Closing summary
That’s all for today, folks. We’re closing the US politics live blog for today, but please follow along our Ukraine live blog for live updates on the war.
- Barack Obama returned to the White House to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. As part of the event, Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to do everything in their power to expand affordable and quality healthcare coverage, and make healthcare more affordable for working families.
- The US will announce tomorrow new sanctions against Russian financial institutions and officials, to be taken in coordination with the G7 and European Union. The sanctions come in part in response to the atrocities coming out of Bucha.
- Authorities have captured a fox that has been running around Capitol grounds and biting people, including congressman Ami Bera.
Updated
The new sanctions to be imposed against Russia, which will be announced tomorrow, will in part be a response to the atrocities coming out of Bucha, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The sanctions will be imposed in coordination with the G7 and the European Union, Psaki said.
“This will include a ban on all new investment in Russia, increase sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises and sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members,” she said. “These measures will degrade key instruments of Russian state power and impose acute and immediate economic harm on Russia and hold accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and supports Putin’s war.”
Joe Biden called for Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial after Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv region and were met with devastation. Photos coming out of the region showed unarmed civilians who were killed execution-style, with their hands tied behind their backs and hoods over their heads. Human Rights Watch has documented reports of rape, while the mayor of Bucha said authorities have uncovered a hastily buried mass grave of nearly 300 corpses. Among the hundreds of bodies found were those of Olha Sukhenko, the leader of the village Motyzhin, and her family, who were taken by Russian forces on 25 March.
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