McManus: McConnell wants to use the filibuster to block Biden's agenda. Here's how Biden can outfox him

Now the measure, in all likelihood, will go to the Senate to die. Under the rules of the 100-member Senate, it takes 60 votes to end debate and move most bills to a vote. A filibuster used to mean a senator actually had to stand and speechify, refusing to give up the floor and thus keeping a bill from coming to a vote.

Police officer accused of killing George Floyd faces extra charge, with trial set to begin Monday

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer accused of killing George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, is set to begin on Monday despite a late court ruling which added another charge to the indictment. On Friday the Minnesota Appeals Court decreed that the jury must also consider whether Chauvin should be convicted of third-degree murder, which carries a maximum 25-year jail term. Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder, but following a public outcry, prosecutors substituted the more serious offence of second-degree murder, which carries a 40-year maximum jail term, and second-degree manslaughter.

• 
  Key players in trial of ex-officer charged in Floyd's death

  Associated Press
• 
  Floyd's cause of death, ex-cop's force will be keys at trial

  Associated Press

Austria suspends AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine batch after death

Austrian authorities have suspended inoculations with a batch of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine as a precaution while investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after the shots, a health agency said on Sunday. "The Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) has received two reports in a temporal connection with a vaccination from the same batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the district clinic of Zwettl" in Lower Austria province, it said. One 49-year-old woman died as a result of severe coagulation disorders, while a 35-year-old woman developed a pulmonary embolism and is recovering, it said.

Myanmar coup: Party official dies in custody after security raids

An official from Aung San Suu Kyi's party has died in custody in Myanmar after being arrested during raids by security forces in Yangon. On Sunday the body of U Khin Maung Latt was released to his family, who were reportedly told that he had died after fainting. The UN says more than 50 people have been killed since the military detained Ms Suu Kyi, Myanmar's democratically elected leader, on 1 February.

• 
  Myanmar protests, after death of Suu Kyi official

  Reuters Videos
• 
  Unions call for total strike in Myanmar; Suu Kyi party official dies in custody

  Reuters

Pope to visit Iraq church damaged by IS militants

The scenes are seared in the memory of the Rev. Ammar Altony Yako: A church that for decades has been the pride of the town of Qaraqosh, a center for Christian life in Iraq, stood badly scarred. Yako saw it in 2016 when Qaraqosh was liberated from more than two years of Islamic State group rule. Scrawled on a wall was the proclamation, the "Islamic State will remain.”

• 
  'Peace more powerful than war', Pope Francis says in Iraq's ruined city of Mosul

  Reuters
• 
  Pope Francis prayed in ruined churches destroyed by the Islamic State during a historic first Papal visit to Iraq

  Business Insider

Aerials show huge blaze after oil facility strike in Syria

A suspected missile strike on an oil-loading facility used by Turkey-backed opposition forces in northern Syria sparked a massive blaze across a large area where oil tankers are normally parked, aerial and satellite images show. Syrian opposition groups and at least one war monitor blamed Russia for the strike Friday night near the towns of Jarablus and al-Bab, near the border with Turkey. In a report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said Russian warships in the Mediterranean had fired three missiles that struck primitive oil refineries and tanker trucks in the region.

U.S. Senator Manchin says filibusters could be made more 'painful'

Centrist Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a pivotal vote in the U.S. Senate, on Sunday advocated making the procedural maneuver called the filibuster more "painful" to do, with Democrats concerned about Republicans obstructing President Joe Biden's legislative agenda. Some Democrats have advocated eliminating the filibuster to prevent Republicans from blocking Biden's initiatives. White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield made clear on Sunday that the president is not calling for ending the filibuster.

• 
  Joe Manchin Signals Openness To Filibuster Reform As Push For Abolishing It Grows

  HuffPost
• 
  Manchin says he’s open to tweaking Senate filibuster rules

  MarketWatch

Who truly was the most dishonest president?

Former President Donald Trump was often accused of having a complete disregard for the truth. When Saddam Hussein invaded the oil-rich emirate of Kuwait in August 1990, President George HW Bush snarled: "This will not stand." The Kuwaiti government-in-exile promptly hired a US public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, whose Washington DC office was run by Bush's former chief of staff.

India sets up holding center for Rohingya in Kashmir

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have sent at least 168 Rohingya refugees to a holding center, police said Sunday, in a process that they say is for the deportation of thousands of the refugees living in the region. The move began Saturday following a directive from the region's home department to identify Rohingya living in the southern city of Jammu, said Inspector-General Mukesh Singh. “All of them are illegally living here and we have begun identifying them,” Singh said.

Russia scores points with vaccine diplomacy, but snags arise

Russia's boast in August that it was the first country to authorize a coronavirus vaccine led to skepticism at the time because of its insufficient testing. Six months later, as demand for the Sputnik V vaccine grows, experts are raising questions again — this time, over whether Moscow can keep up with all the orders from the countries that want it. Slovakia got 200,000 doses on March 1, even though the European Medicines Agency, the European Union's pharmaceutical regulator, only began reviewing its use on Thursday in an expedited process.

• 
  EU regulator urges caution on Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine

  Reuters
• 
  Vaccine diplomacy: Putin seeks to leverage Sputnik V to build Russia’s global influence

  MarketWatch

French billionaire politician killed in helicopter crash

French billionaire Olivier Dassault was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash, a police source said, with President Emmanuel Macron paying tribute to the 69-year old conservative politician. Dassault was the eldest son of late French billionaire industrialist Serge Dassault, whose namesake Dassault Aviation, builds the Rafale war planes and owns Le Figaro newspaper. "Olivier Dassault loved France.

