More than 14 million people fled homes in Ukraine since Russia invasion: UN
As second anniversary of conflict nears, millions remain displaced at home and abroad, with ‘no end in sight’ to war. The United Nations has said that more than 14 million Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes at some point in the two years since Russia’s invasion, as UN rights chief Volker Turk spoke of the “horrific human cost” of the conflict. As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds into its third year, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday that nearly 6.5 million people are now living outside the country as refugees. It said an estimated 3.7 million people are still displaced within Ukraine. Reflecting on the toll of the war, which started when Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24, 2022, IOM director general Amy Pope said: “The destruction is widespread, loss of life and suffering continues.” While a total of more than 14 million people – nearly one-third of Ukraine’s population – fled their homes at some point during the war, the agency said that more than 4.5 million people returned home to date, from either abroad or displacement within the country. The war has been devastating for the people of #Ukraine, but IOM staff have been tirelessly working to address urgent needs, build resilience, and enable recovery. Read more 👉https://t.co/ePsafhCKUG pic.twitter.com/MesDKBgPi0 — IOM – UN Migration News (@UNMigrationNews) February 22, 2024 Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned on Thursday that there was “no end in sight” to the war, which had inflicted “immense suffering on millions of civilians”. “[It] continues to cause serious and widespread human rights violations, destroying lives and livelihoods,” he said in a statement, as he renewed his call for Russia to end the conflict. “The long-term impact of this war in Ukraine will be felt for generations,” he said. In its latest report, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it been able to corroborate the conflict-related deaths of 10,582 civilians since February 2022. It had verified that 19,875 civilians had been wounded. “The actual numbers are likely significantly higher,” it said. Russia’s full-scale armed attack on #Ukraine enters its 3rd year with no end in sight, causing widespread human rights violations, & destroying lives & livelihoods.@volker_turk calls to immediately cease the attack & for all human rights violations to be investigated. — UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) February 22, 2024 Resources low The IOM reported it had supported 6.5 million people in Ukraine and across 11 countries in Eastern Europe that were hosting refugees. But, it pointed out, needs were continuing to grow, outpacing resources. Some 14.6 million people remain in need of some form of humanitarian assistance in 2024, IOM said. For those who return home, the challenges are immense. Federico Soda, director of the IOM’s humanitarian response and recovery department, said returnees faced “insecurity, loss of livelihoods, damaged housing and infrastructure, and strained services”. Since the start of the war, the agency has received $957m in donations. Overall, the UN says it needs $4.2bn this year to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine and to refugees who have fled. Adblock test (Why?)
Speaker Johnson slams ‘desperate’ Biden after calling GOP ‘worse’ than segregationists at fundraiser
President Biden this week attacked the Republican Party as worse than segregationists, prompting backlash from party leaders. Biden made the remarks at a fundraiser on Wednesday, saying the current GOP is worse than the “real racists” he served alongside in the 1970s. “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race,” Biden told the crowd at the fundraiser, according to the White House press pool. BIDEN CAMPAIGN TROLLS TRUMP’S ‘WEAKEST OPERATION IN RECENT HISTORY’ AMID LAGGING CAMPAIGN CASH The president continued, “But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.” Biden’s words sparked backlash from GOP leaders — specifically Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who called the president “desperate” and “underwater in the polls.” “Outrageous,” Johnson said on social media in reaction to the president’s remarks. “The least popular President to seek re-election is now so desperate and so underwater in the polls he’s playing the race card from the bottom of the deck.” Strom Thurmond was a South Carolina senator and “Dixiecrat” presidential candidate who supported segregation. CNN REPORTER ASKS BIDEN IF NAVALNY’S BLOOD IS ‘ON THE HANDS OF HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ FOR BLOCKING UKRAINE AID The president’s choice to mention Thurmond was notable due to his noted relationship with the Dixiecrat, whom he eulogized following his death. In his eulogy more than 15 years ago for Thurmond, who later became a Republican, Biden said that while their “differences were profound,” he got to know him and “watched him change, oh so subtly.” “I went to the Senate emboldened, angered and outraged at age 29 about the treatment of African-Americans in this country, about everything for a period in his life Strom represented. But then I met the man,” Biden said at the time. Last year, Biden also claimed to have “literally” convinced Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act — when he was just 21 years old. “I was able to — literally, not figuratively — talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the Civil Rights Act before he died,” the president said at an event for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942. The Civil Rights Act passed the Senate on June 19, 1964. While Thurmond and Biden were contemporaries in the Senate, the president would have been 21 at the time of the landmark legislation’s passing — and nowhere near the Senate seat he won at 29 years old. Fox News Digital’s Alex Pappas and Houston Keene contributed to this report.
