Closing summary
It’s a wrap for the first US politics blog of the week, thanks for joining us.
Donald Trump’s legal jeopardy in Georgia came into sharper focus with the seating of a special grand jury in the criminal inquiry looking at his efforts to overturn his defeat in the state to Joe Biden. The panel has the power to issue subpoenas for testimony from previously reluctant witnesses.
Here’s what else we covered today:
- Three Republican congressmen and Trump acolytes have received letters from the 6 January House panel seeking their cooperation and information about the former president’s wider push to remain in office.
- The White House gave details of Biden’s trip to an anti-tank missile production factory in Alabama tomorrow, during which he will explain the urgency of his $33bn request to Congress for more military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of Democratic lawmakers are returning from weekend talks with Ukraine’s president Voldymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and Poland’s president Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, as the House prepares to vote on Biden’s request.
- The US supreme court ruled unanimously that the city of Boston violated a religious group’s right to freedom of speech when it refused permission to fly a Christian flag.
- New York police veteran Thomas Webster was convicted of assaulting a fellow officer with a flag pole as he joined other Trump supporters in the deadly 6 January riot.
- Tennessee governor Bill Lee said the state was halting all executions for at least the rest of the year as the state reviews its procedures for lethal injections.
- First lady Jill Biden is heading to Europe later this week and will spend Mother’s Day with Ukrainian refugees and their children in Slovakia.
Remember you can follow developments in the Ukraine conflict on our live blog here. And please join us again tomorrow.
Amazon warehouse workers in New York overwhelmingly rejected a union bid on Monday, the Associated Press reports, the opposite result from that at another Staten Island facility last month that saw employees embrace the company’s first union representation.
Workers cast 618 votes, or about 62%, against the union, giving Amazon enough support to fend off a second labor win, and raise questions as to whether the first victory was a fluke, the agency said.
According to the National Labor Relations Board, 380 workers, or 38%, voted in favor of the grassroots union. Turnout was 61%, with about 1,600 workers eligible to vote, according to a voter list provided by Amazon.
The result is a massive blow to organizers and could stall a nationwide drive for union representation for Amazon workers.
The outcome is still pending of a union election in Bessemer, Alabama, while more than 400 challenged ballots are analyzed. Hearings to review those ballots are expected to begin in the coming weeks.
