Pence says ‘history will hold Donald Trump accountable’ for January 6

Former Vice President Mike Pence made his most blistering comments yet about former President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol during remarks Saturday evening at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, DC.

CNN

Silicon Valley Bank Will Not Be Bailed Out: Yellen

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday morning that the federal government would not bail out Silicon Valley Bank, but is working closely with banking regulators to help protect the thousands of depositors who are concerned about losing their money.

Time

OMB director fires back at Republicans over debt ceiling

Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young reiterated Sunday that the President Joe Biden wants the debt ceiling to be raised without conditions.

Politico

Despite efforts, Pentagon finds increase in reports of sexual assault in military academies

A Pentagon report notes a troubling increase in sexual assault in America’s military academies. An anonymous survey conducted by the Department of Defense found there were increases across the board in unwanted sexual conduct during the 2021 to 2022 school year. The numbers are the highest the Defense Department has ever recorded. 

One in five female students say they experienced unwanted sexual contact, and more than three in five say they experienced sexual harassment. It’s increased from the last time the survey was conducted in 2018. 

CBS News

Biden’s plan to tax the rich, explained

The new proposed budget would have billionaires and multi-millionaires footing the bill in an attempt to reduce the federal deficit.

Vox

House Dems seek to update immigration law, create path to legal status

A group of House Democrats are working to create a pathway for legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants through a change in already-existing federal law — one that’s been enacted more than a handful of times before.

Rep. Lou Corea, D-Calif., headlines a group of Democrats from California, New York and Illinois that plans to reintroduce the “Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929” bill onThursday.

Spectrum News

A crime bill was supposed to fix Washington DC’s problems. Instead, it polarized a city

The new code revised 120-year-old criminal laws, but the effort was stymied by Joe Biden and an unlikely alliance of Republicans and Democrats

The Guardian

Democratic leaders want the party to stop its Kamala Harris pile-on ahead of 2024

Harris diehards aren’t the only ones who say they have had enough. Embedded in many top Democrats’ thinking as Biden appears headed toward a reelection campaign announcement, according to CNN’s conversations with three dozen leading Democrats, is fear that years of Harris negativity could now prove a political problem. Any running mate is a heartbeat away from the presidency, they say, but that’s a different proposition when the heart in question has been beating for more than 80 years.

CNN

The Horrifying and Shameful Return of Child Labor

Bipartisan buck-passing and a ramshackle immigration system have revived Victorian degradation.

The Nation

Judge says GOP operatives violated Ku Klux Klan Act with robocall scheme

Last fall, Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman pleaded guilty in Ohio to telecommunications fraud for running the robocall scheme, which involved ominous phone calls to residents of largely Black neighborhoods in the lead-up to 2020 presidential election. The calls floated potential legal or financial ramifications for residents who voted in the election.

MSNBC

Republicans look to end Florida’s abortion-haven legacy

Florida’s proposal signals that the battle over reproductive rights will continue long after the Supreme Court’s decision.

Politico

West Virginia Senate passes bill to outlaw marriages for those under 16 years old

A child marriage bill was passed by the West Virginia Senate on Friday night after it was changed to prohibit anyone younger than 16 from getting married and to ban age gaps of more than four years for 16- and 17-year-olds.

USA Today

Progressives praise Biden for tax hike plan – but Pentagon budget stirs anger

Progressive Democrats have welcomed large chunks of Joe Biden’s latest budget request, but there is also anger and disappointment on key issues that the left of the party holds dear, notably defense spending and immigration policy.

The Guardian

What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights

Masha Gessen on the public discourse over trans identity, the real reasons for the culture war over gender, and how well-meaning people can do better.

New Yorker

New Air Force One will stay blue and white, Biden decides

President Joe Biden is sticking with a blue-and-white color scheme for the exterior of the replacement Air Force One aircraft, the first of which is expected to be delivered in four years.

The Air Force said late Friday that the light blue on the new model of the modified 747s that transport the president will be a little bit deeper and more modern in tone than the robin’s egg blue on the versions of the aircraft currently in use.

AP News

Alleged George Santos scam victims speak out

Embattled Rep. George Santos has been under fire from nearly the moment he was elected last year and is now under investigation over possible ethics violations.

Constituents, watchdog groups, and several Washington D.C. leaders including members of his own Republican party, have chastised him for lying about his previous jobs, and even his religion.

But for some people who interacted with Santos in the past, and alleged to have been scammed by him, his lies were personal.