Haley on whether Trump will clinch Republican presidential nomination next month: ‘Let’s see if it happens’
Nikki Haley has repeatedly pledged to stay in the Republican presidential nomination race at least through March 5, when 15 states hold contests on Super Tuesday. The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in Donald Trump’s administration faces an extremely steep uphill climb to win the nomination against the former president, who remains the commanding frontrunner in the GOP race as he bids a third straight time for the White House. “We are focused on every state before us. Now it’s South Carolina on Saturday. Then it will be Michigan, then it will be Super Tuesday states and we’ll take it from there,” Haley told Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday. Her home state holds its GOP primary this weekend, with Michigan voting next Tuesday. TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREDICTS ‘A**-KICKING’ FOR HALEY IN HER HOME STATE, BUT SHE SAYS ‘I REFUSE TO QUIT’ Nearly 800 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday, with over 150 at stake over the following two weeks. Among the states holding contests on Super Tuesday are delegate-rich California and Texas, and other big states like Florida, Illinois and Ohio will hold winner-take-all primaries on March 19. Polling in many of those states indicates Trump holding large leads over Haley. The Trump campaign predicted in a memo this week that the former president would secure the nomination on March 19, even under a “most-generous model” for Haley. HALEY ACCUSES TRUMP OF SIDING WITH A DICTATOR AND TYRANT’ “Let’s see if it happens,” Haley quickly responded when asked by Fox News what she would do if Trump clinches the nomination next month. Trump grabbed a majority of the votes last month in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and won by a landslide a week and a half ago in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses. The latest public opinion surveys suggest the former president holds a double-digit lead over Haley in South Carolina’s primary, where early voting ends on Friday. “She’s getting clobbered,” Trump said at a recent rally in North Charleston, South Carolina. “She’s finished.” Haley for weeks has repeatedly said she doesn’t need to win her home state. TRUMP HOLDS VERY LARGE LEAD OVER HALEY IN HER HOME STATE PRIMARY “Success means being competitive. Closing the gap. Making sure we can continue to go forward as we go into Super Tuesday,” Haley stressed in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month in Columbia, South Carolina. “It’s just about keeping that momentum going. We got 20% in Iowa. We got 43% in New Hampshire. Let’s bring it a little bit closer so that we can get closer in to him [Trump] and make it more competitive going into Super Tuesday.” But Haley seems to be changing the goal posts. On the campaign trail in recent days and in Wednesday’s Fox News Digital interview, Haley said”‘our goal is that we’re giving voices a chance to be heard.” “Ten days after South Carolina, 21 more states and territories will have voted. Let’s let the people’s voices be heard.” Fox News’ Kirill Clark contributed to this report Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
130+ House, Senate Republicans join forces in opposition of Biden’s upcoming EV mandate
FIRST ON FOX: A bicameral coalition of more than 130 Republican lawmakers penned a letter to the White House on Thursday, urging it to withdraw proposed tailpipe emissions regulations, forcing a transition to electric vehicles (EV). The Republicans — led by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho — argued that the regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are a “de facto EV mandate” phaseout of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. They addressed the letter to President Biden and Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, which is expected to soon finalize the regulations. “President Biden has made his intentions clear,” Feenstra said in a statement. “He would rather force American families — who are already facing financial hardship under the weight of inflation spurred by trillions in wasteful government spending — to buy electric vehicles to advance his Green New Deal agenda than allow folks to choose the best car or truck for their families, businesses, and farms at an affordable price.” “This misguided decision also strengthens China while weakening our economy because the critical materials needed to manufacture electric vehicles are primarily sourced from