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Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has suggested her fellow Republican Mitch McConnell – the longtime powerful US Senate leader – should step aside after an episode in which he physically froze and was unable to speak at the Capitol this week.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Haley was asked by the host Margaret Brennan whether she still had confidence in McConnell’s ability to lead.
“I think Mitch McConnell did an amazing job when it comes to our judiciary, when we look at the judges, when we look at the supreme court he’s been a great leader,” said Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ex-UN ambassador during the Donald Trump presidency. “But we’ve gotta stop electing people because they look good in a picture and they hold a baby well.”
What is Haley calling for? She thinks there should be congressional term limits and mental acuity tests for politicans aged 75 and above. She also said the 90-year-old US senator Dianne Feinstein, the 80-year-old president Joe Biden, and 83-year-old congresswoman Nancy Pelosi – all of whom are prominent Democrats – should “know when to walk away”.
What has McConnell said? His spokesperson said last week that the 81-year-old intends to fulfil his term, which ends in 2026. He has led the US Senate’s Republican conference since 2007. McConnell’s office said the senator felt lightheaded but has not released more details on what caused the episode in question.
Alito ‘stunningly wrong’ that Senate can’t impose supreme court ethics rules
Senator Chris Murphy has dismissed claims by the supreme court justice Samuel Alito that the Senate has “no authority” to create a code of conduct for the court as “stunningly wrong”.
The Connecticut Democrat made those remarks in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, adding that Alito “should know that more than anyone else because his seat on the supreme court exists only because of an act passed by Congress”.
“It is Congress that establishes the number of justices on the supreme court,” Murphy said. “It is Congress that has passed in the past requirements for justices to disclose certain information, and so it is just wrong on the facts to say that Congress doesn’t have anything to do with the rules guiding the supreme court.”
He continued: “It is even more disturbing that Alito feels the need to insert himself into a congressional debate.”
What else did he say? Murphy’s comments came after the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Alito on Friday in which he said: “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the constitution gives them the authority to regulate the supreme court – period.”
Multiple civilian deaths reported after strikes in Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine
Two people have been killed and at least 20 injured after missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. The number of wounded in the strike on Kryvyi Rih has increased to 31 people, including four children, according to reports.
The head of the ministry of internal affairs said between five and seven people were trapped in the rubble as rescue attempts continued.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, commented on the strike on Monday, posting: “Kryvyi Rih, multi-storey buildings damaged by Russian shelling. There are wounded and dead. This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away. Condolences to the victims and their families. Let’s stay strong.”
The city is the home town of Zelenska and her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
What did Zelenskiy say about the attack? Ukraine’s president posted a video on his social media channels from the scene of the attack on Kryvyi Rih. He wrote in the accompanying message on Telegram: “Rescuers and all necessary services are on the ground and working. We are trying to save as many people as possible. In recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centres, shelling civilian objects and housing. But this terror will not frighten us or break us. We are working and saving our people.”
In other news …
A giant glowing X marks the San Francisco spot where Elon Musk says he plans to keep his company, the messaging platform formerly known as Twitter. But city officials and some residents are unhappy with the display. Patricia Wallinga, who lives opposite, said it was “a danger” and “a clown show”.
At least 44 people have been killed and almost 200 injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that targeted a political party gathering. Police said the explosion at a rally on Sunday afternoon was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled on Saturday. US district judge Timothy L Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law.
The Joe Biden White House is launching a beta – or testing – website as part of its new income-driven student loan repayment plan, according to reports. The site, which CNN first reported yesterday, comes as part of the president’s Saving on a Valuable Education (Save) plan
Don’t miss this: ‘Denying our humanity’ – how Santa Monica decimated a thriving Black community
At Shutters on the Beach, a luxury hotel in Santa Monica, guests staying in $1,500-a-night rooms can get pristine views of white-sand shores and the Pacific Ocean. Few visitors, however, will know that 100 years ago, the site was at the center of a painful turning point for Santa Monica’s Black community, writes Sam Levin. In 1922, Black businessmen Charles S Darden and Norman O Houston had secured an agreement to buy the land Shutters now stands on. They were planning to develop a “first-class resort”, complete with a bathhouse and dance hall, one they hoped would become a national tourist destination for Black Americans. It didn’t take long for Santa Monica’s white residents to rally in opposition. Three years later, the site became a beach club for white residents.
Many people are unaware that Santa Monica, the coastal enclave now known for its beaches, star residents and hot real estate, was once home to a thriving Black community. The city was at the heart of the dreams of Black entrepreneurs, who had migrated west with their families hoping to flee prejudice and find fortune.
Climate check: ‘Something weird is going on’ – search for answers as Antarctic sea ice stays at historic lows
In February, the floating sea ice around Antarctica hit a record low for the second year running. Since satellites started tracking the region’s ice in 1979, there had never been less ice. As it does every year, as the temperatures around the continent plunged towards winter, the sea ice started to return. But the moderate alarm from scientists at that record low – coming only a year after a previous record low – is now being overlaid with astonishment. Some are worried they could be witnessing the start of a slow collapse of Antarctica’s sea ice. By now there would usually be about 16.4m square kilometres of Antarctic sea ice. But this week, there was just 14.1m sq km. An area bigger than Mexico has failed to freeze.
“There’s a sense that something weird is going on. It’s dropping way below anything we have seen in our record,” says Dr Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado.
Last Thing: Step to riches? Disused stairwell in the UK could be yours for just $25,000
If climbing the property ladder seems stressful to you, why not consider taking the stairs? A disused four-story stairwell at the back of a branch of Starbucks in south-west London in the UK has become the latest peculiar piece of property to go on sale in London’s feverish housing market, which rivals the state of things in New York City. Yours for £20,000 ($25,000) or thereabouts, the oddity will go under auction on Tuesday – with agents suggesting its appeals include a long leasehold, full vacant possession and “development potential”. Quite what form that potential takes requires some imagination. The online video tour shows the space littered with cardboard boxes, a bicycle, a tired potted plant and a number of fire extinguishers.
It is understood the stairwell is no longer connected to the block of flats that it used to serve and realistically anyone bidding would be doing so in the hope they could get permission to build something, or at the very least extensively adapt the existing structure on the small footprint available.
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