ABC News

Thousands evacuated after California levee breached

More than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders in central California over the weekend after a levee was breached following heavy rainfall. 

The Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding after another atmospheric river pounded the state. Officials had warned residents to leave their homes, but some who stayed had to be rescued from flood waters. 

The Hill

Federal judge denies restraining order against Wisconsin tribe that blockaded roads to non-tribal homes

Order comes amid monthlong standoff over expired agreements allowing town roads to cross tribal land

WPR

The scrutiny of Kamala Harris is nothing new for women of color

Republicans have made Harris the face of Biden’s immigration policy. However, Harris isn’t scoring high within her party either.

LGBTQ Nation

A Kids YouTuber Uses They/Them Pronouns. Some Parents Just Found Out — And Lost Their Minds

‘Songs for Littles’ YouTuber Jules Hoffman says they write songs “to remind kids that they’re going to be loved, no matter what”

Rolling Stone

The Color Purple Author Alice Walker Defends J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia

The Color Purple author Alice Walker is taking the defensive when it comes to controversial Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

Walker, once best known for her novel The Color Purple, has more recently been known for supporting anti-semetic conspiracy theories and now, is joining in on TERF conspiracy theories, saying that J.K. Rowling is right, and trans people exist because we use the word “guy” in a gender-neutral way.

Out

The Supreme Court and the Indian Child Welfare Act: What’s at Stake in Brackeen Case

Brackeen v. Haaland could change the future of Indigenous rights.

Teen Vogue

Is Colorism The Reason Dominicans Are Treating Haitians So Horribly?

Colorism is revealing the anti-Blackness that is embedded in the Latino Community.

The Root

India government opposes recognising same-sex marriage

The Indian government opposes recognising same-sex marriages, it said in a filing to the Supreme Court on Sunday, urging the court to reject challenges to the current legal framework lodged by LGBT couples.

Reuters

The Big Break-up: How Africa is gradually splitting into two continents and giving rise to a new ocean

Scientists say Africa is peeling apart into two parts that will eventually lead to the formation of a new ocean. While the process will take millions of years to complete, this will split present-day Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania from the rest of the continent, as per reports

Firstpost

Illegal migration bill is ‘cruelty without purpose’, says Archbishop of York

The government’s new asylum and migration law “amounts to cruelty without purpose” and is “immoral and inept”, the Archbishop of York has said in a powerful intervention over plans unveiled last week.

Stephen Cottrell’s condemnation came as a coalition of more than 350 charities, businesses, unions and legal groups condemned Rishi Sunak’s “cruel and unworkable” plans to detain and immediately deport those coming to the UK in small boats.

The Guardian

Half a million Israelis join latest protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, organizers say

Half a million Israelis took to the streets in the tenth consecutive week of protests against plans by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the country’s judicial system, organizers claimed.

Israel has a population of just over 9 million, so if organizers’ estimates are correct, about 5% of Israelis came out to voice their opposition to the proposed reforms.

CNN

Hong Kong jails Tiananmen Square vigil organizers

Three former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen square vigil — which mourns the lives lost in the 1989 massacre during a pro-democracy protest — have been sentenced to jail for four and a half months after a court found them guilty under the national security law.

Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong were the leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China which is known for holding candlelight vigils to mark the Tiananmen square annivarsary.

Deutsche Welle

Why Canada asylum seekers are using unofficial US border crossings

A sharp increase in asylum seekers entering Canada through unofficial crossings — including many whose bus fares were paid by New York City and aid agencies — is intensifying the pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reach an agreement with President Joe Biden to close off the entire land border to most asylum seekers.

Reuters

More than 1,300 migrants brought ashore in Italy amid multiple rescues

Italian coast guard and navy vessels have brought hundreds of rescued migrants toward shore.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of migrants overflowed from a shelter on a tiny tourist island.

The arrivals came in the face of a crackdown by Italy’s right-wing government on people smugglers announced only two days earlier.

Metro

26 Young Americans Caught With Suitcases Full of Weed At UK Airports in 2 Months

Bringing bulk amounts of weed on flights has previously been viewed as high risk with relatively low return. VICE World News looks at what could be behind this phenomenon.

Vice

Iran and Saudi Arabia signal the start of a new era, with China front and center

When Saudi Arabia and Iran buried the hatchet in Beijing on Friday, it was a game-changing moment both for a Middle East shaped by their decades-old rivalry, and for China’s growing influence in the oil-rich region.

CNN