China,” the Iowa lawmaker added. “Alongside Senator Mike Crapo, I’m proud to lead nearly 140 of my colleagues in urging President Biden to withdraw the proposed rule that would attempt to replace liquid fuels and combustion engines with unreliable and unaffordable electric vehicles.” BIDEN ADMIN REPORTEDLY DOUBLING DOWN ON GAS CAR CRACKDOWN Feenstra added that stories of Americans stranded in the cold waiting for their EV to charge during the winter provided further evidence that mandating EVs nationwide is “ridiculous.” Overall, under the proposal, which EPA unveiled in April 2023, the White House projected that 67% of new sedan, crossover, SUV and light truck purchases would be electric by 2032. In addition, up to 50% of bus and garbage truck, 35% of short-haul freight tractor and 25% of long-haul freight tractor purchases could also be electric by then. The White House said at the time that the tailpipe emissions proposal, which represents the most aggressive proposal of its kind ever proposed, would “accelerate the clean vehicle transition” and reduce oil imports by 20 billion barrels. 17 RETIRED MILITARY OFFICIALS RAISE ALARM ON BIDEN’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH However, the proposal has faced widespread opposition from Republicans, as well as some Democrats and energy industry groups who say it will reduce consumer choice, lead to higher prices and benefit China, which dominates the EV battery supply chain. In December, the House voted 221-197, with five Democrats joining 216 Republicans, to pass a resolution nixing the EPA’s proposal, but that bill has yet to receive a Senate vote. “The reality is that most Americans still prefer the internal combustion engine vehicle, and EPA’s proposed rule unnecessarily restricts consumer choice and forces expensive EVs onto Americans at a time when they can least afford it,” Feenstra, Crapo and the other Republicans wrote in their letter on Thursday. “Major U.S. automakers have recently lowered their targets and pulled back planned investments in EVs due to low consumer demand and struggling EV units,” they continued. “Further, automobile dealers across the country have said EVs continue to sit unpurchased on dealership lots, despite automakers accepting massive losses and unsustainable government incentives.” Late last year, thousands of auto dealers nationwide, including dealers in all 50 states and who collectively sell every major car brand, called on Biden to rescind the EPA proposal. They warned that, while some consumers are happy with EVs, demand is not keeping pace with supply and their lots are filling up with unwanted EVs. VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS UPHOLD STATE’S EV MANDATE DESPITE GROWING OPPOSITION: ‘DEFY COMMON SENSE’ Further, the Republicans argued the Biden administration’s proposal would make the U.S. more dependent on foreign supply chains, particularly those established in China. According to the International Energy Agency, China produces about 75% of all lithium-ion batteries and boasts 70% of production capacity for cathodes and 85% for anodes, two key parts of such batteries. “Consequences of rules and regulations driven by the Biden Administration’s radical green agenda drastically reduce consumer choice and the affordability of vehicles available to Americans,” said Crapo. “Americans deserve access to affordable, reliable vehicles fueled by American-made energy products, not those primarily supplied by China.” According to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry group that represents several major automakers, 9.3% of total car purchases in the U.S. last year were electric or plug-in hybrid, up from 7% in 2022. That uptick was driven largely by purchases in California and urban areas where the majority of EV purchases are made. At the same time, EVs remain far more expensive than traditional gas-powered cars. Even factoring in generous federal and state subsidies, the average cost of an EV is about $52,500, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, while the average subcompact car costs $24,000. In addition to Crapo, 23 other members of the Senate signed the letter, including Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Additionally, 113 House members signed the letter, including GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Manipur HC revokes inclusion order for Meitei community in ST list
The violent unrest in Manipur, triggered by dissent over Meitei community’s Scheduled Tribe status aspiration, underscores the complex demographic fabric of the region.
