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    Conversation airing on Sunday is said to cover “wide-ranging” topics

  • French billionaire politician Olivier Dassault 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.

  • Mississippi governor says his goal 'has never been to get rid of the virus' in defense of his decision to end COVID-19 mask mandate

    Several states last week announced plans to end mask mandates despite warnings from experts that such decisions were premature and could lead to surges.

  • Lauren Boebert, who once expressed support for QAnon, accused Democrats of being 'obsessed with conspiracy theories'

    GOP Rep. Lauren Boerbert of Colorado has previously said she hopes the QAnon conspiracy theory was real but denied being a follower.

  • A High School in Ohio Is Giving Students a Choice: Keep Up With Remote Learning — Or You Have to Come Back to the Classroom

    Far too many students were skipping online classes and failing this fall at Shaw High School in East Cleveland, one of the poorest districts in the nation and that the state had declared in “academic distress” before the pandemic. As absences increased through the holiday season, that “academic distress” was only getting worse. “We saw […]

  • People threaten to call ICE on Texas Mexican restaurant that kept mask rule, it says

    “It’s just heartbreaking.”

  • Queen warns we must keep in touch with family to 'transcend division' in Commonwealth Day message

    The Queen has stressed the importance of keeping in touch with family to “transcend boundaries or division” in her annual Commonwealth Day message. Her Majesty, 94, focused on a message of unity, describing how the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic had created a “deeper appreciation” of the need to connect to others. It came as the world awaited the explosive revelations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their Oprah Winfrey interview, as the Royal family braced itself for the damaging fallout. The Queen will not watch the controversial interview, which is being broadcast by CBS in the US at 1am UK time, but will receive a full breakfast briefing from aides in the morning. The audio message celebrated collaboration, but it stood in contrast to the troubles facing the monarch's family. The Duchess of Sussex, 39, is expected to claim she felt silenced by "The Firm" and unprotected. Senior royals including the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined forces to appear in a special BBC One programme to mark Commonwealth Day, broadcast on the BBC on Sunday just hours before the two-hour Oprah television special. The Queen used her annual message, below, to highlight the “friendship, spirit of unity and achievements” around the world and the benefits of working together in the fight against the virus.

  • A Trump appointee who was arrested after participating in the Capitol riot asked a judge if he could be transferred to a cell with no cockroaches

    Federico Klein is believed to the first Trump appointee arrested in connection with the Capitol riot.

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

    An estimated 4,300 people at the Oakland Coliseum received a suboptimal dosage of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on March 1, KTVU reported.

  • People threaten to call ICE on Texas Mexican restaurant that kept mask rule, it says

    “It’s just heartbreaking.”

  • Queen will ramp up engagements to 'show where the focus is' following Sussexes' Oprah interview

    The Queen will increase her official engagements this week as the Royal family responds to the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ Oprah Winfrey interview with a clear message about where the “focus” lies. Her Majesty, 94, is expected to be seen at least once this week as she carries out official duties via Zoom from Windsor Castle. All other senior members of the Royal family will also be highly visible as they conduct a raft of engagements, including marking International Women’s Day. A senior Buckingham Palace aide said: “We will see them getting on with the day job. “There are several engagements in the diary – they’ve been there for a while.” The volley of royal engagements will leave the public in no doubt about “where the focus is,” one source said. No members of the Royal family were expected to stay up into the early hours of this morning to watch the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ explosive Oprah Winfrey interview. But they were each expected to receive a detailed breakfast briefing from aides, highlighting the main allegations and topics of discussion. A palace aide said they would not “rush to respond” to the issues raised by the Sussexes and reserved the right not to comment at all. One source told a newspaper that the couple were “playing with fire”, adding: “It's very high stakes because there's a lot that could come out in the wash that hasn't been told." While they were braced for damaging revelations about racism and the perceived failure to protect and guide the Sussexes, they were also hoping not to be drawn into the fray. Aides said the mood at Buckingham Palace ahead of the interview was calm, as courtiers maintained the view that “this, too, will pass.” One signalled the belief that the Sussexes were unlikely to win the PR battle as they said: “History teaches us that only the interviewer wins from these programmes.” The Palace has repeatedly insisted that the focus should be on children’s return to school and the vaccination programme, rather than the “media circus” surrounding the Sussexes. The family also remains concerned about the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, who has spent almost three weeks in hospital and remains at the King Edward VII hospital in central London, where he is recovering from a heart procedure. The Cambridges are understood to have been focused on Prince George and Princess Charlotte's return to school this week and have relocated from Anmer Hall, in Norfolk, where they spent lockdown, to Kensington Palace. Prince Louis, who turns three in April, is also expected to start nursery soon. The contrast between the Sussexes’ litany of complaints and the Queen’s own attitude to self-sacrifice was highlighted on Sunday as the monarch released her annual Commonwealth Day message just hours ahead of the Oprah interview. In it, she has stressed the importance of keeping in touch with family to “transcend boundaries or division,” focusing on a message of unity.

  • Prominent Georgia family sued their local grocery clerk after she made claims on Facebook about their role in the Capitol riots, report says

    Katheryn and Thelma Cagle have been credited with organizing busloads of Georgians that headed to the US Capitol on January 6, reported the Washington Post.

  • People threaten to call ICE on Texas Mexican restaurant that kept mask rule, it says

    “It’s just heartbreaking.”

