a statement his administration has been closely coordinating Nord Stream 2 action with Germany, adding: “Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers. These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate.”

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