House GOP leaders jettison promise to vote on 12 individual spending bills
House Republican leaders are eyeing a plan to fund the government that would lump the planned 12 appropriations bills into two or three separate packages, Fox News Digital has learned, apparently backing away from an earlier vow to hold floor votes on each of the bills individually. It was a vow made by ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., when Republicans took control of the House after 2022 and has been upheld by House GOP leadership through as recently as November. The right had criticized the previous Democrat-led Congress for funding the government via a single massive “omnibus” bill, which they argued leads to more federal spending and gives less of a voice to rank-and-file members than voting on 12 separate bills would. But with the clock ticking until the first of two partial government shutdown deadlines next week, sources told Fox News Digital that GOP leaders are now considering turning the 12 individual bills into a series of “minibus” spending packages. JOHNSON CAUGHT BETWEEN WARRING HOUSE GOP FACTIONS: ‘DRIFTING TOWARD MOB RULE’ Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 House Republican, confirmed to Fox News Digital that passing minibuses is “on the table” and blamed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for not working with the House on its individual spending bills. “Due to the Schumer Senate’s inability to pass individual appropriations bills and the tight timeline we’re working with, all options are on the table including minibus appropriations bills,” Emmer said. “Thanks to Speaker Johnson’s leadership, the days of massive omnibus bills are behind us.” Current government funding expires on two deadlines, with some agencies and offices running out of money on March 1 while others end March 8. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., came up with the idea to separate the deadlines in order to avoid a single “omnibus” spending bill. HOUSE VOTES TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AFTER SPEAKER JOHNSON BUCKS GOP REBELS Johnson told Fox News Sunday in early November that the House was “committed to bringing 12 bills to the floor,” adding it “hasn’t been done in many years.” But a GOP lawmaker and a senior House GOP aide both told Fox News Digital that appropriators are at this point eyeing at least two minibuses to get government funding over the line. “I don’t think the parameters of the minibus will be exactly reflecting the two tracks we’re on, it’s probably going to be smaller than that. Maybe a subset of that, a minibus of two or three [appropriations] bills,” the lawmaker said. The lawmaker pointed out that while it’s been a goal for conservatives to vote on the 12 bills separately, it’s not really an aim for Democrats — whose votes House GOP leaders will need to pass anything in a divided Congress. “There are always going to be a handful of members who refuse to budge from voting on every one of the 12 bills separately,” the lawmaker said. “These negotiations are less focused on getting 216 Republicans to vote for them and more on getting the majority of Republicans and a majority of Democrats to vote for them, and that concern about voting on all 12 is not going to be as prominent.” The aide said, “I think when they started this, they wanted to do three minibuses. I think right now where they’re at is that they think they can do two.” GOP REBELS ADMIT DEFEAT IN SHORT-TERM SPENDING FIGHT AS JOHNSON STICKS BY BIPARTISAN DEAL While the end result would still avoid the prospect of a massive omnibus bill that most Republicans oppose, GOP lawmakers are already bristling at the idea of walking away from their promise to keep the 12 bills separate. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital he’s “not surprised, looking at the calendar and just how things have been [dragged] out.” Like Emmer, he accused the Senate of slow-walking the process and forcing House Republicans into this position. “What’s really still disheartening is the way the Senate has dragged out the appropriations process. It’s really disheartening to watch how Washington spends the people’s money, because there’s no real effort to have real negotiations early and take care of your business in an orderly fashion,” Donalds said. “They try to run everything up to the end of the clock and force you into bad deals.” A member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital that passing minibuses would amount to “failure” for Republicans. “Last year, we promised the American people that our House Republican majority would reject the Swamp’s status quo. Part of that promise includes handling government funding in a conservative and fiscally responsible manner, as well as passing each of the 12 appropriations bills,” Clyde said. “We certainly made progress by passing 7 of the spending bills last year but advancing minibuses or an omnibus to finish the job would be a failure, in my opinion.” Johnson’s office did not return a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Tennessee governor signs law allowing public officials to decline to perform marriages they disagree with
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill Wednesday allowing public officials to decline to perform marriages based on their “conscience or religious beliefs.” The measure, known as SB 596 – HB 878, stated that a person, “shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.” It was interpreted by LGBTQ activists to mean public officials could refuse to perform the ceremonies for same-sex marriages, but one of the bill’s primary sponsors in the state House, Republican Rep. Monty Fritts, said the bill could also combat elder abuse in situations where young people might be marrying someone for access to financial accounts, The Hill reported. One of the bill’s primary sponsors in the Tennessee Senate, Republican Sen. Mark Pody, argued last week that the legislative proposal had “nothing to do with getting a license.” TENNESSEE LAW RESTRICTING DRAG SHOWS ‘UNCONSTITUTIONALLY VAGUE,’ FEDERAL JUDGE RULES In a memo last March, when the measure first cleared the state House, Krista Lee Carsner, executive director of