  • Senate COVID relief bill paves way for student debt forgiveness through executive action

    The Senate version of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which cleared the chamber Saturday, was amended to remove taxes on forgiven student loan debt through 2025, the Wall Street Journal reports. Why it matters: The provision, which was included by Democrats this week, paves the way for President Biden to forgive student debt through executive action — one of his campaign promises — without burdening thousands of Americans with a new tax. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeFederal law usually treats forgiven debt as taxable income. Biden's pledge to forgive up to $10,000 in debt per individual would have increased "the tax bills of many households by a larger amount than the monthly payments they would have paid on the debt for that year," former Obama administration official Adam Looney tells the Journal.Where it stands: The House is now expected to pass the bill for President Biden to sign it into law.The government will lose some $44 million in revenue because of the provision, WSJ writes, citing the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.Details: All federal student loans are eligible, including state education loans, institutional loans, private student loans and private parent loans.More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

  • Halle Bailey defends sister, Chloe, after Mathew Knowles’ Beyoncé remarks

    Actress and singer Halle Bailey has come to her sister’s defense after Chloe Bailey was dragged by Mathew Knowles, the father and former manager of Beyonce. “How amazing is it that @ChloeBailey is already an icon,” Halle wrote on Friday. When Henry told him that fans constantly compare Chloe to a younger Bey, Knowles, who managed Destiny’s Child, called it “insulting,” Ace Showbiz reports.

  • Nicolas Cage just got married to Riko Shibata after spending most of the pandemic apart. Here's a timeline of the relationship.

    They wed at the Wynn Las Vegas on February 16, a date chosen to honor Cage's late father, August Coppola's birthday.

  • Two More Women Accuse Cuomo of Sexual Misconduct: Reports

    Two additional women accused New York governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment on Saturday, including a former press aide who detailed an uncomfortable embrace in a dimly lit hotel room and an assistant who said he made her feel like “just a skirt.” Former press aide Karen Hinton told the Washington Post that Cuomo, then head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, forced her into a “very long, too long, too tight, too intimate” embrace in a dimly lit Los Angeles hotel room in December 2000. The married press aide retreated but said “he pulls me back for another intimate embrace.” “I thought at that moment it could lead to a kiss, it could lead to other things, so I just pull away again, and I leave,” said Hinton, who is married to lobbyist Howard Glaser, a longtime Cuomo ally who worked as his director of state operations and senior policy advisor until 2014. A representative for the governor denied the allegation, telling the Washington Post the incident “did not happen.” “Karen Hinton is a known antagonist of the Governor’s who is attempting to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with made up allegations from 21 years ago,” Peter Ajemian said. “All women have the right to come forward and tell their story,” he said, though he called Hinton’s accusation “reckless.” Meanwhile, Ana Liss, a policy and operations aide who worked for Cuomo from 2013 to 2015, told the Wall Street Journal the governor acted inappropriately with her as well, calling her “sweetheart” and asking if she had a boyfriend. She detailed a May 2014 encounter with the governor in Albany’s executive mansion where she said the governor called her sweetheart, hugged her, kissed both of her cheeks, put his arm around her lower back and grabbed her waist as they turned to have their photo taken by a photographer. “It’s not appropriate, really, in any setting,” she said. A spokesman for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, defended the behavior as par for the course at public receptions. “Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures,” Azzopardi said. “At the public open house mansion‎ reception there are hundreds of people and he poses for hundreds of pictures. That’s what people in politics do.” Liss and Hinton are two of five women to accuse the governor of sexual harassment. Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, on Wednesday published an essay detailing alleged sexual harassment she endured while working for the governor, including unwanted kissing and touching. She wrote in the essay that Cuomo, with the help of top female aides, “created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected.” She also detailed an increasingly uncomfortable relationship she developed with the governor, in which he sought her out and set up one-on-one meetings with her. Boylan recounted a flight she shared with the governor from an event in October 2017 in which Cuomo allegedly said, “Let’s play strip poker.” On another occasion, Boylan says the pair met one-on-one for a briefing when Cuomo allegedly kissed her. Days later, former health-policy adviser Charlotte Bennett alleged that the governor harassed her in spring 2020, according to the New York Times. Bennett, 25, said Cuomo asked intrusive questions about her sex life, including an incident on June 5 during which the governor asked whether she was monogamous and if she had sex with older men. Cuomo said that he “never made advances toward Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate.” However, the governor did not deny making the statements in question. He has also denied Boylan’s claims. Anna Ruch, a former Biden campaign worker who has not worked for Cuomo, accused the governor of giving her an unwanted kiss on the cheek at a wedding in 2019. She said the action left her “confused and shocked and embarrassed.” New York attorney general Letitia James announced on Monday, after Boylan and Bennett came forward, that her office has received a referral from the Cuomo administration, allowing for an independent investigation of their harassment claims.

  • Man dies when gunfire erupts near 'George Floyd Square' in Minneapolis as Chauvin trial looms

    A manhunt was underway Sunday in Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of a man near "George Floyd Square."

  • Security beefed up at Trump Tower as ex-president plans first visit to New York since leaving office

    Security is being stepped up outside Trump Tower in New York ahead of the former president's first visit to the city since leaving the White House. Donald Trump was expected to arrive in Manhattan on Sunday night having moved to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in January. Speculation was fuelled by reports of police planning to augment security outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the building where he launched his bid for the presidency in 2015. The area has been the scene of anti-Trump protests in recent years, and tension has been raised by the January 6 Capitol riot when his supporters attempted to overturn the result of last year's presidential election.

  • Trump said he would travel the 5,000 miles from Mar-a-Lago to Alaska to bury the political career of GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski in revenge for her impeachment vote

    Trump promised to back any 2022 challenger to the senator. Murkowski called on him to resign after the January 6 Capitol riot.