When prosecutor Robert Hur testifies to Congress on Tuesday about his investigation of President Biden’s handling of classified documents, he is expected to defend a special counsel process created to shield fraught cases from political interference. But Hur’s testimony will also highlight how Attorney General Merrick Garland’s use of special counsels to handle the most politically sensitive cases has calcified ...

Senate Majority PAC, an independent group associated with Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced Monday the reservation of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars worth of television advertising in seven states starting this summer — a massive investment aimed at attempting to maintain control of the chamber by a razor-thin margin. The retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin III ...

Iran’s “repression of peaceful protests” and “institutional discrimination against women and girls” has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity,” according to a United Nations’ report. Such violations and crimes include “extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution,” ...

The US has joined several other countries in airdropping aid into Gaza, which is grappling with a humanitarian crisis. With aid deliveries on land falling far short of the numbers needed to ward off famine in the enclave, it is hoped these airdrops will provide a lifeline to people in Gaza. But the UN and aid agencies have questioned how ...

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has said she experienced “cruel” online bullying and abuse, the “bulk” of which occurred during her pregnancies. Speaking on stage at an event at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Meghan said, “I keep my distance from (social media) right now just for my own wellbeing.” “The bulk of the bullying ...

A two-year stop-start process exploring options to secure the release of Navalny began to accelerate when Abramovich visited Moscow in recent months, two of the sources said. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also embraced early efforts to win Navalny’s freedom, according to several sources. Abramovich, who is sanctioned in the West and spends much of his time ...

The Irish government conceded on Saturday that it had lost two referenda to change what it called “sexist” language in the constitution in an embarrassing defeat. Ireland went to the polls on Friday in votes deliberately timed to coincide with International Women’s Day to replace two constitutional references. One said that the the family unit was “founded” on marriage, the ...

It was just over a year ago that Toyota appeared to acknowledge it had dropped the ball on electric vehicles. Its CEO, Akio Toyoda, stepped down from his post, painting himself as “an old-fashioned” man unfit to take the world’s biggest carmaker through the electric revolution. But since then, the Japanese company has done little to embrace a fully electric ...

Russia has begun using a powerful aerial bomb that has decimated Ukrainian defenses and tilted the balance on the front lines. It has done so by converting a basic Soviet-era weapon into a gliding bomb that can cause a crater fifteen meters wide. The bomb is the FAB-1500, essentially a 1.5-tonne weapon of which nearly half comprises high explosives. It ...

Indonesia’s transport ministry will launch an investigation after two Batik Air pilots fell asleep during a recent flight, according to state news agency Antara, citing the ministry’s civil aviation director-general M Kristi Endah Murni. According to a preliminary report released Saturday by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), both the pilot and co-pilot fell asleep simultaneously for 28 minutes during ...