the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee, said the legislative proposal, “is not expected to have any significant impact on the number of marriages solemnized in Tennessee nor on the number of marriage licenses issued; therefore, any fiscal impact to state or local government is estimated to be not significant.” The bill was approved by state lawmakers last week and headed to the governor’s desk. The state legislature website indicated that Lee, a Republican, signed it into law on Wednesday. Lee has not yet publicly commented on the signing of the measure. Fox News Digital reached out to the governor’s office for comment on Thursday. ACLU CHALLENGES TENNESSEE CITY’S BAN ON DRAG PERFORMANCES WITH FEDERAL LAWSUIT Under the law, a public official cannot deny couples marriage licenses based on their religious beliefs. It does say that public officials, including county clerks, cannot be mandated to perform formal marriage ceremonies. The bill cleared the state House in March 2023, just days before the General Assembly decided to defer consideration of the bill until 2024, The Hill reported. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Last week, Molly Whitehorn, associate director of regional campaigns for LGBTQ advocacy group,the Human Rights Campaign, condemned the legislation, arguing that the bill “is intended to exclude LGBTQ+ folks from equal protection under the law,” according to The Hill.
Rep Ro Khanna, Bishop Barron clash on abortion, find common ground on religious liberty and immigration
FIRST ON FOX — Bishop Robert Barron — one of the most popular Catholic clergymen in the United States — held his first interview with a Democratic lawmaker on social issues important to the Catholic faith. California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna spoke with the bishop in the latest episode of “Bishop Barron Presents” to be released this week. Khanna and Barron discussed hard topics including religious liberty, Big Tech and abortion in a gesture of bridging ideological gaps. Khanna — a Hindu whose father was arrested for support of Mahatma Gandhi in India — expressed intense support for faith’s role in the public square and the necessity of religious belief in shaping good policy. In the interview, he praised the shared value of hesitation to respond to violence with violence found in both Hinduism and Christianity. HOW ST PATRICK’S SAYS IT WAS TRICKED INTO HOSTING TRANS ACTIVIST FUNERAL, WHY IT HELD MASS OF REPARATION “We need faith informing politics because otherwise, someone hits you, someone strikes you, and the human response is you want to strike them back,” Khanna said. “What faith at its best does is make us pause and ask ‘What is the ideal way to live?’” “That doesn’t mean we can always live in an ideal way in a fallen world […] but certainly it should help shape the action and give us pause,” he added. Barron, who serves as the bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester and previously served as an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, asked Khanna about perceived hostility toward religion coming from the Democratic Party. “What I’ve noticed in the last, say, 30 years, is the Left becoming increasingly hostile to religion,” Barron told Khanna. “Not even indifferent to it, I mean actively hostile to it. And that worries a lot of us.” Khanna recounted an incident in his youth when his family moved to a town that worried the new Hindu family would not be willing to put out the traditional Christmas candles that all other houses used to illuminate the neighborhood — a tradition the Khannas were more than willing to join. “In my view, having a robust engagement with people’s faith is a better way than telling people ‘Don’t have faith in the public square,’” Khanna told the bishop. MOST POPULAR PRIEST ON SOCIAL MEDIA REACTS TO VIRAL TIKTOKS ABOUT GOD, INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BIBLE Barron also pressed Khanna on key social issues, including immigration and abortion. Regarding immigration, Khanna said that while there needs to be recognition that immigration can be valuable to the United States, some in the Democratic Party may have lost touch with basic border policies. “There’s a sense — I think from some, and I don’t want to be unfair about it — but there is a sense from some maybe on our side that we are not doing enough to protect the border,” Khanna told Barron. “We, in my view, should be funding border agents, we should be funding immigration judges, we should be funding technology. We should be saying clearly that a nation needs safe and secure borders and not be demonizing the border patrol or not funding it.” Abortion proved the most contentious issue during the interview, with a calm but increasingly tense back-and-forth on the humanity of unborn babies. “The framework in my standing, California, is that you can have an abortion up until viability. And then after that, it’s an exception for the health of the mother in that circumstance, which is very, very rare,” Khanna told Barron in response to the bishop’s assertion that abortion is the single biggest issue responsible for Catholics disaffiliating from the Democratic Party. The representative continued, “Now, my view is that that decision should be for the woman and her doctor in getting that healthcare. But I think the challenge is that we also start to talk about these exceedingly rare cases that then become the conversation — where that’s not the majority of the abortions by any stretch, probably less than one or two percent.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Even if that were the case, that is still a lot of babies being murdered from our perspective. And how is that ever acceptable in a decent society?” Barron asked. The bishop continued, “Now that the thing has moved to the state level — well good, I’ll take any restriction I can get. So if Democrats are willing to say ‘We’ll restrict [abortion] here or there,’ great — and I think the Church would embrace that and say, ‘At least we’re moving in the right direction.’ But I think we need to have a conversation about life and the human being.” The “Bishop Barron Presents” interview will premiere on Feb. 22.
