President Biden to unveil new minimum tax on billionaires in budget … The White House will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of its 2023 budget Monday, proposing a direct tax on the richest 700 Americans for the first time, according to five people with knowledge …

Ginni Thomas' West Wing contacts raise new questions for another Trump ally: John Eastman  —  Ginni Thomas' unfettered access to Donald Trump's chief of staff — and potentially others in his West Wing — raises new questions about another figure at the center of Trump's gambit to subvert the 2020 election: attorney John Eastman.

Russian general Yakov Rezantsev killed in Ukraine  —  Ukraine's defence ministry says another Russian general, Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson.  —  Rezantsev was the commander of Russia's 49th combined army.

Biden Condemns Putin, Saying He ‘Cannot Remain In Power’  —  WARSAW — President Biden delivered a forceful denunciation of Vladimir V. Putin's invasion of Ukraine, declaring “for God's sake, this man cannot remain in power” and casting the war as the “test of all time” in a decades-long battle to defend democracy.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry resigns after being found guilty of lying to FBI … Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) said Saturday he will resign from Congress after he was convicted Thursday on three felony counts for lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire.

Graham: Judicial confirmation process could get even more toxic … Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) looked briefly into the future and saw a calamitous confirmation process for Supreme Court justices and other federal judge nominees: a near total blockade.  —  With Republicans needing …

The Making of Vladimir Putin  —  Tracing Putin's 22-year slide from statesman to tyrant.  — Give this article- - - Read in app  —  PARIS — Speaking in what he called “the language of Goethe, Schiller and Kant,” picked up during his time as a K.G.B. officer in Dresden …

Trump's mood ‘soured’ after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp revealed he had already decided to appoint Kelly Loeffler to the Senate before consulting with the president: book  — Trump's mood “soured” when Kemp said he had already picked Loeffler for the Senate, per a new book.

Exclusive: Jan. 6 Committee ‘Locked In’ on Proud Boys  —  The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building has been examining the role far-right militant groups played in efforts to overturn President Trump's election loss and the violence that erupted that day.

The rise of the heterosexual ‘queer’  —  Why are so many straight people desperate to be recognised as something they're not?  —  I remember the surrealist comedian Spike Milligan, many years ago, asking ‘Did you hear the one about the Irish queer?’  The punchline?  ‘He slept with women.’

What a Single Metric Tells Us About the Pandemic  —  Live long enough in a pandemic and you will see the entire narrative landscape shift, even flip, sometimes more than once.  —  As recently as a month ago, Americans of a certain cast of mind could have still looked to China …

Natural-Gas Industry Gets Boost as Biden Shifts Stance  —  Shares of large U.S. natural-gas companies rose as Biden softened position against fossil fuels  —  President Biden's pledge to boost U.S. liquefied natural-gas exports to Europe marks a further retreat from his hard-line stance …

U.S. Senate hopeful Durant says 'I don't think Joe Biden won the election'  —  Friday, on the heels of former President Donald Trump rescinding his endorsement of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) in the U.S. Senate Republican primary, frontrunner Mike Durant appeared on Alabama Public Television's …