Navalny attacks Putin Families meet Senators

A gaunt Alexei Navalny denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “naked, thieving king” during a videolink court appearance from prison yesterday, in his first public appearance since ending a hunger strike last week. The court session – a failed appeal against libel charges that Navalny denounced as politically motivated – came as his team announced that they would have to close his nationwide network of campaign offices following pressure from the authorities. A thin, shavenheaded Mr Navalny appeared in a prison uniform and described himself as a “dreadful skeleton” following a three-week hunger strike in protest over a lack of medical treatment.

The family and representatives of Black men slain by the police met with senators and White House officials yesterday, leaving optimistic that police reform could be approved by May 25, the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Following a joint congressional address on Thursday, in which President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve reform by May 25, the families and their representatives met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “They said that we are going to do everything in our power to make sure we have a meaningful bill that we can put on President Biden’s desk,” said lawyer Ben Crump after the White House meeting.