Biden calls Putin a ‘crazy SOB’ at California fundraiser
President Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” at a California fundraiser, prompting a flurry of angry responses from the Kremlin and Putin’s allies. Biden made the comment Wednesday at a campaign event in San Francisco while speaking about climate change. “This is the last existential threat, it is climate. We have a crazy SOB that guy, Putin others. And we always have to be worried about a nuclear conflict,” Biden said. “But the existential threat to humanity is climate.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Thursday by saying that Biden’s comment was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy,” according to Reuters. WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS FEEL HEAT FROM ADMINISTRATION OVER COVERAGE OF BIDEN, TRUMP: ‘NAGGING AND COMPLAINING’ “The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin,” Peskov added. “But it debases those who use such vocabulary.” “Has Mr Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself,” Peskov also told Reuters. The news agency reports that former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the existential threat to the world is from “useless old geezers, like Biden himself” and that the “senile” president is “ready to start a war with Russia.” HALEY ACCUSES TRUMP OF SIDING WITH A ‘DICTATOR AND A TYRANT’ AS SHE BLASTS HIM OVER LACK OF PUTIN CRITICISM Biden also criticized Putin and his allies last week following the mysterious death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison. Biden said Friday that there is “no doubt” it was a “consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” “People across Russia and around the world are mourning Navalny today, because he was so many things that Putin was not,” Biden continued. “He was brave, he was principled, he was dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and where it applied to everybody. Navalny believed in that Russia, that Russia, he knew it was a cause worth fighting for and obviously even dying for.” Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague contributed to this report.
Former Barcelona star Alves sentenced to four and a half years for rape
Former Brazil footballer Dani Alves found guilty of 2022 nightclub assault in Catalan capital. Brazilian footballer Dani Alves has been found guilty and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022. The top court in Spain’s Catalonia region on Thursday also ordered Alves, who had maintained throughout that the sex was consensual, to pay 150,000 euros ($163,000) to the victim. “The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven,” the Provincial Court of Barcelona said in a statement. The prosecutor had sought a nine-year prison term for Alves. The verdict may be appealed. The 40-year-old former Barcelona defender was arrested in January last year and has been held on remand since then. The case has attracted significant attention not only because of Alves’s profile but because gender violence has become an increasingly dominant topic in Spain’s public discourse. It has been one of the most high-profile trials in Spain since a law was passed in 2022 that made consent a key element in sexual assault cases and increased the minimum prison time for assaults involving violence. Alves’s lawyers were not immediately reachable for comment. “We are satisfied as the sentence recognises what we’ve been saying all along: that the victim was telling the truth and that she suffered,” lawyer David Saenz told reporters outside the courthouse, adding that his team would still analyse whether the sentence corresponds to the gravity of the crime. Alves won more than 40 trophies for Brazil and clubs that included Barcelona, Sevilla, Juventus and Paris St Germain. After his arrest, he was fired by his then-employers, the Mexican club Pumas UNAM. Adblock test (Why?)