Arizona Democrats censure Sinema after filibuster vote
A rift between Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and fellow Democrats in Arizona deepened Saturday as the state party formally rebuked Sinema for refusing to change the Senate’s filibuster rules to pass sweeping voting rights legislation. The censure from the party’s executive board crystallized a growing sense of frustration among liberal activists and Democratic voters who accuse Sinema of impeding key parts of President Joe Biden’s agenda. They have vowed to search for a liberal primary challenger when she is up for reelection in two years and have staged protests to urge Sinema to support changing the Senate rules to allow voting rights legislation to pass with a simple majority of 100 senators rather than the 60 votes required under Senate rules.
Wildfire in Big Sur forces residents to evacuate
More than 500 residents in the Big Sur area in California were told to evacuate Friday night as a brush fire spread through the mountainous coastal region. The fire was “stubbornly active overnight,” according to the National Weather Service, as intense, gusty winds of up to 50 mph blew the flames erratically along the area’s steep canyons. By Saturday morning, the fire — known as the Colorado fire — grew to 1,500 acres after starting a little after 5 p.m. Friday in the Palo Colorado Canyon area. Just one structure had burned by Saturday. The cause of the fire, which on Saturday afternoon was 5% contained, is under investigation.
Passenger exposed buttocks and threw a can during flight, prosecutors say
A passenger who refused to wear a mask on a flight from Dublin to New York City pulled down his pants and exposed his buttocks, threw a can at a passenger and put his cap on the captain’s head and told him, “Don’t touch me,” prosecutors said in a case unsealed Friday. After the Delta Air Lines flight Jan. 7, Shane McInerney, 29, of Galway, Ireland, was charged with intentionally assaulting and intimidating a crew member, prosecutors said. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. McInerney made an initial court appearance Jan. 14 and was released on a $20,000 bond, prosecutors said.
Britain says Moscow plotting to install pro-Russian leader in Ukraine
The British government said Saturday that the Kremlin was developing plans to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine — and had already chosen a potential candidate — as Russian President Vladimir Putin weighs whether to order the Russian forces amassed on Ukraine’s border to attack. The highly unusual public communique by the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, issued late at night in London, comes at a moment of high-stakes diplomacy between the Kremlin and the West. Russia has deployed more than 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders that could, according to U.S. officials, attack at any moment. In Washington, officials said they believe the British intelligence is correct.
Defend Chernobyl during an invasion? Why bother, some Ukrainians ask.
The Chernobyl zone in northern Ukraine is still so radioactive it would seem the last place anybody would want to conquer. But while attention around a potential invasion by Russia is focused on the east, the shortest route from Russia to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is from the north. And it passes through the isolated zone around the Chernobyl power plant, where the worst nuclear disaster in history took place. Two months ago, Ukraine deployed additional forces into the area, though they would not be sufficient to rebuff an invasion, if one came; they are there mostly to detect warning signs.
© 2022 The New York Times Company
