First Thing: Joe Biden says ‘white supremacy is a poison’
Good morning.
Joe Biden has condemned those who spread white supremacist lies “for power, political gain and for profit” during a visit to Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed in a racist shooting last Saturday.
The US president was close to tears as he recalled the victims’ lives, then became angry as he described forces of hatred that have haunted his administration.
“In America, evil will not win, I promise you,” Biden said. “Hate will not prevail and white supremacy will not have the last word.”
The mass shooting shook a nation that can sometimes seem numbed to atrocities and marked an alarming convergence of racist extremism, gun violence and the radicalizing effects of social media.
What have police discovered about Payton Gendron? Police have said they are investigating a 180-page manifesto the shooting suspect was believed to have written outlining the “great replacement” theory, which baselessly claims white people are being intentionally overrun by other races.
How did 4chan’s toxic culture help radicalize Buffalo shooting suspect? Payton Gendron first fell into logging on to the far-right message board 4chan daily during the pandemic. In Discord chat logs believed to be written by Gendron, he writes: “I only really turned racist when 4chan started giving me facts.”
Drawing monsters in the basement: last child in Ukrainian village in ruin
Tymofiy Seidov is the only child left in his village near the city of Kharkiv, in north-east Ukraine, writes Daniel Boffey.
The eight-year-old spends much of his time drawing at a little table, dimly illuminated from above by a tiny LED light, in the corner of the otherwise almost completely dark 40x5-metre basement that he shares with 23 others including his mother, aunt and grandmother.
The fighting around Kutuzivka has been bitter. Closer to Russia than any other large Ukrainian city, Kharkiv was a key target for Vladimir Putin. The Russians took the village on 18 March before losing it to Ukrainian forces about two weeks ago.
Fewer than 50 residents have stayed in Kutuzivka since Russian forces invaded. But even when Ukrainian soldiers took it back, some in the village had nowhere to go but underground.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry has issued its latest operation briefing. It says that a total of 959 combatants have surrendered from the Azovstal steel plant since Monday. It said 694 Ukrainian fighters who had been under siege surrendered over the last 24 hours.
What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 84 of the invasion.
Pennsylvania and North Carolina primaries test Trump’s hold on Republican party
Pennsylvania Republicans yesterday nominated Donald Trump’s choice for governor, an election denier who was outside the Capitol on 6 January, but were divided over his candidate for Senate in a consequential round of primary contests in which Madison Cawthorn, the scandalplagued first-term congressman, was ousted in North Carolina.
Voters in five states went to the polls on Tuesday to pick the candidates at the center of some of this year’s most contentious battles for control of Congress, statehouses and governor’s offices. From Oregon to North Carolina, Idaho to Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the array of nominating contests tested both Trump’s grip on the Republican party and Joe Biden’s leadership of the Democratic party.
In Pennsylvania – a perennial swing state and one of the fiercest electoral battlegrounds – Doug Mastriano, a farright state senator who was a key figure in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state, will face the Democrat Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania attorney general, in a highly anticipated contest for governor.
When did Trump endorse Mastriano? Despite his Maga bona fides, Trump endorsed Mastriano only in the final days of the campaign after he had consistently led in the polls. But his candidacy has worried party leaders concerned that he is too extreme to appeal to swing voters in the state.
In other news …
North Korea stands on the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe unless swift action is taken to provide vaccines and drug treatments, experts say, as the number of people reported to have fallen ill rose to almost 1.5 million. The isolated country yesterday reported another big rise in new cases of what it refers to as “fever”.
The US Department of Justice has sued Steve Wynn, the billionaire former casino mogul and senior Republican fundraiser, to compel him to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent ofChina. The department says Wynn lobbied the Trump administration for the People’s Republic of China.
A Japanese man who was mistakenly sent ¥46.3m (£287,000/US $358,000) in Covid-19 relief funds has admitted he gambled away the entire amount in the space of a fortnight. The mayor of Abu, Norihiko Hamada, described the man’s actions as “unforgivable” and said the town would do its utmost to recover the money.
Anti-abortion Facebook pages with millions of followers are spreading disinformation about abortion to Spanish speakers with little to no intervention from the social media platform, according to a report from Naral ProChoice America.
Don’t miss this: US supreme court abortion reversal would be global ‘catastrophe’ for women
The probable demise of Roe v Wade will be a “catastrophe” for women in low- and middle-income countries, with an emboldened anti-choice movement likely to raise renewed pressure on hard-won gains, doctors and activists have warned. The leak this month of the draft ruling stunned many in America. But those shockwaves did not stop at the borders of the US, as prochoice figures around the world warned it “send a really clear message” of inspiration to anti-choice groups.
Climate check: Pollution responsible for one in six deaths across planet, scientists warn
Pollution is killing 9 million people a year, a review has found, making it responsible for one in six of all deaths. Toxic air and contaminated water and soil “is an existential threat to human health and planetary health, and jeopardises the sustainability of modern societies”, the review concluded. The death toll from pollution dwarfs that from road traffic deaths, HIV/Aids, malaria and TB combined, or from drug and alcohol misuse.
Last Thing: Out-of-this-world revelations in short supply at US Congress briefing on UFOs
The US Congress held its first open briefing on UFOs in more than 50 years yesterday, but those seeking explanations for the numerous military sightings of unexplained objects were left disappointed, as defense officials appeared to hold their juiciest information for closed-door hearings.
The hearing, the first of its nature since 1966, came after a bumper year for UFO enthusiasts. In 2021, US intelligence released a landmark report that found 144 reports of unidentified aerial phenomenon, only one of which could be explained.
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