Biden signs executive order to expand voting rights: ‘If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide’

President Joe Biden marked the 56-year anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama by signing an executive order to protect and strengthen nationwide voting access, while calling on states to expand voting rights for all eligible Americans. The order was described by the White House as an “initial step” towards securing voting rights just days after the passage of HR1, legislation focusing on expanding access to mail-in voting and making it easier for Americans to register to vote. The right to vote is sacred and fundamental — and H.R. 1 is urgently needed to protect that right, to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen our democracy.

• 
  On Bloody Sunday Anniversary, Biden Signs Executive Order To Promote Voting Rights

  HuffPost
• 
  Biden marks Selma anniversary with order to expand voting access

  Reuters

B-52s again fly over Mideast in US military warning to Iran

A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran. The flight by the two heavy bombers came as a pro-Iran satellite channel based in Beirut broadcast Iranian military drone footage of an Israeli ship hit by a mysterious explosion only days earlier in the Mideast. While the channel sought to say Iran wasn't involved, Israel has blamed Tehran for what it described as an attack on the vessel.

At Dubai airport, travelers' eyes become their passports

Dubai's airport, the world's busiest for international travel, can already feel surreal, with its cavernous duty-free stores, artificial palm trees, gleaming terminals, water cascades and near-Arctic levels of air conditioning. It's the latest artificial intelligence program the United Arab Emirates has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic, contact-less technology the government promotes as helping to stem the spread of the virus. Dubai's airport started offering the program to all passengers last month.

Rights groups call for investigation into killings of Philippine activists

Human rights groups called on the Philippine government to investigate what they said was the use of "lethal force" during police raids on Sunday that left at least nine activists dead. The raids in four provinces south of Manila resulted in the death of an environmental activist as well as a coordinator of left-wing group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, among others, and resulted in the arrest of four others, activist groups said. "These raids appear to be part of a coordinated plan by the authorities to raid, arrest, and even kill activists in their homes and offices," Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said in a statement.

Thousands of people who visited a COVID-19 vaccination site in California received the wrong dosage, report says

An estimated 4,300 people received less of the Pfizer vaccine than they should have, KTVU reported. Too little of the vaccine was administered due to a problem with new syringes, the media outlet said. California health officials have said patients will be informed "immediately" if they need a booster.

China tells Biden to reverse 'dangerous practice' on Taiwan

China's foreign minister warned the Biden administration on Sunday to roll back former President Donald Trump's “dangerous practice” of showing support for Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as its own territory. The claim to Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949, is an “insurmountable red line,” Wang Yi said at a news conference during the annual meeting of China's ceremonial legislature. The United States has no official relations with Taiwan but extensive informal ties.

Yemen's Houthis attack Saudi oil heartland with drones, missiles

Yemen's Houthi forces fired drones and missiles at the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry on Sunday, including a Saudi Aramco facility at Ras Tanura vital to petroleum exports, in what Riyadh called a failed assault on global energy security. Announcing the attacks, the Houthis, who have been battling a Saudi-led coalition for six years, also said they attacked military targets in the Saudi cities of Dammam, Asir and Jazan. The Saudi energy ministry said an oil storage yard at Ras Tanura, the site of an oil refinery and the world's biggest offshore oil loading facility, was attacked with a drone coming from the sea.

'Lesson fully received': An 18-year-old charged in the Capitol riot says he was 'wrong' and begged a judge to release him

The youngest suspect charged in the Capitol riots wrote a letter begging a judge to release him. Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, previously boasted on Instagram of storming the Capitol and fighting inside. Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, faces a slew of federal charges related to the January 6 insurrection, including assault on a federal officer, engaging in physical violence, violent entry or disorderly conduct, and civil disorder.

• 
  ‘I will not step one foot out of line’: 18-year-old charged in Capitol riot begs for release

  The Independent
• 
  18-year-old Capitol rioter wants to go home to his ‘loving family’ who drove him to DC

  NY Daily News

‘Resign you disgusting monster’: Pressure on Cuomo increases as more accusers come forward

One of the women accusing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of making unwanted suggestive comments toward them and touching them inappropriately called for him to resign as two more former aides came forward with stories of their own uncomfortable interactions with the man. “Resign you disgusting monster,” Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Mr Cuomo, said in a tweet. Mr Cuomo's former press aide Karen Hinton said she experienced a "very long, too long, too tight, too intimate" hug from the governor while the two were in a dimly lit hotel room in December 2000.

• 
  2 More Former Aides Allege Uncomfortable Encounters With Andrew Cuomo

  HuffPost
• 
  Cuomo Refuses To Step Down, Says Accuser Has 'Political' Motives

  HuffPost

Afghan policewoman hurt, husband dies in targeted attack

The former head of women police in a southern Afghanistan province was seriously wounded and her husband — also a police officer — was killed Sunday in an attack by unidentified gunmen, provincial officials said. Omer Zwak, spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor, said unidentified gunmen opened fire on the couple in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The attack came amid a surge in violence in the war-weary country.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government says restores ties with Qatar

Yemen's internationally recognized government said on Sunday it had restored diplomatic ties with Qatar after four years of boycott led by Saudi Arabia and joined by other Arab countries. Saudi Arabia and its allies had agreed at a summit in January to end the political row which led to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cutting trade, travel and diplomatic ties with Qatar in mid-2017. Yemen's Saudi-backed government had followed suit.

A judge questioned the 'QAnon Shaman' about his '60 Minutes+' interview that was billed to the jail as a call with his lawyer

A federal judge questioned the "QAnon Shaman" and his lawyer over a "60 Minutes+" interview. The judge asked whether the lawyer attempted "subterfuge" in arranging the interview. A federal judge on Friday questioned the self-described "QAnon Shaman" and his lawyer following his appearance this week on 60 Minutes+, pressing them about whether they went through the necessary channels to set up an interview.